I invite you to open your Bible to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. All of us have a need to feel accepted
and to belong to a society or a community or
an order or a family of some sort, such as a
normal expression of being human. We by nature
want to belong. There is an unhealthy trend,
it seems to me. that is noted in the 90s and
is predicted to increase. It's a trend toward
privatization. What that means is that people
increasingly want to be left alone. For a number
of reasons, particularly because of the stress
of life and sometimes because of the nuisance
of others, people want to insulate themselves
from others. Such a thing was impossible really
before our day, but modern technology makes it
possible to have a certain degree of isolation.
One can establish a workstation in his own home
using a computer. We are told that within a few
years it's going to be able to block your telephone
calls so that only pre -programmed numbers will
be able to get through to your telephone to reach
you. Technology is going to permit us to isolate
ourselves to a degree that was never even dreamed
of in years past. Actually this trend is anti
-social and it's unhealthy and unnatural. Each
of us certainly needs to be an individual and
we do need to have our own space. But on the
other hand, God has made us to be social creatures.
He has created us to need to belong. First of
all, to belong to Him. And then to belong to
a people that belongs to Him. That's the way
God created us, isn't it? He created us to be
His, and He created us to be a part of a race
of people that would be obedient. and therefore
in fellowship with Him, the Creator. But sin's
entrance changed all of that. Sin brought separation
from God and from others. The Church of Jesus
Christ is the new created order of God. It is
a community of people who belong, who belong
first to God and then who belong also to each
other. The Apostle addresses this next paragraph
to the brethren. We request of you, brethren,
Adelphoi, brothers. The word literally means
those who come from the same womb. It didn't
refer merely to males, but it's a term that refers
to all of those who are children of the same
family. That's what we are. We are brethren.
We are family members of the same family. We
share the same life source, which is God. We
share the same Lord, Jesus Christ. We share the
same indwelling Spirit of God. And we share the
same inheritance and destiny, a destiny that
he has just reminded us of in this text. when
he says that God has not destined us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation. We share all of that
in common. We are members of a body, a body which
is a living organism. And like every other organism
in God's creation, there is a basic structure
and organization. to this organism called the
Church. And there are certain principles by which
it functions in order to accomplish its God -designed
purpose. That is true, I repeat, in all organisms.
You can think of an amoeba or the complexity
of the human body. All organisms have a certain
basic structure and principles by which they
are created to function. The Church of Jesus
Christ, as a living community of believers who
belong to it, functions in a healthy way when
it operates as God designed it to operate. That
sounds like a rather simple statement, doesn't
it? And it is, really. But the sad thing is that
it's too often forgotten or neglected. by God's
people. The church of Jesus Christ functions
in a healthy way when it operates as God designed
it to. I suppose that we could see the church
in many different ways as to how it's basically
organized, but one is this. We are a people,
all of us. We are a people called to follow Jesus
Christ, and we are called to follow those whom
he assigns to be over us. Jesus Christ is the
head of our church, but he mediates his headship
through his word, through the Holy Spirit who
lives in us, and through godly leaders that He
places over us. Being a leader in God's church
has nothing to do with one's chosen vocation.
It has nothing to do with one's position in life.
It has nothing to do with one's social status
or with one's income. Being placed by Jesus Christ
as a leader in the church has to do with God's
gifts and God's calling. And according to those
gifts and His calling in our lives, He places
some who are leaders in the living organism,
the Church. God calls us to follow and to be
servants, all of us. There are no exceptions
to that. He calls all of us to follow and to
be servants. He also calls some of us to lead.
In the text, that is exactly what the Apostle
is dealing with. We request of you, brethren,
that you appreciate those who diligently labor
among you and have charge over you in the Lord
and give you instruction. and that you esteem
them very highly in love because of their work,
live in peace with one another." I notice first
in our text the duty of God -assigned leaders.
Notice that it's plural. He says, those who diligently
labor. Undoubtedly, the thought in Paul's mind
is that of elders. Early in his ministry, the
apostle practiced establishing churches with
elders to oversee them. And though he doesn't
use that specific term here, undoubtedly that's
what he has in mind. Those in the church that
are called and gifted by God to be overseers
or shepherds of the flock. Now he says specifically
regarding this group of people, that they have
a function that is three -fold. In the first
place, they are to diligently labor. The idea
there is to grow weary with exhausting toil and
effort. Being a leader in God's church is not
a vacation. A price has to be paid to be a leader,
and it's a price that must be paid willingly.
Through Peter, the Lord says to us that those
who are elders are to shepherd the flock not
because they are constrained to do so or for
sordid gain, but they are to do it willingly.
Why? Because it's the call of God upon their
lives. Being an elder is not an honorary office.
It is an office that denotes ministry and service
and diligent work. It also involves having charge
over the church in the Lord. The verb having
charge over literally means to stand before a
group or to stand over a group. The verb also
implies to develop, or to care for, or to attend
to. And it ties in beautifully with Peter's thought,
1 Peter 5 again, shepherd, tend to provide for
the flock of God. Except that Paul uses it the
same idea in a different way. He says, those
who have charge over you, like a shepherd has
charge over his flock. The nature of leadership
is responsibility. And with the responsibility,
our Lord gives authority to preside and to direct.
It is interesting to me to notice the plurality
that is always inherent when elders are spoken
of in the New Testament. That indicates to me
that in the local church there ought to be a
plurality of godly leaders. Not one elder is
God's plan, but a plurality of them. And it also
suggests that the authority of eldering, of having
charge, belongs to the group and not to the individuals
that compose it. That is a principle that we
try to apply here at Grace Church, Roseville.
The authority that belongs to an elder is authority
that belongs to the group, to the corporate body
of them. When they function together, it is not
authority that is to be used by an individual.
They function as elders when they're together,
is the point. and our Lord gives them charge
over the church. They serve as a leadership team.
I suppose that many of us have seen leadership
abused. There are some elders, thank God not
in our church, but I have seen elders who beat
the sheep instead of lead the sheep. That is
an abuse of authority that Jesus Christ gives.
But make no mistake about it that elders are
given the authority to have charge over the church
in the Lord. Notice that sphere. It's in the
Lord. This is not a matter of human presumption.
It is a matter of divine appointment. It is not
authoritarianism. It is not dictatorship. It
is God designed leadership. And I repeat, the
Church of Jesus Christ functions in a healthy
way when it operates as God designed it to operate.
We notice then a third aspect of the role of
an elder, a leader. It is to give instruction.
The word really means to put something into the
mind of someone else. Those of you familiar with
J. Adams' counseling methods know that his sort
of counseling is called newthetic counseling.
Here's the word, newthetic, newtheo. It means
to admonish, to warn, to put something into the
mind of another so as to correct. It means more
than merely to teach. It means also to discipline.
That is the thought. Discipline is neither easy
to meet out nor is it for the most part easy
to receive. All of us can identify with that
as both children and as parents, if we are parents.
This kind of instruction and warning is not easy
to give, it's not easy to take, but the fact
is it's important for us to learn to do that.
It can create resentment, but this kind of admonition
from leadership is necessary. It's as necessary
in the church as a family, as it is necessary
in the family unit itself. Children who have
no discipline, who are not warned, who grow up
without rules and boundaries are children who
are at a loss. We have some of those in Sunday
school. We have some children in our Sunday school
who have not learned to be disciplined at home.
It is very difficult for Sunday School teachers
to be both parent and Sunday School teacher.
I want to encourage you who are parents to be
involved in disciplining your children, to establish
boundaries for them. That is God's role for you
in your home as much as it is the role for elders
in leadership in a local church. Indeed, it's
interesting that you see a parallel not only
in this third point, but in the first two with
parenting. Parents diligently labor. Being a
parent is not an honorary title. When you look
forward to that first child, there is tremendous
excitement and enthusiasm, but it takes a few
weeks and you realize after the child has come
that there's a whole lot of work with this little
baby. It's blessed, but it's work. Parents are
to be held in very high esteem because of that
work. Parents also have charge over their children.
They are charged by God with nurturing them and
rearing them in the admonition of the Lord. That
is God's charge to parents. And so you can see
that being an elder in a church is not unlike
being a parent in a family. The parallelism between
the responsibilities is striking. And indeed,
the church is a family in a certain sense. When
we gather together, we are the family of God.
We are brethren. We are from the same womb. We
are born by the same Spirit in the Word of God.
And as we gather as a family, there are those
that God has appointed to give direction and
leadership and discipline, when that's necessary,
to us as God's family. But the text also includes
our duty to God -assigned leaders. Notice that
the apostle requests this. It is difficult to
demand things of people. There are times when
God does. There are times when the apostle does
in his writings. But here he uses a softer term.
He says, we request this of you as those who
are our peers. Paul is not putting himself above
others and saying as an apostle, now this is
what you must do. He is seeing himself on the
same level as the church in Thessalonica. And
he speaks to friends and he says, we request
of you, members of the family of God, that you
respond to the leaders God has placed over you
in this way. in the first place, verse 12, by
appreciating them. It means more than just to
know them by name, it means to appreciate. Dr.
Habert in his commentary on this text says, the
members seemingly had not appreciated nor rightly
understood the nature and function of their leaders.
The verb here clearly carries the further thought
that they must appreciate these leaders as they
recognize their true value. Do you realize the
value of those whom God has given us as a church,
as leaders? Believe me, I do. And I never fail
to come away from one of our elders' meetings.
Without lifting my heart to God and saying God
I thank you for the quality of leaders That you
have given us in this church I Hear some of the
war stories of other pastors and that even doubles
my gratitude But I want us to expand the idea
of leadership beyond elders for a moment and
say that we need to value all of those in our
church who are in some role of standing up in
front of others and presiding. It may be a Sunday
school teacher. It may be a small church pastor
or leader. It may be someone who's leading a
discipleship group. It may be a person who has
committed himself to the music ministry of the
church. It may be a leader among the students.
It may be someone who is responsible for organizing
in the nursery. There are lots of ways in our
church in which we have leaders, people who are
responsible for others. All of us need to give
thanks to God for those who respond to that sort
of role in our church. Because if it weren't
for the many who participate in leadership, we
could not function in a healthy way. And so I
exhort all of us to appreciate and value those
whom God has given us to lead. We are secondly
commanded and requested to esteem them very highly.
It's kind of an extension of the first idea.
It means to hold them in regard without any boundaries
to it. But there be no reservations. And yet
so often there's a natural tendency in our part
to have reservations. We hear leadership say
something and our human nature is to be immediately
suspicious or distrustful. And I recognize that
all of us are a composite of where we've been
and there are people who come into our church
out of situations where perhaps leadership has
been abusive. And so when something happens in
our church, or leaders make some decision in
our church, they evaluate that through the grid
of their past. We have to be patient with that
and understand that. But the Word of God tells
us that we are to esteem them very highly, to
hold them in regard without reservation. And
we're to do that with a spirit of affection and
love. with a graciousness, we are to be submissive
and cooperative, as we esteem them highly, because,
he says, of their work. Because of their work.
It may not be that we esteem them highly because
of their personality, because we may not all
appreciate the personality of all the leaders.
but we are to esteem them highly because of their
work and their value to the body of Jesus Christ
and their value to the Lord who has placed them
in the body with that responsibility. How important
that we nurture this attitude in our lives. I
think it's important for us to be reminded that
we've heard it before. That our attitude toward
the authority that God places in our lives Exactly
reflects our attitude toward God's authority
in our lives Now whether that be in the realm
of the government Because they are leaders also
that God has placed or be in the realm of the
family or the realm of the church We are to appreciate
and esteem them highly and recognize that our
response to them reflects our response to God's
lordship in us. And finally, he says, we are
to live in peace with one another. Peace is a
product of the Holy Spirit, but we are responsible
to maintain it. No church can grow spiritually
without its members being at peace among themselves.
This is equally binding upon leaders and upon
everyone. We are to live in peace. That is not
always easy. It is not always easy because all
of us still have sin that dwells within us. And
sin is the root of war. According to James chapter
4, it's the lusts in our hearts that produce
wars, divisions. But we are nonetheless to live
in peace. In Romans 12 the Apostle Paul puts
it this way, if possible, so far as it depends
on you, be at peace with all men. I think we
realize that a person whose bodily members are
at war and which are fighting against one another
is a person who is sick. and may be in danger
of dying. And so it is in a church. And so it
is in a church. Live in peace with one another.
All of us have need to belong. That's part of
being human. We have need to belong to a community
of something or some people. A community that
has no order to it is a community in anarchy.
Anarchy is not a word that is ever to describe
the body of Jesus Christ And so let us seek to
live according to the order that he has ordained
in his word Belonging to God's forever family
is an eternal relationship. We belong to God
and to one another We join God's forever family
as an act of faith in Jesus Christ That act of
faith is a definite commitment on our part to
Him. It involves the will. There is a choice
that is involved. There is a change that is involved.
It means that we trust Him alone for salvation
and we give Him all that we are. It may be that
you don't belong to God. And if you don't belong
to God, you can't belong to his family. And so
your need today is to belong to him and to join
that family by faith in Christ. But there's one
more thing I want to say before I bring this
message to a conclusion. That is, it is God's
obvious design, it seems to me, for us to belong.
Not only to God's forever family, but to a local
church. That's the whole context of this book
that Paul has written. It's to those who belong
to the church in Thessalonica. Belonging to a
local church means joining. It means committing.
It means submitting. It means sharing life's
opportunities. It means all of that. My question
is, do you belong? Where do you belong? That
is not a casual question that we can shirk. It
is a significant question that is involved with
the very warp and wolf of God's plan and design
for the order of the body. While the direction
of our world is toward individual autonomy, toward
privatism, toward independence, let us not allow
that spirit of the world. to invade our thinking.
That we can remain autonomous from the church.
That we can be private and independent of it.
For all of that is contrary to God's plan. It's
even against the very nature of being human.
To be human is to belong. And God wants you to
belong. And if it is a fact that you do not belong
to a local church anywhere, then it's time to
do that as a part of God's plan for you, a part
of God's order for the body. It may not be Grace
Church. I am not suggesting that it must be.
It may be. And if that is God's plan, get with
it and do it. If God's plan is somewhere else,
then do it there. The point is, God's plan is
to belong, to join, to be a part. We need that.
We need that as humans, and we need it as the
children of God. Let's pray. Do you belong to
God's family, my friend? Have you trusted Jesus
Christ as your Savior and Lord? If not, would
you today give your heart to Him in faith? And
if you are a believer in Christ and you're part
of God's forever family, do you belong to a local
church where you're participating? Where you've
joined? Where you're sharing? That's God's plan.
That's not just this preacher's idea. It's God's
plan. And so I encourage you today to seek God's
mind and God's will and God's direction. regarding
where he wants you to belong. Father, I pray
for Jesus' sake that this body may function in
a healthy way and that each of us as members
of the body will be living under the lordship
of Jesus Christ and living in such a way that
we are participating and healthy members of the
family of God. In Jesus' name, amen. I'd like
for us to sing just a verse of number 422 before
we go our way. It's the third verse I'd like
for us to sing since we only have time to sing
one. So would you sing, please, with me. 422
verse 3. Let's stand as we sing. Take time to
be holy, let Him be your guide, And run not before
Him, whatever be time, In joy or in sorrow still.
This thought in closing. A Christian is a mind
through which Christ thinks, a heart through
which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ
speaks. and a hand through which Christ helps.
May we this week live as Christians. God bless
you.