Sermon: Humble Obedience

You take a copy of God's word this morning, we're gonna turn open to the book of Hebrews. You're using a pew Bible. You can turn right there to page 10 10 in the Bible that's in front of you there in the pew This morning we're looking at Hebrews chapter 13 in just one verse, verse 17.

I know you're getting excited. We're almost to the end of the book so we're gonna draw it out. One verse this morning, verse 17, chapter 13 verse 17. Have a couple weeks left in this book.

Let's pray before we open the word together this morning.

Father, would you quiet our spirits

To make our minds alert

when you give our hearts to receptivity this morning,

we pray that we would have ears to hear and that you would speak to us a kind way that you have promised according to your word. Pray this in the strong name of Christ, amen. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. This is the holy and errant sufficient word of God. Obey your leaders and submit to them. They're keeping Watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning.

That would be of no advantage to you. Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks. Speak to God. Amen.

Our one verse here this morning, it begins with two commands right at the outset, obey and submit And they both rub against our natures as people obey your leaders and submit to them He, he's speaking in the context here, this verse about church leaders. Obey has the idea of receiving what they teach you. Submit has the idea of yielding to their leadership, obey and submit and there's a reason that he commands it. Here they are in the midst of turmoil as you'll remember

and we'll talk about a little later as we get into this book, book or get a little more into the sermon, but they're in the midst of turmoil and there is a, a natural inclination that we have as fallen human beings always to lean against those that have been put in authority over us. We all want control. We all want to assert our own way, just part of our fallen condition. I've often thought in recent years is watch Western

civilization change. That a lot of this can be uh, laid at the feet of just a lack of respect for authority, whether that is parents or whether that is secular government or moral standards or law and order or ecclesial government, the church. And when this is the mindset, it all becomes focused on the self. Self takes center stage. When you and I lean against authority and lean away from authority that the Lord has put into our life

Christians, Christians always recognize that we're under authority. That king Jesus sits on his throne, that he reign, that we are servants under him and he reigns over all of heaven and all of earth and all the authorities that he has put in our lives are subordinate authorities that he has placed there

including church. Now we live in a day in which it seems like every week there's some new scandal that's racking the church due to some pastor or spiritual leader elder that has fallen in some disgraceful kind of way. Often seems like in our day it's abuse and so there's even more reason to lean away from and to lean against church authority, but the principle in the Latin that I've often read, and I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly, comes to bear here,

the abuse of a thing does not preclude its proper use. J just because a thing has been a abused doesn't mean we do away with the thing itself. We don't do this with parents, we don't do this with husbands, we don't do this with spiritual authorities. Why? Because there's the need for order. Whether that is in marriage or the family or the church or a nation. Every collected body of people, whether that is a football team or a community service organization

or a sewing club, there is always an authority structure. Now, it may not be written, it may not be verbalized, it may not be detailed, but as you know, any group you have ever belonged to, there is always someone or someones that rise and they take on the leadership and shape things, they take charge, but Christ as head of the church, he establishes the order in his church. In the church we don't take charge. It isn't simply rule by the majority.

It isn't simply rule by the most powerful. It isn't simply rule by the most persuasive. Now it's those whom Christ has appointed. Why should we as he says, obey and submit to our leaders? And that leads to our first point this morning because Christ provided them. Christ provided our leaders in the church.

Remember he is writing to Hebrew Christians who are being confronted with false teachers that have come from outside of the church and they have come in the church and they are teaching false things. We don't know all that they're teaching, but they're clearly teaching that in some measure, these Hebrew Christians, these Jewish Christians need to return back to Judaism to some degree and he has been pressing home over

and over that, no, no, no, no. You have the substance, you have Christ and he keeps leading them to Christ. You have Christ who is the fulfillment of all of these promises that God gave to his covenant people throughout the scriptures. And so he has spent the book pointing out the centrality of Christ and yet as is often the case, local leaders are taken for granted. They're not listening to them. As Jesus said, a prophet is not without honor except in his

hometown and among his relatives and his own family and they are prone to not honor their local leaders. They have been given to be drawn off by these leaders from the outside, some sort of leaders. Maybe it is because they are persuasive. Maybe it is because they are more gifted. Maybe it is because they are charismatic. But notice what he says. He commands these Hebrew Christians to obey your leaders and submit to them why?

Because Christ has graciously provided these leaders for these people, your leaders

he graciously provides for his church. In this way, there's a great kindness of the king of kings, the shepherd of the flock, the great head of the church that he calls men to serve among us and over us to keep us.

It's his call, it's his provision. Paul says it this way in Ephesians four, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. He gave Christ provides. It's a gift. You'll have time to explore it all this morning scripturally and walk through it, but Christ calls a man disservice. There is always a threefold call.

There is a internal call where he, he calls the man. The man has some sense internally that the Lord has called him to the office of of elder or deacon. But it's not just that internal sense of calling. That's not enough. No. There's what our book of church order calls. The second call is the manifest a approbation of God's people. What does that mean? It means that there is a visible approval of God's people that this man has the gifts

that is, he has the gifts of one Timothy three and Titus one. That it's not just the internal sense of calling that he has, he has a heartburn that he is been called uh, the office of Elder Deagan. Now that could be the tacos he had last night is not just that. It has to be God's people say, ah, I see the gifts in this man, I've benefited from his gifts, but you see that's not enough because mama may just say you have the gifts.

And so the third sense of call is that a church court calls the man that his fellow officers, elders say, you know what? It's not just that you have an internal sense of calling. It's not just that you have the gifts and God's people have benefited from your gifts. But third, we also recognize we as officers in the church called by Christ we recognize that Christ has called you. There's a threefold calling. And so we obey and we submit to our leaders first

because Christ calls them, Christ provides them. Second, we obey and submit because they lead us to Christ himself. They lead us to Christ himself. The word obey here, it has the idea of being guided. You're you're being guided by these men, guided by their teachings according to the word. So let's be clear, our submission to God provided authorities is not unlimited. There are bounds to it. The great example in the scriptures is when Peter

and John are brought before the the council, this Jewish council, the Senate of the people of Israel, an authoritative ruling body and they are confronted by the high priest, a man called by God put in a position of authority by God. And that man says to Peter and John, he says, we commanded you not to teach in the name of Jesus and Peter will respond, we must obey God rather than man. There there's there's limits to our obedience and submission.

Leaders in the church are to lead us in Christ according to Christ's word. We say it this way in our circles, leaders in the church, they have a ministerial and they have a declarative authority, ministerial and declarative. Unlike the Roman church which believes that the church has a magisterial and a legislative authority. That is that the church itself can come up with new laws to bind your conscience. That the church itself can legislate new things,

that it can offer new promises. No Protestants. The reform have always rightfully asserted that leaders in the church, your elders, your pastors cannot make new laws. They cannot offer new promises. We only declare and enforce the laws and promises that God gives in his word. That which is clearly set forth in the word or that which by good and necessary consequence can be deduced from the word it's ministerial. We're ministering the word. It's declarative.

We're declaring the word.

We are leading people to Christ. It is spiritual authority. That's why Paul will say in one Timothy five 17, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching or hear his obey them, has the idea of guidance. What are we guiding? We're guarding, we're guiding the way according to the word Y, you don't want your elders, you don't want me as an elder proclaiming from this or that

or giving you my opinion on this or that remind you of that. Especially during a political season. You don't want that. I have no authority in that realm. It's spiritual. The word, it's declarative, it's ministerial.

Leaders in the church are to be men who agonize over the word are to be men that are up at night before they preach a sermon because they're still anxious in a right way about rightly declaring it the next day. Men that are continually seeking to grow in their knowledge of the word because that's the basis of their authority. They they want to be more effective in ministry and the word we submit to leaders in the church, not because they're perfect men,

but because Christ has graciously provided them and they are called to lead us in Christ.

The author now gives a third reason for submitting and obeying our leaders in the church. He says in the second half of verse 17, for they are keeping watch over your souls. These leaders in this particular church were clearly faithful leaders. He says they are keeping watch. It's in the present tense. It has the idea of ongoing. They're doing this and they keep on doing this. They were called to this and they continue to do it.

The elder's duty is one of being a soul watcher, not resting, but rather it's to be an ongoing activity. It's a present activity and it's an ongoing activity of watching over souls, of caring for sheep under shepherds of the flock of Christ, keeping a attentive watch over the sheep of Christ. The Hebrew elders were obviously faithful in this. He says obey them, submit to them.

I think we live in a different age. We sometimes feel it, especially like we especially feel it because of the internet, because of social media, but, but you'll notice what he's emphasizing with them is that they are facing the same temptation that is faced in every local church and every age that you listen to the leaders out there instead of the leaders that Christ provided for you here. He says, obey and submit to your leaders. Your is key there.

Obey and submit to those who would actually cost them to guide and to instruct you who actually know you, who actually particularly love you and are watching over your soul. Obey and submit to your leaders keeping watch over your souls

and testify you universal reform church that your elders take this responsibility seriously. Your souls, they're men that agonize over your souls and pray over your souls.

They're doing this not perfectly as Paul says of himself. He says who? Who is sufficient for these things and the answer has to be no one. They don't do this perfectly.

I don't know an elder in this church that doesn't feel in some measure as though he is failing in his responsibility. And the reason for that is because their love for you outpaces their abilities for you. It's true of everyone.

And yet like watchmen on the tower, like shepherds in a field like a mother hin guarding her chicks, they're keeping watch over your souls. It's a great responsibility that they have. There's a great weight that comes with it.

I wanna read to you Paul, he's detailing in second Corinthians. He details what he has suffered for the sake of Christ. He is, you know, they are turning away from him as a leader and they're turning to other, so-called leaders and they are mocking him and and so he, he, he brings everything to bear. He says this in Second Corinthians where he is listing all that he has suffered for Christ. He says, are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one.

I'm talking like a madman with far greater laborers, far more imprisonments with countless beatings and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked a night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, danger in the city,

danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night and hunger and thirst often without food in cold and exposure you go, whoa, all of that Paul. But, but then he comes to his ultimate suffering for the sake of Christ

and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches

beaten, whipped, stoned. He said, the greatest weight I have is the weight of the people. Anxiety for the people

you're keeping. Watch over your souls. Obey and submit to them.

He now gives a fourth reason. They are keeping watch over your souls and then he qualifies it as those who quote will have to give an account that that is the weightiness of this responsibility. Give an account to whom to God give an account when on judgment day

I do premarital counseling, I must always walk the couple three, Ephesians five and I will walk them through that and I will tell them, you know, get to this verse, wives submit to your husband. Say there there's a lot of hand wringing over that command of polls. What's fascinating is Paul spends three verses on Wives submit to your husbands, he spends eight verses on husbands the exhortation to husbands. In a very real sense though it is not slight

what he is asking of wives and what he says is the duty of wives in marriage. It does not even compare to the exhortation to husbands. Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church bars here because the responsibility is here.

God given positions of authority come with much obligation.

Elders will stand before the throne on that last day. Like all of us, we will all stand before that throne on the last day and we will have to give an account for what we have done in the flesh. But elders on that last day will undergo an even stricter accounting. James says it this way, he says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

We obey and we submit because of the great responsibility they have

for every soul that is a member of this church, the elders on judgment day will stand there and have to give an accounting for you how they minister to you, how they protected you, how they safeguarded you, how they cared for you. There's no slight thing

you lean into obeying in submitting to them.

Some of your translations presented like there's a fifth reason here at the end of verse 17. Any commentators take that position, he seems to allude at least it seems to the fact that we obey and submit to our leaders so that they may know joy and they themselves not be led to grumble. We can make it difficult for those that are in authority over us in every realm, especially I think in the church, and I think that's a, a probably an emphasis here,

but it seems to me that it's only by implication that the, the greater emphasis that he is placing here is upon the spirit of the leaders themselves.

Being a leader in church is I think the greatest blessing this side of heaven. I I will often it will be a, especially it, it often happens when a young pastor, he will call and he's looking for advice and usually it's because there's division and there's conflict in the church that he's serving and just takes a toll and or someone has wandered from the faith that he has poured his life into and uh, he is discouraged and ready to throw in the towel

and oh, often walk this through with him. I would say, ah, let, let's lemme remind you that the blessings far outweigh what whatever trial you believe that you're in, blessings are great in ministry. I I get a front row seat to what the Lord is doing in all of your lives.

I I I know more of what is happening just by virtue of the position he put me into what many of you are praying for and praying about. And so I get to see his answers to prayer and manifold ways many miss out on. I get the, the blessing of being invited by so many of you into intimate things in your lives that you don't share with anybody is blessing beyond blessing. What's fascinating to me about this passage is that

that's not the writer's focus for the leader.

He doesn't focus upon his blessing. He doesn't say, look, you, you don't want to grumble leader in Christ because if you do, you won't be storing treasures in heaven. He doesn't do that, which would make sense in my mind, but he doesn't do that. He places the emphasis upon the people themselves in their blessing. What is he doing? He doesn't want pastors and elders and deacons even in thinking about this to be focused on themselves.

They belong to the people. Their lives are to be centered upon the people

even as a congregation is to obey and submit to its leaders. So a greater charge is implied to the leaders you are to be consumed with your people. Wives submit to your husbands, oh husbands, you are to love your wives as Christ love the church

leaders are to be centered upon their people serve without complaint because of no benefit to the people when you complain. And to be fully oriented towards the people shouldn't surprise us because this is the way of the chief shepherd and they're but under shepherds Christ said, I I came not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. When he is looking out over the city of Jerusalem and he is weeping for it, he isn't weeping

for it in a way that he is. He is angry and mad and hard hearted towards him. He's weeping for them because they have not accepted the prophets and they have not accepted him. He's centered on them. When he is on the cross, laid out, naked on the cross and all of those mocks are around the foot of the cross.

He says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

He's oriented to those. He came to serve The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews seven goes this far, he says, even now at the right hand, the father he ever lives, ah, what does Jesus ever live for? He ever lives to intercede for you, to pray for you.

The chief shepherd of the sheep, the king and head of the church is centered upon his people.

It's every sense. The under shepherds should be the same.

Let me offer just three particular applications this morning. First, when you least want to obey and submit to your leaders, that's when you most need to consider doing so.

When you least want to obey and submit to your leaders, that is when you most need to consider doing so.

The heart, as Jeremiah says, is deceitful above all else and desperately sick.

Sin clouds judgment

and we all need voices in our lives, voices over our lives that speak into that darkness.

In this context, he is towing them to obey and submit to their leaders because they're in the midst of trial and difficulty. And almost always when there is difficulty, leadership is questioned and so obey has the sense of taking their direction. Submit has the idea of yielding to them. Neither of these is difficult. When we agree with the direction given or the action taken, if a parent says to a child, I want you to go and eat three pieces of candy

and I want you to gorge yourself on a bowl of ice cream, they don't refuse to obey and submit. They're in agreement. Say, I want you to eat all the greens on your plate. Well, well now the the command comes to bear to obey and to submit obedience and submission is most needed when we lease. Agree. When you become a member at URC, you take a vow from our book of church order and we all say yes to this. When we become a member, do you submit yourselves

to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace and and we all say yes.

Can I tell you though, having served in a handful of churches almost without fail, when the elders enter into formal discipline with someone and that person is unrepentant, almost without fail, that person will write a letter, an email or a correspondence and they will say, I'm withdrawing my membership from the church, which they can't do. But why do they communicate that?

'cause they refuse to obey and to submit

and yet they are clouded in sin and darkness. They're literally on a cliff's edge

and they're tripping over their sin. And the fall is great, but they can't see it and don't want to see it.

The heart is deceitful above all else. Almost also without fail. Almost every single person I've talked to individually in that circumstance, they have said to me, pastor, I've never felt closer to Jesus.

Lie, lie straight from hell.

When we least want to submit and obey, we need to be most willing to listen.

Can I tell you this morning, would you just, you've, you've taken that vow. If you're a member of church, would you just though resolve in your mind if I'm ever there, if the elders are ever coming to me confronting me and and acting church discipline with me, would you just resolve in your mind right now that you'd at least listen.

Second, it's not enough to have elders that keep watch over our souls. We must each personally do this as well.

A young pastor called from some advice this week, uh, about some ministry that he was doing to someone, a hard situation and I give some advice and he said, well, that sounds wise, but I have to tell you I don't think the person will respond. I'm not very optimistic.

And I had to tell him, I, I understand that. I've learned this lesson the hard way that we agonize over souls. We care for souls but we can't force souls.

We have responsibility, but we can't guarantee success.

Leaders in the church must simply by God's grace, take the steps. They believe wisest not always right though, but what they believe is wisest in the care of this or that particular soul They watch, they pray, they act. We seek to be faithful and effective again, not always doing so, but even if we are seeking to be faithful ect, he cannot guarantee success in the life of the person. The person themselves must act,

but we translate as three words in English here or keeping watch. It's one word in Greek, it's only used here, but that root word is used on multiple occasions in the New Testament and it's used by Christ. Christ uses it in Mark 1333. He says this, be on guard, keep awake for you. Do not know when the time will come. He says in Luke 2136 where he says, stay awake at all times praying that you may have strength to escape all things that are going to take place

and to stand before the son of man. And right before that he said this, but watch yourselves lest your heart be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap, lean into your church leadership. Lean into those that are watching over your souls, but don't just rely upon that it's not enough. You also have to keep watch over your soul.

Finally, pray for your leaders.

Pray for your leaders. Leadership is always effective. It's always effective. Good leadership impacts people. Bad leadership impacts people. You want good leadership so you need to be praying for those that are put over you in the lure.

These men need your prayers. It's not enough just to have them over us. We need to pray for them. We want godly leadership. So would you do more than just shake your head at that and pile that away as a nice notion? Would you seriously challenge you seriously to come up with a coordinated way by which you're praying for the leadership of your church? The men that are keeping watch over your souls. It benefits you to be praying for them.

You want to pray that they are godly men that see themselves as dependent upon Christ, not independent of Christ.

Men that are busy about Christ themselves. Men that are humble, men that are teachable. Men that will lean in to Christ's word for his people that will pray Christ's word for Christ's people that will pour out their lives as a drink offering for the sake of Christ's people, men that will love you, that will be oriented towards you through the lens of Christ.

It doesn't just happen.

They have to be busy about it and we have to be busy about it by praying for them. They need your prayers. I need your prayers so often as leaders go, so the church goes,

these are the kind of leaders we need in the church. I preach Christ's word that extend Christ's promises to people that pray Christ's word for his people that keep watch over souls. You could do all of this in reverse what he just led us through that we are to do as a congregation and obey and submit our earlier. You could do the exact reverse and just work it all back and say, oh, so this is what these men are to be about.

Pray for such men. These are the kind of men that we happily obey and submit to pray for them. Let's pray.

Father, we are thankful. Christ is king and head of the church is not a mere man, but it is the God man himself, the savior of lost men and women and children. Great shepherd that loves the sheep are thankful that Christ in his kindness as chosen to call men here, flesh and blood that can have before us as an example that is tasked with watching over our souls. Help us to lean into obeying and submitting to them. Help this generation of officers of this church

to be truly godly. Men that are oriented to the people that they will have to give an account for on that last day and may all of this work for the building up of the kingdom, for our own souls and for the glory of your son and that great king and head of the church. It's in his name we pray. Amen.