Sermon: What is a Presbyterian? (Titus 1:5)

What is a Presbyterian? Sunday, July 13th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:5

Prayer

Father, we thank you for this letter of the Apostle Paul to Titus, through which we are taught the truths necessary for our salvation, and the kind of life we must live if we would see the kingdom of heaven. We ask for your blessing now as we hear this word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

After the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, it says in Acts 1:3, he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

• Now just as every kingdom has a king, so also every kingdom has some form of government. We call a government a monarchy when there is one supreme ruler at the top. And in God’s kingdom, Jesus is that monarch who is called King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16). That is to say, Jesus is that monarch from which all other lesser monarchs and lords, receive some delegated power to govern.
  • Paul puts it this way in Romans 13:1-2, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
• Now just as Christ rules as King in the civil realmthrough various lesser magistrates, so also does he rule in the church.
  • And we said in our first sermon on Titus that the primary purpose of this letter is to teach us how Jesus wants the church (which is his garden and vineyard) to be governed and cared for, and by whom.
  • Moreover, we read in Ephesians 4:11, that after those 40 days of speaking about the kingdom with his disciples, He ascended to heaven and gave gifts to man.
  • What were those gifts? It says, And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Paul says likewise in 1 Corinthians 12:28, And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
  • Notice that of all the gifts Jesus could have given at his heavenly coronation ceremony, he thought that what we most needed was church officers. And if that surprises you, just imagine a church without the apostles, the prophets, and the four evangelists. Imagine you have no New Testament scriptures and no pastors or teachers to explain those writings you do not have. It turns out that without church officers, there is no church.
    • Paul puts it this way in Romans 10:13-14, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
    • So the gifts that King Jesus gives at his ascension are people. And these people, full of the Holy Spirit, preach and write and evangelize and start churches, and then they appoint successors to care for those churches after they die. And this is what the book of Titus is all about.It is about giving us the particulars, the details,