Sermon: How To Govern The Church (Titus 1:1-5)

How To Govern The Church Sunday, June 22nd, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:1–5

Prayer

Father, we thank you for manifesting your Word through preaching, and as we now hear Your Word proclaimed, we ask that you would subdue us by Your sweet mercy, rule us by your awesome power, and teach us by Your Holy Spirit of Truth, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

If you have ever tried to plant a garden, you know that it is not enough to just toss some seed in the soil and then come back three months later to a beautiful and abundant harvest. Ever since Adam’s sin in God’s garden, our lot has been that of Genesis 3:17-18 where God says to man, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.”

• Because of our sin, fruit no longer comes easily. This is true in the natural world, and it is also true in the supernatural world.
  • In proof of this consider Galatians 5:22-23, where Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
    • Now ask yourself, does that supernatural fruit come easily and without effort? Do you find it easy to be gentle with obstinate and dishonest people? Do you find it easy to be joyful when your car breaks down, or when a steady stream of medical bills continue to arrive in the mail? Do you find it easy to be patient when you have a migraine, and a fussy baby, and you still have to cook dinner for your ungrateful husband?
    • We all know the answer is No, fruit of the spirit does not come easy. And Paul himself acknowledges this by saying in the very next verse (vs. 24), “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
    • That is to say, if you are the hard ground where you want a fruitful garden to grow, you have to constantly tend the soil of your heart by crucifying selfish and sinful desires. You have to pull up bad habits at the root. You have to mow down and burn the thorns and the thistles, and only after that soil has been prepared are you ready in the words of James 1:21 to, “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”
    • Jesus himself speak of the Word preached as seed that falls into many different kinds of soil. But it is only in the soil that has been made ready and fertile by grace, that any true and lasting fruit comes forth.
• Now this morning we are beginning Paul’s letter to Titus. And the whole purpose of this letter is to instruct the church in how she can become a fruitful and pleasant garden for God.
  • The Apostle Paul had worked hard to plant the church on the Island of Crete, but he did not have time to ordain and test elders, organize the leadership, and give the church the protection and teaching she would need to become a healthy garden for years to come.
  • And therefore, he leaves behind his coworker Titus, “to set in order the things that are wanting (lacking) and ordain elders in every city.”
  • So just as after you prepare the soil and plant the seed, you still need to water and tend, guard and keep your garden from birds and pests, weeds and disease, so also it is in the church. And in God’s Garden elders are His appointed gardeners.
    • Yes, every individual Christian is responsible to tend and keep his own soul, but because we are often irresponsible and inexperienced, God commands that certain qualified men, keep watch, oversee, and protect His garden.
    • And so this letter from Paul to Titus, which is ultimately a letter from Christ to His church, are detailed instructions in how the church is to be governed.
    • And because many people do not like to be governed, Paul has written to Titus in the form of an open letter. So that as Titus is making changes, rebuking heretics, installing qualified pastors, and telling everyone else in the church how they must live in accord with Christ, they all can see and hear that Titus is not just making things up on the fly. Titus is not being legalistic or arbitrary in what he commands, he is simply commanding what God has commanded.
• And so as we study this letter in the months to come, we are all going to receive some very pointed and at times uncomfortably specific instructions. And it will be good for us!
  • This letter to Titus is one