Aug 29, 2020
Titus 2:11-14
By Matthew Butler
On May 6, 1967, Robert Wideman found himself tumbling through the clear skies over North Vietnam.
The control stick on his A-4 Skyhawk jet had jammed and there was nothing he could do to prevent the plane from spiraling downward. He launched his ejection seat and his parachute opened above him. Immediately after touching ground, he was surrounded by North Vietnamese soldiers, torn from his gear, blindfolded and led off to a nearby hut. Over the next six years, Robert was tortured, interrogated and moved from camp to camp, and he
experienced drastic swings from hope to hopelessness.
Eventually, thanks to the Paris Peace Accords and following an address by President Richard Nixon, Robert was released and welcomed home.
To say that Robert Wideman’s experience was a difficult one is an understatement. It would have been very easy for him to lose hope, to despair and to give up. But he didn’t. And eventually he got his freedom back.
For the Christian, we too have a Hope, that—at times—if we’re honest, is easy to lose sight of. Complacency can set in. Just look at the world around us! We see such brokenness, conflict, struggle, racial injustice, sinfulness, evil.
And our hope can wane.
But we’re not to lose heart.
Because we have a Savior—the Savior of the world—who is the same yesterday, today, and forever—in Whom we Hope and Who IS our Hope.
For this Bible Study, we’re going to be Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus as Our Hope. Our primary text will be Titus 2:11-14.
As we mine this passage for all its riches, I want us to consider three approaches to Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus as Our Hope:
1. We Look Back
2. We Look Up
3. We Look Around
Those will make sense as we work through the passage and offer us a good framework to Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus as Our Hope.
Here we have a letter from Paul, written to his understudy, Titus, who is pastoring a church made up of older men and women, younger men and women, various bondservants, some hooligans trying to stir up trouble… and Titus is supposed to put this church “in order” and give them some “gospel-direction.” How is he going to do that? He’s going to point them to Jesus.
Let’s read verses 11-14 in chapter 2. It says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
This is packed with “gospel-goodness” and I want us to see every bit of it.
So, the First Approach to Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus as Our Hope is to LOOK BACK.
Look back at what Jesus HAS DONE.
Verse 11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.”
For all these men, women, bondservants, riff-raff and ruffians…for them, and for you and me, for the world, God’s grace was fully revealed in the person and work of JESUS to bring about salvation—the fulfillment of the Rescue Plan.
How? Verse 14 says, “[Jesus] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness…”
We LOOK BACK at what Jesus has accomplished (His perfect life, His saving death, His glorious resurrection from the grave, His ascension) as the HOPE of our full Salvation and Redemption. So in order to Fix Our Eyes on Jesus as Our Hope we LOOK BACK.
But we not only LOOK BACK to what Jesus has done. Even in the present, we LOOK UP to Him as the One who is continually leading us, training us and purifying us.
The text says that the grace of God in Christ not only saves us, but also “[trains] us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
And Jesus gave himself to “purify for himself a people for his own possession.” Not only did Jesus work in history, He’s working NOW—training us by grace, sustaining us by grace, and purifying us by His grace.
Do you experience the cycle of hopefulness and hopelessness? Let me encourage you to LOOK UP to King Jesus, who is ruling and reigning over all things right now, the Good Shepherd, who cares for His sheep, your High Priest who is interceding for you now. He’s the One we’re waiting for—for His promised return.
Look at verse 13 again. We are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
We LOOK UP (patiently/trusting in His timing) to fix our eyes on Jesus as our Hope. But we can’t simply be a group of people who are constantly reminiscing about “the good ole days” or a people with our “heads in the clouds.” We cannot neglect to see what God is actively doing and what He’s called us to do in the world.
So, to Fix Our Eyes on Jesus as Our Hope we also must LOOK AROUND.
When we LOOK AROUND, we can see and recognize the World’s Brokenness. The world is not as it ought to be.
Sin has ravaged the hearts of mankind, creation itself groans for redemption (it says in Romans 8), and the curse and conflict are rampant.
As we LOOK AROUND, and see the world’s brokenness, we could let it lead to Despair—OR it could lead to Drive and Determination towards Discipleship.
The brokenness of the world highlights its need for a Savior —we carry that good news as disciples of Jesus. Christ Jesus is the HOPE of the World and He’s called us to herald that good news.
Titus 2:14 says that Jesus is “purify[ing] for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
The Reformer Martin Luther once said, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.” Our neighbors— the world around us—LOOK AROUND—it needs HOPE, and that Hope is Jesus.
We share this Hope through our words AND through our humble service to others (just like our Savior humbled Himself to the point of death…)
So we LOOK BACK to remember what Jesus has done.
We LOOK UP to the One who sustains us, trains us, and leads us.
And we LOOK AROUND with zeal for good works, that others may know Christ.
As Robert Wideman (the prisoner of war) experienced freedom, we too—with our Eyes Fixed on Jesus—will one day experience the fullness of our freedom in Christ.
I want to close our time together with a prayer using words borrowed from St. Patrick that, I hope, no matter where we find ourselves, fixes our eyes on Jesus.
Lord Jesus,
Would you lead us?
Surround us with Your presence and grace by Your Spirit.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
When the World looks at us, may they see You.
May they come to know You.
May they come to love, worship and adore You.
Work in us that which is pleasing in Your sight.
And fix our eyes on You, Jesus.
We pray in Your name. Amen.
