Leading Like Jesus / Liderando como Jesús

Intro

Spirit of Truth, direct our attention to the words of Jesus so that we might see what you would have us be. Make us, like him, teachers of your good law. Make us, like him, performers of miraculous cures. Make us, like him, proclaimers of your kingdom. Make us, like him, loving of the poor, the outcast, children. Make us, like him, silent when the world tempts us to respond in the world's terms. Make us, like him, ready to suffer.

Make us to cherish him, that we may grow into the likeness made possible by His resurrection.

How many of you have ever worked under a bad leader? What was it about their leadership that made working with them difficult?

How many of you have ever worked under a really good leader? What was it about their leadership that was great?

So bad leadership is selfish, greedy, demanding.

Good leadership is humble, looking to give rather than gain, it lifts us up.

I think we can all agree on this. Yet power, once we get a hold of some, can do all kinds of crazy things to us. Once we start to get a little bit of power for ourselves, the way we think about leadership can be all kinds of backwards from the way Jesus intends.

I know this is why so many of you have been wounded in churches before. I know your stories. I know that in the name of Jesus, people have tried to use you for their own selfish gain. You have been a tool in a power struggle. You have gotten run over by leaders concerned only for their own reputation.

As a pastor and elder in Christ’s Church, I want you to know that I am so sorry. What happened to you ought never to have happened in God’s Household. Jesus sees what happened to you, he weeps with you, and he will judge those who hurt you accordingly.

I want to point you back to something we saw two weeks ago in 1 Timothy 1. If you weren’t here for that message, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. Whatever your criticism might be of the church, Scripture likely agrees with you. Tonight’s passage is a criticism of so-called leaders who had corrupted the church.

But the answer to corrupted leadership might not be what we think. Our reaction to abusive leadership might be to distance ourselves and think that the entire idea of leadership, especially in the church, is wrong. Maybe we tell ourselves that we don’t need the church, because its just a place where people try to gain status for themselves.

But this isn’t the approach we see from the Apostle Paul in his directions to Timothy in Ephesus. Instead, Paul told Timothy to stay and raise up godly leaders who will help him resist the corruption.

Our passage shows us that while it is important to rebuke and correct abusive leadership in the church, we still need the care and example of men and women who will show us how to follow Jesus.

The question we’ve been asking these last few weeks is, “Why Should I belong to a church?”

The answer our text tonight gives us is, “Because the church is where we are served by leaders who are like Jesus, and who help us become like Jesus.”

We are going to cover several items that the scripture teaches about church leadership. I only have time to get to about 20% of the things I want to say. I can’t answer all of the questions I anticipate you might have. I want you to know you can ask me or Mark questions at any time. Ok?

Three ideas I want us to consider and takeaway from our time together tonight: First, it is good that there are leaders in the church. Second, true leaders show us Jesus. Third, We become like Jesus through the leaders in the church.

It is Good that there are leaders in the church.

Our text is one of several places in the New Testament that show us there are two leadership roles that Christ has appointed for the church: overseers, also called elders, and deacons. You see this in verses 1 and 8.

Historically, the church has called these leadership roles the offices in the church. There are two offices of leadership: the overseer, or elder, and the deacon.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek. The greek word for overseer is episkopos, and its where we get the word for bishop. Throughout the New Testament, overseer is used interchangeably with the word presbuteros, which means “elder.” In the New Testament, bishops and elders are the same role. Yet, over several centuries of church history, many church traditions have separated these two roles and turned them into a kind of hierarchy of power.

So in many churches, bishops are the highest rank of pastor. So you might have this ladder of leadership of bishop, then pastor, then elder, then deacon at the bottom. Something like that.

This is not the picture of leadership that we find in the New Testament. Overseers, bishops, and elders, describe the same office. And these elders serve alongside deacons. Elders are not over deacons, like a hierarchy. They are alongside each other, fulfilling two crucial responsibilities of leadership in the church.

Many of you call me Pastor Ben, and that’s fine, but you should know that’s not a special office. I’m an elder. Mark is an elder. We hope and pray there are future elders and deacons in this room who will serve alongside us as co-leaders in this congregation.

So, why are there two separate roles?

Elders are men who are responsible for the oversight of teaching and taking care of God’s people like a shepherd in a local church.

Deacons are men and women who are responsible for serving the physical needs of the members in a church and the resident’s of the surrounding community. In fact, the word “deacon” literally just means “servant.” Any time you read the word “serve” or “servant” in the New Testament, its the same word. So Mark 10:45, which we read in our call to worship, literally says, Jesus did not come to be deaconed but to deacon and give his life as a ransom for many.

Elders lead through teaching and spiritual care; deacons lead through meeting tangible needs. Now, this doesn’t mean deacons never teach, and elders never serve.

In Romans 16 we read about Phoebe, she was a deacon that Paul entrusted to carry his letter to the church in Rome, which we now call the book of Romans. As the letter carrier, Phoebe would have been responsible for teaching the contents of the material to the church in Rome. Likewise, Stephen, a deacon, preaches a beautiful sermon before he is killed in Acts 7.

The Apostles, who were the first elders of the church, are told in Mark 10 that if they want to be great, they must learn how to deacon.

So elders serve and deacons teach; but in general, elders lead by teaching and spiritual oversight, and deacons lead through serving tangible needs. This is why we read in verse 2 that overseers must be “able to teach,” and in verse 13 that deacons are commended for serving well.

The vision for elders and deacons working together is that there would be multiple leaders who are working together who would take care of all of the needs within the church. One of the clearest examples we have of elders and deacons working together comes in Acts 6:

Acts 6:1–4 NIV

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

And then we see in verse 7 that when elders and deacons are put in place, when everyone is being taken care of, the Lord gives growth to the church and adds to their numbers.

I know this is a lot of information to take in, especially if you’re hearing this for the first time. I hope you can start to see how this is a beautiful vision for leadership in the church.

First, Jesus’ design for leadership is that there would be multiple leaders who are caring for a congregation together. Jesus never intended that there would be one person at the top making all the decisions for everyone. A Church should never be identified by one leader who is at the top of everyone else. Churches should never become personality cults. Only Jesus is at the top.

Jesus cares about us as whole people. He doesn’t just care about our souls, he cares about our bodies. Jesus cares about the totality of our lives.

We are at a point in this church where we need to raise up more leaders to make sure all the needs are being met in our church. While many of you are stepping up in huge ways to meet the needs in the church, every decision and need, in one way or another, has to be known and taken care of by me and Mark. And it’s too much for us. We can’t do it all, and if we try to do it all, it would be a disservice to you and our community.

In fact, Acts 6 is a great example of what happens when there aren’t enough leaders who are taking care of needs in the church. People are overlooked and forgotten.

Over the coming weeks, Mark is going to be reaching out to many of you to consider stepping into a leadership role on our ministry council or our deacon team. This is the first step for us in creating opportunities for you all to exercise your gifts in service to the congregation with us.

I hope by the end of this message you’ll be motivated to seriously consider that request, if you’re not already.

True leaders show us Jesus.

So where do these two offices come from? Were overseers and deacons just pulled out of thin air? Not at all. Together, elders and deacons represent for us who Jesus is. Jesus is the model for leadership in the church. We get into all kinds of trouble when our leadership is informed by our own ambition rather than who Jesus is.

We read from a few passages in our call to worship that I want you to turn back to. In John’s Gospel, and 1 Peter, Jesus is described as the true shepherd, and the true overseer of our souls. In Mark 10, Jesus is described as the true servant, the true deacon.

And in both cases, how do we see Jesus using his power as overseer and deacon?

He lays down his life for his people.

The King of the universe didn’t use his power to gain riches, status, or a platform for himself. He didn’t create a hierarchical leadership structure from which he could rule over us from on high.

Jesus laid down his power. He laid down his rights. He laid down his life so that he could set his people rescue his people from sin and death.

In John 10, Jesus is comparing who he is to fake shepherds. He said that fake shepherds at the first sign of danger, they’re going to run away. That’s how you know they’re false.

The African theologian Augustine used a similar image when he said that bad leaders in the church are like straw scarecrows in the vineyard. They’re an imitation of the real thing. A scarecrow might keep a few birds away, but they’re not going to take care of you when you’re hungry. They’re not going to wrap their arms around you on a cold night. They’re not going to protect you when Satan like a lion comes around looking to devour you. They’re not going to help you get to safety when the field is on fire.

Here is the gospel. Jesus, when he saw his people in misery and need, he used his power to feed and heal them. He ran into the cold darkness of death. He broke Satan’s jaw when he let his body be broken rather than grasping for the devil’s power. He rescued us from the fire by jumping into it with us and pulling us out.

Jesus shows us that true leaders use their power to lift others up. They are selfless, thinking more of others than of themselves. They’re not concerned with their brand or platform; they lay down their privileges so that others have what they need.

It is a great blessing when this Jesus gets inside the leaders of a church. That is a place where people can experience the oversight and service of Christ as it is displayed through the elders and deacons of a church.

I mentioned two weeks ago that I had been wounded very badly by a pastor as I was coming up in ministry. A few years after I got out from under his leadership, I was pastoring in another church in the same area. And that pastor who had hurt me, he started coming around trying to get my attention again.

I was so scared. I didn’t know what he was going to try to get out of me this time. I was paranoid and afraid. I was a wreck.

THe lead pastor I worked with, Charlie, knew what had happened to me with this other pastor. One day, he comes into my office, where I’m just paralyzed at my desk. I tell Charlie how scared I am. I tell him that I don’t know what to do.

Without even thinking twice, Charlie walks over to his office, finds this other pastors number, calls him, and I hear Charlie say this: “I know exactly who you are. I know what you’ve done. You’re going to leave Ben alone. I have my eye on you. If you try to contact him again, I’m prepared to take action against you.”

I haven’t heard from that other pastor ever since.

Friends, I know a lot of leaders in the church have done bad and terrible things. And no leader is perfect. But when you are cared for by a pastor like Charlie, you know that you’ve found a good thing, because you’ve found someone who is going to care for you like Jesus. You’ve found a leader who is going to rush into danger for you. You’ve found a leader who is going to use their power and privilege for you.

That kind of leader is such a gift. And I think there are more good shepherds and deacons than we think. The scarecrows get all the publicity, hanging up there all high and elevated so everyone can see them.

Leaders who have Jesus in them don’t care about being seen, because they’re down in the thick of life with us, caring for us so that we would know the love and mercy of Jesus.

Leaders who help us be like Jesus.

True leaders, Christlike leaders, don’t just take care of us. They help us become more like Jesus. This is our last point.

And now I want you to notice the requirements that are listed out in our passage for elders and deacons. The requirements for leadership in the church are remarkable for how unremarkable they are. There is almost nothing in these 13 verses about a leader’s skills. There’s nothing in here about their organizational leadership experience. There’s nothing in here about their charisma, and motivational abilities.

What is the focus instead? Character. It is Character that counts. In these thirteen verses, we have a description of the character of Jesus when he is inside of us, transforming us to be more like him.

It has become common practice in many churches for the elders and deacons to be chosen from the members who have the most money, management experience, or entrpreneurial skills. Those things are good. They’re useful to a church.

They’re not what Jesus cares about most, though. Jesus doesn’t care about a leader’s holiness, not their highlight reels.

True leaders show you more of Jesus, not themselves.

Jesus cares about the character of his leaders. Jesus appoints men and women who are going to help others become more like him by their own example.

Pay attention to these characteristics we read in our passage. Elders and deacons should be faithful, respectable, self-controlled, gentle, peacemakers, content, wise, and resilient.

These are characteristics that every Christian should aspire to with Jesus’ help. One of the ways Jesus transforms us to be this kind of a person is by putting us around people who exemplify these characteristics. Mature, Christlike leaders inspire us and move us into becoming more like Jesus ourselves.

It is our conviction as a church, based on the witness of the Scriptures, that what we need most is not leaders who are incredibly talented but men and women who will show us Jesus. Haughville doesn’t need people with status and platforms, it needs leaders who point us to Jesus, the true overseer and deacon.

And we believe that this church will thrive as a safe, beautiful, and Jesus-centered community when there are multiple leaders who will use their power as Christ did; not for selfish gain, but for the sake of others.

There are three things I want to ask of you before we close.

First, pray that Jesus would raise up more leaders from Haughville who would care for this church as he does. Pray for those being asked to join our ministry council and deacon team in the coming weeks.

And if you’re one of those people being asked, as you pray over the invitation, I want you to remember that you’re being asked not because we think you’re super talented, but because of your character. We see in you the potential to set an example for others in following Jesus. Be encouraged.

Second, please pray for me and Mark in these early stages as we continue shepherding this young congregation. Ask on our behalf that we would always keep Jesus at the center, and that we’d never do anything for selfish gain. When we get things wrong, pray that we would have the humility to be sincere in repentance.

Third, remember Jesus, who is the true overseer and deacon of our souls. He laid down his power and privileges to save and deliver us. Do you know this Jesus? Before anything else, we want you to know him tonight. We’d love to pray with you or talk with you about putting your trust in Jesus tonight.