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[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Pastor Wolfmuller. And this is the Sunday drive to church for January 26, the year of our Lord 2025, the feast of Saint Titus, pastor and confessor, which is celebrated every year on January 26th for the last, I don't know, 80 years or so. This is an interesting feast, by the way, because if you were to go back to your old tlh, you would look in vain for this particular feast. Because the feast of. Well, well, here's the history as far as I can. Well, we should pray first. Let's do that and then I'll tell you what I found. Maybe you'll be interested, colleague, for the day. For the day of Saint Titus. Let's pray. Almighty God, you called Titus to the work of pastor and teacher. Make all shepherds of your flock diligent in preaching your holy word, so that the whole world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. That's a beautiful prayer. I, by the way, have seen this skull of Titus in Crete, which is where Paul left him to be bishop when he wrote to Titus the letter. Titus, he wrote to him in Crete, and he talked to him about appointing pastors and elders in all the different churches, et cetera. And he was known as the Bishop of Crete. He stayed there even though he traveled with Paul. You can sort of piece together some of the history of Titus and Paul's interaction. It was Paul's ministry that converted Titus, and he was with him when Paul and Barnabas went down to the feast.
[00:01:38] Sorry, the First Council in Jerusalem, Acts, chapter 15. That Jerusalem Council. And we don't know about it from the book of Acts, but we know about it from Galatians because Paul says that even though Titus was with him, he was not compelled to be circumcised. So you have to imagine that that first church council would had a few awkward moments, maybe especially for Titus, as they were discussing his circumcision and it was determined that he didn't have to be. That's an amazing sort of thing. Timothy wasn't circumcised, but was later as an adult when he was accompanying Paul on all of his missionary works so that he could enter into Jewish places and engage with the Jews. But Titus, who was thoroughly Greek, Timothy had kind of half Greek or half Roman, half Jewish family. His mom, his grandma were Jewish.
[00:02:30] Titus, on the other hand, holy Greek father and mother, whole family Greek and He was not compelled to be circumcised. And this is a momentous thing, that the freedom of the Gospel has pushed beyond those particular requirements of Jewish law which were fulfilled by Christ and are no longer applicable to the Gentiles. So Titus was there. Titus accompanied Paul. It seems like Paul probably sent Titus to Corinth from Ephesus to deal with some of the things there. In fact, it might be there's little indications in 2 Corinthians that there was actually a different 2 Corinthians, and that what we have as 2 Corinthians is 3 Corinthians that there was another letter between 1st and 2nd Corinthians that was lost. And it could be that Titus brought that letter from Ephesus over to Corinth. And when Paul left Ephesus, this is on his third missionary journey, he went north to Troas. He was hoping to meet Titus there, but he didn't meet him there. Titus didn't catch up with him from Corinth until they got over to Macedonia. So Titus was delayed. It seems like Titus was with Paul in Rome when he was in prison, and then traveled with Paul, at least to Crete, because Paul says, I left you in Crete to deal with the church there and to work in the church there. And it seems like that's where Titus stayed and apparently where he died, because his skull is still there. Now, why do we have St. Titus Day on January 26?
[00:04:05] I mentioned before, if you look in your old TLH, you will not find St. Titus Day on January 26. You will find the conversion of St. Paul on January 25. And that's an old custom. So the feast of the conversion of St. Paul is an old European feast that goes back, I don't know, 6th century, 12th century. It's different dates. It goes way back. My guess is that it had to do with the moving of the different body parts of St. Paul from one place to another. That's normally how these feast days get appointed, is when the bones or the relics of a particular saint get moved from one place to another. And when you visit.
[00:04:48] When you visit Rome, you have to visit two churches to get the full experience of St. Paul's bones. Because his skull. Well, his body is in the Basilica of St. Paul, and his skull, just like the body of Peter, is in the Basilica St. Peter, but both of their skulls are in the other basilica, the Basilica of. I gotta look. The Basilica of St. John Lateran. Aha. Found it. That's where they've got this big Kind of dangly thing from the ceiling that's got the skulls of Peter and Paul up in it. Anyhow, my guess is that Rome had the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the Northern Europeans were jealous about it. And so they had the feast of the Conversion of Paul, and they put it on January 25th. And then Vatican II says, let's add some more feasts there. And so they added the feast of Timothy and Titus to January 26, the day after the conversion of Paul, because not only was Paul converted, but he converted other people, namely the chief two converts of Paul, Timothy and Titus, and then the Lutherans. Here's again, my guess. I'll bet you the committee. I bet you we could meet the guys who actually made this decision. They said, you know what? Instead of having St. Timothy and St. Titus on the same day, why don't we split it up? So they moved the Feast of St. Timothy to January 24, and they kept January 26 as Titus. So if you're looking at, like, the treasury of Daily Prayer, it'll say Timothy, January 24, Paul's conversion, January 25, Titus, January 26. I bet you can't find that anywhere else. I bet you I don't know this for sure, but I bet you that's a unique Missouri Synod thing. And I bet if we talk to Wil Whedon, he could tell us who did it. Maybe I'll call him up this week and try to figure it out. Anyhow, the result of this whole thing is that today we get to think about Titus and his life and his work and what all of these things that were happening in the early church meant. And we get to think about this for us and rejoice in it. So we'll start first with the Psalm, which is Psalm 71, the first 14 verses. This is a psalm of deliverance. It says, deliver me in thy righteousness. Cause me to escape. Incline thine ear to me, and save me. That's verse two, verse four. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. Let my mouth be. Verse 8. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise. And with thy honor all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength fails. For my enemies speak against me. And they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together. So this is this. But I will hope. This is how it ends. Verse 14. I will hope continually and praise more and more. So this is a classic prayer of deliverance, asking the Lord to rescue us from all of our trouble. The first lesson is actually not Old Testament, it's New Testament, Acts, chapter 20. And this, oh boy, this is one of the most important passages, is certainly in the Book of Acts.
[00:08:09] It is the most important text for understanding the unity, the results of the hypostatic union of the two natures joined together in the single person of Christ. Because there's a phrase in this text that teaches us how to speak rightly about God through the incarnation of Christ. I'll tell you about it a little bit more, but here's the context. This is Paul's third missionary journey. He'd gone to get Titus. He was in Ephesus for a long time. Then he did this little loop to go check on the church's troas. And he went down around Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, and he sails back.
[00:08:56] And he doesn't go back to Ephesus because he's trying to get back to Jerusalem, even though everyone's trying to stop him, saying, hey, you're going to be arrested, thrown in jail in Jerusalem. Don't go to Jerusalem. He's headed for Jerusalem, but he wants to bless the pastors in Ephesus. In fact, I think Paul set up a seminary when he was in Ephesus. And I think he wants to be back to preach for the graduation and ordination of the students that are there. And so he meets. They all leave Ephesus and they go down, I don't know, 20 miles down the coast to Miletus, and they meet Paul there and he preaches this glorious sermon. It's the only Christian sermon in the Book of Acts. Every other sermon is not preached to Christians. It's preached to the synagogue, to the unbelievers in Jerusalem, to the pagans in Derbe or wherever, to the philosophers in Athens. All the sermons in the Book of Acts are to non Christian audiences, except for this one. And it's interesting that this is the only sermon that quotes Jesus. And Paul quotes Jesus with words that we don't have recorded in the Gospel. It's more blessed to give than to receive. So if you have a red letter Bible and you're looking, reading through the Book of Acts, you'll find a few red letters in the Book of Acts, and that's one of them. At the very end, we remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it's more blessed to give than to receive.
[00:10:23] But here's Paul's preaching now to these saints in Ephesus. These pastors, new baby pastors in Ephesus, and they're getting ready to be to go out there and do their own preaching and evangelistic work in Ephesus and all the region around Ephesus, the seven major cities around Ephesus, and so forth. So he says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
[00:10:51] Care for the church of God, which he obtained better translation which he purchased with his own blood.
[00:11:01] And that phrase, his own blood, referring to God, the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood, is one of the most profound little phrases in all of Holy Scripture, that God has blood.
[00:11:20] And this is the phrase that teaches us to talk then of the body of God, the mother of God, the suffering of God, the grave of God, even the death of God, because those things which belong to the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, his blood, his body, his everything, also therefore belong to God according to the union of the two natures. It's so important. Oh boy.
[00:11:53] Acts 20:28 is one of these verses that we'll spend our whole lives thinking about, and not only our whole eternity thinking about this, marveling at this second great mystery of the Christian faith, the unity of the two natures in the singular person of Christ.
[00:12:09] He goes on to say in verse 29, I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. So false doctrine is going to come from outside and also from inside. Therefore you have to pay careful attention.
[00:12:27] This is one of these texts that encourages us to be mean about the doctrine, because we just want to be nice all the time. I mean, I do too. And it's good that we want to be nice to each other. But when it comes to the faith, the confession of faith and the doctrine, we got to be where wary. That's what Jesus says. Beware. We have to be careful, because false doctrine is going to come in from every direction. This is what Paul warns about. It's what Jesus warns about. It comes from every which way. Beware, therefore be alert. Remembering that for three years I didn't cease day and night to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified.
[00:13:12] So Paul preaches to them, and then when he's finished preaching, they fell on each other's necks and they wept. Because they knew he was going to Jerusalem. And they knew in Jerusalem trouble was going to meet him. And they didn't think that they'd see him ever again. And maybe they didn't. And they loved each other. Oh, boy. I mean, these two things, just the things for us to lean into.
[00:13:34] St. Paul Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas, from this text and from all the texts, but from this text, that we love one another deeply and care for one another, and that we don't let anyone teach any other doctrine.
[00:13:48] So that we have this deep and profound compassion and affection and this deep courage and confidence in the truth of God's word. Oh, that. That would define the church.
[00:14:02] The Epistle that's in Titus 1:1 to 9. You wouldn't expect anything else but these. I'll read all these verses and probably. I don't know. I'm still working. I gotta. I gotta know. I mean, it's. You know, I'm recording this on Saturday. And so by time you're listening, I'm gonna know what I'm gonna preach on.
[00:14:20] I. By the way, I'm gonna have to preach from a pretty solid outline in the morning because I appreciate all your prayers. This last week has been really kind of crazy one for me and the family. And I'm so grateful I'll tell you all this tomorrow, but I'm so grateful to Pastor Davis, Pastor LeBlanc, Vicar, everyone at church, you, all the elders who just said, hey, Pastor, go and take care of your family. Don't worry about us. It was a very special week this last week to be with mom and be with dad especially, and be with my brothers in Houston. But I do have they talk about it, apparently, that you can get an ICU fog being in the hospital, so I can tell I'm still coming out of that.
[00:15:00] So I'm going to have to have an outline. So I'm going to know. I'm still trying to figure it out. It probably will be this text from Titus 1 where Paul says, Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect, and their knowledge of truth, which adorns with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word. The preaching with which I have been trusted by the command of God our Savior, to Titus, my true child in the common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, if his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered, or a drunkard, or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good self controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
[00:16:17] So Paul's laying forth for Titus the requirements that are needed. And in some ways, I think this letter that Paul writes to Titus, like his two letters that he writes to Timothy, are not only for Titus, but also for all the people that are giving him grief. You know, we have this, you know, and Paul said to Timothy, don't let anyone despise you for your youth. Well, you figure there's a bunch of old guys despising him for how young he is. Come on, Timothy, how are you supposed to tell us what to do? You're just a young pup. All these kind of elder statesmen there in Ephesus. And so Timothy can pull out this letter from Paul and say, hey, look, I've got these instructions straight here.
[00:16:58] So also, Titus, as he's getting all this grief from all the people in Crete, he can pull out this letter and say, look, I was sent here by the Apostle Paul to do this work and I'm doing it. I've got my letters, I've got my orders here. So he gives them orders and he gives them this checklist for what to look for in a pastor. The word bishop and overseer and pastor and elder are really the same office, the same teaching office. So we kind of conflate them, or I shouldn't say we do conflate them. Sometimes, though, we talk about elders versus pastors as a different office. But in the Bible they all kind of run together. They're those who are ordained for the purpose of preaching the Word and administering the sacraments. And he says here, they can't be like this, but they have to be like this for the purpose of teaching, to give instruction in sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it. We mentioned this before. I can't even remember why we're talking about it, but there's a via negativa and a Via Positiva. There's a command for what to do. And also, like the positive teaching, but there's also the rebuking, the negative work of saying what's wrong. It's not just. In fact, it's not enough for a pastor or a teacher of the Word of God to say, this is what the Bible teaches. You have to also say, this is what the Bible doesn't teach. This is what's right, and that's what's wrong. Like Jesus said. You've heard it said, but I say to you. So there's also a rebuke that has to occur in the church. Now. It doesn't have to be violent always, although sometimes you got to really get after the false doctrine with an excommunication or something like that.
[00:18:41] But the proper teaching of the Word of God has instruction and also rebuke.
[00:18:48] That's a beautiful text. And the Gospel lesson is Luke chapter 10. This is the sending of the 72, where Jesus is going to. This is on the way to Jerusalem. So Luke chapter nine has this very pivotal verse where it says that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. And that enters into a pretty unique series of texts. Those chapters, those middle chapters of Luke, like Luke into Luke 9 into Luke 17, are a lot of the unique stuff that's just in Luke. It's not in Matthew or in Mark. And it's called the. I think the travel narrative or something like this. The Bible scholars have a name for it. It's after Jesus is setting himself to go to Jerusalem. And after he does that, he sends a bunch of the disciples ahead to prepare the way in all these different villages where Jesus would go and stop. He sends them ahead to go and preach and teach and bless, and then they're going to return. So they're kind of paving the way. It's like 72 John the Baptists. So here's what it says. After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to go. And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Go your way. Behold, I'm sending you out. Listen to this line. As lambs in the midst of wolves, carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, greet no one on the road.
[00:20:14] Whatever house you enter, say first, peace be to this house.
[00:20:20] So he's going to give them two instructions on what to preach. The first is Peace be on this house. And then at the end, heal the sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. That's great. That's great. Matthew does have this text. So even though this is part of that unique section, it's in Matthew. I think it's also in Mark as well. In Matthew, it says sending of the 70. And I think we probably say Matthew was sending of the 70ish. And Luke, who's more precise, is going to say sending of the 72.
[00:20:50] So I thought of a joke. Can I tell you this? So Luke counts like the elders and Matthew counts like Marvin.
[00:21:07] Someone better tell Marvin that I'm giving him grief about how he does the attendance at church.
[00:21:13] Oh, boy. Anyhow, if they say, peace be with you, peace beyond this house, and Jesus says, if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it'll return to you and remain in the house and eat and drink what they provide. The laborer deserves his wages. Don't go from house to house whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what's set before you, heal the sick and say, the kingdom of God has come near. So that they're sent to preach the nearness of the kingdom of God. And this is the preaching from John the Baptist until the end of the world. This is the preaching of the church. The kingdom of God is near. Well, now, what does that mean? The kingdom of God is when God sends his Holy Spirit so that we hear, so that His Word is preached and heard and believed and trusted. That is the kingdom of God, the Spirit and the Word. I think this is what Jesus is teaching us in Acts, right before his ascension, when the disciples come and say, they say, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus says to them, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which are in the Father's hands. But the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be my witnesses.
[00:22:28] So that Jesus is saying, look, the timing of the coming of the kingdom is not your business. But you're going to recognize the coming of the kingdom when the Spirit comes and the Word is preached. And this is how we know where the kingdom is. If the word is preached, the Spirit is working and the Spirit is present.
[00:22:48] So the kingdom of God comes in the preaching of Jesus. Now how amazing that even when Jesus is walking the earth, these disciples are going out and they're bringing the blessing of Jesus work and word and presence, even though he's not with them. They're in all these different cities and all these different households and all these different neighborhoods, and all these different people are being blessed. Even though Jesus is some other place, they're being blessed. And that's a beautiful picture of how it is with us that Jesus comes to us to bless us, to give us all that we need. It's fantastic. Okay, maybe one more quick thing. Oh, about the hymn of the week. Preach you the word. This is one of these great Martin Franzman hymns. Martin Franzman was a churchman of the Missouri Synod in the last.
[00:23:37] Oh, the last century. He didn't die that long ago. Maybe he died in the 90s or something like that. His most famous hymn is Thy strong Word. Da da da da da da. But even though he wrote all these beautiful hymns, he thought of himself as an exegete. And in fact, some of his best work is biblical exposition. He has a beautiful text, the Word of the Lord Grows, which is a summary of the New Testament. It's an introduction to the New Testament. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful book and a really profound insight into the text itself, into the words and the meaning and the way it all works. He was a global thinker. He's really a. A kind of a churchman among churchmen. I've talked to a number of my own professors who knew and studied under Dr. Franzman, and they said that he was the quietest, humblest, one of. A really wonderful man, which. He's one of the people I'm looking forward to talking with in the Resurrection. And he's written this sermon about preaching. Preach you the word. Here's some of the words. Preach you the Word and plant it home. This is about the parable of the sower to men who like or like it not. The word that shall endure and stand when flowers and men shall be forgot. We know how hard, O Lord, the task your servant bade us undertake to preach youh Word, and never ask what prideful profit it shall make. The sower sows, his reckless love scatters abroad the goodly seed intent alone that all may have the wholesome loaves that all men need. Though some be snatched and some be scorched, and some be choked and matted flat. The sower sows, his heart cries out, O, what of that? Oh, what of that?
[00:25:27] Of all his scattered plenteousness, 1/4 waves ripe on hill and flat, and bears a harvest hundredfold. Ah, what of that, Lord, what of that? Preach you the Word? And plant at home, and never faint the harvest, Lord, who gave the sower seed to sow will watch and tend his planted word. Oh, this is a beautiful hymn for preachers.
[00:25:57] For me listen to that hymn. It's like just put the word out there, put the word of God onto the ear and let the Holy Spirit do the work. That's the point. And we delight to hear that word and know that the Lord is working through his word to plant it into our hearts and give us a good conscience and cause us to grow in wisdom and courage and faith in Christ. Well may God grant it that it would be the same as it was with Titus in Crete and Paul in miletus and the 72 on the way to Jerusalem. And for those of us gathering now at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas, that the kingdom would come, the Spirit and the Word would be present. We would delight in the Lord's eternal life. Oh God, grant it for Christ's sake. See you soon.