Church Planting for Gospel Purity
The mission of Cities Church is to make disciples of Jesus from all nations — and we like to say this is our mission because this is exactly what Jesus tells us to do in Matthew 28:18–20.
Because we are disciples of Jesus, Jesus is our highest allegiance and we want to do whatever he says, and he says to “make disciples”, which means we multiply and mature worshipers, servants, and missionaries of Jesus who live faithfully in the home, the church, and the world.
And as we do this — as seek to fulfill this mission — it leads to us planting new churches who do the same. This is our vision. Our vision is what it looks like if the mission is effective. It’s the tangible outcome of our compounded discipleship efforts … and I love drawing this out and talking about the details and how it all works, but the most important question here is why. Why do we want to plant churches?
Now ultimately, the answer here is the glory of God. We believe that saturating a metro with healthy local churches will lead to the maximum display of God’s glory in that metro. But there’s another answer to the question of why, and it’s even more fundamental: we believe that church planting is deeply biblical.
And the reason that I start with all this is because our passage today, Titus 1:5–16, gives us the clearest, most practical rationale for church planting found in the New Testament. And I want to show you this.
Now the plan is to work through all the verses in the passage, but my goal is to paint full picture of what Paul is doing by focusing on three layers of reality.
So imagine a picture — thinking of a painting — and there are three things:
there’s the background
then the central subject or action, and
then the surrounding of the action (what’s in the air).
These three layers are in the passage, and we’re going to look at these: background, action, air. So imagine the painting: What is the background?
#1) What Is the Background?
The background in the passage is the purpose of elders.
This something we’ve seen elsewhere in the New Testament, and it’s something we’ve talked about going back to 1 Timothy. The purpose of elders in the church is to defend the church’s doctrinal purity.
Back in 1 Timothy when we talked about eldership, I explained that the office of elder (or pastor) in the local church is primarily a teaching office. Pastors open the Bible to instruct the church on what God has to say, and that includes protecting the church from false teaching. Paul was thinking this way in 1–2 Timothy, and he’s still thinking this way in Titus.
We Are Happy Janitors
The main verb of the passage is that Paul left Titus in Crete. That’s what Paul says in verse 5, and it’s the foundation to everything else. Titus was in Crete on purpose, and that purpose, Paul says, was to “put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.”
Now we’re going to come back to this, because it’s the action, but in the passage, notice that Paul doesn’t spend another sentence before describing what is required of elders.
First, an elder must be a man of character, verse 6 — which doesn’t mean that he can put on a character show, but he must be a man of character among those who know him best: that’s his family.
And this matters because, verse 7, an elder is an overseer, which, Paul says, is like being God’s steward. And I love this description for a pastor. This word for “steward” means like a household manager. It’s like a housekeeper, or we might say a custodian. A custodian or steward is the same idea.
And one thing important about this word is what it does not mean. A steward is not an owner. A steward is only entrusted with the task of managing what is owned by someone else. And in the case of pastors, the church over which we see, is owned by Jesus. In fact, Jesus doesn’t just own the church, but he created the church by his blood. And this is something that must always be present in the work of pastors. I’ve told you before, a couple years ago, that the pastors of Cities Church like to think of ourselves as janitors. We are happy janitors! We do not create anything; we take orders from Jesus, as he has spoken to us in the Scriptures.
The Primary Duty of Pastors
And according to Scripture, the primary duty of janitors — of pastors — is to guard the church’s sound doctrine by teaching sound doctrine, which is positive, and by defending against false doctrine, which is negative. These are two sides of the same coin. We see this in verse 9. It’s the only duty mentioned for pastors. Everything else in verses 5–8 is about what a pastor must be. He must be a man of character and integrity. And this all crescendos on what he must do:
He must hold firm the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
The “trustworthy word [or faithful word] as taught” here in verse 9 is referring to the gospel as Paul has taught it. This means much more than the bare minimum of Christian orthodoxy, but Paul is talking about the gospel and everything to do with the gospel that he’s written about. We saw this in 2 Timothy 2 (see also 2 Timothy 1:13). The “trustworthy word as taught” is the whole pattern of sound doctrine as it was entrusted to Paul and taught by Paul in his apostolic authority. Pastors stick with Paul, remember!
That is the duty of pastors, so that — because we embrace this trustworthy apostolic message — we can instruct the church in sound doctrine and rebuke those who contradict it. Pastors are meant to hold the doctrinal line.
The Bible is clear on this and it’s good to know, but it should also be said that the modern concept of pastors is much different. In our consumeristic society, the market demand for most pastors is not truth-telling, but helpfulness — and that is helpfulness as determined by the individual’s psychological sense of fulfillment. As a society, we are addicted to entertainment and immediate gratification, and Americans tend to expect that everywhere, even in the church, even from pastors.
But the main purpose of pastors is to defend the church’s right doctrine.
This is the background to Paul’s thinking in Titus 1. This is where he’s coming from. Imagine the painting — now let’s look at the action in more detail.
#2) What Is the Action?
The action in the passage is Titus planting churches. Verse 5 again. Paul left Titus in Crete on purpose, and that purpose is stated as the action in verse 5:
First, “that you might put what remained in order”
And second, “appoint elders in every town as I directed you”
And these are not two different things, but the second part explains the first. Putting what remained into order is achieved by appointing elders in every town. But what exactly does that mean?
Well, it hinges on the meaning of “what remained.” Paul is saying that there were some things left undone in Crete, and that is because, apparently, Paul had been to Crete for a short time. We see this in Acts 27, when Paul was on his way to Rome, they stopped in Crete. It helps, I think, to know a little more about where this place is …
Crete is a Greek island in the Mediterranean Sea directly south of Athens. And if you were to leave this afternoon you could get there by this time tomorrow. It’s a 19-hour-and-4 minute flight from MSP to Amsterdam to Athens to Crete — and boom, you’re there. Crete is still a bustling place today; I hear the tzatziki is amazing!
Well, in the ancient world Crete was known to have many cities. The island was divided up by these different cities, and that’s what Paul is referring to in verse 5 when he says “appoint elders in every town.” This word for town is polis, which of course is also translated city. The reason the English Standard Version says “town” is because we tend to think of cities as big urban areas, but these cities in Crete were probably more like what we’d think of towns. They were smaller. No high-rise buildings. But they were pockets of people there.
And, basically, what happened is that Paul had traveled through these towns and preached the gospel, and people had believed. Cretans had turned from their sins and idols, and they trusted in Jesus, but Paul had to go before he completed his ministry. So now he leaves Titus in Crete to finish the work. To put what remained into order. Organize the Christians there by appointing elders in every town.
Which means, Paul is telling Titus to plant churches.
Cretans all throughout these towns had believed the gospel, but they weren’t organized into local churches under the stewardship of elders. That’s what Titus has to do. He has to organize these Christians into communities of faith under the leadership of qualified men appointed as pastors. That’s the action in this passage:
And the primary duty of these pastors who Titus appoints is to guard the church’s right doctrine — because that’s what pastors do — And all this is relevant because, we see in verse 10, there is a lot of false doctrine going around.
Verse 10 is a key grounding verse in this passage. The job of Titus to plant these churches was immediately occasioned by the situation in verse 10:
For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.
See, this is what’s going on: There are false teachers who must be silenced.
But how can they be silenced if there are no pastors to silence them?
And how can there be pastors unless they are appointed?
And how can pastors be appointed unless there are local churches planted for them to steward?
That was the job of Titus. Organize these Christians into churches overseen by pastors who teach good doctrine and rebuke bad doctrine because bad doctrine is everywhere and it must be stopped.
Church Planting for Gospel Purity
There are many great reasons to plant churches. It does glorify God, and that’s most important. Church planting is also the best evangelism strategy there is. It’s also biblical — because we see Paul do it and give instructions about it — and there are all kinds of other benefits to planting churches, but if we focus on this passage, if we take into account what Paul is saying here, the clearest biblical reason to plant churches is for the sake of gospel purity.
See, this world is polluted with lies about God. It wasn’t just a one-time thing in Crete, but this is part of redemptive history. This is the age we live in until Jesus comes back. The apostle John says that “the spirit of the antichrist” is already at work in this world through false teaching (1 John 4:1–3). Through lies.
And so, to bring it down a little, this means that Minneapolis and St. Paul — our cities — are polluted with lies about God. Everywhere you turn there is rebellion against God and his moral will. There are empty talkers and deceivers and whole identities of people who are bound together by their shared rejection of the gospel.
And they are active. They have a vision for your life and for your children, and how you should think and how you should live and what you should chase, and they are going to let you know. And this might seem like it’s not a big deal, it may not feel like it’s a real threat, but if we could see it from Paul’s perspective, we’d understand that we live in a world at war, and the war is for your heart: “We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness” (see Ephesians 6:12).
And when you’re surrounded by lies all day long, who is going to tell you the truth? Can we get a truth-telling outpost here in these cities? Can we start more? How many can we start? Can we saturate these Twin Cities with truth-telling outposts in every town, embassies of the kingdom of Christ, who refuse to buy what the world is selling but instead we give away the greatest news there ever was: that Jesus saves sinners, and his way is better than our way.
That it doesn’t matter where you’re from or where you’ve been, or how broken you are — it doesn’t matter! — because Jesus took the penalty for our sin. Jesus took all of our sin and guilt and shame, and by his death on the cross he absorbed the punishment that we deserved and he defeated death itself. Because on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the Father’s right hand, and he did it to save his people.
Jesus has sent his Spirit and his gospel — and when you hear this news, if you, empowered by the Spirit of God, turn from your sin and trust in Jesus you will be saved. You will be forgiven. You will be made a son or daughter of God with a new purpose for today and hope for tomorrow. Bow to Jesus, and enter into a life of fellowship with God and discipleship in his truth.
Cities Church, this is our message! We are a truth-telling outpost, and we want to start more truth-telling outposts to raid against the deception in our cities. This is why we plant churches.
And this brings us back to our painting.
In the passage, remember the background is the purpose of pastors. Pastors are meant to guard the church’s right doctrine.
And the action is that Titus is planting churches. He’s organizing churches by appointing pastors over them, specifically to stand against the false teaching — he didn’t just plant churches, but he planted churches to silence the bad doctrine.
Church planting then is for the sake of gospel purity. But why? Why exactly are churches so necessary to guard good doctrine?
Well, this is the air of the passage. It’s more of an implication, but you can’t read a single verse without breathing this in.
#3) What Is the Air?
The air of the passage is that the local church is essential for Christian endurance.
Again, this is not stated explicitly in the passage, but it’s there. Imagine if Titus had not planted these churches. What’s at stake? If Titus had not fulfilled this task it would have meant that all these new Christians in Crete would not have been part of local churches, and the fact is: Christians who are not part of the local church don’t typically stay Christian.
Individual Christians outside the local church are extremely vulnerable to falling away — and we see at least two reasons in this passage — but the first thing to say is that being part of the local church has to do with the very nature of salvation. We are never just saved from sin, but we are saved from sin to God and his people. Paul tells Titus in Chapter 2, verse 13 that Jesus gave himself to save “a people for his own possession.” It’s not a person there and there and there who are only voluntarily connected, but it’s a people! — a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation who presently covenant together in local assemblies. The local church is the authority on earth that Jesus has instituted to officially affirm and give shape to the Christian life. There’s really no such thing as a “Christian” who is not part of a body of “Christian-S.” The local church is central to our being in Christ.
And then in this passage, there are two more reasons the local church is especially relevant:
We need the church to challenge our cultural values (v. 12).
We see this in verse 12. Titus is planting churches in Crete, among Cretans, and Cretans had a terrible reputation. Verse 12: “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’”
Now in the passage, Paul quotes this saying as an extended explanation of these false teachers. False teachers, period, are a problem, but what’s especially troubling about Crete is that apparently there were cultural values that exacerbated the problem of false teaching. Here are insubordinate, empty-talking, deceptive false teachers teaching for shameful gain what they should not teach; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work — and then pile on top of that a value system with a reputation of deceit, evil, and selfish consumption.
Not only are these false teachers wrong, but they have a whole society that reinforces their wrongness, and this whole thing seeks to smother Christians. And the smothering happens by providing hopeless answers to gospel-induced questions.
Let me explain this: One reality of missions is that as the gospel advances throughout the world and in different societies, it reveals what’s been called “the crisis of humanity.” It’s because at the very least, the gospel teaches us (and confirms for us) that something is missing. We’re made by God but in our sin we’ve rejected God, and that’s a crisis every human shares. But now the gospel also answers this crisis with a Savior — Jesus came to save us and restore our relationship to God!
But what if you reject Jesus as the Savior?
Well, if you reject Jesus, you’re still stuck with the crisis, and you’ve got to figure out another savior — so now cue the value systems of sinful societies.
Societies aware of the crisis of humanity, even subconsciously, will produce false hopes to answer the crisis. And those false hopes can smother Christians because they’re everywhere around us. It becomes the way of thinking. We form these unquestioned assumptions that fix themselves all around us until the gospel challenges them through the local church.
The local church is that counter-cultural band of human citizens who understand their ultimate citizenship is in heaven (see Philippians 3:20). So they identify themselves as first Christians, not Cretans, and therefore they are able to challenge the hopeless answers of their society. The church is a distinct society under the lordship of Jesus.
This is why we need the church. Jesus has given this “challenge authority” to the church in order to keep Christians from being swept away by a sinful value system. This is how Christians endure.
Okay, there’s second reason in the passage for why the local church is essential for Christian endurance.
We need the church for hope beyond ourselves (v. 13).
We see this in verse 13, and this is, honestly, the most amazing thing to me in this passage. Look what Paul says. He’s talking these Cretan false teachers. Verse 13:
Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
So this command to “rebuke” is consistent with “they must be silenced” in verse 11, and with the duty of pastors in verse 9.
But what is astonishing here is that the purpose of this rebuke is that these false teachers may be sound in the faith. Paul does not say rebuke them to crush them. Or kick them out and be done — which he could say. He said that about Alexander in 1–2 Timothy. But here, to Titus, when it comes to these Cretans, he says to rebuke them because there’s still hope that they will stop and turn … “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25).
Now the word “hope” is not used in the passage, but that’s what this is. And hope is a cardinal distinctive of the local church — and not just hope for our future, but hope for one another now. The local church is a community that walks to the beat of a different drum than the one we hear by ourselves. We operate on the basis of what God has said, not what our society says, and not even what we might say to ourselves.
The hope that we need is not generated [in here], but it comes from outside of us, and the church, filled by the Holy Spirit, is the people who are tapped into that hope. So that when you can’t see it yourself, your brother and sister can say: “Hey! There’s hope! There’s hope!”
We need this for endurance.
This also obliges me as a pastor to make a commitment to you. There was a lot stacked against the Cretans — a lot! — and yet look at Paul. He knew what God was able to do, and therefore he ministered with hope. And with God’s help, our pastors want to serve you the same way. Which means, I promise you, with God’s help, I will never give up on you. We need this kind of hope from one another. And if we can be this kind of church, and plant these kind of churches, we will conquer the world with the hope of the gospel … starting with the Twin Cities (see 1 John 5:4).
That’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
We come to this Table each week to remember that Jesus has won the victory. In his death and resurrection, Jesus accomplished our salvation and secured our future, and we come here together to give him thanks.
We share this meal as the covenant members of Cities Church, but if you’re here and you trust in Jesus, we invite you to eat and drink with us. Just put your hand out, and the pastors will come serve you.
The body of Jesus is the true bread. The blood of Jesus is the true drink.
