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Armagh Baptist Church – Sunday 12 February 2017
“Lessons in Leadership 2: Be Constructive; Not Destructive!”
2 Corinthians 10:7-11
Introduction
Last Sunday morning we started a new series called Lessons in Leadership based
on 2 Corinthians chs.10-13. We found that the first lesson in Christian leadership is
‘Remember you’re in a Battle!’ – We are all involved in a Spiritual Battle. So let’s
not be surprised when the enemy attacks. Let’s stand firm and use the weapons
God has given us – The Word of God and Prayer – which are mighty in God for
tearing down strongholds!
This morning we more on to look at our second “Lesson in Leadership” in 10:7-11.
I’ve chosen v.8 as my key text this morning. Paul is talking about…
‘The authority the Lord gave us
for building you up rather than pulling you down.’
they said, ‘No! – It rests with Parliament.’ And so this past week has been spent
debating a one clause Bill, to start the process of leaving the EU. - We are living
through times when authority is being questioned more today than ever before!
Our concern this morning of course is not with politics, but how a Christian leader
should exercise authority correctly in a local church:
- Should he be forever cracking the whip, or using the big stick?
- Should he be continually setting out his agenda of the list of petty rules and
regulations that he expects his people to toe the line on?
- Should he pull someone aside and have a quiet word in their ear if he feels their
behaviour as a Christian is not up to scratch?
- Should he be always banging the pulpit and shouting louder to make sure you
know who’s in charge?
- Or should he just get on with preaching God’s Word as faithfully as he knows
how, believing God’s Word has the real power to change attitudes and behaviour?
Paul here is dealing with how a Christian leader should handle ‘Authority’.
We are called to ‘Be Constructive; not Destructive’ in our exercise of authority.
(After all don’t we believe that the Bible is our final authority
in all matters of faith and practice!)
Authority has become a bad word in many quarters today, hasn’t it?
Attitudes to authority in today’s world have completely changed.
It’s not that long ago in our culture that just because a man walked down the street
dressed in black with a white collar on, he commanded respect wherever he went.
He was the local priest or clergyman.
Not so today. Today such an individual is more likely to be treated with suspicion,
or even the butt of many jokes! Times have changed.
You see, in this chapter Paul was being accused of being far too ‘timid’ in his use
of authority in the church in Corinth.
But it’s not just towards clergymen that respect for authority has waned in our
culture. Go into any school classroom and you’ll find the same problem.
With teachers’ hands tied behind their backs as far as school discipline is
concerned, pupils are well aware of this and some of them run riot in schools
today. There is little or no respect for teachers either.
So whether we’re talking about the classroom, the home, the courts, the church, or
society in general, there seems to be a crisis in knowing how to exercise authority
correctly – and this leads to increasing problems as far as people submitting to
authority is concerned.
Even in Politics we have a crisis of authority. Where does authority ultimately lie?
Does it lie at Stormont? Does it lie in the House of Commons? Or the House of
Lords? Or does it rest with the people when they vote in a Referendum? Or does
the Supreme Court have the ultimate say. Theresa May thought the authority to
trigger Article 50 and take us out of the European Union was in her hands, but it
was taken to the Supreme Court (a body we had hardly even heard of before) and
“He was all threats, but he never took any action.”
“He was all bark and no bite!”
“He was too meek and too gentle!” (v.10).
He was being contrasted with the false teachers – the Judaizers – in Corinth,
who were always so sure of themselves – they always appeared to be “in control.”
They were far more masterful. They showed who was boss; who was in charge!
What does Paul have to say about this? (v.7)
“You’re only looking at the outward appearance!”
(cf. 1 Samuel 16:1-3, 6-7 where Samuel only looked at the outward appearance
when he went to Jesse’s home to try to pick one of his sons to be King in Israel.
If you’re relying on outward appearance alone, you’d be wrong!)
There can be many a self-appointed wee pope in many a local church.
The sort of person who makes sure that nothing gets done unless he says so.
But who put him there? Who gave him his authority?
Did God? Or did he take it upon himself?
If you’re looking for a leader in a Christian church, you shouldn’t be looking for a
“Managing Director” type of person, you shouldn’t be looking for a “Boss-man”,
you should be looking for “God’s man!” A very different character altogether!
Many a man could claim to be called of God, just like the false apostles of Corinth
in v.7, but only a man’s attitude and behaviour, and especially how he handles
authority, will prove if he truly is God’s man.
2. Authority in the Church is not to be Destructive (v.8c)
So we should never just look on the outward appearance when we’re selecting a
man for leadership in a local church – outward worldly leadership qualities can
deceive badly and create many problems (as they did in Corinth)!
Godly leaders should never use their authority for tearing people down, for pulling
people down, or putting people down.
“For building you up, not for tearing you down.”
We can learn 3 important lessons about authority in the church from 2 Cor.10:8.
No pastor or elder should ever rule like a tyrant or dictator, riding rough-shod over
people’s lives and feelings – If they did, they wouldn’t be acting as men of God!
1. Authority in the Church is God-given (v.8a)
But these false teachers in Corinth were doing just that!
Paul talks about “Our Authority, which the Lord gave us.”
So authority in the church is God-given – but who did God give that authority to?
Well, Paul was speaking as an Apostle (2 Cor 1:1) (1 Cor 1:1).
He had been called, commissioned, and appointed by Christ himself (Acts 9:15).
But apostles had unique authority to set up the church in the New Testament, and
indeed they were chosen by God to write the New Testament Scriptures on which
we base our faith and church practices today. The Scriptures = our final authority.
The early Apostles had special authority, but there are no such apostles today!
So who has God given authority to in the church today?
Well, when the Apostles left a church in a given area to continue on its own, they
appointed some people before they left. Who were they?
(See Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5) – They were Elders.
(See also Hebrews 13:7,17 and 1 Peter 5:1-5a) – The church members were
called to submit to the authority of the Elders.
But the authority of a Pastor or Elder doesn’t come just because he is in that
position or holding that office. An Elder only has the God-given right to exercise
authority if he has been called of God to that office in the church, and as he is
faithful to God and to His Word as he continues in that office. He must be called!
What I have just said must be true, otherwise the Judaizers of v.7 would have had
the right to exercise authority in Corinth. But in fact they had usurped authority!
Authority in the church is given by God, to the men that God has called, and
appointed, and equipped, to be elders or pastors.
Therefore an elder cannot just be appointed - he must be called of God.
This call will become apparent over time, and the church must then recognise him
as called of God to fulfil the responsibilities of an elder among them.
They were using a false authority, a worldly kind of authority, which rather than
building the church up in Corinth, was actually destroying it, by causing division.
It was pulling down the church and destroying the lives of individuals within it.
No true shepherd would ever seek to destroy his sheep! (See 1 Peter 5:1-4).
(See also Ezekiel 34:1-6 – that’s what would happen – they would scatter!)
Likewise a good pastor/elder should never seek to pull down, or tear down, or put
down one of his flock.
But in vs.4-5 we were reminded of a pulling down and casting down ministry that
we do have! That is to up-root or tear-down or over-throw false doctrine, worldly
attitudes or rebellious thinking in the hearts and minds of our people, to clear the
ground for the good seeds of true doctrine and Christian behaviour to take root.
We are called to tear down wrong attitudes and wrong thinking, but not the people
themselves.
My own call to pastoral and preaching ministry was from Jeremiah ch.1.
The Lord used these verses to call me to preach the week before I preached my
first Sunday sermons in Sion Mills in 1986: (See Jeremiah 1:4-8, 9-10, 17-19).
Jeremiah was called of God. He had a God-given authority. He had authority to
up-root and tear-down, to overthrow all that was wrong in people’s lives.
But he wasn’t to stop there – God also told him “to build and to plant.”
As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 10:8…
3. Authority in the Church is to be Constructive (v.8b)
“For Building you up, not for tearing you down.”
He repeats it again in 2 Corinthians 13:10, as he closes this letter to Corinth.
Paul was a powerful, influential man. God had given him immense authority.
But he never paraded it!
Yet even his opponents had to admit that there was a unique authority in Paul’s
letters – the letters we still have in our New Testaments today (v.10).
These NT letters of Paul are not authoritative just because the Church says so!
No, the authority is inherent in them because they were written by a man who was
called of God to be an Apostle, written under God’s inspiration, to be God’s final
authoritative Word to men - just as…
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
This is why if a Christian leader wants to use his God-given authority correctly
today, then he must build his whole life and ministry, all his preaching and
teaching, and all his pastoral care and counselling, upon God’s Word.
Only then will his authority truly be a God-given authority.
My authority as a pastor or an elder does not rest in me as a person.
I’m sure many a one could say of me what was said of Paul in v.10:
“…In person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”
Maybe that’s what you think of my preaching too!
But then, even Paul put one or two to sleep in his time (Acts 20:9)
- Just like the rest of us do - now and again!
No, my authority as a pastor / Christian leader / elder does not rest in me as a
person - it rests only in how faithfully I stick to the preaching, and teaching and
practising of God’s Word. If a man sticks to that, then he will be using his Godgiven authority to build people up in their faith; not for tearing them down.
Conclusion
So we have seen this morning that faithfulness to God’s Word is our only and final
authority, both in what we believe, and in how we behave as pastors of God’s
people.
So next time it comes to looking for elders for our church, or even whenever it
comes to looking for a new pastor for our church, don’t judge their preaching or
personalities by how interesting they are, or how domineering they are, but by how
faithfully they stick to God’s Word – because that is our only source of authority!
And whenever we come across people in pastoral ministry who are facing all kinds
of problems in their lives, we need to do all in our power to build them up in their
faith, with grace, not to tear them down, with legalism. May God help us to do so!