A FEW MORE THOUGHTS ON SPIRITUAL LEADERS

Spiritual leaders, especially in the local church, provide an irreplaceable link in the process of fulfilling the Great Commission. They are so valuable that in Ephesians 4:8-11 they are called God’s gift the church. Their work is so important that a list of strict qualifications is given for them in I Timothy 3:1-7.

Thru their words & way of life, spiritual leaders provide instruction on how believers are to live.

Jesus’ words & example provided instruction to the early disciples about how to live. As the church expanded, its leaders continued to provide the example thru their repetition of Jesus’ words & way of life.

This leads to the relevance of those who provide spiritual leadership today. Just as Jesus gave the model to the early believers, pastors & other leaders now provide a contemporary example. They are to proclaim & teach God’s Word. They are to model how to live it.

What is the responsibility of those who follow these God-called leaders? According to Hebrews 13:17, believers are to obey them; this implies doing what they ask, following their example. It is primarily an outward, behavioral emphasis. This verse also calls believers to submit to them; this is more of a heart attitude emphasis.

One of the best ways to show our obedience to the Lord is to honor & submit to the spiritual leaders He has placed in our lives.

HONORING SPIRITUAL LEADERS

I've been thinking about Hebrews chapter 13. Every sincere believer in Christ takes seriously the moral commands in the first 6 verses: brotherly love, hospitality to strangers, compassion for the suffering (especially fellow believers who suffer for their faith), purity in the marriage relationship, contentment with finances & trust in God’s provision. As moral commands, these are not something we can take or leave according to our personal wishes.

They are followed by something else that seems to also be a moral command, one that must be followed by disciples: “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 7:7-8).

Believers are to remember those who brought God’s Word to them, consider seriously how they lived, & imitate the way they lived. Verse 8 indicates that Jesus Christ continues to work, raising up new leaders in every generation.

But this is not the only reference to leaders in this chapter. While verse 7 refers to former ones, verse 17 refers to current ones: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”

As believers, we must strive to be content, pure, compassionate, & generous. We must also be conscientious to obey & submit to the spiritual leaders whom God has placed over us.

What specific things will you do this week to honor your leaders & to demonstrate that you are following them as an act of worship to the Lord?

A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF SELF

Several New Testament passages are commonly cited in popular views of Christian life and spiritual growth. They are sometimes understood incorrectly. Here are a few of those passages:

^·            John 3:3 “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John the Baptist speaking of his relationship with Jesus).

·       Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

·       First Corinthians 15:31 I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

·       Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

·       Galatians 5:24-25 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

·       Ephesians 4:20-24 But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

·       Colossians 3:9-11 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him —  a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

If sincere believers misunderstand this important issue, they may believe that they must come to a place where they have no more self, or that the self must somehow be eliminated, removed, made passive, or incapacitated. This kind of view arises from a misunderstanding of Scripture and from a dualistic view of the material and non-material.

A more accurate understanding should see the self as being subjected to the authority of Christ, and being completed through the transformative work of the Spirit. This transformation involves a conforming of the inner person to the image of Christ. It also includes individual and corporate (or social) aspects of the person’s self.

TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY

Although there are many certainties for disciples of Christ, there are enough uncertainties to keep life unpredictable.

My wife & I became aware that God was calling us to minister overseas between 1994 & 1996. But it took another six years until we finally arrived in the Philippines in April 2002. During that season between awareness & fulfillment, we experienced much more uncertainty than we had ever before imagined possible.

Why was this time of uncertainty (which really seemed like an eternity) necessary?

First, it was a time to clarify exactly what God was saying to us. You may have noticed that when God puts something in your heart, it’s easy to read all kinds of things into it that He may not necessarily be saying. Time is required to sort that out.

Second, God needs time to prepare us for what He wants to accomplish thru us. In my case, four of those six years we spent serving at a church where I learned a lot of things about leadership. I needed to learn those things in order to pass them on to the pastors I serve here.

Third, how big is your vision of what God wants to do in & thru you? Is it so big that, if it is fulfilled, it will be clear that God did it? If not, it’s not big enough. We needed the time, experiences & perspective to develop a God-sized vision.

Finally, we needed time to build relationships with people who would have a part in the fulfillment of the vision. They were people who believed in us, encouraged us, prayed for us, & spoke into our lives by the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Has God spoken to you about something He wants to do in your life? Don’t give up. Be ready to learn & be challenged. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen if you stay true to Him & His plan for you.

PERSUASION

I was in an interesting conversation a few weeks ago. An individual who claimed to be an agnostic mentioned that he believed that my job as a missionary is to persuade people about God.

There is a part of Christian witness that involves persuasion (“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences” II Corinthians 5:11). But my ultimate responsibility is not to persuade anyone of anything.

My response was that if I could persuade him of God’s existence, of the truth of the Bible, the claims of Christ, etc., someone else who is smarter or a better persuader could come along & convince him to the contrary.

One of the wonderful things about biblical Christianity is that people are not converted by means of human persuasion.

Coercion of any kind, being born into a culture where a particular religion is an embedded part of the culture, accepting the faith of your family, etc. do not lead to Christian conversion.

Becoming a Christian is a dynamic result of the Holy Spirit working in the heart of a person. That’s the difference between biblical Christianity & every other religion or philosophy. I’m a believer today because the Holy Spirit made Christ real to me many decades ago. There are rational reasons for what I believe as a disciple of Christ.

But it all goes back to the reality that I was persuaded by the Holy Spirit.

MAKING THE SIMPLE COMPLICATED

It’s axiomatic that a teacher’s job is to make complicated things easier for people to understand.

When someone comes along & does the opposite, it’s right to question them. Maybe it’s their motives (trying to sound smarter than everyone else); maybe it’s a lack of understanding (thinking it’s not worth knowing unless it’s difficult to understand).

Most things in life are not really that complicated. Sure, we live in a complicated world in many ways, but that doesn’t change ultimate things. God is God, humans are humans, & so on.

I’ve found that people who are motivated to make the simple complicated tend to have ulterior motives. They want to be seen as an authority who knows more than everyone else. They want to get people to follow their agenda (which, by the way, if stated plainly wouldn’t probably be embraced by most people).

Beware the sophisticate who tries to confuse you about what seems pretty simple to understand. 

WHEN EVIL WINS

Sometimes believers struggle with “Why do evil people win?” kinds of questions. Maybe one reason is for that is that our focus is in the wrong place.

We assume that God, being good, will not allow bad things to happen to those who love Him, or those with evil agendas to succeed. We assume that our happiness or success at this time is a measure of how well we have believed or been faithful to Him.

Our focus shouldn’t be on our situation or condition. That makes it easy to miss an important part of the big picture.

It’s hard in our day to conceive of God as allowing the wicked to prevail, unless we recognize that there is some kind of judicial purpose in it. That means that in a sense, God is “giving them enough rope to hang themselves.” Many Scriptures reflect this truth.

Psalm 9:17-20 “The wicked will return to Sheol, even all the nations who forget God. For the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever. Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged before You. Put them in fear, O Lord; let the nations know that they are but men.”

I Thessalonians 2:14-16 “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.”

Someone observed once that “the wheels of God’s justice turn very slowly.” But they still turn.

Don’t concern yourself too much with why things are the way they are in a rebellious, sinful world. 

Just be faithful to Christ. Be obedient to Scripture. Trust God to bring about His justice in His way & in His time.