GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Titus 1:5-15

There were times, every so often, when Jesus made people feel uncomfortable.  Listen to this: “Therefore many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard (lit. “harsh”) statement; who can understand it?”  After they said this, Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you?”  They got so uncomfortable that, “ From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”  Boy oh boy. 

In I Corinthians Paul makes the church uncomfortable by telling them that if they didn’t straighten up, he was going to come back and take the gloves off. 

That’s the way the Bible can be—it can be encouraging; it can be confrontational. 

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  Who likes to take examinations?  Nobody because exams make us uncomfortable, but without examinations, life isn’t worth living, he said.  But since Socrates isn’t our authority, the Bible is, what does the Bible say about taking an examination? 

I Cor. 11:28 speaks of examining ourselves before we partake of the Lord’s Supper.  It’s a command, not an option.  Then in II Cor. 13:5, we read the command, “Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith.”  This isn’t a command to make an introspection of your life to see if you’re saved, but to see if you’re making progress “in the faith,” that is, to see if you’re growing.  (Paul knew they were saved and said so 9 times in I and II Cor., plus, all four times Paul uses the phrase “in the faith” in his letters, he’s talking about our experience and not our position in Christ.)

When I was in Romania , and I was in a group of Romanians that was trying to get something, we normally think that you line up to do so.  But not the people I was with.  There was no “line,” it was chaos.  “First come first served” was an invitation to push, pull, shove to get to something.  Line?  There was no line.  It was a “bunch,” or if you’re familiar with rugby, it looked like a scrum. 

Sometimes we may hear people say, “organized church” with a condescending sneer in their voice, as if there is something inherently wrong with organization.  Without organization, we have chaos.  God, through Moses organized Israel right down to the order of their march and how they camped out at night.  Jesus had the disciples organize the thousands into groups before He fed them. 

Titus is a man on a mission in Crete and part of that mission has to do with organization for the purpose of growth.  God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:43) and He commands organization the church.   We see this organization in Acts 6 where a group of men are set up to make sure no widows in the church are neglected in the administration of the benevolence. 

The highest office in the church is that of elder, those men charged with the spiritual oversight of the assembly by means of proclamation and protection.  If you’ve ever applied for a job, you know that there are certain qualifications and if you don’t have those qualifications, you’re wasting their time and yours if you apply.  The classified ads are filled with brief descriptions of qualifications—the “must be able to’s.”  “To work for us, you must be drug free; you must have a CDL; you must have five years of experience making widgets; you must have sales experience, have your own car, be willing to travel, and be good at working with people.”  For elders, it’s the same; God has qualifications

It is this group of spiritual leaders who are going to feel Christ’s finger in their chests when they stand before Him for an evaluation of how they did in leading the flock to growth in truth and good works and how they did as far as being examples for the flock and how they did in protecting the flock from false teachers. (I Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:28)

A wise person one time said, When I come to your church, there’s only one thing I want you to show me.”  He didn’t say, “I want you to show me your building or your building program.”  He didn’t say, “I want you to show me the giving and attendance records.”  He said, “I want you to show me your men.” 

Paul has now charged Titus concerning “the men” in the churches on Crete ; he’s told him to organize the church by appointing men for the task and office of elder, the proclaimers and protectors. 

Since there are qualifications,  not just any man can be an elder, charged with the serious responsibility of the eldership.  God has established qualifications.

But we always have this tendency—to listen to Scripture and think, “This has to do with somebody else, not me.”  But this laundry list of qualifications has a great deal to do with all of us, elder or not.  The Bible won’t let us throw this on somebody else, because when you get right down to it, this list of character traits for elders is, in reality, a list of things which characterize a mature believer as well.

In the Bible, there are three different kinds of believers—the baby believer, the carnal believer, and then there’s the mature believer.  To be a mature believer, whether you’re an elder or not, is the goal.   

Here’s where it starts to get uncomfortable, but not intolerably so.  At least not yet.  I’ve provided for you an insert in your bulletin, a checklist so you can rate yourself as to the characteristics of a mature believer. 

There are different ways you can rate yourself.  (Note: there is no rating called “Perfect” because there’s no such thing in an elder, pastor, or you.)  The ratings are:

5—CONSISTENTLY HONORS GOD

4—GENERALLY HONORS GOD

3—SOMETIMES HONORS GOD

2—RARELY HONORS GOD

1—HELP!

Rate yourself as we go:

1.      Blameless—this is the overarching characteristic of the list which governs all the others.  It means, “Can someone bring a charge against you which would stick.”  This means, “Great reputation.”  Rate yourself, 1-5.  

2.      Husband of one wife—(This rules out female elders.  In the NT, the elder is always a “he.”)  Some take this to mean, “Not polygamous.”  It certainly does that.  Others take it to mean, “Married only once.”  (This would rule out being divorced and remarried as well as being a widower and remarried.)  This would rule out being single and never married.  Or, as some take it, “Being a one-wife- kind of man.”   This is, more often than not, the currently accepted idea.  But let’s apply this to our intent this morning as a guideline for maturity, husband or wife: is the focus of your love, attention, and affection on your spouse or is it on your career?  Your hobby?  The Internet?  Your children?

3.      Having faithful children—children who are believers; children who are  wild and ungodly is a disqualifier.

4.      Not self-willed—“self-pleasing;” arrogant

5.      Not quick-tempered—fly off the handle with blow-anger

6.      Not a drunk—big issue on Crete and now

7.      Not violent—it’s the idea of being a “striker.”  Someone who spoils for a fight; likes to fight.

8.      Not greedy—families are often torn apart, not by money, but by the lust for money and things.

9.      Hospitable

10.  Lover of what is good—good books, good music, good recreational pursuits, good works, delights in good people.

11.  Sober-minded—sensible; wise skill in living

12.   Just—honest

13.   holy—devout.  What are you up to when you’re alone?

14.  self-controlled—disciplined with your time, money.  I knew of a pastor who loved tennis.  He allocated one hour for the game.  It didn’t make any difference who he was playing, what the score of the match was, when the preset 60 minutes were up, it was back to the ministry.

15.   Holding fast the faithful word—now we come back to the theme of the book—that is, “Sound doctrine generates good works.”  We’ve been looking at the Christ-life in the first 14; now we’re back to the basics of doctrine.  Can you explain the Bible; do you understand what you’re reading?  Can you communicate the truths of it?  1-5

When we began, I mentioned that some times Christ made people uncomfortable.  Sometimes the Bible does that.  Self-evaluation is one thing, it can make us somewhat uncomfortable.  But let’s make this into a homework assignment and make it really uncomfortable.  This assignment is only for the courageous.

What if a television documentary came on and it was entitled, “The Life and Presidency of Bill Clinton.”  Would you be interested in watching it, or maybe buying the video?  You start to watch it and when the credits come on the screen you see that the money for the documentary is put up by The Bill Clinton Foundation.  You see that the program is written by, directed by, and narrated by Bill Clinton. 

You’d think, “I don’t know how objective he can be about things.”  

Now here’s the assignment for the brave.  On the back of what you’ve just filled out, you’ll find the same thing.  The assignment is to give the other side to your spouse or a friend who knows you and let them evaluate you.  This is “iron sharpening iron.” 

You may think you’re not doing well in one area, but he/she may really commend you.  We all have blind spots; maybe you think you’re great in one area, but you get a “help” in that one.

We must recognize the fact that once the evaluations are made, this isn’t self-help or self-improvement.  The maturity comes when the believer says to the Lord, “By faith, I believe that what You record here is the truth and I want these characteristics in my life.  I’m asking you to grow me in this/these areas.”

The bottom line is maturity.  God wants His church to have mature leadership.  This is New Testament leadership. 

* = Free Grace Teacher or Ministry