Titus is a marvelously concise book on the distinctions that occur within ministry, whether formal or informal. There are other books like 1 and 2 Timothy, 1 and 2 Corinthians that go into much more detail, but Titus nails things down rather concisely. So for detail we would have preached through 1 and 2 Timothy. To get through the sermon series quickly (which is what I wanted to do), I decided to go through the book of Titus.

The first four verses give a marvelously concise summary of the foundations of ministry for any office. Then verse 5 showed that having Teaching Elder Titus was not enough. Paul uses a word for broken limbs, and then says that ruling elders would be needed if the spiritual limbs of the church would be mended. The preaching ministry was not enough. The church also needed a household and an individual level ministry. And we saw that Christ taught both types. He spoke to the huge crowds, and He ministered to the individuals. Now He was preparing preachers in these disciples, but before the disciples ever got to speak to a large crowd, they were apprenticed as elders. They were engaged in household level ministry, and it was an incredibly effective ministry. So we looked at the importance of the order of ruling elder, and showed that ruling elders and teaching elders, though quite different orders, are in the same office of elder and have parity (in other words, an equality) of authority in any of the courts of the church when it comes to vote. So there are only two offices: elder and deacon. But within the office of elder, in both the Old and the New Testaments, there were two orders. And we looked at a number of other differences in order to highlight the unique importance of the ruling elder position. In many churches the ruling elder role has been eroded to something quite different.

Verses 5-9 dealt with the qualifications of ruling elder, verses 10-16 deal with the work of the ruling elder. But now in chapter 2 Paul makes a transition and talks about the distinctive work of Teaching Elder Titus. Now we have seen that it was already implied in chapter 1 because Titus is given the responsibility to oversee the ministries and to teach concerning them and to make sure that the qualifications are met, etc. But now that Paul has just finished talking about the work of the ruling elder, in chapter 2:1 he says, But as for you and then he proceeds to show what Titus' work will be.

So what is the work of a teaching elder? Even though there are additional Teaching Elder responsibilities that are mentioned in other books of the Bible, everything mentioned there can still be subsumed under these three categories: 1) first, a teaching ministry to the whole church and 2) second, a work of overseeing the various ministries of the whole church, and then 3) third, representing Presbytery and relating to Presbytery. Everything can be subsumed under those three categories.

Teaching Elders must publicly teach the Word

The first one is the public ministry of the Word. And you can see that throughout chapter 2 and 3. But let's begin by looking at Paul's first admonition. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. The word speak, is laleo, and it is based on the Greek word lalo, which means to be talkative. If you are talkative, your presence is characterized by speech, right? Laleo itself means to speak, to speak forth, to proclaim. (NAS Greek). We don't know if Titus was as shy as Timothy was, but apparently he needs to be commanded to speak. In the previous chapter there were some people who were told to be quiet. Their mouths must be stopped. But a minister must speak the Word. He may not close his mouth. His whole ministry is characterized by speech.

I don't know why God has chosen to use the foolishness of preaching to advance His cause, but Reformed people have always emphasized preaching or teaching more than any other medium of communication that is out there. God has simply chosen to work far more profoundly through (what Scripture calls) the foolishness of preaching than through any other medium of communication. And you can see it's impact in history, especially during times of revival. At the time of the First Great Awakening in America, just prior to the War of Independence, there was plenty of Biblical literature that was available to read, but the powerful moving of God's Holy Spirit back then seemed to explode and move upon the people not so much when theological and devotional books were read, but primarily when the Word of God was being preached by such preachers as George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent, Samuel Davies, Jonathan Edwards, David Brainard, Eleazar Wheelock and others. It was amazing to see the effects that the foolishness of preaching had upon the crowds. The spoken ministry is such an important ministry in God's plan that it is imperative throughout time. It doesn't matter how much technology is developed; it doesn't matter how emotionally moving video clips and drama may be; it doesn't matter how greatly developed virtual reality becomes, according to Scripture nothing will replace the preaching of the Word. So the first thing Titus is commanded to do is to speak and to keep on speaking. Other synonyms that are used to characterize his ministry are exhort (verses 6, 9 and 15), doctrine (verses 1,7,10), sound speech (verse 8). Verse 15 says, Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Chapter 3 says, Remind (that's in verse 1), constantly affirm (that's in verse 8). So I think it is clear that a Teaching elder is called to teach.

And his teaching is not restricted to what a 501(c)(3) organization can do. It's not restricted to "happy verses." It's not restricted to light teaching that anyone can follow. What are some of the things that Paul commands Titus to teach? Well, it's pretty comprhensive. First, this chapter commands the teaching of both sound doctrine as well as things which are proper for sound doctrine. Verse 1 says, But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. And later he commands that sound doctrine. But Commentaries point out that verse 1 is a call for two things: 1) not just sound doctrine but 2) also for the proper application of sound doctrine to Christian living. Without application, there is no preaching, and yet it is the application that gets us ministers into such hot water. But Paul wants it applied. And in the following verses he shows us how he wants it applied.

Some of these practical, applicable things which should flow from doctrine include the holy lives that the old men are to live (verse 2), the things that the older women should be involved in (verse 3), the things that young women and young men should learn (verses 4-8). Titus is to get personal in his preaching with employees and employers (verses 9-10). The next verses indicate that he is to teach on grace and law and eschatology and atonement and good works (verses. 11-15). Here comes a controversial one: In chapter 3 Paul says, Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities In some churches you dare not address the issue of politics. But it is a subject commanded in preaching.

Now here's the point: doctrine must be made practical. It's not enough to preach on the Trinity. Paul wants us to answer the "so-what?" This whole chapter is interested in the "so what?" — how do we live as Christians? That's the subject of his preaching. And if a preacher is just giving abstract theology without application he is not doing his job. Both doctrine and the proper things that flow from doctrine (the logical implications if you will) need to be present.

And some people scratch their heads at that. They've read systematic theologies, and it doesn't seem very practical to them. But that's the genius of the Puritans and the Reconstructionists of today. They gave the "so what?" For example, what are the implications of the fact that God is three Persons and not just one Person? It affects many things. For example, it affects our view of love. If the Unitarians are right, and there are not three Persons in the Godhead but only one, it would completely change the Christian conception of love. And the reason is that long before there were any creatures for God to love, God still was love. Now consider this: if He was a Unitarian type God, how would that love be manifested? There wouldn't be anybody out there to love. God's love could only be a self-love (in other words, a selfish love). But the Orthodox doctrine that God is one God in three Persons means that Father loved Son and Spirit, and Spirit loved Father and Son, and Son loved Spirit and Father. It was always an outgoing, self-giving love. And that becomes the model for our love: not selfish love, but agape love. Well, immediately that corrects faulty views of counseling. There are many counselors out there who insist that before people can love others they need to learn how to love themselves. They are modeling a Unitarian view of love. And Paul says, "That's not the problem folks! The problem is that people love themselves too much." Paul says in Ephesians 5:29, For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. And you might think, "But what about suicide? Doesn't that mean that people hate themselves?" Actually, most suicides come from people who are so concerned about their own pain, shame or guilt that they selfishly avoid their responsibilities and leave their loved ones in the lurch so that they can stop feeling bad. It is the ultimate selfishness. I don't need to go further down that rabbit trail. I just use it as an illustration that doctrine is practical. And there are profound ramifications of the doctrine of the Trinity to family, church and even to social policy. If you read Rushdoony's book, The Foundations of Social Order, you will discover how profoundly Western Civilization was transformed by the doctrines of the Trinity and Christology. Anybody who thinks that doctrine is boring and irrelevant has been reading the wrong books. In chapter 3:9 Paul says, These things are good and profitable to men. They are profitable. They are practical. Take a look at chapter 2:9-10. He's exhorting bondservants on how they should live. Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that [and notice the connection of these good works to doctrine in this next phrase: "that"] they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Our good works beautify and show forth the character of our doctrine, and it does so universally — in all things. Doctrine is practical if it is taught well.

And actually, this is a way by which the ministry of the Teaching Elders that you vote for in the future can be tested. Is their doctrine Biblical? and secondly, is their doctrine practical? Does the doctrine affect how employees relate to their employers? Does it affect how a husband and wife relate to each other? Does it affect our social relationships in the world? If not, the teaching elder has not plumbed the depths of that doctrine yet. Lord willing, next Sunday we will be looking at the informal leadership of 2:1-10. But Titus' teaching ministry needs to not only inform that leadership, but it needs to be practical enough to make a difference on how women love their husbands and children (verse 4), how to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed (verse 5). Paul could care less about the word of Marxism that is taught in so many mainline churches, or the word of psychology. What he insists upon is that people's lives be conformed to the Word of God. And if there is no connection from pulpit to life, the Word of God is blasphemed. Doctrine was intended to be lived out, or it is blasphemed. And Teaching Elders who don't realize this are shaming their profession. They are making the profession of Teaching Elder irrelevant, or at best, merely entertaining.

Now there are some things that should not be taught. Chapter 3:9 says, But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. The term "strivings about the law" is literally battles of lawyers. And he's not talking about civil lawyers. It was the Jewish lawyers who twisted Biblical law and added man's traditions. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he used almost exactly the same language as here, but then went on to clarify that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. And so he was taking on Talmudic laws, traditions and other additions to the Bible. The moment preachers start adding legalistic rules to the Bible — don't drink, don't smoke, don't dance, don't go to movies, don't ad infinitum, they are violating Paul's admonition. We are not authorized to preach opinions or legalistic additions.

The responsibility to publicly teach is a very high responsibility. And those who teach will be judged by a very severe standard by the Lord because they are changing people's lives by their doctrine. It is unavoidable. That's why James 3:1 says, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. It makes me tremble when I prepare my sermons knowing the judgment that I will enter into if I handle the Word in an improper way. Now because ruling elders do teach some, they too are held to a high standard in chapter 1. But because the ministry of a teaching elder is so characterized by teaching, both public and private, they are held to an even higher standard. So that is the first ministry of a teaching elder, and any teaching elders that we call to Dominion need to be capable of a high caliber of teaching.

Teaching Elders must oversee the ministries of the church without micromanaging

The second ministry that our Book of Church Order gives to a Teaching Elder is organizational. He oversees all of the ministries of the church on a day-to-day basis. He's kind of the glue that keeps these ministries going. Now it is true that a full time paid ruling elder could do at least some of what Titus does in this book, but our Book of church Order outlines 25 ministries that are unique to the Teaching Elder.¹ And some of those unique ministries are listed here. Not all of them, but enough to give you a good feel for the division of labor. For example, Titus doesn't mention the sacraments, though some people believe that what is symbolized by baptism is mentioned in 3:5. But the reason not everything is mentioned in this book is that some of the ministries are already clearly laid out in 1 and 2 Timothy and in 1 and 2 Corinthians. And for that matter, they were already anticipated in the Old Testament. I need to remind you that Titus corresponds to the role of the Old Testament Levite within the gates, and the ruling elders of chapter 1 correspond to the role of the Old Testament tribal elders. And actually, this past Thursday I was just reading how our Book of Church Order was making that same Old Testament connection. There was always a division of labor between them. Now if you want a verse that really stumps unbelieving Jews, have them read Isaiah 66:21 where God says that in the New Covenant period He will make Gentiles to be Levites before Him. The Jewish commentaries stumble all over themselves on that one: how could a Levite be a Gentile? That's a tribal distinction. But apparently in the New Testament God prophesied that the tribal distinctions would be removed, but the function of the Levite continues into the New Testament. And if you once buy into that, everything else falls into place. That's why Jesus twice spoke of scribes within the church. Those Levitical scribes correspond to Teaching Elders. I think it has been a disaster in some PCA churches when the roles of Teaching Elders and Ruling Elders have been confused or have not been clearly spelled out. They are one office, but two orders.

I'm not going to bore you with all of the 25 ministries that our Book of Church Order says are unique to ministers. Instead, I want to quickly give some hints of the ministries that Teaching Elder Titus helped to organize. We already saw in chapter 1:5 that Titus was responsible to help the church to select elders. Verses 6-9 indicate that he was responsible to train them and make sure that they met Biblical qualifications. Verses 10-16 show that Titus was responsible to organize and to oversee the work of the ruling elders.

In chapter 2 Paul wants Titus to organize and oversee the ministry of the older men and the ministry of the older (or mature) women in the congregation. We will be looking at these informal ministries next week. But for now, just notice that it is Titus's responsibility to make sure (for example) that the informal ministry of the mature men in verse 2 meets certain standards. He wants them to be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. He doesn't want just any person put into informal leadership. There's qualifications even for non-officers who head up ministries. And we'll look at those next week.

Verses 3-8 set out the qualifications for those who aspire to be women involved in one-on-one discipleship. And Titus shows leadership there as well. Then in verses 6-8, Titus was to have a special relationship of discipling all the young men. It was a men's ministry if you will. And I find it interesting that even though he organized the mature women in their mentoring of young women, he didn't do the mentoring or discipleship of the younger women himself, like he is doing of the men. That was a one-on-one relationship of woman to woman. But Titus does mentor the young men, and he still oversees the rest of the ministries on a day to day basis.

Now one thing that you may be curious about is how Titus' oversight matches with the elders' oversight as a session. Remember that we saw that they too are bishops or overseers. And the elders not only oversee the ten families assigned to them individually, they jointly oversee the church as a whole. That's not really discussed here, but it's hinted at. And I want to give you a bit of a feel for how the relationship between the two would work out. We need to distinguish what officers do as individuals (in the BCO it is "severally") and what they do as a group (the BCO speaks of this as "jointly"). Of all the methods I have seen PCA churches use, I think the one by Bob Biehl called Masterplanning is the closest to the Biblical ideal. I was taught this by the guy that heads up Coral Ridge Ministries Evangelism & Outreach department. It's used by Christ Community and by many large churches, both Reformed and non-Reformed. And I'll try to get a copy for the library so that anyone can look at it.

But there are a number of things that I like about this approach. For one thing, it ensures that neither the pastor nor the session micromanages those who head up various ministries, including the ministries headed up by elders. But at the same time it ensures that both pastor and session are constantly informed on what is happening within the church. It's the best flow of communication that I have seen in any plan. Well, we see the same pattern in this book. It's not Titus who does the work of chapter 1:10-16. Nor is it the work of the session as a whole. The kind of work in those verses has to be done by individual elders, not by the session. Likewise, Titus does not do the work of discipleship in chapter 2:1-10, but he needs to know that ministry is happening and what is happening. He needs to be giving oversight.

Another reason that I like Bob Biehl's approach is that it gives both the pastor and every person who heads up a ministry the ability to cast vision for what they are responsible for, and to plan and to strategize for their ministries, and basically to lead. But it also gives the session the final say of approval, not for the strategies, but for the overall plan and budget. And that's as it should be. So there is always accountability in place. Here's what would happen once a session is in place: Once a year we would get together to discuss the next year's plans. But prior to that, I would be responsible to develop a Masterplanning arrow and budget in consultation with lay leaders who are heading up ministries. They will have budget needs as well. They will be doing their own planning which will be included on the overall masterplanning arrow. Once that's done, the session would have a couple weeks to read this plan and mark it up. And prior to the meeting they would mark every point on the plan that I have presented with a green, orange or red mark. Green means they agree, and we wouldn't even discuss those points. Orange means they don't understand it or have cautions, but they want more information. And red would mean they at least tentatively disagree. At the meeting the yellows and reds would be up for discussion. I and any ministry heads that need to be present would have an opportunity to explain why those points were logically integral to the plan as a whole or why they were at least important, or why it would be OK to toss them. But in any case, at the end of the meeting there would be a vote on red items up or down, and then a vote on the plan as a whole, up or down.

So the senior pastor sets the agenda, the vision and ministry initiatives, but the session approves or disapproves or sends back for more refinement. Maybe they might say, "We don't like this part of what you initiated, and here are some areas that need refinement." He would take it back to the drawing board, present a revised plan, and hopefully that one would be approved. So that meeting deals with the overall philosophy, direction, budget and parameters of ministry. But for the most part, tactics and strategies would be left to the discretion of the ministry leaders. So you can see that there is a balance of leadership roles there. I see the same kind of balance at least hinted at in this book. While it doesn't mention the elders voting on anything, it does indicate that informal ministry leaders are given parameters and boundaries within which they must operate, but appear to be given all kinds of liberties as to the strategies and tactics they use within those parameters. It's decentralized ministry. It's one of the most streamlined approaches that I have seen. And it has been effectively used all over the states.

We've only barely touched on three of the 25 ministries that the BCO says teaching elders must oversee and/or do themselves. But hopefully it will give you a bit of a feel for what is involved in oversight of ministry. And if you want the list of 25 items, I do have a handout.

Teaching Elders represent Presbytery to the congregation

But there is one last role that Titus has, and it's an important one. We've already said that when Presbytery meets, elders represent the congregation to the Presbytery. They are members of the church and they are delegates for the congregation.

Titus does the exact reverse. Remember that we said that a teaching elder is a member, not of the congregation, but of the Presbytery. It follows the pattern of the Levites in the Old Testament. Even though a Levite family may have lived for generation after generation in the tribe of Judah or Dan providing teaching and ministry there, that family would not have been a member of the tribe of Dan. In order to protect the ministry of the Word, God instituted a check and balance. He scattered the tribe of Levi throughout the tribes and had them keep their membership with Levi. It's a beautiful system.

And so we saw in chapter 1:5 that Paul left Titus in Crete. He was an import. For this reason I left you in Crete. He was not a local like the elders would be. And secondly, Titus kept his ties very closely with Paul's ministry team. You can see that not only by this letter, but in Titus 3:12. And we saw that Paul himself reported to Presbytery. Once it became an established church, the church would report directly to Presbytery rather than to this oversight committee, and at that point Titus would have to make regular trips to report on the work. But in this letter, Titus is the spokesman through whom Paul and later Presbytery would communicate to the church. He's the official messenger. And it's interesting that the book of Revelation uses that term "messenger" for pastors when it addresses the seven churches of Asia Minor. John was giving the message through the senior pastor. It says, To the messenger of the church of Ephesus, write... to the messenger of the church of Smyrna write... to the messenger of the church of Pergamos write... etc. And that's exactly what Paul is doing here. Titus is the messenger, the legate, the representative through whom Presbytery will speak.

And so in our Book of Church Order, this is the reason why it is always a Teaching Elder who gives the Presbytery charges and who pronounces a church to be particularized, or who makes the pronouncement that a Teaching Elder has been duly installed. You'll have a Teaching Elder doing that in our church when I and other officers are installed.

And chapter 3:12-13 gives some hints of this relationship of Titus with Presbytery. When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Titus doesn't spend the winter there, but he needs to come and talk with Paul and his team. Titus needed to keep in regular contact with his oversight committee.

Now I'm sure that some of the material was pretty dry for you this morning, but if these kinds of details that Paul lays out in several epistles are not in place, a church will falter. And since we are coming close to having elections, I thought it was important that know how the PCA carries out the role relationship of officers.

This book calls us to value the teaching ministry, the oversight ministry and the connectional ministry that the Teaching elders bring to a church. May we do so. Amen.