Text: Hebrews 13:7
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé
Following Clay-Footed Leaders
As you’re opening your Bibles, let’s make sure we remember where we are stepping into the book here in chapter thirteen. If you’ve been with us for the last weeks, you know that chapter thirteen takes the main point of the book—that Jesus is better than all of his forerunners and rivals, that he is ruling the cosmos as our great Prophet, Priest, and King—and then applies those main points to the people he is ruling, namely, those who belong to Christ by faith. This is us, the Church, this new humanity that God is remaking in the image of Christ through union with Christ in the holy places.
And we’ve seen that the primary means through which God is transforming his people is through the gracious restoration of their loves—that those who once were in bondage to sin and loved darkness are born again to love God and love their neighbor.
We’ve seen how this changes our relationship to each other in the church, to strangers, in marriage, and with our money. Now, from verse 7 to 19, the author of Hebrews will teach this new humanity how to relate to her leaders, the elders of the church. We will take two weeks, Lord willing, to cover this section, because he makes two main points that, though both related to the issue of the leadership of the church, are each worth their own focused look. In verse seven, and then verses seventeen to nineteen, he directly addresses the duties of the local church to the elders of the local church.
But in the middle, from verse eight to sixteen, he gives a parenthetical look at one of the reasons that it is so important that the church submit to the elders, namely, because if they don’t, they will be in danger of being “…led away by diverse and strange teachings,” and he gives a specific example of one that was especially relevant for the Hebrew Christians who first received the letter.
So Lord willing, we’ll deal with those two points over two Sundays, starting this morning by handling verses seven, then seventeen to nineteen, looking at the issue of how the local church is to relate to the elders. So look with me there at verse seven.
This is the Word of the Living God:
“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith … 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. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.”
-Hebrews 13:7, 17–19
Thus ends the reading of God’s Word. May he write it on our hearts by faith.
Five Instructions
As we make our way through the text, there are five specific instructions that we’ll stop and examine.
1. Remember your leaders—but not just any leaders.
The first half of verse seven reads,
“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.”
-Hebrews 13:7a
One way we could characterize the world is with a rhetorical question that the Lord Jesus asked in Luke 6:39, “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” Humanity in Adam is one long procession of blind guides leading blind men into various pits. Without the regenerating light of God’s grace, mankind is spiritually, morally, politically, epistemically blind. We cannot see that which is real and true and good and beautiful—and so of course we cannot rule or lead ourselves or others into green pastures and good futures.
But this blind humanity is also marked by an arrogant confidence that he sees quite clearly. Humanity in Adam is not a blind man who knows he is blind, but rather a blind man convinced of his great vision and wisdom and keen insight into things. Blind guides leading blind men into various pits. We are desperate for leaders, desperate for direction and compelling vision. We long to have someone come along and tell us who we are and what we’re for and what to do and what would be worth our efforts and time and selves.
History is therefore made up of an unbroken chain of men seizing leadership and stirring up followings to follow them into some glorious future that never quite manages to arrive. This is true of the great tyrants of history, the Hitlers and Stalins and Maos, and it is true of a billion lesser tyrants all the way on down to the town drunk following his tyrannical heart into the gutter.
But what cures blindness? The Scriptures are quite clear in their answer: New eyes and better lamps. The Lord Jesus gives new eyes along with new hearts. He said in John 9:39 that he came into the world “…that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Many self-appointed leaders, who claimed great spiritual wisdom and insight, were proved blind at the coming of the light of the world, but many who were blind now see. He gives new eyes. And so confidently blind Paul becomes humbly seeing Paul after the Lord is done with him and the scales fall away from his eyes.
And those new eyes see the lamp of God’s Word with new clarity. Psalm 119:105 teaches us to sing, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Those with new eyes to see with and the lamp of the Scriptures in hand are able to see the pits in front of them. So the local church is to remember her leaders, but not as the world defines leaders. These leaders are not those with self-assured visions of grandeur, but those who spoke the Word of God, those who received God’s Words as light and followed it and beckoned for others to follow behind.
So remember your leaders. Remember those who minister the Word in season and out of season. Remember those who have poured the Scriptures into your life over the years, whether in this little outpost of God’s Kingdom or another. Remember them with thankfulness and pray for them. And as you do so, number two, we read in verse 7 that we are to…
2. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
He writes,
“Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”
-Hebrews 13:7b
Over and over again, the Lord told us that this Kingdom would be utterly unlike the Kingdoms of the world. His Kingdom is not of this world, meaning it originates elsewhere, and it will be marked by the economy of that elsewhere as it invades and conquers the sinful kingdoms of the world. Listen to how Jesus instructed his disciples in Matthew 20:25–28,
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
-Matthew 20:25–28
The rulers of God’s Church are to be utterly unlike the rulers of the world. That is why the New Testament Scriptures devote 99% of the qualifications for elders to godly character, not gifting. This is why we spend so much time assessing the character of elder candidates at Refuge—because instructions like this to the church render the life and qualification of an elder a very sobering thing.
Why am I saying this? Because this verse is commanding you to look at the way the elders of the church have set up their lives—to see how their faith in the Word of God and the Son of God has impacted how they deal with marriage and money and childrearing and vocation and everything else—and to imitate that same faith in the way you set up your own life. This means that the qualifications of elders really, really matters. It is one of the most important things you can assess as you decide, “Will I submit myself and my family to these elders? Do I want to look like them? Do I want my sons to grow up to look like these men and my daughters to marry men like this?”
And if you can’t answer that question with “Yes!” then you probably shouldn’t be in that church. I am not talking about a graceless, perfectionistic kind of nit-pickery. That would destroy any elder, because no elder is perfect save the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus.
But I am saying that qualifications matter. You should feel free to ask the elders hard questions, assess them soberly, and bring issues to be appropriately dealt with. And elder’s life and his doctrine must be in harmony, such that you can confidently imitate them as they imitate Christ. Getting even more specific about what this looks like, number three:
3. Obey your leaders and submit to them, because they are keeping watch over your souls—and doing so as those who will have to give an account.
He writes in verse 17,
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.”
-Hebrews 13:17a
This instruction tells us something about what elders are called to do, and then what the church is called to do in response. The elders are called to keep watch over the souls of the people in such a way that they will be ready to give an account to God for how they shepherded the people.
And the people are called to obey them, to submit to them, which is very strong language. It means that the church is called to do what the elders say. This is one of those verses that makes me tremble. It makes me tremble to think that I will give an account to God for how I taught the Bible to you; for how we, the elders, led the church.
Did we point you to Christ again and again? Did we clearly and boldly name sin and call you to be ashamed of it and then drive you to the cross and the throne of God’s mercy and grace? Did we get the gospel right?
Did we faithfully teach you what the Bible teaches, regardless of whether it would be popular or not? Did we do this with sexuality and marriage and childrearing and politics and money and everything else?
Did we tell you the hard texts? Or did we do everything we could to soften them and make them more culturally appropriate and easy to hear?
Did we fear God and not you, and so tell you things we thought would make some of you even leave the church in anger? Were we man-fearing cowards? Were we loving and gracious? Did we counsel rightly, lead rightly, love rightly?
Listen, I’m going to be very frank with you and very honest with you: I know that Refuge Church is a weird church. I know it. I know that we do things very differently from most churches in our area, and probably very differently than many churches that a lot of us grew up in. I want you to know that this text and texts like it are why we are so weird. We do not want to stand before God and say, “Lord, I know we didn’t tell them that part of the Bible. We avoided it because people would have left. Our attendance would have been lower. It would have affected giving, Lord. People would have been unhappy with us, would have disliked us.”
God forbid. I would rather pastor a small church with a clean conscience than a big church with a troubled conscience, having failed to preach the whole counsel of God’s Word to them in hopes of keeping as many people happy as possible. That would be pastoral malpractice.
The language this verse uses is that elders are called to keep a watch over your soul—and one of the things that means is that we are called to try to get up high enough to see what idols and snares the people in this flock are in danger of being ensnared by, and then bringing the Scriptures to bear in pointing out that danger and calling you away from it and to Christ for help and mercy. And that means that we are called to say and preach and counsel hard things, because it is precisely in the areas where our sheep are vulnerable to attack that we are called to go. It’s not enough to bring the Word to bear on the idols of our neighbors; we need the Word to make war on our idols.
So here’s where the rubber meets the road: When your pastors exhort you to repentance and faith, to obedience to the Scriptures—for your joy and God’s glory—have an attitude of eager readiness to obey and follow.
Yes, be Bereans who know and search out the Scriptures yourselves, but don’t be stubborn. Don’t be unteachable. Don’t be proud. Be skeptical of your own resistance before you give in to it. We are called to keep watch over your souls.
4. Let them do their work with joy, not groaning, and that for your own sake.
We read this in verse 17,
“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.”
-Hebrews 13:17
Be the kind of sheep who are a joy to shepherd. What advantage would it be to you to continually fight the local church shepherds? Let me try to give you some very practical ways that you can obey this instruction:
Pray for us. Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers build in vain. Pray that God would build his house. Approach us directly with an issue. Don’t put up a passive aggressive Facebook post directed at nobody in particular. Don’t send in vague and anonymous criticisms through the Stump The Pastors Q+A form. Don’t gossip about the elders. Be brave and not cowardly and come and talk to us if you have an issue.
Be teachable. Say one of us is teaching the Scriptures, and you disagree with an application or doctrine. That’s ok. There is room for disagreement in the local church around non-essential things. But be sure that you are disagreeing on the basis of the text of Scripture, not the basis of your intuitions, thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. Be ready to be corrected by the Scriptures and we will do the same—God and his Word are our authority, all of us. Come with an eagerness for the Word of God to search you out and change your mind.
Be present and active in the regular means of grace in the ministry of this local church. Don’t be a twice-a-month attender. Be present and alert and have your Bible open and be ready to hear and receive from the Lord and repent and rejoice and sing and fellowship. Don’t compare your pastors to your favorite podcast preachers. It’s not a competition.
Be kind to the wife and children of the elders. All four of us right now have young kids. We want to be available whenever you need us, but we might be slow to schedule meetings from 5:30-8:00 on week nights. We have young kids we need to raise up in the faith so we’re not disqualified. We need to be there to read to them, pray with them, teach them, and be their dad.
Please don’t take any of this as a passive aggressive correction. We love you all. I am so encouraged regularly by the people of this little church. I do not deserve to be your pastor. Thank you for all of you who have been doing everything I just listed very quietly and humbly and consistently for years.
5. Pray for your pastors, to have a clear conscience and to act honorably in all things.
Finally, in verse 18–19 we read,
“Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.”
-Hebrews 13:18–19
In light of everything we’ve just seen together in this text, I hope you feel the desire to pray for your pastors. I love how the author summarizes his goal and the he would urge them to pray for: That he would have a clear conscience that he acted honorably in all things. Yes and amen! That is what your pastors want as well. We want to be able to look back over the years at the end of our ministry, whenever that is, whether in a year or 40 years, and commit our work to the Lord with a clear conscience.
And that is something that is far less likely to happen without the faithful prayers of God’s people. Every leader is always 10 minutes away from catastrophic disqualification without the ongoing, sustaining grace of the Lord Jesus. Final Words So let me sum it up this morning by saying this: I feel very awkward in saying most of what I said this morning, since most of it is telling you how to love and serve and submit to and obey your elders, including me.
I want you to know that your pastors know probably better than you ever will just how inadequate we are to the task of shepherding even a single person into green pastures. We are not sufficient for these things, but for the grace and strong help of the Lord, yours and my Chief Shepherd. Unlike us, the Lord Jesus died for you; he is a sin-removing Shepherd. And he rose from the dead; he always lives to make intercession for you. And he is seated at the Father’s right hand; he welcomes you at all times there for mercy and help. He is all of our hope—ours, the elders, and yours.
So thank you for every prayer you’ve ever said for us, for every bad sermon you’ve ever sat through, for every offense you have ever patiently passed over, and for every other thing you have done in love for your elders that we may never know about. May we together grow up into a living structure, built into the image of Christ, for his glory and renown in the city of Ogden and the state of Utah.