Well, life in Britain is often at the moment extremely painful. There is an increasing polarisation in Britain. We divide ourselves into tribes. We know that I'm part of this tribe, but I'm not part of that tribe. I belong to this group of people, but we don't like them. Sometimes people say things or do things that can be really deeply hateful. While other people can show great acts of kindness, only to have it repaid by the person they were being kind to reporting it as being a hate crime. Someone's life can be ruined simply because of one thing said on social media, and whether it's true or not is just not relevant. So the question that a lot of us are asking is: how do we build a society that is better than that?
Let me just recap for us where we are. We're working our way through the letter of Titus over these next few Sundays. So here's where we are. Titus was left on the island of Crete. He was Paul's helper and assistant. Paul was there briefly and left Titus on Crete to finish some things off and fix things that Paul hadn't had time to straighten out. So in chapter one, Titus was told to appoint leaders in the churches. Why? Because already in just a short time there was much false teaching doing great damage. Then in chapter two, Titus was told to teach the different way that different people in society within the church should behave and live. Why? Because God's grace and kindness trains us in the way to live. And now in chapter three, Titus is being told by the Apostle Paul to teach the gospel, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Well, we're about to find out.
If you were here last week, we discovered that the same grace that saves us is the grace that trains us to be more like Jesus. Now, within the letter of Titus, there are two really big themes running all the way through. If you were here for the first week when we started looking at Titus, Pastor Lee took us through and showed us all the places where Paul is saying that Christians should be those who live good lives. That's one of the big themes in Titus. Let me now show you the other big theme in Titus. Titus is all about God's plan to save his people. So here is chapter 1 verse 3: "The preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Saviour." Chapter 1 verse 4: "Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour." Chapter 2 verse 10: "So that in every way they will make the teaching about our Saviour attractive." Chapter 2 verse 13: "The appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." Chapter 3 verse 4: "But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared." And then chapter 3 verse 6: "The Spirit whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour." That's quite a string of repetitions for that title. God our Saviour. Christ Jesus our Saviour. All the more striking when you realise that in Paul's writings his most common full title for Jesus is "Christ Jesus our Lord." Now Jesus is our Lord, but in Titus the focus is on Jesus Christ being our Saviour, and the two things come together because God saves his people through Jesus Christ so that we can live good lives. That's the key message of Titus.
Now, also, if you were here last week — and I don't mean this as a criticism either of our preacher or even, God forbid, of the letter of Titus — you may have noticed that Titus 2 was a bit thin on content when it comes to: what is the grace of God? How does God save us? It doesn't really say very much. It does say that God's grace teaches us to say no to bad ways of living and trains us to live good lives, but it doesn't really spell out how God saves us or how God's grace does that. But that's because chapter 3 is going to unpack that particular thing for us. So this week we're listening to the Apostle Paul urging Titus to teach the grace of God, the good news of the Lord Jesus. And I've got three headings for you to divide the passage up. You'll see them there on the sheet. New lifestyle, old lifestyle, and the kindness and love of God.
New lifestyle (1-2)
Let's start with new lifestyle. This is verses one and two. So chapter 2 talked about the different pressures and temptations faced by different groups in the church, young and old, male and female, and identified the ways that different people need to work on their godliness. Chapter 3 is more general. Chapter 3 is how everyone in the church should live. And let me say upfront, you would love to live in a society like this. So three things for you.
Good citizen
Number one, the grace of God teaches you to be a good citizen. Verse one: "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient." Relate well, he says, to the governing authorities, the powers that be. Now remember this was written during the days of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was one of the number one empires in world history for making its advancements through slavery. The Roman Empire could frequently be a cruel and despotic place to live. The Roman emperors frequently felt threatened and just assassinated or mistreated those they didn't like. And Christians were not always treated kindly in Rome and in its colonies. This was written at a time when the governing authorities would not always be on your side and would not always do good things. But he says, "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient." Now, there is a time and a place, but I would suggest that this rules out most forms of civil disobedience and unrest for Christians. Unless you are being given a direct order by someone in authority to disobey something that Jesus teaches you to do, you do what they say. Christians should have a reputation of being the best citizens that there are.
Good neighbour
Number two, the grace of God teaches you to be a good neighbour. Second half of verse one: "To be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good." Now sure, you cannot meet every need you come across. None of us have the resources to do that. We all will see needs that we just have to say, "I'm sorry, I can't do that." But this nonetheless tells us to cultivate the attitude that sees a need and thinks in your heart, "I could help with that." It's interesting, isn't it? You're walking along the street and you see blowing in the gutter a plastic bag that's just littering and untidy. What does everyone do when they see that? Past. Think to yourself, "Someone must have left that plastic bag in the gutter for a reason. I'd better leave it." You could pick it up. It won't hurt. Good citizen, good neighbour.
Good speech
Number three, the grace of God teaches you good speech. Verse two: "To slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle towards everyone." Don't slander people. Don't say unkind or nasty things about people, especially if it's not true. Instead, he says, be peaceable. Be the peacemaker. When you walk into a room, whether that's a physical room or a virtual room, just be the person whose presence seeks to calm things down a little, to lower the temperature of the conversation — not to be the person who pours petrol on the flames and who enjoys stirring up strife. He says, "Be gentle with people. Be considerate. Just ask yourself the question: how would the other person in this situation be feeling? How can I take that into account?" And just be gentle and kind towards them.
Now, you will notice that all of this is really, really ordinary stuff — not particularly religious. He doesn't say, "If you're going to live out as a Christian, here are three things you need to do: tell all your friends about Jesus, do lots of praying, and join six teams for the big Christmas party you do at once." That's not what he says. Now, apart from trying to join more than one team at once, which would be insane, those are good things to do, but this is more foundational than that. This is about character. Not only are these not particularly religious, they're not particularly dramatic. He's not saying make a huge donation for a charitable cause involving writing a cheque the size of that wall. He's not saying help out in ways that are deeply sacrificial that nobody else could hope to match. Not at all. Just ordinary stuff.
Now, many people think that being a Christian is basically about being nice. You know the phrase — someone says to you, "All the people who live opposite over the road there, they're such wonderful Christians." By which they mean they're just lovely people. No, that's not what a Christian is. But in a world where courtesy is rare, following Jesus should make you this kind of person. Following Jesus should make you like Jesus. In fact, we'll see in the remaining verses of this chapter that what Paul has just described us being like is exactly what God and the Lord Jesus are like. Not only is this not religious, not only is this not dramatic, it's also not new. Notice how the passage starts in verse one: "Remind the people." Remind them.
Do you ever come away from church and your reaction to the sermon was, "It was okay, but I'm not sure the pastor said anything new. I don't think I learned anything I didn't already know this morning"? The question is, does that disappoint you? Does that make it a less useful sermon? We are quite happy with that, because what Paul says is we are extremely forgetful. Ask anybody who lives under the same roof as me — they will tell you that I am extremely forgetful all the time. I need loads of reminders and I still forget. Actually, we're all like that to a degree. We need God to remind us often. And so God often reminds us of things we know already, including just the basics of how you live as a Christian. There's verses one and two, new lifestyle.
Old lifestyle (3)
Verse three, old lifestyle. Why should we live like that? Paul says, "Because of what we were converted from." Now it's not translated in most English versions, but verse three starts with the word "for," as in "because." So, remind the people to live like this because we used to live like that. Again, I've got three little words to sum up the way that we used to live.
Troublesome
Number one is troublesome. Here's verse three: "At one time we too were foolish and disobedient. We were rebellious." We were foolish. We were disobedient. In short, we were troublemakers. We got ourselves into trouble and we caused trouble for other people.
Trapped in the pursuit of pleasure
Number two, we were trapped in the pursuit of pleasure. Verse three goes on: "Deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures." Okay, so passions and pleasures sounds quite fun, right? Who would like pleasure? No, not me. I don't like pleasure. Let me tell you, passions and pleasures are fun. If they weren't fun, we wouldn't be so easily sucked into a life that is all about pursuing pleasure. It's fun until you find you can't get out. You discover that what you thought was a holiday resort is actually a prison camp with amusements, and you can't leave. Like if you join a criminal gang or if you join a cult — life is wonderful. They'll look after you. They'll protect you. They'll give you all you need. Great, until you decide you don't want to do it anymore and you want to leave, and suddenly you discover you can't. And what was fun turns into horror. Or the crayfish on the floor of the ocean that discovers a beautiful, tasty meal it could eat and crawls into a little basket to enjoy his meal. He's now a well-fed crayfish. But the well-fed will soon become food, because he cannot leave.
Toxic relationships
Troublesome, trapped in the pursuit of pleasure, toxic relationships. Here's how verse three finishes: "We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." Always envious of what other people have got. They've got more lights on the outside of their house for Christmas than we've got — buy some more, put some more up. They go, "Oh no, they've seen I've bought some more," and they've added even more. "Better get back to the garden centre and get another snowman." He says we are on the receiving end of other people's hatred, being hated. But then we respond to that by finding people that we can hate. That is the lifestyle that we have been rescued from. And we need reminding, because we so easily revert to type. We slip back into old habits. And we need reminding because this is how our work colleagues — many of them — live. How our school friends, college friends live. How many of our neighbours might live. How the contacts we've built online — some of them we've never met in person — but this is how they live. And so we easily get sucked in. We become chameleons who adapt our appearance to match those of the people around us. We need a reminder.
The kindness and love of God (4-7)
So, new lifestyle, because of your old lifestyle; and then thirdly, the kindness and love of God. He says, "When the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us." Now, there is lots that I could say to you about God's rescue from other passages of scripture, but this one passage is just so rich. I'm just going to keep us here looking at just these four verses, because there's so much to enjoy. In fact, this is so good I've not got three details for you this time. I have six, but I promise you I'll move through them fairly quickly.
Kindness and love
Number one, kindness and love. Verse four: "When the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us." God did this for one reason and one reason only — because he loved you. Or the other side of the coin, which is the same thing said in a different way: because God wanted to show kindness to you. That is all there was. Okay, it is also true that God did it for his own glory — for his glory and our good. But as far as the way he wants to treat you, his sole motivation for saving you is because he loves you.
Mercy
Number two is mercy. Verse five: "He saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." Just mercy. Preachers have favourite stories that they like to tell everywhere they go. This is not one of my particular favourite stories, but you tend to find that those favourite stories are told by preachers everywhere and have been for many generations. So here's a good little story for you that you have probably heard before. But in case you haven't, or even if you have, let me share it with you. It comes from the time of Napoleon in France. Napoleon is speaking to a young man in his military who has repeatedly betrayed him. And Napoleon's decision for justice is that this young man should be executed for his crimes. But the young man's mother gets involved and comes and pleads with Napoleon: "Have mercy on my son. Have mercy, my lord." Napoleon just snorts. "He doesn't deserve mercy." And the woman replies, "But Lord, if he deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy." And that so impressed Napoleon that the young man's life was spared. I have no idea whether that's true, but it's a good story. And it tells you what mercy is. It is not because you deserve it. You don't. But it's because God, simply out of his kindness, chooses not to treat you in the way that your sins deserve.
Washing, rebirth, renewal
Number three, washing, rebirth, renewal by the Holy Spirit. Now, each of these words is a slightly different picture. Washing — that's about being made clean, definitively, once and for all. Rebirth is about being born again. Renewal is about being made new. But they are all powerful pictures of a bright, new, fresh start. And God's Spirit does this miracle for us as he comes and lives within us.
Generous
Number four, generous. The generous Holy Spirit. Verse five: "Whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour." God's gift of his Spirit is generous. Now we mustn't misunderstand this. The Holy Spirit is a person and not a thing. He is a "he" and not an "it." And that means you either have him or you don't have him. He is not like a liquid where you can have different amounts. You can go and order a coffee and in some coffee shops you can order a large, a very large, or an extremely large. It's not like a liquid where you can pour out a larger quantity, or as some preachers I've heard say, "You receive the Spirit of God when you become a Christian, but then you leak." No. The Spirit is more like a relative who comes from far away to come and stay with you. Either that person is with you or they are not. You can't have more of Auntie Jane with you this year than you had last year. Either you have Auntie Jane with you or you don't. But Auntie Jane could come and see you without hesitation. She could come all the way from New Zealand to visit you and your family, even though in New Zealand she has many commitments and stresses and pressures, but she decides to prioritise you. She could come and stay with you even though it's just before Christmas, all the cheap flights have gone, and the flights are really expensive — but she's going to do it anyway, at great expense. This is not saying that God gives us lots of the Spirit. It's saying that God did not hold back. Without hesitation and at great expense to himself, he delighted to pour his Spirit out upon us generously.
… through Jesus
Number five, through Jesus. "Whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour." How do you come to have the Spirit of God in your life? Answer: come to Jesus. This is one of those things where if you're not careful, you look in the wrong place and seek the wrong thing. It's a bit like happiness. If you pursue and seek after happiness, you won't find it. The only way to find happiness is to seek the things that are good in themselves, that then bring you happiness. If you seek the Spirit, you won't find him. But if you come to Jesus, you'll receive the Spirit, and receive him generously.
Future hope
And then sixth, finally, number verse 7, future hope. "So that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs of eternal life." We receive all this kindness from God — it's not the end of the story. We become heirs. One day we will inherit a fortune. That fortune is that we get to enjoy eternal life — life of infinite quality that goes on forever.
New lifestyle, old lifestyle, kindness and love of God. Which brings us to verse eight. Titus is to stress these things. "This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone."
Stress these things (8)
Stress this, Titus. Notice the framing of verse 8: "This is a trustworthy saying. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone." So Titus is to keep stressing it. He's to keep teaching about God's grace, teaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And this will nurture a church that is devoted to doing what is good, that is committed to doing what is good, that is focused on doing what is good, that is intentional about doing what is good.
This is a call to us as pastors. It's back to that thing: what happens when you hear a sermon that doesn't say anything new? Our role week by week is to tell you about the grace of God. And you might think that could become boring and repetitive. What — every week? Of course it won't. The Bible is a big book. This is why we work through different books of the Bible. The Bible presents to you the grace of God in glorious colour. And if we preach the grace of God from different parts of the Bible, you'll get it in different language, different pictures, every week. We've already seen how the grace of God in Titus 3 is explained so differently from the grace of God in Romans 3. We could have different passages of scripture every week, different sermons every week, but always the grace of God, always the gospel, the good news of Jesus. So what we need — all of us, every single week, every day — is to hear of God's love and kindness to us in Christ Jesus our Saviour.