THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERSHIP
As we talk of leadership and the responsibilities that go with it, I don't want to just limit this message to a certain group of people. Because the qualifications that I'm going to be talking about today, even though they were leadership qualities or conditions of leadership, each are also qualities that are to be found in everyone who claims to be a Christian.
Every Christian has certain responsibilities, and to live the Christian life we have to fall under the leadership of Christ because He is the head of our church...and we are all subject to him whether we're leaders or members of the church, or just occasional attenders. We all fall under the leadership of Christ. In Romans chapter 12:1,2 we read...
To every one who holds a position in the church, whatever that position may be, it is so important because of your leadership position, that you be able to test and understand and know what is pleasing to God and what his perfect will is for your group or your area of responsibility.
And it's also important equally important that each and every one of us as Christians, regardless of whether or not you hold a position of leadership right now or not, are told that we're not to conform to the world but to give ourselves as a sacrifice to God.
And as we renew our minds we can come to know what God's will is, what pleases him and makes him happy, and what is going to be the best for the kingdom of heaven and for each one of us here. This morning I want to try to explain to you the importance of our testimony and the importance our life, as Christians, and especially as leaders. READ Lev. 10:1 2...
In these verses we find something happening that is very drastic, and it really paints a picture of the idea that I'm trying to get across to you this morning. Before we get to far into this...the book of Leviticus is one of those books that if you just sat down to read it, it would probably be, to most people, on of the most boring books of the Bible.
It has a lot of detailed instruction about the rules and regulations and the sacrifices, and it seems like a lot of repetition. For this sacrifice you do this and for the next sacrifice you do a slightly different thing and so on...and there are a lot of minute details involved.
But its very important to understand the purpose of this book. The reason these priests were given such detailed instructions about the care of God's tabernacle, his "church", was so that they could be sure of God's continued presence with them.
In the 8th and 9th chapters there are numerous details about how Aaron and his sons were consecrated and set apart, they went through this long process of getting ready to approach God. You see, it was God that had approached them in the first place and he made some promises to them and he said if you'll just obey me then I'll take care of you.
I'll see that all your needs both physical and spiritual...every need that you have will be met. One of these ways of obedience was that they would live their life in such a way that they would show all those nations around them the true nature of holiness.
And it was only as they did what God had commanded them, and were a witness and an example to those around them, that they could expect God to honor His part of the bargain. You see it's like us many times...we think of God as fire insurance. We want God to save us, we want eternal life in heaven rather than to spend eternity in hell. But then we don't want to follow his commands and live as he desires us to...and really it's not that hard.
But yet we expect all the blessings of God, and when we don't get them we get angry. And this book of Leviticus was so important because it give them the instructions they needed that would establish them as a chosen people, a holy nation...to make them distinctive different from everyone else. They would be representatives of the true and living God.
Now, as leaders, the priests were not only to carry out the functions of the church but they were to instruct the people in God's law. They had the added responsibility of not only living their lives but to show others and to help others to live their lives so that they too could be pleasing in God's sight. We're to be able to instruct others in the ways of God so that they too can grow to maturity in Christ.
But there's one basic point I want to get across from the book of Leviticus. There is a consistent emphasis in this book that is so important...God can be approached only in certain prescribed ways. And if we don't approach God in the proper context then disaster is going to be the result.
In chapter 9 Aaron and his sons went through the process. They sacrificed and made themselves clean, they consecrated their garments, they made sacrifice for the people...and in the end of the chapter it talks about how the glory of the Lord appeared...and it appeared to all the people.
The offerings they had offered up were accepted. Fire came down and the glory of the Lord was there and they shouted and fell on their faces...and they had such reverence and awe at the power and majesty of God. It was a great time for them...they had truly experienced the presence of God in such a powerful way. It seemed like they were in the midst of revival.
But then we come to chapter 10. In this chapter we see how quickly God can come against those who refuse to follow the guidelines. These two men insisted on pursuing an independent course. They wanted to do things their own way. These men were doing their own thing and attaching God's name to it.
God had set down some very specific rules for them but they decided that they could do it their own way and still achieve the same results. And because of this, what had just been a time of such happiness and excitement, was now marred by such a needless tragedy as we read about.
Two priests are being dragged out of the temple, still in their priestly robes, but they were consumed God made them toast. And Aaron is standing by trembling. These were his sons that were being dragged out dead, and the people were completely horrified.
These were men of God, people who had a privileged position. In Ex. 24 we read where they were with Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders who had seen a tremendous manifestation of God on Mount Sinai. And they had just seen how God had come down and consumed the sacrifices on the altar.
They knew that God was real and they understood the process that they were to go through. They knew what was expected of them!! They went in there to do His service but they died...WHY? In verse 3 we have the answer as to why this terrible thing had happened. READ 3&4
Nadab and Abihu offered up unauthorized fire before the Lord. The important thing to understand here is that it wasn't just what they had done, although that was serious enough and reason enough for God's judgment, but the thing that really was at the root of this was what they had become. Sin had caused them to become strangers to God.
Even though they had seen and experienced Him, they wanted to do things their own way. In chapter 9 when Moses and Aaron went out before the glory of the Lord came down, they had gone out and prayed and fasted, and they took that time to prepare themselves to enter into his presence. They came in with clean hands and a pure heart. They came in from the altar of prayer.
I wonder sometimes where we come from when we enter his presence. Do we come from a place where we have sought God and prepared ourselves to hear from Him and experience His presence? Is that how we come to church...with our hearts prepared and with anticipation of hearing from Him?
Nadab and Abihu took lightly what they were becoming involved in. It's so important for us to realize that we must never take lightly the calling to which God has called us. There are two things that I find about Nadab and Abihu that I want to talk about briefly. The first thing is PRIDE.
These two men had a position that was very much respected, they were priests...the sons of Aaron...and people looked up to them. It was a position of honor. But when they got that position they said okay, that's great. We've been called and set apart for this position, now we'll take it from here. They decided that they would do things their own way.
They went in there to offer up the sacrifice of incense, which was not theirs to do in the first place. Moses had charge of the incense, and there was a certain way that the incense had to be mixed for it to be acceptable to God. But they took common incense and tried to pass it off as something holy.
And then they used fire from the altar of sacrifice rather than the fire from the altar of incense which was a perpetual fire. And so what happened was they did it their own way. And it was a matter of pride. They didn't take time to seek God and to get their wisdom and discernment from Him as to how to carry out their ministry and their lives.
Many times we say the right things and we go through the motions but we're doing it all wrong because we're doing our own will but attaching God's name to it. We understand better than God does just how we ought to live our lives and how things are to be done both in the church and out.
The second thing we see here is contempt. Someone once said that familiarity breeds contempt, and believe there is a lot of truth to that statement. I looked up the word contempt in the dictionary and it means to disregard; scorn; disobedient to the rules.
How do we approach the house of God? I realize this is just a building of wood, glass, etc. But this is still a place where we come to enter into the presence of God. Yet where is the reverence? For the most part we completely disregard the true purpose of why we're here.
How many of us entered this service with our hearts prepared and ready to enter into worship? What was actually going through our minds?? The NFL, what we'll be preparing for dinner, what so and so said about you know who?
When I first got saved...excitement, reverence, awe...where God was!! As time went...familiarity...something was lost, missing. Nadab and Abihu seemed to have fallen into the same kind of pattern. They thought they could do the things of God as they wanted, with their lax attitude, and that it would still be pleasing to God.
The incense that they burned was to be offered by only one priest, and yet these two guys went in together. You know there's safety in numbers. When you're doing something wrong and you do it by yourself there's nobody else to blame it on or to share the burden of guilt.
But whenever you can get somebody else that is willing to go along with you, or that is in agreement with you, there seems to be some kind of safety in that. "We determined that this was acceptable" and the more people we can get to go along with what we want to do the better we feel and the easier it is to do things.
They did it wrong from the very beginning. They went in together. They snatched up their censers, as the original languages put it, in a light and careless way...they didn't have a seriousness about what they were doing.
I wonder what differences there would be if we really believed that God was going to be here this morning. Would we grab our hymnals and sing in a different way? Would we give our offerings in a different attitude? Would we enter into prayer with our thoughts on 101 different things? How do we approach our ministries and areas of responsibility? With excitement or a que sera sera attitude? In verse 3 it says...
Aaron remained silent. He knew his sons had done things wrong even after all the repetition of the proper procedures for performing their duties. But they were still his sons, and he loved them. And it must have been an awful thing because he was not even allowed to mourn for them
In verses 6 7 Moses instructed Aaron and his two surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar that they weren't to mourn the death of Nadab and Abihu. No expression of grief. WHY? Because it would appear that they were disputing or challenging in some way the execution of God's judgment upon these two men.
Even in a time of great calamity the priests, the people of God have to set an example to the nations of strict obedience to the will of God. No matter what their personal feelings might be, nothing must be allowed to interfere with the work of God and the ministry of God.
In fulfilling God's will, Jesus Christ would allow no personal considerations of any kind to stand in the way of his redemptive work on Calvary. And he becomes a model for us to look at. Now I've heard people say that many of the things we read about in the Old Testament are just that...things from the old covenant, but now we're under grace. We're no longer subject to the rules of the Law.
Christ fulfilled the Law, but the principle still remains, as Ananias and Saphira found out in the book of Acts. They had they same type of pride and contempt in their lives. They wanted to be known for their holiness and righteousness, but wanting to do things their own way.
Now this has been a somewhat negative message so far. I'm not here to preach condemnation, to downgrade or cast dispersions, and I certainly don't have any axes to grind. The goal that I have is to help you understand God's holiness...and to understand the seriousness of our calling.
Whether it is to a position of leadership or just to live a life that is a testimony to the lost and dying around us, we have responsibilities. We all have the responsibility to share our faith; to be faithful in our attendance, to be faithful with our tithes and offerings, to be faithful in prayer...lifting up the leadership of the church and our nation.
I think we need to take the time to examine ourselves, to find out where we truly stand with God. What is my level of consecration? Am I really ready to offer myself as a living sacrifice to God as we read about in Romans 12?
