Preaching the Word
Preaching the Word
God's Calling : True Leadership in the Church
Join us as we unlock what God's Word says about Christ's call to church leadership and the significance of aligning our will with His. We'll explore the Biblical blueprint for how Christ appoints church leaders, as outlined in Ephesians 4:10-15, and discuss the pitfalls of allowing human desires to dictate leadership roles instead of Jesus Christ. This episode promises to deepen your understanding of true church leadership as a gift from Jesus, urging a renewal of minds to avoid the snares of man made religion.
Discover the transformative impact of godly leadership on spiritual growth and character development within the church. We'll unpack foundational teachings from Christ and His apostles, showing how leaders are to unite believers in the faith and knowledge of Jesus bringing the church into maturity.
Email: nathan@nathandietsche.com
Before we get into the text of our message today, I want to tell you a true story from an ambulance driver that helps to convey part of our message, and it begins I was working for a local volunteer ambulance corporation when we responded to a call with lights and sirens. When we approached an elderly woman in her car right in front of us, much to our annoyance, nothing we did would make her get out of the way, until my driver got on the PA and he said Please pull over to the right side. Well, she pulled over right quickly and led us by. Several hours passed Then we were returning to the base and we saw the lady still pulled over on the side of the road, thinking that something was wrong. We jumped out and we went over to her. She just sat there smiling and looking at us. When we questioned her as to why she was still sitting there, she explained well, god told me to pull over and he hasn't told me that I could go yet. Well, we explained to her that it was us who told her to pull over because we got a call. But she was very insistent that it was God who told her to pull over, seeing that we weren't going to persuade her one way or the other. We got back into the ambulance and we pulled up behind her. My driver got on the PA and said Ma'am, you may now continue on your way. She pulled off immediately and went on her way.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful examples you give us. How often we hear something that maybe we think is your voice but isn't lining up with what your word says, lord, I pray today that our will would be aligned with our Heavenly Father's will, according to the Scripture, in Jesus' name amen. So, as we see from this true story, if we're not firmly grounded in who God is and in His Word, it doesn't take a whole lot for us to become confused about what God's voice sounds like. Well, god can use people like me to proclaim his message loudly. Sometimes, because we get distracted in our very busy lives, all we hear are loud noises. But the truth is, the voice you need to be listening to is not a bullhorn, it's not the voice that speaks the loudest. It's a still small voice that speaks to your heart and it declares the truth of God through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I'm going to continue this series that we began last week on Jesus' call to leadership, since church leadership is rarely spoken on, when I teach on it, I usually get many of the same questions, so I'm going to try and address some of those issues in this series. Again, this series is useful for the church as a whole because it helps us all to recognize that we need to trust the Lord, god and his word, rather than trusting ourselves and our own opinions. Now, as we learned last week, if somebody genuinely desires to follow God and they hear the truth of God's Word spoken, they're going to know that it's from God, because the Holy Spirit confirms it in them. It's important, however, that when we hear the truth, we take action upon it. If we don't, we'll remain in a great deal of confusion, still living in fear rather than through faith. So I pray, if you recognize the truth of God's word, that you take action upon it in your life and it gets lived out in the church. If you'll turn with me to Ephesians, chapter 4, we're going to take a look at a passage that teaches us how the Lord Jesus appoints leadership to the church. Appoints leadership to the church.
Speaker 1:Ephesians, chapter 4, starting at verse 10, reads he who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we would no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning or by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we're to grow up in every way into him, who is the head, into Christ. So now let us begin by looking at the first verse. Ephesians 4.10 says he who descended is the one who ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things. Who is he? Who is this speaking of? It's speaking of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who descended into the depths of the abyss to preach to the spirits in prison who had disobeyed long ago, during the time of Noah, and it is he who now sits at the right hand of God and has ascended into heaven. In this first verse it says that he might fill all things.
Speaker 1:So if spiritual leadership is to properly be filled in the church, it is by Jesus. As a pastor I once knew put it, it's not like you go to the store and pick a pastor off the shelf. Jesus gives gifts to his church and a pastor is a gift that Jesus gives to his church. But unfortunately there's many times that a church will fill a leadership position with their own ideas or their own people to tingle their ears. With their own ideas or their own people to tingle their ears, they'll fill a spot, just as if they went to the store and picked somebody off the shelf. However, that is not Jesus filling the spot.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 4 us that Jesus gives these gifts of leadership to the church. Gives these gifts of leadership to the church. Again, it is Jesus Christ himself that calls and appoints men into leadership. Now the Christian church, like any other institution on earth, can become a death trap of false religion, but the true church, the church of Jesus Christ, is called to renew their minds in Christ, to come out of these trappings of the world. It is Christ himself that gifts, appoints and qualifies the spiritual leadership for his church and for his glory. Perhaps you've heard it said, christ doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Indeed, my friends, our Lord calls those who will follow him and point to him. He qualifies them through his blood.
Speaker 1:Now, while this is true for all of the saints, it's also true for anyone who's been given a gift of leadership in the church. It's not by the will of man that God brings about leadership, but it's through the will of God. The Father, through his son, jesus Christ, with the leading and equipping of the Holy Spirit. The entire Trinity is at work with the calling of God's leaders. Remember, people look at the outward appearance, god looks at the heart appearance, god looks at the heart. So why is this important? Why is it important that we carefully examine how we've been traditionally doing things in the church and how the Lord is teaching us here in Ephesians, chapter 4? Well, let's look at our next couple of verses, because they tell us why this is so important. Ephesians 4, to mature manhood, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Speaker 1:The reason placing a man called by God into leadership is so important, because the men Jesus has gifted with the gifts listed here for leadership are the very men God has prepared to equip the saints for the work of ministry. You see, the work of ministry is not just for leaders in the church. The work of ministry is for the entire church of Jesus Christ, or the entire church of Jesus Christ, and God is giving these leaders to equip the whole church. If a church puts someone in a position of leadership that hasn't been called and gifted by Christ himself to equip the saints, we're actually crippling the church. If a church acts upon their own will to fill their own preferences rather than trusting in the will of God, the Father, and the gifting of the Holy Spirit, the body of believers will not get equipped.
Speaker 1:Let me give you an example of how confused people get on this issue. Here's an example of a question that came up one time when I was teaching on this. Someone asked If you're saying that Christ appoints all of the leaders, are you saying that all of the Catholic priests and bishops are appointed by God? Now, personally, I don't know how somebody gets so confused about what I'm teaching, but this type of confusion is the type of confusion that happens when the church still has their minds conformed to the thinking of this fallen world. Thankfully, I didn't even have to answer the question, because somebody else in our Bible study group quickly piped up and said no, those Catholic priests are teaching you. You have to go through them for the answers. They don't even point you to the scripture, they don't even point you to Jesus Christ. They still have Jesus on the cross in their church and they believe in a works-based system. Well, I praise the Lord for his work on that person's heart and for how they clarified that statement without me even having to say a word.
Speaker 1:But you can see from the very question that was asked, people often equate leadership in any organized church with the people Christ has called. Let me say that again People often equate leadership in any organized church with the people Christ has called. The clear truth that came out of that discussion helps us to see that simply because people are appointed into leadership and claim to believe in the God of the Bible doesn't mean they're actually called or gifted by Jesus Christ to equip the saints. Now, for some of us it's obvious that the Catholic priesthood is not called by God, and it's equally clear that there are many churches today that appoint ungodly, worldly and uncalled leaders. But there's also an overlooked truth that many churches that do have a desire to obey God are still stuck in worldly thinking Rather than trusting in God's word and waiting upon his timing to find a man called and appointed by God, they compromise In their impatience and their indecision. They appoint somebody simply to fill a position, rather than waiting for someone who's been called by God.
Speaker 1:This, of course, is nothing new. Just last week we saw how, in the life of Jesus, this got played out. In the life of the Jewish leadership, the very men that God had established to be over the temple through the law did not even believe or follow the God that had established them when Christ came. If you remember, in the Old Testament, the Levites had been placed in the leadership of God's temple under the law by God. They were supposed to be the priests and the religious leaders of the Jews and faithfully keep the message about the coming Messiah. But we read that in the Gospel of John, those very Jewish leaders, those Levites, were not God's children. In fact, Jesus said they were children of the devil. They had lost the purity of God's truth and his gospel message. So let's not be confused. God is not a God of confusion, but of sound mind.
Speaker 1:We need to recognize that it's not through the law of God or the rules of a church that God calls a man. Leaders are called by Christ himself. They're equipped with a gift from Christ himself and they're qualified through the work of Christ's sanctifying work. Godly leaders will point to the fullness of God's word. They will speak on God's truth and justice, as well as his grace and his mercy. Things we need to recognize are that God's plan is not our plan. God's timing is not our timing. We must always remain alert to the work of God and never grow weary, waiting upon him or trusting in him.
Speaker 1:Now, another common question that comes up when I talk about Jesus calling and equipping leadership is well, are you saying that formal training is bad? No, that's not what I'm saying. But this is an important issue to address, because we're at a place in our culture today where we elevate higher education so greatly that we often are simply looking to the accolades of men. So let me be as clear about this as I can. First, the church is not brought into the truth by earning academic degrees. Rather, the church is brought into the truth by the Holy Spirit as we read God's word and we say no to our flesh and we learn to trust in the Messiah Jesus Christ. Additionally, as our verse today shows us, christ himself has appointed leaders for the purpose of equipping the saints. So what does that look like? How does that get lived out and how do we recognize godly leadership?
Speaker 1:Primary example scripture gives us is training through mentorship. For example, jesus mentored 12 disciples and the Apostle Paul mentored Timothy. Mentorship offers personal relationship through a local church. Mentorship works on individual character as much or even more than theological training, and mentorship recognizes the work of the Holy Spirit in the teaching of the individual rather than trusting in academic training. Biblically speaking, elders of every local church are to oversee that their congregation is trained and mentored. There's nowhere in Scripture that we're taught that an elder or a pastor needs any kind of degree or college seminary. If anything, scripture teaches that trusting in such superficial accreditation is a thing of the world. However, the scripture does give qualifications for elders, but those qualifications are of godly character.
Speaker 1:When speaking of who is qualified for church leadership, the scripture points to men of character and let me just emphasize the scripture is clear that elders and pastors are to be men. The church actually doesn't need to be overly concerned with leaders learning to teach or learning to shepherd or learning to proclaim the truth from the pulpit. Because these gifts are gifts that are given by Christ Jesus, men will be endowed with the ability to do them. Quiet men will become bold. Men that never taught will want to teach God's Word. Men who never cared about anyone or anything will want to take care of God's people. And even though these gifts are given by Christ, they still need to be refined and each man needs to grow in his character and in God's Word. So, even though they're qualified by Christ and gifted by Christ, they still need to be mentored in the local church. The Apostle Paul once said that he considered all of his formal training as a Pharisee to be garbage compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. So let me summarize this Training godly leaders is important.
Speaker 1:However, it's training in character under other godly men in the body of Christ. Furthermore, as a man is trained to follow Christ, so he will teach others to follow the way of Christ. Just as we build a house or a barn from the very foundation, so the church is to be built up from the foundation of Christ and the teachings of the apostles. As the church is built up, it will become unified in the faith and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is Christ that works through the gifts that he's given to the leadership in the church, and through these gifts he brings the church into maturity. There's no amount of personal charisma that can replace a gift of leadership given by Jesus Christ himself for the purpose of equipping the saints. There is no amount of formal training that can replace godly character that comes through submission to the Holy Spirit. The goal of every godly leader will be to bring the body of Christ into maturity, so that they will be steadfast.
Speaker 1:The last two verses we are studying today in Ephesians teach so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, were to grow up in every way into him. Who is the head, into Christ? It is Christ that is the head of the church. Godly leaders appointed by Christ will point to Christ as the answer of the church.
Speaker 1:Godly leaders appointed by Christ will point to Christ as the answer to all things. Jesus is both our creator and our redeemer, and as we grow in him we will become like him. You see, brothers and sisters, when we know Jesus, we're to walk in the way, the way of Christ. The early church was known as the way, because they lived out their lives knowing they were to walk in the same way Jesus did. Christ is coming back, and when he does, we'll be with him, and when we're with him, we'll be like him. There will be no sin, there will be only godliness, because we will be with God. As we wrap up today, I want us to meditate this week on how godly leaders are called by Christ, equipped by Christ and qualified by Christ for the purpose of equipping his saints. Now, to him, who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.