Speaker: David Mitchell

Passage: Titus 3:3-11

TITUS 3:3-11

All right, hey, good morning, everybody. It’s great to be with you this morning. An extra hour in bed, I was still ten minutes late to church, so there you go. The problem is me, not the clocks, it turns out. 

So, hey, it’s great to be with you. We are in Titus, the letter from Paul to Titus, and I think we probably have about three more weeks to go as we wrap up this letter. Now, today’s message, we’re in Titus 3. 

One of the things that I love about the age of AI is you can go to the internet and find historical context on things really quickly, right? So, some of you go to ChatGPT, right? Some of you go to Grok. I go to a third service I found, called Dustin.  

It’s text-based, it’s a 970 number. You just text. It’s artificial intelligence, it’s not real intelligence, it’s artificial intelligence, and it can’t help you with everything. I asked it a plumbing question the other night, it started talking to me about Jewish practices in the first century of plumbing. Not helpful for what I needed. Gave me some Greek words and all that stuff. But I text this thing called Dustin, it’s helpful, and it gives us historical context, so we’ll be exploring some of that today. 

But today’s message is the third chapter of Titus. And here’s what I want you to remember, is that while today, in 2025, we get to read this together, right? This letter was canonized into Scripture, and it’s something that we as a church collectively can learn about. 

But I want you to remember that first and foremost, this was an intimate letter written from one man to another, written from a man in his late fifties, early sixties, written to a younger man in his thirties and forties. And I want you to remember the intimacy of this message. I want us also to be struck by the topic that Paul chooses to write to Titus about, that he chooses to write about the transformative power of the Gospel. 

Now, if you’re like me, I might have received that letter and said, Paul, don’t you understand? I’m a mature man in my late thirties, early forties. Like Titus, I’ve been following Jesus for a number of years. I’m kind of past this Gospel stuff. Anybody ever fall guilty to that? I’m kind of past all that stuff, I need the real intellectual stuff. I need that. 

What Paul is doing is reminding Titus the transformative power of Jesus is as relevant today as it was the first day you heard of Jesus. After the end of World War II, the first chancellor of Germany after that, a guy by the name of Conrad Adenauer, was quoted looking out across a country that had been destroyed and ravaged by war across the western world, that had been divided and split like never before. 

And he was quoted as saying that, “Apart from the resurrection of Jesus, I see no other hope for all of mankind.” That’s as true in Germany and Western Europe, fifty, sixty, seventy years ago, as it is today in your marriage, in your home, in your workplace, and in your relationships, that apart from the Gospel, apart from the resurrection of Jesus, apart from the blood of Jesus, there is no hope. 

Before we studied Titus, we studied Revelation, and in Revelation 5, we hear the song of the redeemed, where a group of people collectively sing together with all of their hearts and minds, We have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. 

And so, I want us to be reminded this morning of the transformative power of the Gospel, the power to transform your family relationships, the power to transform your marriage, the power to transform your workplace, your finances, your home, the power to transform our community, and the power, even as we vote this week collectively, the power to transform this region, the power to transform this country. 

So, this letter is written from a man in his late fifties, early sixties. The apostle Paul had already spent time in prison at this point. He’s a free man at this stage, but he’s soon to be imprisoned again, at which point he’ll be beheaded for his faith by Nero. 

Paul has counted the cost of discipleship. He has counted the cost of the Gospel, and it hasn’t made him more reticent to share it. It’s made him more bold to proclaim it. And I want us to absorb the cost of the Gospel, but to be so transformed by it that we’re bold in sharing it because it is the only thing that can transform your life and my life and the lives of those we live alongside. 

So, you’ve probably heard the phrase, it’s from Proverbs 27:17, it says, iron sharpening iron. What we see in Titus 3 is the iron of Paul sharpening the iron of Titus, strength making strength stronger. 

The simple, cheesy analogy I would give you today in America and in the church broadly is that we have an iron deficiency. We don’t have enough of this. And what Titus 3 gives us is a picture of what those in their fifties and sixties can speak to those in their thirties and forties about, and on and on. But find somebody young, a younger generation, or someone newer in their faith, someone younger in their faith. This is the kind of sharpening that we need. 

In chapter 1 of Titus, Paul has sharpened Titus in his ability to identify great leadership. In chapter 1, he sharpened Titus in his ability to deal with rebellion and disobedience. In chapter 2, he sharpened Titus in his ability to build a life on sound doctrine.

What I want to encourage each of us to think about today, are there places in your life, places in your walk with Jesus, where you have become dull and you need to be sharp? It says elsewhere in Scripture that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. 

You and I are not intended to be blunt and dull. We are intended to be sharp. Our country needs us to be sharp. Our church needs us to be sharp. And so, may we use this passage today to be sharpened in the Gospel of Jesus. 

So, Titus 3:3-11 says this: “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

It describes in Titus 3 that you and I, if we’re followers of Jesus, we have been made heirs. The inheritance is not just something given for you, but it’s something given in you. The great legacy that you and I can leave as parents, for example, is not the inheritance we leave for somebody, it’s the inheritance we leave in somebody. 

And in Titus 3, what Paul is exclaiming to Titus is, remember not just what God has done for you, but what God has done in you, and that you and I are to be those who are transformed from the inside out. 

AT ONE TIME WE TOO

So, six ideas, each of them quick and bite-sized, this morning. Idea number one: at one time, we too. He begins, and he says, Look, Titus, at one time we too were foolish and disobedient, full of envy and malice. 

What Paul is doing is to say that if you and I are to be serious, committed followers of Jesus today, we need to be those who let truth set us free by looking squarely in the mirror at who we were and where we were outside of Jesus, that outside of Him, we’re stuck in foolishness and disobedience and envy and malice. We’re having meaningless disputes. 

The challenge we can face, I don’t know if you face this too, is, I say, Wait a second. I might have accepted Jesus, I might call myself a Christian, and I still find myself, at times, stuck in foolishness and disobedience and malicious talk and needless division. 

Verse 4 says, but when the grace of God appeared, and everything changed. What I want to encourage you today is if you are stuck in a place that God does not design you to be, if you’re stuck in a place of addiction, if you’re stuck in a place of foolishness, financially, or in your married life, if you’re choosing sexual immorality, if you’re disobeying God, I want to encourage you that we as a church can say, Yes, at one time, we too were there. 

That’s the collective power of us being together, is that we can say, You know what? I know what it’s like to be there. I know what it’s like to be misaligned with God and who He is and what He has. For me, I know what it’s like to be in a place of disobedience and a place of foolishness. 

And what I want to tell you is, no matter how many years or months or days you’ve been following Jesus, if you find yourself in a place of foolishness, either of your own creation or someone else’s, if you find yourself in a place of disobedience, if you find yourself in a place of brokenness, that like general Adenauer looking out over the destruction of Germany, could say, I know of no other hope for all of humanity than the resurrection of Jesus. 

That the transformative power of the Gospel cannot just transport you from death to life, but it can transform your marriage, it can transform your relationships with your children, it can transform relationships with parents, it can transform your financial picture, if you and I will absorb the power of the Gospel. 

Let me ask you this: are there any places in your life where you have excluded the power of the Gospel to transform you? Any areas, any places, where you’ve said, No, Jesus, not that room. We all have those places in our house, where you’re like, Ah, don’t look in that closet, it’s a disaster. Or, Don’t look in that drawer. It’s a disaster. We can have that in our lives too. We say, Hey, look, I’m good here, but Jesus, don’t go in that room. 

What I want to encourage you to do is to allow the transformative power of the Gospel into every part of your life. The Gospel doesn’t exist simply to refine you at the edges. It exists to redeem you from the inside out, to transform you from darkness into light. 

So, he says, “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, enslaved to passions, malicious, envious, and hateful.” This is not rhetorical exaggeration from Paul. This is a humility check. 

And again, remember, this isn’t one man speaking in self-righteousness to another. This is Paul, the apostle Paul, who’s followed Jesus at this point for twenty, thirty years of his life, speaking to another mature Christian. He says, Hey, Titus, never, ever forget who we were and where we were outside of Jesus. 

I want each of us just to take a moment to remember that reality. I know it in my own life, even years after accepting Jesus as my Savior, finding myself at a place of foolishness and disobedience, and I needed the transformative power of the Gospel to change me. 

THE GRACE OF GOD APPEARED

Idea number two: it says the grace of God appears. He talks about the transformative moment in his own life, the transformative moment in Titus’ life, and the transformative moment in our life. 

He describes the scene of complete devastation, and he says, “But when the grace of God appeared.” Now, I hope each of us here today has experienced those moments in life when the grace of God appeared. 

My wife and kids, on road trips in particular, love listening to Unshackled. Anybody heard of Unshackled? It’s from Chicago. Not everything out of Chicago is bad, this is good. It’s these stories, real stories, of real lives of men and women caught in addiction or crime or sexual immorality or disobedience. And you hear their stories in detail of what they were going through, so that you and I can listen in and say, Yes, at one time, we too were there. 

But what you hear in these stories, the inflection point is when the grace of God appears. We see this in the Gospels. We see in the Scriptures, there’s a man called Jairus, and he comes in total desperation to Jesus. 

And I want to encourage you, if your situation is desperate, I want your posture to be desperate, desperate for Him, desperate for what He can do, that the Gospel should stir up this desperation within us. 

And Jairus comes to Him, desperate, and says, Teacher, would You come to my house? My daughter is dying. She’s twelve years old. Jesus turns and begins to walk with him, but Jesus gets pulled away, because as Jesus is going, people are pulling Him to other things that they need help with. 

You ever feel like that sometimes? Where you’re like, Hey, I asked Jesus to come, and I hear His footsteps, but it seems like He’s a bit distracted. I’m waiting for Him to get here. We see the weight. We see the weight in Lazarus, right where Lazarus dies, it’s two days before He arrives. We see the weight with Jairus. Jairus, this man in total desperation. 

And after a little while, some of the leaders come and say, Jairus, do not bother the Teacher any longer. Your daughter is dead. This is the story of the Gospel, that when all hope is lost, when death has settled in, when the conviction of your mind is, Jesus, You’re too late. 

Jesus overhears them and says, Do not be afraid. Only believe. That’s the power of the Gospel, that when all hope is lost, we have one who is still walking towards us. Jesus comes into the house. He clears out the room, He brings the parents in, and His disciples who were following Him closely. He sends everybody else out. 

And again, if you’re at a place of desperation today, financially, in your marriage, in personal addictions, in struggles, in division, I want you to clear out the room, that it’s you and Jesus and those close to you who follow Him closely.

And Jesus clears out the room. He took the child’s father and mother, and He went in there where the child was. He took her by the hand, and He says to her, “Talitha koum!” which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up immediately!” The girl stood up and began to walk around. She was twelve years old. 

That’s what happens when the grace of God appears. Yes, He can come into a room that is full of death. And I want you to think about if that room that you’ve been keeping Jesus out is full of death, that’s the room I want you to open up and allow Him to come in, that He might say arise, that He might bring to life that which has died. 

And may you and I, who have followed Jesus like Titus and Paul for all these years, may we never forget the moments where the grace of God has appeared, and may we be the kinds of people who are not satisfied with yesterday’s story of redemption. 

We’re desperate for the appearance of God’s grace today, that we might be hungry for it where we need God’s grace to appear. If you don’t need God’s grace in your life today, God bless you. Our country needs it desperately. Our country needs it. And may we be those who devote ourselves to bringing the grace of God that it might appear for people. 

Titus 3 gives us a picture of what it looks like to share the Gospel when I say, Well, how do I talk to somebody else about faith in Jesus? What Titus 3 says is, Yes, it’s good to go to somebody and say, Hey, I want to tell you what Jesus can do for you. 

But the way the Gospel is shared in Titus 3 is, I want to share with you what Jesus did for me. I don’t know how He might transform you, but I want to share with you how He transformed me, that at one time, I too was foolish and disobedient and caught up in the desires of my flesh and far from Him, but the grace of God appeared. 

TRANSFORMED FROM DEATH TO LIFE

Idea number three: we have been transformed from death to life. Paul gives this imagery, he talks about washing, like the baptismal imagery, the spiritual rebirth, which echoes new creation and justification by grace, making us heirs. 

The transformative power of the Gospel is not just surgery to make you better; it’s complete rebirth. Where are the places in your life today where we need rebirth, where we need to be reborn? 

We see this in the Gospels, in John 3, when at night, a leader of the law comes to Jesus. His name is Nicodemus. He’s heard that this man, Jesus, might just have something to offer him. And he comes, and he sits down, and he asks Jesus to explain to him the Kingdom of God. 

And Jesus talks to him about being reborn. And Nicodemus, understandably, is confused, and he says, “How can someone be born when they are old?” Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” 

Maybe you’re facing a situation right now where you’re asking a similar question to Nicodemus. Nicodemus can say, Hey, I’m too old to be reborn. You might be saying, Hey, this marriage is too broken to be reborn. These finances are too devastated to be reborn. These life choices are too destructive to be reborn. 

Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they’re born of water and the Spirit.” That if you will commit to the death, He will promise the resurrection. That’s the transformative power of the Gospel, that He brings to life that which is dead. He goes into the rooms where there is death and silence, and He says, Do not be afraid. Only believe. 

DEVOTED TO DOING GOOD

Idea number five: devote yourself to doing good. So, what then is the reborn and renewed person to do? Paul emphasizes in verses 8-11, the importance of generous living, that you and I, if we have been transformed by the power of the Gospel, it must be demonstrated by the fruit of our lives. 

This isn’t an optional extra. This is a requirement of what it means to be transformed by the Gospel of Jesus. You see, when the grace of God appears, grace is not inert. Inertia is an unwillingness to move. 

Are there any places in your life where you feel inertia, any places in your life where you have an unwillingness to move? That’s where the grace of God is needed to spur you to a place of movement, that the response to grace in our lives is to say, God, wherever I have been unwilling to move, I am willing. 

Maybe He’s calling you financially to make a move. Maybe He’s calling you in an act of forgiveness to make a move. Don’t be stuck in inertia. Don’t be stuck in an unwillingness to move. Be willing to move in response to the grace of God. 

It says verses 7 and 8, it says that those justified by grace become heirs who live differently, careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. The word devotion comes from the old Latin word devovere. I checked it on my 970 number thing with Dustin. It means to make a vow. You and I are to be in the business of making a vow to do good, to be fully devoted to Him.

Are there any places in your life or my life where we’re not devoted? Jesus said, I want you to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength– physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual. 

So, it doesn’t even make sense, God, how on earth can I love You with my strength? How can I love You with my emotions? I understand how I can love You in my mind, intellectually, but how do I love You with my heart, mind, soul, and strength? 

That’s devotion. And I want us to reflect today that any parts where we’re not fully devoted, that today might be a day where we vow to do good. It says we devote ourselves to doing good. We’re careful to do good. 

AVOID DIVISIONS AND DISPUTES

And lastly, idea number six: I want you to avoid foolish controversies and genealogies. We can get really caught up in foolish controversies and disputes, right? In this historical context, in Crete, they were dealing with this movement called Ebionism. 

What was going on is that Jesus following Jews, but they were kind of the Pharisaical party, they had this idea. The idea that they had is that James’ teachings were more important than Paul’s. And Paul wasn’t particularly like, sort of offended by that. Other than that they were wrong. Wasn’t that James’ were better than Paul’s, or Paul’s better than James’.

Why did they think James’ were more important than Paul’s? Well, because James was the brother of Jesus, and they were fighting over genealogies because they believed there was a superiority between one set of teaching and another because James was the brother of Jesus.

And so, they were fighting for these things. They were fighting for continuing to follow the covenant practices of the Torah they were following. We read about in chapter 1 the rebellious people, it says of the circumcision group, they were fighting that this is required for you to be a part of the Kingdom of God. 

And they had a hatred, or certainly a hostility, towards Gentile believers. They believed in this superiority. What was going on at Crete was this division about genealogies and disputes. And what Paul was saying is, You got to cut that out. You got to stop fighting over these things. Now, for us today, our disputes might be different, but our commitment to unity hasn’t changed. 

In 1 Corinthians, Paul is writing to a church in total devastation. Let me give you one thing that’s going on in Corinth. One thing that’s going on is that there’s this gross sexual immorality. Now, I want you to imagine that you’re Paul, and you’re writing to this church. What would you begin your letter with? I think I would start with the code eleven fire, right? Code red eleven? Code red fire, right? 

There’s this gross thing going on. I’m going to begin my letter with that. Hey, let’s clean this mess up, because it’s stinking everything else out. Paul doesn’t begin there. Paul begins with division because Paul knows that even as serious as sexual immorality is– and it is serious– we have to root it out of our lives, like our lives depend on it, because they do. He begins the letter to Corinth talking about their division because he knows that the unity of the church is the testimony of the church to a world that is watching. 

Now, there are things, of course, that we are to separate over. There are things, of course, that we do need to dispute, but what he’s talking about is you’re fighting about things that don’t matter and ignoring things that do. 

And you and I have to be so devoted to the things of God that we lay down things that don’t matter. We are to avoid divisive quarrels to preserve the church’s testimony to God’s renewing power. 

What we are to be as believers, in our homes, in our personal lives, in our church, collectively, is the kind of place that if a non-believer walks in, they say, I don’t understand how the division is gone. I don’t understand how the immorality is gone. I don’t understand how these people are so devoted to doing good. 

And our song, as the song in Revelation 5, is the song of the redeemed, that our song back to the world, is to say, Yes, we, too, were like that, but the grace of God appeared. When the grace of God appears, it doesn’t create a people passive towards sin or affirming of the culture. It creates a people devoted to doing good, devoted to doing things that are excellent and profitable for everyone. 

May we be a church who rejects division and chooses devotion. I love what John Stott says. He says, “The Gospel humbles us without humiliating us, and exalts us without flattering us. It is the only power that can produce a community marked by both deep humility and bold mission.” 

Church, may we be those who are continually transformed by the power of the Gospel. Where you need death and resurrection today, will you bring Jesus into that room? Let’s pray together. 

Father God, every single one of us in this room, we come before You this morning and we say, God, we are so grateful and thankful for those moments where Your grace has appeared, for how it’s transformed us from death to life. 

For those in this room who need to be reminded that we, too, were once stuck there, but that the grace of God can transform, we pray that they would clear out the room and be with You and Your word. 

And those who follow You deeply, help us as a church to be devoted to doing what is good, to be the kind of church in this community that brings things that are excellent and profitable to our neighbors and our community. We love You and we thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen.