“Your Pastor Will Be Judged”
[Hebrews 13:17]
April 27, 2014 Second Reformed Church
When we last looked at the book of
Hebrews, we considered that we are to remember the faithful preaching and
teaching of pastors and teachers. We saw
that we are to imitate the life and faith of faithful pastors and teachers,
because they are given as examples to us, as well as those who proclaim and
preach and teach the Word of God. Pastors
and teachers who are faithful to the Word of God are gifted and used by God
that we would be able to understand what the Bible says – and particularly the
Gospel message – and, as they faithfully live out what God has commanded – as
we see how they take the Word of God and live it out in obedience – showing
their love of Jesus – we are given examples as to how we may live out the Word
of God faithfully in our lives.
From there, we went on to look at another
aspect of how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Sacrificial Law – seeing Jesus
not merely as our High Priest and the Perfect Sacrifice, but also as the Altar
on which the Sacrifice was offered. Look
on our blog for the March 2nd sermon, if you don’t remember.
And we saw that Christ calls us to
leave everything behind and pick up our cross.
And we are to respond as people seeking a permanent city. This world, as it is – sin-filled and broken,
is not the world we expect to inherit and live in in the Kingdom – this world
will be purged and restored to its pre-Fall state and glorified. Until then, though we shouldn’t seek out
suffering, we ought to consider suffering for the Gospel to be the normal state
of the Christian life.
So, the author of Hebrews explains
that we should look to our faithful pastors and teachers as examples of
faithfully living out the Word of God and imitate them, and we ought to hear
and do what we need to do to remember what our faithful pastors and teachers
have taught us from the Word of God, so we will remember what God has said and
commanded us, such that we will live this life for Christ and in the sure
expectation of the Kingdom which is to come.
The author of Hebrews completes his explanation
of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Sacrificial Law – remember
that is the point of the letter – “Is there reason to hang on to Jesus and His
Gospel amidst persecution when we can just go back to observing the Old
Testament Sacrificial Law and be left alone?” – and He has explained at length
how Jesus fulfills all of the Old Testament Sacrificial Law and how returning
to it would be to abandon the only hope of Salvation there will ever be.
And then he writes, “Obey your
leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as
those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with
groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
Here we see:
First, we are to obey our pastors
and church officers when they preach and teach the Word of God faithfully.
Second, we are to respect our pastors
and church leaders for the offices they hold.
Third, we are to respond to the faithful
preaching and teaching of pastors and church leaders in a way that gives them
joy.
“Obey
your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as
those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with
groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
First,
we are to obey our pastors and church officers when they preach and teach the
Word of God faithfully.
Persons
who faithfully hold an office in the church and preach and teach the Word of
God faithfully are to be obeyed, because they are faithfully preaching and
teaching the Word of God. That is, if
these persons are faithfully preaching and teaching the Word of God – if they
are presenting and explaining what God has said, we ought to obey what they are
saying because it is what God has said.
Understand,
the author of Hebrews is not saying that we must absolutely obey anything and
everything that an officer of the church says.
Normally, officers of the church have no authority to tell you what
color carpet to have in your home or to command you to vote for a certain
candidate or to invest your money in a certain bank. Officers of the church are sinners and make
mistakes and also may purposefully distort God’s Word at times. It is only when officers of the church are
preaching and teaching the Word of God Alone that we must obey them, because
what they are doing is acting as heralds of God’s Word – they are acting as
God’s messengers to deliver God’s Word to us.
The
question then becomes, why should we believe the Word of God?
Peter
explains: “And we have the prophetic
word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a
lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in
your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes
from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the
will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit” (2 Peter 1:19-21, ESV).
Notice,
Peter affirms that the Scriptures were written down by men – by humans. However, he states that humans didn’t make up
the information that was recorded – even though they wrote it in their own
words and in their own language and in their own grammar and spelling – what we
have in the Scriptures is what God has said – and God the Holy Spirit has
overseen the writing down of the Scripture so it is wholly accurate, without
mistakes or errors, in the original documents.
Paul
writes: “All Scripture is breathed out
by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for
training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV).
Paul
confirms what Peter wrote – since they both penned the Word of the One God, we
would expect them to agree – all Scripture is breathed out – it is inspired –
it comes from the mouth of God. It is
not dictated, but the writers of the Scripture were enabled to write what God
wanted us to know – and do so without error in the original documents.
And
then the question is, do we have the original documents? No.
Then how can we be sure what we have is accurate? Because we have more copies of the books of the
Bible than any other ancient manuscript, and they almost exactly agree, and the
places where they don’t agree do not affect the meaning of what God has said in
His Word.
So
we ought to obey the officers of the church when they faithfully preach and teach
the Word of God Alone because it is God’s Word – not their own.
We
ought not to consider ourselves unneedful or too wise or too great or too good
to learn from an officer of the church who is faithfully preaching and teaching
the Word of God. Ultimately, the officer
is a tool that God uses – the preaching and teaching of the Word of God is not
about the officer – and if it is, that officer is not faithfully teaching and
preaching the Word of God.
Second, we are to respect our
pastors and church leaders for the offices they hold.
The offices of pastor, elder, and
deacon are not to be entered into lightly or taken lightly. Persons who receive the call to serve in
these offices have been called by God to a specific service in the church. Pastors and elders are given the oversight of
the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and the discipline of unrepentant sin,
and deacons are given the oversight of the physical needs of the church,
maintenance, and care for those in need.
Whatever else we may think of church
government – and there are several different views of how to divide up church
government – the Bible clearly teaches that there are elders and deacons. We see this division of labor in the early
church:
“Now in these days when the
disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose
against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily
distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and
said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to
serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good
repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ And
what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full
of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and
Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set
before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:1-6,
ESV).
In the early church, the twelve
apostles were preaching and teaching and ministering to the physical needs of
the people, and as the number of disciples grew, it became too much work for
them. So the distinction was made
between those who spent the bulk of their time reading and studying, and
praying, and preaching and teaching, and those who spend their time seeing that
the needs of the people are met by the church.
Paul later explains the type of
person who may be called to these offices:
Elders he describes in this
way: “The saying is trustworthy: If
anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an
overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded,
self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not
violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his
own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if
someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for
God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with
conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well
thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of
the devil” (1 Timothy 3:1-7, ESV).
And deacons like this: “Deacons likewise must be dignified, not
double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They
must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also
be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves
blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but
sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one
wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who
serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great
confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 3:8-13, ESV).
As offices given by God for work in
God’s church, we ought to respect officers of the church for the offices they
hold.
But that is not the only reason to
respect office-bearers: “for they are
keeping watch over your souls.” Those who
hold offices in the church are called to watch over you – to care for your
spiritual health – to do those things to help you mature in the faith and
become strengthened in the faith. They
are to be available to you for spiritual help and seek after you to make sure
you are well. They are the spiritual
guides – the shepherds – of the church. They
have been called to lead you in holiness, knowledge, and faith.
They have a call to make sure the
Word of God is being preached and taught faithfully – and the Word of God
Alone. They have a responsibility to
correct false teachings and root them out of the church.
We ought to also recognize that
those who hold office in the church and faithfully preach and teach the Word of
God have a heavy burden and engage in dangerous labor. They answer God’s call on them to preach and
teach God’s Word – speaking to us as those who are to be trusted to faithfully
deliver and instruct us in God’s Word.
The officers of the church are required both to teach and preach God’s
Word Alone and to assist in the spiritual health of all of us.
“as those who will have to give an
account.”
And for this call, they will be
judged more strictly on the Day of Judgment.
James warns: “Not many of you
should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be
judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1, ESV).
Who is he talking about? The “teachers” are the “didaskalos” or the
“rabbis” of the church. This is
primarily talking about pastors and elders, but refers to anyone, and especially
those who hold church office, who say they are speaking for God.
For example, I, as your pastor, am
explaining what this verse in Hebrews means and how we ought to respond to it –
how to obey this part of the Word of God – as Christians. As the office bearer of pastor, I will be
judged more strictly for what I tell you the verse means and how to apply it
than if you just read it on your own and came to conclusions, because I have
been trained and called to this office and should have a better knowledge and
skill in preaching and teaching God’s Word.
This verse in James frightens and
humbles me – and it’s one of the reasons it took me so long to enter the
ordained ministry – I was not willing to enter the ordained ministry unless I
was sure I was called and willing to take on the burden and the judgment of
being a pastor.
Now, remember, we will all be judged
– not for salvation – salvation is the gift of God as He is pleased to give it,
but for what we have done: “For no one
can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now
if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it,
because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work
each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation
survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will
suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1
Corinthians 3:11-15, ESV), And, “For we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done
in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10, ESV).
And so, those who serve as officers
in the church – and especially pastors – will be judged, both for what they did
and said in this lifetime, and for the care they gave your souls – and they
will be held to a higher standard based on the call and the gifts and the
training they have received.
“Let them do this with joy and not
with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
Third,
we are to respond to the faithful preaching and teaching of pastors and church
leaders in a way that gives them joy.
Why
do we come to worship? Why do we come to
Bible study and evening study?
Here’s
why we ought to come: to hear what God
has said and to respond in worship and obedience. A worship service is about acknowledging the
worth of the person or thing we are worshiping.
And if we deem someone or something worthy of worship, we should want to
hear from that object of worship and follow in obedience. And if we have come to worship the Creator of
Heaven and Earth, the Judge of the Living and the Dead, the One and Only God,
the Giver of Salvation, wouldn’t we be pleased to hear from Him – and believing
in Him and finding Him worthy of worship, wouldn’t we obey Him?
And,
if God chose to send His Word through humans and have His Word taught and
preached by humans whom He calls to be preachers and teachers of His Word,
wouldn’t we desire to hear what they have to tell us – at least so far as they
are faithfully reporting the Word of God and helping us to understand it?
And,
wouldn’t it give the office bearer who is preaching or teaching the Word of God
and watching out for our souls joy to have us hear the Word of God and believe
the Word of God and obey the Word of God?
Wouldn’t it give the office bearer joy to see you living out the Word of
God and professing it to others so that more people would know – especially as
we share the Gospel with those we come in contact with?
This
is not just saying, “good sermon, pastor” – which is fine, if you really mean
it, but if it’s just something to say so I will get out of your way – not so
much.
I
have joy in people telling me they understand the Scripture and are doing
something about it. I have joy when
people want to learn more about something.
I have joy when people tell me they have invited their friends and
family to worship, because they want them to hear the Gospel. I have joy when people tell me that they were
able to tell someone else about what was preached or taught, and they were drawn
to God through the conversation.
What
the author of Hebrews is saying is that when an officer bearer preaches or
teaches faithfully, we ought to receive what has been said – having come to
worship or study in a teachable frame of mind and heart – and then we ought to
do something with the Word of God that has been put before us. We ought to find a way to apply it to our
lives – whether or not it is one of the ways brought up in the preaching or
teaching.
What
is not helpful is telling our office bearers that the Word of God is
wrong. Understand, there is nothing
wrong with asking questions and making sure that the person teaching or
preaching has not made a mistake. What’s
not helpful is after being taught something God commands, our response is,
“Well, I’m not going to do that – you don’t know my life.” That’s possibly quite true – do you think God
has any idea about your life and what you are able to do as a Christian indwelt
by God the Holy Spirit? If we say, “Yes,
I understand what you said. Yes, I
believe it is what God said. No, I’m not
going to believe and obey” – the person preaching or teaching will be left
“groaning,” rather than being filled with joy.
And
maybe someone is saying, “Who cares?”
The
“who cares?” is this: refusing to be
taught and refusing to obey the Word of God Alone clearly taught, will result
in the teacher or preacher becoming weary, grieved, disheartened, less
diligent, and, perhaps event cold. If we
continue to throw up our hands and say, “We don’t care what the Word of God
says – even though it is faithfully preached and taught – we have our own
ideas, and we are committed to being troublesome, disobedient, fruitless, and faithless,”
we will be unprofitable to the ministry of Jesus Christ and cause our preachers
and teachers to be groan-full and possibly give up the work that God has called
them to.
Please
understand, the author of Hebrews is not talking about our personalities – some
of us are naturally, odd, eccentric, nuts, pains in the backside – what have
you. What he is talking about is a
person who refuses to receive the Word of God clearly and faithfully preached
and taught. Such people are detrimental
to the ministry and to the health of those preaching and teaching.
Hopefully,
we have no one like that here.
We
are to obey our pastors and church officers when they preach and teach the Word
of God faithfully.
We
are to respect our pastors and church leaders for the offices they hold.
We
are to respond to the faithful preaching and teaching of pastors and church
leaders in a way that gives them joy.
May
we all be faithful and obedient sons and daughters of God, our Father.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, we thank You for giving us Your Word, and we thank You for giving us
preachers and teachers to proclaim Your Word to us and help us to live it
out. We thank You for Your call on their
lives to serve and to watch over our souls.
Help us to be respectful, teachable, and joy-giving as we worship You
together and seek to obey You in all that You have said. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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