“HOW DOES GOD WANT YOU TO RESPOND TO YOUR

LOCAL CHURCH LEADERS?”  Pt. 2

(The Church – God’s Masterpiece)

by Dennis Rokser

 

The local church is at the center of God’s program for this dispensation of grace (Ephesians 3:2-10), and the healthy relationship of God’s shepherds to His sheep is a vital ingredient for holiness and harmony to occur within each local assembly.  Thus, in our last article we began searching the Scriptures together to definitively answer the important question….

 

“HOW DOES GOD WANT YOU TO RESPOND TO YOUR LOCAL CHURCH LEADERS?”

 

1.      God wants you to KNOW your local church leaders.

 

And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you.  (1 Thess. 5:12)

 

 

2.      God wants you to HIGHLY VALUE your local church leaders for their work’s sake.

 

And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. (1 Thessalonians 5:13)

 

 

3.  God wants you to LISTEN to the BIBLICAL PREACHING and IMITATE THE FAITH of your local church leaders as they point you to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.  (Hebrews 13:7-9)

 

Three times in this chapter of practical exhortations the writer of Hebrews employs “them which have the rule over you” to designate the spiritual leaders of their local churches (13:7, 17, 24).  It is the prevailing consensus of biblical interpreters to understand the two imperatives of verse 7 (“remember” and “follow”) to refer to responses to their past spiritual leaders who have died.  Wuest aptly communicated this perspective when he wrote,

 

The exhortation is to remember their deceased leaders, persons of such a nature that they spoke the Word of God to them (2:3, 4:2).  Some of these had probably gone to heaven by way of martyrdom.  They are urged to imitate their faith while they at the same time observe attentively the kind of lives they lived and the outcome and issue of their lives.  They were to imitate their lives where the latter tallied with what they preached.  Thus, they would be guarded against forsaking Messiah and going back to the temple sacrifices.[1]

 

In light of the ever-present tendency to shift doctrinally in this age of rampant apostasy and disdain for sound doctrine, believers are well advised to remember their past spiritual leaders and the biblical preaching they expounded.  Psuedo–spiritual “success” determined by popularity and numbers instead of faithfulness to the Word of God can entice the sheep and their shepherds to opt for a quasi-sanctified vaudeville and entertainment-orientation to “doing church.”  Godly pastors are to feed and lead God’s flock according to the Scriptures, and believers need to “remember” and “follow” their “faith” — both doctrinally and personally.  However, to “remember” implies that you faithfully attended when the church assembled and attentively listened to your pastor’s teaching (“who have spoken unto you the Word of God”).  However, these assumptions are questionable and even problematic in our day when Christians “shop” for a church with a consumer mentality of seeking a ministry which will address the “felt-needs” of their family and individual preferences instead of whether it stands true to the Word of God or not.  And then they attend “when it’s convenient.”  Thus, it is not uncommon for inquirers to call Duluth Bible Church and ask such initial questions as, “What kind of music or worship do you have?” or “How large is your youth ministry?” etc.  Unfortunately, they do not begin by asking, “What do you believe and preach?”, as either they are ignorant or indifferent regarding the significance and value of grace–oriented Bible teaching.  How else can believers be spiritually fed and grow apart from a steady diet of scriptural teaching (1 Peter 2:2; Hebrews 5:11-14; 2 Timothy 3:15–4:4)?

 

The scriptural command to “remember” your pastor’s teaching and faith underscores the necessity of faithful attendance.  Similar to our day, the first century church needed to address this stumblingblock to spiritual growth.  For earlier in the book of Hebrews the Holy Spirit via the human author penned,

 

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.  (Hebrews 10:24-25)

 

The logic is simple.  How can fellow–believers fulfill verse 24 if verse 25 is not obeyed?  “As the manner of some is” indicates that for various reasons (or excuses), certain Christians were forsaking the public assembling of believers.  Perhaps it was due to the problem of persecution like the stony-ground believer in Jesus Christ’s parable of the sower and the seed.

 

And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;  And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.  (Mark 4:16-17)

 

Maybe the hang-up was the busyness of life and misplaced priorities like the thorny-ground believer in the same parable.

 

And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,  And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.   (Mark 4:18-19)

 

Dear friends, do these passages describe you?  Perhaps you have received the Gospel with joy and believed in Christ and were saved (Luke 8:12), but you have failed to grow in the Lord and become fruitful?  Maybe the hassle of friends and family, or the distraction and temptation of the things of this world have choked the hearing of the Word of God out of your life?  If this describes you, this is tragic and you need to repent (change your mind) and allow the Lord and His Word to have preeminence in your walk.

 

As a pastor, I am amazed at times at the inconsistencies of God’s children when it comes to the regular intake of biblical instruction.  While I understand that the Holy Spirit must convict and a spiritual appetite needs to grow, a Christian’s lack of faithfulness in this issue can be astounding!  They may attend college and would never think of skipping a class (as they are paying for it), but do not blink an eye when it comes to missing a Bible class (which is free!).  Or they may drive a substantial distance in any kind of weather to attend their favorite sporting event or go to their cabin, but are unwilling to drive almost any distance to attend a doctrinally-sound church as they want something “close.”  Or they may pull themselves out of bed to go to a job they do not like for the sake of a buck, but will not honor the Lord by getting up on Sunday morning to worship the Lord “in spirit and in truth.”  Or they hustle after work to make sure their child attends a soccer game, but they bypass the midweek prayer meeting to insure that their child is not up too late.   Or they skip corporate worship on Sunday to “worship” God on the golf course, which certainly is “holely” ground.  Yet, in many cases, they seem oblivious to their actual values and real spiritual condition, as many remain self-deceived by perceiving their “morality” as genuine “spirituality.”  Dear believers, the flesh can produce morality, while only the Spirit of God using the Word of God in a responsive heart can produce genuine spirituality.

 

Now I can almost hear some objector remarking, “Well, going to church does not mean you are spiritual.”  This is true.  Going to church does not make you a Christian any more than going to a zoo makes you an elephant.  Unbelievers attend church and they are not even saved, let alone “spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16).  And even as a believer in Christ, you may attend a church service for the wrong motives as cranked out by your flesh so that you go through the religious motions, yet you “come together not for the better, but for the worse” (1 Corinthians 11:17).  Certainly this was true of the assembly at Laodicea which was playing church and needed to “repent” (Revelation 3:19) because Jesus Christ wanted to “spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).  To falsely conclude that you are either saved or spiritual because you attend church is legalistic and erroneous thinking.  Salvation and genuine spirituality is all by God’s grace based on the finished work of Jesus Christ and not by our works, including attending church meetings (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:28, 4:5, 11:6; Titus 3:5).

 

But lest we imbalance to the other extreme, the receiving of God’s gift of salvation and a genuine walk of faith should result in good works (Ephesians 2:10; Titus 3:8; James 2:14-26), including publicly assembling with other believers in Christ.  The hungry-hearted and yielded believer (who is allowing the Spirit of God — who wrote the Word of God and who seeks to teach him the Scriptures — to control him) will desire and faithfully attend the hearing of the Word of God as much as possible, not as a means of spirituality but as a result.  And because of this, they will grow and become fruitful for our Lord.

 

And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear [present, active, indicative — keep on hearing by choice] the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.  (Mark 4:20)

 

But to “remember” your pastor’s teaching also requires attentive listening.  While I disagree with his false teaching of “Lordship Salvation,” pastor John MacArthur is right on target on this matter of the importance of listening when he writes,

 

The basic outlook of the listener must be to identify himself as the target of the message.  The whole purpose of sitting in the listener's seat is exposure to the message for the purpose of personal confrontation, information, conviction, motivation, and transformation.  The hearer's thoughts should not be concerns about how well the preacher is doing, how clever or interesting he is, or how well structured his sermon is.  The listener is not there to admire or criticize a piece of oratorical art, but to be spoken to personally by God's representative.  The object of the preaching event is a change in thinking and behavior.  The hearer must prepare himself with this anticipation.[2]

 

Whether that preparation involves physical factors (like a good night’s sleep) or spiritual factors (such as prayer and confession of known sins), you need to come with a desire to attentively listen to God’s Word.  Our Lord repeatedly addressed the believers of the seven churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 2-3) with the exhortation:

 

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

 

There is a tendency to embrace a double standard of requiring good preparation and preaching from our pastors but dismiss poor preparation and listening from the people.  This ought not so to be!

 

Recently, in my personal devotions, I have been reading through the book of Jeremiah.  I am convicted and encouraged by both the courage and compassion of this weeping prophet.  He faithfully proclaimed an unpopular message of judgment from God to the wayward nation of Israel (especially Judah) — and God held them accountable to listen and respond!  Consider what Jeremiah proclaimed:

 

2:17 You have brought all this on yourself, Israel.  You brought it about by leaving the Lord your God, even while he was leading you along the way.  (N.E.T.)

 

5:3 Lord, I know you are concerned about faithfulness and truth.  But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse.  Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.  They have become as hardheaded as a rock.  They refuse to change their ways. (N.E.T.)

 

13:15-16  Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.  Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

 

17:23  But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

 

18:18 Then some people said, "Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah.  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God's word.  Come on!  Let's bring charges against him and get rid of him.  Then we won't have to pay any attention to anything he says.  (N.E.T.)

 

25:3-4  From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.  And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.

 

25:7  Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

 

29:19  Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD.

 

Fellow-believers, are you listening?  Let me encourage you that if you have a hungry heart to learn God’s Word, you can maximize your hearing time by doing such things as arriving before or on time to your church services, take notes on your pastor’s messages, sit in a seat that enhances your seeing and hearing of your teacher, ask questions at the appropriate time, and reduce all distractions as much as possible.

 

Now all this assumes that your pastor is actually teaching you the Scriptures as consistent with God’s grace (as the Hebrews’ leaders had done —“who have spoken unto you the Word of God”).  Otherwise, you need to find another church where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached and you can be fed the Word of God, for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”  (Romans 10:17).

 

However, the purpose of the scriptural imperative to “remember” your spiritual leaders who taught you the Word of God is to “follow” their “faith.”  The verb “follow” (Greek – mnemoneuo) means to “imitate” or “mimic” their faith on a regular basis (present tense).  Not only were these Hebrew believers reminded of the Hall of Fame of Faith in chapter 11, but they are exhorted in this verse to reflect again and again on the past persevering conduct of their deceased leaders (“considering the end of their conversation”) springing out of their “faith” — doctrinally and personally.  And who did their teaching and faith point others to?

 

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.  (Hebrews 13:8)

 

The commentator William L. Lane clarifies this connection by writing,

 

The word of God that was proclaimed by the deceased leaders (v 7) is crystallized in the confessional formulation of v8 and is distorted by the "various strange teachings" to which the writer alludes in v 9 (cf. Thurén, Lobopfer; 68,70; Laub, SNTU 6-7 [1981-82] 173 and n. 15).

 

Accordingly, v 8 is not to be interpreted as an acclamation of Jesus' timeless ontological immutability, corresponding to the assertion that the Son remains o,ó auvto,ój "the same," in 1:10-12 (as asserted by H. Montefiore, 242; P. R. Jones, RevExp 82 [1985] 400; cf. Grässer, Glaube, 23; Buchanan, 233).  The reference is rather to the immutability of the gospel message proclaimed by the deceased leaders in the recent past (see Michel, 490 and n. 2; P. E. Hughes, 570-71).  Although the preachers change, the preaching must remain the same.

 

The more probable connection between the two verses is that v 8 encapsulates the proclamation of the former leaders and illumines the nature of their faith.  It was specifically faith in Jesus Christ as the decisive figure in the history of salvation and in the enduring efficacy of his redemptive accomplishment.  Since he is o,ó auvto,ój "the same," today as he was then, the community may with confidence emulate the faith of the leaders (so Hurst, "Background," 212-13).[3]

 

Dear believers, as your past or present pastors point you to Jesus Christ through their biblical teaching and personal faith, you need to keep on following their example.  Lest we miss the point, the phrase “Jesus Christ” is emphatic by virtue of its position at the beginning of verse 8.  Charles Spurgeon once proclaimed,

 

The best sermons are the sermons which are fullest of Christ.  A sermon without Christ is an awful, a horrible thing.  It is an empty well; it is a cloud without rain; it is a tree twice dead, plucked up by the roots.[4]

 

In “Encountering the Book of Hebrews,” Donald A. Hagner insightfully adds,

 

This statement, in keeping with the main purpose of Hebrews, serves to provide both concrete assurance and motivation to the readers. It is not meant as an abstract or theoretical statement about the eternal existence of the Son. Rather, it begins by pointing to matters already dealt with in the epistle — such things as derive from Christ's unique high priesthood: the atoning work of Christ ("yesterday"; e.g., chs. 9-10) , the intercessory work of Christ ("today"; 4:14-16; 7:25), and added to these the fact that Jesus Christ will remain unchangeable in his faithfulness ("forever"). On the last point, see 1:12 (applying Ps 102:27 to Christ) and 7:24: "he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever." The bottom line is that Jesus Christ, the source of all that the epistle has expounded, may be counted upon unfailingly in the unrestricted future (cf. Rv 1:17-18).[5]

 

I am grateful and feel deeply privileged to have been taught the Word of God and trained for pastoral ministry by a godly man who repeatedly pointed me to Jesus Christ — Pastor Leonard Radtke.  Though having gone home to his Saviour in 1982, his grace-oriented teaching, his courageous preaching, his willingness to stand with principled conviction, his willingness to suffer for Jesus’ sake, and his evangelistic fervor toward the lost encourages me to gladly “remember” and “follow” his faith by God’s grace.  May God enable me to do the same for the church I’m privileged to pastor.

 

Dear believers, are you listening to the biblical preaching of your spiritual leaders or are you just “putting in your time” when you publicly assemble?  Are you faithful in hearing the Word of God or are you a stony or thorny-ground believer?  Are you remembering that the issue of both salvation and genuine spirituality is faith in Jesus Christ alone?  Do not forget to listen to the biblical preaching and imitate the faith of your local church leaders who point you to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.  (Hebrews 13:9) g

 

Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. (1 Sam. 3:9)

 

Dennis Rokser has been involved with the Duluth Bible Church for the last 20 years, serving as pastor-teacher for the last seventeen years.