Leadership in trouble - Part 4 — Charles Price

And I think for the first time this week I have eye contact with you. Because normally as you look out everybody's watching these monitors. You all look thoroughly switched off because you're not looking in the direction of the speaker.

So at least we can see you eyeball to eyeball. If you got your Bible this morning we'll turn to Jeremiah chapter 23. We of course can only cover a certain amount of this prophecy and the five mornings that we have.

And I was given a deadline by early May to have given titles so we could print them in the convention booklet. So you could do the homework in advance and so on, know what we're doing. And when I was doing that I had been reading this section, chapter 21, 22, and 23.

Leadership in Judah and Its Relevance to Every Believer

And it's about the leadership in the nation of Judah. It may be that some of us feel that this may not be very relevant if we're going to talk about leadership, which we are. But actually probably far more of us than we realize are involved in leadership.

If you're part of a family, you have children, you're involved in leadership. The very influence our lives has on other people, which everyone is a participant in, is leadership. And I'm concerned that we don't, in looking at this this morning, cause some of you to feel this is not really part of where I'm at.

I want to apply this very generally and I want you to see, particularly as we look at what he says about prophets, that under the new covenant, as Paul said to the Corinthians, every one of you can prophesy.

And we'll talk about what that means a little bit later on. But I am interested, just at the outset, to know how many of you are involved in any kind of leadership at all. You may be a Sunday school teacher, you may be involved in youth work, boys' brigade, you may be a deacon in your church or an elder or on the PCC, you may be a lay preacher, you may be involved in full-time ministry, you may be involved in missionary work, you may be involved in Christian committees and so on.

Out of interest, how many of you, just put your hand up, are involved in any kind of explicit leadership in that way? Well, that's a very high proportion. Thank you, put your hands down. And those of you who didn't raise your hands, the very influence of your life is one which God uses to mold others and impact others.

And I think that I would say that some of the people who have the biggest influence on my life are not people who in any formal way occupied any leadership role to which I was accountable or in submission to, but just the influence of their lives.

So I trust we'll find this to be relevant. I want to talk about this because Jeremiah stood very much as a voice in the wilderness in his day. That causes us to ask the legitimate question, where were the other men and women of God in Judah at that time?

Through this letter, 50 times, this prophecy, should I say, 50 times Jeremiah refers to other prophets in the nation. Other than Jeremiah, 50 times he refers to them. Well where were they? What were they doing?

45 times he refers to the priests in Judah. What were they doing when Jeremiah stood alone as a voice in the wilderness in his day? Well I want to talk about this from this passage. The section really begins in chapter 21, though we're going to read from chapter 23 where the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah in chapter 21 to King Zedekiah, the last king before the Babylonian invasion.

And in chapter 21 and 22 he speaks particularly to the kings, those who build palaces, etc., as he describes them. But three categories of leaders in chapter 23. He says in verse 1, woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture.

If you have an authorized version it says woe to the pastors. Same word as shepherds, but these are the kings, these are the civil leaders, these are those who administer the affairs of the nation. Then in verse 9 he says concerning the prophets, my heart is broken within me or my bones tremble.

He addresses the prophets. We'll look at them in particular in a few minutes. These were God's spokesmen, theoretically. The men who stood between God and the people and spoke on God's behalf. Then in verse 11 he says both prophet and priest are godless.

And he speaks about the priest, those who ministered in the temple and if the prophet stood before the people on God's behalf, the priest stood before God on the people's behalf. God spoke to the people through the prophet.

The people approached God through the priest. And so the priest and the prophet stood as intermediaries between God and the people and the people and God. And he addresses them and asks that legitimate question, what were they up to at this time?

Such a troubled time in the nation of Judah. And yet they didn't contribute to any solution. They were in fact a major part of the problem. Now we'll just say a brief word about the shepherds. We of course have started late this morning and that clock is not electrically driven.

It's got a battery so it still tells the truth. And we need to just restrict ourselves a little bit because we've got other things to go to. But basically the charge against the shepherds, we'll just say something very brief about them.

The Seduction of Power and Leadership as Servanthood

It's in verse one where he says, well the shepherds were destroying and scattering the sheep of the pasture, declares the Lord. Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says to the shepherds, you tend my people because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them.

That summarizes really the problem which he explains in different ways. You have not bestowed care on them. And you've got the age old problem here with the civil leaders of the nation of the seduction of power.

You see there's an understanding of leadership in the world today and probably has always been that is totally unbiblical. But one of my concerns is that it's infiltrated the church and we have ideas of leadership that basically leadership is power.

Leadership is control. To lead is to control. And people are fighting for power in marriage, in church, in society, in relationships. And the idea is if I'm to lead, I am to exercise power, I am to control.

But leadership in the Bible is a very, very different thing. And one of the most concise expressions of this is in the New Testament, Luke 22. Let me read to you verse 24 of Luke 22. It says, A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest.

Now these are the disciples and the context of this is in the upper room where the Lord Jesus has taken bread, broken it. Judas has already left the room and he's passed the bread and said, This is my body.

It's for you. Eat it. In remembrance of me, he took the cup. This is my blood, the blood of a new covenant. Drink it in remembrance of me. One of the most solemn occasions of Jesus' time with his disciples.

And the moment that was over, a dispute arose among them which of them is to be the greatest. Isn't that incredible? Fighting. And you can be quite sure the dispute wasn't Peter saying, Well, you know, I think John is probably the greatest.

And John said, Oh, thank you very much, Peter. That's very kind of you. You know, I think Thaddeus. No one's ever heard of Thaddeus. And the last will be first and the first will be last. And he's obviously last because he's the one that causes quiz teams to lose points.

Because no one can remember him. He's the greatest. And Thaddeus, you know, I think Matthew is probably the greatest. It wasn't that. It was Peter saying, Did somebody ask who's the greatest? What's the problem?

What's the question? I mean, it's obvious, isn't it? It's me. And James and John saying, Peter, we have been to ask Jesus if we can sit one on his right and one is left in his kingdom. And even mummy came and asked him as well.

Because you remember they went and their mother came one time and asked him the same question. Anyway, Peter, who's a disciple whom Jesus loved? Peter probably said, Yeah, but you're going to write that.

It only says that in John's gospel. Yeah, but it's under divine inspiration. I was going to write John and the Holy Spirit said, The disciple whom Jesus loved. Brackets me. Incredible. If we were to follow through the number of times the disciples had this discussion.

Who is the greatest? It's recorded several times. Several different occasions. And Jesus, it says there in Luke 22. On other occasions he caught a child and so on. But on this occasion Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them.

And those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. You see, that's leadership. That's power from the world's perspective. You've got control. You can lord it over people. And of course, you call yourself benefactors.

It wasn't for you. You know, you wouldn't be free. I remember living in Rhodesia when it was ruled by the white minority. And they said, Of course, we know what's best for the African population. We are their benefactors.

Meanwhile, of course, they were walking all over them. And kidding themselves. We're doing them a favor. Well, he said that's what the kings of the Gentiles do. But, verse 26, you are not to be like that instead.

The greatest among you should be like the youngest. And the one who rules like the one who serves. In God's economy, whether it's the Old Testament or whether it's now under a new covenant, leadership is servanthood.

There's a great emphasis on identifying leaders today. And I think that is not only valid. I think it is right. It is necessary. The church is in desperate need of good leadership. But one of my concerns is that some of these conferences for leaders that we have sometimes, we give, you know, we sort of develop the impression, some of us, that, you know, we're the ones that strut around and make the decisions.

Leadership is going to be discovered when we start training people to be servants. Some years ago, a colleague of mine at Cape Moray Hall, when I first joined the staff there, said to me, if you want to find who your leaders are, give them the worst jobs to do.

Then you'll find who your real leaders are. And I'm so grateful for that advice. Because they're folks, of course, who would like to be visible. But you know the folks that God makes leaders when you discover them serving.

Our job is to make servants, and God makes leaders out of servants. And in our own society, and this is where I said earlier, I fear it's infiltrated the church in our attitudes as well, that the whole idea of going into public office to serve is a dying idea.

When Sir Alec Douglas Hume died last year, I read an obituary article, and it described him, it said, as the last leader driven by a sense of duty towards the people. That's a very generalization. I don't know if it's true, really.

But the implication was that now people are in leadership primarily for their own self-interest. And Tony Blair said some very good things about that, very encouraging things. We're here to serve. Well, that's, of course, the pattern of leadership in the scripture.

And these people, the shepherds, the national leaders of Judah, instead of seeing themselves as servants, saw themselves as the place where the power lay. They've not bestowed care. Instead, as he goes on to say here in other parts, which we haven't time to look at, they have simply taken advantage of the people for their own well-being and their own good.

We won't say more about that. If you're free at 11 .45, go to what is called the ministers' meeting. But it really is not simply for those who are full-time ministers. It's for those in leadership. And Steve Gorkaraj is going to talk there about the role of leadership from Ephesians 4 is to prepare God's people for works of service.

That is, not to rule, but to release. Teaching people to be servants. I recommend you go to that if you can. But then he talks about the prophets. And we'll spend a little more time looking at this because this is crucial, I think, and very relevant in where we are these days.

False Prophets and the Corruption of Religious Office

In verse 15, he says, this is what the Lord says concerning the prophets. Chapter 23, verse 15. I'll make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water because, listen to this, from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.

Now, that's not my stomach, but I presume it means we're getting things back, are we? There's this burr going. Is it all right? Do I need to do anything? Is this too high, too low? Just ignore it. Okay, let's carry on.

Where were we? Verse 15, that's right. The accusation there is that he says, from the prophets ungodliness has spread to the land. That is an incredible thing. The very people whose task and function and ministry was to declare the word of God and be the source of godliness were instead, he said, the source of ungodliness.

Now, who are these prophets? As I mentioned, there are about 50 references to the prophets in this book of Jeremiah. And I made a list of these references and I'm not going to give them to you or read them all to you, but I'll just quote one or two statements.

The prophets, he says in chapter five, are but wind. And the word is not in them. The prophets prophesy lies. The priests rule by their own authority. Jeremiah 6, 13, the prophets and priests are like all practice deceit.

And there are these repeatedly devastating tirades against the prophets. Well, who are these prophets? These are not prophets of Baal. They're, to all appearances, prophets of God. Who are they? Well, the prophetic office was established formerly in the days of Samuel.

We're told that by Peter in Acts chapter three, when he says, all the prophets from Samuel on. There were one or two folks described as prophets before that. Enoch even was described as a prophet and Abraham and Moses.

But the prophetic office was established in the days of Samuel. And if I can just point one, two verses to you, because it's important, I think we understand the background to this and the point that Jeremiah makes.

Back in first Samuel chapter 10 and verse five, when Saul was anointed king, he was sent to Gebeah and he was told, you'll go to Gebeah of God where there is a Philistine outpost. And as you approach the town, you'll meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them.

And they will be prophesying. The spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power and you will prophesy with them and you'll be changed into a different person. Now, Saul is told, you go down to Gebeah and you'll meet a procession of prophets.

And these are men anointed by God. The spirit of God is on them. And in fact, the spirit of God will come on you. They are authentic and their ministry is of God. This is a genuine thing. In chapter 19 of 1 Samuel, and verse 18 to 20, it says there that David said to Saul, sorry, I'm reading the wrong chapter there.

Chapter 19, verse 18, that's what I said, but that isn't what I looked at. When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naoth and stayed there.

Word came to Saul, David is in Naoth at Ramah and he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as their leader, the spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also prophesied.

I'm just pointing out, this group of men anointed by God, the spirit of God was on them and they prophesied. By the time you get to 1 Kings chapter 18, at the time of Elijah, Jezebel was killing off the Lord's prophets, it says, and Obadiah, who was a believer, who worked in the palace, hid 100 of the Lord's prophets, it says.

Two groups of 50 in two different caves and Jezebel and Ahab did not even know that they were missing. That means there were hundreds of prophets. They could take out a hundred and not even be noticed that they were missing.

When you get into 2 Kings, in Elisha's day, there's a company of prophets at Bethel, there's a company of prophets in Jericho, we don't know how many, but 50 of them joined Elisha, which is a large number.

I point this out to you because by now the prophetic office is becoming an institution. And I want to suggest to you, this was a very dangerous development because the criteria for being a prophet ceased to be that one had a message from God and that the spirit of God was on them.

Rather, they had been through the right schooling, the right training, they've got the right associations, they've got the right accreditation and the prophetic office became a job, it became a vocation in contemporary religion.

So much so, and you get to the written prophets, they speak of them as corrupt. In Micah chapter 3 and verse 5, and I'm giving you all this background here for a reason, I trust you'll appreciate in a moment.

In Micah chapter 3 and verse 5, it says, as for the prophets who lead my people astray, if one feeds them, they proclaim peace. If he does not, they prepare to wage war against him. Down in verse 11, her prophets tell fortunes for money, yet they lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us?

No disaster will come upon you. If you paid them good money, they gave you a good prophecy. If you didn't pay them good money, they gave you a bad prophecy. And in Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 2 to 5, it says this, on that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land and they'll be remembered no more, declares the Lord almighty, and I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.

If anyone still prophesies, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, you must die because you have told lies in the Lord's name. When he prophesies, his own parents will stab him. On that day, every prophet will be ashamed of his prophetic vision.

He'll not put on prophet's garment of hair in order to deceive. He'll say, I'm not a prophet, I'm a farmer and the land has been my livelihood since my youth. And if somebody says, well, what are these wounds on your body?

He'll say, well, these wounds I was given at the house of my friends. In other words, he's saying that's going to become an embarrassment to be a prophet because the prophetic office has become so corrupt.

And exactly what he says there, of course, is what Amos did. When Amos in chapter 7 and verse 14 and 15 says, I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd. And I also took care of sycamore trees.

But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said, go prophesy to my people Israel. And when Amos 7, 14 says, I'm not a prophet, he's not meaning God hasn't called me. He goes on to say God has, but he says, I don't have the credentials.

I don't have the qualification. I don't have the, you know, BP after my name, Bachelor of Prophecy. I haven't been to the right accredited training grounds. And the whole thing has become corrupt. Several years ago, I was in Australia speaking at some meetings there.

And I was invited one day to be interviewed on a local television sort of magazine news type program. And so I went to do that. And when I got there to the studio, the interviewer lady who's going to interview me said to me, I'm going to be very kind to you today.

I said, well, thank you very much. What do you mean? She said, when I introduce you, I won't call you an evangelist. Well, I'm not an evangelist. I don't see that as my calling, but I was intrigued. I said, why is it kind not to call me an evangelist?

She said, if I said you're an evangelist, you know what most of my viewers would think? You're here for the money. You've got a woman in every town you visit. You exploit the gullible and the weak. And I said, you're kidding.

She said, I'm not kidding. Well, this was several years ago, soon after, of course, the scandal as the media blew it up to be. It was a scandal, but they made it a huge thing of the televangelists in America.

Just those two, really. Well-known ones and a couple of others. And the whole reputation of being an evangelist had become tarnished. Well, it was very much like that for the prophet. You see, I understand why Samuel started his schools of the prophets, because you remember when Samuel was born, his mother Hannah had gone to the temple to pray that God would give her a son.

She was barren, it says, and God gave her Samuel, and she gave him when he was weaned to be brought up in the temple in Shiloh. Under leaderships, under Eli's leadership. And it says in 1st Samuel chapter 3, verse 1, it says, the word of the Lord was rare.

There were not many visions. In other words, you could go to the temple and you would hear the voice of the priest, but you never, if ever, heard the voice of God. And when Hannah had come into Shiloh, and Eli, actually, certainly begun as a good man.

He was a weak man. But when she stood to pray, you remember, it says her lips moved, her voice was not heard, and Eli said, how long will you keep on getting drunk? And when Eli saw this woman who meant business with God, he accused her of being drunk.

And when Samuel was then born and was put into the priest's home in Shiloh, one night in his bed, he heard the voice of God speak to him and call him by name. And he went to Eli saying, did you call me?

And Eli said, no. Go back to bed, you're dreaming. You see, when the priest assumes a woman who is praying is drunk and a boy who hears the voice of God is dreaming, no wonder the voice of the Lord was rare.

The word of the Lord was rare. And Samuel, growing up in that environment as a boy and a young man of God, resolved, I'm sure, to himself, never again should it be said in Judah that God's voice isn't heard.

So he got together the young men and he taught them to listen to God. And it was genuine. It was authentic. As we read earlier, the spirit of God was on them. But now the criteria for prophetic ministry was not as God called you.

It's the spirit of God on you. The criteria has become, this is a job. Get the right training. And if you've got the right qualifications, you're equipped. Does this ring a bell somewhere? What makes a man a woman?

What gives them the right to stand and declare the word of God? That they have done business with God and God has given them the calling and the anointing of his Holy Spirit. But you see, these prophets, go back to Jeremiah 23 now, having just scanned that background to this situation.

Testing Prophecy by Standing in the Lord's Counsel

Back in Jeremiah 23, he says in verse 16 about these prophets, it's what the Lord Almighty says, do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you. They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

They keep saying to those who despise me, the Lord says, you will have peace. And all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts, they say, no harm will come to you. Now notice their message was very positive.

It was upbeat. He talks about filling you with hopes. They're false hopes, but they're hopes. They are visionaries, but the visions are from their own minds. They're forward looking. They bring peace is their message.

They talk about safety, he says in verse 17. These are positive, attractive, affirming messages. But they were delusions, he says in verse 26, of their own minds. They gave the people what they like to hear.

We love to hear positive, warm, upbeat, visionary messages, don't we? Well, they gave them what they wanted. But they didn't equip them for godliness. They didn't equip them for righteousness, for warfare.

They didn't transform the lives of those to whom they preached. And there are always people around, of course, rather than take time to find out what God would say to them personally. We want you to know what God wants me to say.

And there are always people around who are gullible enough to believe us. When we tell them I have a word from God for you, and go and do something. I had a phone call the other day from a woman in Norway.

I never met her in my life. She said, God has told me to get in touch. She said, I read one of your books, and God told me to get in touch with you. You must leave England within the next two weeks. I said, who are you?

She said, I'm someone to whom God has been speaking. Go to Sierra Leone, she said. I said, there's a war on in Sierra Leone. She said, if you stay in England more than two weeks, you'll be in trouble.

I said, well, thanks for your word. Bye. The next day, I got an international telegram. Same lady. Followed up a week later by a letter. One day, a man came to me and told me that God had told him that within seven days, I would die.

I needed to make sure my family was safe. Well, that was more than seven days ago. That was six days ago. No, it wasn't. And I went to see that man a few days later, and I said, you have created for yourself incredible power.

I said, you know something? I didn't believe you, but I could hardly sleep the night you told me that. You have created incredible power, and it's evil. And you see, these folks leaped in on this opportunity to take advantage and exploit.

Well, what's the antidote to this? This is the positive side. We've taken probably too long looking at that negative side, but Jeremiah speaks a lot about it. Verse 18. This is the positive thing. He says, but which of them has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see or to hear his word?

Who has listened and heard his word? Verse 22. Let me read verse 21 as well. I didn't send these prophets, yet they have run with their message. I didn't speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.

Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord. But he's saying there, if these are men or women whom God has called to this prophetic ministry, when have they stood in my counsel and listened? Maybe it's important just at this point to define what we mean by prophecy.

There's debate, of course. What is prophecy? And I remember Professor F .F. Bruce one day speaking. And he talked about what he called a law of first mention. He said, this doesn't always work, but it's a good rule of thumb.

You want to know what does something mean? Find out where it first occurs in the Bible. And very often in the first occurrence of a word or a term or an idea, you find worship. You find meaning. My mind's running ahead there.

Because the word worship, for instance, you know the first time that occurs? Genesis 22. Abraham, leaving his servants at the base of Mount Moriah, taking his son Isaac, whom God has said, gone off on Mount Moriah.

And he walks up. And as he leaves him, he says, I and the lad will go yonder and worship. What's he going to do on the mountain? What did Isaac say? He said, we've got the fire. We've got the wood. Where's the lamp?

He didn't say, we've got the guitar. We've got the drums. Where's the piano? Where are the keyboards? How are we going to worship? Worship was defined there as total unquestioning obedience. First time the word occurs in the New Testament is Matthew chapter 2.

The wise men came. And it says, they worshiped and opened their gifts. Interesting definition of worship. Actually, it says they presented their treasures, I think. They worshiped and presented their treasures.

That's right, that's what it says. Giving your treasures. First time the word prophecy ever occurs is in Exodus chapter 7. Or the word prophet, should I say. And I think we have a definition here. Exodus 7 verse 1, The Lord said to Moses, See, I've made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

Now, what does he mean? You're like God and Aaron will be your prophet. Well, go back to chapter 4 of Exodus and verse 16. Sorry, verse 14 to 16. And it says there, the Lord's anger burned against Moses.

He said, what about your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know he can speak well. He's already on his way to meet you. And his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth.

I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you. And it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. Now he says, you're going to be like God and Aaron will be your prophet.

Here he says, he will be your mouth and you'll be like God to him. What is a prophet? A prophet is the mouth of God. You see, one of the debates about prophecy, is it foretelling or is it foretelling?

Actually, neither defines prophecy. Neither foretelling nor foretelling defines it because it's not the content of the message that defines it. It's the origin that defines it. This is from God. And that's why I believe it's important to acknowledge in the New Testament.

Every time it lists spiritual gifts in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Peter 2, where are the other references? I stuck them down here somewhere. Every time it gives any list of spiritual gifts, it always includes prophecy.

Has anyone mentioned all the lists? Along with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the day of Pentecost, when Peter stood up and quoted from the book of Joel and stating this is the fulfillment of that prophecy.

One of the things that it says there is that I will pour out my spirit in these days and they will prophesy. Because every one of us may be a mouth of God. That is, we speak what is the word of God to people.

You see, as we pointed out about Jeremiah the other morning, he himself knew it wasn't the effect of his message that made it important. It was the origin of his message, the source of his message. God had said, I'll put my words in your mouth.

And if you know where the word has come from, you don't have to know where the word is going to. Because that's God's business. As he said in Isaiah, my word will not return void, but will accomplish that for which I sent it.

If in Jeremiah's case, as it was, it was after his death, so be it. But my word will not return void if it's my word, it's going to penetrate and have its effect. But if the prophet is the mouth of God, then the discipline of the prophet of God is to listen to God.

That's what he says in those two verses 18 and 22. Which of them had stood in my counsel and listened? Well, that raises the question, how does God speak? I want to suggest three ways in which God speaks.

God Speaks Through His Son

First of all, and this won't be the one you're expecting first, but I believe it's crucial. God speaks by his son. Because in Hebrews chapter one and verse one, in the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. The last days being the period from Pentecost onwards. In scripture, we're in the last days. I've been 2 ,000 years, and the way in which that term is used, he's saying in this era, God has spoken in his son.

Jesus is, as John writes in his gospel, the word, the logos. He is the truth, as he declared. I don't just preach it, I am the truth. Everything Jesus preached was an exposition of himself. Who he is, what he was doing.

And the ultimate litmus test of truth is Christ. Now, I believe that's very important. I mean, how do you know something's true? All kinds of new spiritual movements come along, and they're exciting, and they're dramatic.