Dennis Tuuri

# SERMON TRANSCRIPT – HEBREWS 13:7-17

Psalm 95 is one of the Psalms that are used and focused on in the book of Hebrews. The great warning to that generation about to enter into the promised land consisted of God judging the Jews in AD 70, and an extreme warning to them to not hold back, not fail to enter into the promised land. The Lord God draws our attention once more to the book of Hebrews. We’ll begin the next section of the book—the last major section today. The sermon text is from Hebrews 13, and we’ll be reading verses 7-17 and focusing primarily on the bookends of this section in verses 7 and 17.

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Hebrews 13, beginning at verse 7.

Hebrews 13:7 Remember those who rule over you and have spoken the word of God to you whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.

Therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for this wonderful book. We thank you, Father, that we come to these great culminating exhortations to us how to live out heavenly lives here on earth. We thank you, Father, for this text. May your Holy Spirit illumine our understanding of it, our minds. Give us, Father, an understanding of this text that might transform us. We pray, Lord God, that we would be moved to honor the rulers that you set over us, that they may indeed rejoice and not be saddened. In Jesus’ name we ask it and for the sake of his kingdom, not ours. Amen.

Please be seated.

Son of God and son of man—we just sang that in one of our opening songs of praise. The section that we deal with today in Hebrews is the matching section to section two. There are seven sections in this book, rather clearly marked out. Not difficult to see once you establish them. I provided once more—since we’re kind of returning now after a series of messages in which we talked about the implications of the verses relative to avoiding covetousness—a this Sunday the outline, the overall outline, to remind you where we’re at in this wonderful sermon to the Hebrews.

There are these seven sections. We are in that sixth section. Jesus Christ, the preeminence of Jesus Christ, is the overriding message of this book. It’s written to those who are being tempted to fall back into Judaism. And so when we come to these strange doctrines in this section today, we know it is identified with Judaizing influence in the context of the church.

We’ll talk about that some in the next couple of weeks. It’ll probably take three sermons to get through this entire section. My concern today are the bookends that mark it off as a section—verses 7 and 17. This is a sermon that pastors love to preach. I could say I’ve waited for this for many years to tell you about these two verses and to encourage you to cause your elders joy and not grief. That’s what we’ll talk about today.

But again, the proper understanding of where this is placed is important to see. Section six has had a couple of subsections to it, right? Section six—the sixth day of creation, man is created, he fell, we’re restored back through the son of God, son of man—of section two of this book. So that now heavenly realities can be lived out on earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will might be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We saw what that means in terms of social interactions: let brotherly love continue. In terms of hospitality and benevolence, to have people into your home, strangers who are Christians, to visit Christians who are suffering for the faith in prison. We saw the implications of it for marriage and the family, kind of summed up by the marriage reality. We’re to defend marriage as we’ve done in this state for several years now. That’ll continue to be a major theme of what we’ll do into this fall—elections in our state, defending marriage. That’s what this text tells us to do. Marriage is to be honored. It is our job to make sure that marriage is honored, not just by people in the church but by the culture at large.

And so the great importance of family to this living out heavenly realities on earth. And then, what are we here for? We’re here to work. You know, it’s a—I hope I’m not controversial with this. I’m sure I will be. I take it in the way it’s intended. Please, you know, you always hear these stories in the secular media today and even in Christian media that, “Well, nobody on their deathbed says, ‘I wish I would have worked more.’ They all say, ‘I wish I would have spent more time with the family.’”

Well, that is not necessarily an accurate assessment of a man’s prioritization of the tasks in his life. That may more reflect the culture in which we live, in which the culture doesn’t see any necessity for work at all except to provide for the kind of enjoyable relationships we have in our families. The Lord God placed Adam here to work, to make manifest his beauty over the whole world. And part of that, of course, is familial relationships, and they’re delightful. I’m not encouraging anybody to not attend to their family. But I am saying that there’s this romantic view of the family in our culture at large, and I think too much in Christianity.

I think if the truth were to be told, a lot of men on their deathbed ought to be thinking back saying, “I wish I would have done more work for Jesus. I wish I would have attended to my vocation a little more and done a better job at it.” And that would not be a bad thing to pray in light of what these scriptures tell us.

So our vocation—we talked about that at some length. I would just say to the young men in this church who are here today or maybe listening to this tape: if you didn’t listen or at least read the outlines from those two sermons on vocation and what makes a good worker, please do so. This is one way you can make me joyful, not grievous, not grieved. You can take those outlines, think about them, analyze how well you’re doing in your job search and how you’re developing as a worker. You young people particularly should understand the significance of those verses.

I took a lot of time to do studies in the Proverbs, and I think it’s the result of God teaching me a lot about the Proverbs for the last 10 years or so. I would encourage young men who are trying to establish a vocation particularly to go over those outlines on a regular basis and to look at those Proverbs as they apply to what makes a good worker. So we’ve done that.

The first half of the sixth section is about those sort of things. Now the second half, even though we’re talking about application, he returns to the subject of the worshiping community and he talks about primarily the church. This is the second half, and we’ll spend several weeks in it as well.

We are in the sixth section: how to live heavenly lives on earth. I provided an outline of this section for you that I think accurately reflects, at least my understanding of, the structure of it. We can talk about that a little bit.

Now let’s look at the outlines provided. Or if you don’t have that, or if you’d rather look in your scriptures or your own Bible, of course that’s fine. But I’ve given you a structure to this, and I want to explain it a little bit before we get to the specifics of the text.

Now their bookends—because obviously at the beginning and end he’s talking about obedience to rulers, and linguistically the words for rule are the same in verse 7 and 17. You see in verse 7: “Remember those who rule over you.” Verse 17: “Obey those who rule over you.” So they’re definitely a matched set.

And if you look at the very center of what I’ve given you as the center of this text, you have an interesting linguistic use of words here. Verse 12: “Jesus suffers outside the gate.” That’s the right translation. It’s a different word than camp. And on either side of that, we have the phrase “outside the camp.”

“Outside the camp, outside the gate, outside the camp”—clearly drawing us to this central section of the book, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I continue to think about Chris W. when I come across texts like this. He preached a sermon—I don’t remember how long ago now, but it impacted me. We don’t talk about Jesus very much. Jesus is the center of this section. Jesus Christ’s work outside of the camp.

And there are implications for that. I’ll talk about this more in a couple of weeks. But in Ezekiel, the prophecies about what God will do as he abandons the temple—in Ezekiel, the temple in the times of Ezekiel—and will take God’s people into exile, the presence of God in Ezekiel’s vision moves away from the Holy of Holies to the outer court of the temple, and then it moves outside of the city, over there where Jesus eventually will be crucified, and then God goes with his people into captivity.

Now, part of that’s punishment. He’s leaving them in judgment. But part of it—and the prophets make this very clear, and Daniel of course makes this so clear—is that what God is doing is taking his people into the empires that God will establish, that they might be converted. So the holiness of God is moving out of the holy of holies, outside of the temple, into the city, outside of the city, and then into the world.

Now, this is what happens in the new covenant. When Ezekiel describes what’s going to happen in the restoration or in the new covenant, Ezekiel describes the dimensions not just of the temple, but he gives dimensions of the city as well. Now, dimensions in the Old Testament are important. They prescribe, they define rather, a holy place, and what that tells us is holiness is expanding outside of the temple into all the city.

Nehemiah—Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilds the temple. Nehemiah rebuilds the city—the walls, the city walls, not the temple walls. And then Levites come out and dedicate the walls, and the word for dedicate almost is always used about the dedication of altars, the temple, the tabernacle. What’s happening? Well, he’s preparing us that when Jesus comes, in the New Testament times, the holiness of God is going to move out.

Ezekiel sees it as water flowing out of the temple till the whole world is flooded with the knowledge of Christ. So there’s a—there’s an outward dynamic flow of holiness from the temple in the time of the coming of Jesus. And I think that has some implications here.

Yes, he’s telling them at the obvious level that Jesus went outside the camp, suffered reproach, people didn’t like him. We join him out there. Even though the Jews don’t like us, that’s part of what’s going on. Clearly, we suffer the same reproach. We should be willing to talk about Jesus in our culture, even if people get upset with us or mock us or call us Christers or whatever it is. We should have no qualms about that reproach. Bear it gladly. “Blessed are you when you’re persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.”

That’s going on. But see, the other thing that goes on with Jesus moving outside the camp is it’s now the beginning, the real beginning, of the new creation when holiness fills the world. So there’s this movement away from the center, and that’s at the very center of this text. We live heavenly lives on earth by participating in the church, in the worship services of the church, with the view toward going out the doors and taking holiness everywhere we go. You see?

So that’s kind of at the center of this, and Jesus is there. Now there’s also another center, and I’ve kind of pictured this for you. Verse 8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He talks about remembering certain rulers and then obeying rulers. And while “remember” can just mean obey your rulers here, it probably means those men that had gone before—your past rulers. Remember the ones who have brought you thus far by faith.

And then he moves toward present rulers at the end of the text. So a movement from past to present. Again, this is the movement of the Christian church into the future. Based on actions in the past, moving dynamically ahead, geographically at the center of the text, time-wise at the bookends of the text. But this link is Jesus Christ, at the center of that, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You see? That’s why he can tell them: remember those who spoke the word of Christ to you; obey the people in the present; and move into the future with Jesus, because their rule is directly linked to them speaking the word of Jesus.

So there are two centers, so to speak—hinge texts in this section. And the part of both is Jesus. Jesus Christ is the center of what we believe and what we teach. And he has been the preeminent name above every other name in section two. He’s been the greater Melchizedek, the greater Moses, the greater Aaron. The preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ—Psalm 8 has been referred to. He brings mankind into maturity. Jesus. This is what it’s all about.

And Jesus has brought us into a position where now the church is to move out and bring holiness to all the world. The other thing that verse 8 does is it ties together verse 7 and verse 9. Look at verse 7. He says, “Those who rule are those who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.” Verse 8: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Verse 9: “Don’t be carried about with various and strange doctrines.”

That you go to see this week when you see the Da Vinci Code. Well, it’s not quite what it says, but it’s certainly a good application, is it not? We have various strange, goofy doctrines on the screen and in the book that 40 million people have read, based upon some goofy French socialist earlier in this century who has admitted the whole thing was a lie. And now the whole world is all concerned. And all this is interesting. This is really neat stuff. Various strange doctrines.

I’ve been around long enough. You see it come. You see it go. Conspiracy theories here and there. Strange doctrines are always being spun by somebody. Don’t get taken off into that nonsense. You might enjoy the movie. I’ll probably go see it, doing research, you know. But don’t—you know, come on.

You see, the problem is that Christianity today is being affected by postmodernism. George Grant talked about this in a link I sent out to the church. If you haven’t listened to it, Christianity has been redefined as a relationship with Jesus, a living relationship. It’s just kind of an ethical, moral thing. And the factuality or the lack of factuality of the gospel account is sort of secondary.

You see, postmodernism—well, we still have beliefs, but there’s nearly no historical reality we can really believe in. The Christian faith is firmly rooted in historical realities. When we recite those great Protestant or the great church—the Catholic, the Catholic in the sense of universal—churches: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, etc., they are rooted in historical facts. You lose the historical reality of what the scriptures teach us and affirm about the historicity of Jesus Christ, you lose the whole thing. Whatever you have left isn’t worth spit.

And that’s what the Da Vinci Code attempts to do. The author is self-conscious. He wants it to be the nail in the coffin of Christianity. While it’s such a ridiculous nail to be laughable, don’t start to doubt historical reality, what the scriptures teach us.

But that’s not what he’s talking about here. Of course, there are these various strange doctrines. But what he’s saying is, now look, listen to those who teach Jesus’s word to you. Don’t listen to those who teach strange doctrines. And the key to determining what is right and what is wrong is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. So the word of Jesus, Jesus Christ’s word, has been committed to men who have then spoken it to others who have then spoken it to others. And that’s the word that you’re supposed to found your life upon and your reality, not strange doctrines.

So there’s opposition. Remember those great men, not because they were great, and not even because God providentially put them as your rulers. I mean, that’s a good reason to obey rulers, right? Sovereignty of God—whether they’re good or bad, they deserve honor. But that’s not what he’s saying here. What he’s saying here is obey them because they taught the unchanging truths and doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ to you as opposed to these strange, weird doctrines.

And what are the strange, weird doctrines? I’m going to spend a separate Sunday just on this. But just to give you an understanding of the text, he tells us immediately. The strange doctrine is that it’s good that the heart—for he says it’s combined by recognizing the heart is stiffened, established, fed by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been concerned with them. And then he talks about the altar that we have to eat at, that they have no right to eat from.

What he’s doing is the strange doctrine is Judaism, and it’s what was being taught at that time. Not that it’s bad to eat unclean food, but they had positively said that clean food will give you grace and nurture in and of itself. So that’s what the strange doctrine is he’s referring to. And in opposition to this, he says, “Well, food won’t do any good at all. It’s the grace of God.”

So we’ll talk about that one week. We’ll talk about reliance upon food for life. And the Jews did that. And the reality, which is our hearts are stiffened by grace. Grace is ministered to us, but it’s not a vending machine here. You don’t walk up, pull the lever, and get the toy out. Okay? It’s not the way it works. Your heart is stiffened by grace.

So then, in the context of that, we have the center of the text, which is Jesus Christ dying for our sins outside of the camp, making full atonement for them.

So that’s kind of the way the text is structured. It’s got these bookends of past rulers and present rulers—these are men who taught the word. The word is what’s being emphasized here, not their place of authority. He doesn’t refer to them by the name of the office—elder or pastor. He refers to them as those who have brought the word to you. And this is putting contradiction—the eternal word of Jesus to the new and strange doctrines of Judaism. Don’t go back to Judaism. They’re wrong all the way around. And they perverted it so badly. They’ve taken the very good things, the peace offerings, and made automatic grace out of them. And they’ve taken clean food and think that somehow is how you’re built up in grace—is by eating clean food. Don’t go back there.

You’re going to suffer reproach. But that’s all right. When you suffer reproach with Jesus by going out into the culture and speaking his name and talking about his truths, if you suffer persecution, blessed are you. And that’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to go forth outside of the city, outside of the church. You’re supposed to stream into the culture this week with lives that are built upon obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that’s kind of how the text moves. Holiness is flowing out. We go from past. The Jews wanted to stay in the past, but Jesus urges them on into the future. Pastors are what he’s speaking about—those who have brought the word to him. And these pastors are a very important part then of seeing the manifestation of this heavenly kingdom of Jesus lived out in the context of lives.

So that’s the overview of the text. And now I want to talk more specifically about first some general comments that I cannot go through this text without making. And this is part two of the outline on the second page—two general comments, and actually three.

First of all, multiple elders are assumed here. He doesn’t say pray for the one who have brought you the word, pray for those of the past. Pray for those now—plural—who are keeping watch for your souls. We’ll have to give an account. So in terms of church polity, multiple elders are assumed here.

Secondly, the ruling and teaching functions of these multiple elders are combined. This is very important. You know, there’s a big discussion going on for, you know, several hundred years that’s going on now. Do we have a two-office church or a three-office church? And I wrote the constitution for St. Peter Presbyterian Church. I had decided, well, the two-office, three-office—what do we want to do there? And for those of you who don’t know what that means, young people coming into maturity in the faith now—some people think the church has elders and deacons. That’s two-office. Some people think they have elders, pastors, and deacons. That’s three-office. Some people think they have elders, pastors, deacons, and teachers. And that’s four-office. And yada yada.

And then what do these offices mean? Well, it’s a big complicated discussion. And I’m not saying this proves the point, but this is a very important hedge to us to keep out of a particular kind of sin. When people talk about ruling and teaching elders—the teaching elders, the minister who brings the word, the rulers are the ones who just rule in people’s lives, bring them up on discipline charges, take care of the administration of the church, etc.—and what the tendency in three-office churches is—doesn’t have to happen, but the tendency is—to have the teaching function and the ruling function distinct. You understand? You see how that’s tendency in that system?

Well, here the ones who rule over you, verse 7, are those who have spoken the word of God to you. And that’s the whole point. It’s this eternal word of Christ. Their function, and specifically their function of preaching the word and teaching the scriptures—this is how they rule. And so your pastors or elders are supposed to rule you by instructing you and teaching you God’s word.

You see, so in two-office churches, we tend to have a better job of not—of fulfilling this verse that you rule through teaching.

Now, you know, there’s application of this broader than just the church fathers. You rule in your families. And you can say, “Well, submit to me because God placed me here.” And that’s okay. But understand that if—when you talk about this verse to your kids, the emphasis here is you’re to persuade those people under your authority by your instruction from the word of God to them. And this is how you’re to rule. So even dads ruling in the home are to rule by means of bringing that word and ministering it to the family.

So I think that’s an important thing, an important verse to bring to a discussion of two or three office, and to bring to an understanding of what the office of the elders in your church does. We believe that elders rule by means of instruction, primarily.

Third general comment: these verses are obviously directed to lay people, right? It doesn’t say ministers do this. Now, I’m going to draw some implications in a minute, but this sermon is not a pastoral epistle. It’s not written to the pastors the way 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus are. It’s written to the laity.

Now, what’s interesting to me about that is that this is one of the most complicated books in the Bible doctrinally, in terms of its structure, in terms of many of the things he’s saying. It’s hard. It’s hard work getting through it. It’s hard sledding. But that’s your job. You’re supposed to understand this epistle. And I’ve tried hard as we’ve gone through it to help you focus a little bit on the structure and kind of taught individual elements of it. I’ve tried to have outlines of nearly the entire book for you.

But my point is a simple one: that the adults of this church—and this isn’t written just to men, it’s written to men and women—the adults of the church are to have a good understanding of the scriptures. And if you don’t, don’t feel alone. I didn’t either before I started studying through it. We live in a time where we have a famine of the word of God. You know, we don’t know our scriptures. We’re trying to—you hear this over and over—but this is why we’re trying to teach our kids the whole Bible so that when they come to Hebrews, even if they’re not pastors, they’ll still have a good understanding of what the book is about in terms of the movement, what the Psalms all meant, and all that stuff.

So tough doctrinal material is intended for lay people. Okay, general comment as we go through this text.

All right. Now, and again, you know, the purpose of this text is not to tell ministers what to do, but this is a great text. If I’m able to travel to Sacramento and be part of Theron Johnson’s ordination or installation services—the next elder at COODK—I’d probably preach on this text. It’s a great one because it has explicit instructions to congregational people relative to their elders, but it also has implied instruction to elders in terms of what they’re to do. And I’ve listed them on your outline: Duties of Elders.

First, servant rule by the word. This word for rule is not the normal one for a ruler of authority. It’s the ruler who rules by example. “Remember those who rule over you”—who are your guides, might be another way to express this term “rule.” So it is a guiding function that your rulers are performing, not an explicit—what we think of—magisterial function. You know, it’s not a traffic cop. This is a ruler who rules by guiding you into the walk of faith, okay? So, and that is involved with servant ruler rule. Right? I mean, we know all about this. But servant rule.

Secondly, these servant rulers, then in the church, are those who have spoken Christ’s words. Okay? So those who rule over you are servant rulers, and they are identified as those who have spoken the word of God. So you know, they rule—they rule by means of the word of God. I’ve made this point already, but this is so very important. Again, they speak the word.

In Luke 12:42, our Savior says, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his master will make ruler over his household to give them their portion of food in due season?” Well, you see, that’s what God has done. Jesus has placed stewards over the church as rulers or leaders, but their purpose and their function is to give them food in due season. So they bring the scriptures to you and help you to understand it. And their servant rulership particularly is fulfilled by speaking Christ’s word.

And as I said, there are texts I can look at where functional superiority is the emphasis. I’m not demeaning that. But that’s not this text. This text says Jesus’s word was spoken, and then men heard that word and they spoke it to you or they spoke it to other men who spoke it to you. And as those men speak according to Christ’s word, submit to them and obey them. Okay?

So this means that pastors, elders, are a very important part of your life. And again, I know it makes some of you uncomfortable, but this is what the word of God says. The primary thing that’s being talked about here is not reading your Bible. It’s good to read your Bible. It’s good to know your scriptures. I just made that point. But here, Jesus speaks to you through men. That’s how his word comes, through men, in the context of the church. So elders are to be those who speak Christ’s word.

Third, they are to have exemplary faith and conduct. “Whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.” Well, how can you follow somebody’s faith? Well, their faith is made manifest in their conduct. And we could match that up. I’ve got italics in your handout to match it up with the doing good and communicating and all that stuff. Conduct. So elders are supposed to not just teach you abstract intellectual truths from the scriptures. They’re to live those things out in your context. They’re to have lives that are exemplary, have exemplary faith and conduct.

Now, we’ve already heard about those kind of men, haven’t we? In Hebrews 11: “By faith these guys did this. By faith they did this. By faith they did that.” Not some abstract, you know, Reformed doctrinal faith, but a faith that is living and active and results in particular deeds. He gave all these great heroes of the faith in chapter 11. And now he’s saying the same thing about the men that are pastors in the context of the local church. They’re like that hall of faith. They’re exemplars, as those men were, or they are to be.

And so pastors are to have lives, elders are to have lives that are exemplary in faith and conduct. They’re to die well. We were at Christ Church last Sunday, and Peter Leithart did a commissioning service for Toby Sumpter, and he said, “It’s not ordination, but we should think a little bit of what ordination is.” When we go down there and ordain Johnson, I’m going to tell this to him. You know what they did when they put their hands on—you lay hands on a man to ordain him. And what they did—the laying out of hands was the way that the sacrificial animal was ordained as well to his job. So that the man would bring the animal to the sacrificial site, tabernacle, temple, lay his hands on it.

So there’s a connection between laying hands on the animal and laying hands on an elder. And of course, the first thing that happens to the animal after hands are laid on him—cut his throat. And there’s a real sense in which ordination to office in the church is a dying to oneself, living to Jesus and for purposes of his life, and that should extend all the way through one’s life. These are men. I think the emphasis here is on the past. Remember those who ruled you in the past whose faith follow—in other words, they are looked upon as exemplars to the end of their lives. They should die well.

Fifth, they’re to administer the sacrament of nurture. At the center of this discussion of leaders in the church is this discussion of the two altars, right? And the way I’ve got it structured, you know, there’s a heavenly altar and then there’s this earthly altar. They thought the earthly altar was the most important one. And we seek a city to come, which is coming. So that’s why those things are linked up. But the important part of that is just that at the center of this text is the administration of the Lord’s Supper and the resulting actions in community that come from that.

And so an essential job of the elders of the church is to administer the sacrament of nurture.

Sixth, they’re to lead in celebratory praise. Because the sacrifice that God likes is singing. So to lead in celebratory praise.

Seventh, they’re to guard the flock. They keep watch over the flock. Those who keep watch—remember the lampstand in the holy place is a watcher tree, an almond tree. It watches the 12 loaves that represent the tribes of Israel. Remember that imagery? There are three things in there: the golden altar of incense, the lampstand, and the table of showbread. Well, the watcher tree watches over Israel. And so elders are to watch over the people, to keep guard, to watch around, see what things might be hurting them, to talk about how ridiculous the Da Vinci Code is, you know, keep watch. So elders are to guard the flock by watching and being good rulers in the context of that guarding.

And then finally, they’re to be intent on giving an account of the congregants’ souls, their very souls, their life. And it doesn’t say who. I think a better way to interpret this is not who must give an account, but elders are those who are intent. Another way to translate this phrase here in verse 17: “Those who are intent on giving an account for your soul.” So elders are to commit themselves willingly, not grudgingly, but willingly, to giving an account to God—like you the books at the end of the day, you know, you do an accounting. And so they do this. They are those who are intent on giving an account of the congregants’ souls.

So these are some things that we could talk about in terms of responsibilities of ministers, but let’s go past now and talk about your responsibility. That’s kind of the purpose of the text, and it’s nothing really new. You know most of these things already. So we can do this quite quickly and then draw some application.

The text tells us, first of all, then that in terms of the duties of the lay to Christ’s under-shepherds, the first word that’s used is remember—to remember those. Now “remember” can just mean call to mind. And actually in the Greek, the term means keep remembering. You’re doing a good job remembering men of the past that brought the word of God to you. Keep remembering them, okay? Keep imitating their faith.

So “remember” is the first one. Now “remember” can mean obey, too. You know, over and over again in the Bible, “remember the Lord’s day.” Well, you remember that Sunday is the Lord’s day. That’s not the point. The point is remember it—to keep it holy, to keep it set aside. And so to remember your leaders means to obey them. It’s in parallel fashion, as it were, to the word here—obey.

To bring to mind is what you’re to do. To remember them. Secondly, it’s to imitate them. “Remember those who rule over you whose faith follow.” So remember leaders, follow them, imitate them. In the Greek, the word is the word for mimesis or imitate. And so it means to ape them—not to ape them, but to imitate them, to act like them.

And you’ve heard me say this over and over again. You know what Paul told them is, yeah, you can—there’s a way—there’s a sense in which you can say, “What would Jesus do?” But what his people were supposed to say is, “What would Paul do? What would Timothy do?” I’ve made this point before, but it’s so important.

Hebrews 6:12, “Don’t become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Same book, same basic truth. You are to look at those leaders around you, and you’re supposed to sort of act like them, okay? You’re supposed to imitate them in their faithfulness to Christ’s word. That is, not in their sins. Of course.

1 Corinthians 4:16-17: “Therefore, I urge you, imitate me—not Jesus. Therefore, I urge you, imitate me. For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son of the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ. So you are to imitate the way of your leaders. You’re supposed to look at them, see what they do, and kind of act like that. You see, that puts a great responsibility on your elders to act in exemplary ways. But this is what you’re supposed to do.”

1 Corinthians 11:1, “Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ.” So what we have is a discipleship model that’s stressed here in Hebrews. Paul imitated Christ. There, to imitate Paul. He sends them Timothy. Timothy has imitated Paul. Timothy’s ways will be like Paul’s ways, which are like Christ’s ways, and they’re to imitate Timothy. They’re to be Timothy’s disciples and Paul’s disciples. And that’s how you’re Jesus’ disciples. You see? Again, it’s a correction to us because in American Christianity it’s me and Jesus, me and the Bible—where that’s where I get God from, me and Jesus. This is what it’s all about.

Well, it’s not. God says that you’re connected to Jesus through a whole series of men and women who have been faithful to him, and whose faith you’re supposed to—and actually you do—imitate.

“I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.” So, you see, those two verses in Corinthians, imitate me, remember me, keep the traditions that I taught you. See, these things are saying the same thing here. We’re to imitate rulers—those are the church elders.

Philippians 3: “Brethren, join in following my example. Note those who walk as you have us for a pattern.” So again, Paul is a pattern in his very life, and the way he walks is a pattern for his disciples.

1 Thessalonians 1:6-7: “You became followers of us and the Lord, having received the word, so that you became examples to all Macedonia.” So in Philippians, you know, you see Paul imitates Jesus. They imitate Paul, and they then become these exemplars, examples to all those in their region. You’re supposed to imitate your elders who are imitating disciples who taught them who have imitated Jesus. And you’re supposed to go out then, and you’re going to live Jesus out by doing that. And then other saints in your region will imitate you. You see, that’s what Paul is saying.

2 Thessalonians 3:7: “Now you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you. Verse 9, because we do not have authority but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.” Talk about his self-sacrificial work, without taking tithe money that he had a right to. Why did he do it? Because he was giving them an example.

So the first obligation you have is to remember, to keep in mind, people that have taught you the word of God. The second obligation is to imitate them, imitate their lives of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. “Whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.”

And I didn’t make this a separate point, but the word “consider” means to think about again and again. So you’re to think about again and again, you know, what is Elder Wilson like? What is Elder H. like? What is he like? What’s his way like? You’re to think about them regularly, considering over and over again the result of their conduct.

You know, yeah, when elders and when all men go to their deathbeds, they want to think about the result of their conduct. What things have I accomplished for the Lord Jesus Christ? What manifestations of discipleship to Jesus can other people look to me to follow? You see, that’s kind of the idea here. There are outcomes to our faith. Now, there’s a final one at the end—how you die and all that stuff. But you know, there’s been a result of people’s personal obedience to Jesus in lots of different ways, right now.

One of the outcomes of our faith of the elders is to provide educational alternatives besides homeschooling. I don’t want to get myself in trouble here, but that’s one of the outcomes of our faith. We’re doing it not because we think homeschooling is bad or anything like that. We’re saying that this is one more important alternative that our church should have. It’s an outcome of our faith. Now, you may or may not agree with it. But if you see that our lives are consistent with the teaching of the word of Christ, you’re to look at those specific things we’ve ended up doing and imitate us.

I’ve applied myself, I think somewhat diligently, in my own fashion, you know, to try to talk about the implications of Jesus in the political arena, in the civil arena. That’s something you should imitate. I mean, you know, in small ways. But think about these things. Try to imitate some of these examples. The outcome of their faith, the application of their faith to life, has resulted in certain ways of behavior on the part of your elders, and you’re to imitate them.

See, you’re to obey them. And we move down now to verse 17. Remember, imitate, obey. And so now the idea is you’re to be persuaded by them. You’re to believe what they tell you. You’re supposed to have confidence in what they’ve given you to do. You’re supposed to obey them. It’s a pretty simple concept. When they give you instruction consistent with the word of Christ, you’re to obey them.

Proverbs 5:13-14: “The foolish man is the one who says, ‘I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me. I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly of the congregation.’” The foolish man doesn’t obey. But there is a worse situation, you know, in the church of Jesus Christ today.

At least the fool in Proverbs 5 heard the instruction. He heard the instruction, and he decided not to follow it. Now there are many people in the church today where it’s just me and Jesus, who haven’t even heard the instruction, let alone made a decision to obey the counsel and advice of their pastors. I am astonished by young men in our church who don’t seek out counsel from the older, godly man and end up making major decisions in their life. It astonishes me the foolishness of it. I mean, you haven’t failed in terms of Proverbs 5. You’ve done worse. You haven’t even sought out the instruction and then made a decision whether you should obey it or not. It’s astonishing to me.

Obey. And then finally, submit—to be of a mind to follow the leading of those who, in the providence of God, he has called to rule in your context. The Greek word, as one commentator puts it, denotes a habitual readiness to comply with the instruction of your elders. Military subordination. This term can be used for that. So, you know, the platoon leader—his platoon guys have a habitual readiness and desire to follow his lead. That’s what it means. That’s submission. It’s different from just obedience. It means being persuaded, wanting to be persuaded, having a habitual readiness to follow the instructions of those that the Lord God has called to bring you counsel from the word of God.

Fifth, seek their joy. “Obey. Be submissive. Those who are intent give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief. For that would be unprofitable for you.” So they’ve got to give an account. They’ve got to deliver the books to God on you. They have to. They want their joy. They like to do it. That’s what they want to do. They want to report back, you know, on this person or that person in the congregation, what the books look like.

And if you cause your elders grief and not joy, this is unprofitable—business language. Again, do you see? It’s a net negative for you. You’re unprofitable. You’re to seek their joy. And now this is talking about eschatological joy when they report on you. But there’s interim joy as well.

Paul made this clear in Philippians 4:1. “Always in every prayer of mine, I make request of you with all joy.” So you’re to bring your pastors joy and not grief. Certainly in their final accounting, but also as they rule over you and guide and direct your way. Your job is to make me happy? No, that’s not quite it. But in a way, it is. Your job is to bring joy, you know, to John and Chris and Doug and myself, as we seek to guide and direct you in living out these heavenly realities in your earthly life. Don’t cause us grief. Now, how does this work? I want to bring this to a close with a couple of specific ideas.

And let me read a text first. 1 Thessalonians 5:11-14: “Therefore, comfort each other. Edify one another, just as you also are doing. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those—remember those who labor among you in the word and are over you in the Lord and admonish you—to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly.”

Okay, so this is a parallel text, right? He’s saying, recognize who those who bring the word to you are—and maybe there’s others beside the elders—but who bring the word of God to you. Recognize them. Submit to them. And he puts this—he makes a sandwich here. He tells them to live out lives of comforting one another and edifying each other. Honor those who rule in your context through the word. Be at peace among yourselves.

So, you know what I’m going to tell you here is not just to make me happy or to make me joyous and not grievous. It’s what’s good for you. When you recognize your elders and desire to submit to their biblical counsel and advice, that’s how you get peace among yourselves, okay? So the end result is peace in the context of the congregation.

I want to bring up several points based on some of these verses, where I thought to myself, “What would make me more joyful? What causes me grief now?” And I probably should have called Doug, Chris, and John at the beginning of the week and asked them to add things to the list, but I got seven things here. And I want to begin by saying that overall, you have given me tremendous joy, and you’ve given the elders tremendous joy. This is a congregation that is mature and obedient to the truths of what this section tells us.

So, you know, I have recently been involved with a congregation or two where the elders do not have the tremendous joy that the elders of this church do, where it’s all broken down. That is not the case here. So I’m not saying you’ve done anything wrong. And I’m thinking, I guess, primarily of the next generation. But let me just list some things.

First of all, get along with each other. This will bring joy to us. You know, I’m a dad. And you know what brings joy to parents is to get their kids enjoying one another, to get along with each other instead of fighting. And you know, oh, we’re going to go to a prayer meeting, and you’ll hear the same thing: “Help me not to fight with my brother. Help me not be mean to my sister.” In our fallen state, that’s the way we are. And parents are grieved by that.

You parents, if you’ve got kids, had kids for many years—you know just what I’m talking about. The most grievous thing going on in your life, typically, is your kids not getting along. And on the opposite end, the most joyful thing is when your kids actually act, you know, like mature Christians with each other. Well, the same thing is true of the church. Get along with each other. Don’t let differences of application of biblical truth lead to tension. Treat each other with grace, respect, humility. Have humility toward one another. Honor each other, okay? Give each other weight and glory. Get along.

And I’m not saying anything, you know, that you’re not already doing, but get along with each other. Okay? This will bring great joy to your elders.

Secondly, hold each other accountable. That’s what he said here in Thessalonians. He said, “Comfort one another,” but then he said, “Rebuke the ungodly.” One of the things that is most grievous to me is when I find out that something’s wrong with somebody here, and I find out about it through a second or third hand source, and nobody’s talked to the person. It always comes to the elders, and then the elders are going to talk to the person. And you know, that’s—it’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

You’re supposed to talk to people. This church is best when the members are holding each other accountable to be men and women of maturity and excellence in doing work and living lives for the Lord Jesus Christ. If you know people have problems in this church, talk to them. It’s that simple. Admonish them if you need to do that.

You know, I mentioned this book, “Crucial Conversations.” One of their observations is the worst companies are companies where nobody’s telling anybody they’re doing something wrong till they finally can them. Good companies are ones where the leaders, at least, are recognizing failures of performance and addressing them and helping people do better. But the best companies, the observation is, are those companies where all the employees are encouraging each other to faithfulness, diligence, skillfulness, excellence in work. That’s the best companies. Why?

Because that’s an image of the Lord Jesus Christ’s church. That’s what we just read in Thessalonians—that they’re to be at peace with each other. And there’s no contradiction. He goes right on to say admonish the unruly. And he’s not talking to pastors. He’s talking to lay people again. He’s talking to you. He’s talked to you throughout this sermon, to the Hebrews, right? We’ve talked about this. You see people going over the edge, drifting along in their faith away from Jesus. Shout, yell, scream. If they don’t turn around, then come get an elder or somebody else. But all the warning sections here are given—as this whole sermon is—to lay people. It’s your job to encourage each other to faithfulness and to rebuke each other if necessary, and admonish and encourage each other in the context of this church. Hold each other accountable.

Three, treat the church like the Marines, not like the Elks. You know what are we? Is this the Elks, where you can come or not come and be part of it or not be part of it? And people sort of miss you that day and maybe not. No. This is the Marines. I had a woman years ago tell me, “Oh, I could never visit your church. You guys are the Marines.” Thought, “Well, I don’t know. We’re trying to be faithful to Jesus.” But we are supposed to be like Marines. If somebody isn’t here on Sunday—they’re and you know, unless they’re sick—but we’ve had people perpetually absent here. And what they are is AWOL. They’re absent without leave. Don’t do that. If you have to be gone a couple of weeks, call me up. Let me know. Don’t make me guess. Don’t make me be grieved over what’s going on. I’ve got to call you, and then I’m going to feel awkward. Just give me a call. Yeah, we were sick. That’s not hard, right? That’s not hard. Or, you know, yeah, well, I’m visiting this church this week. Just call me up and tell me. Don’t make us worry about it. Don’t make us grieve. Cause us to have joy. Yeah, he knows. He’s going to be operating at a different base camp at a different post on Sunday, but he’s going to let us know because he knows this is the Marines and not the Elks. This is an armory, not a hospital. I mean, it has aspects of hospital, but mostly it’s an armory.

Four, in general, call me early with problems, not late in the game. Don’t come to me and tell me the first thing—that I want to divorce my husband or my wife. Come to me early in the game and say, “I’m struggling.” And if we can’t work it out, keep coming to me. You know, and neither one of us is too busy. I’m not too busy to talk to you. I am not. And you shouldn’t be too busy to talk to me. And if your schedule doesn’t allow us to get together, something’s wrong. Or if my schedule doesn’t allow us to get together for a couple of weeks, something’s wrong with my schedule.

Neither one of us should be too busy to sit down and chat as problems are happening in the context of your family, your work, personal sin habits. You see, I know there’s sin habits going on. And I just hope that you’ve heard the admonitions from your elders to get accountability if you can’t take care of them yourself. Don’t live with it. Don’t live with perpetual, ongoing sin in your life or those around you. That sin. Call me early before the thing breaks.

You know, I’ve had several opportunities lately to—well, not here—but other churches—people getting divorced after 20, 25 years of marriage. Why? Well, they bend the metal piece back and forth and back and forth, and it springs back, and it’s okay. And back and forth and back and forth. They never really resolve it. So the bending back and forth keeps happening to this little piece of metal, and click. One day it breaks. And usually it’s the wife’s trust or confidence in the husband that just breaks one day. And husbands are always surprised, and nobody else is all that surprised, typically. But that’s what happens. Call me when the bending—when the twisting back and forth doesn’t stop. Don’t call me after it’s broken, because then it’s really hard. I’ll still do it. Call me one way or the other, but it will give me more joy if you bring the elders into difficulties you’re having early rather than late.

Neither of us should be too busy.

Five, know the importance of doctrine. I, you know, there are two ditches that we’re trying to avoid here. One ditch is to be so exclusive in what we believe that we’re not in a good biblical sense Catholic with other churches. And you know, my heart is to cooperate with other churches. But the other ditch that we’re just as likely to fall into is thinking, “Well, it’s no big deal. We’re all Christians, you know? They don’t do this; they don’t do that. What’s no big deal?” That’s wrong.

The Lord God has given us certain doctrinal distinctives in this church, and it grieves me if elements of the next generation coming along don’t understand them or don’t think they’re significant. Because what you do is you hurt those other Christians who aren’t like us when you don’t minister that gift of Reformed theology to them. Do you understand that? If all you’re trying to do is get along with everybody else and not make anybody uncomfortable, and as a result, you know, “Well, who cares if we marry this person or that person, Baptist, Reformed? It’s not that big a deal”—nobody’s nobody’s saying that, but I’m saying as an example. No, it is a deal. It’s an important deal who you marry, okay? Your doctrinal distinctives should be understood by you, and they should be important to you, and they should be gifts that you minister to other members of the body of Christ, not things to be broken down through compromise.

So, you know, it brings us joy if the next generation and our generation know our doctrinal distinctives and don’t bench them for the sake of Catholicity. It’s important because we’re supposed to serve others. That’s the point of Catholicity—ministering what we know to other people and learning from them what they know, both ways.

Six, Proverbs are all about making dads happy or making them sad. And the Proverbs tell us that there are three basic areas of your life that you’re supposed to be working in the context of: vocation, family, and government, or political action, public policy. Do it. Have some involvement in not just your work and your family, but in the civil government. It grieves me if we cannot get out of this church people who know doctrine, know the application to the civil government. If we can’t get people involved just a little bit in trying to think through issues or candidates in these elections in our state, we should be a source of understanding and properly critiquing political candidates, issues, judicial candidates, etc.

You will bring the fathers of this church joy if you apply yourselves diligently and with excellence in your vocation, your family, and as you get older, your civic responsibilities.

Seven, lastly, young people, particularly, but old people too—you can think about this. Add value to this church. Add value to it. You young people, you’ve taken this, and honey, it’s been kind of given to you on a silver platter. And I’m not asking you just to maintain it. That’s the sluggard. All the sluggard does is eat the thing uncooked when he gets in hunting. The diligent man adds value to what he’s taken in hunting by cooking it. The diligent man adds value to what the Lord God provides him. And the diligent man brings joy to his father. The sluggard brings grief to his mother, right? Okay, be diligent.

You next generation of young people here, understand the gift you’ve been given and add value to it. Don’t take it as a given thing. Don’t think that it’s complete. Add value to it. Be diligent to be part of this church community. Understand that fully half of this section—how to live lives on earth as they are in heaven—has to do with your relationship to your pastors in your local church. And this is what’s necessary for you to get teaching and instruction and counsel to mature and develop individually, but then mature and develop the church as well.

We have worked hard at this church at trying to do what we’ve done. It would be grievous to us if the next generation doesn’t do a better job than us. May God grant us grace to mature as a church in our abilities to live heavenly lives here on earth.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you. Thank you for this church. We thank you for this congregation. We thank you, Father, for your blessings to us. We thank you for the gifts that the pastors of this church are to the members of it. We pray that the members may fulfill their obligations, Lord God, knowing that the end result of this is profit for them. It is joy for them as their parents, their fathers, as it were, in the context of the church, rejoices in their work. We pray particularly, Lord God, for the next generation of young people at this church. We thank you for so many of them that are doing such great work. And we pray they would continue to do that.

Lord God, cause us to rejoice in the next generation as they add value to this church. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.