A small book is found in the back of the Bible, called Titus. Although brief, this book has an important and relevant message for us today which we are going to explore over four lessons.
Background on Titus
This book was written to a guy named Titus and a group of Christians who lived on the island of Crete. Crete is famous for being the place where Greek mythology stories about Zeus, Hercules, and other Greek gods were invented. The book was written by the Apostle Paul to give advice to this group of Christians.
Titus was a young man, but he was the leader of all the Christians on Crete. Unfortunately, the Christians had two big problems.
- They were threatened by a culture who didn’t care about God.
- They were threatened by lots of false teachers in the church who were teaching wrong ideas about God.
These problems were threatening their relationship with God and each other. So, what did they need in order to defeat all these threats? They needed the Gospel. The message of Titus is important because we face threats to our faith too. And in order to defeat these threats we need the Gospel.
Understanding the Gospel
You may not know what the word Gospel means, so let’s define it. Gospel is a Greek word that means “good news.” Any time you hear good news it is “gospel.” For example, if your friend says, “Good news, there is a new Star Wars movie out this weekend.” That is gospel. It is good news. Or if you tell someone, “Good news, it’s Taco night; three tacos for $.99” Again, that is gospel. It is good news.
The Gospel in the Bible is God’s good news for you. And it’s better than the good news we hear everyday. It’s the message that God will save you if you trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. That’s the Gospel. But it’s really important that we understand what this means, so let’s dig a little deeper into the Gospel.
The Gospel is for everyone
God’s good news isn’t just for Christians or religious people. It’s for everyone. It’s the message that anyone who trusts in Jesus will be saved. And we find this good news in Titus.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.
In these verses, God is explaining the good news. And the first thing he says is, “Good news everyone. I am going to save you from your sins.” But before we can understand the good news, we have to understand the bad news. The bad news is that we are all sinners. This means that we do things that are selfish, we hurt others, and we don’t always care about doing it. Sin is a huge problem because it separates us from God.
Think about it like this. If you sin against a friend (let’s say you say something about them behind their back), what happens to your friendship? It gets messed up. Until you make things right, your friend probably doesn’t like you very much. Your relationship with your friend is broken.
Sin breaks your relationship with God. But the good news, the Gospel, is that God has come to rescue everyone.
The Gospel is about what Jesus did for you
When we sin against a friend, we have to do something to fix our friendship. Usually you have to ask for forgiveness and show that you are truly sorry. But our relationship with God doesn’t work like that. We can’t fix our relationship with God. It’s too messed up. And this is where Jesus comes in.
Titus 2:13-14 …We look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.
Jesus came to be our savior. He died on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead so that we can have new life. And if you put your trust in Jesus, then you will be saved from your sins.
But notice what those verses above said, the Gospel isn’t just for the future when you die. Yes, God is going to take you to heaven, but he wants much more for you. He wants you to live a life of good works that honor him.
This means that the Gospel is God’s good news of salvation through Jesus Christ that changes every part of your life.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- What is the best news that anyone has ever told you (besides the message of salvation)?
- Make a list of problems that teenagers have that threaten to pull them away from God.
- Define the word “Gospel.” Why is the Gospel of The Bible good news?
- Share an example of how sin hurt one of your friendships.
- Read Titus 2:13-14. What role did Jesus play in our salvation? Be specific.
- Have you trusted in the message of salvation? If so, who can you share this message with this week?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
