Transformed LEADERS

The Book of Titus | Making Leaders | Titus 2:11-14 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an exegetical sermon of Titus 2:11-14 which addresses the transforming power of the gospel in how grace not only saves us but changes us. Particular attention is giving to Jesus’ diety, appearings, redemption, purity, his people, and their works. This sermon was originally preached on July 10th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
July 10th, 2011

The Book of Titus: Making Leaders
Transformed LEADERS | Titus 2:11-14

I. The School Which Is Grace
    A. A Message For All Peoples (v.11)
    B. A Training For Us Christians (v.12)
II. The Savior Who Is Grace
    A. His Deity (v.13)
    B. His Appearings (v.11,13)
    C. His Redemption (v.14)
    D. His Purification (v.14)
    E. His People (v.14)
    F. His Works (v.14)

Introduction

This summer as most of you know we are working through the book of Titus in the New Testament, which is a book on leadership, so we’ve called this series “Making Leaders.” Today, we are taking on a great passage in this book which highlights the need for good Christian leaders to be those who have and are experiencing change or transformation in their lives. So I’ve titled today’s message “Transformed LEADERS.”

I’d like to begin with a story. Paul, the human author of our text was someone who had a experienced massive change and transformation in his life. Before becoming a Christian he was a religious gangster who had people killed for not believing what he did. After becoming a Christian he began to realize how far he needed to go and what he had really embarked on was a lifelong process of change in becoming more and more like Jesus. He called it being conformed to His image in one of his other letters (Rom 8:29).

The story I want to tell you is the story of married couple who ended up in a mess. We’ll call ‘em Jack and Sally. Jack and Sally met at an amusement park waiting in line for a roller coaster ride. Jack was a young man who was super into music, tattoos and hanging out with his friends. Sally was your classic sheltered Christian whose parents hardly ever let her out of the house growing up.

Jack was nice and sweet to Sally and to Sally Jack was the forbidden boy she was not supposed to like but he didn’t seem so bad. Sally and Ted started dating and when her parents found out about it they were not happy and constantly criticizing him and they’re relationship which only fueled Sally’s interest in him. Sally finally couldn’t take it anymore and moved out of the house.

Right away she started spending every waking minute with Jack and her parents didn’t hear from her for awhile. Sally tried to tell Jack about Jesus but he really wasn’t interested. Sally kept telling him how important it was for them to share the same faith and so Jack finally agreed to go to a church service with her.

The first time Sally’s parents heard from Sally after an extended period of not talking was when she called to tell them that her and Jack were getting married and it was okay because Jack had “gone forward” during an altar call to reassure Sally about his salvation. Sally’s parents were concerned about the authenticity of this “conversion” but did their best to start them off right and give her away in a nice wedding. Sally had intentionally neglected to tell them she was actually pregnant at the time.

It didn’t take long for problems to arise in their marriage. Jack went from one bad job to the other. He started drinking a lot and rarely coming come at a reasonable hour despite the three children he and Sally now had. A day rarely went by without an argument and Sally become lonely, bitter and angry. One night their fighting got physical and Sally resolved to leave with the kids that night and get help for her marriage.

Jack and Sally ended up in a counseling session with a pastor of a church who waded through the swamp of difficulty in their relationship and kept pointing them to the love, grace and forgiveness of Jesus. Over time and several sessions he helped each of them admit way they had wrongly responded to God and each other and that all of that came out of their hearts. Both Jack and Sally began to see their great need for Jesus and the gospel become to them not just a word but the lifeblood of their lives.

As weeks and months went by changes started taking place. Jack started seeing himself more as a servant, started staying home more, being responsible at work, had fewer fits of rage and when he did get angry was more willing to come back and admit it and ask forgiveness. Sally began to see how she had made an idol of Jack and became less critical of him meeting that standard of perfection and learned to encourage and serve Ted.

Both of them became more and more aware of the depth of their sin and the sufficiency of Jesus to save and change them. They got connected into church community. Started serving. And before long people started looking to their marriage as a good example of a Godly marriage and opportunities arose where they could teach others about God’s grace and the transformation he brings.

Today’s text is about transformation, how the gospel changes us as people. We’re going to work through the passage in detail but I thought I’d sort of set the stage today with a real life story of transformation which highlights not only the importance of transformation but the extremely practical and relevant power that the grace of the gospel brings.

So let me read the text and pray over it. Titus 2:11-14 (read text and pray over it).

I. The School Which Is Grace

Our first main point for this morning is “The School Which Is Grace.” Verse 11 says the “grace of God has appeared” and verse 13 says it is “training us.” Based on this passage an old preacher named Canon Aitken, not Clay Aiken, Canon Aitken, wrote a book in 1880 titled “The School of Grace.” He was an Oxford graduate, a smart guy. But like anyone who really knows something what really matters, knows you don’t just learn it by reading it in a book…you learn it in the school of life, by going through it. Many have jokingly called it the “school of hard knocks.”

Aitken’s point in his book “School of Grace” looks at grace as a metaphor. In the metaphor the textbook of grace is the coming of Jesus in his life, death and resurrection. We are the pupils, who in life are being schooled and taught the significance, depth, meaning, relevance and power of this truth as it is increasingly changing us.

Grace in its root definition simply means getting something good you didn’t deserve or even initially ask for. Here in our passage grace is described as having two main functions, two connected gifts if you will. One it brings “A Message For All Peoples” and two it is “A Training For Us Christians.”

A. A Message For All Peoples (v.11)

Let’s look at the first at the “Message For All Peoples.” Verse 11 says the “grace of God has appeared” and that what it has done is brought “salvation for all people.” Now this assumes two things.

One, it assumes people need saving. It assumes there is a universal problem among all people, that there is something wrong with us and our world and that if something doesn’t change it’s not going to be good. We are broken spiritually, disconnected from our creator. We are broken psychologically, in the way we think and act. We are broken socially, in the way we relate with one another. And we are broken physically, our bodies are dying. We need saving.

The second thing this bringing of salvation for all people assumes is not everyone will be saved. In verse 12 those who embrace this message of salvation are trained by it to renounce and no longer live the way the rest of the world does and in verse 14 says this is a specific group of people called “a people for his own possession.”

So if here when it says this grace message is for all people it’s not talking about universalism, the idea that in the end everyone will be saved what is it talking about? If you look at the two previous verses in verse 9-10 and actually even the who paragraph before this, what you see are a bunch of different type of people: older people, younger people, men, women, slaves and masters.

Thus it seems, what this is getting at is that this message of grace is not only for one type person…it is a message which applies and is held out to all different kinds of people, regardless of age, gender or class. It doesn’t matter if you’re old, young, rich, poor…it doesn’t matter what race or family you come from…it doesn’t matter how good or bad you have been…this message of grace is something everyone needs.

I think it’s our tendency to want to both set up barriers against God for why he should not love us and we definitely set up barriers for others coming up for reasons why God should not love or be gracious toward them.

When we set up barriers for ourselves I think we tend to think we’re either damaged goods or so good that we’re not damaged. When we see ourselves as damaged goods it’s like we see ourselves as piece of fruit that has been eaten through by a worm and lost all of it’s flavor becoming dry and brown inside to the point where it is no longer edible and must be thrown away.

When we see ourselves as not damaged at all, we don’t think we really need grace and we’ve deceived ourselves into thinking that we are fine and have done a good enough job on our own. It’s like thinking you can become a good tasty piece of fruit without ever being on a tree and receiving sun and water. It simply not true. We need the source. We need the grace of God.

Then there’s when we tend to think of others as being beyond help. Sometimes it’s out of our anger, bitterness and resentment against a particular person who has hurt us or sometimes it’s just making a stereotype or generalization based on what we see from the outside…what we do is we look at them and think there’s no way in the world this person could ever change. This verse cuts through all that and says no. No one is beyond the grace of God.

I’ll tell you today, it doesn’t matter how bad or ugly things have got…it doesn’t matter how different and unlike everyone else you think you are…or even how fine basically good you think you are…you need God’s grace in your life and he offers it to you. Sometimes it’s been said the gospel is the great equalizer because under it we are all in the same condition when it comes down to it. We are all in need no matter who we are, where we are, or what we’ve come from.

I’ll ask this simple question and then we’ll move on. Do you see yourself as someone who needs grace? Do you see others as people who need grace? Is that the lens through which you see the world? Do you see yourself as beyond grace either because you think you’re good enough or too damaged? Do you look at others and think there’s no hope for them? Or do you see all in need of God’s grace?

May God help us to see ourselves and the whole world as a people in need of the grace of the gospel. Well let’s move on and see the second function of grace and that is how it is a “Training For Us Christians.”

B. A Training For Us Christians (v.12)

Verse 12 carries the subject of the message of grace and says that it trains “us” to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.” Okay a few things here.

First notice it’s a training. How does training work? I’ve got a buddy right now who is training for a triathlon, so every week he is spending time practicing swimming, riding a bike and running and trying to cut down his time in each area. The very nature of training recognizes that it takes time and a lot of effort to be able to become better. It distinctly recognizes that it doesn’t happen overnight but over a gradual continued process and commitment.

That’s huge. Far too often it seems to me that Christians get this idea that the gospel is merely the front door to get in and then once you embrace it and walk through the door then you’re all good, don’t need the gospel anymore and you’re better than everyone else now because of it. This verse actually has the opposite idea, that once you embrace the gospel then the real work begins. It’s then that you enter into a lifelong season of training and the gospel of grace becomes the chief training tool. It’s not just the front door it’s also the house we live in.

Now check something out with me. There is a subtle and significant shift that happens in verse 12. I basically argued that verse 11 is referring to a message of salvation that is relevant to and is to be presented to all peoples. If that’s true, then verse 11 is talking to non-Christians. Those who have yet to believe and embrace the grace of God provided for in Jesus.

But look what happens in verse 12. The second word is “us.” The grace trains “us.” So who is the us? There is an assumption here that grace only trains those who have embraced grace. Grace doesn’t teach or train anyone who doesn’t think they need it or those who don’t want it. It only trains those who say yes, I need God’s grace. So then, in verse 12 we’re talking about Christians, those who have entered into a lifelong process of being trained by God’s grace.

Okay so two things about that. One, it is a lifelong process. I get that because verse 12 says it is “in the present age.” See that? Present age, means this period of time in the plane of human history which extends to the next age, which is when Jesus comes again and everything changes. We’ll talk about that in couple minutes. But for now, what is important is we recognize that we’re talking a lifelong teaching and training, a lifelong learning how to be dependent upon God to change us.

Now the second thing. This is big. Remember, what is grace? Is it something we do? No. It is something God does. Grace is purely an undeserved gift. This week I had a meeting with a friend who was considering becoming a Christian. We talked for a long time. When it came down to it this is what he said…he said, “I’m afraid if I become a Christian I won’t be able to do it all. I’m afraid that a few weeks down the road I’ll just flip flop and go back to all my old ways of thinking and living. There is so much that needs to change in my life I just don’t think I can do it all.”

This is what I told him. I said, “Look man, I’ll be really honest with you. If you think you won’t be able to do it, you’re right you won’t. You’re not going to be able to. But that’s not the message of the gospel. The good news of the gospel of grace is that God say I will do it for you. You’re confidence has to be that God will not only save you but keep you. He’s not calling you to take on all this stuff by yourself, he’s only calling you to look to him and let him take it on for you.”

Tears began to stream down my friend’s face and he said, “That’s it. I’ve been putting all of this on me…my marriage, my beliefs, my whole life…all of it and I just can’t do it, I can’t save myself. I give up. I just want God to take the load.” We were outside, up at Big Bear lake on at a mountain peak we had hiked to and right there in the dirt we got down on our knees and my friend just wept and gave his life to Jesus.

You see, too often we Christians tend to think Jesus saves us but we sanctify ourselves. It’s simply not true. The same grace which saves us is the same grace which keeps us and continually changes us. You see we’ve got this list of things: ungodliness, worldly passions, self-controlled, upright and godly lives. Two negative things we renounce and three positive things we live in..things we learn to say “no” to and things we learn to say “yes” to. But here’s the qeustion, how do you think change in each of those areas happen? How do you think we are able to say no and say yes? How do we change? By our own efforts?

What’s the text say? It’s says it happens by grace training us. And what’s grace? Our effort and work? No. God’s. His person and his work…his gift to us. So it’s actually the opposite. The way we increasingly renounce ungodliness and worldly passion and live self-controlled, upright and godly lives is by grace training us that we can’t do it but Jesus did it for us and the more we look to him and trust him the more we will become godly, have a passion for him, exercising self-control and uprightness.

That’s how grace works. It teaches and trains us not to depend on ourselves and our own efforts but to look to God and the gift of salvation he has given in Jesus.

So let me ask you a question, actually a couple questions. Do you know some things in your heart and life which need to change? Some areas of ungodliness or worldly passion? Basically stuff you know is wrong? How are you trying to change? Are you trying to muster up your own strength, energy and effort to make it happen or are you looking to the grace of God in Christ and asking him to change you and change these things about your life? Be trained by grace, not your own efforts.

Well, I’ve sort of been dancing around Jesus, referring to his person and his work but not really getting into it. I’ve just sort of been holding back because verse 13-14 give this phenomenal account and description of who he is and what he has done.

The structure of this whole chapter actually works backward from what we’d normally see. Usually we get theology then ethics, meaning usually we see a doctrine of who Jesus is and what he has done and then what follows is how we should live in light of that. But in Titus, it’s backward. It’s starts out with how we should live and then says here’s why.

So let’s move on to our second main point for today, “The Savior Who is Grace.”

II. The Savior Who Is Grace

Really in verse 11, when it says “the grace of God” that’s a summary statement for verse 13-14 which describe how God has given grace. There are six statements here and they’re all about the greatness of Jesus. I’m just going to move right through them. Each are powerful, rich aspects of the gospel.

A. His Deity (v.13)

First, “His Diety.” Verse 13 sets things up by declaring who we’re talking about. It’s the second half, “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is one of the clearest and unmistakable declarations of the Bible which say Jesus is God.

There’s really no way around it. Some have tried to do interpretive gymnastics on this phrase but you just can’t get away from it, you can’t separate Jesus from being called God here. There’s no “the” before Savior, all the Church Fathers interpreted it that way, nowhere in the Bible does it talk about the appearing of just God, it’s always Jesus, the context here is clearly all focused on Jesus, and on top of it this is a straight rip off title of how the Romans would refer to the emperor who they considered deity. So this verse undeniably announces that Jesus is God.

That’s a big deal. Especially for us. There have been times in history when people have had such a lofty and high view of Jesus that they over-spiritualized him and could not conceive of him being a real normal human being. We don’t have that problem in our day and age. Today, the most popular idea about Jesus is that he was a good teacher. Most have a real hard time believing he was actually God, the creator and ruler of the world. But that’s exactly what the Bible unanimously declares.

We’ll see why it’s important for our Jesus to be God as we look at these other five aspects of the gospel.

B. His Appearings (v.11,13)

So the second thing here, “His Appearings.” There’s two places here which refer to his appearings. One is in verse 11 where it says the grace of God “appeared” and the second is in verse 13 when it says we are waiting for “the appearing” of Jesus. So what we’ve got are references to two different comings of Jesus. There’s a first coming and a second coming.

The first coming is his incarnation. That’s the verse 11 appearing. God’s grace appeared when he incarnated by showing up as a little baby in the town of Bethlehem. As John 1:14 says, when Jesus was born God had become flesh and dwelt among us. That was a epoch moment on the stage of human history, a big event…”the grace of God appeared” and men and women looked on him with their eyes at this babe who was called “Immanuel” which means God with us. Even Jesus name “Jesus” means “God saves.”

Then the second coming, the second appearing. This is the one that hasn’t happened yet. You see in the first coming, Jesus was born, grew to be about 30 years old and then began teaching and preaching for three years until the point when he willingly and intentionally gave up his life on the cross. Three days later he rose again, interacted with people for 40 days and then ascended into heaven with a promise to return once the gospel has been fully declared throughout the world.

His first coming is called the “incarnation”, his second coming is called the “glorification.” The reason is because when he comes it will be in great glory. You get a hint of that here, “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.” You see in his first coming, Jesus came to provide grace…so he comes in humility as a lowly human, poor, looked down upon, and shielding the full array of his divinity.

In Jesus’ second coming, he comes in glory where he will not hide or veil the full display of his divine nature. In Matthew 24 he says he will come with all the angels of heaven, they’ll be a loud trumpet call, lightening and the book of Revelation says he’s come on a white horse, with a sword, a golden sash around his chest, and a tattoo on his thigh which says “king of kings and lord of lords!” His second coming will be glorious. And I can’t wait.

For us now we live between these two appearings, the time between the time. Here’s the cool thing. How both these comings function in our lives. Both of them are what provide the motive for godly living now on this side of embracing Jesus as our savior. We look both backward and we look forward.

This word “appearing” is an interesting word. It’s the Greek word “epiphaneia” where we get the English word “epiphany.” It’s a word that would be used to describe the dawn or daybreak when the sun first rises on the horizon.

It’s been said that we as Christians, each day we look out the western window of our house and see the sun setting, looking backward in time when darkness closed in upon Jesus crucified on the cross for our sin…then we move to the other side of the house and we look out the eastern window and see the light beginning to rise as the herald of a brighter and better day that is coming.

It’s out of those two twin truths, those two historical events we live in under the house of grace. Looking backward for healing and looking forward for hope.

C. His Redemption (v.14)

Well, the next thing here is redemption, “His Redemption.” Verse 14 says Jesus “gave himself”. That’s a reference to the cross, he gave himself “to redeem us from all lawlessness.” Now redemption could mean buying back a friend or family member from a slave master or if you were a Jew it would immediately call to mind God’s retrieving his people from Pharaoh in the great Exodus out of Egypt.

There’s a little story I’ve told before which I think illustrates the concept of redemption well. Basically, there’s a young boy who lived near a seaport. One day he decided to make for himself a little, scale size sailboat. He worked on it for weeks, carving the wood, setting the sails, and painting it. It was a beautiful little sailboat he built. Once it was finished he couldn’t wait to test it out, so he took it down to the water and set it in. Right away, he was amazed at how well it floated and sat just perfectly in the water. But then a big gust of wind came and carried off the little sailboat far beyond his reach. He tried to track it and follow it hoping the wind would change and it would come back to him. But it didn’t and the young boy left the seaport heartbroken. He checked everyday for weeks hoping it had washed up on shore but he never found the boat.

Months later, he happened to be in one of the local shops there sitting on the shelf was his boat. He went to the clerk and tried to explain how it was his boat, how he had made it and lost it. But the clerk simply said, “I’m sorry, if you want that boat you’re going to have to buy it.” But the price was so high. He went home and emptied out all of his savings, every penny he had and went back to the store, gave the lady the money and purchased his boat. He took the boat up in his hands and said these word to the little boat, “Little boat, you are twice mine. You are mine because I made you and now you are mind because I bought you.”

I love that story because it’s exactly what God has done for us in Jesus in redeeming us. He is our maker. We have been lost, carried away by the winds of our own lawlessness, just doing whatever we want. And God in his great grace and mercy spent every dime he had by giving up his Son on the cross so he might purchase us back. Now, as Christians, we are twice his because he made us and because he purchased us. That’s redemption.

Some of you have yet to experience the power of redemption. You know God is your Maker but you have yet to really know him as your Redeemer. Know that at great cost to himself he purchased you with his blood so that you might be redeemed and restored. He loves you and makes all things new as we turn to him and trust him.

D. His Purification (v.14)

Well, three more quick ones here. “His Purification.” Verse 14 says he came to “purify” us “for himself.” What this gets at is how sin has stained us. Like a pig covered in mud we have dirtied ourselves by not serving God and instead serving ourselves in all kinds of sinful attitudes and actions. If we could see a picture of ourselves and how sin effects us, we would see ourselves covered and marred in all kinds of ugliness that we would hardly even be distinguishable as human beings we’d be so ugly, dirty and deformed.

What Jesus does for us is clean us up. Isaiah 1:18 says the promise of the gospel is “though our sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Revelation 7:14 says we get “washed white” by the “blood of the lamb.” Jesus purifies us and makes u sclaean. He cleans out the stains and sorrows of the past and makes us new. Jesus increasingly weeds out of impurities and makes us more and more like himself. Jesus increasingly weeds out impurities and makes us more and more like himself. Totally pure and holy and righteous and true.

E. His People (v.14)

Next is “His People.” This one is from the next phrase in verse 14 where it speaks of his goal to make us “a people for his own possession.” Here’s the thing, this phrase is like a well known ad campaign that everyone knows. Like the old “Just for the taste of it, Diet Coke!”

Everyone would have known this phrase, “a people for his own possession.” They would have known it because Jews were really proud of it and Greco-Romans thought they were weird because of it. Here’s where it comes from. In Exodus 19:5 God says, “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples.” The idea is God wants to have a special people for himself which will be His treasured possession. So it’s about God not about you being for yourself, it’s about him.

Has anyone done that? No. So everyone has blown it. Scripture teaches us and we know it that we have all turned away and worshipped and served ourselves instead of God. None of us has listened and obeyed all the time and been okay with everything being about him instead of ourselves. So we’re not his people.

Actually a side note, I’ll go a step further. It seems increasingly popular today to talk about us all being made in the image of God and being his children. Usually it’s brought up when people are trying to emphasize how loving God is and thinking because he is loving he would never punish or judge his creation or his children with anything like sending them to hell.

But here’s the thing. We’ve taken a knife to that image. It’s as if God, our great sculptor and creator made this beautiful image out of clay and we went up to that newly formed piece of art and just slashed it up with a knife. And we’re not his children. Jesus himself says, “You are not o fyour father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires (Jn 8:44).” We are Satan’s children, not God’s.

So bring it back. Have we kept the covenant in order to be God’s treasured possession? No. Instead we vandalized the image and taken on a different father. But what does God do in Jesus? He redeems us, buys us back and then purifies us, cleaning up the image and restoring it to it’s original condition. The result is he adopts us in and makes us into a people for his own possession. And this time, how are we able to be that people? By listening and obeying? No. By the grace of Jesus who listened and obeyed perfectly for us.

Do you see how beautiful the gospel is? It’s just amazing what God does in and for us. The images gets restored. We get adopted back into the family. And we get to be God’s treasure. That’s good.

F. His Works (v.14)

The natural result is the next point, “His Works.” I mean you can guess this one. When you really realize how much God has done for us in Jesus what do you think automatically starts to happen in you? The end of verse 14, you become “zealous for good works.’

And what are good works? They are deeds that point to the goodness of Jesus. They’re not us earning or doing anything but merely works which show off the work of the savior in us. We become zealous for that. “Zealous” is a word of passion.

Earlier verse 12 says we trade away worldly passion. Zeal is worldly passion’s counterpart. It’s a passion for the glory of God. It’s where we become excited for others coming to see how great and how good God is.

Do you have a passion for God? If mot, that’s not something you can conjure up. If passion is an upward motion of praise and delight, then the source of it is the depth of God’s grace. So if you don’t have passion the answer is to dig downward into the rich mine of the gospel and the more you come to know, understand and love it the more your passion will increase.

Conclusion

Okay, let’s conclude. This whole sermon, this whole text hinges on change. The whole point is that Jesus changes us. When you believe in the gospel it transforms your life. Not just once but ongoingly. This what the whole thing is about, the grace of God has come and it is training or changing us because of Jesus who died to redeem and purify us.

So here’s the real question. Is Jesus changing you? Are you a different person than you were last year? Do you love God more? Is he changing and transforming you? What God wants to do in each of your lives is to make you into a new and better you, the 2.0 version.

We’re going to receive the Lord’s Supper, this special means of grace God has provided wherein we respond to God’s Word of the gospel and take in Jesus body, his perfect life in the bread and his blood, his perfect death in the wine. Let me just say this. Apart from Jesus, real change, not just grey hairs and more wrinkles or new hobbies and more toys…I mean real change, change of your heart and life will not happen apart from Jesus.

Some of you know right away what needs to change in your life. When you come, come and ask Jesus to change you.

Some of you don’t know what needs to change because you just can’t see it. When you come, come and ask Jesus to help you see what needs to change.

Most of all, for all of us…know the gospel, don’t forget it, it’s good news. You can’t change yourself. But Jesus can change you and transform you and do what you could never do. Jesus lived, Jesus died and Jesus rose for our sin. So let’s look to him and trust him for our every need.

Let’s pray.