A Charge to New Testament Church Leaders, Part 2
Acts 20:29-38
I invite you to take your bibles at this time and turn with me to the 20th chapter of the Book of Acts, Acts chapter 20. And we're continuing and completing the second in this look at the 20th chapter of Acts, on the particular study of New Testament church leadership - "A charge to Church Leaders." Acts chapter 20. And we've been considering, particularly, verses 25 to 38, and have already looked at some detail into verses 25 to 28. We'll review briefly and then go from there.
Throughout the years of God's Kingdom on earth He has always mediated His rule through specially chosen and qualified leaders. In the Old Testament time patriarchs were the first group of leaders. They were followed by judges, and then there were prophets and priests and kings. In the New Testament time God mediates His rule in the church through evangelists and teaching pastors, as well as through the indwelling Holy Spirit who guides the individual believer.
Now leadership, in terms of all of what God is doing in the world, is very important. God recognizes that because of the chaos of sin things have to be made subject to authority. And so there is authority and submission as a two-fold operation of God in the world. I put on an overhead to perhaps give you a little view of it. We see, first of all, that God ruled directly in the beginning. And in the direct rule of God there were no leaders. There was no need for leadership because there were perfect human relationships under a single authority. There was no need to rule over people because there was no unruliness. There was no disorder. There was no discord. God ruled directly then, in the case of Adam. Then came sin and the fall. And in the fall, the result was disrupted human relationships. Immediately there was a conflict between Adam and Eve, and Adam questioned God, in terms of the statement, "The woman that thou gavest me."
And then we find the disruption of human relationships so obviously illustrated with the story of Cain and Abel. And that is only the beginning. We see the chaos of city life that begins in Genesis, and so it goes: "And in response to the chaos and disorder and the unruliness of men after the fall, God has instituted another kind of order in the world. And God now rules over people through a directed order that falls into three categories: the family, the church, and the state. And in all of these areas God has set in order that there be leaders and followers. That there be authority and submission. In the family, the parents are the leaders. In the church, the pastors and elders are the leaders. In the state, the government officials are the leaders." This is God's ordained pattern. And we have now a multiple kind of authority. Disrupted human relationships are brought into some kind of harmony, at least, so that humanity can exist, in some kind of ease, and some kind of peace, if not, total peace.
Now within the framework of a God-directed order, we could single out any of those three areas, and the bible does that. We could talk about the order of the family and how God has instituted authority in the family through the father, first of all, over the wife, and then through the father and mother over the children. Or we could talk about the area of government, and we could go to Romans 13 and to 1 Peter, and find that the Christian is to be subject to the authority that is ordained of God governmentally. But for our time and for our study we draw our attention to the middle one. And that is to the church. God directs His rule in the church through pastors and elders. And that takes us directly into Acts chapter 20. And I only used that just as a lead-in to get you to the place where you'll understand the prospective of this chapter.
Now as we look at Acts chapter 20, from verse 17 through 38, the Apostle Paul is giving information to church leaders, namely pastors and elders. And we've said before, and only remind you now, that a pastor, or an elder, or a bishop, or a prespitor is all the same thing Scripturally. He is the individual given the responsibility of leading the church of Jesus Christ. He is, to the church, what the priest, and the prophet, and the patriarch, and the king, was to the Old Testament. To God's people then.
Now what is it that makes an affective leader? What is it that makes an affective leader anywhere, particularly in the church? Well the world has its standards. Don't they? And we're kind of getting into the political melee again, as we start hearing all the radio and television advertisements regarding, so and so is running, and for this primary and that primary. And we hear a lot, all the time, about national government. We're well aware of the fact that there are qualifications, supposedly, for leadership. But you know if you look at the world's evaluation of leadership, it isn't necessarily the way God evaluates it.
For example, Israel decided they wanted a king. And they found the perfect one. And you know why he was the perfect one? Because there was nobody handsomer in the whole land. And not only that, he was taller than everybody else. Tall, and dark, and handsome Saul was anointed king. What a disaster. You say, "Do people still choose leaders on that basis?" Frequently. Given a certain amount of mentality, a certain amount of glibness, and a certain ability to communicate, anybody can become a leader in our world because of the qualifications. It's sad to say the qualifications are not always innate, internal things. They are mostly external things. For example, the average leader that we know of, in terms of the things that we're familiar with, would fall into the psychological category of an SNL.
Have you ever heard of an SNL? That's psychological abbreviation stands for, strong, natural leader. And most people that get into categories of leadership and exert a rather dramatic influence are called SNL's - strong, natural leaders. They can be characterized by . . . and we can do a whole study on this, but I'm just gonna give you the terms. They are characterized by being one visionary. They've always got great worlds to conquer, great visions of grandeur out there in the future. They are action-oriented. They're involved, they're aggressive, they are courageous. And, you know, this even happens in the church. Very many times in the church we assume that a man is a great leader, in terms of God's eyes, when all he is a psychological SNL, who happens to be a Christian, and especially in the area of courage. We look at a guy with a lot of courage and we call it faith very often. And what it really is it's just that he's got the guts to do anything. And we say, "What great faith." It may not have anything to do with faith. It may be faith, it may not be. SNL's are also energetic. They are normally objected-oriented, rather than people-oriented. They are egocentric, and they are always indispensable. In other words, the whole thing rises or falls on them. And in most cases in the world these are the people that get into leadership.
But you know something? There's no such category or cataloging of leaders in the Bible. The Bible does not lay down for the church that all of its leaders be SNL's. And, you know, I sadden sometimes when I realize that today a lot of people in the church are being sold a bill of goods, that those are the guys that are really doing the job. But it's the visionary, action-oriented, crusading, one-man show, dramatic-kind of guys that are dragging a whole bunch of people along, and they're all falling all over each other, not knowing what's going on or where they're going, but going like mad. And these are the people that are put out as the ones who are the great leaders, when, in fact, some of them may be and some of them may be God-blessed leaders, but the truth of the matter is, that all of the Biblical qualifications completely circumvent anything like that. And as we saw last time all of the Biblical qualifications for leaders in the church are Spiritual and internal, rather than external and physical - all of them. The Biblical pattern does not hold up the external, but the internal.
Now with that in mind, just to draw you to one thing: most SNL's lead by precept and power. In other words, "This is what we're going to do and we're going to do it together." You know? And they just sort . . . they super motivate people verbally, and they sweep people along in the verbiage, and the dramatics, and the courage, and the energy, and the action of what they're doing. That's all right for some things, but in the Scripture there is one great way that Biblical leaders lead, and it's not by precept and verbiage, it's by example. And that's the difference, that's the difference. The leader that God ordains and the leader that God blesses is the one who, not only leads by precept, but who leads by example. And I think in a very real sense this is exactly what America is now going through in the case of the president. The question that is in the minds of people is this: "We know he has lead us in his words, but does he qualify as a person to lead us by example?" And that's the struggle in the minds of people. And that is a justified struggle because a true leader is one who leads, not only by what he says, but by what he is. And this is Biblical. Biblical leadership is seen in the area of example, not nearly so much in the power of the precept.
In 1 Peter . . . and I want to call these verses to your attention, in order to support that statement. In 1 Peter 5:3 . . . we saw last week that the Bible says that an elder is to be an example to the flock . . . an example to the flock. In Philippines 3:17 . . . some of you have stop halfway to Peter. In Philippines 3:17, "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them who walk even as ye have us for an example." Paul says, "Take notice and follow the example that is given to you." Leadership is a question of example. And in the next chapter of Philippines 4:9, he says, "The things that you've learned, received, heard, seen, in me, do those." Again, example.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Paul reflects on the ministry he had in Thesolonic, and he says, "For our gospel came not unto you in word only. No, the gospel came not in word only. It is not a question of precept alone, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you." In other words, there was no credibility gap between what we said and what we were. You know that our message was supported by our life. And the next verse, "And you became follower of us." And the word is mimity . . .mimics. Paul was a great leader because he was an example.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:6, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly and not after the tradition which you received of us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us." He says, "Watch out who you pattern your life after. Turn aside from those who walk disorderly and follow us." And then he goes on to say in verse 9, "Not because we have not authority or right." And here he's talking about the fact that he could have taken money from them but he worked for his own wages. "We had the right, but we didn't take any money because we wanted to make ourselves an example, unto you, to follow us." In other words, "We could have ask of money to support our ministry, but we wanted to show you the example of servitude, so we earned our own living, and you should be willing to do the same." And so Paul said, "We lead by example."
In 1 Timothy 4:12, he told Timothy to be an example to the believers in everything. He told Titus, in chapter 2 verse 7, this, "In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works." And the idea there is that you ought to be the kind of outline that somebody could put the tracing paper of their life on and copy you. A true leader is one who leads by example.
Now leadership . . . if I can give you a definition of Christian leadership, here it is: Christian leadership is this: it is leading people into Christ-like behavior by example. That's what it is. Yes, precept is part of it, but the real dynamic of leadership is leading people into Christ-like behavior by example. You know what a leader is? I can give you a very simple definition. You know what a leader is? Somebody who's got somebody following him. Yes, a leader is only a leader when somebody's following. And a true . . .watch this . . . Spiritual leader, a true Godly leader, is only one when somebody is following the pattern of his Godliness. I can only saw, in the truest sense, that I am a Spiritual leader when somebody is following the Spirituality that I represent.
Now such a responsibility of being a leader is not easy. Believe me, it isn't easy. It's not easy to be in a position of being a leader. It's like Snoopy said one day in the paper, he said, "I hate being head beagle." It's not always easy to be a leader, because built into leadership are certain problems. For one, it's a tremendous responsibility to be given by God the charge of people. Hebrews 13:17 says, "We have to give an account to God for what we do." And James 3:1 says that, "We have a greater condemnation if we fail." But on the other hand, it can be so blessedly rewarding that it well compensates for the possibility of failure. What is a leader to do? To lead by example, because leadership in true sense is to make people come to the place of Christ-like behavior by following my life.
I love what it says in Hebrews 13. I think it's verse 7. He's telling them about the elders, and he says, regarding the elders, "I want you to do this, he says, whose faith follow. If you're an elder in this church your life is to be exemplary to everybody that crosses your path. They ought to be able to line up beside you, and walk with you, right behind you, the way you walk, whose faith follow." Leadership is a question of example.
Now that brings us right to Acts 20, because Paul is talking to the leaders of the church at Ephesus, and it's so very important that they follow the pattern of Biblical leadership, and it's important that they know that example is part of it. So what he does here is, he gives them all of the precepts of leadership. From verse 17 to 38 he covers them. All of these areas of leadership and all the way through he keeps saying, "You know, like I did it? You know, as I did it to you? You know, how I did it, the way I did it." And over . . . and over . . . and over sets himself as the example, that they might know the precept, and they might learn the principle of example. Now as you look at the passage . . . we'll pick it up at verse 28. And we find in our section for this time there are five priorities to leadership, five priorities to church leadership. And he's speaking to the elders and the pastors of the church at Ephesus, a church which he had founded. These are men which he, himself has discipled. They have the responsibility of caring for the church.
Principle number one . . . priority number one in Spiritual leadership is, one, make sure you're right with God. We covered this last time. Make sure you're right with God. You need to be a vessel unto honor, holy, before you'll ever be fit for the Master's what? Use. You are the key. Personal holiness is foundational. And just from my own standpoint I can illustrate it this way. My most important task is to prepare myself not my sermon. Do you understand that? If you're a teacher your most important task is, not to prepare your lesson, it's to prepare yourself to be a channel through which God can affectively work. And more than that, if you're lesson is one thing and your life is something else, you have destroyed the meaning of your lesson. Therefore, it is more important for me to prepare myself than it is my sermon. My sermon's important, my self is more important. And so my primarily responsibility is to make sure that my life before God is what it ought to be.
Verse 28, "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves," he says to these elders. Take heed onto yourselves. This is where it starts. As we saw in 1 Timothy and in Titus, the qualifications for an elder, last week, for a pastor, were all spiritual. They were all personally spiritual. No man is really useful to God who is not holy. And you are only as useful as you are set apart unto God. To illustrate this to you . . . from an Old Testament illustration that is very graphic. Second Samuel chapter 11, we go back to David.
Second Samuel 11:1, now listen to this. "It came to pass, after the year was ended, at the time when kings go forth, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem." And all of Israel's army and everybody goes out to fight a war and David stays home. Y