Remember, Obey, and Pray for Your Leaders

Sermon Transcript

Why does the letter end this way? Why does the divinely inspired author end the letter by talking about leaders? Well, let’s remember what this letter is all about. On one level, the letter is all about Jesus. Hebrews is all about the surpassing worth of Jesus above all competing options. On one level you can summarize the message of Hebrews in three words: Jesus is better. On another level Hebrews is all about genuine faith, faith that endures. Hebrews is a warning and encouragement to run the race of faith in Jesus all the way to the end, because only those whose faith endures will be welcomed into the eternal joy of our Master and King. Hebrews is all about walking by faith in and trusting Jesus to the end, not turning from the narrow path of faith to the right or to the left, because Jesus is better.

So, if that’s what the letter is about, why does the letter end by talking about leaders in the church? Simply, because the Lord gives us leaders to help us walk by faith to the end. The Lord gives us pastors to help us persevere. The Lord gives us pastors to help us persevere. The Lord Jesus is the greatest pastor. Notice what Hebrews 13:20 says near the end of our passage: Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep… The Greek word translated “shepherd” is the same word that in other places in NT is translated “pastor.” Jesus is the great pastor who leads his flock through human pastors who help God’s people persevere to the end on the narrow path of faith. Hebrews is all about faith in Jesus that perseveres, therefore, the letter ends by addressing how the people of Christ relate to their leaders in the church, their pastors, because pastors help God’s people persevere.

Now, let’s be honest, this is an interesting passage for me to preach to you. A few weeks ago I was teaching down at Grimke Seminary and one of my students who isn’t yet a pastor in his church asked if I would help him with a sermon that he was preparing to preach in his church. I said sure and asked him what passage he was preparing to preach. The passage happened to be the one that we’re in this morning. I (should have) instantly realized that my students’ lead pastor is wiser than I am. He asked a non-pastor to preach on how church members should relate to their pastors! Well, I’m not that wise so you’ve got me today. But in all seriousness, it’s difficult for me to imagine an easier church to preach this passage to than you, Citylight Church (Julie Everswick). Citylight – your love and honor for me and your other pastors, as well as your love and honor for God’s word, is so evident and so encouraging to us that it’s easy and joyful for me to preach this passage to you. You’re already living it.

The Lord gives us pastors to help our faith persevere. So, how should we relate to our pastors so that they help us persevere? Notice the way verse seven begins: Remember your leaders… Now notice the way that verse seventeen continues: Obey your leaders…Finally notice the way that verse eighteen begins: Pray for us…These three simple phrases reveal the big idea about how we relate to our pastors who help us persevere: Remember, obey, and pray for your leaders. Remember, obey, and pray for your leaders. This morning we are going to take that big idea one part at a time: First remember, then obey, and then pray.

REMEMBER YOUR LEADERS (13:7-16)

Interestingly, the most lengthy section of our passage actually teaches us how to relate to our past leaders, our former pastors who helped us persevere in it. Hebrews 13:7 – Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God… If you didn’t come to saving faith in Jesus at Citylight, who helped establish you in the faith and taught you to persevere in it? To run the race of faith in Jesus to the finish, remember them. According to our passage, remembering our leaders involves four things. If you were converted to faith in Christ at Citylight, you can do these with your current pastors.

First, remembering your leaders involves imitating their faith. Imitating their faith. Hebrews 13:7-8 – Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. [8] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Faith that endures thrives on examples. Remember your leaders from the past, consider how they endured in faith, and then imitate their enduring faith in Jesus because though your leaders change, Jesus never does. Remember the things that they did to grow their faith in Jesus. Remember the way they followed Jesus through trials and imitate them. My first pastor in high school, Mike Pedlowe, woke up very early to spend time growing his faith in Jesus through Bible reading and prayer. His faith has endured now into old age. I imitate his faith by doing what he did, waking up early to be with Jesus. Imitate their faith in the unchanging Christ.

Secondly, remembering your leaders involves not being led away by false-leaders. Hebrews 13:9 – 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. Remember your past leaders by testing everything present leaders teach you by the Scriptures so that you’re not led astray. Be like the Bereans who were described in Acts 17:11 this way: Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Specifically, Keep being strengthened by the grace your former leaders taught you at first. Keep coming back to the gospel of grace for strength to walk by faith. Remember your leaders by not being led away from the gospel of grace by false-leaders.

Third, remembering your leaders involves suffering for Christ as they did. Hebrews 13:9-14 – 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. [10] We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. [11] 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. [12] So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. [13] Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. [14] For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. In the Old Testament, the bulls and goats were slaughtered outside the camp and their blood brought into the temple to be presented before God for the people. That prepared God’s people for the final sacrifice, Jesus Christ, who was slaughtered on the cross outside the city of Jerusalem, but he rose again three days later, and presented himself not in a temple but in the presence of God on our behalf. Therefore, like our faithful leaders who have gone before us, we should go to Jesus and be willing to bear the same reproach that Christ and his leaders have. Remember your leaders by living openly as a follower of Jesus everywhere, no matter the suffering that may bring, just as your leaders did because we seek the city to come.

Fourth, remember your leaders by offering the same sacrifices they did; offering the same sacrifices they did. Hebrews 13:15-16 – Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. [16] Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. You’ve probably noticed that we no longer offer animal sacrifices. Offering animal sacrifices now would be like a woman continuing to cling to her husband’s photograph after his long awaited return from a trip. She’d never do that because the one she’s been waiting for has arrived. Christ has come and offered himself to cleanse us from our sins, so we don’t offer animal sacrifices. However, we do still offer sacrifices, the two sacrifices that our faithful former leaders offered. The first sacrifice is praise – songs from lips that acknowledge his name. God doesn’t need anything from us, therefore, what we offer is praise. We gather week-by-week to sing a loud offering of praise to God, as one voice, through Jesus who has brought us to God. The second sacrifice is doing good to one another, specifically sharing the financial resources that we have. God doesn’t need our good works, but our brothers and sisters in the church do. These are the sacrifices your former pastors offered. Remember them because persevering faith thrives on examples. But since you don’t only have former church leaders, but present ones, secondly…

OBEY YOUR LEADERS

Hebrews 13:17a – Obey your leaders… In other words, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, follow us as we follow Christ. Obey your pastors. Now, obeying your pastors never means following us into sin. Seriously, if I tell you to do something that violates God’s law, you should immediately tell two other Citylight pastors so that I can be confronted and have the opportunity to repent. If that doesn’t work, you should call the Eastern PA district leaders of our denomination, the Christian & Missionary Alliance, because they have an open process for biblically correcting such things. Similarly, obeying your leaders doesn’t mean you need to do anything your pastors tell you to do, so long as it doesn’t violate God’s law. For example, imagine I tell you to bring dinner to my home for my family every Thursday night. I’m not telling you to sin. Therefore, don’t you need to obey me? No, you don’t because God’s word doesn’t give pastors authority over every detail of the lives of the people they lead.

So, what does it mean to obey your leaders? I believe that it means at least two things. First, when I and your other pastors teach you the word of God, you obey it. That one is pretty straightforward. When we teach you from Scripture how to please God in the everyday stuff of your life, obey it, obey us, obey God’s word. Second, receive our teaching with eager humility. Last Sunday, Pastor Tim preached God’s word to you. What do you do when Tim says something in a sermon that you don’t immediately agree with? When you meet with Pastor Paul for counseling or pre-marriage and he urges you toward something you don’t immediately agree with, what’s your posture? I believe that obeying your leaders means humbly assuming that since the church has set them apart to be your pastors, since they studied the passage they’re preaching or the biblical subject they’re teaching, likely, far longer and more carefully than you have, your eager posture is to receive their teaching, doubt your doubts, and obey them rather than yourself. Obey your leaders. Let’s read a little further in Hebrews 13:17 – Obey your leaders and submit to them…. Submission is a little different than obedience. Obedience is more black and white. We teach you what God says and you obey it because you love God. Submission is different, submission following your pastor’s leadership and extending trust in areas where there are multiple acceptable options. For example, a couple years ago the Citylight pastors had to make a very significant decision about our future. We had two acceptable options, we discussed and prayed at length, we voted, and the option I voted for lost. So, I submitted to my pastors, assumed that God’s will was with the majority, and got to work eagerly making happen the plan that I previously didn’t think was the wisest option. God gives his people past pastors to remember and present pastors to obey because pastors help God’s people persevere.

Let’s press a bit further into why God calls us to obey our leaders in the church. Hebrews 13:17 – 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. The reason why we should all love to obey and submit to our pastors in the church is because pastors watch over the souls of their people and will give an account to God for their work. God has given pastors a sacred trust and responsibility: we keep watch over your souls. Pastors lead the church according to God’s word, feed the church God’s word, and protect the church with God’s word like shepherds with a flock of sheep. Therefore, we obey and submit to our pastors so that their sacred work of watching over our souls can be a joy. Joyful shepherds are of great advantage to the flock. That’s why we obey our leaders in the church.

Now, I need to put a quick parenthesis here. Quick parenthesis because I need to shoot you straight. Here it is: church membership is necessary in order to obey what we just learned. Church membership is necessary. Why? Well, think about it. Is God’s word today binding your conscience to obey all pastors everywhere? Instinctively we know that the answer is “no.” Similarly, is God’s word today commanding the Citylight pastors to keep watch over the souls of all Christians in Philly? Instinctively, we know that the answer is no. So, what pastors must you obey and submit to? What Christians must the other pastors and I keep watch over? The answer must be those who have been formally appointed as pastors of this church and those who have formally joined themselves to this local church as members. Let me make it plain: If you’re not a member of a church, then you actually don’t have a pathway to obey this part of our passage from God’s word because you don’t have pastors tasked to keep watch over your soul. That’s why, if you’re not yet a covenant member of Citylight, I’d like to invite you to the next member class on June 2. Close parenthesis. God has given His people pastors to help us persevere: remember your leaders, obey your leaders, and, third and finally, because leading the church is an awesome task…

PRAY FOR YOUR LEADERS

Hebrews 13:18-19 – 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. Citylight – It’s an awesome privilege for Tim, Mark, Paul, Gordon, Tom, Nick, and me to be your pastors. To be undershepherds of Jesus Christ the chief shepherd and to work with Christ for your joy as we watch over your souls is a stunning responsibility and gift. We should be in Hell. Instead we get to keep watch over your souls and seek to present you as a pure and holy bride to Christ. Wow! Would you pray for us? Would you pray this passage for us. Specifically, would you pray that we will live and teach as those worthy of being remembered and obeyed? Would you pray that we will work hard and live holy so that we have a clear conscience as your pastors? Would you pray for us to have wisdom because though we desire to act honorably in all things, we don’t always know what the honorable thing to do in a given situation is? Unlike the author of Hebrews, we don’t need to be restored to you physically, we are not far away, but would you pray that our relationships with you will be strong, meaningful, and joyful? One practical idea: consider setting an alarm on your phone or making a prayer card and pray for your pastors once each week. And please pray for our wives and children as well, they walk with us as we carry out this awesome privilege.

CONCLUSION

Citylight Church – Jesus is better. Persevering in the race of faith with our eyes fixed on Jesus to the end is worth every trial on the path. And God has given us leaders in the church to help us persevere. Remember, obey, and pray for your leaders. And do it all with your eyes fixed on the greatest leader, the great shepherd, the one who shed his blood at the cross to forgive your sins and bring you to God forever, Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 13:20-25 – Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, [21] equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. [22] I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. [23] You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. [24] Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. [25] Grace be with all of you.