The Two great Sins of Church Leadership

Before I dive into this, I just want to remind everyone that tomorrow night (Sunday at 6:30 PM) NNY worships is having their joint worship time inviting all the churches in the area to join us.  It will be held at Faith Fellowship of Watertown this time and the unique thing about this is that the students from Faith Fellowship Christian School will play a large contributing part.  May Jesus bless them and all who attend.

Jesus speaks of 2 great sins that after all these years are still tragically committed by too many leaders today.  Please Jesus, help me avoid these 2 horrific attitudes.  Our Lord was nearing the end of HIS earthly ministry.  HE was in Jerusalem and the Passover was soon upon them.  A certain group of Jewish leaders known as the Sadducees brought a question to HIM attempting to trap Him.  This particular group was the leading faction in the High Priestly cast at this time in history.  They were in terrible spiritual condition believing in a number of absurd ideas and their teaching was filled with error.  One of their worst tenets was the idea that there is no resurrection (Mk.12:18).  

These leaders sent messengers to ask Jesus a difficult question attempting to prove their point of no resurrection and also trying to trap & embarrass Him.  They gave Him an impossible situation (one that would never exist in reality).  A married man died with no children.  They quoted the Levitical Law which said that if the man had any brothers, one of them should marry his brother's widow & raise up children for His brother.  The idea was that dead man's brothers would in this way, make sure that their brother's name would continue through children bearing that name.  This was the intention of the law.

So, in their 'make shift' scenario, a man dies childless and one of his brothers married the widow in order to fulfill the Law of Moses.  But in this scenario, the 2nd husband also died with no children.  It gets even more fantastic.  There were a total of 7 brothers & all of them died & one by one, each married the widow until all 7 brothers married her, all died while not one of them had any children by this woman.  Finally the woman died - THANK GOD!  Then they asked Jesus, "Which wife is she in the resurrection for all 7 men had her as his wife?"  

This absurd question was their effort to discredit Jesus who was teaching that the eternal question of where & with who we will be living must be answered or a person cannot live righteously or sensibly in this life.  Make no mistake about it, Jesus taught that this life was brief, the next life was eternal, and God was in charge of both lives.  Each of us has a choice of who we will serve, who we will trust, who we will obey.  Our eternal end is ruled by the Lord & that choice that HE gives us.

The answer Jesus gave them reveals the two great potential sins that church leadership can make.  The Sadducees were the church leadership of that day.  Jesus responds with 2 rebukes for these mistaken & spiritually blind men.  "You neither understand the scriptures nor the power of God."  Let's examine these two great sins briefly.

First, they did not understand the scriptures.  A careful study of the New Testament reveals a # of serious flaws in their understanding of the Holy Writ.  I will make a brief list here but you may find additional issues with a more careful study.

1. They did not understand the intent of the Bible.  It is the story of Jesus & His redemption rather than a list of rules to be kept in order to deserve eternal life with God.  It is not so much a list of do's & don'ts although it certainly is loaded with commands & teaching.  It is rather a list of who is & who isn't - who is God & what is HE like - who is close to God & who is not - who walks with God in His ways & who does not.

2. They took the teeth out of the scriptures by denying the life of God.  Without a resurrection there can be no living God & no motivation to live right since there is no reason to fear or respect God.  The scriptures shouted the exact opposite of what the Sadducees held to be true.

3. The did not understand that the scriptures should never be used to justify my personal point or protect my title & position in life.  God has an agenda & it is not mine unless I humble myself and die to my self and lose my life for His sake.  To use the Bible for personal gain is to misuse the Bible and error greatly!

4. To come at the Bible with the wrong premise, either denying the resurrection or championing our own agenda, is to always be wrong.  We end up twisting every command, incorrectly emphasizing & valuing what God places little worth in while ignoring or placing small importance on what God holds most dear.  The end of this can only be opposing God & God resists the proud.  When one is resisted by God - well, you can't get more resisted than that.  When Jesus pushes someone way - it is an eternal judgment and has 'forever' consequences.

Second they did not understand = take into account or believe in or wish to see or experience the power of God.  YUK!

1. Without His life in us there can be no forgiveness, no deliverance from sin or the lies of the devil, no truth to lighten our way, no hope for tomorrow or a future with Him, no lasting love to receive from Him or from another created by Him, no lasting love to give to anyone.  

2. Without a recognition of God's life & power, there is no desire to seek anything other than the sensual or the natural.  Sunsets, canyons, lakes, cloud formations, rivers, the wonder of a child's smile, the way my wife laughs or shows affection, the embrace or encouragement of a friend, etc., none of this has any real lasting merit.  Without God's power, all of this is cheapened & completely governed by one fleeting feeling after another.

3. Because they do not know the power of God they cannot know forgiveness for their sins for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the POWER of GOD unto salvation to him/her that believes."  Beliefs are most powerful when God is in back of them - the LIVING GOD!  Otherwise, beliefs are vain!

4. Because the Sadducees refused to acknowledge God's resurrection power, they COULD NOT change, effect, alter, help anyone since "unless the Lord build the house, we labor in vain if we build without Him."

5. Without God's power = His resurrection life, there is no meaning - just the vain pursuit of what self wants = that is a hungry mouth which can never be satisfied no matter how much you give it.  

These are the two great sins of church leadership and we who are in leadership positions - may we be spared committing these sins.  We cannot afford to be misguided in the direction of scripture.  God has a plan & it must be our plan.  We cannot afford to misuse the Bible for our own ends.  It is not important how we feel about the Bible, but it is critical how the Bible feels about us!  This correct perspective cannot be lost or we will completely useless & ruined.  This is what is behind the lovely exhortation from Proverbs which says, "Lean not to your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and HE shall direct your paths."

We cannot sell God's power short.  God's power is nothing short of His life flowing in & thru us.  "Trust in HIM and HE will bring it to pass."  If church leadership fails to count on His intervention, then His voice will be silenced or at least warped or hidden.  We must believe and count on the Lord's power to save, power to heal, power to deliver, power to reveal HIMSELF, power to cleanse from sin & wickedness, power to reach to lowest sinner (that would be me so I know HE can do it), power to answer prayer with miraculous help, etc.  If leadership fails here then that cry from heaven, "I have heard the groanings of my people in bondage and I have come down to deliver them."; that cry will not be heard.

Leadership that commits these 2 sins is useless, maladjusted, misdirected, misguided, & blind.  Whoever they lead, both of them fall into the ditch.  I do not know what kind of leader I am.  I would be afraid to make a personal assessment.  But my prayer is that God would grant me the grace to live out the verse about John the Baptist, "John did no miracle but every thing he ever said about Jesus was true."  That would be grace indeed if I would be granted to live anywhere near that standard.  The point is, leadership that is not understanding the intent or is misusing the scriptures; leadership that neither knows of nor counts God's intervening power; that leadership is a disaster and has only one end - eradication!   God help us!  James was right.  "Let not many be teachers because to those leaders to whom much is given, much shall be required of them."

Yet, we are in dire need of solid godly leaders.  And we have some encouragements my friends.  If Jesus could whip those disciples into shape, HE can do that for us.  We are not too hard for the Lord.  So let us get serious about the Bible, get serious about God infusing us with power, get serious about seeing others find and experience the truth & the power of God!  We cannot afford to be bad leaders - neither can the church afford to have absentee leaders or worse yet, misguided ones!  We must answer the call and proclaim His Word with our mouths & actions while trusting in His power to pour His life in & thru us that we may be what HE intended - a spiritual Levite whom others approach to receive the Word of the Lord at our mouths.  Jesus keep us all strong my brothers & sisters.