Church Members and Leaders

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The relationship between members and elders. To think about that relationship and over the next couple of weeks we're going to look at other aspects of eldership. let's look and focus in particularly on verse 17 of this chapter. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

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The Hebrew people that he was writing to were a kind of a diaspora. They were scattered into different places. And he was writing as a shepherd, reflecting the shepherding qualities of the Lord Jesus. The spirit of Jesus is coming through in this letter. And this writer is writing with that in mind.

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and he is commending the work of other under-shepherds. Of course, the Hebrews are those who are going through times of persecution, maybe thrown out of their families or out of the synagogue or lost their job for their newfound faith in Jesus. And he is writing

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to say to them who may be tempted to throw in the towel and say, well, let's go back to the old way of doing things. Let's go back to the temple. Let's go back to Moses. Let's go back to the sacrifices and all these things. And the shepherd who is writing this epistle is saying, no. The great shepherd, as he says there as he ends the epistle, the great shepherd of the sheep who

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who brings us peace and who brings us into fellowship with God. He is your shepherd. He will be watching over you and keeping you. He offered himself by the blood of the eternal covenant to equip you with every good thing that you may do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever.

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Rather than having a sense of incompleteness, they have this sense that they are complete in Jesus, that they don't even need the temple anymore. They don't need the sacrifices. They don't need that whole infrastructure of worship, but that the one who fulfilled it all, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, has come. He is the chief shepherd. He is the great shepherd of the sheep.

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But that does not negate the fact that the Great Shepherd has appointed other shepherds, under shepherds, to shepherd the flock of God. And the Bible ties these things so closely together that the authority that the under shepherds bear is the authority of Jesus himself and the authority of the word.

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And so the writer of this epistle is helping them to see what it means to come under the protection of Jesus. What does that look like? Does it mean that I'm just in a relationship with Jesus, that it's just he and I? Or does that involve other people?

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And that's one of the mistakes that we sometimes make. We see our relationship with Jesus simply as a one-on-one, rather than as a connected framework, as a community of people, that our relationship with him is affected by our relationship with those around us, and especially with those whom he has appointed, who bear the mantle of authority and responsibility.

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So our relationship with him is directly affected by our relationship with those around us, those in the church. And so this verse fits in with the overall theme of Hebrews. That the theological information that he has been giving about Jesus is now being applied in a real way. That the shepherd

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has died for the sheep, fulfilling the law of Moses, the sacrificial system, and now is shepherding his people on an ongoing basis, not just Jesus, but those whom Jesus has appointed. And that's why we read here, obey your leaders. And so let's look at that. Obey your leaders. Who is he talking to here?

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Now there's no chapter and verse in the Bible that says you must be a member of a church. There's no Bible verse that explicitly states it in that way. You must sign on the dotted line and be a member of a church. By that I mean it doesn't say that in those explicit words. But what you do find is

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the implications of that everywhere. The word trinity, for example, is not in the Bible. But it's all throughout the Bible. The implications are there. The trinity is described in so many different places, in so many different ways, that by implication, you say God is a trinity of persons, three persons in one being.

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And so it's not there directly, but it's there implicitly. The same is true when it comes to church membership. The fact that there are leaders, the word lead leaders implies that there are people to lead, that there are people who will follow the leading and guidance of their leaders.

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And that on an ongoing basis, on a regular basis. That there is a group within the local church that lead and those who submit and those who follow. So that makes church membership so very important. There has to be recognizable leaders. There has to be recognizable followers and those who are being led. And

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That has to be something that the church is able to easily identify. This is the flock. These are the leaders of that flock. And so this is what he is trying to get across here. Peter, for example, when he is writing, assumes a flock to be cared for. He says, the elders who are among you I exhort to shepherd

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the flock of God among you, serving as overseers." Notice what he says. Shepherd, the flock. So there is a recognizable flock. It's not a group of people who say, one week I'm going to be at this church, another week I'm going to be at that church, and then the third week I'm going to be at another place down the road, so that there is no recognizable flock, so that the leaders are not then able to say,

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These are people that are under our care. There is a recognizable flock, shepherd, the flock of God, among you. Among you. So it's identifying a regularly meeting group of people over which people act as overseers.

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So it assumes that people will not only be taught, but that they will be shepherded. You see? if one were to, for example, go from one church to another, yes, they can be taught in those different churches, but to be shepherded? Are they being shepherded by someone? I can go to a church down the road and I can be taught, and I can say that was a great sermon. But Peter is...

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talking about something different in his epistle. Shepherd the flock of God that are under your care. That means as a shepherd looks after his sheep, he examines them for any ticks, he examines them for any, you know, if they've got...

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gotten into a scuffle with a wolf or a fox or something like that, that he's able to step in and mend the sheep, if they get lost or they go astray, that the shepherd has that responsibility of going and looking for the sheep. The shepherd down the road doesn't have that responsibility because they're not his sheep.

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But the shepherd who owns the sheep has that responsibility. So it is assuming that there is a regular meeting group of people who not only meet together, but have consciously identified themselves with a local church to say, I am submitting my life unto Jesus. But Jesus answers back and he says,

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What does that look like? And Jesus responds through his word by saying, it's a group of other under-shepherds that I have given to put over you. And that to submit to me is to submit therefore to them as well. So it assumes a flock that is not only being taught, but also being shepherded.

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So, Paul, for example, says, take heed to yourself, as he's speaking to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, take heed to yourself and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you an overseer. Made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. And we're going to look at that.

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a little bit more in a moment, but just the gravity of that, they're, because the stakes are so high.

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The stakes are so high, eternal life, the shepherding of one's soul, not just the body, but the soul, is so important that there has to be recognizable leaders and a recognizable flock. Not one that is

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fluid that is moving from one place to another saying, I don't really belong to any church. I belong to several churches and I'll go where, you know, I might like the worship there, I might like the preaching there, I might like the fellowship somewhere else. So I like to keep it loosey-goosey and move around and not really commit myself to one place. But that's not the way the Bible operates. The Bible speaks of the fact that the stakes being so high

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that we have to be clear who's with us. When you even go on a school trip, the teachers have to count heads. They'll count them and they count them again and count them a third time to see if they've got all the children on the bus because they're responsible for those children. The stakes are high. The teacher, they don't want to get back to the school and think, oh, we started out with 13, now we only have seven.

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I wasn't very responsible, I wasn't looking after them and I'm going to be held account by the parents. eternal life is something that's even far greater, far more important. So simply to say at this first juncture of this passage that there is such a thing as church membership.

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not by chapter and verse saying, must be a member, but implicitly shot through the whole of not only the New, but the Old Testament as well. That there is a flock, a flock to be taught, a flock to be shepherded, a flock to know and have a relationship with. Just as Jesus said, I know my sheep and my sheep hear my voice.

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And so it assumes regular accountability, regular fellowship, not just regular fellowship, but regular accountability and formal attachment one with another. So there are those who are watched and cared for. It's a flock. It's a church. It's the body of Christ. The New Testament uses

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many different ways of describing it. But then the people are to recognize their authority. Let's go back to verse 7. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Now these could be leaders who had passed on and or leaders that were still among them.

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But notice the way he describes it. Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word to you, the word of God. It's like it's qualifying there who the leaders are and where their authority comes from. It doesn't come from the fact that they're more well-educated and that they have a college degree or any of these things, but that their authority is coming from the word of God.

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and that they are governing the flock based on what the word says. So the Westminster Confession of Faith, when it's talking about liberty of conscience, says that we are bound only, our consciences are only bound by the word of God. As Martin Luther famously said at the Diet of Worms,

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He says, conscience is held captive by the word of God. So that when elders are leading and guiding their flock, they have to know that they can hold their flock accountable to the word of God, but no further. They can't impose upon them what kind of music they should listen to or where they should live or what job they should take or micromanage their lives, as it were.

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You can say, for example, maybe you shouldn't listen to music that have those sorts of lyrics or that promote this kind of lifestyle. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you about that? Does your Christian faith speak into your music? But we don't have some kind of list.

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to say you can listen to country music but not rap music or anything, lists like that, or any kind of dress code as it were, but to say whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is praise worthy, think on these things. That's where the word of God begins to speak. so elders are to be equipped.

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in terms of their knowledge of the Word of God and how that applies to the people's lives. Those who spoke to you the Word of God.

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And so it's a call to both members and elders to be familiar with the word. A member has to be familiar with the word to say that, you know, this person may be trying to impose something on me that is not in the word.

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They're trying to bind my conscience on something that the word doesn't speak of. And that gives me then the liberty to kind of push back and say, well, you have to show me respectfully from the word where that is so. An elder then has to be able to be familiar with the gospel, familiar with what it looks like to shepherd God's people to be able to exercise that authority without overstepping his bounds in terms of

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what he is requiring and suggesting to the member. So both have that responsibility, but Paul is anchoring that authority that the elder has in the Word of God. Watch their authority. Recognize that their authority is coming from the Word of God.

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So Paul says to Timothy, preach the Word. That this is to be the cornerstone of the life of the congregation. Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. Notice that all of those words, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching, is coming from the Word. Preach the Word.

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And so that's where the authority of any elder comes from. Watch their lives. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

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that members have that responsibility as they look on and see how their elders talk, how they respond to situations, how they deal with people, to look at their lives, and so that the elder is not only teaching the Word of God, but they are also living out the Word of God in their choices, in their interactions with people, and especially in terms of their faithfulness to the things of God.

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That's one of the encouragements and the blessings that I've known in terms of my own interactions with my own elders. Their faithfulness to the word of God on a regular basis, regardless of the circumstances, there when the doors are open, committed to hearing the word of God and being an example to the flock. And that's what we see in the book of Acts.

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They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in the breaking of bread and prayers. Now this is not something that is particularly true only for elders. That is to be the case with all of God's people. How do we encourage one another in the attendance of God's work? By being there. You're an encouragement just by coming to church.

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just by showing your faithfulness. It may be a bad sermon this week and three weeks running, but you're still there because it's the right thing to do. You're there to encourage others in the church. You're encouraging definitely your pastor, but just our attendance at the means of grace is a great encouragement to those around you. So watch...

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watch their lives. Paul again says to Timothy, be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

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That is a great and high calling, to be watchful over our lives in that way. And so they are to be careful about how they speak, be careful how they act, what do their choices look like, what is most uppermost in their hearts and minds, what is important to them. The people are then to emulate their leaders, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate...

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their faith.

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Then he goes on, he says in verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. So here we alluded to that a few moments ago. They are keeping watch over your souls. Like I said, this is what the writer is doing. When you read the epistle to the Hebrews, there is an intensity about it.

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how they respond to what he is saying determines their fate.

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Do not cast off your confession. Hold fast your confession, he's saying to them. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can take you home. He alone can save. The law of Moses, the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the temple, all these things cannot save you. And so he's shepherding them, isn't he? He's getting them to look unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He's shepherding their souls because so much hangs in the balance. Does it not then call us to be more watchful over our own souls, just on an individual basis? As an aside, the elder has a responsibility to care for the souls of the people, but are we looking after our own souls? What does your week look like? What does your day look like?

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And how are you as leaders in your home, mothers, fathers, impressing that upon your children? Would they be able to say that, Mom and Dad believe that my soul is the most important part of my existence, of my life, and that of all the things that they're concerned about, it's what I believe about God that is most important to them? This is what...

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how an elder is to conduct himself in terms of his interactions with the people, but it's also the way we are to think about ourselves and those over whom we have care.

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So the Old Testament counterpart to this would be found in Ezekiel 33, where God describes the leaders, the spiritual leaders of the nation as watchmen. They're like watchmen on the wall. They see the danger coming from afar. They're looking, well, the people are going about their daily lives. They may not be thinking about that too much, but the watchmen...

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That's his job. He's on the wall and he's looking and he's wondering if that dust cloud coming up off in the fire is maybe an enemy approaching. He's keeping an eye all the time. We are not in that circumstance. We're not in peril, not yet at least, of an enemy coming to destroy us. It's true in many other parts of the world this morning.

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where people are meeting in fear and wondering is this going to be the last time they meet together, their church might be burned down or they might be imprisoned or worse. But for us at least, the watchman has more of a symbolic image of perhaps false teaching.

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When someone becomes an elder in our church, we are committed to the teaching of the Word of God as reflected in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

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that elders must sign on to that to say, is what I agree to in terms of what constitutes the substance of the faith. Now, if you become a member in this church, you're not required to sign on to the Westminster Confession of Faith. You simply submit yourself to the Lord Jesus and to the local authority of the church. But elders are, because elders are called to know the teaching and doctrine of the church.

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They are to be watchful. What is getting into the church? That goes on all the time. Churches fall, churches are falling around us all the time because false teaching is coming in. There's a lack of reverence for the word of God. They don't see any kind of authority in the word of God. And so the elder's responsibility

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is first and foremost to the flock. So they may be listening to what the preacher is saying. Is he just giving sweet stories or funny stories? People might be feeling good when they leave, they might be laughing and joking, saying, he's such a funny guy, such a warm-hearted person. But the elder is to be sitting, listening, is that person telling the congregation about the gospel?

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What do they believe about the Lord Jesus Christ? What do they believe about the authority of scripture? Not that they're a likable person, or you'd go for a coffee with them or anything like that, but what are they telling the people about the Word of God? And so they're watchmen.

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I've had experiences in the past where I remember a particular preacher that was invited to our church in the East. He came from a church down in the United States. He was a friend of a friend in the congregation. When he was preaching, he was preaching heresy. He was

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denying the miraculous power of the Lord Jesus. And I remember afterward, one of the elders became very angry and upset that this person was preaching what he was, and he said, that man is not to preach in this pulpit again. And that's what an elder is called to do, to hear. He was listening.

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Other people were asking, remember asking other people after, what did you think? Oh, it was a fine sermon.

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They may have believed that and thought that, but the question is what first and foremost did the elders think of that sermon? Was this a we wanted to hear more of? Or was this something they had to step in and say, okay, no, our first responsibility is to the flock. That's what it means to be a watchman, to be aware of the trends in society.

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other churches are going, what teachings are coming across on television and radio and the internet, what books are people reading and what podcasts are they listening to, what are they saying and how are they communicating these things. so the elder is the watchman on the wall as he's thinking through these things. They watch out, he says, for... They watch over your soul.

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Keeping watch over your soul.

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That means they have a grave responsibility. And that's why Paul used such strong language in his first epistle to the Galatians. Remember, he had gone to the churches in Galatia, he was preaching the gospel and they were so happy and they were rejoicing.

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that Jesus died for their sins and only through faith they could accept all of that and they could receive that. And then Paul left. Other people came in, false teachers. And they said, hang on a minute, it's not just believing in Jesus, you've got to keep the law. You've got to be circumcised. You've got to eat the right foods and keep the right days. And Paul became so angry,

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He wrote his first epistle, he says, we, or an angel from heaven should preach another gospel, then what we have preached unto you, let him be cursed. Oh, that's pretty strong language, isn't it? But he was watching out for their soul. He wasn't simply trying to preserve some kind of theological flavor in the congregation that one person may like and somebody else may not. He was watching out for their soul.

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because the gospel was at stake.

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And this is how church members are to view their leaders. This is how leaders are to view their members, realizing that so much is at stake.

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And Paul, for example, says in another place, a verse I quoted to you earlier, he says, I testify to you this day that I'm innocent of the blood of all of you.

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Pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the Church of God which He has obtained with His own blood.

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That's strong language, isn't it? That the elder is to look at the congregation, and the congregation is to look at themselves in that way, as those whose souls have been purchased by the blood of Christ, and to treat them then with the utmost respect and dignity, and to treasure them as Scripture treasures them.

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They watch out for your souls. That they are to be a wall, a defense against false teaching that may try to get in. And that when false teaching does rear its head, that the elders antenna is high and he's able to say, we can't have anything more to do with this teaching. This book that is circulating in the congregation is wrong and they will speak out against it. These are all ways in which the

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the leaders, the elders watch out for the souls of their people. Which then makes church membership not optional, but mandatory.

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If there's the possibility where our souls are at stake and are in jeopardy, then we ask, what steps do I take then to guard my soul?

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Well, I'm in a relationship with Jesus, aren't I? But Jesus answers back, he says, yes, you're in a relationship with me through them. And I have gifted them, I have appointed them to be your guardian, whether you like it or not. And so they have that responsibility. When you realize the gravity of it, then you say, yes, I've got to run for cover.

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As we say, when there's a rainstorm come or the snowstorm, you say, I've got to get in out of this. I've got to run for cover. And then we consider the danger that our souls are in. The enemy of our soul that wants to destroy us through false teaching, or discourage us, or lead us astray, or get us down into the ravine somewhere.

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Then we say, I've got to run for cover. I've got to get in under authority. I've got to get in under protection. I've got to get in under direction and allow people to speak into my life because my soul is at stake. It's not a game. It's not a matter of personal preference. It's a matter of what does the word say. They are watching out.

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FOR MY SOUL

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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

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He's saying, don't be troublesome simply for their sake, but for your sake. It reflects back on you. The parents driving down the highway and the kids are fighting in the back, hollering and screaming and throwing things, the driver is distracted.

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So it's not only bad for the driver, it's bad for the children in the car because if they get into an accident, it's not just the driver that's injured, everyone in the car is injured.

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And so when the driver says, your seat belts on, sit still, don't throw anything, those in the car have to listen. They have to follow the leadership of the one driving the car. And he's saying the same is true when it comes to those who lead. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning.

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That doesn't mean that you're going to always agree with what the elder says. But that once you recognize their authority, you're able to respectfully discuss and disagree while still maintaining the fact that this person is God's man in my life, in the congregation. It's not either or.

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Elders aren't perfect, elders make mistakes, but that is true in all areas of authority, whether it's government or family or wherever it is. We're fallible people, we're sinful people, we will make mistakes, we'll get it wrong.

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But the church member then looks at their elder and says, can I make their job easier? Because they're watching out for my soul, so I'm not going to jeopardize it by saying, who do you think you are talking to me? I know some things about you. You're not perfect. So get off my case, or I'm not going to listen to you.

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See, that causes the person to work with groaning and a lack of joy. He I can't talk to that person. I can't have a civil word with that person. That person's hard to talk to. And so I may just let them, leave them to themselves. And that becomes the way it is in a practical way sometimes.

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But when we recognize this is God's man, they bear God's authority.

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then I say, much as I can, as Paul says in Philippians, as much as lies within you, live at peace with all people, or rather in Romans he says, as much as lies within you, live at peace with all people.

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And so he said, I'm going to make this, the job for this person as easy as possible. I may disagree with them. I may have a difference of opinion on what they're saying to me, but I will respectfully seek to honor them as much as lies within me.

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so that when they come to me with a concern, that I'm able to accept it, not simply coming from them, but coming from the Lord Himself. Because they're speaking with the authority of the Word.

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And so he says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

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And this reflects then the attitude of the elder toward his people.

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The idea of reward and joy. Paul says, is our hope? Our joy or crown or boasting before the Lord at His coming? Is it not you? You are our glory and joy. He says in Philippians 2, holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

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Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord my beloved." Do see the relationship that Paul had with his people? As they recognized his authority and he recognized the preciousness of their soul. And the joy that was going to be his on the day of Christ Jesus. That he had not labored in vain.

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but that there was a reciprocal relationship between the two.

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Let's think through, the words are few here in this verse, but they carry powerful implications for both leaders and members. That it's not simply church administration, but it's looking after the care of one another's souls.

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and these things have eternal implications, recognizing how Jesus is at work among us. Not just me and him, but Jesus working through those whom he has appointed for my care and rejoicing in the same. Let us pray.