“Be Led in Truth” – Hebrews 13:7-25
Our sermon text this morning takes us to the conclusion of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 13:7-25. I invite you to turn with me to that passage. I encourage you, and we make this note every now and then, to keep your Bibles open. Continue as we learn from the word, as you hear the word preached, to look back at the Bible to confirm whether or not these things are true. To do the hard work as we engage with the preach word of seeing these things in the Bible, whether they're true in actuality. So keep your Bible open. We encourage you as we hear from the Word of the Lord and the preaching of the word. With that said, follow along with me as I read Hebrews 13:7-25.
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
17 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 this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 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, 21 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.
22 I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. 23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. 24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. 25 Grace be with all of you.Hebrews 13:7-25, ESV
This is the Word of the Lord. In C.S. Lewis', well known story, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", it's one of those novels in the larger Chronicles of Narnia. One of the main characters we meet in that story is a little boy named Eustace Scrub. Now, the story begins when Eustace and his two cousins, if you don't know it Lucy and Edmund, are transported from their English home through a painting to the mythical land of Narnia.
Now, this is a place that Eustace's two cousins Lucy and Edmund had been to before. If you read "Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian", you're familiar with that. They've been there before, but not Eustace. Unlike his cousins, Eustace doesn't know the characters that they already know and are and are happy to greet when they arrive back in Narnia. Unlike his cousins, Eustace isn't happy at all to be in this unknown place of Narnia. And unlike his cousins, his whole attitude is quite poor from the get-go.
Whereas Eustace is cousins, Lucy and Edmund are happy to help on this dramatic voyage called the Dawn Treader that they've been sent to Narnia to embark on. We find right in the get go that Eustace is nowhere near as willing. In fact, throughout the first part of this story, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as Eustace's cousins step up to help, Eustace, we find, is whiny, he's discourteous, he's lazy, and he's entitled.
Well, this all comes to a head a little bit later in the story when the ship, this Dawn Treader, arrives at an island. As soon as they arrive at this island, the whole company of the ship comes ashore and they get to work immediately with everything that has to be done. You see, there's work that has to be done to repair the ship they've just embarked upon. There is work to do to set up camp on the island.
As everyone scurries and gets to work, we find that Eustace is laying under a tree. When he hears plans being discussed for more work, he realizes that there would be no rest for him. He, as the lazy and entitled boy that he is, decides to sneak away on his own, away from the pack to find the rest and the leisure that his heart desires. And yet, as the story continues, Eustace quickly learns that this was a very, very bad idea because he gets lost on his own. He realizes that being alone is actually kind of lonely and quite scary. Then to top it all off, he turns into a dragon and has to be rescued by Aslan, the Christ figure.
You see, Eustace has to learn the hard way that when you're blind to the privileges before you, when you don't respect the people on your team and you decide to go about things on your own terms, something's bound to go awry. It is this lesson, in a sense, that our author of Hebrews teaches us as he issues his final remarks and prepares to close his sermon.
You see, throughout Hebrews we've heard quite a bit about who Christ is, about how Christ Jesus is the answer to all that the Old Testament anticipated; from the Tabernacle to the sacrifices that were offered within it. Yet in following this Christ, understand that we never do that alone, nor do we do that on our own terms. For one thing, we follow Christ together with a body, with His body, with the church. Something our author told us earlier in Hebrews ten do not neglect. But we also learn that to follow Christ well requires that we also follow the leaders that he appoints. As our author closes, he reminds us that God gives leaders to his church, leaders from the past, leaders in the present, all to keep us pointed in the right direction, as all of us press forward in following the eternal Christ.
If, like Eustace, we assume on this journey a lazy or entitled a disposition, and we decide to neglect those who would lead us on this great pilgrimage in Christ, well, so too, something's bound to go awry.
Our big idea this morning is this Follow Christ, but not on your own. As we work through this passage, we'll do it in three parts. First, we'll see how our author encourages us to remember our past leaders. Second, he reminds us that the one we follow is the eternal Christ and commands us as such to follow the eternal Christ. And then third and finally, we'll hear how he calls us to submit to present leaders today.
1. Remember Past Leaders
2. Follow the Eternal Christ
3. Submit to Present Leaders.
Remember Past Leaders
That's our roadmap that we're taking as we approach this passage. And so let's start out first with remembering our past leaders. If you're looking at your text, you'll notice that this word translate, leaders that we encounter in verse seven occurs a total of three times in the passage. It occurs in verse seven, in verse 17, and then again in verse 24. While those latter two references in verse 17 and verse 24 refer to the present leaders in the life of the church, this first reference we come to in verse seven actually looks back to leaders in the past. That is, church leaders in the memory of his readers.
Now, whoever these specific leaders were historically as our author pens what he does, we don't really know. It could be that our author is reminding his original readers of some of the apostles and the original disciples of Jesus, who once taught them the Gospel and have since finished the race. But whoever he has in mind, it's these former leaders to whom our author points his readers, those whose whole lives now stand before the church to recall and to learn from and to imitate.
Now, of course, when he calls his readers here to remember these past leaders and then to imitate them as our text tells us, whoever they were, he's certainly not telling them to imitate them in their sin, and neither is he calling them to be a carbon copy of these past leaders, such as such that their own gifts and strengths and personalities are extinguished in the process. Not at all. Instead, he's calling them specifically here to imitate their faith in Christ. It's as if he's saying to his readers, remember the church leaders who once taught you the Word of God with such patience. Who joyfully endure hardships in their own discipleship. Who plodded along faithfully, even when that meant enduring persecution, and who proved themselves to be models of wisdom. Remember those examples of faith, how they look to Christ throughout the entirety of their sojourn and be like them.
Yet because it's sometimes our propensity, in our human nature, to be somewhat critical of previous generations of believers and to imagine that the challenges of our own day require fresh approaches, new methods. Our author reminds them in verse eight of something we would do well to remember too.
Notice in verse eight, we move somewhat abruptly from this command to imitate former leaders to a statement about Christ and specifically Christ eternality and his unchangeableness. We read, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Now, that's good news, because it reminds us that the Christ, we trust in is somebody we can always trust. We can trust his promises at all times in any place.
What does that have to do with this command to imitate the faith of our former leaders? Well, it's as if our author recognizes our propensity, again, in our human nature, where we tend to disparage examples from the past. So he reminds us that if Christ is always relevant, so to speak, then those former leaders who looked to Christ by faith, who taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you, and who lived lives of enduring and long suffering faith in Christ, all of the days of their lives are also relevant examples to imitate at any point in history.
Now, again, that's not to say that everything a late Christian leader may have done or said is without question worthy of imitation. But it does mean that when we look to examples of faithful church leaders from our own stories, or even much longer ago in the history of the church, we find examples to imitate and in doing so, we stay pointed in the right direction.
Specifically, as our author continues, this general matter of imitating previous leaders, of remembering them and then imitating them is applied to the issue of truth. Notice in verse nine that our author makes yet one more seemingly abrupt transition when from this line of Christ eternality, he now commands us, "Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them."
Now, it's not entirely clear in the context here what these strange and diverse teachings our author has in mind are. But we know from elsewhere in the New Testament that this issue of religious eating was a problem, that the early church continually needed help navigating. This kind of teaching, strange and diverse teachings our author refers to, probably maintained that those who eat certain foods or who participate in certain religious feasts were somehow more spiritual or more sanctified simply in the act of eating the food itself. Yet, not only here, but elsewhere in the New Testament, we're reminded that there are no magical eating rites that can make you somehow more spiritual simply in the act of eating itself.
The Apostle Paul declares, to give one example in Romans 14:17, "For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." But whatever the specific teaching that our author warns his readers about, we might not know exactly what he's referring to, but it was pretty clear to them. The essence of this warning is this, tread carefully when you encounter novelty. That is, new teachings of various sort that previous church leaders have never taught nor believed, and which actually undermine the essence of the gospel. One of the ways we guard against this issue is by once again looking to faithful examples from the past.
You know, there are a number of examples I can think back to in my own ministry, particularly when I worked in college ministry. Where a professing Christian in the course of one of many spiritual conversations would tell me with confidence what they believed about a certain theological topic. But in the course of explaining their beliefs, something wouldn't quite sound right. Something would sound off. And so when that's happened, I've asked the very simple question where have you read that? Who else is saying what you're saying right now? Cite your sources. Typically the response to that question would either involve one citing the name of someone who's well known for their error. Or two, this is the more often one, confessing with pride that they've never heard anyone spout the wisdom that they're now spouting. Yet, when that's been the response, it's usually not recognized that novelty is not a good thing.
Understand that truth doesn't change. Although every generation of Christian who have ever lived have faced challenges that in their own day might seem to require something new or fresh, we do a great disservice in our discipleship by uprooting ourselves from the many examples of faithful past leaders in the church. Leaders from your own story, and leaders further back in the history of the church.
So how do we stay rooted today? By remembering and imitating those fateful examples from the past. Well, one way we could do this is by reading people who are dead. Early in my own discipleship, I remember somebody giving me exactly that advice. Read people who've been dead for a while. Read people like Augustine or Calvin or the Puritans, or even historical creeds and confessions. We're going to confess the Apostles Creed later. Or the Westminster Confession of Faith. Not because everything they said is infallible. The only infallible book out there is this, the Bible, and everything we read from those great historical leaders has to be tested against this. There are plenty of historical examples out there to avoid. But it's good to imitate the beliefs and the lives of those faithful leaders of the past who were theological stalwarts in their own day and unwaveringly biblical in what they wrote and taught and how they live their lives.
Now, of course, in every example from the past, you're going to find weird things from time to time. But we look to past examples, past church leaders, because there's a whole lot of wisdom in looking to those in the past who've done it right. If you have questions about how to do that, I'd love to be a resource to help you in that.
In addition to listening to those voices of old insofar as they're biblical, another implication is that we remember and imitate those leaders from our own stories. Were there spiritual leaders or mentors in your own life who once poured into you, who were faithful to teach you truth, who were there for you to hold you accountable, and who led you in all of these ways into greater maturity in Christ? If so, think back about how they did things, what they prioritized and imitate them, even by doing the same for others.
So while we listen to these voices from the past and we imitate these faithful lives of those who have come before us all for the purpose of following Christ while ourselves, that's important. And yet, our author next reminds us that every leader who we follow, whether past or present or future, should always at every point be fixing us to the one who we all ultimately follow Jesus Christ, our Lord. So this leads to the second point follow the eternal Christ.
Follow the Eternal Christ
Now, we've said a number of times in previous sermons on Hebrews that if we had to give a short summary of what the entirety of Hebrews is about, if you want to boil this whole book into one simple phrase, it's pretty easy to do. Jesus is better. There you go. Jesus is better.
Particularly the focus of our author from start to finish is how Jesus is better than the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament. In that system, there was a lot of death, there was a lot of blood. But for all the animals that died and for all the animal blood that was shed, none of it we've learned in Hebrews was able to accomplish the forgiveness of sins. Only Jesus' sacrificial death in human history accomplished the forgiveness of sins. His blood alone was the only effective detergent to cleanse us from the stain of sin. This is the refrain that plays over and over again throughout the book.
But as our author gives his closing remarks, as he draws everything that he said to a close in this final appeal. Well, it's fitting that he would play this same refrain one final time. If you're looking at your text, particularly in verses ten through 12, our author calls to mind how Christ suffered. Specifically how Christ suffered outside the gate. Then He calls us as the people of God to follow Christ, to go to Christ outside the camp, but to understand what he's talking about in these verses. We actually have to back up a little bit and we have to go all the way back into Israel's history well before Christ's incarnation, to what was perhaps the pinnacle of Israel's sacrificial system, the so-called Day of Atonement.
Now, just as our author has also told us, had much to say about the sacrificial system elsewhere in Hebrews, so too he's also already told us a lot about this so called Day of Atonement elsewhere in Hebrews. But to remind us just very briefly what the Day of Atonement was, it was the one day in Israel's whole sacrificial system where the high priest, the holiest person in the nation, got to enter the holiest place on earth, the center room in the so called tabernacle, the mobile tent of worship. When he went in, he had to offer two sacrifices there. He had to offer the blood of a bull to cover his own sins and then he also had to offer the blood of a goat to cover the sins of the people. But the important feature that our author plucks out and highlights from the Day of Atonement is what happened to the carcasses of those sacrificial victims after their blood was spilled.
You see, in Israel's whole sacrificial system, there were some sacrifices throughout the year where the priests who ministered in the tabernacle, they were permitted to eat the animals after they spilled the blood. But when it came to the sin offerings on the so called Day of Atonement, after the blood was brought into the holiest place on earth, the Holy of Holies and the Tabernacle, we read in Leviticus that the carcasses of those animals had to be taken outside the tabernacle. They had to be taken further out, outside the camp of the Israelites that encircle the tabernacle, out into the wilderness, and they had to be burned. Those sacrificial animals, those were the type of animals that couldn't be consumed by anyone, not even the holiest person, the high priest of Israel. This, our author tells us, is where Christ's sacrifice is better.
Notice that in comparing this Old Testament right to the work of Christ are often reminds us that Christ also suffered outside the camp. Specifically Christ suffered and died outside the gates of Jerusalem. That's a historical fact, something we read about in the Gospels. The cross on which Jesus bled and died to cover the sins of his people was located outside the walls of Jerusalem. In making this point, we're reminded that the one we follow actually accomplished what the Day of Atonement could only foreshadow, look to. And in doing so, Jesus became for us, the better altar that is, the better sacrifice, that we, unlike the priests of old, can truly partake of through faith today.
Understand that as important as our leaders are, both our past leaders and our present leaders, who are we're going to say a little bit about in a few moments, they didn't die for your sins. Only Christ did. And every leader in the church, past or present, has the responsibility to lead you to this Christ.
As you follow those leaders who follow Christ, as we all together follow this one Christ for our salvation, recognize that if your leaders are doing their job rightly, there may be times when the path on which they lead you is uncomfortable. But this is to be expected because in following Christ, we're reminded that we also go the way of reproach. This is what our author tells us next, beginning in verse 13, as he begins to unpack some of the implications of what it means to follow Christ in the present. He writes in verse 13, "Therefore, in view of Christ's better sacrifice, that we are invited to partake of through faith for the salvation of our souls. Therefore, in view of what Christ accomplished, let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach that He endured."
Understand that for the original readers of Hebrews, to turn to faith in Christ and to live out the implications of what it means to follow Christ all of the days of their lives and to follow faithful leaders who would lead them in following Christ, rightly. Well, that would have been costly to do. We mentioned last week in our study of Hebrews 13:1-6, that it wasn't unusual in the day that our author is writing for Christians to be imprisoned, for just being Christians in the Roman world. Following Christ for them and for so many in our world today was costly.
It was also rather odd to do that too. You see, in the ancient world, Christians were considered to be quite odd, quite peculiar, because amidst the whole religious landscape of the day, both among their pagan neighbors and even their Jewish neighbors, they were the only ones who didn't have a place of worship, a temple, or visible sacrifices that they offered. Their pagan neighbors thought they were so weird in this respect that some claimed, according to an early Christian named Irenaeus, quote, "You Christians have no real religion for you have no sacrifices." And others even called Christians atheists because they had no visible representations of their God.
Instead, when Christians in the early church gathered together for worship and fellowship, much like we do today, they studied a book and they became uniquely known in the ancient world among their neighbors for being a people of the book. And yet, though we're called to in Christ, to bear any reproach that the world throws our way. Though we are called in Christ to embrace a position in the world as odd and awkward Christians that we are, our author reminds us that in following Christ and in going to him outside the camp, there's still a sense in which we offer a kind of sacrifice in response to what Jesus Christ has already accomplished.
In the words of our author, we offer, quote, "A sacrifice of praise to God." That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. To put it simply, we worship. Earlier in Hebrews, we were told that through Christ's finished work, in the past, the way of access has been opened in the present. And in following Christ in the present, we are called to avail ourselves of the opportunity to regularly come before the throne of grace, in prayer and in worship. That's a kind of sacrifice that we offer to the Lord.
While worship is one of those sacrifices that we offer today, our author continues in verse 16 by telling us so to the self-sacrificial love we demonstrate to our brothers and sisters in the church is another kind of sacrifice. Now, he already said much in the first five verses of chapter 13 about what those things look like. But now he frames these things as the right sacrificial response in view of what Christ accomplished in the past and how he calls us to follow him today.
So as your past leaders and your present leaders lead you in following this Christ today, then understand that they may lead you into reproach and you may become in the process weird and socially awkward people as you follow them. After all, look at me. But good leaders who lead you in Christ should lead you to worship the living God. They should lead you to inculcate this kind of self-sacrificial, brotherly love in the church today. The Christ we follow who died and bled for our sins in the past is the Christ who we are called to offer as sacrifice of praise today. And yet, as great as it is to know all that Christ accomplished for us in the past, perhaps this call to follow Him into reproach, as our author tells us, to embrace a status as an odd and awkward people in this world. I love how Peter puts it in the KJV "A peculiar people". And even to begin inculcating this self-sacrificial, brotherly love. Well, perhaps all of that sounds quite intimidating, maybe even frightening.
Yet, before our author closes his sermon, we read the so called benediction in verses 21 through 22. Where he reminds us that the Christ, we follow is also the Christ who is with us in the present every step of the way. Christ is, our author tells us, the great shepherd of the sheep. Though we're often as his people senseless sheep, the one we follow is our faithful shepherd. Jesus describes himself this way and one of the most well-known passages in John. In John chapter ten, where we read that as our Shepherd, Jesus lays down his life for us. He did that in the past. He knows each of his sheep. He knows us right now, and he also ruthlessly protects us as his own.
Moreover, we also read in this benediction that Christ equips us with everything good, that we may do His will through His Spirit. In other words, he equips us to do the very hard but very, very good things that he commands us to do. And as we're led and equipped, we're also reminded that we're held secure by the blood of the eternal covenant. I mentioned in the baptism earlier that this word covenant, something we frequently encounter in the Bible, refers to this binding commitment that Christ makes towards His people. The commitment that Christ has towards us is an eternal one. It's a commitment that Christ bound himself to his Church in eternity past before the foundation of the world. A commitment that he demonstrated in human history by spilling his blood and a commitment that reaches eternally into the future as well.
Friends, this is the Christ that we are called to stay fixed on all the days of our lives. The one every single leader, past, present or future in the church should strive to magnify before your eyes. And the one who holds us fast on this long, somewhat treacherous road of faith that we all walk in Christ.
Submit to Present Leaders
In order to keep us pressing forward in Christ, our author commands us finally to submit to our present leaders as the means to keep us pressing forward. This leads to our third point, submit to present leaders. You know, back when the back when the United States National Park System was getting off the ground, one of the motivations that some of the earliest proponents of the park system cited for wanting to set apart the most beautiful places in America was what they saw happening in their own day at Niagara Falls. In the view of many of these early proponents of national parks in the in the late 19th century, as they saw the beauty of Niagara Falls was for them, spoiled by a variety of manmade tourist attractions and ventures that have clogged up the area around the falls and spoiled its natural beauty. As they saw it, what Niagara Falls looked like in their own day was unpleasant, and it took away it was a distraction from the grandeur of the falls.
Perhaps in a similar sense, it might seem like after gazing at the beauty of Jesus Christ and what he accomplished, that to end with a reminder to follow and listen to your present and very fallible leaders in the church spoils the picture of Christ that we just beheld. But in the church, the Bible tells us, God appoints leaders, specifically people like elders, pastors, deacons, to magnify Christ and to lead the people of God in their discipleship.
The Apostle Paul tells us this in Ephesians four, where he says that God gives to his church shepherds and teachers, elders and pastors to equip the people of God. Peter calls the elders he addresses in 1 Peter 5:2 to shepherd the flock of God. And so, too, the author of Hebrews reminds us that leaders in the church, people like elders and pastors, are appointed in the church and have responsibility to keep watch over the souls entrusted to their care.
This responsibility given to pastors and elders in the church also carries a responsibility that those entrusted to their care both obey and submit to their leaders, and that they also do that with joy. Now, this is quite a challenge, and I fully recognize that this could come across somewhat self-serving. But the Bible is the Bible, we have to insist upon what it says.
Yet, though, this command needs to be qualified a bit, and we're going to do that in a moment. We first need to, I think, let this command be challenging. You see, as it relates to following Jesus, which is the main point of the passage before us, understand you can't reject outright Jesus is appointed means for following him. That is the local church and her leaders and claim that you're following Jesus rightly.
Understand that Jesus appoints leaders in his church not to hammer you into submission with their own agenda. That would be bad leadership and perhaps even spiritual abuse. But to take you by the hand, metaphorically speaking, of course, and guide you in your discipleship. To guide you over the rocky terrain of sin that we all find ourselves in from time to time. Through the dark valleys and terrifying forests of pain and suffering, over the mountains of joy. Sometimes these leaders might lead you along frightening paths, but remember that going to Jesus is going the way of reproach, and that's okay. And though your leaders might lose their footing from time to time or might need to pause and look at their compass and map to reorient yourself, we learn that it's for your advantage to walk with these leaders as they lead you in Christ. Our author tells us bluntly that it would be no advantage to you, it would actually be to your detriment to resist faithful church leadership.
Now, of course, and here's where we can qualify this a bit. Human leaders are always fallible, and sadly, there are countless examples we can all look to where leaders have, rather than caring for those entrusted to them, have manipulated those under their care. Or lead members deeper into lies or sin, and have proved themselves to be shameful leaders through their own horribly careless lives. Those are experiences, maybe even experiences in your own past, that can put a bad taste in anyone's mouth. And John Calvin rightly reminds us that it's only those leaders who faithfully pursue their office that we're called to follow.
With those important qualifications in view, the command still stands to submit to and obey your leaders. So how do we do that? How do we do that? Well, I think the most succinct way we can put that is this be committed to a local church. Be committed to a local church. Understand that you're not submitting to leaders in the way this passage envisions when you watch a YouTube video of good teaching or you read Calvin or you study the Westminster Standards and you believe and do what they say. That's good and those things may loosely be in view in the first part of our passage. But here the idea is to submit yourself under flesh and blood leaders who know you and who you know.
Notice that in the final greeting of our passage, right when our author prepares to close that our author, whoever he is, he seems to know the people to whom he writes. Together they both know Timothy. And then he tells their leaders, he tells them to tell their leaders who can presumably be identified, that he says hi. You see, these Christians also have flesh and blood leaders they can identify and submit to, and so too should we. And the only way that happens is when you're committed to the context of the local church.
So if you're not part of a local church, the exhortation, I think, is to pursue church membership, where you put yourself under the authority of leaders who are committed to leading you to Christ and overseeing your souls. And if you are a member of a faithful local church with faithful leader, stay committed by letting your leaders lead you. Insofar as they lead you in truth, follow them. When you see problems, talk to them. When they tell you hard things, but things that are true, bear with their words of exhortation. And as they lead you pray for them.
Recognize, too, that at least at Harvest, none of those who lead you in this church are exempt from this command either. Because we not only submit to and obey each other as elders and leaders in the church, but as elders in the PCA, we're also called to submit to and obey other elders in our presbytery, and we do the same for them. Know then that your leaders aren't off the hook for this command either.
So as you look to Christ, as you follow Christ even into reproach, but ultimately to the city with foundations whose designer and builder is God, do that in the context of the local church by submitting to and obeying those who God appoints for your good.
So as we prepare to close, I want to leave us with this final exhortation. That's this, stay on the proven path as you follow Christ. Growing up into maturity as disciples in Christ always involves a certain commitment to things that the world would deem plain and ordinary. The gospel we preach isn't new. The methods we employ for discipleship, word and sacrament and prayer. They don't evolve or change. The leader is God often places in the church aren't usually the most charismatic people in the world. Look at me. But it's these very ordinary things that have always functioned as the means of leading the people of God where God wants his people to go. It's these things that help aid the spiritual maturity that God desires.
So, as enticing as it may be from time to time to chart your own way and like Eustace, to run away from the team and the mission, stay on the proven path as you follow Christ. Pray with me.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks for this passage. And though there are hard things to say in it about following leaders and perhaps some of us have bad experiences with following poor leaders. I pray, Lord, that you would renew us by your Spirit and the truths that are proclaimed in here. And you would help us, whether we're leaders or members, to together bear with each other, love each other, stay united to each other, and together follow our Lord Jesus Christ who spilled His blood to redeem us from our sins and who leads us to the celestial city. We ask this in Christ name. Amen.