Zealous For Good Works

[Read Titus 3:8-15]

We have a tendency to get easily distracted. Another way of saying that is that we naturally find ourselves focusing on the wrong things. There’s a tendency to spend most of time and energy on things that are not really important because it’s easier. 

I think we’ve all experienced this in our own lives before. Think about the last time you had a daunting task in front of you. Maybe it was a massive pile of laundry that you need to fold. Maybe something was broken in your house and it was going to be difficult and time consuming to fix it. What typically ended up happening when you saw that task in front of you? Most likely, you got distracted doing something smaller—something easier. The daunting task in front of you overwhelmed you and you were afraid to jump into it—or were dreading jumping into it—so you distracted yourself with other smaller things. That way you didn’t feel lazy. If you would have just avoided the task, you would have felt guilty and lazy, but now you were still working and working hard—but you were working on things that weren’t that important. 

We have a tendency to do this in the church as well. We see large, daunting tasks in front of us. They overwhelm us and we become afraid. So, we distract ourselves and focus on busying ourselves with small things that aren’t that important. We get angry and frustrated with over small, unimportant issues. We allow small things to cause division in the church. It’s all because it’s easier for us to get worked up over these small things than to actually address the bigger issues. 

This morning Jerry mentioned that we are looking into refreshing our building a little bit—updating it since the last refresh was twenty years ago. I have to be honest, there’s some hesitation amongst members of the congregation to move forward on this. As far as I know, there isn’t any hesitation about whether this is necessary. I think many of us understand that it’s time to update our building. Yet, some are concerned there will be some divisiveness and some anger and over what needs to change. There is concern about whether we will be able to work together as a congregation to update this building so that it’s more effective for ministry. Let’s not allow something like this to cause division in our congregation. Let’s not allow ourselves to get angry and upset and divisive over something like the building. This building is a tool for ministry—for building up the church and reaching the community for Jesus Christ. Let us not lose our focus on that important task and mission. It is easier for us to get caught up fighting about a building, but it is not more beneficial for the kingdom of God. 

These struggles are not new to the church. As Paul wraps up this letter to pastor Titus, he warns him and the congregation, “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.” (Titus 3:9, NIV). He tells them to stop wasting their time and energy on things that are unprofitable and useless. Stop fighting about dumb things. Stop wasting all your time in family histories, thinking you’ll find some salvation there. Stop fighting with one another. Stop arguing about minute matters about the law—adding law upon law upon law for “clarification” (I’m sure he could have kept on listing things that are a waste of time). Stop doing these things. They’re unprofitable and useless. They’re a waste of time and energy. 

He goes on to talk about another waste of time—divisiveness. He says, “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” (Titus 3:10–11, NIV). These are pretty strong words. A divisive person is given two warnings, then they are removed from the church. It’s a “three strikes and you’re out” policy. That’s how seriously Paul takes divisiveness in the church. He isn’t going to put up with it or fool around with it because it acts like bad leaven, spreading throughout the  congregation, infecting everything it comes into contact with. So, he says we are to approach the person twice, warning them of what they are doing, desiring to restore them to unity and fellowship. But, if they refuse to listen, they have chosen to leave the church. Sure, you may have to ask them to leave, but they are the one who made that decision. 

His point is that we need to stop wasting our time and energy on things that are unprofitable and useless. Allowing people to be divisive in the church—spreading false teachings or rumors or arguments or foolish controversies or unhealthy obsessions with unimportant doctrines—is unprofitable and useless. It prevents the church from doing what God has called the church to do. 

Instead, he tells us to focus on what is excellent and profitable—rather than on unprofitable and worthless things. He says, “This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things…These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.” (Titus 3:8, NIV). There are certain things that we are supposed to stress in the church—to focus on, to refuse to get distracted from. These things are excellent and profitable. They work toward building up the church and impacting the world. Everything we do should be centered on these things. They should be the core of our ministry. 

So, what are the “these things” that Paul is talking about? It’s last week’s message. He’s telling us that we need to be stressing Gospel Truths because they are excellent and profitable for everyone. We need to be stressing the fact that God saves sinners from sin and death by his grace and mercy, not because of anything they’ve done. We need to be focused on bringing this gospel truth into every aspect of our congregation. We should never be distracted from this proclamation. It has to be the core of our ministry. 

Here’s why Paul says we need to stress gospel truths. “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.” (Titus 3:8, NIV). We are called to stress these Gospel Truths—to focus intently on them—because Gospel Truths stir God’s peoples’ hearts to action. When we truly embrace the Gospel with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we devote ourselves in service to our Savior. We want to do what is good and right. We want to see other people experience the same things we’ve experienced. That’s why Gospel Truths are excellent and profitable—they actually bear fruit in our lives. 

In order to emphasize this, it comes up again a few verses later. “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.” (Titus 3:14, NIV). God’s people need to learn something. Actually, the sense of this verb is that God’s people need to keep on learning these things. It’s a continual process that happens over and over again. We need to keep on learning how to devote ourselves to doing what is good. This is what discipleship IS. This is what the church is all about. We are to keep preaching and teaching Gospel Truth’s so that the God’s people keep learning how to devote themselves to good works. This is excellent and profitable because when God’s people learn to devote themselves to good works, they go out into the world and provide for daily necessities and live productive lives, which produces more fruit. 

If the church allows itself to focus on foolish controversies, genealogies, divisiveness, arguments, and fighting about the law, we will be focusing on unprofitable and worthless things that produce no fruit. As a result, God’s people will not learn how to devote themselves to good works, and they will not go out into the world with those works, and they will live unproductive lives in the world. And the church won’t bear any fruit because it’s focused on worthless and unprofitable things and the world won’t bear fruit because the church is unprofitable in the world, and nothing will be changed by the Gospel.

To build on this further, I want to take us back into chapter two where we are told about Jesus Christ “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14, NIV). I like the ESV translation better. It says “…who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14, ESV). Zealous is much stronger than “eager,” it means passionate—an all consuming passion. This reminds us that Jesus died for us, redeemed us, cleansed us, brought us into his family, so that he would have a people who are passionate about following Him and doing what is right in the world. 

Passion for following Jesus Christ. This isn’t talking about boringly plodding along for Jesus Christ. It isn’t talking about grumblingly following Jesus Christ. It isn’t talking about following Jesus Christ because you have to. It’s talking about an all consuming fire for Jesus Christ—a love and passion and desire to give everything you have to him and serve Him with all your might. 

This is the type of life that is attractive in the world. This is the type of life that gets people’s attention. When we begin to live this type of life in the world, people notice. Think about it. If your attitude is like Eeyore, “I guess I have to go to church. I guess I can’t have another beer. I guess I can’t sleep with whoever I want. I guess I’ll help someone out, if I have to.” You don’t even seem to be enjoying your life! Why would anyone else want that? Why would anyone else glorify God because of that? Yet, when you are in the world and passionately serving Jesus Christ—excited and ready—people notice. When you recognize that Jesus gave himself for you and you passionately give yourself for him, people start to wonder why. They begin to see that Jesus is worth giving our life to. 

As simplistic as it may sound, we get this passion by meditating on—embracing deep in our heart—the truth that Christ gave himself for us, not because of anything we have done or are doing or will do, but simply by his grace and mercy. That truth lights a flame in our heart that will never grow cold. If you feel yourself growing lukewarm, bored, dead—spend time meditating on this truth. Grab hold of it and don’t let go until it blesses you and lights your heart on fire. Then, go out into the world, passionate to live the life Christ has called you to live. 

In an interesting twist, that passionate life for Christ may work itself out in things that seem mundane and boring. In the midst of all this talk about being passionately devoted to following Christ and doing good works in the world, Paul gives some instructions. He says, “As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.” (Titus 3:12–13, NIV). Boring, right? Not really. On one level, these can be viewed as boring, basic “business” items. Yet, there’s much more going on underneath. We don’t know much about Artemas, but we know that Tychicus is most likely a letter carrier, delivering Paul’s letters to various churches. We know that Apollos was a gifted and effective preacher of the word and Zenas is a lawyer who knows God’s Word as well. Paul is planning on Artemas and Tychicus staying in Crete and having Titus leave for Nicopolis because Paul is planning to stay there for the winter. As you begin to see what’s going on here, you begin to see that Paul is organizing a ministry strategy. He’s making sure that he has the right preachers in the right places. He’s making sure that these preachers are well taken care of—that all of their needs are met. He’s making sure that Titus joins him in Nicopolis before winter because they are going to stay there and do Gospel ministry for a while—it’s a strategic location. 

So, it may seem like “boring business stuff,” but it’s actually a strategic ministry plan focused on bringing the excellent and profitable Gospel Truth to people so that they would learn how to passionately follow Jesus in the world, devoting themselves to good works. He’s showing them how to be focused on this one thing, rather than be distracted by unimportant and unprofitable things. He wants to see them focused on the Gospel and its outworking in the world. 

It’s important for us as a church to have that same reminder. As we go through the day to day ministry of this congregation, let us not forget that Gospel Truths are at the core of what we do. As we sit in elder/deacon/council meetings, we have to be making decisions based on the understanding that our church is focused on the Gospel. As we clean our church and decorate our church and refresh our church, we need to remember that we are doing these things because we are focused on the Gospel. We do these mundane and boring things with purpose and passion because we love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us, so we give ourselves for him passionately so that others can know these excellent and profitable Gospel Truths.