Hebrews 13:17-25
Please turn in your copy of the
scriptures to the last chapter, the last verses of the book of
Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 13. We’ll be reading verses 17 through
25 today. We’ll be considering 17 through
19 and then 22 to 25. We covered a couple weeks back
verses 20 and 21, the great benediction. This is the end of our study
of the series of Hebrews. It’s fitting that we finish it
today as we install our newest deacon, because it speaks, it
gives exhortations to what church members owe their leaders. And so we consider God’s word
together beginning at verse 17 of Hebrews 13, we read. Obey
your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over
your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let
them do with this with joy and not with groaning for that would
be of no advantage to you. Pray for us for we are sure that
we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things.
I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may
be restored to you the sooner. Now may the God of peace, who
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd
of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you
with everything good that you may do his will, working in us
that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I appeal to you, brothers,
bear with my word of exhortation. For I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother
Timothy has been released with whom I shall see you if he comes
soon. Greet all your leaders and all
the Saints. Those who come from Italy send
you greetings. Grace be with you all. Amen,
let us pray together. Our gracious God, we thank you
that you speak to us by your word and we pray that in the
scriptures today that. Your word would. would show us
who we are and who you are. We pray that it would show us
our need of Jesus as Savior, and it would show us how we are
to behave in the household of faith toward those who lead us. And we pray that you would show
us our sin, commend us for our good, And we pray that you would
encourage us along the way and show us that the way of Jesus,
the way of salvation, the way of the scripture is the way to
eternal life. And we ask it and pray this in
the name of Jesus. Amen. One of the blessings we
get to experience today is the installation of another officer
into the life of the church. Now, installing an officer sounds
something like it needs tools and nuts and bolts and two-by-fours
and all that. But we have two principal acts
when we have new officers. We ordain them, we set them apart
for a specific service. And then we put them into service.
We install them, as it were. We put them into place so that
they may effectively serve the church. And one of the wonderful
things about doing such a thing in worship is it’s seeing God
at work in our midst. It is God showing us that he
cares for us. It is God showing that he provides
for us. It is God showing that he is
serving us in a special way. God has always formed a people
for Himself. He has always gathered a people
to Himself. He has always provided for them. And we can think all the way
back into the Garden of Eden, when He put Adam and Eve in the
garden, He provided for them. When He called Abram from idolatry
to worship of Yahweh in Ur of the Chaldeans and brought him
to the Promised Land, He was forming a people for Himself.
He provided for them. When Joseph was sold into slavery
by his brothers, put into the well and put into prison and
all those sorts of things, we recognize by the end of the story
God was providing for Israel as Joseph became the regent of
Egypt and provided food for the famine where God’s people would
be preserved. God provided a redeemer in Moses
when his people were under great oppression. Under the yoke of
slavery in Egypt, he raised up Moses. And on and on through
biblical history, we can speak of David and kings and prophets
where God tended his flock like a shepherd by providing for them. And so one of the great things
we see in a passage of scripture like today and the events of
installing an officer today is that God provides for his people. He gives gifts to his church. The apostle Paul speaks of this
very well in Ephesians chapter four. And he speaks of Jesus
after being raised from the dead and his earthly ministry before
his ascension. He ascends into heaven before
the eyes of many. And like a king having been at
war and won a great victory, he ascends into heaven. And instead
of receiving gifts from his people, as in the old days, kings would
receive gifts from their subjects when they returned from war and
were successful. Instead, the scripture through Paul says Jesus
gives gifts. And so in chapter four of Ephesians,
when Jesus ascends as a king victorious over sin and death,
and with salvation in hand for his people. He does not receive
gifts, he gives gifts to his church. And it says that he gives
the officers of the church as gifts to serve them. So God forms
his church, he gathers them, he provides for them richly.
We see it all throughout the history of redemption. We’ll
see it before our eyes today. But I want us to think about
this question as we consider the last couple verses of Hebrews.
What is important for church success? And to answer that question,
we want to be biblical, not worldly. All the world can give us all
kinds of answers. What does the church need to succeed? But what
is important for church success? Well, you could look at various
books of the Bible and find all kinds of answers. But the last
few verses of Hebrews give us some answers. Now, the world
may tell us we need as many people as possible, we need as many
programs as possible, it may tell us we need the prettiest
building on the right street corner with the right advertising,
all the right methods, and yes, those can certainly help. But
what does the Scripture teach us? Well, at the end of Hebrews,
it gives us four things that church members owe their leaders,
and these are things that are helpful for church success. We find these in the last couple
of verses. The first is simply this, it’s obedience. Verse 17
tells us, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are
keeping a watch over your souls as those who will have to give
an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning,
for that would be of no advantage to you. Why does the writer of
Hebrews, whoever he is, after instructing them in the matters
of the faith, why does he say obey your leaders? Well, he gives
three reasons why he says it. One is they keep watch over your
soul. The second reason is they will have to give an account
to God for how you have lived the Christian life under their
care. And the third reason, he says, is you don’t want it to
be a pain, a groaning for them as they serve you. You want it
to be a joy. And so he says, obey your leaders. Now go back to Moses for just
a moment. We read a little account from Numbers chapter 14 where
Moses’ own sister and brother rallied against him. Has God
not spoken through us? Does he only speak through Moses?
You know, fuss, fuss, fuss. We get to those points in the
church sometimes and we say things, we fuss about things, we complain
about things. And Moses got to a point several
times in the wilderness experience where he cries out to God and
says, these people you have given to me, they’re wearing me out. And we see multiple examples
of Moses in the Old Testament saying to the Lord, I groan because
these people are not a joy to serve. And so you see why the
writer of Hebrews, who we know is very familiar with the Old
Covenant, the Old Testament, says obey your leaders so it
will be a joy to serve you. Now, we could apply that in other
situations. Children, obey your parents so
your parents will enjoy you. Students, obey your teachers
so that your teachers will have a good time in class and not
be worn out telling you to be quiet and to sit still and quit
throwing spit wads and all the rest that takes place in the
classroom. Now this command to obey leaders
has some weight to it. Not only will it be a joy and
not a groan, and not only will they give an account to God in
heaven for your souls, but they literally keep watch over you. Now, we just got through Christmas
and we sang about the shepherds. And what did the shepherds do?
The shepherds, they kept watch over their flocks by night. And there’s in this language
of the New Testament here in the book of Hebrews, there’s
this language of the shepherds of the sheep in each congregation,
night and day, keep watch over you. They keep watch over your
souls. Their job, their desire, their
hope, their goal is to land you safely on heaven’s shores, to
get you through life, through the ministry of the church, through
encouragement, and through the teaching of the scriptures. And
so he says, be obedient to them. The second request he gives to
them, it’s not a request, it’s a command, he says, pray for
us. Pray for those of us who lead you that we might have ministry
success. We find this in verses 18 and
19 where he says, pray for us, for we are sure that we have
a clear conscience and we desire to act honorably in all things.
I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may
be restored to you sooner.” He’s making this request, this command,
this exhortation to them. He says, pray for us. Now, there’s
a context here. We don’t know who the writer
of Hebrews is. We don’t know why he is detained
from coming to them. We do know that his desire is
that they have success in the Christian life and make it safely
to heaven. and that he wants to see them
sometime soon, and with Timothy who has been in prison. So with
that information, all we can say is prayer is important. Just as the Bible teaches us
to pray for those who govern us, pray for all governing authorities,
those who rule us and judge us, He says to us, pray for those
who lead us in the church. And that too is to our benefit,
just like keeping watch over our souls. We pray for ministry
success. We pray for our brother, Andrew
Brunson, who is imprisoned by Pakistani authorities. He’s in
prison for his faith. He’s in prison for his missionary
service, for his gospel endeavors. He needs our prayers. He’s in
great danger. But have you ever thought that
your leaders are also in great danger? They struggle with the
same sins you struggle with. They struggle with the temptations
of the devil. They struggle with the temptations
of this world. They struggle with distractions
that might would keep them from serving the church effectively.
And so you see, in all areas of ministry, we need to pray
for those who lead us, that their ministry may be successful for
the glory of God and for the good of others. He urges that
they pray for him. And there’s a little selfish
desire in there. He says, pray that I will soon
be restored to you, that I may visit with Timothy. So there’s
obedience, there’s prayer. Well, there’s a third exhortation
we find in verse 22, and it’s that we listen to those who lead
us. He said in verse 22, I appeal
to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have
written to you briefly. Now you may not catch it, but
that verse has a little bit of a joke in it. 13 chapters of
Hebrews, a brief exhortation. Now we joke from time to time
that the Puritans would preach for sometimes one to two hours. In fact, it’s said in the history
books that some congregations, as they would put an hourglass
beside the pulpit, would freely give their minister a turn of
the hourglass. Now our day and time would not
put up with two hours of preaching, but did you know it would take
one hour, maybe 55 minutes or so, to read the book of Hebrews?
And what has he said to them? I’ve written to you briefly.
And remember somewhere along the way when he’s speaking of
the holy of holies or the inner sanctuary, he says, of this,
I can’t go into detail now. I mean, it would have been an
hour and a half long epistle if he had done just that. But
he says to them, bear with my word of exhortation. He’s literally
saying this to them, listening willingly to the word of God.
When the word of God comes from the lips of your leaders, When
the exhortations and encouragement comes from their mouths through
the Scriptures, listen to it willingly. You know, the Apostle
Paul in Acts says of the Bereans, they were more noble than any
of the other folks they visited on their missionary journeys.
For what reason? They listened to the Word of God, and then
they checked the Scriptures to see if the things they were taught
were so. They didn’t question authority. They didn’t say, you
can’t tell me who I am and what I must do. They didn’t revolt
or anything of that nature. They simply read the Word of
God, they listened to the Word of God, and they followed the
Word of God insofar as it was accurately proclaimed and taught
them. And that ought to be our attitude.
The Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonian church, I thank
God for you. He’s writing them a letter. He
says, I thank God for you, because when we came to you preaching
God’s word, you accepted it as it really is, not as the word
of men, the word of Paul or Silas or whomever. proclaimed it, but
you accepted it as it really is, the very Word of God. And so, dear brothers and sisters,
not only should we obey and pray for our leaders, but we should
willingly, with open ears and open hearts, listen to the words
that are said to us. and see if they are from God’s
Word and from his very voice himself. Remember that throughout
our study of Hebrews we have been admonished to do many things.
We’ve been admonished not to forget Jesus. We’ve been admonished
to keep going to church, to not forsake the assembling together.
We’ve been admonished to run the race of faith with perseverance,
keeping our eyes on Jesus. We’ve been admonished to encourage
one another, to worship, to pray. We’ve been encouraged to grow
and not need spiritual milk, but to be on the diet of spiritual
meat. And so he’s saying at the very
end of his exhortation, listen to those who lead you with willing
ears. We’re living in a culture that
is anti-authoritarian. We’re living in a culture that
is only only willing to listen to sound
bites. And we give snap judgments to
things. We thumbs up. We like things. We thumbs down.
We dislike things. We disregard. We’re making judgments
all the day. And we need to remember this
day in our culture, this day and age, that God’s Word judges
us. Remember Chapter 4 verse 12 of
Hebrews, God’s word is sharper than a two-edged sword. It cuts
to the joints and marrows of mankind. Remember that verse
simply means this, God’s word gets all the way in you and it
exposes you. And it can repair what is broken
and ruined. And so we should listen willingly
to the Word of God, whether it warns us, whether it admonishes
us, whatever it may be, for it is the very voice of Jesus to
His church. and for our good. Well, there’s
a fourth and final exhortation here. It’s one you have to stretch
maybe a little to see, but he says in verse 24, greet all your
leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send
you greetings. Grace be with you all. Well,
we’re to obey, we’re to pray, we’re to willingly listen, but
we’re to greet those who are our leaders. Now, follow with
me here for a moment. Read through most New Testament
letters. They begin with greetings and
they end with greetings. As Christian people connected
to other people in Christ, remember our Heidelberg Catechism, my
only comfort in life and in death is that I belong to Christ. So
in Christ Jesus, we belong to one another. In Christ Jesus,
we belong to the one another’s around the world. The churches
down the street who are in Christ, the churches across the world
who are in Christ. It’s why when our brother Andrew
Brunson, who’s in prison for his faith, is in prison for the
faith, it’s as if we’re in prison with him. Because we’re in Christ,
we’re together, and so we ought to greet one another. We read
in passages of Scripture how we’re to greet one another with
holy kisses, we’re to greet one another with love, But you know,
we live in a time like the Corinthian church. Remember the Apostle
Paul in his letters to the Corinthians had to say, look, you can’t follow
Apollos or Paul or follow this elder or that deacon or follow
in this faction of the church. We’re not the Democrats and the
Republicans and all that. No, we’re one in Christ Jesus.
But you know how it gets sometime in church. Well, that’s my elder.
or that’s my deacon. Or if you get in a church that
has a big staff, we follow this youth pastor or this associate
pastor and we put our affections and even our allegiance on certain
people and we withhold our esteem from others. And so there’s something
in this passage I think we could learn well is we should greet
all the saints. all the brothers, all the sisters,
all those who lead us in the faith. We should greet them with
grace and mercy and peace. You know, if you look down the
side of this building, you’ll see one, two, three, four, five,
maybe six plus bricks of these supports. And go back to the
question I asked a few moments ago, what will make the church
succeed? Is it what the world says? Maybe there’s some wisdom
in some of that. But we get our marching orders from the Bible.
But think of what would happen if you took these posts and these
columns and these roof trusses out. The building would not stand.
It would fall. And we would say, oh, woe to
us. The snow came and the weight of the snow caused the roof to
collapse. And that was because the columns, the pillars, the
structure was taken out. Well, what is the Bible saying
to us? In a real sense, it is saying that the pillars of the
church, the pillars of the spiritual entity, which is first A.R.P.
Church. Our obedience. Prayer. Listening. And greeting. And
there are all kinds of other things that we could say, worship,
Sabbath keeping, telling the truth, whatever whatever commands
we come into the Bible. But you remove these pillars
and what will begin to happen? Your church will crumble. your
church will fall apart. We’re living in a time where
churches, like they already have been in Europe, are becoming
extinct. They’re dying out. And why is
that? It’s because the foundation pillars
that God gives us in the scriptures have eroded and they’ve fallen
away. Oh yes, the buildings are still there. But like many of
our missionaries who have visited us from the other side of the
pond have shown us, church buildings can easily be repurposed into
restaurants. and to nightclubs, and to community
centers, and used for all sorts of other purposes. But won’t
we take encouragement to know that whatever happens to our
building, that our spiritual house will be intact. If we keep
those pillars in place, our building will stand. And in one sense,
we can answer the question, what will it take for our church to
succeed? Well, prayer. willingly listening
to the scriptures, obedience and greeting one another. Pray
with me, if you will. Our great God, we thank you that
you do not leave us without knowledge of who you are and how we are
to behave in the household of faith. And so we pray that through
Jesus strength, with transformed hearts and willing spirits, that
we would. We would love your church so
much that we would be willing to do what it takes to make her
stand. Get us praying, get us listening,
get us following after our leaders, and help us to greet one another
in unity. And where there are relationships that are strained
and stressed, help us to restore those so that we can look one
another in the eye and faithfully greet one another in the Lord.
And this we pray in the name of Jesus, our great Savior, who
loves his church so much, that he died for us. Amen. I’d like
to invite the elders to please come forward. Also, any ruling
elder who is not currently or actively serving is welcome to
come forward. Our elders emeritus we just elected
as well. And Larry Isley. Definitely need
him. Back in October, your elders
began the process for nominations and election to office. Come
on this way, Larry. We received suggestions from
the congregation. We went through the nominations
process where We looked at character and qualities and biblical references
from Timothy and Titus. We looked at what the form of
government requires and we said these are those who we believe
can serve this church well. And so after nomination we brought
Larry in and we certified him. I think we asked his dentist
for his dental records. We looked at his… Oh, we did
everything, didn’t we? We really raked him over the
coals. Yeah, and he passed. So we nominated him for office,
and you elected him to office at our last congregational meeting.
That’s our process. In Presbyterianism, we believe
that the congregation elects those who will lead. And so what
you elect is where you will go. If you elect rotten people, you
get rotten leadership. If you elect good people, you
get great leadership. It goes that way. But we believe in Presbyterianism
that you call your own pastor and you elect your own officers.
And so we thank God this day that we stand here ready to install
our brother Larry Isley. Now, Larry has been a part of
this church for many years, probably, what, 40 years? He’s been an
elder. He’s been a deacon, he’s been
a trustee. I think he told us he’s done everything except sing
in the choir. And preach, yeah. And he says
he don’t want to do either of those two. But here’s a man who
has served this church faithfully and well. Let me encourage you
in another way. The Apostle Paul speaks of if
any man aspires to office, if you have a desire to serve the
church through leadership, You can serve the church through
being a worker bee. There’s a lot of things you can do. But to
be an officer, to be an elder, a deacon, a pastor, that’s a
very special calling. And the Bible says if a man aspires
to that, he aspires a good thing. And so I want to challenge you
to think about, is God potentially calling you to serve the church
as an officer? We need officers. We need servants
to serve you and to serve God’s glory here. But it was very encouraging
back in the fall for Larry to approach the elders and say,
look, I want to serve. I see a need, and I think I can
meet those needs. And if you’ll have me, if the
congregation will have me, I will serve the church. And so here
we are today in this great and wonderful time in the life of
our congregation. Larry is already ordained as
a deacon, and so he does not need to be ordained, but he does
need to be installed. And so we got our wrenches and
our bolts and all the necessary things to lock you into place. But we install you by asking
you these four questions, or three questions. And if you’re
looking in your bulletin, we’re starting with number five. Do
you accept the office of deacon in this congregation? And do
you promise to perform faithfully all the duties of this office?
And do you promise to endeavor by the grace of God to live your
life in Christian witness before the church and in the world?
Do you? Do you promise to submit in the spirit of love to the
authority of the session and to the higher courts of the church?
Do you? And finally, do you promise in
all things to promote the unity, peace, purity, and prosperity
of this church? Do you? Well, y’all get a question
as well. And that question is listed in
your bulletin. And this is for those who are
members of the congregation. It says, do you, the members
of this congregation, acknowledge and receive this fellow member
as deacon? And do you promise to give him
all honor, obedience, encouragement and assistance in the spirit
of love to which the office of Deacon, according to the word
of God and the standards of this church, entitles him. If you
are a member of the church and you agree, please stand. Amen. Please be seated. Let me ask Larry to come forward
and. if you’re able to kneel and you guys gather around and
let’s say a prayer. Yeah, you can just face the congregation,
that would be great. Get everybody to gather around
and then we’ll say a prayer. Our gracious God, we thank you
that you provide so richly for your church, that through Christ
Jesus we have the forgiveness of sins and we who were far off
have been brought near. And we thank you that Christ
not only saves us from our own sin and wickedness and saves
us from the wrath that is to come, from the judgment of God
but he gives all good gifts to his church the church he bought
with his precious blood he also gifted with elders and deacons
and ministers and members of the congregation that we might
enjoy life together and fellowship that we might hear from your
word and drink from your fountain deeply together but Lord there
are material needs and we thank you for the office of deacon
the office of sympathy and service and we pray now for our brother
Larry that you would You would install him to this office in
this church in a mighty way. Put your Holy Spirit fully upon
him that he might be full of sympathy and his hands always
ready to serve. May the congregation call on
him. May they serve him and assist him in all the ways necessary.
keep him safe as he travels up and down the road, give his family
great grace as he spends a little bit of time serving the church
in this special way. And we pray, our Father, that
our church would be strengthened mightily through the ministry
of our deacons. We pray also for Glenn and Stephen
who serve with him. And we pray that our diaconate
would be full of mercy, full of grace, and full of strength.
and that they would make the ministry of the word and worship
here possible, that they would look out for the material needs
of this congregation, and that we would feel secure knowing
that they are at the helm of this important and vital aspect
of our little church. We pray now for grace and for
mercy and peace to fall upon Larry, that he might serve you
and this congregation well. And we pray it in the name of
Jesus. Amen. Larry, we want to Pronounce in
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that you are
a duly ordained and installed deacon in this church. And as
fellow elders, we want to extend to you the right hand of ministry
to labor alongside us in this congregation. Welcome. Let me encourage you, after the
service is over, to please greet Larry and Kathy and congratulate
them. Let’s sing to God’s praise on
number 278, Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken. Amen. Go now with God’s blessing.
We just saying that his grace, which, like the Lord, the giver
never fails from age to age. So grace, mercy and peace from
God, our father, be with and remain among you all now and
forevermore. And all God’s people said, Amen.