Introduction:
Thomas Edison, the great
inventor, was talking once with the governor of North Carolina,
and the governor complimented him on his inventive genius.
"I am not a great inventor." Replied Edison. "But
you have over a thousand patents to your credit, haven't
you?" queried the governor. "Yes, but about the
only invention I can really claim as absolutely original
is the phonograph," was the reply. Why, I'm afraid
I don’t understand what you mean," said the governor.
"Well," explained Edison, " I guess I'm an
awful good sponge. I absorb ideas from every source I can,
and put them to practical use. Then I improve them until
they become of some value. The ideas which I use are mostly
the ideas of other people who don’t develop them themselves."
End quote.
(Just a moment, quoted in
Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopaedia of 7,700 Illustrations) [Garland,
Tex.: Bible Communications, 1979], p. 1468.
What I lay before you in
this message, most probably, are the ideas of others who
have not developed them themselves, or indeed the ideas
of others who have developed them to a point but I have
tried to squeeze a little more from them.
Like the ring master of the
circus, who invited his audience to come forward and squeeze
another drop of juice out of half an orange, already squeezed
by the circus strong man, offering as a reward £100
for every drop squeezed. Quite a number tried desperately,
but in vain. Eventually one man, lightly built, rather nervous,
certainly very timidly came forward and took in his hand
the half orange and began to squeeze, one drop, two drops,
three drops, four drops, and finally five drops. The crowd
looked on in stunned silence; the ringmaster could not believe
his eyes. And as he counted out five hundred pounds into
the victor's hands, he said, "who are you anyway?"
"Oh," said he, I am the chairman of the Finance
committee!"
So what I have for you today
has been squeezed from, I trust, the ripest and sweetest
of other preachers. I will not claim originality!
It was Dwight L. Moody who
said, "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything,
but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the
grace of God, I will do."
With that simple commitment
he became a great and effective preacher and evangelist.
Through his campaigns in England, Ireland, Scotland, and
America, God used his ministry to bring revival to both
sides of the Atlantic. It is said that Moody travelled more
than one million miles, addressed more than one million
persons, and personally dealt with thousands of individuals.
Despite his meagre education he became a noted educator
and builder of schools; in particular, Moody Bible Institute,
through which many thousands have passed since to serve
the Lord in many areas of life. In fact, Moody Bible school
was the very first of its kind in the United States of America.
So as I come to you today,
I come as one, and I come as one with a heartbeat for the
Lord Jesus Christ and his church, with an increasing desire
to effect growth and extension for the glory of God.
My subject is 'Leadership:
Traditional or Modern?'
Now I am very aware in dealing
with such a subject I will not please all the people all
the time. Nor will I change your mind set, already made
up, with respect as to where you may stand on these matters.
So in thinking the matter through I decided I would deal
with the subject in a somewhat different manner. I want
to look with you at 'The Anti-Model of Spiritual Leadership'
thus my purpose in reading Matthew 23 v 1-33.
There are of course excellent
models of true Spiritual Leadership who in humility and
without complaint in the most difficult of circumstances
worked out their own salvation in effective service to Jesus
Christ. But in contrast to those excellent models of Leadership
I want to share with you today, from the chapter read, the
opposite side of the coin.
In 1953 a columnist of the
Chicago News by the name of Harris, a man who acquired a
large following by his frank and often caustic comments,
wrote what he called 'A Prayer for the President"--"O
Lord… give him the courage, not of his convictions,
but of your commandments."
And upon that basis, the
basis of observing the Lord's credentials for genuine spiritual
leadership I share this message with you today.
Now, basically the Lord Jesus
focuses on two areas of these professed spiritual leaders.
(1) Their Character: (2) Their Condemnation: and I submit
to you that we have here both a guide for the recognition
of false teachers, as well as the standard in the negative
sense of what a true and faithful servant, or faithful leader,
of God's people should be like. I will deal in this message
only with their character.
Their Character!
You very soon discover from
our reading, false spiritual leader's lack--------
Authenticity! v 2.
"The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat."
Each Synagogue had a special
seat or chair called "The chair of Moses." This
was a chair to be occupied by the legal authority on the
law. We have a similar situation today in our Universities.
We speak of the chair of philosophy or the chair of literature,
the chair of science and the chair of history to name but
a few. What we mean by that is simply, those who occupy
such seats of authority are the experts in their field of
education in that university, and by appointment they rightly
hold that honoured position.
The same thing applied in
the synagogue. There was the seat of Moses; it is the chair
of authority. The word "seat" by the way, is the
word "kathedra. The Roman Catholic Church says that
when the Pope speaks for God he speaks ex cathedra, out
of the seat of authority. So it was in the Synagogue. There
was a chair, a seat of authority, to be occupied by the
anointed and appointed leading law expert. But what we are
seeing in v 2 is that the Scribes and Pharisees have seated
themselves in that chair of Moses. The point is they put
themselves there. They have not been called of God; there's
no authenticity. They are self-appointed usurpers determined
to keep out anyone who would challenge their self-appointed
position. You are not far into the gospels when you find
the Scribes and Pharisees become hostile to Jesus Christ.
Why? Because Jesus' teaching, challenges their false authority.
Why the very first sermon
Jesus preached, Matthew chapters 5 to 7, the Sermon on the
Mount, they retorted with some disdain, "He spoke as
one having…what?…authority." At this particular
time there were so many people in places of authority falsely,
the clear, precise, powerful, dramatic, dynamic teaching
of Jesus challenged their authenticity.
On one particular occasion,
recorded in Luke chapter 4, when Jesus arrived in Nazareth
he stood up to read from Isaiah in terms of an explanation
and fulfilment of what Isaiah said, they felt so threatened
by what He said, so threatened by His power and authority,
they took Him to the brow of a hill and would have killed
Him.
In John chapter 15 Jesus
reminds his own they will have persecution, they will have
trouble, that the world will hate them because the world
hated Him. And then in chapter 16 v 2 he reminds them, "The
day will come when they will put you out of the synagogue."
Why? Because your truthfulness and your authenticity will
be a threat to there usurped authenticity. And they did
just that, they put Paul out of the synagogue, they put
other of the apostles out as well.
False spiritual leaders are
always self-appointed experts. They are not called by God,
they are not anointed by God, and they exist simply to gratify
their own importance. Just you differ with them for one
moment and they will ignore you for the rest of your life.
You will become as one who threatens their lack of authenticity.
Simplicity: v 3a.
In the second place, Jesus highlights false leadership by
their lack of simplicity. This is alluded to in Matt. 23
v 3. (Read This Carefully)
"Therefore, all they
tell you do and observe."
Now, why does Jesus say that?
Why does Jesus say do what they tell you?
Well, because he is speaking
in reference to the chair of Moses. If they are sitting
in the chair of Moses and articulating the law of God, then
do what they say! The idea here of course is that when anyone
speaks the Word of God he is speaking truth. And the truth
even out of the mouth of the false prophet is still truth
and should be obeyed. Jesus is simply saying, listen! Listen!
The Word of God is the message; the Word of God is the issue.
The problem was; of course,
they did not limit themselves to the Word of God. They would
relay the Law of Moses, they would retain the chair of Moses,
the problem was, they would go way beyond the written Word.
They lacked simplicity! It is said of the Pharisees that
they had some fifty volumes of manmade regulations in addition
to the revelation of the Old Testament.
For them it was not 'sola
scripture.' It was scripture plus their visions, their traditions,
their laws, their revelations and their additions. They
lacked simplicity; they did not stay with the Word of God
and only the Word of God.
Jesus said, v 3 "All,
therefore, whatever they bid you observe, that observe and
do."
Jesus is saying, while they
are sitting in the seat of authority, in the seat of Moses
teaching you the Word of God, do it, obey it, because it
is the Word of God. The Word is what hems us in; it's our
parameter.
If you are absolutely obedient
to God, then there is no ambiguity in you and you are mere
simplicity before God . . . . One thing there is which all
Satan's cunning and all the snares of temptation cannot
take by surprise. That is simplicity. Søren Aabye
Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Integrity: v 3b.
"Do not according to their deeds for they say and do
not do."
They lack integrity! When
they sit in the chair of Moses and they speak Mosaic truth,
do what they say. When they speak the Law of God, do what
they say. But don't do what they do because even when they
say the truth they don't do it. They are totally lacking
in integrity.
Now, that’s a very basic
issue is it not? So what is Jesus saying? False leaders
are always corrupt on the inside, they are always working
from another agenda, and it's their own interests they are
pressing upon others.
Listen to Dr. John MacArthur.
Read carefully 2 Peter chapter
2. Read carefully Jude's epistle. There are monumental statements
in there about their internal corruption. If you add that
to this chapter and to some other places in the New Testament,
you get a description of their lack of integrity that would
run something like this...they are called leaven, they are
called whited tombs, they are called whited walls, they
are called graves concealed by grass, they are called broken
pots covered with silver dross, they are called tares, they
are called wolves, they are called wells without water,
false prophets, presumptuous, natural brute beasts to be
taken and destroyed, they are called filth spots and scabs,
immoral, covetous, cursed children, clouds in a tempest
to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. They are
called deluded dreamers who defile the flesh, spots on your
love feasts, clouds without water; trees without fruit,
twice dead plucked up by the roots. They're called raging
waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering
stars to whom it is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
They're called murmurers, complainers, walkers after their
own lust with their mouths speaking great swelling words,
cloaks over sin and sensual.
Once they start adding their
own stuff, leave it alone for they themselves cannot keep
track of it, there have been so many additions. They are
saying to do all the while, but are not doing themselves.
D. Sympathy: v 4.
They lack authenticity; they
have no call from God. They lack simplicity; they will not
allow the Word of God to be their parameter. They lack integrity;
they do not live what they call other people to do.
Fourthly, they lack sympathy
v 4.
"They tie up heavy loads
and lay them on men's backs (shoulders) but they themselves
are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger."
The idea is that of loading
a beast of burden with intolerable weight, to the extent
the poor animal cannot move.
The Pharisees and the Scribes
were doing the very same thing with the people of the day.
They were laying out rules and regulations which had become
such a burden on the people they were hopelessly loaded
down, they felt hopelessly guilty, there seemed no deliverance,
no way to find comfort. And, of course, the weightiest burden
of all was a works righteousness system.
And here's the point in v
4 we read, " They will not move." The word is
in fact "remove". That is, they will not remove
the burden. They have placed such a weight of guilt upon
the shoulders or backs of the people and they can see no
real spiritual growth, in fact just the opposite, but will
they lift their dogged will from off the people? No! No!
A thousand times no. There is no care, no real love, they
are heartless, they are abusive to any that question or
query, they manipulate people, they try to keep them under
such a heavy load, and there is absolutely no sympathy!
And do you know people are
just gullible enough to take that kind of treatment. Paul
hit that nail very forcibly in 2 Cor. 11 v 20. The apostle
here is talking about true and false prophets, deceitful
workers who come into the assembly under a false guise.
The context makes so clear we can be in no doubt! In v 13
the Apostle says, these are false prophets, deceitful workers
disguising themselves as Apostles of Christ.
Then in v 20 he says this,
"You bear with anyone if he enslaves you, if he devours
you, if he takes advantage of you, if he exalts himself,
if he hits you in the face."
It's amazing! You just take
it all. How amazing that you are sucked in by all of that.
Incredible! He is saying, how you can become spellbound
under those heavy loads of guilt and manipulation and there
is no real heart of love and sympathy. People today are
spellbound by aggressive, manipulative leaders. Because
they themselves do not know the Word of God they fall for
anything and everything else.
On Sep 21, 1862, Lincoln
summoned his Cabinet to the White House for a special session.
"The President was reading a book and hardly noticed
me as I came in," Secretary of War Stanton wrote later.
"Finally he turned to us and said: "Gentlemen,
did you ever read anything of Artemus Ward? Let me read
a chapter that is very funny." Lincoln then read aloud
something by humorist Ward entitled "A High Handed
Outrage at Utica."
Furious at what he regarded
as "buffoonery" on Lincoln's part, Stanton almost
got up and left. But Lincoln read on until the end of the
piece and then laughed heartily. Everyone else was silent.
"Gentlemen," said Lincoln disappointedly, "why
don't you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me
night and day, if I did not laugh I should die, and you
need this medicine as much as I do." Then he reached
into his tall hat on the table, took out a paper, and said:
"I have called you here upon very important business.
I have prepared a little paper of much significance. I have
said nothing to anyone, but I have made a promise to myself
-- and to my Maker. I am now going to fulfil that promise."
He read in a clear voice: "On the first of January
in the year of our Lord, 1863, all persons then held as
slaves in any state or designated part of a state, the people
whereof, shall then be in rebellion against the United States,
shall be then, and thenceforth and forever free." Stanton
was overwhelmed. He got up, took Lincoln's hand, and said,
"Mr. President, if reading a chapter of Artemus Ward
is a prelude to such a deed as this, the book should be
filed among the archives of the nation and the author canonised!"
At noon on Jan 1, 1863, the
final Proclamation was taken to Lincoln. As it lay before
him, he twice picked up his pen and then put it down. Turning
to Secretary of State Steward, he said, "I have been
shaking hands since nine o'clock this morning, and my right
arm is almost paralysed. If my name ever goes into history,
it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If
my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all who examine
the document hereafter will say, 'He hesitated.'" He
then took up the pen again and slowly and firmly wrote,
"Abraham Lincoln."
Some time later Lincoln told
Francis B. Carpenter, the artist who painted a picture commemorating
the event, that he regarded the Emancipation Proclamation
as "the central act of my administration, and the great
event of the nineteenth century." When Colonel McKaye
of New York reported that he had found enormous affection
for Lincoln among freedmen on the coast of North Carolina,
the President was deeply moved. "It is a momentous
thing," he told McKaye, "to be the instrument,
under Providence, of the liberation of a race."
May I say that it is a momentous
thing to be God's instrument. We are all, in a sense, God's
instrument of liberation. We are and have been appointed
by God to take the good news to those who are in bondage
to sin and Satan. Understanding the great assignment that
has been given to each of us, it would do us well to do
some stocktaking of our Sacred Christian Service. We are
God's instruments of liberation to the people!
They lack authenticity; they
have no call from God. They lack simplicity; they are not
confined to the Word of God. They lack integrity; they do
not live what they call other people to do. They lack sympathy,
they use and abuse people, and they manipulate people for
their own self-fulfilling ends.
Spirituality: v 5.
"They do all their deeds to be noticed by men for they
broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their
garments."
They lacked true Spirituality!
(Phylacteries--A small case
in which passages of Scripture were enclosed.)
PHYLACTERY
"A phylactery,"
a small strip of parchment, with portions of the Law written
on it; it was fastened by a leather strap either to the
forehead or to the left arm over against the heart, to remind
the wearer of the duty of keeping the commandments of God
in the head and in the heart; cf. Ex. 13:16; Deut. 6:8;
11:18. It was supposed to have potency as a charm against
evils and demons. The Pharisees broadened their "phylacteries"
to render conspicuous their superior eagerness to be mindful
of God's Law, Matt. 23:5. (from Vine's Expository Dictionary
of Biblical Words)
(Copyright (C) 1985, Thomas
Nelson Publishers)
That's quite an interesting
verse. Four times in the Old Testament the Jews are told
to bind the Law of God on their forehead and on their hand.
The Jews understood that. They understood that that was
symbolic of having the Law of God in your mind, that's thought,
and having the Law of God applied in your action, that's
work, that's living. So having the Word of God bound on
your forehead meant to have it at the centre of your thoughts,
having it bound on your hand meant to have the Word of God
at the very core of your behaviour. They all understood
that!
But what are these Scribes
and Pharisees doing? Enlarging the box "their phylacteries"
they were also, as in accordance with Numbers 15 putting
larger tassels on their garments. Why? So they would appear
even more spiritual than others would. But that was just
sheer external show. They were void of spirituality Jesus
is saying!
You know well Jude's words
in v 19.
"These are they who
separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit."
They were devoid of the Holy
Spirit; they did not have the Holy Spirit! They weren't
spiritual. And folks, that's deadly. Why? Because they had
no way to restrain the flesh. They had no way to constrain
their fallenness. They had no way to control their sin.
So they are simply on ego trips parading all their holiness,
all their piosity on the outside, but the true Spirit does
not dwell on the inside, they are corrupt. As Gal. 6 v 12
reminds us, "they make a fair show in the flesh."
Humility: v 6.
"They love the place of honour at banquets and the
chief seats in the synagogues."
These seats of honour were
at the right hand and the left hand of the host and they
just loved that place of importance.
They wanted to sit in the
chief seats. Up front on the raised platform among the dignitaries,
they loved being elevated and highly esteemed in the eyes
of the people. Another thing they loved, v7 was being called
"Rabbi." What does that mean? Well, you know what
the Latin is? "Docere" from which we get our word
Doctor. They loved being called Doctor because of the importance
attached to that title.
Now it a precious thing when
people are honoured for the proper work in academia, they
have worked hard and earned that degree, and if the heart
is right it's not a problem. But if the heart is wrong,
that's just gas on the fire. It’s a heart issue. Jesus
is saying, don’t get hung up on titles, don’t
go around demanding that people call you by some great title,
humility is necessary.
"But he that is greatest
among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt
himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself
shall be exalted." v 11-12.
Learn humility, Jesus is
saying. It was so lacking in these scribes and Pharisees.
What should be the characteristic
of a true spiritual leader? Authenticity. What does that
mean? Called by God, strong sense of divine call, confirmation
by the church, affirmation by the church of his giftedness
and of his moral character and virtue and godliness.
Secondly, simplicity. We
should be characterised as those who are totally committed
to and bound by the parameters of the revealed Word of the
living God. That is the beginning and the end of our message.
Integrity, what does that
mean? That the true spiritual leader will live what he preaches,
live what he says. That's integrity. Integrity means wholeness.
An integer is a whole number, that's where that word comes
from. It's not a fraction, wholeness, all the parts are
touching, no inconsistencies, integrity.
We are also to be marked
by sympathy. Those of us who serve Jesus Christ with authenticity,
those who serve in simplicity with integrity are to be also
sympathetic. We are to be like Jesus of whom it is so wonderfully
said by the prophet and then quoted again in Matthew 12
that a bruised reed He will not break and smoking flax He
will not extinguish. Do you understand the beauty of that
statement? A shepherd would take a little reed and he would
use it to play a little tune but because he would use it
over and over again his saliva would eventually weaken it.
It would get soft and would begin to be kind of crushed
and he wouldn't blow the tune properly so he would break
it and throw it away. And there was very often a wick that
would be burning in an oil lamp and the wick would get down
to the very end and it wouldn't burn with a flame that would
light, it would just smoulder with smoke. And the bruised
reed would be thrown away and the smoking flax would be
thrown away. It's discarding the frail things. Jesus comes
along and it is said of Him, the bruised reed He will not
break and the smoking flax He will not extinguish. Just
the opposite. He will strengthen the bruised and He will
give light back to the flickering. That's the ministry of
compassion, the ministry of sympathy, the ministry of gentleness
that characterises the true shepherd.
And then fifthly, we are
to be marked by spirituality. Our life is not a life of
outward show but our life is a life of inward power. It
is not that we enlarge the outward stuff. It is not what
we look like on the outside. It is not a pious appearance.
It is a heart controlled by the Spirit of God, basic things.
And finally, humility as
opposed to the ugly pride of the false preachers and teachers,
we are to have an evident, inward, manifest meekness.
We, who are those that God
has called, are to be the gifted, the ones set apart by
God, not self-appointed. The ones who seek to serve, not
to be served. The ones who are faithful in the stewardship
of our life and ministry to the sacred task, the trust of
Scripture. The ones who are not inventing their own ideas
or giving their own opinions. The ones who are faithful
to feed the flock not fleece the flock. The ones who seek
by the manifest meekness and gentleness of Christ, not to
abuse the flock but to comfort and encourage the flock.
The ones who seek no honour for self but honour only for
Christ. The ones who do not preach what they will not live,
but the ones who live what they preach. Shepherds who know
their humility will make them useful and shepherds who understand
that neither they nor their flock are their own but God's.
Folks, I tell you what! Whatever
camp we place ourselves in, traditional or modern, one thing
our leadership better be, that is spiritual, because one
day like these scribes and Pharisees we will come face to
face with Jesus Christ and it will be most interesting to
see how He assesses our leadership.
One thing beloved is certain,
we desperately need change of some kind in order for God
to open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing.
For in any man's language dear people, we are in the middle
of a drought period and we need refreshing showers from
above.
"And I called for a
drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon
the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon
that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and
upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands."
Haggai 1 v 11.
Our numbers in Baptist Churches
in Northern Ireland are depleting.
If your feeling proud because
you have a full church, stop and ask yourself the question,
what kind of fruit have we produced over this past ten years?
Those who have moved away from your church for one reason
or another, where are they now? Have they moved to another
denomination and refused to remain with our Baptist Association
of Churches or, have they simply stopped attending church
and have become hard, bitter, or just back slidden? What
fruit have you produced?
My dear brothers, something
is amiss. Are we prepared to put it right?
Displaying true spiritual
leadership!
