I wondered if you ever noticed the obvious. There are only a very few people that actually play baseball while there are thousands upon thousands that rather sit in the bleachers and watch. The same is true with soccer. There are not many that could run a soccer field back and forth, and on top of that with accuracy and endurance kick the ball about. Hundreds of thousands of fans, however, love to cheer their soccer team on.

Christ’s kingdom is different. Following Christ is no spectator sport. It enlists everyone that claims the name of Christ. The word ‘follow’ calls for active participation. Hebrews 11 defines faith as a list of brave and daring acts to live out God’s calling upon one’s life. It is interesting to note that many who criticize the church for hypocrisy are themselves not actively expanding the kingdom of God. They are too busy griping. God does not care whether we know what to do. He delights in training us. They Lord is largely concerned with our deliberateness in serving Him. Listen to the comment on King Hezekiah.

“And thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, right, and true before the LORD his God. And every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered” (2 Chronicles 31:20, 21).

In the Book of Titus, we have observed the need for our lives to be impacted by the Word of God. Jesus’ message was the same, of course. Paul just finished telling Titus on how he needs to hold fast to the faithful word and be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict (see Titus 1). We might think that the apostle is speaking on some heady conversation over election, deep discussion on Christ’s deity or interesting conversation on the Trinity. Usually, by doctrine we mean essential truths which are to be believed that would enable a person to be a follower of Christ.

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Paul, however, is not largely focused on these great theological doctrines of God the Father, Christ and salvation, but on how these truths play themselves out in our day-to-day lives.

As he says in verse 16, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed” (Titus 1:16). It is evident that what we do becomes clear evidence for each of us to get a picture of our what we believer. What we do reveals who we really are. It is here we get a glimpse into what we really believe.

Millions of people call themselves a Christian. But the question is whether they follow Christ. Paul is concerned with those whose profession and deeds do not match. This is interesting for it is exactly what problem we see with many of those who ‘go to church’ today. They profess Christ. They would say they have a personal relationship with God through Christ. But their lives are anything but consistent with God’s standards. It is like Paul says, “By their deeds they deny Him.”

He warns us against false prophets. So what is a false prophet? Is it a pastor who denies Christ’s physical resurrection? Or a pastor which, though married, thinks homosexuality is okay? Or a pastor, who though professes Christ, would not pay attention to those in authority around him? We would have to include all of them. Each has not learned to restrain his thoughts, words and behavior to conform to God’s holy standards. This is what makes this age so difficult.

Paul was concerned with building up the church there in Crete. A church can only get strong when the individual believers get strong.

So we must ask ourselves, are we only a spectator? Are we so involved in the sidelines of following Christ that we think we are actual players of the game? Let us look more closely at what the apostle is calling us to examine in our lives.

At this point, hopefully you are thinking, “What should we be doing?” Paul, in this second chapter of Titus elaborates on what things God’s people should be involved in. Interestingly, the apostle has things to instruct us on here. We seem to miss the obvious, but they come right to the front of his teaching. Early on in chapter two we will see four categories: Older men, older women, young women and young men. This includes all of the believers. Each has a special description for their stage in life. This confirms again that God wants everyone involved in what He is doing.

In this message, we will only focus on the one group: the older men, but each group has their own sphere of life in which they are involved. Each has their own temptations and challenges. Paul’s exhortations will help each group focus on how to do well despite these challenges. Let’s now look at the first of these groups: the older men. => Next

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