CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP REQUIRES COURAGE

What should be the prime concern for the pastor? Protecting the sheep who have been entrusted to him from above!

This had been the essence of Paul’s teaching to the Ephesian elders (pastors). First he declared his innocence to them. It was a matter of not withholding from them any of the council of God:

• “how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ...Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:20-21, 26-27 ESV)

A pastor’s innocence and guilt were a matter of not withholding from the flock any of the teachings of the Lord. To deprive them of any of these is to betray them. Therefore, in his benediction, Paul pointed them back to their responsibility to feed their flock with what would nourish them:

• “And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:32)

The Word of God, the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), would build them up and give them what our Lord had promised. To withhold or distort this food would betray them and allow deceivers to ravage them:

• “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:28-30)

Pastors and teachers, many of them are not listening. They have even ordained wolves to fill their pulpits to tear apart the flock of God. Some are even so self-deceived that they have convinced themselves that they are doing the Lord’s work:

• Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12-13; John 15:18-20; 16:2-3)

Often, the self-deception is slow and cumulative. In “The Dying of the Light,” James Tunstead Burtchaell has documented the betrayal of formerly Christian institutions. Inevitably, it starts with the many pressures to compromise, often very slow and appealing, like the need for academic freedom:

• The rhetoric generated by these innovating academics has invariably adopted the academic motif of intellectual freedom, patient research, evidence-based judgment, and rational argument. The implicit image is of free agents engaged in free inquiry and free conclusions. Naturally a Christian church which offers the gospel for conviction and commitment exacts an intellectual loyalty that makes it a meddling patron of education thus understood. Rational discourse in the contemporary academy believes - or says - that it can abide no prior convictions, commitments, or loyalties. But Christian scholars, to be at home in this kind of academy, need not actually forswear their faith. All they must do is agree to criticize the church by the norms of the academy, and to judge the gospel by the culture.

However, betrayal comes from many quarters. Parents demand secularly accredited schools and professors having stellar, advanced degrees. Seminaries bow to these pressures and hire those with PHDs from Cambridge, Oxford, and Harvard, instead of Biblically vetting their teaching staff.

Today, these Christian institutions bow to the pressures for diversity at the expense of Biblical qualifications. In this manner, the Faith has been ousted from almost all its former institutions and colleges - all of our Harvards, Princetons, and Yales, all having become enemies of the faith.

Compromise is a slippery slope, a deadly plunge, which never finds its resting place. Therefore, Burtchaell appropriately concludes:

• But if they lose they’re nerve and are intimidated by their academic colleagues, they, too, will end up judging the church by the [secular] academy and the gospel by the culture. In time, they will probably lose the capacity to tell them apart.

Compromise is the onset of death. Therefore, in his Pastoral Epistles, Paul brings his pastors back to their prime calling - their shepherding ministry, the teaching and protection of the Gospel and their flock. Therefore, Paul warned:

• Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene...(2 Timothy 2:14-17 )

What would honor God and gain His approval? It was not a matter of relaxation exercises or mindfulness meditation but the accurate presentation of His Words. What would dishonor God? Deviating from His Gospel to teachings that lead to ungodliness!

Even when society would clamor for what is unwholesome, the servant of God must remain unmoved and faithful:

• preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

The pastor must not be swayed by the changing tastes and demands of society. He must stand against the temptations to water down his message, even at the threat of violence. The well-being and even the salvation of God’s people is at stake:

• Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16)

Because of the stakes a high, elders had to be chosen carefully, according to their character and commitment and mastery of God’s Word:

• He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families...(Titus 1:9-11)

Biblical love will not tolerate false teaching. In this case, rebuke is more loving than tolerance or “academic freedom.” Nor will it tolerate deception and divisions:

• If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions...(1 Timothy 6:3-4; 6:20; Titus 3:9-10)

Promoting the Words of God is the main form of love of both God and man. The truths of the Gospel take precedence over everything else, even tolerance for others. Tolerance of deception destroys.

However, do not be surprised that, when you put God’s Word first in your life (Matthew 6:33), you will be hated and called all sorts of names - bigot, insensitive, closed-minded, rigid, and even worse. This is because you refuse to conform to them and to love the things that they love (James 4:4). Instead, they love permissive and comforting myths:

• If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness...(1 Timothy 4:6-7; 1:3-4)

The good teacher is the one who both knows God, His Word, and even himself - that his only worth and hope come from His Savior. He therefore is (not has) sold out. He will not tolerate the popular myths, which contradict the Bible, like naturalistic evolution, which believes that everything naturally sprang into existence uncaused out of nothing at all, even before the “natural even existed.” Nor will he tolerate secular psychotherapy, which promotes the idea that “You just have to believe in yourself,” even if this requires us to believe in lies to promote our self-esteem. In contrast, the Bible teaches:

• Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

Ironically, once we humble ourselves, we receive the power and confidence to stand against adversity from Above.