Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Healthy Churches Exist for Life and Godliness Titus 1:5–9, Part 1

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Healthy Churches Exist for Life and Godliness Titus 1:5–9, Part 1 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is our first session on Titus one five through nine.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: On account of this, I left you, Titus. I left
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you in Crete. Now, Crete is a large island in
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the Mediterranean, directly south or part of it is directly
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: south of Athens. So I left you. So Paul had
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: been on Crete. We don't know when. It's not easy
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to know where to fit it into his life, but
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: he had been there, and he left Titus at that
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  Speaker 1: time for some purposes. I left you in Crete so
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  Speaker 1: that you might fully set right what is lacking and
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  Speaker 1: appoint elders in every town as I directed you. And
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: then he breaks into a description of the qualification of
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  Speaker 1: the elders. So let's just ponder this and what we
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  Speaker 1: can learn from it. Father, as we try to understand
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  Speaker 1: what this is, what was driving Paul in his ministry
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  Speaker 1: in Crete and his ministry through this letter to Titus.
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  Speaker 1: Show us your purpose for the church, and your purpose
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  Speaker 1: for elders, and your purpose for having things orderly and
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  Speaker 1: write in the church. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: What does this refer to? This phrase, both in English
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and in Greek, can go both ways. It could be
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  Speaker 1: referring backward to what's gone before on account of what
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I just said, or it could be on account of this,
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  Speaker 1: namely why he left Titus. So which is it? And
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I want to suggest that it's probably both, at least
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  Speaker 1: when I hear on account of this, having just heard
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  Speaker 1: him say huge things about why he is an apostle
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  Speaker 1: and why he's writing this letter to Titus, I can't
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  Speaker 1: help but think these huge things are why he's saying
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  Speaker 1: what he's saying. Right, So, Paul a slave of God,
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  Speaker 1: an apostle of Jesus Christ. So that's who I am,
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  Speaker 1: and here's what my ministry is for, and therefore what
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: this letter is for, namely, for the sake of the
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  Speaker 1: faith of God's elect and for the sake of the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the truth, and for the sake of the
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  Speaker 1: godliness that comes from it, and for the hope of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: eternal life. I think his ministry is aimed at faith, knowledge, godliness,
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  Speaker 1: eternal life. That's why I exist as a slave of
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  Speaker 1: God and an apostle, and that's why I'm writing to you, Titus.
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  Speaker 1: This is driving me, this is why I exist to
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  Speaker 1: bring this about. So I'm writing to you. So I
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  Speaker 1: can't help but think the letter is aiming to accomplish this.
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  Speaker 1: So when he gets here, and he says, on account
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  Speaker 1: of this, I left you in crete. And then after
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  Speaker 1: drawing attention to what's driving the letter and his ministry
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  Speaker 1: and the ultimate goal of his apostleship, he says, on
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  Speaker 1: account of this, I'm instructing this. So this is part
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  Speaker 1: of the this. I want those things to be brought about,
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  Speaker 1: faith and hope and godliness and knowledge. I want them
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  Speaker 1: brought about in the churches. That's why the churches exist.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm leaving you on cree. So that and this
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  Speaker 1: becomes the how, right, how do people find eternal life?
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  Speaker 1: How do they grow in knowledge? How do they become
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  Speaker 1: strong believers? How do they become godly? And Paul's answer
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  Speaker 1: is get the church in order strong, healthy, well lied churches,
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  Speaker 1: is his answer. First. Then if we wonder, well, what
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  Speaker 1: else is included in this that would bring about those
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  Speaker 1: those things? The answer is the whole letter, right, Everything
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  Speaker 1: in this letter is why he wrote the letter, and
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  Speaker 1: he wrote the letter in order to bring about faith
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  Speaker 1: and knowledge and hope and godliness. And so the first
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  Speaker 1: thing in the letter is the strength, stability, health of
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  Speaker 1: the church. So set right, what was lacking. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: I was with you when I had to leave, I
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  Speaker 1: didn't finish the work, and I'm leaving you behind Titus
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  Speaker 1: as my representative, so to speak. And I want you
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that in all the towns where there
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  Speaker 1: are churches, they're healthy, they're strong, they're in order, things
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  Speaker 1: are regulated so that eternal life happens, and knowledge happens,
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  Speaker 1: and faith happens, and godliness happens. So do that. And
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  Speaker 1: the first step in doing that, Titus is good leaders.
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  Speaker 1: He calls them elders. So I want you to appoint elders.
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  Speaker 1: And here's the kind of man you should appoint. Appoint
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  Speaker 1: elders in every town. Now, just a word about town.
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  Speaker 1: I assume I can't prove it that every town that
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  Speaker 1: he's talking about, not every town in crete, but in
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  Speaker 1: every town where there's a church, it's the church that
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  Speaker 1: he's to appoint elders in. The New Testament doesn't have
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  Speaker 1: a category for city elders. The Old Testament does elders
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  Speaker 1: of the city, but the New Testament doesn't talk that way.
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  Speaker 1: The New Testament talks about elders of churches. So here's Paul,
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  Speaker 1: for example, in X fourteen and when they had appointed
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  Speaker 1: elders for them in every church. And here's James five fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: Is anyone among you sick, let him call for the
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  Speaker 1: elders of the church. So I think think it's fair
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  Speaker 1: to say that Paul is assuming wherever the church has
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  Speaker 1: been planted in these towns, make sure those churches have elders. Now,
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  Speaker 1: just a few more thoughts about who the elders are.
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  Speaker 1: Very significantly, he replaces the word elder with the word overseer. Here,
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  Speaker 1: these are the same people, right, he's let's just read
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  Speaker 1: it so you can see the flow. If anyone is
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  Speaker 1: above approach, the husband of one wife and his children
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  Speaker 1: are faithful and not open to the charge of debauchery
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  Speaker 1: or insubordination. For an elder, that's what we expect him
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  Speaker 1: to say, because that's what he's talking about. But he
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  Speaker 1: says for an overseer as though they're virtually interchangeable, which
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  Speaker 1: they are in that they refer to the same person,
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  Speaker 1: but they refer to the same person with different emphasies.
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  Speaker 1: Overseer implies all the the skills and competencies and authorities
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  Speaker 1: necessary to do this. Have a well ordered structure in
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  Speaker 1: your church. Somebody gifted in overseeing, that kind of setting
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  Speaker 1: things in order, setting things right. This refers to the maturity,
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  Speaker 1: the depth of character, the wisdom, and probably usually the
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  Speaker 1: age elder going with it. One other thing, What about pastor?
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  Speaker 1: What about the word pastor we get elder, we get
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  Speaker 1: overseer sometimes described as bishop, but bishop cares connotations of
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  Speaker 1: church structures that are not implied here. Bishops usually today
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  Speaker 1: in the churches that have them, are over regions or synods.
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  Speaker 1: And this is over local churches. So local churches have overseers,
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  Speaker 1: they have the same people elders. What about pastors? Three
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  Speaker 1: times or two times I can put my finger on
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  Speaker 1: pastor or Shepherding and overseeing and being an elder are
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  Speaker 1: clustered in one place. This is one of them. Here's
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  Speaker 1: X twenty. Now from my leadist, Paul sent to Ephesus
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  Speaker 1: and call the elders of the church to come to him.
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  Speaker 1: And when they came to him, he said to them,
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  Speaker 1: dropping to verse twenty eight, pay careful attention to yourselves
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  Speaker 1: into all the flock, implying shepherd or pastor, in which
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to get elders
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  Speaker 1: and overseers to shepherd and there's pastor. Now, the noun
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  Speaker 1: pastor only occurs once in the New Testament Ephesians four eleven,
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  Speaker 1: which probably should be just translated shepherd. There pastor is
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  Speaker 1: an English word shepherd. Here's the flock word, and here's
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  Speaker 1: the shepherd word. You can see the relationship between poem
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  Speaker 1: neo and poem my name. So here's the people who
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  Speaker 1: are a flock, and here's the shepherding that goes over them.
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  Speaker 1: So here we have elder overseer, shepherd. Same thing in
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  Speaker 1: First Peter, So I exhort the elders among you as
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  Speaker 1: a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: as well as a partaker in the glory that is
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  Speaker 1: to be revealed. Shepherd. So you, elders, do the pastoral
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  Speaker 1: work of shepherding. Be a pastor, pastoring the flock of
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  Speaker 1: God that is among you, exercising oversight. And there's the
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  Speaker 1: word for overseer as a verb. So you got elder, shepherd, overseer.
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  Speaker 1: So I conclude that here again here in Titus, you
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  Speaker 1: have elder overseer. And it would not be wrong to
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  Speaker 1: say a point pastors or shepherds would be the more
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  Speaker 1: literal way to say it. So, summing up what is
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  Speaker 1: Paul saying, with on account of this, put things right.
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  Speaker 1: Titus first step in putting things right is get qualified
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  Speaker 1: elders and overseers and pastors in place in these towns,
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  Speaker 1: in these churches. He's saying, lest we let it slip
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  Speaker 1: out of our minds. Faith, knowledge, godliness, eternal life are
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  Speaker 1: the great issues. Churches are a means to that end. Titus.
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  Speaker 1: So for those reasons, those glorious eternal reasons of each
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  Speaker 1: a life, I left you behind because churches really matter. Titus,
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  Speaker 1: get it right, Titus, put things in order, get the
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  Speaker 1: right kind of leaders, the right kind of overseers. I
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  Speaker 1: commanded you for this. This is very important.