The Wonderful Church Leadership
Sunday, August 19, 2007 – PM
By Pastor Jim May
3 John 1-14
Have you ever wondered what kind of spiritual giants led the early churches? These men and women of God were called by God to lead the baby church to fulfill the Great Commission. It had been only a few years since Jesus, the very Son of God, had been crucified, risen from the dead, walked among men and then was received into Heaven. Even at that very moment the consensus was that Jesus would return very soon. There was much yet to be revealed to the church and included in the written Word of God that you and I enjoy so much today.
At this point the only real gospel messages and teaching about Jesus came by Word of Mouth or personal letters from the disciples. Then one-by-one the disciples began to fall as they carried the gospel to a lost and dying world; a world that hated them, hated their message, hated the Jesus that they loved and would kill them at the first chance just to silence their voices.
Even in the midst of such great persecution the church continued to grow and to flourish. Churches were founded in many towns and cities throughout the region round about Israel. Some of these churches are named in scripture while many were not. But every church is represented in those that are mentioned in one way or another.
There is the Corinthian Church, established in Corinth, a city 48 east of Athens, Greece, to whom Paul addressed the letters of 1 & 2 Corinthians. There was the church at Thessalonica, a port city at the intersection of two major Roman roads in Macedonia.. who received both letters from Paul. There was the Galatian Church, founded in what is now central Turkey. Then there were the seven churches of Asia Minor that Jesus addressed personally in the Revelation. These were the church of Smyrna, Thyatira, Laodicea, Pegamos, Sardis, Philadelphia and Ephesus and founded on the western end of Turkey. Of course, the Apostle Paul addressed the leadership at Ephesus in the Book of Ephesians. The church at Philippi became the object of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Then there was the church of Colossae 10 miles east of Laodicea and 100 miles from Ephesus. The further east these churches went, the more the gospel seemed to get diluted with other teachings, even though they were established on solid ground by true men of God. Last, but not least, were the churches at Rome and those located in Jerusalem and other places in Israel.
Since the Apostle Paul personally wrote to and visited many of these churches we can see that the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ had spread quite rapidly during the first 70 years of the churches existence.
But during those 70 years, there was a vast number of church leaders who were already losing sight of the truth of the gospel and began to embrace and teach false doctrines.
Man will always be man, imperfect, ever trying to figure things out on his own and then corrupting the truth and turning it into a lie. The gospel message is a simple message. It should not be hard to maintain its purity, and yet, within 70 years there were many church leaders who had already gone astray.
The Colossian church had been founded by Epaphrus, the same one that spent time in jail with Paul in Rome. He had probably gone to report all of the heresies that had invaded the church. They were turning into Gnostics; people who believe in observing the signs of the Zodiac, worshipping the sun, moon and stars, and embracing fortunetelling and witchcraft. The leadership after Epaphrus had failed miserably in its duty to uphold the truth and they earned some stinging rebukes from the Apostle Paul.
Most of the churches throughout Asia were in big trouble. Even though the Ephesians had tried to hold the line on holiness and righteousness and had held the gospel as much as they could, they still had problems. Jesus said that they had left their first love. It was as though they loved holiness but forgot the Holy One. They loved the gospel, but had overlooked their relationship with Jesus Christ.
The leadership had allowed the people to lose sight of Jesus and to focus on “works”. Does that sound like some of our churches of today?
The church at Laodicea had become lukewarm. They were satisfied with just a form of worship but lacked the fire and the power of the Holy Spirit in their midst. The leadership of the church was satisfied with a form of religion. It paid their bills, it soothed their conscious but it failed to meet the spiritual needs of the people and there were very few converts. It had become more like a social club than a Holy Ghost filled church, on fire for God.
The church at Pergamos was still a powerful church, but it was on the verge of compromise with the devil. Jesus told them to forsake the teachings of the Nicolaitans that believed in sexual promiscuity and immorality weren’t all that bad. The leadership of the church had allowed all sorts of worship enter the church. Their attitude reminds me of those churches now who allow rock music, flag waving, choreographed dancing and all sorts of fleshly things to become a part of the church. The leaders were compromised in their own lives and that led to a compromising church.
The church at Sardis was in real trouble and on the verge of total collapse. The Spirit of the Lord had come to the point of leaving them to their own devices. They claimed to be spiritual but they were as dead as they could be. Jesus told them in Revelation 3:1-6 that they needed to shake themselves, wake up and get back to God before it was too late.
The leadership of the church was backslid; the church had become spiritually bankrupt – they claimed to be a church but they were far from what Jesus wanted them to be – so far that the very few faithful ones were the only thing keeping them from simply ceasing to exist in the mind of God.
Now I want you to look at the Book of III John. There you will see what the beloved disciple John saw happening in the church. John, the man who loved Jesus so much, was grieved as he saw the gospel message being corrupted. Yes, there were men of God who remained true to their calling and true to Christ, but many more were falling into error.
John desired more than anything else that the message of the gospel would remain pure and simple. He delighted in leadership that would remain true to God.
3 John 1:1-4, "The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."
John understood the proverbial saying that goes, “As the leadership goes, so goes the followers.” He knew that the church could only remain faithful and true to Christ if the ministers, pastors, teachers and other leadership would give them an example. He knew also that the church would only be blessed by God as they remained true and faithful.
I often wonder how many people in the church are sick because the leadership is failing. Could it be that many are sick, their health failing even at a young age, because their soul is sin-sick through compromising with the world? How many of our sicknesses and diseases could be cured if we would just get rid of the worry and stress of sin? How much healthier could the Body of Christ be if their hearts were right with God? It all falls back to the leadership. I shudder sometimes when I think of the awesome responsibility of leading the church. I must try to be so very careful to only teach and preach the truth, for the very souls of men hang in the balance, and now I see that even the health of your body can be affected as well.
Now don’t blame the leadership for your sickness if you aren’t right! Don’t blame me for your upset stomach if you decide to go home and eat ice cream, pickles and bananas and then chase them down with a Dr. Pepper. That’s your own fault, not mine. It’s not always the fault of the leadership. We often bring these things on ourselves.
Here we see that John is happy, and I know that Jesus is happy too, when the leadership of the church are walking in truth and obeying the Word of God, fulfilling the call of God in their lives. That’s the kind of leadership we need.
We need leaders who are on their face before God, interceding for the people, not whacking a golf ball down the cow pasture. We need men and women of God taking the church before the Lord in prayer rather than drowning a few worms in the muddy river waters. We need leadership that study the Word, so that they can teach and preach with the anointing, and not just stand and give a sermonette that won’t even stir a Christianette. We need leadership that will lead and not push. We need leadership to set the right example and not be an example of compromise.
3 John 1:5-8, "Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth."
John commended the faithful leadership. He commended them for not taking anything from the Gentiles around them. These men of God had held the line against the world and not allowed anything of Satan to enter into the church. They didn’t need the wealth of the world, the worldly music, the compromised forms of worship, or the flashing lights and hype of the world to build the church. All they needed was the message of the gospel! Now we see the two types of leadership that existed in John’s day, and still exist today.
3 John 1:9-11, "I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God."
Here is the leadership that is self-serving, compromising, wanting the recognition, power and control over the House of God and God’s people. They weren’t ministers, but bosses! They laid down the law to the people to either do it their way or get out of the way. The refuse to accept the fact that they are not godlike, but lift themselves up as God’s man for the hour instead. They hate those ministers who are true because it shows them up for what they really are, “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who are there only to fleece the people of God.
I’ve seen these preachers in action. No one ever measures up to their standards. No one dares to question their integrity, because they have no integrity. Their lives are nothing but compromise to get what they want at the expense of the church. Anyone who speaks the truth won’t stay around them long because light and darkness cannot mix.
There are a lot of “Diotrephes preachers” in the church world today! All you have to do is turn on the TV or radio and you will hear them shouting for money, selling their wares, and exalting their own ministries but never truly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ or preaching against sin. The spirit of Diotrephes is alive and well in the church of today and it stands right along side of the Spirit of the Antichrist that is bent on destroying the church completely. John wanted to cast Diotrephes out of the church completely! He wanted purity and righteousness back in the church. There is no place in true ministry for the exaltation of self. God must get the glory and no one else.
Now let’s look at the other type of leadership in the church.
3 John 1:12, "Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true."
It takes only a few words of encouragement for a minister to keep doing the right thing. If their heart is right and their spirit is right, they don’t need “stroking” from the congregation to feel good about what they are doing and saying. Their approval comes from being in communion and obedience to Almighty God. The fulfilling of the call of God, and watching God bring the results, is all they need to keep on keeping on.
They love the truth and they love other people who speak the truth. They know that the original church had the simple message of the gospel with its teachings of repentance and surrendering of self to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s the only message that we need in the church today as well. John closes out this short letter to Gaius quickly and simply.
3 John 1:13-14, "I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name."
In these verses we can see that John wasn’t through with what he had to say. It seems that there is always something left unsaid, some problem left unsolved or some issue left to deal with. But John knows that it will always be so. As long as time lasts, there will be both good and bad church leadership.
Most of the problems in leadership must be dealt with in person. Pen and paper won’t do because its too easily ignored. There must sometimes be a face-to-face confrontation with leadership that has gone astray, and sometimes that confrontation isn’t too pleasant, but it must be done if the church is to prosper.
Peace can only reign in the church if the leadership remains true to God. False teachers and false preachers are often the source of church splits and divisions in the congregation.
Let us hope and pray, and be on guard to keep the church leadership where it needs to be, UNDER GOD! I pray that as the leader of this church, I will never try to lift myself on a pedestal, and to ever remember that I am a servant of the flock, not the boss. Lord help us to lead where your Spirit leads. Then we will know that we are leading in the right direction.
As John says, salute one another in true holiness as friends for we are all going the same way, desiring the same things. Greet those you meet who are true to God and pray for one another. Greet them by name- yes by their own name, but more than that – Greet them in THE NAME – the name of Jesus!
