A LOOK AT PASTORAL AUTHORITY

Hebrews 13:7-21

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

May 21, 2006

I have a confession to make to all of you this morning. Now, before your mind goes off running somewhere, let me tell you exactly what my confession is! In all of the sermons I’ve ever preached … estimated to be some 1400 sermons or more … I’ve never preached a sermon on the subject of pastoral authority. Not even once. It always seemed to me to be as if I would be calling attention to myself, in the fact that I am a pastor.

And yet, the truth of the matter is that pastoral authority is spoken of in Scripture. Just as the Bible speaks of authority in the public realm and in the realm of the family (which we have covered in the last two Sundays), so it speaks also of a pastoral authority that exists in the life of the church, and exists for the benefit of the church.

Now, pastoral authority can have quite an influence upon a congregation. In some cases, such authority has led to the abuse of the members of the congregation. Sadly, examples of this kind of exploitation are numerous. But in other cases, in fact I would say in the vast majority of cases, pastoral authority has been exercised in such a way as to bring forth great benefit to a congregation. And this is precisely the kind of pastoral authority the author of Hebrews describes in chapter13.

In this closing chapter, the author brings forth several points to consider. But in two verses - verses 7 and 17, the author speaks of pastoral leadership in such a way as to give us a good look at what pastoral authority should mean. Here, we find that congregations should respectfully submit to pastoral authority when pastors: preach and teach the Word of God; live a life of faith in such a way that sets forth a good example for the congregation; and fulfill their calling by looking out for the welfare of the congregation. Let’s take a closer look at these verses and determine how this kind of pastoral authority is to be appropriately expressed.

CONGREGATIONS SHOULD RESPECTFULLY SUBMIT

TO PASTORAL AUTHORITY

AS PASTORS PREACH AND TEACH THE WORD OF GOD.

“Remember your leaders,” the seventh verse states, “who spoke the word of God to you.” Here the author refers to leaders who had died and entered the Church Triumphant, either by persecution or by natural causes. The command here is to call to mind and to remembrance those who had faithfully fulfilled their office.

More specifically, they had faithfully fulfilled their office by being spiritual instructors and guides with the intentional, diligent use of the Word of God. This, in fact, is what the author of the letter to the Hebrews was doing himself in giving a faithful exposition and teaching of the Scripture. And this is what every faithful pastor must do today.

The spiritual authority of a pastor lies not so much in the pastor as a person or in any kind of particular church hierarchy, as it does in the authority of the Word of God itself. Pastors speak with authority not only because of a call to ministry, as essential as this is, but in the ministry of the authoritative Word. There lies the authority, a delegated authority from Christ in the call to faithfully give the congregation the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, which has an inherent authority all its own.

So it was that Paul, just before his martyrdom, gave the following charge to Timothy: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” [i]

Every pastor, under the authority of Christ, is charged to preach the Word in those same terms: correcting, rebuking, encouraging, “with great patience and careful instruction.” In this way, the congregation submits not so much to the pastor as a person, but rather to the pastor as the one who expounds upon the very truth of God as we find it in Scripture, the Scripture under whose authority we all must stand!

A few years ago, when I was installed as your pastor in a worship service, I was given the “Charge to the Pastor” by Don Estes. In that brief but challenging message, Don said to me:

You have been called to be our pastor. We encourage you to remain in Christ and teach us. And as pastor to God’s flock at First Presbyterian Church of Newport, I encourage you to model your ministry on Jesus, the good shepherd, using the following seven characteristics …

Don went on to give those seven traits, including the following characteristic:

A good shepherd rules over his sheep. Accept that you have authority over us; authority that is exercised through the ministry of the Word.

This statement, I believe, brings forth part of the nature of the pastor’s call, as well as the congregation’s appropriate response to the ministry of the Word. Congregations are to respect and submit to pastoral authority, when the word that is preached and taught has its foundation in Scripture: the Word of God.

CONGREGATIONS SHOULD

RESPECTFULLY SUBMIT TO PASTORAL AUTHORITY

AS PASTORS LIVE AS GOOD EXAMPLES

OF A LIFE OF FAITH.

Verse seven continues in saying, “Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” Here, the readers of this letter were encouraged to observe carefully the way their pastors had led them by example. They were called to examine the outcome and result of the pastor’s behavior, conduct, and manner of life. While knowing that no pastor is ever perfect, what they did find to be faithful and true, they were to use as a pattern for their own lives of faith. So far as those pastors imitated the example of Christ, so were they to imitate their pastors.

Today, members of congregations are to do no less than the very same. Congregations need to know that every pastor - just like each and every Christian - has a soul in need of the love of God, the grace of redemption in Jesus Christ, and the sanctifying, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

But congregations should also be able to look at their spiritual leadership and find noteworthy characteristics and attributes in being a disciple of Jesus Christ. There is indeed a certain powerful and authoritative influence that can be given by way of example.

Dr. R.W. Dale was a faithful pastor who made a profound impact upon others. For 42 years, first as co-pastor and then as pastor, Dale served as a minister at Carr’s Lane Congregational Church in Birmingham, England. We are told that Dale suffered seasons of depression, a “strange, morbid gloominess” as he put it, one that sometimes lasted for weeks. And yet, God’s grace continued to shine through this dedicated pastor.

One day when Dale was in a depressed mood, he was walking down a Birmingham street. As he did, he passed by a poor woman who said to him, “God bless you, Dr. Dale!” Dale turned and asked for her name, but she wouldn’t give it to him. “Never mind my name, but if you could only know how you have made me feel hundreds of times, and what a happy home you have given me – God bless you!”

Quite apparently, both the content of Dale’s ministry and the character of his ministry had made a powerful impact upon this woman. She had applied much of both to her life. As she hurried away, the dark cloud lifted from Dale. As he described what happened then, “The mist broke, the sunlight came, and I breathed the free air of the mountains of God.” [ii]

Pastoral authority is surely to be found in the content of a pastor’s ministry in preaching and teaching. But there is also a kind of authority found in a life of faithfulness lived not only before the face of God, but before the face of others as well.

III

CONGREGATIONS SHOULD ALSO

RESPECTFULLY SUBMIT TO PASTORAL AUTHORITY

WHEN PASTORS FULFILL THEIR CALLING

BY LOOKING OUT FOR THE WELFARE OF THE CONGREGATION.

As we turn to verse seventeen, we read, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

The author now turns to the subject of obeying the spiritual leaders or pastors who are still living. This statement on pastoral authority is even more specific than the previous one. There is an appropriate submission by members of a church to the spiritual guidance and direction of the pastor when pastors and members alike understand the nature of the pastor’s calling.

Pastors have authority only in the way of promoting the salvation and spiritual well-being of the members of the congregation. They are called to be under-shepherds for the Chief Shepherd, caring faithfully for the needs of the flock, the flock that belongs – not to them – but to Christ.

So serious is the nature of this calling that pastors will one day be held accountable by God for their ministry. So, when pastors take this call seriously and fulfill their call faithfully, then members should willingly follow them. When members don’t, the ministry of the pastor becomes a “burden,” literally a “sighing” or “groaning.”

In part, what this means is that a congregation willingly accepts the pastor’s calling to comfort the afflicted, as well as to afflict those who are too comfortable! There is a time and a need for both in all of our lives.

Some pastors are either good at one or the other, but not both. Some will focus primarily upon God’s love, care and faithfulness, while others may tend to focus only upon sin, the need for repentance and change. But a faithful pastor will know that, for the good the congregation, both comfort and “affliction of the too comfortable” are needed.

John Newton, the converted slave-trader turned pastor, “used to say that the point in all his preaching was ‘to break a hard heart and to heal a broken heart.’” [iii]

Horton Davies saw the very same thing in his father. Dr. Davies dedicated a book he had written on preaching to his father, who was a Congregational preacher. In the preface, he described his father’s influence in this way:

As a son of the Manse, it was a great privilege to hear the lively Word of God preached and applied with insight and compassion to a variety of families and callings … Sunday was always the peak of the week, and its climax was reached when the congregation settled back into their pews to hear one who might be a son of thunder (Boanerges) or a son of consolation (Barnabas), and was often both in the same sermon. [iv]

Just as in the case of John Newton or in Davies’ father, the faithful pastor is called to be both of these. The faithful pastor “needs to be both a Boanerges (having the courage to disturb) and a Barnabas (having the charity to console).” [v] And the member of the congregation needs to receive that ministry, knowing that in the heart of that pastor, the motivation is for good, and not for ill.

Pastoral authority, then, is a gift to the Church for building up, not for tearing down. May God grant that more and more pastors and members of congregations will heed their callings, moving on the journey together, in the ways of faith … and of faithfulness.