MPC 28th August 2005.Titus 2:11-14 - "The Logic for Living"
Garnet Swann MPC 28th August 2005.
People do strange things! Sometimes people do the weirdest things.
There's the story of Mark McGowan who sat for 2 weeks in his bathtub, which was filled with baked beans. True story - but you've got to ask yourself the question - why?
Or there was the bloke by the name of Stephen Gough who walked the length of Britain... in the nude. Wearing just his boots, a hat and a backpack - he walked through a freezing winter and finished his nudy hike in 8 months. Again you've got to ask yourself... Why?
Now there's pattern here - both of them are crazy Englishmen, but you've still got to ask the question, why? What makes these people do these strange things? What's the root cause? What's the reason for their behaviour?
Now I raise this because today I want us to think about what is the root cause, what is the reason for the way that Christian people live their lives.
Now - if you're a Christian person - you probably don't like being compared to those crazies - but it's worth thinking about - that in the world we live in - people think the way Christians live, is a bit weird.
the fact that Christians choose not to have sex outside of marriage.
the fact that Christians choose not to steal even when no-one's going to find out.
the fact that Christians choose to be generous with their money and time.
For the world - this sort of behaviour just looks strange and impractical and hard to live out. See, the question is there again - why behave in such a way? In fact you might be coming along this morning - curious about Christianity but you yourself are asking - why do Christians live they way they do?
This morning we're going to look at the passage that I just read out for us - Titus 2:11-14. It's part of the letter that Paul wrote to Titus who was living on the island of Crete. We're going to focus on this little segment, these 4 verses. But we'll have a look at other parts of the letter as well, so it would be great to have the letter open in front of you.
So this is the issue we're going to look at: What's real Christian living look like and why do it?
So the 4 main points are there on your outline:
The grace of God has appeared. It's there at the start of verse 11. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
See - appearing means that something in a moment of time - comes into view. I remember in 1986, Halley's comet... appeared. There we were at night time - looking at his hazy looking, blurry thing in the sky. That appearing happened 19 years ago - well, this grace of God appeared around 2005 years ago with the coming of Jesus Christ.
See, this is the grace of God - it isn't some substance or special force - but the grace of God that appeared - is the person, Jesus. And Jesus taught. He was full of compassion. But it all led up to that moment when he died on the cross for us. This is the grace of God.
Go to the end bit of v13. We're told this. Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us. "Gave himself for us" - that's sacrifice language. That's what Jesus did on the cross for us - he gave himself in sacrifice.
Let me tell you a story to help you understand this idea of sacrifice.
In WWII POWs were working on the bridge over the River Kwai in Burma. These prisoners were given such a measly ration of rice from the Japanese, that they were forced to barter their tools with the locals for extra food. The Japanese found out about this and ordered that anyone would be executed if they were caught trading their tools away.
Well, one day, a working party returned and their tools were counted as usual…..and one spade was missing.
The Japanese officer ordered the culprit to confess immediately - but there was silence. This Japanese soldier flew into a rage - pointing his machine gun on all the men giving them one last chance to confess. Just when it looked like he was about to open fire on the group of prisoners, one of them stepped forward to own up.
And in front of his mates he was battered to death, his body was left a broken heap as they were marched away.
As the work party trudged away, the missing shovel was seen lying on the ground apart from the rest. It had just been left out of the count.
See, that's sacrifice. Giving yourself in the place of others. This is what Jesus did - 'gave himself for us'. But it's not just a mate for a mate. This is God who sacrificed himself. Notice the phrase at the end of verse 13 - our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus is God. Jesus is God in the flesh. God sacrificed himself that day on the cross.
So this is the grace of God that's appeared. But this passage also tells us why this grace of God has appeared. And so we come to the second point.
The grace of God has appeared - to save us. We see it there in v11 - For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Now there's something very different here with how society thinks.
Society thinks that people need to be helped.
We read in the bible that people need to be saved.
We hear about the problems of society like: rising rate of teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, crime. And we just always seem to hear that the solution is more eduction. 'Oh, we're not spending enough money on educating people.' Yes, people need educating. But it is really not going to fix things. People need saving.
There's a clash of worldviews here. People generally have a positive view of humanity. The bible has a negative one.
If you don't believe me - just look at the words that are used here of humanity. Verse 12 - 'ungodliness and worldly passions'. Verse 14 - 'wickedness'.
That's what people are like. This is the utter blackness God sees inside people.
So this grace of God, Christ's sacrifice saves us from this miserable state we're in. And another way that this passage puts it is that by Jesus' death, he redeems us.
Have a look at v14. Jesus Christ... who gave himself for us to redeem us...
Redeem - it's a terribly religious sounding word. But it basically means to 'buy back from captivity'.
I once had the very stressful experience of having to buy back, to redeem my car from captivity. I had put it in a carpark on a Friday morning. But I didn't get back to the carpark in time before it closed that night. So there was my car - under lock and key. I couldn't get it out. My car was a prisoner. I had to come back later to pay a price to redeem it.
And that's like our experience. In our natural state, we're in captivity. In our case, we're in bondage to our sinful, selfish natures.
And by his sacrifice on the cross Jesus redeemed us from enslavement. This is the reality that Christian people find themselves in. We're not slaves anymore. We're not prisoners anymore. We've been released from the power of sin to love God and live for God.
Not that Christian people are perfect. Part of our 'stupidity' is we choose sometimes what is sinful. We can be very deliberate in saying we want to do what we want. A man by the name of Augustine in the 4th century, once said, "Lord, Give me chastity, but not yet." And we can be like that.
But it doesn't change the fact that - our sinful passions no longer enslave us. That don't imprison us anymore. We've been redeemed so that we can live in a way that pleases God.
Now we come to the third point. And this is the other purpose of the grace of God that's appeared.
I'll read all of v11 and 12.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
Now we come to the heart of the matter of what I raised at the start. Why do Christian people live the way that they do? What's the root cause? What's the reason? It's the grace of God. It's the grace of God that teaches us how to live.
I take it this means that as we come to know God's grace to us in Jesus, we're given the power and the desire to live a life that's pleasing to him.
We're given the power - because by God's grace we've been redeemed from our sinful passions.
We're given the desire - because when we understand the wonder of God's grace to us, our heartfelt response is to thankfully want to want to please God.
What's the root cause, the reason - for Christian living? The grace of God.
You know, this is a far cry from what some people have taught. What you can hear people say is that you've been saved by grace, but now you've got to start performing as a Christian. You've got in, you've been saved - now you ought to do this and ought to do that. And it's so easy to get caught up in that. I do.
But the term for this approach is 'legalism'. And legalism is a teacher - it's a teacher that has a big stick and whip.
But legalism - of you've got to do this, you've got to do that - will only produce joyless and hollow Christianity.
No - the grace of God is our teacher. As we take hold of how much Jesus has done for us - in giving himself to redeem us - then we'll go on with the power and motivation to live for God. This is the way of joyful willing obedience to the Lord.
We begin by coming to know God's grace. And we go on living in God's grace. That's why you'll notice as you go on in the Christian life - that there's no higher level teaching - in order to be godly people. We just keep on reminding each other of what Jesus did for us. See, there's nothing to really move on to. There's nothing else to add to the message. No, we need to keep reminding each other about the wonder and greatness of what Jesus did . God's grace is our trainer and teacher. God's grace is the reason and root cause for Christian living.
Well, my fourth point is that God's grace trains us - as we wait for the appearing of Jesus. See, our response to God's grace - to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives, does not happen in a vacuum. We're not just living for now. No we are mindful of where things are heading and where all history is going.
See, this is the point of v12 and 13 where it says "to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"
As we live Christian lives we await the 2nd appearing of Jesus, when He'll return in glory.
I remember in school learning about all the different stages of history. There was the middle ages, and the renaissance, the industrial revolution - all sorts of different ages. But as Christian people, we know that there is a view of history that overrides all that - there is this present age, between Jesus who came and Jesus who'll come again.
And so this only gives even more sense to our Godly living now. One day - we will be rewarded for our lives of faith and obedience. We don't just live in a certain way - to give ourselves some purpose in an otherwise pointless existence.
No - we stand between two events. It's like we live in the period between the Dusk and Dawn. Jesus has appeared once, and the Son will come again.
Well - there we are - we've covered this very small but very important passage. The grace of God has appeared to save and redeem and to teach us to live Godly lives as wait for Jesus to return.
But let's not leave this passage without thinking how out it directly applies to us. Let's just for a moment focus on how the grace of God can teach us... in the area of self-control.
Being self-controlled. It's there in v12. But it's actually a big theme in all of this letter.
Go to 1:7. Paul here talks about what are the qualifications for a church leader. He says in v7, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. But it's not just an instruction for leaders. In 2:2 talking about older men of the church - they are to be self-controlled and sound in faith. In 2:5 talking about younger women, they're to be self-controlled and pure. In 2:6, it says, Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.
Obviously, Paul thought self-control was a basic part of living for the Christian people on Crete. They needed to be encouraged to be self-controlled. And I take it - for us, we still need to be encouraged with this area of Christian living. As we look at what Christ's done for us. Let's be self-controlled.
And let me offer you two areas of self-control to think about.
The first area I think we can all be challenged in, is in the area of money and greed. I think greed really is lack of self-control. It's that insatiable desire to want more and more, to be never satisfied with what you have. And this is a very hard area for all of us. We breath in the air of consumerism that is all around. We feel the constant desire to keep up with others. We never feel like we've quite made it.
But we're to be self-controlled. You and I are to be content with what we have.
I read a tongue-in-cheek Christian modification to the TV show Better Homes and Gardens. Instead of Better Homes and Gardens, it became a five minute program called Perfectly Adequate Homes and Gardens. In this show, each week a former bricklayer or plumber would take us on a tour of a plain bog-ordinary family home and say, "As you can see, the Brown family home has plenty of potential. There's lots we could do with this one. However, it does the job pretty well. It's warm and dry and comfortable. No obvious structural problems. We're going to encourage the Browns to be content and leave it as it is." Cut to closing credits.
It's not going to happen but as Christian people, we can be content. Not greedy for more. But content and self-controlled with what you have.
I think the only way we can be content as Christian people is to know what is in store for us. Christ gave himself for us and he will appear again. All that we have now - will not last. All that we have now gives no real security. All that we have now is nothing compared to what we will attain. And I reckon a helpful strategy to employ is be generous - as you're willing to give things away, you'll be more willing to hold on loosely to things and so be content.
Just a second area of self-control that I want to encourage you with is in the area of anger and harshness. It can be so easy to be angry and harsh with those who you love. It is can be so easy to be angry and harsh behind closed doors, when you're away from the pleasantness of Church. I'm surprised how red-hot angry I can get with my little boy Noah sometimes - when he won't eat his food and instead just screams into my ear. And Kirsty and I can fire off snappy remarks at each other.
But we're to be self-controlled. God calls us to patience and gentleness. We need to look to Christ and know how patient and gentle he's been with us. If we're Christian then we'll want to be like him. And even when the easiest and seeming most pleasurable thing to do is to lash out, we'll want to be self-controlled.
So that's my two encouragements for you in the area of self control. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
As we go on living Christian lives - our lifestyles will be seen to be strange and weird by others. But we shouldn't be different - because we feel compelled to perform and guilt tripped into doing this and that. We'll live rightly as grasp again and again - what God has done for us. The grace of God has appeared. Jesus has given himself for us - to save us and redeem us from worldly passions. It's the grace of God that teaches and trains us in the way we are to go.