St. Titus, Bishop and Confessor
Beloved. Today is the day set aside by the Church to remember St. Titus. He was part of that inner circle around St. Paul whom Paul highly valued and to whom he entrusted with important work in connection with his missionary work. In today’s text, from St. Paul’s letter to St. Titus, we see one of those important tasks: This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town. There was “unfinished” work to be done on the island of Crete and St. Paul entrusted St. Titus with that work. Paul would later send another co-worker to take Titus’ spot so Titus could go to Paul. Paul also had sent Titus to Corinth to help settle the problems in the church there. He had proved himself to be a trusted and respected troubleshooter. Although St. Titus is not mentioned by name in the book of Acts, St. Paul does mention him and his work a number of times in his epistles and, of course, the Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve in the Bible this letter St. Paul wrote Titus. The first few verses of which are today’s epistle. We don’t know much about St. Titus from Scripture. We do know that he was a gentile—a Greek by birth. We do not even know what province or what city he came from or when he was converted—but he was brought to the faith by the Holy Spirit through St. Paul, as Paul here calls him my true son in our common faith. Later, St. Titus went to Dalmatia [Croatia; 2 Ti 4.10]. According to tradition, he became the first Bishop of Crete where he died in 96 AD. When the Moslems were threatening to invade Crete in the 9th century, St. Titus’ head was removed and moved to Venice and placed in St. Mark’s Cathedral there.
Our text is quite interesting because in it we see a distinction between the work of the apostles and that of the pastors and bishops—even those who, like St. Titus, were co-workers with the apostles. Notice what Paul writes in our text about the Apostles—like himself: Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth…which God …promised…and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. To Titus, he writes: This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order… In other words, Jesus built His Church on the foundation of the prophets and apostles—they had that specific task: the prophets of the OT to announce God’s word and the promise of the coming Savior; and the Apostles—called directly by Jesus and eyewitnesses of the resurrection—were to announce that Jesus had come and they testified of His work. And now faithful pastors and bishops, like St. Titus, all down through the ages, proclaim faithfully that word the Holy Spirit had the holy prophets and apostles proclaim and write. So what is it that the Holy Spirit uses to build up and maintain the Church? –The word that He first spoke through the prophets and apostles—and now through the faithful, in particular the pastors whom He has called into that office in the Church to preach that word and give its blessings in the Sacraments. So why were there first apostles and now pastors who faithfully pass on/ proclaim that word the Holy Spirit gave the apostles? –As St. Paul writes in our text [NIV]: for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, that leads to godliness—a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life. –So that we may come to faith and grow in that faith, love and knowledge of Christ and His word and so have the firm hope of everlasting life.
Our Christian faith and knowledge give us the hope of everlasting life. This gift of God of eternal life is something which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time. As soon as there is faith and knowledge of the truth—the holy Christian faith—there is the hope of eternal life. What a powerful difference this makes in our lives! For St. Paul, this hope of eternal life gave him courage, joy and strength to do his work as apostle—to preach that word and build the foundation of the Church; it gave him strength to carry out his work in spite of all opposition; it gave him the strength to face and endure martyrdom—being killed on account of his confession of Jesus. All because why? There was something more! –A glorious heavenly eternity. He was certain of this because God promised it! And notice how St. Paul describes God—who never lies! God’s truthfulness leads us and encourages us to trust His promises unconditionally! He never lies and therefore what He says is truth and can be absolutely trusted. The thing is, faith always has an object/ what it believes and holds to. The Christian faith is in the word and promise of God who never lies; it is in that work of Jesus for us and our salvation. Only the Christian faith promises us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life because of what God has done for us. He, in the person of His Son, came to this earth lived a holy life for us and died for our sins. By this He brought us all the forgiveness of sins and reconciled us to God. When He rose from the dead on Easter, He showed by that that He indeed conquered sin, death and devil. That forgiveness Jesus won for us on the cross, God richly and freely gives us. By faith we receive it and make it our very own! We are now, through faith in Jesus and His word and work, children of God and heirs of heaven. This is the word and promise of God we hold to. What St. Paul writes in our text as a qualification for a pastor also applies to each and every Christian: He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.
St. Paul writes in our text [NIV]: and at His appointed season He brought His word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior. At his conversion, Jesus commanded Paul to preach—to go far and wide and preach to the non-Jews. At the right time our Lord had His word go out. He had His word come to us at the right time. For most of us, it was at Holy Baptism; for others, it was later on in life. But whenever it was, the Lord at the right time brought His word to light to you. And for some that right time/ His appointed season was in a Lutheran school. Our Lord grants great blessings wherever His word goes. Praise be our Lord that His saving word has come to us and brought us to faith in Him and given us the hope of eternal life.
When we come to know Jesus, when we come to the Christian faith and grow in knowledge of it everything changes! Our perspective as to what is important and what is not changes. We can hold firmly to the word of God because we know it is truth—even when everything and everybody tells us the opposite. What steadiness our lives then have. We are not rocked back and forth, going from one thing to another looking for peace of mind—we have it! We have the work of Christ. We have the word of God that proclaims and gives us its fruit and blessing. And what is also so glorious is that we can grow in our knowledge of the faith.
Yes, a simple faith in Jesus saves. But the holy Christian faith/ the word of God is something we can continue to study and grow in and see how beautifully it all fits together and we can go deeply into the faith—like a child in a big old house going into and exploring each room and everything in them and being filled with wonder. We can never stop growing in our knowledge and faith. Faith comes to be and continues as it is kindled and sustained by that knowledge of the truth. This is a wonderful working of the Holy Spirit in the word.
Our text: for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, that leads to godliness—a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life. When we are brought to faith and the knowledge of the truth and grow both in that faith and knowledge, our whole world view changes. We look at things from that heavenly/ eternal aspect, since we have a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life. The world around us has one set of ideas what it thinks/ “feels” important but the Christian has another. All around us we get the world’s influence to look at things the way the unbelieving world does and to strive for power, pleasure, prestige, etc. But as Christians we see all that is so worthless because we see things from God’s perspective, from a perspective of what is most vital is that which furthers and promotes faith leading to salvation. Everything that doesn’t promote my comfort or encourage my ego or help me get ahead is to be rejected—says the world. Everything is so “efficient” in that regard. But the things of God and the things that serve for our eternal good and the eternal good of others are not very “efficient”. But the things of God are never very “efficient”. After all, think of Jesus’ parable of the sower—how much seed is wasted. For example, supporting a Lutheran school is certainly difficult and expensive; some would say a burden. But we don’t look at it that way. We see it from God’s “inefficient”/ “wasteful” way; we look at it from the perspective of the eternal soul of the one who is brought to faith or strengthened or encouraged in the faith, given that foundation of faith— for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, that leads to godliness—a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life.
The worldview of a Christian is different from the non-Christian. The person of the world with a secular way of thinking will hope only for this life. And that is what surrounds us in our culture today. What we stand for as Christians will be attacked and assaulted by the unbelieving world. We will be mocked and ridiculed for our faith and so tempted to give it up. But what does St. Paul write here to St. Titus? He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. Yes, these are qualities and attributes to be found in a pastor or bishop especially, but, really, they are also ones to be found also in all Christians. Especially those last words: to rebuke those who contradict it, to “rebuke” means to “lay bare”, to refute the shallowness of the world’s complaints and objections to the faith; it means to refute with valid arguments. We dare never say and take lying down when the world/ culture rises up and opposes and contradicts the faith. We are called on to refute them. This means engaging the culture. We are best prepared for this by a deep rich knowledge of and faith in Jesus and His word and work.
May the Church and all her dear Christians, like St. Titus did as Bishop and Confessor, continue to be the light shining in the darkness that draws people to Christ Jesus, and to that hope of eternal life. May our good and gracious Lord continue to bless the work of our Lutheran schools, especially our Concordia, and the children in them with faith and knowledge. INJ Amen