15th June 2026

15th June 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (Titus 1:5)


Message (Alan Burke) 


We’re on Titus this week. You might be thinking that is because we’ve finished 1 Samuel, and well, that may be true, but we’re going to keep going this week and next week by focusing on 2 Samuel 1, 2, and then in July and August focusing on the Apostle Peter. The reason why I’m focusing on Titus and not 2 Samuel 1 is because while I’d normally be in Ballygowan on the third Sunday, I’m not this Sunday, and I’d Hiram booked. Now let me say that I did cancel him and told him he could have a Sunday with Sandra. He ignored me and he’s coming anyway preaching on 2 Samuel 1, and as usual, he’s been complaining about the passage that I’ve made him preach, but the thing is, he could have been sitting in the pew with his wonderful wife this Lord’s Day. Meanwhile, on Sunday evening, I’m in Killyleagh at an Ordination Service for an Elder, and at that, I’m preaching on Titus, so I thought I’d share that with you for the devotions. 


We live in a world that seems that it is harder and harder to discern fact from fiction, especially when it comes to what we read and see online. AI and social media enable fake news to permeate every facet of life; we are discovering just how easily it is for people to be taken in by it. There are more and more accounts of what were reasonable people being taken in by things that just aren’t true.  What we believe impacts how we live, and the truth matters; it matters in our lives in every part, but it especially matters in the church when eternity is at stake. Tonight, as we come, we have witnessed the biblical practice by which the church publicly recognises and appoints Elders to act as a safeguard for the church, to protect the church from the Father of Lies, to protect it from Satan’s attacks, and so that the congregation here in Killyleagh would be protected from Satan’s attacks, from his lies, so that if you were to stray into believing something other than the truth, you would be corrected, reproved, restored to the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life.


This is the task of the Elders in this place; it isn’t to be taken lightly, for the task of an Elder is of eternal importance; eternity is at stake for those whom Elders watch over. Paul writes this letter to Titus to encourage him to straighten out what was left unfinished by Paul himself. What we know is that Paul had been in Crete; he’d been there as an evangelist, planting churches, but at this stage they were small, they were young. For some reason, Paul had left, but Titus had remained in Crete to continue on in the work of the gospel. Look what Paul writes to Titus v5; he says, “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.”


The unfinished business as such was the appointment of elders, elders who were to watch over the church, to be there as under-shepherds to the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the pattern; the apostles went out, preaching the gospel, fulfilling the Great Commission, as people came to the ‘knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life (Tt 1:1–2), then Elders were appointed to act, watching over the flock of God (see Acts 14:19-23). I don’t know if you’re reading this as an elder or not, but if you are an elder, you are there to watch over the flock, act as under-shepherd to Jesus Christ, and watch over the flock. Are you doing that? That is why you were called and ordained by God; it is a high and necessary calling for the benefit of the church. For all of us, are we praying for them in their task, submitting to them when they act in a godly way? Because God has appointed them over us and it is for our best, they are a necessity for the health of the church.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q94 What is Baptism?
A. Baptism is a Sacrament, wherein the washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.
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