This evening, as we ordain and install ten new elders, I want to direct your attention to one place in the New Testament where the Scriptures summarize for us our duty as a congregation to our leaders. So if you would, take your Bibles in hand and turn with me please to Hebrews, chapter 13. We were in Hebrews 13 for our call to worship; we return to that passage again, focusing on verse 7 and verses 17 through 19, which we will summarize together under three exhortations. First, verse 7 says that we need to learn from our leaders. And then verse 17 says we are to follow our leaders. And 18 and 19 say we are to pray for our leaders. Learn from, follow, pray for our leaders. Before we read the passage and consider those headings, let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us all pray.
O Lord our God, we thank You that Your Word is living and active and sharper than a double-edged sword, piercing to the division of joints and marrow, soul and spirit, laying bare the secret thoughts and intentions of our hearts. We ask, O God, that the Spirit of Christ would wield His sword, Your Word, in our hearts and lives now, for Your honor and glory and for the good of Your people in this place. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Hebrews 13 at the seventh verse. This is the Word of God:
“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
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.
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.”
Amen.
Context, we all know, really matters, so consider some of these famous proverbs. Two friends have the same brilliant idea, and with a grin one says to the other, “Great minds think alike.” But we forget, don’t we, the second half of the proverb – “Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ.” So you might be two geniuses with the same sudden brain wave, or you might just be two idiots making the same bad mistake! Or here’s a good one to use on that obnoxiously chipper morning person in your life when next they beam at you at some unwholesome hour in the morning and declare, “The early bird catches the worm” – don’t you hate that? Next time someone uses that to explain why they have an unnatural spring in their step before the sun has even risen yet, you can smile sleepily at them and reply, “True, true, the early bird catches the worm, but don’t forget it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.” I really like that one!
My point is, taken out of context, quotes like that, they get truncated and they actually end up changing their meaning. That could very easily happen to the verses that are the focus of our attention tonight. Verse 7 and verses 17-19, taken out of context they might be misread as elevating leaders to a place of almost dictatorial supremacy, or they could be cited by some megalomaniacal pastor to require from his people the kind of regard and devotion that ought never to be shown to any earthly object. But when you notice the context, when you see the whole passage, you’ll see that Hebrews is actually being wonderfully balanced. Would you look at the passage as a whole, verses 7 through 19 with me for a moment?
The three exhortations we are going to consider are there in verse 7 and in 17 through 19, but you’ll notice that they bracket a whole section, verses 8 through 16, that meditates on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see that in the text? No sooner does verse 7 challenge us about our attitudes to spiritual leadership in the church than it immediately turns around in verse 8 and points us not to our leaders but to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. As if to say, “Yes, your attitude to your elders really matters, but never forget that Jesus is the only one who never changes, who never varies, never fails, never wavers in His judgment, never will let you down.” The best elders in the world will let you down, but not Jesus. So don’t expect from earthly leaders what only Jesus can do. Don’t give to earthly leaders that devotion only Jesus deserves.
In fact, this whole central section links not just how we treat our leaders but our whole Christian life, it links it to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn’t it? Our rejection of false teaching, verses 9 through 11. Our costly discipleship in a hostile world, 12 through 14. Our joyful worship in praise and obedience, 15 and 16. They are all done in response to and in imitation of Jesus Christ. So in 9 through 11, Jesus has provided spiritual food for us to eat from a heavenly altar by the sacrifice of Himself, which means the Hebrews don’t need to be lured away by false teaching about dietary laws. In 12 through 14, Jesus suffered for us outside the camp like the Old Testament sin offering that was burned outside the city gates. Therefore, Hebrews says, we should go to Him outside the camp, willing to suffer with Him and for Him who died for us. In 15 and 16, we no longer need to offer animal sacrifices in our worship like the Jews did in the temple because Jesus is the true and final sacrifice. The only offerings we make now are the sacrifices of praise and of costly obedience to Him.
Do you see the big idea in this section? Jesus is the source of the new life that we live. Jesus is the motive for all our obedience. Jesus is the model of our sacrifice. Jesus is the fuel of all our praise. And it’s on either side of that discussion in verse 7 and in verses 17 through 19 that Hebrews situates these exhortations about how to treat our leaders. We are celebrating tonight God’s great goodness to us as a church answering our prayers raising up new elders to serve in this congregation. And that is right and good. The Lord has been wonderfully gracious to us. But Hebrews 13 wants to make sure as we celebrate and as we set apart these men for service, it wants to make sure that we never forget that we need Jesus more than we need new elders, and that an earthly leader, an earthly elder’s value lies not in the skill with which he can perform the functions of his office, but in his likeness to Christ and his faithfulness in pointing all of us away from himself to Him and to our Savior. No matter how much we might come to admire and care for our leaders, our primary attachment must always be to Christ, never to them. The church needs Jesus. You need Jesus. I need Jesus. Elders are His servants, and that is the context for these two exhortations. And we need to keep it in mind as we consider now their teaching.
And so let’s look down at verse 7 first of all and the first exhortation I want you to see. “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” This first exhortation is a call to learn from our leaders, and it’s built around the three imperatives, the three commands of the text. Do you see them? Remember, consider and imitate.
First, we are to remember our leaders. Obviously, the author isn’t worried that we’ll forget their names. He means, rather, that we are actively to call to mind those who speak God’s Word to us. That’s part of an elder’s job, isn’t it? They are to speak the Word to us. But it is the character of the person who speaks God’s Word to us that often makes us pay attention to them when they do. So a young person holding forth authoritatively about a subject he or she has no personal experience of, even if what they say is factually correct, is often dismissed because the truths that he or she declares, they haven’t really bedded down in their lives yet. They have a theoretical knowledge of the truth, but they haven’t lived it yet. But when an older leader takes us aside and with pathos and sympathy and wisdom drawn from deep wells of painfully, personal experience brings to us a Word from God, we listen differently to that, don’t we? The Word spoken really matters, but the person who speaks the Word matters a great deal too. That’s why Hebrews wants us to remember our elders. We are to give attention to who they are, not just to what they say. Which means, of course, that it is part of our collective responsibility to get to know them such that our knowledge of their characters and experience will help us receive and welcome their ministries to us with new attentiveness. Remember.
Secondly, we are to consider. Consider the outcome of their way of life. As we remember them, we are to take special notice of the consequences of their decisions in life. We are to be asking ourselves, “Where does the arc of their life lead them?” The assumption in the background here of course is that we have the time together with our elders, over the course of years, to trace that arc in their lives. No doubt, the blame for many pastoral failures must be laid at the feet of pastors and elders. We are flawed sinners who often disappoint. It’s true. But not all of the blame lies there. Another culprit behind the lack of fruit from the shepherding care of elders can be our own restlessness and unwillingness to settle down for the long haul in the life of one particular congregation. But the New Testament, let’s be clear, has no category at all for church hopping, wandering Christians who flip into and out of congregations and who never put down roots. We are supposed to live together as the community of God’s people alongside and under the watchcare of elders whose behavior we are able to consider over the course of years so that we can see the outcome of the way that they live. Remember. Consider.
Thirdly, Hebrews says we are to imitate their faith. The point is, elders in the church of Jesus Christ are God’s visual aids. That’s why we are to remember them and consider the outcome of their lives. We are meant to look at our elders and see repentance and faith and walking with Jesus through thick and thin, playing out in their lives. You are meant to look at them and want to mirror for yourself their trust in our Savior, their resolve to live for Him. They show you what the Christian life is to look like as it is lived out.
Throughout this season in the life of our church as we’ve been praying and then nominating and training and electing and now we’re about to ordain new elders, the burden of our teaching has generally fallen on the responsibilities the elders themselves have to shoulder. So the candidates you’ll see being ordained tonight have been challenged to consider carefully what elders are to be like in their character, what they are to do in their ministries. But here tonight the tables have turned and the exhortation isn’t for the elders; it is for all of us as a congregation. Our duty, Hebrews says, is to learn from our elders how to live the Christian life.
Now how do we do that? How do we learn from our elders how to live the Christian life? Well let me encourage you to reach out to your elders, including the men who are being ordained here tonight, and invite their counsel. They have a great deal to offer. Seek to learn from them. There are men of God on our session. Humble men. Men with flaws to be sure, but men who love Christ and who love you. And I want you to be like them. Remember your leaders who spoke the Word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life. And imitate their faith. That means it is our duty to get to know them, our duty to get to know them, to invite them into our lives, to seek exposure to their lives, their characters and ministries. Learn from your leaders, Hebrews says. That’s first.
Secondly, not only should we learn from them, we are also to follow them. 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.” Now in just a few moments, the communing members of this church are going to make a vow, a solemn vow before God. You can see it printed in the bulletin. It reads, “Do you, the members of this church, acknowledge and receive these brothers as ruling elders? And do you promise” – listen – “to yield them all that honor, encouragement and obedience in the Lord to which their office, according to the Word of God and the constitution of this church entitles them?” That breathes the same spirit, doesn’t it, of Hebrews 13:17 – “Obey your leaders, submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls.” Yield them that honor, encouragement and obedience in the Lord to which their office entitles them. We are to learn from these men, but we are also to follow them as they lead us.
We live in a time when obedience and submission are not often held up as virtues to be celebrated. The messaging often in our school systems is all about preparing our children to be future leaders, not servants, as though the highest aspiration of every child ought to always be leadership and anything else is failure. The messaging in our political landscape right now is that submission is weakness. And the messaging, I have to say, especially aimed at Christian men, within the church very often, is that your whole identity is that you are supposed to be a leader. But the Bible doesn’t put principle emphasis on leadership per se. It puts the emphasis on character, which is revealed not in leadership primarily but actually in obedience and submission. Obedience and submission to God in Christ by His Spirit. Obedience to the Word of God in holy Scripture. And obedience and submission to one another and to all lawful authorities in the church, in the state, and at home. Obedience and submission are high, Biblical virtues, and godliness expects them of us all.
And notice the reason Hebrews supplies for following our leaders like that. Look at the text again. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for” – here’s the reason – “they keep watch over your souls.” Our submission and obedience is a response to their shepherding care. They keep watch over your souls. The images of watchmen posted on the walls of an ancient city guarding its citizens against enemies. Elders are watchmen. They keep watch over your souls. Their role is to protect and to care for you. Our obedience and submission to them is the counterpoint to their loving vigilance toward us. This is not a call for abject, unquestioning obedience. Only Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, day and forever. Only He is worthy of absolute, unquestioning obedience. But as they speak the Word of God to us, as they keep watch over our souls, as they serve us, we follow them.
And remember, Hebrews adds that they must give an account to Almighty God for the care they take in shepherding us. I think the implication is that since these men have such a weighty responsibility, it’s our job to make it as easy for them as possible, by meekly receiving their labor, their service, their ministries with teachable hearts in all humility.
And don’t miss the final clause of verse 17. Look at it again. It tells us if these elders will watch over our souls with joy and not with grumbling, it turns out for our advantage, our good and blessing. “Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” It is to our advantage, do you see, to have elders who love the work of shepherding and oversight in the church, who find joy in it, who delight to look out for your eternal welfare. People of God, so honor and follow the men that God has placed over you in the Lord in this place that you make their labor a joy and not a burden. Because if the shepherds of the flock love the sheep and enjoy being with them and serving them, they will care for them all the more diligently. And so in these two verses, Hebrews says first we should learn from our leaders by remembering, considering and imitating them. And it says we should follow our leaders by obeying and submitting to them.
And then finally, look with me at verses 18 and 19 and the last part of our duty in this passage toward our elders. We are to pray for them. Verse 18, “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.” Now think for a minute about the heavy burdens that our elders are called upon to carry for your sake. Verse 7 says they are to speak the Word of God to you. It’s their task to be the principle Bible teachers of the church. Verse 17 says they keep watch over our souls. They are guardians and shepherds who tend to our needs. They are to stop the sheep from wandering into harm’s way. They are to protect the flock from ravenous wolves. And what’s more, it says they will give an account to God for all of us. They’ll answer to the Lord for the quality and the fruit in our lives for their shepherding care. And if we are all to benefit from their work, they are to do it with joy and never with grumbling.
By any measure, that is a heavy weight to place on the shoulders of anyone, isn’t it? No wonder the author to the Hebrews asks for prayer. And as he asks for prayer, don’t miss the high confidence he displays in the instrumentality of prayer in the purposes of God. He says, “Pray for us,” verse 18. Verse 19, “I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.” How is he going to be restored to them? Can he speak to someone in power to maybe smooth the way? Can they pay down the legal obligation that stops him from coming to them? What is the physical barrier between him and them? We don’t know, but the author to the Hebrews is confident that if they would just give themselves to earnest prayer he would soon be restored to their fellowship. He wants them to pray, and he believes that prayer is mighty in accomplishing the work of God. Whatever prison door prohibits him from returning to them, prayer can unlock it. Whatever walls there may be between them, prayer can demolish them. Prayer is mighty.
So how can you support and bless your new elders? Yes, you must learn from their example, invite them into your life, seek their counsel, remember them, consider the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith. You must follow them, obey them, submit to them in the Lord. Relate to them in such a way that you make ministering to you a joy to them. But above all, pray earnestly to God for them because prayer opens doors. Prayer overcomes barriers. Prayer calls down heaven. Will you pray for your elders? Because just like we said at the very beginning when we started out with our focus on our collective need – we need Jesus more than we need elders – these elders need Jesus; they need Him very much. His Spirit sanctifying them and training them. His grace to make them and keep them faithful. His sustaining power when human weariness overwhelms them. The wisdom of His Word when the limits of their own understanding are exceeded by the scale of the pastoral problems before them. Your elders need Jesus.
So will you commend them to God and pray? Pray for their holiness. Pray for their diligence. Pray for their marriages. Pray for their parenting. Pray for their public reputations and for their private piety. Will you pray that they will be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom? Will you pray that God will give them a growing appetite for the Word of God, the holy Scriptures, and such a sense of personal dependence on Jesus that prayer in their own lives become as necessary to them as daily breathing? Pray that they would call the sabbath a delight and thrill to gather with the people of God, Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, morning and evening. Will you pray that the Lord will use them for His great glory and our eternal good? Brothers and sisters, I am persuaded by Hebrews 13:19 that if we will give ourselves to prayer for our elders, God will answer and bless and sweeten our fellowship as a church. He will make us a city set on a hill, a lamp set on its stand whose light cannot be hidden. We will become a community of the redeemed whose life together gives the watching world a little glimpse of the world yet to come. We will become more and more a vivid demonstration of the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone that knows us.
So God’s call to you as these men are set apart for sacred office is to learn from your leaders, to follow your leaders, and to pray and to pray and to pray for your leaders. May the Lord help us all to do it. Let us pray.
Gracious God our Father, thank You for the men about to be set apart for sacred office in this church. We bless You that You have heard our prayers and raised up laborers for the harvest field here. We ask, O God, that You would fill them with Your Spirit and use them in our lives. We need Jesus. Make them instruments of bringing us all to Him, feeding us with Him, the Bread of heaven, the Water of life. O God, may You bless our fellowship as these men take their place in the ranks of our eldership and cause our elders to become more and more Christlike instruments of Gospel fruit in the life of every home, every family, every member of this congregation to the praise and honor of Your name. For Jesus’ sake, amen.