Remember Your Leaders

Introduction

Turn with me to Hebrews 13:7-8 for a brief devotional. As you’re turning, I want to mention that while we are calling this a 10 Year Celebration, we don’t mean Jack only has 10 years of ministry experience. He’s in his fourth decade! And Anchor Bible Church has also reached 20 years since the former pastor, Dustin Neeley, founded Crossing Church in his living room in 2005. Our church was renamed to Anchor Bible Church seven years ago in February 2018. But we are celebrating the period of recent and significant spiritual growth that we have shared together with Pastor Jack and his wife Lisa. Many of you can perhaps echo some of the things we heard in the testimonials.

Look with me at Hebrews 13:7-8, where I will read our text and then, because time is short, wait to pray until after I share a few things with you. Hebrews 13:7–8 says, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” There’s kind of an abrupt transition between these two verses, but let’s start with verse 7.

Imitate Your Leaders

Here God commands you to imitate the faith of your leaders. Who are those leaders? He clarifies that they are the ones “who spoke the word of God to you.” As you heard multiple times in the testimonials, this is one of the most distinctive aspects of Pastor Jack’s ministry here at Anchor Bible Church. More than anyone else in this church, he has spoken the word of God to us. Speaking is a key theme in Hebrews. The book begins, “God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets…, in these last days spoke to us in His Son…” In Hebrews 11:4, we read, “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, … and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.” And that hall of faith culminated with Jesus Himself. So here’s the idea. The words our leaders speak to us can be traced back: through the words of Christ and the hall of faith, through the prophets of old, and ultimately to God Himself. It is God who has spoken first, and it is God alone who speaks with authority. This is why most of us are here at Anchor Bible Church. We realized this was a place with real leaders, with men like Pastor Jack who preach God’s Word.

This is so important. We are told to imitate our leaders’ faith. You don’t want to be walking around just imitating anybody. That could get you in a lot of trouble! You find men who speak the word of God to you, you consider the result of their conduct, and then you imitate their faith. This is how to be sure you are imitating the right men.

The phrase “result of their conduct” refers to their way of life, to their actions. The old preacher Bengel said, “We more easily contemplate and admire the happy death of godly men than imitate the faith by which they have attained to it.” In other words, we tend to think about our leaders more than we decide to act like them.

For example, you see Pastor Jack posting Bible outlines and preaching sermons, and you hear him talking about spending time in God’s Word. You think it’s just all so cool. But maybe you also think all of that is beyond you. You know, Pastor Jack is out there pouring concrete and doing projects, and maybe you just slip into thinking, “It’s great he can do all that, but I’m just a normal person.” And then you move on, and maybe tomorrow you’ll press the snooze button again until it’s so late that now it’s time to get ready for work. It didn’t really cross your mind to do something like waking up earlier in the morning so you could spend time with the Lord like Pastor Jack or Lucas.

God calls you not only to admire your leaders’ faith, but to imitate it. There are so many ways our flesh and the devil lead us astray here. You might be tempted to praise Jack publicly, so no one will think to ask about your own walk with the Lord. Like an overdue project, you might be embarrassed you’ve sat so long under faithful preaching but still haven’t addressed those sin issues which linger in your life. On the other side, you might be secretly critical of leadership and feel guarded about imitating them. Or like that example about devotions, the weeds of the world choke out your zeal. “It’s just too hard to be holy.” There are so many temptations. Satan puts a high bounty on the life and preaching of a godly man. He will stoop to any level to distract you from imitating your leaders.

But listen to Hebrews 6:11–12, “We desire that each one of you show the same diligence…, so that you may not become dull, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

It is a priceless privilege to have leaders who speak the word of God to you. To reject them is to reject God. Look for those ways that Pastor Jack and our leaders walk by faith, and imitate them where they imitate Christ.

Cling to Jesus Christ

This brings us to verse 8, where we have this abrupt statement. In Greek the word order reads, “Jesus Christ yesterday and today the same, and forever.” The clear message here is that Jesus is eternally unchanging. He is immutable. The same idea came up earlier in Hebrews 1:8 “But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever…’” I think you all understand the basic idea of God’s eternality, so let’s consider it’s significance here.

First, when we are considering our leaders’ faith, we have to ask, “Their faith in what?” Verse 8 anchors their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not faith in themselves, in their ministry, in their gifts, or anything else. Faith in Jesus Christ alone. And why? Because He is the author and perfecter of our faith. And also because John 1:1 says, “The Word was God,” and Revelation 19:13 says, “His name is called The Word of God.” This is the same Word—God Himself—that your leaders have spoken to you. And if the Word of Christ is to dwell in us richly, our faith must be in Christ alone.

There is also an implied contrast here. On the one hand we have Christ’s eternality. On the other hand, it seems, the leaders who spoke of Him have died! In verse 7 you are remembering them, and you have already seen the outcome of their faith. This implies that you have nothing left but memories of the Word they spoke and the faith they lived. Thankfully we are still enjoying Pastor Jack’s ministry. This celebration is not a farewell, it’s a milestone. Yet at the same time, churches have come and gone in Pastor Jack’s ministry, and pastors have come and gone in Anchor’s history. Do not build your hope and life around gifted men. Not one leader out there can hold a candle to Christ. When they are gone, praise God you still have the object of their words and faith, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Conclusion

As our church’s theme verse in Hebrews 6:19–20 says, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and confirmed and one which enters within the veil, where a forerunner has entered for us—Jesus, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Jesus alone is the sure foundation of our faith.

This is Pastor Jack’s great prayer for you. As our website says, “Everything we do at Anchor Bible Church stems from our desire to put God on display. It's why the Bible is preached verse by verse, why we sing songs that reflect the doctrines found in the Scriptures, and why we seek to build each other up to a greater love for Jesus Christ.”

That’s not inspired or anything, but it does reflect the desire of our leaders. It puts our Savior in the center.

Pray

Consider Jesus who endured hostility so that we will not grow weary, fainting in heart

Pastor Jack’s ministry would strengthen and encourage our hearts in Christ