 So I'll just wish once again. Good morning everyone. Welcome to New Testament survey, BC103. Today we would be studying on the epistle of Paul, the Apostle to Titus. Even before we could begin with our session, can I request Zellie to lead us in prayer please? Okay, sure, Pastor. Let us pray. Father God, we come before Your presence in the name of Jesus. Father, I want to thank You so much for this time that You bless us so that we can get together and learn from Your Word, Lord. As we ponder upon the book of Titus, Lord, You bless our pastor, give all the grace, the strength, the wisdom to teach us according to Your will. And also, Lord, help each one of us so that we can understand You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. We bless You, Lord. We commit our life, our time into Him in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So the book of Titus is a pastoral epistle and it is also known as the Book of Ministry of Character. So Apostle Paul wrote this letter to Titus, a true son just like Timothy, approximately 62 to 66 AD. So can I know the purpose of this letter? Anyone from the class? What was the purpose of this letter? This letter is very short. Yes, brother. Please go ahead. I think the purpose, just like we see in Titus, in 2 Timothy, it was to change the leaders in Ephesus, but this one, it was to elect new leaders. They were new leaders in Crete, Biscayne. Okay. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Lepega. Yes. In this chapter we see, in this book we see three chapters and the very purpose we see is to guide Titus as he was a Greek believer and to build him in the leadership of the church on the island where he was ministering to on the island of Crete. So we see the four points in this three chapters. Four points. The very purpose of Paul addressing his first is to give a personal authorization. Second, Paul is instructing Titus about faith and conduct. Third, he wants against the opposition from both the false teachers and the sinful nature of man. And the fourth point is to inform Titus about his future plans for him. So these are the four points from this three chapter. And also the theme of this letter is the godly life of the believer. Can I request one of us to turn chapter 2, book of Titus, chapter 2, 11 to 14, which is the key verse of this letter. Chapter 2 verse 11 to 14. Can I request one of us to please read? Titus chapter 2 verse 14. 11, sorry. He made to redeem us from every lawless deed and... One second. You can... Sorry, Brother Lepega. Can I request you to please read from chapter 2 verse 11 to 14. Okay. Thank you. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live somebody righteously and godly in the present age. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us and he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people serious for good works. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. This is the very theme of this whole letter where the message of salvation has been given that for the grace of God that brings salvation is appeared to all men, teaching each one of them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. So here we see that Paul has been training, training titers along with him each of us that as a leader how our character should be, what are the things that we need to reject and what are the things that we need to hold on to in our life in this verse and we see verse 13 says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of a great God Jesus Christ and verse 14 says, he who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people who are zealous for good work. This is how we need to be. We need to be zealous for the good work. So what do we know about the man Titus? Who is Titus? Anyone from the class? So Titus, the background of Titus, okay? Let us see the background of Titus and you know who is he as a person and how does Paul acknowledge him? Titus was a Greek origin and was most likely a convert of the Apostle Paul perhaps from the own church in Antioch. We see that in chapter one. So Titus accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their trip to Jerusalem for the council as an example of Gentile fruit. We saw that in the book of Galatians. So here we see that Titus was among Paul's company as a partner and a fellow laborer during the latter part of Paul's third missionary journey. So what happened here? We see that Paul had sent him to the Corinthian church not only to carry the letter but also to assist in some of the issues within the church. So what is that? What we see here is Paul is building him, is raising him to be a leader by opening up an opportunity for Titus in the Corinthian church. He also taught him with his own life example and here we see he opened a door for Titus and sent him to minister to the people at Corinth and we also see another point about Titus is he reported back to Paul on the situation of the church at Corinth and Titus also carried the letter of second Corinthians to the church and we also see he may have been involved in assisting in the gathering of the finance for the Jerusalem Relief Fund when they were raising and also apparently he accompanied Paul after his release from Roman imprisonment to Crete where Paul left him as a pastor at the church in this island and Paul asked Titus to join him in Nicopolis sometime later we see that in Titus chapter 3 verse 12 where Titus was with Paul during the second Roman imprisonment for a short while and with that yes I could see somebody's hand been raised is there anyone would like to add or comment or ask any question? No hands raised now okay or there was a comment let me check okay brother Subashish network is fluctuating okay I understand brother is it my side am I audible to everyone okay yes sir okay okay okay brother we pray that your network grows stronger that you may not miss out on the class today it is a very interesting book I know it is a very short letter but it is very interesting okay so when was this book written this book had a time frame in Paul's life and he visited the island of Crete the letter has would have been written sometime between Paul's two Roman imprisonment so maybe in between that and it was most likely written toward the middle to the end of this period proclaim placing the letter between 1st Timothy and 2nd Timothy for this reason a date was between the 63 to 64 AD so what do we know about the church at Crete very important even before we could know I just went and did a research on this place called Crete to know the nature or the culture of people because only when we know the nature or the culture of the people we will understand that why Paul is instructing Titus to be a man of good character strong in your character because that your life the way you lead your life can impact others yes by your teaching but at the same time by your lifestyle he is asking Titus to be a living example in his contact he's asking him to be a man of good character yes as what we also studied the initial during the orientation on the code of honor something like that okay so here we see Paul encouraging Paul encouraging Titus to be a man of good character yes we see Paul raised his hand yes Paul please go ahead Paul you raised your hand okay great um yeah so uh so let's look at the background of Crete so the Crete was the fourth largest island of the Mediterranean and Crete lies directly south of agency so Cretans believed Greek gods where men and women elevated as deity through compassionate service and gifts to mankind and the theology from they had a theology which was related below and not from about so the hell that majority of the gods were born on their island including the chief man become God who's that Zeus who was uh you know who was buried they believed that uh this man who became God was buried on their island and in their mind Crete was a central place of worship of gods so they had a mythology uh so ingrained ingrained in Crete in sculpture that the church in Paul's days way integrating their understanding of the Christian God had a prevailing view about the Greek gods mainly Zeus so this was a bad news especially in the light of the kind of man become God uh that is Zeus who was so it's recorded that he loved uh this Zeus God was uh to know about a person who man who became God what kind of nature that he had which has impacted the people in that city was he loved to seduce women by means unnecessary by means um you know assuming godlike characteristics to get what he wanted so he assumed the form of a husband to get a woman into a bed or you know some kind of uh illegal seduction seduction was involved so in a nutshell um Zeus was a liar he was a womanizer and Cretans immoralized him for this so they took pride in his shady character and underhanded ways so through this we understand what Paul is preparing to deal Titus with so with that we see um some of the points that we could say how the people character was in this Highland they were uh reputed to be liars they were reputed to be lazy concerning details hence the need for structure was most of the churches of the religion so they were reputed to be warlike they were not feasible among themselves or patient with any of the foreigners or any guests that were coming in for any kind of trade or business visit they were reputed to be intolerant with outsiders they were not cosmopolitan in their thinking and they had this island mentality where they were not open to new ideas or any kind of philosophies they were very classical slogans describing uh the uh some uh describing the Cretans the literature the in the classic literature when I was studying about the Crete it says uh if there's a say they used to be a saying saying uh they used to be a saying like this to act as a Cretan so what is that to act as a Cretan means it was equal to be a liar so this was a saying given uh for the people in general at Crete so the people of Crete had an opportunity to change the virtue by the gospel here Paul goes with Titus to give the opportunity to the people of Crete to change this and to change the character and so what is central theme of the whole book we read it right to have a strong character don't be worldly God never created each of us like that and this is the character that each of us to be to be true to our self and to God and to man and to have um you know a nature that is peace loving so he is uh he is sharing the things that is the he is actually imposing the godly character to the people who have never experienced something like that in their nature so he is trying to impose a moral attribute saying as an elder to be blameless so he is encouraging Timothy this uh you need to be blameless so this does not mean that an elder will not be blamed for things leaders get blamed for many things however it does not mean that they live a life that is about reproach so Jesus was blameless yet false witnesses blame them of many things and second point we see what um Paul is encouraging Titus here it is an elder to be temperate this i'm talking about chapter three verse two when we turn to Titus chapter three verse two he's telling uh he's encouraging him to be a man of temperate he must be of temperate an elder to be sober minded an elder must be in good behavior so in greek the word called good behavior implies the thought of being orderly and modest so it is closely uh a link to the word which means adornment the elder must be above reproach in all his activities of behavior right down to the way he dresses and also as an elder should continually uh yes as he is continually exposed to the public eye and there will always be those who seek to bring that approach to god leaders so we need to watch ourselves so as an elder is not to be given to wine and again he also says as an elder you're not to be given to quick tempered as an elder not to be uh covetous as an elder you should not be quarrelsome there are some don'ts as well again paul is saying not to be self-willed uh or so pleased with himself that nothing helps pleases him and he becomes he comes to please nobody and he also says as an elder you need to be lover of what is good and pleases god and with that we will move on to the some of the domestic qualifications that is as an elder must be the husband of one wife he also instructs uh timothy you know how an bishop should be as a leader's a deacon how a man should be and here again in the book of titers he is instructing um as an elder you need to be hospitable as an elder you need to rule your own house well having his children in submission having faithful children not accused of any dispensation uh dispensation yeah and he also goes ahead with some spiritual qualification in this book which he also says in timothy chapter three yes it's first timothy chapter three we see that as an elder is not to be novice or young convert as an elder must have a good testimony among those who are outside the church um so some of the qualities as an elder that we need to have is uh we need to be just we need to be holy we need to be patient we need to hold we need to hold fast and be faithful to the word that has been thought um along with that he also instructs titers that leadership is a gift leadership is a gift and it takes more than good character and a good family to make a good leader so how an elder must be able to teach he need to be teachable at the same time and elder must be able to exhort and convince and sound doctrine so these are some things that paul is encouraged timothy and now he's also encouraging titers with that so what are the unique features that we see in this book in this letter we see that paul emphasizes on the good works titers two eleven to fourteen we read and also in chapter three four to seven we see that paul is emphasizing on good works good works are very important so when we read when we read through chapter three verse four to seven it says but when the kindness and the love of god are saviour to when men appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of holy spirit whom he poured out on us abundantly through jesus christ our saviour that having been justified by grace we should become his according to the hope of eternal life this is a faithful saying and these things i want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in god should be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable to men very important he said hold on to the good work so what we see paul's ministers are void of good works true ministers like titers are to be a pattern have to be an example for good work so god's people were set apart to be zealous of good works we also see that all believers are to be ready to do good works and here he's also encouraging them that all believers are to be careful to maintain that good work with them because the the temptation is high we may tend to do wrong things but then we need to maintain good work we also see that paul is emphasizing on the example of the minister of christ we need to be like christ we need to be an example like how christ lived on this earth and the practical instruction to each ages or the social groups in the church he's addressing everyone to the old man to the old women and young men and young women and to the servant so there's a guidelines for treatment of heretics and other problem people had is giving and in the final message in chapter three we see that you're saying when i send Artemis to you or Titicus be diligent to come to me at nicopolis for i have decided to spend the winter there send zen is the lawyer and apolis and their journey with haste that they may lack nothing and let our people also learn to maintain good work to meet urgent needs and they may not be unfruitful here we see that paul is encouraging Titus along with others as they're coming to meet is is encouraging let the people learn he's asking Titus teach them let them learn to maintain the good work maintain very important to maintain it it is just not one time but to maintain and to meet the urgent needs urgent needs whatever was urgent meet their need and that they may be fruitful so that he's teaching in giving there is a blessing and the other areas living a holy life it pleases god and many other areas how a good man or a good leader should leave and there we also see a farewell the last verse from chapter three all who are with me greet you greet those who love us in faith grace be with you all amen very graceful ending apolis writing to Titus and he is encouraging Titus to be a good leader so not only Titus we also see how he encouraged how we built the leaders like Timothy and Titus he just didn't be an example to them but he allowed them to grow in the leadership he saw them grow like he opened up opportunities he went along with them to each place he planted a church and he gave the church in the young leader's hand made them grow yes they would have made lot of mistakes but then that did not stop apol from telling Timothy to stop leading the church but then here we see you know Paul encouraged Timothy and Titus even though when we studied the book of Timothy we saw Timothy being a very timid very fearful because the people in the church were much older to him and they were looking down on him and even for him to minister or to lead the people he was having he was facing difficulty he had lot of challenges and the church as a young leader but then we see how Paul being a leader encouraged Timothy and now we saw how he encouraged Titus as well so these are the young leaders into whose hand Paul is giving them a church to pioneer to start to lead to nurture and grow and he's backing them up he's you know no matter what mistake they would have done or they would have faced or you know no matter I'm sure because of the cretins lifestyle they would have faced a lot of challenges and I'm sure even the cretins would have written many letters to Paul or complaining on Titus or even Timothy would have faced the same kind of challenges from the people but then among all myths of all these challenges we see as a leader how Paul supports and backs Timothy and Titus so what we learn from these these letters are not to give up we will face challenges in our leadership not to give up how we can overcome those challenges how we can overcome those fear as we pioneer as we lead a church as we lead our ministry yes we will grow we need to hold on to Jesus we need to hold on and see a leader like Paul to whom we can be accountable to so that they can mentor us they can nurture us because I'm sure as they grew in the ministry they would have faced some maybe a similar situation that we would face or they would have crossed all that okay so they can give us an input from their experience how to overcome the situation so this is how that we see how Paul nurtured Timothy and Titus and made them to be a strong leader and gave them the opportunity so yes two things we can learn from this is as how Paul created an opportunity for these young leaders we can also create some opportunities for the young upcoming leaders in our church okay one is that second as a leader we should also have somebody to whom we can be accountable to with whom we can share our challenges and learn from their experience and among all let's look up to Jesus let's look up to God and ask God to nurture us help us to be that example in our leadership groom us help us to build that character that is needed to lead a church lead a ministry um yes this is something that we need to ask God and hold on to him only by his grace and his mercy that we can build ourselves because it is not one time it is a process character is something that can be developed in each of us and it is a process that we can move further so with that we end this letter it is a short letter we end this letter if there's any question please go ahead if not we can end this class with a word of prayer is there anyone would like to share or ask any question or share from your experience anything okay I see no questions can I request Rosalind if you can end the session with a word of prayer or Brother Isaac can you end the session with a word of prayer okay let us pray Father in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I want to thank you I want to glorify you your name for giving us the opportunity to learn your word want to bless your name for our tutors I want to always ask that you empower them so that they can enlighten us Father I want to thank you for everything that you are doing we pray that your word takes it in our heart and it will be a fruit that will be an example of good leaders or good teachers to do things like we have to touch this and all other masses we ask in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ thank you Lord thank you amen amen thank you brother for that wonderful prayer God bless have a great day see you all tomorrow thank you good bless