Titus 1:5–9
Sermon Transcript - “Grace-Full Elders” - Titus 1:5–9
Introduction
I've been trying to clean and organize my garage now for the last five months. It doesn't take me that long because I have a ton of things. It doesn't take me that long because the garage is super messy. It takes me that long because I have a sense that there's a particular order things should go in. Am I going to need the stuff for fixing cars more often? Or the stuff for working outdoors in the lawn more often? Should the WD-40 go in with the oil or should it go in with the wood glue? It's questions like that that keep me up at night and make me take five months to organize my garage—something that should take not that long. It's difficult to put something into order when you have a sense that there's an order that things should go in but you don't have a map or a guideline for how it should go. I would be glad to be pointed to a blog post that says how my garage should be put in order. Something I could just follow to the T. Unfortunately, there are conflicting blog posts, and I'm not going to find one right order.
Thankfully, the case is different in the church. There is an order for things to be put in. It's not something we're left wondering: What should we structure the church to be like in order for God's people to be faithful and to flourish? What order should things be put in, so that the gospel of grace sinks down deep into us and produces godliness in us? We're not left to wonder because God has given us His Word. Paul sent Titus on a mission to the island of Crete to put what remained into order. And he didn't say Titus, just kind of use your best judgment and see what things pan out. No, he said, Titus, here's what you need to do to put the church in order. And he's saying that to us, too. We're given this letter as a guideline from Paul—ultimately from God—to know how we ought to organize and structure the church; to know how to put the church in order, so that we see grace at work in the church.
That's what we're looking at today. We're going to read Paul's instructions to Titus and we're going to study those and learn how God has ordered his church in such a way that promotes the faith and flourishing of his people. So let's do that now. Let's read Titus 1:5-9, our text for today: ”This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”
God’s Order
We see here in verse five, first of all, that God's Church has an order. God has a particular order in mind for his church. That's what's implied when Paul says to Titus, ”put what remained into order.” We know this from other places in Scripture, too. We know from 1 Timothy 3 that the church is God's household and God has an order for his household. Paul wrote the letter of First Timothy so that we would know how we ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God (1 Tim 3:14–15). We know that the church has an order from God because the church is God's temple. We read that in the call to worship this morning (Eph 2:19–22). We're being built into a temple by God and the Old Testament is full of evidence that God cares a great deal about what happens in his temple and what his temple is like.
We know that God has an order for his church because God has a plan for his people. According to Romans 8, we are predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ. That's God's plan for us. And to accomplish that plan. God has an order. God has a plan to accomplish his goal. We also know that God has an order for his church because Christ has a goal in mind for his bride. We see that in Ephesians 5. Jesus loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he could wash her with the water of the word, so that she would be without spot, without blemish, pure, sanctified, as a bride. Jesus is accomplishing that for his bride.
And that's why we know that God has a particular order in mind for his church—order in the church matters. We see this also in the fact that when the church is out of order, God's people end up out of order. This is already happening at Crete. When Paul writes in Titus 1:11 that these false teachers— these insubordinate people, empty talkers and deceivers—they must be silenced. Why? Because they're upsetting whole families, by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. God's churches missing some of his ordained order. And as a result, false teachers are rising up and distorting the gospel, upsetting the faith of God's people. When God's people are out of order, they don't increase in Christ's likeness, because God has established a pattern for us to be able to increase in Christ's likeness. And it's not just doing whatever. It's following his word. When God's people are out of order, we also can't fulfill the Great Commission, because God has ordained through His Son, that we would fulfill his Great Commission— to make disciples, to make Christ known—in a certain way. And so it is necessary—for a church to be healthy—that we are ordered, according to God's order for the church.
We see here in Titus that God's order prioritizes elders. He cares so much about elders in the church that he addresses it through His Word four times substantially in the New Testament. We have significant instruction from Paul to the elders in Ephesus in Acts 20. And we also have Paul writing to Timothy so that he would know what kind of a man should be an elder in God's church in 1 Timothy 3, And we have him here doing the same thing for Titus. It's so important that he repeats himself. And then we have Peter in 1 Peter 5, talking to the elect exiles who are far away from all of this, saying, here's what a shepherd—an elder in God's Church—ought to do and be. God cares a great deal about who leads his church.
We also see this in Paul's church planting strategy in Acts 14. Listen to what he does as he's planting these churches—seeing these churches that are preaching the gospel and that are on mission for Christ being built up. Here's what he does. Acts 14:21–23, ”When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” We see here Paul's strategy for planting new churches. First, preach the gospel—make converts. Second, go and disciple those converts—strengthen them in the knowledge of the Lord. And third, appoint elders in every church. It's so important that it's part of Paul's threefold strategy for planting churches. Healthy churches, according to God's will, require elders.
But it's not just any elder. Paul doesn't stop at verse five saying only ”appoint elders in every city as a directed you.” He's not just looking for warm bodies. He's not just looking for any guy willing to lead, any guy willing to step up and serve. He's looking for a specific type of person. Healthy churches require not just elders, but good elders. That's what we see in this text.
Good Elders Are Blameless
First of all, the kind of elders that are required are blameless elders. Healthy churches require good elders and good elders are blameless. Look at verses six to eight. ”if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self- controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” You might have noticed "above reproach" is mentioned twice. It's mentioned twice because above reproach summarizes everything else. Another way of putting that (as some translations do) is blameless. An elder must be blameless, a good elder is blameless. Calvin puts it this way: a good elder is "marred by no disgrace." So we're not talking about sinless here. We're not talking about the need to look around and find someone who is without sin, and then make them an elder in the church. We're looking for elders that are marred by no disgrace; that have no skeletons in their closet, that if they came out would bring reproach on the gospel.
Elders are called to be blameless in two categories in Paul's description. First, they're called to be blameless at home. That's what he's getting at in verses six and seven. He says in Titus 1:6: ”if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.” Good elders are blameless at home as the husband of one wife (or literally a one woman man). Good elders are faithful to love and lead their wives, to care for them as Christ cares for the church.
Not only that, but good elders are faithful to love and lead their children. Now it says in verse six, ”his children are believers.” If you have a copy of the ESV or a copy of another translation that has a footnote, it might say in my footnote ”or are faithful.” I think faithful is a better translation here than believers for one particular reason. It's that to say that an elder must have children that are believers implies that the elder's children must be regenerate—know Christ. I don't think that's what Paul's talking about here because he says ”not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination”—which has to do with conduct. The emphasis is on how those children behave, not on what those children profess. Also in verse nine, Paul says an elder must hold firm to the ”trustworthy word” as taught. The word trustworthy is the same word in verse six that's translated believers in the ESV. It's talking about the faithfulness of the word. And it's talking about the faithfulness of the elder's children. A father cannot save his own children, but he can raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). That's what Paul's calling for here. Paul is saying an elder must be blameless at home in his conduct towards his wife and blameless at home in his conduct towards his children. One evidence of that blamelessness is how his children respond to His authority.
In calling for elders to be the husband of one wife or to have children who are believers, Paul is also not disqualifying automatically single men from being elders in the church. He's not saying you've got to find only married guys with at least two kids—implied by children, plural. He's not saying that. He's saying the conduct of a person in their home matters. And if they are single, then their home and their family is often the church family. And you can look at their conduct. How does a single man treat other women in the church? Is it like Paul admonishes Timothy to treat younger women as sisters in all purity (1 Tim 5:2)? How does a single man treat other's children in the church? Does he feel a sense of responsibility, as part of the family of God, to help in pointing them to Christ—to care well for them, to protect them? How does he respond to those things? We can get a glimpse of that, even in single guys.
Single or married elders are required to be blameless in the home. Why is that? Verse seven tells us. Paul says, ”an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.” Elders are required to be blameless in the home because they are stewards in the church, which is God's household. How they act in the home reflects how they will care for God's people. If an elder is not able to faithfully love and lead his own wife, how will he love and lead Christ's bride? If an elder is not able to faithfully love and lead his children, earning their trust and respect, how will he do that for God's children? How will they learn to trust and respect his authority if his own children can't even learn that? If you cannot steward your own family, you cannot steward God's family. That's what Paul is saying here. That's what we're to look for in an elder—blameless at home.
A good elder must not only be blameless at home but blameless in public as well. Paul writes in Titus 1:7–8, ”an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” Paul is giving contrasting lists—not this, but this. All through these lists, there's an emphasis on mastery of self—on self-control, on stewarding one's self. An elder must be able to steward himself. He must not be mastered by the flesh. He must be mastered by the Spirit. These traits, what God's looking for in an elder, they're flowing out of the fruit of the Spirit. You cannot steward God's Church if you cannot steward your family and you cannot steward God's Church if you cannot steward yourself. Elders must be blameless at home and in public.
Why require this blameless from elders? It seems like a bar set pretty high, a task too difficult. Who is sufficient for these things? Why require this? Why don't you see any prosperity gospel preachers that are sick or poor? Because no one would believe them! It's the same reason that you need blameless elders in the church. If I as an elder am saying, "here's what the gospel does" and you don't see it in my life, why would you believe me? We need blameless elders to show the power of the gospel—to prove that grace works.
Blameless elders, prove that grace works. How? Think about it. Why would an elder be blameless in these ways? It's not, because that elder is somehow super spiritual and better than you. That's not why. Why does an elder display godliness? Because the gospel works; Because the grace of God is at work in their life to produce godliness. Elders are blameless in the church to show you that grace works and to give you gospel hope. When you're drowning in slavery to sin and an elder teaches you the truth of the gospel—that Jesus saves sinners like you and me—you can look at their life and say, I believe you. Because that elder—me, Charlie, any other elder you might encounter—are all sinners saved by grace? We were dead. We were without help. We were alienated. We were without God. And God in His mercy, bent down to rescue us. And his gospel has changed us. So that instead of being arrogant, we are humbled (because we are sinners saved by grace, there's nothing to be arrogant about right?) Instead of being violent, we are gentle. Why? Because God was not violent in his wrath towards us as sinners but has shown us gentle mercy. An elder is called to be a living example of the gospel hope that's available to all of us—of the grace that works as we saw all through Titus. Good elders show the power of the gospel with their lives.
Good Elders Are Bible guys
Where does the power to transform sinners into godly men come from? From the hope that's given us in the gospel—in the trustworthy word we've been taught. Good elders hold firm to that trustworthy word, as Paul writes in verse nine. Titus 1:9: ”9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” We see in verse nine that good elders are Bible guys. Good elders are not only blameless, but they are Bible guys— they hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. But it's not primarily so that they can teach others. If I'm primarily holding firm to this word so that I have something to say to you on Sunday, kick me out—that's not good, that's not helpful for you or me. The primary reason elders need to hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught is because we need the gospel just as much as anyone. The primary reason we hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught is that God's word teaches us that we are terrible sinners but we have a terrific Savior. By holding firm to the trustworthy Word, we behold Christ. We behold the forgiveness that comes to us in the Gospel. We hold firm, first, not because we want to teach others but because we have a need. For good elders, holding firm to this trustworthy word—this sound doctrine—is the foundation of everything else. It's not the cherry on top, it's the foundation and fountain of everything else.
But good elders don't want to hold firm to the gospel for their own sake only. They want to help others. They want to help all of us hold firm to that same gospel. This is why Paul says they must hold firm to the trust where the word is taught: ”so that they may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine.” Good elders are able to give instruction in sound doctrine. This does not require a Ph.D. It does not require knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. Those things are good. But that's not what Paul is talking about here. He's telling us to find guys whose lives have been so transformed by the gospel that they are blameless at home and in public. And we're to ask, are those guys able to teach us how to hold to the gospel like that? Are they able to help us hold on to the trustworthy word as taught? Are they able to help us learn how to behold Christ in His Word and be transformed? If they are, then they are able to give instruction in sound doctrine. That's what Paul's talking about. Paul is calling for elders who can actually show you how to use this book, to behold Christ, to be changed into his image. It's a work of the Spirit, yes, but God does it through His Word. That's what he's calling for with elders, able to give instruction.
The elders are not only to give instruction, though. Paul finishes his sentence by saying, “also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Elders must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. We’ll learn more about rebuking those that teach false doctrine next week as we continue our study in Titus 1:10-16. We’ll see why it’s so important that elders are not only able to help you follow Christ, but also to protect you from those who would turn you away from following Christ. Calvin writes that elders need two voices: “one for gathering the sheep and the other for driving away wolves and thieves.” This is the dual role of your elders: helping you follow Christ and protecting you from those who would turn you away. That requires then, that not only do elders hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught but that this holding firm to Jesus produces in these men bravery to hold the line against those who would try to destroy your faith—bravery that holds firm to the Savior, even in the face of hardship and difficulty.
Conclusion
This is what good elders are like. This is what the church needs to be put in order. Paul’s going to call Titus to do two things to put the church in order at Crete. They’re the two things that are the second part of his church planting plan we saw in Acts. Put the church in order by appointing elders (Titus 1:5) and disciple people within the church to live lives where grace works (Titus 2:1).
To be healthy then, we must appoint good elders. We must find guys that are blameless because they’ve been transformed by the gospel and we must find guys who are clinging to Jesus and can teach you to do the same. We must find guys who are devoted to living “for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness” (Titus 1:1). Those are the kind of guys we must put in leadership in the church. It is our shared responsibility to look around us in the church and recognize God’s grace at work in the lives of godly men. And when we see it, we ought to encourage them to consider serving Christ as an elder.
We have a very practical way to put this into practice: Thad is in the Elder Candidate process right now. We have an opportunity to assess him according to these standards. Charlie and I put him forward as an elder candidate because we see a man who is blameless in his life by the grace of God; we see a man who clings to the gospel and will teach you to cling to the gospel too. Thad is a man who wants to serve the church for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. Your job as a church is to ask, did Charlie and I see rightly? Your job is to assess Thad and to rejoice with us and with he and Sara and with God as you see God’s grace at work in his life. You should take this elder candidacy very seriously and you should hold him to a very high standard. But friends, it’s a gospel standard, isn’t it? It’s a gospel standard that looks not for sinless perfection but for the grace of God to be at work in Thad’s life to produce blamelessness at home and in public.
The other response we should have from God’s Word this morning is a deep sense of gratitude. Whatever godliness you see in me—whatever godliness you see in Charlie—is not because of us. Whatever godliness you see in me and Charlie is because the grace of God is at work in our lives. Who then gets the glory? Not us, but God! We must give thanks for the grace of God that we see in good elders because good elders are a gift from God to us so that we have a tangible example that grace works —one more piece of evidence we can look to and say, “I know Jesus is worth following because I know this is what he does in people’s lives.” That’s the response you should have when you look at my life and look at Charlie’s life. That’s the response we pray you have. We are thankful to God for whatever grace is in us.
That’s true for all of us, isn’t it? Whatever goodness you have in you is not because you are super spiritual or more holy than the person sitting next to you. It’s because the grace of God is at work in your life. That’s the anthem that we constantly want to proclaim: God’s grace is at work in our lives—his grace works and you can see it by the evidence of godliness in our lives. That’s what we're called to do. That’s what glorifies God. It’s really simple to glorify God, just let his grace be displayed in you.