St. Titus 2024
St. Titus, Pastor and Confessor
January 26, 2025
Titus 1:1-9; 3:5; Acts 20:28-35; Luke 10:1-9
We do not worship saints, nor pray to them. These things clearly contradict God’s Word. We do, however, remember the saints and give them honor. The Augsburg Confession says,
Concerning the cult of the saints our people teach that the saints are to be remembered so that we may strengthen our faith when we see how they experienced grace and how they were helped by faith. Moreover, it is taught that each person, according to his or her calling, should take the saints’ good works as an example…. However, it cannot be demonstrated from Scripture that a person should call upon the saints or seek help from them. “For there is only one single reconciler and mediator set up between God and humanity, Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2). He is the only savior, the only high priest, the mercy seat, and intercessor before God (Rom. 8). He alone has promised to hear our prayers. According to Scripture, in all our needs and concerns it is the highest worship to seek and call upon this same Jesus Christ with our whole heart. [AC XXI.1-3; Kolb-Wengert]
Christians do not call on the saints or invoke their help. The Lord says in Psalm 50, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will answer you, and you will glorify Me.” And St. John says in his first epistle, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” So when we celebrate a festival like today’s, we are remembering what God did in and through Titus. Christianity is grounded on God’s events in history, what He did that involved real people like us. And as He helped them, He also desires to help us. When we see examples like this, it consoles us. And when we see their own fidelity under the cross, it encourages us to stand up and likewise respond in faith and obedience.
So who was Titus? He was a companion and student of Paul. Because he was Greek, and not circumcised, Titus faced opposition from what St. Paul calls in Galatians “false brethren.” Later Paul sent Titus to Corinth to work on the extreme problems there. They were then supposed to meet up in Troas, but it didn’t happen. Titus either ran into problems leaving Corinth, or he had travel difficulties. Paul reflects on this, “My mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus [in Troas]” [2 Cor. 2:13]. They eventually found each other in Macedonia, where Paul learned that through Titus’ ministry the Corinthians had repented. Among other things, Titus is for a time the bishop of Crete, a Greek island in the Mediterranean. Titus is one of Paul’s most trusted emissaries, who brings the Gospel into conflicted situations and points people toward reconciliation in Jesus. There were problems with the pastors there and Titus had to come in and clean it up.
You can see this implied by Paul’s instructions to Titus, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order” - things were in a disordered state. Titus is supposed to appoint elders - literally, presbyteroi, in English we say “presbyters.” “Elders” is not a good term to use. A presbyter is closest to an associate pastor who serves under an overseer, a senior pastor or bishop. As Christianity develops and grows, a bishop becomes a more powerful figure who has a district or diocese under him, with many congregations and presbyters. Eventually some of those bishops sought to rule over all the others. This is what happens with Rome, where the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, claims lordship over everyone. He alone can forgive certain sins, he alone can appoint bishops, he even is, when he speaks from his chair, infallible. All of that takes centuries of abuse and corruption to develop. Thank God for the Lutheran Reformation, which addressed these ungodly abuses!
But none of that is yet in view when Paul writes to Titus. Here we see the requirements of a presbyter, or Pastor. This is important for you to know, because it tells you what you should expect from a pastor.
It appears the first qualification is that the pastor is to be above reproach. This doesn’t mean that he is without sin. That’s impossible. But above reproach is the header for the items that follow. It means that there cannot be a demonstrated public sin that brings the ministry and the church into ill-repute. It involves both character and doctrine. First of all, he is to be “the husband of one wife.” A literal rendering of the Greek is that he is a “one woman man.” So a man who gets remarried after his wife dies is still a “one woman man,” but not the man who gets divorced or who has an affair.
A celibate priesthood is contrary to Holy Scripture. Gradually from the 4th century through the 12th priests began to be required to be celibate. This led to horrible sixth-commandment problems that persist to this day. Again, thank God for the Reformation which brought the Apostles’ teachings back to the Church. We should also note the implicit expectation here—it’s explicit elsewhere—that the pastor is a man. There are not women pastors. It’s not because women are inferior to men, cannot be holy or learned. This goes deep to the structure of creation and the structure of the family. A woman cannot be a pastor for the same reason that transgenderism is impossible. The pastor has a fatherly role in the church, and women cannot be fathers, and fathers cannot be mothers.
What you see in churches that ordain women, within a generation or two there follows an embrace of homosexuality, abortion, and transgenderism, along with the rejection of the authority of God’s Word. These things all hold together in destroying the family and creation. God forbid we become misognyists or tyrants. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church. But be the man, guard, protect, lead, and provide.
And as God’s Word says to us today, be a one-woman man.
So the pastor is to be “the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.” Elsewhere this is simply described as the pastor having his house in order. You see other qualities such as not being drunk, violent, or greedy; and then positive attributes such as self-controlled and disciplined.
Now what’s really going on here with these qualifications? These are simply the qualities of a Christian man. The pastor is not a superior Christian with unattainable holiness and serenity, or the man with the greatest charisma or learning. Paul is telling Titus, “When you look for men to appoint as pastors, look for men who have the expected traits of a Christian, understand the doctrine, and would be well-suited for the work.”
Every man in the church is called to these qualities, whether or not you are called to be a pastor: Be a one-woman man; don’t get drunk; take care of your family; love what is good; be self-controlled; pursue holiness and learn the Word of God.
Finally, we should be especially glad that little Thomas Egger is baptized on the day when the liturgy begins with Titus ch. 3: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.” The passage continues with a beautiful exposition of holy Baptism: “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” So when I tell you to get married, have babies, baptize them, and stay married, the third one—baptize your babies—is there because baptism is God’s own work. Paul’s letter to Titus teaches him and us that baptism regenerates us—gives us the new birth. It’s not our works that save. He saves us by His own mercy.
So this baptism of Thomas shows the merciful character of God. He loves babies, He loves you, He wants to give you His gifts. He is generous and merciful.
So thanks be to God for His mercy. Thanks be to God for Titus. Thanks be to God for Thomas. Thanks be to God for Baptism. Thanks be to God for the Bible. Thanks be to God for the Reformation. Thanks be to God for you godly men. Thanks be to God for you godly women. Thanks be to God, who is generous and kind to us poor sinners, and saves us according to His own mercy! +INJ+