“LET’S PLAY TWO”

TITUS 2:11-15

Have you ever been invited somewhere, like to a party and you really, really didn’t want to go?  But you went because was expected of you and if you don’t, it’ll cause some serious repercussions, so what do we say, “I’m going to put in an appearance.”  We’d rather be somewhere else, but a friendship or job security demands it. 

When I was in school, I got a job I was unsuited for.  (Every summer job I ever had, I was unsuited for, especially the summer I spent vaccinating chickens.)  This particular company had a policy that on one Saturday (we were normally off on Saturdays) everybody would come to work for the full 8 hours and all the wages earned would go to “The Community Chest,” as they called it back then, which was a charitable organization to help those in need in the city.  It made for good public relations.

The company told us, “You don’t have to come and work; it’s up to you.”  Yeah, right, but if you didn’t,  . . .   I loathed that job with that company since they made me work on an assembly line and do a broing repetitious job over and over again for 8 hours.  (It was on this assembly line that, as one machine was going by, I accidentally screwed my glove onto the machine and found myself being pulled down the line before I could throw my screwdriver in reverse and get loose.)

Going to work on Saturday?  Giving what I earn to the Community Chest?  I would never even see the money.  I hate it, but I’ll do it.

Last Sunday evening, we were in one of the high-end stores where we often shop and the 30-something J. C. Penny’s clerk was totaling up our purchases.  For some reason, she started talking about her children and then she asked, “How long have you two been married?”  When we told her the number of winter snows, which to her was a long, long time, she said, “What’s the secret?” 

I’ve heard all kinds of answers to that question, some of which are inane (“Praise her cooking.”) and some of which are stupid (“Do what she says”).   When she asked that question, I was in a witnessing opportunity?  One line of reasoning would be, “Although you don’t want to (the store is closing; you’re tired; it’s time to go home; you don’t want to look like some plaster saint, besides, she might take offense and get mad).  But you’re a pastor and you want to look good, so do it; that’s what you’re supposed to do.”  This amounts to witnessing because you have to so you’ll look good. 

If that’s the way I’m supposed to live, wearing a mask of misery, I really don’t want any part of it because it makes me miserable.  If that’s the Christian life, then, to quote Ricky Nelson, “I’d rather drive a truck.”  Does the Christian life consist of doing things to look good?

This is often the way we present the Christian life—doing what you have to do and don’t want to do, anyway, and becoming miserable in the process.   That’s not attractive.   Look at it this way: is a monastery attractive?  If that’s the way it is, then Christianity takes its place with every other religion in the world. 

In Titus 2:1-10, Paul has discussed the Christian ethic for older and younger, free and slave, male and female.  There’s a problem with this ethic, but it’s not in the ethic; it’s in us.  We don’t have the moral power.  This is why sermons which tell us to go do such and such fall flat.  We don’t have the moral power to do anything of eternal good and the sermon evaporates by the time we get to the parking lot.  I should read Titus 2:1-10 several times if I think, “I can do this.”  After reading those sentences, I say the same thing Paul said, “I am carnal; sold under sin.  For what I am doing, I do not understand.  For what I want to do (such as Titus 2:1-10) that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

A missionary told me about his getting started in Africa .  He’d barely gotten there and was living with a tribe of people who didn’t see the need to bathe often.  He was new, so an older missionary was helping him adjust to his new surroundings.  One day, it a storm blew up all of a sudden and everybody ran into a tent, along with the two missionaries.

Everybody was jammed crammed into the tent and you can imagine that it was a little tough in there.  The older missionary asked the new one, “What’s going to keep you out here with these people?  It’s going to be tough when the new wears off.”  The new missionary said, “I love these people.”  The older missionary pointed out, “That’s not going to keep you here.”  And he was right. 

I really like the Christian ethic, but it’s beyond me to do.  Just like the missionary—he loved those people, but that’s not going to do it.  Is there a teacher who can show me the way?

Paul connects the dots by writing, “For the grace of God has appeared that brings salvation to all men.”  Right in the middle of a statement of the life of the disciple of Jesus, Paul piles on the doctrine!   The Christian life, divorced from doctrine, becomes a gimmick and manipulation. 

Paul grounds the ethic on the Incarnation of Christ, which includes His birth, life, death, and resurrection.   With Christ, grace made an “appearance.”  “Has appeared” is emphatic.  This points to the fact the appearance of grace to the human race is rooted in history.    The word, “has appeared” is used in Acts as a reference to the rising of the sun.  You know, if the sun rose only once every 100 years, we would be stunned by it.”  How true!  Just think about it—dark for 99 years, 364 days, and then the sun rises! 

Grace came into a dark, dark world and that stunning coming has had repercussions for over 2,000.  We haven’t stopped talking and writing about it, and it hasn’t stopped affecting us yet.  Because of that “appearing,” we haven’t stopped building orphanages and hospitals; we haven’t stopped giving our money and our time because grace made that stunning appearance.  It was sudden, in Bethlehem , a long time ago.   

Grace is unmerited favor.  We didn’t earn its appearance and we sure didn’t deserve it.  Grace recognizes no merit or demerit, and when you recognize that fact, grace begins to teach you.   We see how grace does this in vs. 13-14: “ . . . our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us . . . and purify for Himself His own special people.”   (The cults have to tamper with this verse because Paul is saying that “our great God” is “Jesus Christ.”  And this great God gave Himself for us to redeem us.) 

When you start to appreciate grace, when you start to understand that God recognizes no merit or demerit in you, grace begins teaching.  If you don’t understand that grace recognizes no merit or demerit in you, then you don’t have a clue as to what grace is.  And you aren’t able to appreciate it. 

Based on his appreciation of grace, the disciple has the motivation to say, “No” to the values of the world and to his own sin pattern and he has the motivation to say “Yes” to a “temperate, righteous, and godly” life in an age characterized by warped ideas, values, and heroes.  Grace will change appetites, attitudes, ambitions, and actions.

The believer learns about the at-any-moment coming of Christ at the rapture of the church.  This motivates him.  He understands that he’s not to look for the Tribulation nor for the anti-Christ, but to look for Jesus.  This motivates him because he doesn’t want to be ashamed when Christ comes.  (I jn. 2:28 )

What Paul is saying that the greatest motivation of them all for serving the Lord is what happened in the past—grace coming in the incarnation and what will happen in the future—Christ is coming for us!

To say it another way: the highest motivation is not based on what we can do for God, but what He has done for us and will do for us.   If a person appreciates grace, he understands that the issue is not, “What are you going to do about your sins?”  The issue  is “What has God done about your sins?”

How is Titus to keep on “speaking these things, exhorting, and rebuking with all authority?”  (vs. 15)  Remember the missionary in the tent during the storm?  He thought that his love for the people would keep him going, but the older missionary corrected him, telling him that the only way he could stay faithful out there was because of his love for God, not the people.  And his love for God is based on what God has done for him and will yet do for him (the rapture). 

How about this for a closing of the paragraph—“Let no one despise you.”  That sounds impossible.   It’s impossible to keep someone from despising us.  We can’t control people’s response to us.   So what’s he talking about?  The word choice is the problem.  The word means “dismiss” or “treat you lightly.”  When Titus teaches God’s Word, that word has authority and Titus isn’t to conduct himself or his ministry in such a way as people can be dismissive of him or disregard the truths he’s declaring.  He must so teach and so live that they have to take him and what he teaches seriously.  His teaching is a “Thus saith the Lord” and therefore is authoritative.

Ernie Banks was a great shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, and a quotable fellow.  He said, “I like my players to be married and in debt. That's the way you motivate them.” 

He also said about baseball, “Work? I never worked a day in my life. I always loved what I was doing, had a passion for it.”

“The riches of the game are in the thrills, not the money.”

But he’s most famous for saying, “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame.  Let’s play two.” 

Let’s play two?  A doubleheader today is as rare as a politician who loves a tax cut.  Doubleheaders are almost extinct.  But what he said shows us something.  Take two athletes: one comes to practice but hates it.  He doesn’t like the running, the conditioning, the weightlifting, the wind sprints.  When the season starts, he hates the curfews, the dress code, the travel, and he wants to play one game a day, have time off occasionally, doesn’t go to the All Star game.  He hates the fans and wants each game to last only nine innings. 

Then there’s the player like Banks; he wants to play a double header everyday.  He goes through the endless groundball drills, the sprints, the weight training, the curfews, loving every minute of it. 

When you’re watching on both players play the game, they’re both doing the same thing, batting, fielding, hitting, running.  They look the same, but they aren’t the same. 

One of the players is like so many believers—they go through the motions—they’re in church, but hate it; they give, but begrudge it; they visits because that’s what a good Christian does.  And they do it all wearing a mask.

Then there is the believer who appreciates grace—he comes to church and loves it; he gives, loves it and wants to give more; he witnesses because he wants to.  He listens to a sermon and says, “Let’s have one more.” 

The difference is that grace has motivated one and the other has no appreciation for it.  One is a law/rule-keeper, but the law is no teacher.  Law is a grace killer: II Cor. 3:6: “the letter kills, the Spirit gives life.” 

So what to do?  Who wants to spend their years looking good?  Who wants to expend all that time, energy, and money doing things because you have to?  Once you come to appreciate grace you do what you do because you want to.  That’s an abundant life!  Start your own personal investigation of grace, learn what it is and what it’s not and then the appreciation will come and then the teacher will begin to work in your life.

One person looks good.  The other is good.  The teacher makes the difference. 

* = Free Grace Teacher or Ministry