Friends of the Faith

Okay, so we really are going to finish the letter to Titus tonight.

So I have a little bit more to cover. And so we're looking at the final verses of this letter to Titus.

Chapter 3, actually chapter 3 verses 9 through 15 is that block of text that we've been looking at. Looked at a better part of it last time, which was a long time ago. And we'll finish the rest of it up tonight.

And these closing remarks, really I think you could call them that. These closing remarks from Paul really represent what I've called Paul's final words concerning both friends and foes.

Even though really it's in reverse order. Foes first and then friends. And we've already looked at the foes of the faith. That's what we looked at last time. And under that, a couple of points that we covered last time.

First of all, resist foolish arguments. And that's a good word for us. We don't need to be engaged and embroiled in foolish arguments about things that don't matter.

In fact, he said in verse 9, avoid or resist foolish disputes, for they are unprofitable and useless. Pretty good word for us. Now that does not mean, obviously, that we compromise on our faith.

And also that in every situation or every scenario that we're just to keep our mouths shut and not speak the truth. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about getting in arguments over doctrine.

And really, more so, I think, applies to some of the fringe things that are out there that we could get in an argument about, a conversation about that, you know, ultimately leads to nothing.

In fact, I think a good rule of thumb is don't suffer fools. I mean, if they are dead set on believing what they believe, then what can you do?

You speak the truth, but you can't argue them to your side. So, that's what Paul says. Resist foolish arguments. And then second, and we covered this last time as well, reject factious agitators.

Those who are trying to create division within the church, reject them, ultimately. Though, really, in the passage, he says, warn them once, warn them twice, and then reject them.

So, it's kind of three strikes, you're out. And so, he says in verse 10, reject a divisive man, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

That is, he condemns himself or herself. All right, so now we're ready to look at what Paul says about the friends of the faith. All right, this kind of ends on a positive note, very positive note.

First the foes, and now the friends. And so, let me go ahead and read verses 12 through 15. It's printed there in your notes, or you can look at your Bibles. When I send Artemis to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

Send Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing. And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.

All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen. And that is the end of the letter.

Very short letter. All right, now we can divide this also into two parts. So, we've divided the foes of the faith into two parts. The friends of the faith, we can divide that into two parts. And the first one is, care for fellow ministers to the church.

Titus, it's not just instructions for Titus here, but really for several concerned here. To care for fellow ministers in the church. And we can identify in the passage six ministers to the Lord's church that are mentioned right here in the passage.

Paul, of course. I mean, that goes without saying. Paul is one of them. And Titus also is one of these ministers to the Lord's church mentioned in the passage.

And then we have these other guys. Artemis, Antikycus, and Zenos, and Apollos. Okay? All of those Greek names.

Although I think those last four are Jews. But they have Greek names. All right. So, first of all, notice. Artemis and Tychicus cared for Paul.

All right. That's the first thing we can see here. And really, this is implied in the text. There's nothing really said explicitly about it. But we're to assume this. Artemis and Tychicus were fellow servants of Paul.

Okay? They served alongside with Paul. They were co-laborers with Paul. They were with Paul at the time, wherever he was.

And I think most agree he was probably in Philippi when he wrote. And so these two guys are with Paul at the time, serving with him, but also caring for his needs.

And it's a mutual caring. In fact, really, as we kind of go through the list here, it's not just one person caring for another. It's a mutual caring and ministering to one another's needs.

And that's certainly what Artemis and Tychicus did for Paul. They cared for Paul. And so now Paul was about to send at least one of them away from him.

All right. Now, this is, most of this we kind of glean by implication. Nothing specific said here.

But I think it's safe to say that Paul cared very much for these two men. They were very valuable to him. And now he's got to send at least one of them away from him.

And the text makes it clear, I think, that Paul had not yet decided which one would go. Right? I mean, he didn't say which one. He said one or the other.

So he had not yet decided which one would go, which is kind of strange that he would put that in a letter. I mean, you know, it's not like on a cell phone and just having a conversation and saying, you know, Paul saying to Titus, you know, I just haven't quite decided yet which one I'm going to send.

This is a letter. So you would think that he would have decided by the time he wrote the letter. And I really think that since he had not decided which one to send, and also apparently Paul had not yet decided when he would send that one he chose, that he was struggling with the decision.

It was a very difficult decision. And I think it seems to imply that Paul had a hard decision to make here. He needed both of them with him. They were very useful to him.

He's got to send one away. And so which one is it going to be? Which one could he possibly do without for a time?

So I think there's a struggle here. Now, who are these guys? Well, Artemis is nowhere identified in the New Testament. In fact, this is the only place in the New Testament that he's mentioned here in Titus.

And yet we can assume some things that are, I think, important for us to assume. I mean, the very fact that Paul considered sending Artemis, though he had not yet decided, the very fact that he considered sending him to take, by the way, and we'll talk more about this in a minute, to take Titus' place there as kind of the overseer of the churches in Crete, the very fact that he would even consider sending him speaks volumes about him.

About who he was, about his character. I think it tells us about his godliness. We could list several things. It tells us about his spiritual maturity. I mean, if you're going to, if Paul's going to send him, Paul the Apostle, send Artemis, possibly, though he had not yet decided, to oversee all the churches, and there may have been hundreds of them, there on the island of Crete, then he had to have been very mature spiritually, or he would not have selected him.

It also speaks of his faithfulness, of course. It speaks of his knowledge of Scripture. I mean, Titus, we know, had to have more than normal, a great knowledge of Scripture, because he had to deal with false doctrine.

He had to deal with baby Christians. Many of them on the island of Crete were very young in their faith. I mean, the fact that Paul would consider sending Artemis says that he had a great knowledge of Scripture.

Also, they had an ability to teach and to preach the Word. It speaks about his pastoral skills. He has to be a pastor to pastors. Apparently, he's already proved himself, though the Bible doesn't tell us anything about Artemis.

He most likely was a pastor, a church leader, certainly. It speaks about that. It speaks of his leadership skills, because he has to be an administrator and a leader of the elders.

You remember what Paul commanded Titus to do for the churches on the island of Crete. He was to select, appoint elders for every church.

I mean, you've got to be a pretty good leader yourself to be able to identify good leadership to place those elders in all of those churches on the island.

All right, so Paul clearly had great confidence in this man. All right, we can assume all of that, even though the Bible didn't tell us anything about him, just his name, really.

We can assume that Paul loved him, Paul needed him, Paul admired him. We can assume that Artemis cared for Paul and was valuable to Paul's care and support.

And then we can assume all those things that I've listed about this man. He was a great man. So here's Artemis trying, Paul's deciding whether it's going to be him to send, to take Titus' place there on the island.

All right, so that's Artemis. But what about Tychicus? Kind of a strange name, Tychicus. Well, Tychicus is well represented in the New Testament record.

Tychicus, and I've given them in your notes the various references in Scripture about him. Tychicus, first of all, accompanied Paul on one leg of his third missionary journey.

He didn't accompany him throughout the entire third missionary journey. But he's mentioned in Acts chapter 20, verse 4. And so he was most likely with Paul from Corinth to someplace in Asia Minor or throughout Asia Minor, in that part of his journey.

Tychicus, number two, delivered Paul's letter to the Colossian church. He's mentioned in Colossians 4, verse 7. So he was entrusted with Paul's letter of encouragement and instruction to the church in Colossia.

And Tychicus did that. Third, Tychicus delivered Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. And we can understand that from something that was said in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 21.

All right, so he traveled a lot. And he spoke for Paul. And by the way, when they would deliver these letters, and we base this on the two things that were said, first in Colossians and the other in the Ephesian passage, not only delivered a physical letter that they could read for themselves, but also because he was with Paul, had other words that Paul conveyed through him.

And also he was able to, and expected to share with them about Paul's condition, how Paul was doing, the things that are happening with Paul and with other believers.

This man would be entrusted with very valuable information about the growth of the church, growth of the kingdom. All right, so he delivered both those letters.

Fourthly, in Colossians, Paul refers to Tychicus as a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord.

That's, you know, those were his credentials. And in Ephesians, the Ephesians passage, it refers to him in much the same way, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord.

And then finally, Tychicus was sent by Paul to replace Timothy, Pastor Timothy, in Ephesus, 2 Timothy 4, 12. And so this is a great man.

So here you have two guys. I know not anything said about Artemis, although we can assume, because we know Paul, we know the, you know, how huge the task would have been there on the island of Crete with these churches.

And so we can understand, I think, assume some pretty major things about Artemis. And then we know what the Bible has said, what Paul himself has said, and about Tychicus.

All right, so apparently, either of these men would have been excellent choices. I would imagine that there were other men, obviously, other co-workers of Paul that Paul could have selected, but he had narrowed it down to these two guys.

And he had not yet decided which one he thought he could do without. And so, because they cared for him, they cared for Paul, they supported him, they ministered to him, and not just with him, but to him.

It was a mutual kind of ministry. Which points then to the fact that Paul, number two, Paul cared for Titus. All right, all of that that I said about these two guys and their credentials and how Paul would have valued them says a lot about how much Paul cared for Titus.

Verse 12 says, when I send Artemis to you, or Tychicus. I've already mentioned, kind of jumping ahead, that he was sending one of them there, and you understand this, I understand this from the passage, he was going to send one of them there to take Titus' place because he wanted Titus to come to him, to come to Paul.

And so, I think we can assume that Paul knew that Titus would be reluctant to relinquish his responsibilities there on the island.

Think about what a huge responsibility this was to oversee all of these churches and these elders in all these churches. I think he was reluctant to relinquish that.

And he certainly would not just relinquish that role to just anyone. And Paul, I think, was sensitive to that. That's why he was, he really was conveying to Titus by basically saying in his letter, I haven't decided which one yet because I want to make sure that you get the right man, the man you need.

And, I mean, after all, Titus had been given a great task. Huge task. It's difficult for us to really have an appreciation on just what, how big a task it was that Titus had been given.

Verse, verse five of chapter one, we studied all these as we've been going through Titus, but here's what Paul said to Titus. He said, I want you to set in order the things that are lacking.

So, so think about that. You know, it's a, it would be a big task, it's a big task to set in order things are lacking in one church. But imagine all of these churches on the island of, of Crete and, you know, some of them because of the makeup of the people there, they were, some of them kind of difficult people to handle.

And, and then there were false teachers there and, and there was a huge lack, apparently, a huge void of leadership in these churches.

And this huge, huge task for Titus to take on, to set in order everything that's lacking in all of the churches on, on the island. And, and then as I've mentioned also in verse five of chapter one to appoint elders in every city.

That would be a huge task. and then to teach sound doctrine. He had to teach sound doctrine and, you know, it's relatively easy, by the way, for your pastor to teach sound doctrine to a group of people who really believe in sound doctrine.

And, you know, I, I'm sure that, you know, if we were to get all of our congregation together, we'd have some people have different ideas about some doctrines, but I don't know of any false doctrine being propagated in our church.

And I certainly have never faced any resistance to sound doctrine here at Highland Park Baptist Church. Praise the Lord for that. That was not the case for these churches on the island of Crete.

And they, they had all kinds of, of weird stuff and, and false stuff that was being taught in the churches and being promoted in the churches.

and so what, what is Titus supposed to do? He's supposed to teach sound doctrine and then, one, one last thing in chapter 2, verse 15, to exhort and rebuke with all authority.

So, he had to do it all with authority. Whose authority was it? Well, it wasn't so much the authority of Titus because, who's Titus? It was actually Paul's authority.

The apostolic authority that had been delegated to Titus and so he had to then lead these churches churches and, and, do all that Paul commanded him to do in the churches on this entire island and to do so with authority to convince the people that, that he, he carried with him the authority of the apostle Paul which is the same as saying, I have the authority of God himself.

Not that Paul was God but he had been given that authority by God and Paul is passing that on to Titus. All right, so he had a huge task and Paul cared so much for Titus that he was going to select the right man to come and take his place so that Titus then could leave and feel comfortable about it, be at peace about it, knowing.

And it's very likely that Titus knew both of these men anyway. And so, Paul's going to take care. So he cared for Titus. Third, Titus cared for Paul.

Titus cared for Paul. And so, verse 12 says, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis. That's what Paul said to Titus.

Come to me for I have decided to spend the winter there. Now, come to him for what? Well, to care for him, to work with him, to be a support for him.

all right, so, maybe it'd be good to deal with a little geography here and not that there's any huge spiritual lesson from any of this, but I thought I'd give it to you anyway.

In my reading, I've discovered that there were nine cities in the New Testament period that were named Nicopolis. That's a very common name.

And, you know, that was pretty typical. Not just with the name Nicopolis, but other names of cities. And so, there were, you know, a lot of cities were named the same as many others.

We have that here in the United States, you know, duplicate cities with the same name. kind of reminds me, you know, you don't generally have that within the same state.

You know, in fact, you're not supposed to have two cities with the same name in the same state. Although, it has happened over the years. And I remember when we were living in Texas, in College Station, Texas, well, Bryan, Texas, and I was Walmart manager then.

And just up the road, there was a little, little, little, little community by the name of Reclaw. Reclaw, which is a strange name.

And I don't know why, but I asked somebody about that little town, and this guy said, well, you know, it's a strange thing that it used to be named Walker.

And so they constituted their city under the name Walker, only to discover there was already a Walker in Texas. And so instead of finding some other name, they just reversed the letters to Reclaw.

Now, what has that got to do with any of this? Nothing. It just came to my mind. I thought it would be interesting to share it with you. But getting back to Nicopolis, there were at least nine cities throughout the Roman Empire named Nicopolis, which is the reason for that is pretty clear because the word Nicopolis means city of victory.

City of victory. And so understandably, you know, it was named to commemorate a great, some great victory that the Romans, you know, that great victory.

So the Romans would often rename a conquered city with that name to commemorate a decisive victory that took place there in their history.

And that was true of all of the cities named Nicopolis, but the Nicopolis of which Paul was referring was most likely the most famous of those cities, so named.

And it was located on the western coast of Greece. A little sketchy as whether it was in Acacia, which is the southern province of Greece, or the northern province Macedonia.

According to the map I gave you, it looks like it's clearly in Macedonia, but the border is a little sketchy historically. So you can see kind of where it was located, this Nicopolis, and this is where Paul is going to spend the winter.

some reason for that that's not real apparent, but apparently there on the coast it might have been a great place to spend the winter. The city was named by Gaius Octavius.

Gaius Octavius, the first Roman emperor, later named Augustus Caesar. We're familiar with that guy's name, with that name, especially at this time of the year.

You know, Augustus Caesar was the Caesar when Jesus was born. And it was Augustus Caesar who named this city, or really changed its name.

I didn't put it in the notes and I forgot what the name of it was prior to that. But he was the one who named it, named it after a great victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the famous battle of Actium in 31 BC.

Today, the city is still there. There is an old Nicopolis, the Nicopolis that Paul would have known, but a more modern city exists there, Preveza, there in Greece today.

All right, so Paul, we understand from the passage, Paul had not yet traveled to Nicopolis, so he was not there when he wrote this, indicated by the word there. Verse 12, I've decided to spend the winter there, so he wouldn't say there if he was there.

So he was not there yet, and Paul may have been in Philippi, in the northeastern part of Greece, when he wrote this to Titus, which means then, I mean, this helps us understand that he was not in prison.

Paul was not in prison when he wrote this letter, and those are just important features of a letter that helped identify some things about Paul, some letters he wrote from prison, this was not one of them.

Paul may have been in Philippi, so he was able to travel freely, not in prison, so he could decide, I'm going to go down to Nicopolis in the winter and spend the winter there, maybe it's a good place, maybe it's a resort city, by the way, it is a resort city today, a lot of tourists travel to Pravessa.

Anyway, so he didn't, he did, and he did eventually travel to Nicopolis, and historically, that was where he was eventually arrested, many believe, for the last time, to be taken to Rome, and imprisoned for the last time before his death, though there are others that argue that he did not die in Rome during that imprisonment, went on to make at least a couple of other missionary journeys, eventually going to Spain, some even think he went all the way to England, to the British island.

So, but he was arrested there, and also according to 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 10, it was from Nicopolis that Titus later traveled to Dalmatia, modern-day Croatia, and I show that on the map there just for your enjoyment.

Alright, so Titus traveled to Nicopolis to join Paul. Titus cared for Paul, but he had to care for the needs of two others of Paul's servants first, and so this is the last reference to caring for fellow ministers.

Titus cared for Zenos and Apollos. Verse 13, send Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing.

Alright, so, speaking of nothing, we know nothing about Zenos. except what is mentioned here in this passage in Titus. Alright, so we do have a reference there.

He was certainly a Christian, that's implied. See, in all the things that we implied about Artemis, we can also assume is true about Zenos.

And apparently Paul, of course, had a lot of confidence in Zenos. Zenos. But he does say he was a lawyer. And we may wonder, is it possible that a lawyer could be a Christian?

Lawyers and car salesmen, those are the two people I'm just not real sure about. Do we have any car salesmen in here? I don't think we have any lawyers in here, so I didn't offend anybody.

And you know I'm just having fun. I say that. But he was a lawyer. But just what kind of lawyer? Because there are two possibilities.

The nomakos, nomakos in the Greek, it could refer to an expert in the Mosaic Law. If Zenos was a Jew, and pretty sure he was, historians are, he had a Greek name, but that was pretty common.

Paul even had a Greek name. But if he was a Jew, it could be that he was that kind of a lawyer. expert in the Mosaic Law.

You know, Jesus had a lot of problems with some of the lawyers of his day, and not because they were, you know, legal guys to represent you in a court of law, but because they were so-called experts on the Mosaic Law.

Or he could be the other kind of lawyer, the kind we have today, a Roman, in this case, probably very likely a Roman. He could still be a Jew and be a Roman and work for Rome as a civil jurist.

So, one of those two things, all right? Apollos, on the other hand, is mentioned several times in the New Testament, and actually that name ought to be recognizable to you.

And I've given you the several references that we have to Apollos, and I'm going to just read them to you. Acts 18, 24 to 28, now a certain Jew named Apollos, and this is the very same Apollos that we have in Titus here, born at Alexandria, so he's an Alexandrian Jew, was an eloquent man, means he was a great orator, had command of the language, verbal language, I started to say the king's English, but it wasn't the king's English, he would have spoken Greek, but he was a great communicator, which becomes apparent a little bit in one of the other references, and mighty in the scriptures.

Now at this point, we're talking about the Old Testament scriptures, all right? this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.

And it's that little reference there that clues you in that he was not yet saved, not yet a Christian, not yet a follower of Christ. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, when Aquila and Priscilla, a couple of ladies, a husband and wife, heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately, which just means they led him to faith in Christ.

And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.

So there's pretty strong proof of his conversion. religion. Really, you would love to see that exemplified by all those who knew converts to Christ.

I mean, they just hit the ground running and Apollos did. And for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly. So he's very bold.

And, again, eloquent. So very successful in refuting the Jews, Jewish leadership. showing from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

So he didn't just argue that he was. He showed them from the Bible. So, great combination. Before he was saved, he knew the scripture. And all he needed was the power of the Holy Spirit to connect what he knew about the Old Testament past, to connect all of that to Jesus.

And then when that connection was made, when he was saved, he began to proclaim and was a very successful, very effective, really, I guess you could call him a successful apologist for the faith.

Then also, in 1 Corinthians 1, 11 to 12, some of Apollo's converts were causing some division in the church at Corinth.

And you remember this as well, for it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren. This is Paul writing to the church at Corinth, a very troubled church. They had all kinds of problems.

So, this has been declared to me, somebody has let me know this, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions, quarrels among you. Now, I say this, that each of you says, that is not each of you, you know, this group, that group, various groups in the church, say, you know, I'm of Paul.

So, one group said, I'm of Paul, I'm a convert of Paul, I'm a follower of Paul. Or, I am of Apollos, of Apollos. Or, I am of Cephas, that's Peter.

Or, I am of Christ. Those were the elite group, you know, we're not of any man, we're of Christ, Christ only. And then Paul asks the question, is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? And so, you kind of remember that passage. Now, I don't think the problem was with Apollos. Now, Apollos, you know, in the Acts passage that I read a moment ago, I didn't read on, right after that, it speaks of Apollos going to Corinth.

Well, he hadn't arrived at Corinth yet when Paul wrote this passage. We'll find that out here a little bit later. But, apparently some of his converts had. That is, those who heard him preach.

And they thought he was the greatest. And so, they were kind of so-called converts of Apollos. I had that happen to me one time. I was visiting in a home.

This lady and her husband had visited our church. It wasn't here, it was a previous church. And, you know, so I was talking to them about their, you know, where they are, you know, spiritually and what church, you know, do you belong to a church and so forth.

And I'll never forget her answer, though I don't remember the name she referred to, but she said, well, we are followers of, and then she named a name of such church.

And it was a huge church. I went after that and looked it up on the internet and it was a big church. And so, you know, and there wasn't anything wrong with the pastor, nothing wrong with the doctrine of the church.

The problem was, unbeknownst to him, as I think it was unbeknownst to Apollos, he had these followers and they thought that he, this preacher had hung the moon.

And so there were people like that in the church at Corinth. We're followers of Apollos or some of Paul and so forth. But the problem was not with Apollos because Paul very much wanted Apollos to visit Corinth and minister to the people in the church, perhaps maybe even to reinforce his admonition that he gave to them in the opening chapter of the letter.

You know, you're not followers of a man, you're followers of the Lord Jesus. He's the one who was crucified. And so I think he probably wanted Apollos to set that straight because it says in 1 Corinthians 16, 12, now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren, other fellow ministers, but he was quite unwilling to come at this time.

However, he will come when he has a convenient time. So these are references to Apollos. All right, so now why were Zenos and Apollos in Crete to begin with?

Well, Zenos and Apollos, apparently, I think it's safe to assume, were in Crete to deliver Paul's letter to types. That's why they were there.

Paul didn't deliver his letters in person. At least I don't think he did in any of them. I can't recall, but he would send faithful servants and again, it was more than just being a mailman.

You know, they would go and minister and share other things and they came many times with the authority of the apostle, Paul to deal with matters in the church.

And so this is what Zenos and Apollos were there for. And so Titus was to send them, I say there in the notes, back to Paul, but it's really not clear in the passage whether they were to send him back to Paul or just simply send them on the way wherever Paul wanted them to go, but to send them with haste.

And he was to see to it, Titus was to see to it, that they lacked nothing. lacked nothing. So Titus was to care for their needs, take care of those needs of these two faithful servants of the church.

So the lesson really is the mutual support and care for those who have been called to spiritual leadership should characterize the spirit of the church. And that's not just simply for those who minister among you, that is paid staff or whatever, but other ministers of the church and leaders in the church where we have opportunity, we're to care for them and meet some of their needs.

All right, so that's care for fellow ministers to the church. And then finally, and specifically to Titus, charge the faithful members of the church.

He's to charge them with some things. And all of it has to do with works. And so here are five things very quickly and we'll wrap this up. First of all, charge them to persistent works.

Persistent, ongoing, persistent works, good works. This is what he says in verse 14, and let our people also learn to maintain or engage in and the verbal construction means to continually maintain, engage in good works.

This is persistent works, good works within the church. All right, so Titus is to charge them to do that, these faithful members of the church. Number two, pressing works, not just persistent, but kind of another category of needed works in the church, what we call pressing.

In fact, I think it's the NASB that uses the word pressing. In the New King James, verse 14, to meet urgent needs.

So there are, you know, works, general works, good works, that we are to be persistent in doing. And Titus was to charge the members of the church, faithful members of the church, to engage in these things continually, always doing good works.

And then there's this category of urgent things, urgent needs, that need to be taken care of, and there to do those things too, as those things come to light.

And by the way, it's pretty important to understand that Paul is not instructing Titus to just charge the leaders to do these things, because there are enough of them.

No church has enough of them to take care of all the needs, even pressing needs, in the church. And so it takes a whole congregation, and this is the idea here.

So persistent works, pressing works, and then third, productive works. And they are productive. Verse 14, that they may not be unfruitful.

So maybe a better word would be fruitful works, but it didn't start with a P, so I didn't put that in my outline. I'm kidding. And I'm not kidding. But productive, fruitful, we're to be fruitful, and productive as members of Christ's church.

And then four, partnership works. Understand that we're one church here, identified by the name Highland Park Baptist Church, and we're a local body of baptized believers, and I believe that's the way the Bible defines the church.

It's a local organism. It's a body of baptized believers. believers, but there are many local churches dotted all around the world, and we're in partnership with them.

Not every church, at least not everyone that says they are a church, obviously. There are false churches. I'm talking about true, bonafide, New Testament churches that are preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and so forth.

We're partners with them, and there's an allusion to that. Verse 15, all who are with me greet you.

Greet those who love us in the faith, and it just really identifies the fact that Paul was certainly connected to the churches on the island of Crete.

He was connected to Titus and connected to the churches, but all that were connected with Paul were connected to Titus and connected to the churches. And so Paul had this huge connection and network of churches all around the civilized world of the day, and it's just really a statement of the fact that we're all together in this work.

And I've mentioned this a number of times before, but whether it's been Ukraine or China, I have always tried to convey to the believers in those churches.

On the other side of two oceans, that we're connected together. And by the way, people, especially in Ukraine, I don't know if this necessarily enters into the minds of people in China, because they have a different philosophy of things, but certainly in Ukraine, it's important for the churches in Ukraine, it's important that the people in their community, and especially those who are of the Russian Orthodox Church, it's important for those churches that the religion, the organized religion of Ukraine, knows that they are connected, that these true churches are connected with churches in the United States.

They were all part of the same thing. The Orthodox Church has a certain respect for the Christian church in America.

And for the churches in Ukraine, the Baptist churches especially, to identify and be able to show a solidarity between them and the churches in the United States is a big deal for their credibility in their country.

And so it's important for us to promote that and know that. It's a partnership. The work is a partnership. And then finally, powerful works.

They're powerful because of the grace of God. Grace be with you all. Amen. There is no power in any of our works apart from the Holy Spirit operating in our lives and in our churches as we yield everything to Him.