45) Obey Your Leaders
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Over the last couple of weeks we have been looking at the teachings in Hebrews on spiritual sacrifices and service.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
We are to be a people that live a life that is motivated by the gospel. Motivated by the good news of Jesus. The news that is proclaimed in the bible and by his children, his nation, his people.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Sinners like you and me have been saved by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That by that sacrifice, each and every person who comes to believe that they are in need of a savior. That there is a God and that he is perfect, holy, and just. And that due to a nature of sin, each and every human that has ever been born has been separated from The Holy God that we read about in the scriptures. That separation can only be resolved by faith and faith alone. Believing that the sacrifice of Jesus paid the penalty that we have earned by our ungodly actions and desires.
This free gift has been given to those who believe.
15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised. 16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
Because of the saving grace of God. Each and every believer is to live in gratitude and thankfulness for the salvation of their souls. To be spiritually born again because of Christ.
We live in this gratitude with reverence and awe and the writer of Hebrews has laid out actions and attitudes that people who live and serve God in a pleasing way will behave.
Like brotherly love, hospitality towards strangers, sympathy for the trials of other believers, honor in marriage, a life free from the love of money. To be people that see that all that God has provided is a blessing whether much or little.
We live imitating the examples of the leaders of the past and today that have lives that follow the perfect model and that is the model of Jesus Christ who is
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We are people strengthened by the Grace we have recieved and not only do we imitate his life but we also go outside and bear the reproach that he endured.
And in the closing thought
15 Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
It is through Christ that we are to continually offer up sacrifices a praise, the fruit of our lips that praise God. Oh to be a people that have the name of the Lord on the tips of our tongues, always ready to praise him in all of our lives, continually. Without seeming to cease.
The author finished his teaching on how the people are to treat each other with verse 16. Call to be concerned with fellow brothers and sisters.
16 Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.
God is pleased when we, his children do what is good and to share what he has provided with one another. I wonder how many people who claim to love and follow God have ever asked themselves if their behavior or attitudes pleases God. Ask themselves is what I do considered good?
This question is a humbling and sobering question. It is a question that is only answered in humility and self denial.
But it will result in an awareness of areas of our lives that need to be repented of and removed from our lives. This is healthy, maturing, building, and sanctifying in our lives.
The author transitions to a very important aspect of the church that God has put in place for this type of community to develop. Please turn with me to Hebrews 13:17
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. 18 Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything. 19 And I urge you all the more to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.
Submission
Submission
The author end the exhortation part of the letter with two final commands. The first is about the relationship between church leaders and the church and the second is prayer.
Today we are going to examine the 1st command.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
The relationship between the church and its leaders is a very interesting and divisive topic today. There are many questions that the world is asking about leadership. What is a leader? Who is a leader? What makes a leader? How to lead? What is your leadership style? These are just a few.
A simple search on amazon produces 60,000 books with the search leader MAX. Barnes and noble will give over 20,000 results.
Even the search for church leadership finds tens of thousands of titles. Why is it so hard to answer these questions? With there being leaders at every level of our society and in every corner of the world, in every group of people there are leaders so how come we cannot figure it out?
I think this is a very simple answer. Few turn to the scripture to see how God answers these questions and I believe that many who turn to the words of God do not like the answers they find.
Biblical leadership is actually a repulsive concept for mass majority of people, inside and outside of the church.
The author of Hebrews told the church earlier to:
7 Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.
They were to remember their leaders and follow in their example but here he provides this very direct command. He actually gives a double command.
Obey your leaders and submit to them.
To obey the Greek word here is to
to obey (as convinced) v. — to obey, with the connotation of being persuaded that the course of action is correct.
The idea here is not blind obedience. This is obedience that comes from being convinced it it right and correct.
The second word is a much stronger word. It means:
to submit (yield) v. — to yield to the control of another.
To yield. To give way to another authority especially when you may be in disagreement. Here we have a direct command in the text.
Hebrews 13:17 (CSB)
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, ...
This seems pretty clear to me. How about you? Do you find a tension here? A very simple command, a very clear command, but … Obey you leaders but… submit to them but… Yield to them but...
Can we ignore this command if we are uncomfortable with it? No. Is God’s word completely true? Absolutely.
But who is feeling this tension? I think most do and for a couple of reasons. One reason is that our minds layer onto this command all of the authority that we have seen in this world. The authority of the world is an authority of power. Of control, of dominance. Even going to work and submitting to the boss is to do what they ask when they and in the way that they ask. It is a way of hierarchy, chain of command.
But this is not what is being commanded here. What God is commanding here is a submission and obedience that only comes from the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.
7 The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so.
The new covenant as we have learned earlier promises that God’s laws, that the flesh cannot submit to, is now written on our hearts.
16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, 17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts.
God’s word commands submission for the believer in many or our relationships.
Christians are commanded to submit to God.
7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
9 Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live?
The Church submits to Christ
22 And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
Christians submit to the scriptures
7 Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. 8 This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
Wives Submit to Husbands
18 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Children submit to parents
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, 3 so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land.
Slaves to masters
5 Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as you would Christ. 6 Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, do God’s will from your heart. 7 Serve with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to people, 8 knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord.
Young submit to the old
5 In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
32 “You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old. Fear your God; I am the Lord.
We see older men and older women teaching and leading the younger and the younger are to submit to them.
Each and every one of these sets their example in Jesus who was obedient and submitted to God’s will.
49 For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. 50 I know that his command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
7 Then I said, “See— it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, God.”
The son came to do the fathers will and as he is our example we are to follow his life and submit to Jesus and the authorities that he has put in place. He established an order to our lives, to our homes, to the church.
Submission to Jesus
Is a demonstration of the love we have for our savior
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. 21 The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”
Submission to the authorities that God has established in our lives is a demonstration of our submission to God and his providence and sovereignty.
Submission is a verb. It is not good or bad in itself. The perfect Son of God submitted to the Holy Father so submission in itself is not bad. Then why to we fight so hard against this idea, and against it in practice.
Some may look at me and here this and think to themselves “That is easy for you to say Kyle. You are the husband and not the wife. You are the Parent and not the child. You are older then many here. And you are the current leader of the church.”
The reality is standing up here and revealing the word to you about submission is daunting because along with it comes the responsibility of what it means to truly understand these roles.
Because husbands are to love the way Christ loved:
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.
Husbands are to look to Jesus and his love for the church, his bride, and to love in that way.
Fathers are to
4 Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Fathers have a responsibility before the Lord to train up their children in the instruction of the Lord.
1 “This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. 2 Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life. 3 Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
If children are commanded to obey their parents that also means that parent are to live out the commands to be honorable and to serve God.
Each position of authority that God establishes comes with very high standards that those in each position should recognize. This includes church leaders.
1 Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.
The work of a leader is a high calling.
1 This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.” 2 An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not an excessive drinker, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy. 4 He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil’s trap.
There is no fame or fortune in the work of a person of authority in God’s order. There is toil, prayer and sacrifice for those that are under their care.
Watchfulness
Watchfulness
The leaders of God’s church will have to give an account in the end.
Hebrews 13:17 (CSB)
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account,...
The church is to obey their leaders and yield to their direction for one reason. Is it because they are smarter, because they were hired, because they have more training. It is none of these. The reason that the church is to submit to its leaders is because they are keeping watch over your souls.
Church leaders are to keep watch meaning
to watch carefully ⇔ be sleepless v. — to watch over carefully, conceived of as being unable or unwilling to sleep.
The word we translate into pastor is the word in Greek that means to shepherd. Like a shepherd that stays awake to care for and to guard his flock so a church leader it to look out over the souls of the church. or a person in a watch tower.
This is God’s expectation of a Pastor or and Elder. This should be your expectation of your leaders. This is the appropriate expectation of me. Why do the people of the church submit to their leaders, it is because they know that there are men that have a burden and a responsibility to keep watch and that the instruction and correction that is given is to that end.
They keep watch as those who will give an account. They are to be diligent as if the commander is going to come and inquire about what has been accomplished under your watch. When the great shepherd Jesus appears what will the leader have to say about the souls of the flock that he intrusted to him.
I am to watch over you as if Jesus will appear and he will ask how have you cared for each sheep I have give to your care. Did you keep watch or did you let the world and the schemes of the devil, false teachings, apathy, laziness, sin, disease and sickness into the flock. Did you look away when the wild beasts came and took them away did you even notice.
Did you follow my example or the prophecy of Ezekiel?
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed their flock? 3 You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.
Jesus came as promised
23 I will establish over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will shepherd them. He will tend them himself and will be their shepherd. 24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken.
With the result of
30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people. This is the declaration of the Lord God. 31 You are my flock, the human flock of my pasture, and I am your God. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’ ”
Leaders are to watch over the flock as if this conversation will come. I am not sure what your experience is but there are many times over the years that many many Christians do not believe that this is the focus of the church leader.
In our country many church leaders are more burdened with expanding the flock, growing the physical pasture, sprucing up the field, or looking cool while doing it. This is the best many Christians will experience.
Many believers never experience what Jesus was describing in Matthew
25 Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. 26 It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
And what Peter Exhorts
1 I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed: 2 Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5 In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
How is a leader to keep watch. With Prayer
18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
With God’s word
7 Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.
Paul tells timothy
1 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: 2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. 3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
A leader will watch over your souls by preaching the word to the flock in all truth, correcting flock, rebuking the flock, encouraging the flock with patience and teaching.
Unfortunately, there are times where there are those that just will not listen. The words of God will be an offense to them even if they give lip service to following them. Even if that is true God shepherd will continue to preach the word even if no one is listening. For the hope is in the end on the day of account one will be able to proclaim the words of Paul.
26 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, 27 because I did not avoid declaring to you the whole plan of God. 28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
The church is precious to Jesus and he paid the ultimate price for it.
And not the warning in Ezekiel
17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him—you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood.
I pray and hope you will pray for me that when my time is ended here in the service to God that I will be able to say that I did not fail to watch out for you.
God’s call and responsibility that he has assigned to the leaders of the church is the reason for submitting and obeying them.
And if this is what your leaders are doing then the result is Joy and blessing.
The Result
The Result
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
God honoring submission to God honoring leaders creates joy in the leader. Disobedience creates grief. Over the years I have met many pastors and have had the opportunity to pray with them. It is not uncommon for a pastor to ask for prayer for themselves and the church as the church and pastor are not in unity. A pastor that cares for the flock in this way is grieved when the sheep fall into trouble. Much like a parent that teaches their children their wisdom and then to see their child live in foolishness.
Tricia was reading a book to Pastors wives and there was a quote in that book that I may have shared with you before but the gist of the quote was that one of the hardest parts about leading people is that you find many times that you want it more for them than they want it for themselves.
Just like the child who disregards the teachings of a wise parent, the church that does not submit to Godly leaders will find that there is no value in it. Hardness of heart, pride, and the unwillingness to yield to Godly leaders is simply unprofitable.
There is a beauty and harmony in these relationships when both the one yielding and the one leading are honoring God with their actions and attitudes for each other. When they have gone to the scriptures to see how to live in both places.
When Elders/Pastors are actively watching and preaching and teaching the word, shepherding the flock and the people are being nourished and find themselves seeing the fruit of following and obeying the leaders then the church will be filled with joy and praise to the lord.
It is the same with husbands and wives that seek the lord, the husband looking to Christ’s love for the church as his example of how to love his wife and the wife looking to the church’s submission to Christ as the example of how to respect the husband.
It is the same with parents and children, the old and the young.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Why is leadership so hard to figure out? Because we are looking in the wrong places for the wrong people at the wrong time.
During my study I found recent survey of ethics and trust of different professions. Gallup has been doing this poll since the late 70s. In the beginning Pastors clergy were looked at having high ethics and the result of that was a high trust of people in them.
The question they asked was
Please tell me how you would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in these different fields?
Since then the trust in church leaders has continually dropped. This chart shows the results since 2001.
In 2022 only 8% of people said that Pastors have very high ethic and honesty. with 26% High. That means 66% of people said that pastors have average to very low ethics and honesty. And as I have heard many of your experiences and others, I think many would agree with this. I find it very uncommon for someone to not have a bad pastor experience.
So what is going on? Well we could just chalk it up to the world is post christian and we are just seeing a decline and that could be it but I think there are some other problems that may have effected this more than that.
The first is appointing or hiring leaders that are just not qualified biblically. They are not tried and tested.
The qualifications for pastors are evidences of a man’s character. Many men are put into leadership without confirming these qualities. The biblical qualities are compromised for things like personality, style and pedigree. Men are appointed because they are great business men, they are celebrity like, of they have the right schooling.
The second is leaders that focus on the wrong things. Instead of keeping watch over the souls of the flock their attention is focused on programs and buildings. These are not bad but facilities, programs, events, should be secondary to the care of the flock. They should not open the church up to danger.
The third are leaders that do not teach the entire council of God’s word. They are more interested in their own words or they are afraid to be offensive to the people. A church that has leaders they trust are caring for their souls will welcome the harder truths of scripture as they are revealed in love and care.
The fourth is the church that is unwilling to submit or obey to church leadership. This isn’t all but I have met some men that all they want to do is honor God with their lives and to help people grow and their church chew them up and spit them out.
Unqualified leader with a submissive church =
Sheep are lead astray into ...
False teaching
Immature faith
Distrust
Sheep walk off the cliff with the pied piper
Unqualified leader with a rebellious church =
Chaos!!!!
Good leader with a rebellious church = Grief and all is unprofitable
Good Leader with a submissive church = Joy and growth, care, love, concern,
How do we know who we trust? Who have we been convinced that it is good to obey and who are we submitting to?
The answer is who do you listen to and yield to. COVID revealed much about who and what people put their trust in.
There were voices all over that were telling people to live in ways that was contrary to our normal way of life. Everyone was commanded to yield to these different voices and the voice that a person yielded to revealed the idea that is shown here. A person was convinced that it was good for them to obey this voice and then yielded to the direction given. Another person would obey this one over here.
In the church we should be convinced that it is good to obey our leaders and submit to their direction.
I also want to be clear that our leaders do not sit between us and our Lord and savior. Each and every person has been saved by grace through faith.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
The church leader does not Lord between Christ and the people. Church leaders sit a care takers and stewards of the small flock that the great shepherd has put into their care.
How Many books do I have on leadership? I look around my office to all of the pages written in all of the books that I have read about leadership. And do you know how many books on leadership I found.
One. All other books are subject to the truth in this one.
For us this means a couple of things. It takes multiple leaders to watch over a church and I ask that you pray and ask for God to reveal the men that he has placed here with the heart of a shepherd. Men who will keep watch.
28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
All men here need to continue to grow in their lives, in their understanding of the Word and be transformed by its truth.
Where do we start “Blue List”
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.