Spiritual Leadership - [Hebrews 13:17]

I'm often asked, not only here at BBC, but even before and in other places, about my theological vantage point. Are you a covenantalist? Are you a dispensationalist? What are you really? Well, at this stage in my life, I would say I'm a leaky dispensationalist.

And for this reason, my young son of 11 months, I'm in the dispensation of bibs right now, if you will. And it's a leaky dispensationalist because he drools quite a bit. And he has this one bib in particular that says on it, I'm the boss.

And when my youngest daughter sees it, she looks at me and she says to me, Dad, Zachary's not the boss. You're the boss. And I pat on his head. Good girl. I've taught you well. It's an issue of authority.

Authority in the Home, Government, and Church

Who is the boss? I went into the archives of Bethlehem Bible Church, where in the application there's a specific question for membership. And the question says this. Please describe in your own words your understanding of submission to the love and rule of the elders over you.

And without mentioning names, let me give you some very good answers. Four of them I found here. This verse speaks of the importance of practicing obedience towards your authorities in the church, whose desire it is to lovingly instruct you in a biblical manner.

Another answer. Church elders exercise God-given authority when they preach and teach God's word. They are called to be faithful in doing so, as they will one day have to give an account to the Lord.

Another answer. The elders must give an account and are commanded to watch over us, over our souls. Thus, we must also obey them. And a final answer said, Humble submission and obedience with meekness and gratitude toward the elders, as they exercise their biblical authority lovingly for the good of the flock.

Good answers, I would say. Authority is part of life. We know that as young children, beginning with parental authority. A verse that I often heard my parents, especially my father, quote to me. Ephesians 6 .1 Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.

Of course, I would say to him, Dad, don't forget the context. Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Governmental authority is part of life, is it not? Romans 13 says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Authority is part of life. Those who are over us, who are our leaders. But there are many naysayers when it comes to this issue of spiritual authority or spiritual leadership, if you will. There are many who say, well, I do not want to be part of something where somebody is leading me in a spiritual sense, because people in the past in my life have abused their spiritual authority.

And that is true, unfortunately. There are others who say, I don't want to be a part of that, because people in the past, in my past, have abdicated their spiritual authority. The two extremes. Those who are called to be spiritual leaders have either abused that calling or have abdicated their role.

I was talking to a young man recently in January, who I was encouraging to commit to membership in a local body of believers. And his response to me was, well, I'm a member of the Universal Church. I said, great, so you believe in the Universal Church as I do.

I said, of whom the head is Jesus Christ, correct? He said, sure, correct. And I said, well, that head, Jesus Christ, has appointed for the church evangelists, pastors, teachers. And I said, on top of that, when Jesus said, the head of this Universal Church, in Matthew 18, that if somebody is living in unrepentant sin and you are to bring it before the entire church, I said, am I supposed to call all the pastors around the world and check with them before?

How does that work in a universal setting? I was trying to encourage him and let him see through the scripture the importance of being part of a local body of believers. Another lady I talked to about two weeks ago said to me, she is part of a church where there is elder rule, but she says to me she's not happy about that, because her idea was, when there is elder rule, less people become involved in ministry, okay?

People's involvement in ministry is those that God has saved, and out of a heart of gratitude want to serve the Lord, not because there is elder rule. Others might not be one to become under spiritual leadership, because of maybe the issue of church discipline.

Maybe they've grown up in a church that abused it, I don't know. Interesting, there was an early Puritan leader in the American church, who, in talking about church discipline, made a list of those sins which would be befitting for church discipline, and let me read this short list to you.

Swearing, cheating, stealing, and idleness. Who's been idle this week? Can you imagine that? And the great reformer, Martin Luther, believe it or not, there's a story that he wanted to excommunicate a man who was trying to sell his house for ten times the amount he bought it for, and make that much of a profit.

And Martin Luther's line of thinking was, well, he obviously has greed as a sin, his greed is unbridled, so he says he would go and excommunicate him unless he cut down to half the selling price. Maybe that's why people do not want to come under spiritual leadership.

All the naysayers have their reasons. But let's look briefly at what the Bible says. If you would turn with me to the book of Hebrews, chapter 13. Chapter 13 of the book of Hebrews, one verse we're going to look at tonight.

This morning, the chapter in the Bible, you've got a bird's eye view. Tonight, one verse, I'm going to give you a worm's eye view. Hebrews 13, verse 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. To unpack this verse for us tonight, I want us to see basically two things really. What should be our response to spiritual leadership?

And then what are the reasons for that response to those who are spiritual leaders over us? What is our response to our spiritual leaders? And what are the reasons for that response? Or if you will, what is the mandate given in this verse, in terms of our response to those who are spiritual leaders?

And then what are the motives for why we're to respond in this manner? It is a biographical book, Ian Murray, of Pastor John MacArthur. He quotes Pastor MacArthur as saying this, quote, nothing is more critical to the health of a church than the quality of its leadership.

End quote. Nothing is more critical to the health of a church than the quality of its leadership. I would add to that, fortunately I'm not adding to Holy Writ, but I would add also, nothing is more critical to the health of a church than the quality of its leadership and the church's response to its leadership.

That's important for the health of a church. So what is the response? What is the mandate here? Let me give you it. In verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them. I call it direct submission. Direct submission.

Notice here in the verse, it is an imperative to obey. Obey your leaders. It is not the common term used in most of scripture for the term obey. It's not the term that Christ uses, for example, in the Upper Room Discourse, where he says, if you love me, you will obey my commands.

Ipakou is the word there. The Greek term used here is pitho. It literally means to be continually persuaded. To be continually persuaded. And it has a connotation and implication in two ways. First of all, it means to obey our leaders' instruction.

Obeying our leaders' instruction. It's always used in reference to a verbal proclamation. To obey our leaders is to obey their instruction, their verbal proclamation, to be continually persuaded of what they teach us from scripture.

This is consistent with the context. Jump earlier with me to verse 7, rather, of this chapter. Remember your leaders, those who what? Who spoke to you the word of God. This is what the writer of Hebrews is referencing here in verse 17, when he says to obey your leaders.

Those who spoke the word of God, be continually persuaded of what they teach you in their proclamation of the scripture. This is their primary role. That is why actually in the same context, verse 9, the writer writes, do not be led astray by diverse and strange what?

Teachings. Don't be led astray by strange teachings. Obey your leaders who speak the word of God to you. That's instruction. We see it in Acts. The apostles. In Acts 2. The birth of the church. They devoted themselves continually to what?

The apostles' teaching. They had an issue later on in the early church, in chapter 6 of Acts, where the Greek-speaking Jews, those Greeks always are troublemakers, let me tell you, they were complaining that they were being neglected, their widows, in the distribution.

So the apostles got together and they said, we cannot neglect the word of God in order to serve. So they selected deacons. One of them being the first martyr in church history, Stephen. And the apostles said in turn, we will devote ourselves to the ministry of prayer and to the ministry of the word.

To obey our leaders is to obey their instruction. But this instruction is not done in a vacuum. Notice in verse 7. It says there, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Literally, mimic them. So you, here, you are continually persuaded in obedience to their proclamation of the scripture, but you also see and consider their way of life and imitate their faith. This was consistent with the testimony of the apostle Paul.

What he said, what he taught and preached, and how he lived. To the Corinthians he said in 1 Corinthians 4, I urge you then, be imitators of me, that is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Timothy, he says, is going to remind you of my ways in Christ, which by the way is what I teach everywhere in every church. My teaching is consistent with my way of life. And that is what the writer of Hebrews is encouraging us here, is to obey our leader's instruction, but it's not done in a vacuum.

To listen to the word of God they speak to us, but also considering their way of life and to imitate them. But this word here, obey, has a second connotation. Not only is it to obey our leader's instructions, but it's to obey our leader's direction.

The direction they give us, the guidance, the wisdom, the counsel. This Greek term is used in that manner in James chapter 3, the classic chapter on the tongue, where it says in verse 3, if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

Obedience here to our leaders, to those who are spiritual leaders over us, is not only for obeying their instruction, but for the direction of our lives. And he says the term leaders here, obey, that is whom we are to obey, our leaders.

This Greek term for leaders is used 24 times in the New Testament. Usually it's referred to in secular realm. Pilate, for example, when Paul met before Felix, it has a reference to a governor. But I think the best rendering of this is in the King James Version.

The term leaders here is mentioned three times throughout this chapter. In verse 7, which we saw, verse 17, and if you see in verse 24, he says, greet all your leaders and all the saints. The King James puts it this way, obey them that have the rule over you.

Obey them that have the rule over you. Obey them in their instruction and obey them in their direction. But verse 17 doesn't end there. Obey your leaders and do what? Submit to them. This is the only time this particular word in the Greek is found here in the New Testament.

The Greek word epikete literally means to yield under, to yield under them. Interestingly enough, the first imperative, obey, is in the passive. It has the idea of allowing yourself to be continually persuaded by their proclamation of the word.

Whereas the term, the imperative here, submit, is active, it's in the present tense. It literally means to be diligently and continually devoting ourselves to placing ourselves under our leaders. To yield under them, obey their instruction, obey their direction, and yield under them.

Of course, verse 8, which is a classic verse that's plot completely out of context. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. How many times have you heard that taken completely out of context?

I love when continuous do that. Those who believe that the supernatural sign gift is still working today, there you go. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I was unfortunately listening the other day to Mark Driscoll, who made kind of a concocted jump from people who go from being atheists to deists to cessationists.

Interesting. But we see here in this verse, what is the context of what the writer is saying? Obey your leaders, submit to them, remember your leaders who have gone before you. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Human leaders, who we are to obey and submit to, come and go. Jesus Christ, the head of the church, who is the one who has appointed these leaders, is the one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He's the one who gives leaders. He's the one who gives pastors, teachers. So ultimately, when the writer says in verse 17, to obey your leaders and submit to them, ultimately, we are bottom line obeying and submitting to the head, Jesus Christ.

The one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is not by chance that the writer of Hebrews in verse 20, as you will see there, refers to the head of the church, Jesus, as the great shepherd of the sheep.

Submission takes a bad rap. Turn with me to 1 Peter for a moment, and then we'll go back to our verse. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 1. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.

Wives, be subject. In our text tonight, it tells us to submit to our leaders. But the key to understanding here in 1 Peter, what is this submission, this attitude that we are to have, is the term that verse 1 begins with, likewise.

And we know the chapters are not inspired, so we look previously to the end of chapter 2 here in 1 Peter. And it talks about our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 21. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Likewise. In other words, Peter is painting a picture that submission is a Christ-like quality. In the way that the Eternal Son submitted to the Father from eternity past, to do the Father's will in going to the cross to bear our sins.

Likewise, he says, why submit in that manner? Submission should not have a bad rap. It is a Christ-like quality. So when it comes even to submitting to those who God has placed as our spiritual leaders, we are to remember that it is a quality of Jesus Christ as we submit.

That is the response, the mandate, direct submission to obey our leaders, their instruction and their direction in our lives, and then to yield unto them, to submit to them as a Christ-like quality. But the writer here gives us reasons why we are to respond this way, motives.

I love the scriptures for many reasons, but one reason is, when the Bible gives us imperatives, it doesn't just tell us what we are to do, but it tells us why we are to do them. Think of 1 John, and this is love of God.

To obey His commands, and His commands are not burdensome, because the motive is love. But what motives, what reasons does the writer of Hebrew give us here for this direct submission? So let's look at this.

Number one, I call it divine stewardship, divine stewardship. Remember, Pastor McArthur's quote, nothing is more critical to the health of a church than the quality of its leadership. And I added, and the response of the church to its leadership.

And I'll also add, not only responding rightly, but why do you respond that way? What are the reasons for responding that way? Divine stewardship, you will see in all these three reasons, they're coming from different vantage points.

This one is from God's vantage point, God's vantage point. 4, verse 17 continues, They, the leaders, are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Wow. Keeping watch. The Greek word, agriponeo, which is the A taken negating, coming from the Greek term meaning to sleep, meaning sleepless.

Literally to be sleepless, watching over your souls in a sleepless kind of manner. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 12 to 13, We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you, who labor among you.

Kopiazo, that means to grow weary and tired, to labor with worrisome effort, to be sleepless over this. And not only so, it is a divine stewardship because he says here, they keep watch over your souls as those who will do what?

Give an account. To whom? To God. One of my favorite passages is the passage in the book of Acts, where Paul gives his farewell address to the elders in Ephesus. And he says to them this in Acts 20 verse 28, He's addressing the elders, the spiritual leadership of the church in Ephesus.

Pay careful attention to the flock. To care for what? The church of God. It is His church. That's why they will have to give an account. Peter said it too in 1 Peter 5 too. Shepherd, the flock of God.

It's the church of God. It's the flock of God. Therefore, their account is to God. And because of divine stewardship, we are to willingly and lovingly obey those leaders who watch over our souls and will give an account to the church of God.

Secondly, the second reason he gives is found there in verse 17 continuing. Obviously, it's one verse. I call it disheartened service. Disheartened service. Not only do we obey and submit because of this divine stewardship that our leaders have, but also because of disheartened service.

This is from the leader's vantage point, so to speak. From his perspective. Notice what the text says here. Let them do this, their spiritual leadership, with joy and not with groaning. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning.

That's the reason you are to obey and submit. I'm sure a couple of months ago you've received an email from Pastor Mike. A list. It was very interesting. It's from a book, which is a great book, by the way.

Life in the Father's House, a Practical Guide to Local Church Membership. And in chapter 4, the author's list. Two lists, actually. One is how to help leaders enjoy their ministry and how to bring leaders grief.

Let me just read them off for you. And to remember what our text says here. To help them do this with joy and not with groaning. First, how to help leaders enjoy their ministry. Believe in Christ. And I'm not going to walk you through all the references.

Walk in obedience to Christ. This next one is obviously very important. Cultivate and preserve unity in the body. Pray for them. Express personal love and loyalty to them. Seek their counsel and direction.

Receive their reproof with gratefulness. Believe the best about their character and decisions. Work beside them in ministry. How do you bring in grief? How do you not make their work a joy, but one with groaning, as our text says?

Be indifferent about salvation. Sin against Christ and fail to continue to grow in Him. Bide and devour one another. Sow discord among the brethren. Make no effort to affirm our love for them or know them personally.

Seek counsel merely among friends or outside the church, especially when we do so in the realm of the ungodly. Respond to their love and reproof with insults or callousness. Distrust their motives and judge them unfairly or too hastily.

And I like this one. By being puke potatoes who think our only responsibility for involvement in the church is to warm a seat. There's plenty of opportunities in any local body, including this one, to serve the Lord and to serve one another.

The writer says here one reason not to give them groaning, but to give them joy. He says also, and Paul does actually, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and to esteem them very highly.

When you respect those leaders that God has appointed, their work is a joy. When you esteem them, their work is not done with groaning. But the writer doesn't finish there. He gives a third reason for submitting and obeying those who are spiritual leaders.

Not only is there divine stewardship from God that you will have to give an account, not only do we want them to be disheartened in their service, but number three, I call this disadvantaged sheep. Disadvantaged sheep.

Look at the connection here. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you, to those that the leaders are watching over. The term there is a connective, showing a direct cause and effect relationship.

When their work is done with groaning and not with joy, that will be no advantage to those souls, those sheep. Literally, it means to not be profitable. There will be no profit for the sheep. I was recently at a church on Easter Sunday and the Sunday before that, an unfortunate situation where the pastor resigned.

It was a difficult time, I would say, for the church, but I could see not only from the pastor's perspective, but from some of the sheep perspective, this exact verse. I could see it. One of the leaders there had told me that, literally Hebrews 13, 17, the work was not being done with joy, but it was done with groaning.

For whatever reasons, which I don't know about and don't care too particularly right now, but the pastor was doing his job, but it was not done with joy, it was done with groaning. He was there physically, but his heart was not there.

It wasn't there with the people. But I could see the cause and effect relation in this man that I was talking to, who was one of the sheep. It was no advantage, it wasn't profitable. I could see over the last month or so the sleepless nights this man had, and I'm sure the pastor did also.

The writer of Hebrews encourages us very clearly that as part of a local body, we are to obey and submit to those that God has entrusted to us. Those who watch over our souls, who will have to give an account, who rule over us lovingly, not in the extremes where people have abused their God-given calling, or have abdicated their calling.

And why do we do that? Because there's a divine stewardship involved. Because we don't want service to be something that takes their joy away, and because we want it to be an advantage to us and to our body.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the things that you've guided us through tonight in the scriptures. We know that there are many different dynamics in the life of a local body. Everything from, we think of the nine marks of the ministry, from expository preaching to discipleship and growth, and this one in particular as we talked about tonight, leadership.

Thank you for those that you have entrusted as stewards over us, to watch over our souls and to give an account. And I pray that you would help us in this aspect, that we would continue to obey our leader's instruction and direction for our lives, and that we would be willing to yield under them, because it is a divine stewardship, because we want the ministry to be full of joy and not in groaning, and because it would be of no advantage to us.

Father, we love you for first loving us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.