Leaders Not to be Followed

Quickly turn to the Gospel of
Luke, Luke, Chapter 20. The passage is there with place
for notes in your bulletin, if you desire. For the sake of time, you essentially
know the context, we are in the midst of Passion Week. Christ
is in the temple and he has been both fielding questions and as
we saw last week, presenting questions to the religious elite. Jesus, as we saw last week in
an act of mercy, didn’t issue forth the question about David’s
sonship and about the Messiah. He didn’t issue that question
In order to stump the panel, he did it as an act of mercy.
And yet Christ is also concerned with the scribes, with the Pharisees,
with the Sadducees in their ability to be followed. Christ doesn’t
want to turn a blind eye to their errors. Christ is not about to
ignore their teachings, their practices, because their practices
were contrary to God’s word. The two things are not at polar
opposites. One does not cancel out the other.
The fact that Christ desired that they come to salvation and
the fact that he desired to point out their error and to call them
away from that, those things are not incompatible. If you would, let’s turn our
attention to the passage, I’ll skip the lengthy context or contextualization. We’ll go right into the passage
and we’ll see what God’s word has for us this morning in our
time. In verse 45, we pick up and Luke records, and while all
the people were listening, he said to the disciples, beware
of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love
respectful greetings in the marketplaces and chief seats in the synagogues
and places of honor at banquets who devour widows houses and
for appearance sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater
condemnation. Jesus wanted His message out.
He had appealed to these very people to humble themselves and
come before Him as the Messiah and to receive salvation, and
they wouldn’t have it. And so Christ, in turning here,
it isn’t a mark of vindication. Christ wanted his followers to
know how dangerous these men were. There are some leaders
who are not to be followed. And if you look at the context,
it says, while all the people were listening, the Christ didn’t
speak to all the people. He knew that all the people were
listening, but he spoke to the disciples. Those were the ones
that he was most chiefly concerned with. that they not turn and
follow either in the example of what the scribes were doing
or following the scribes themselves. I’ve entitled the message leaders
not to be followed, there are some leaders who are leaders
in title only. And they are not to be followed,
and in a sense, in not following them strips away their leadership. It’s exactly what Christ is calling
His disciples to do, to examine carefully. The New Testament
presents the same thing. And that’s why I said it’s in
God’s providence that we end up in this passage just as we
begin to look at an elder candidate. But I didn’t plan it this way.
I want to look this morning at five things Five things that
these scribes loved and their love for them was the mark of
the fact that they weren’t to be followed. They weren’t leaders. And you could see it in their
lives, Jesus says. First of all, evil leaders are
exposed by their affection for attire. Their affection for attire. Now, you know, I’ve taken it
on the chin because I wear suits and I don’t believe that there’s
anything inherently sinful in wearing a suit or a tie. And
I don’t think that’s at all what’s in focus here. Let’s look at
it. Look at verse 46. Beware of the scribes who like
to walk around in long robes. You know what? Neither do I think
that there is anything inherently sinful in wearing a robe. In
fact, on a number of occasions, depending on whose church I was
preaching in, I have donned the sacred garb of the ministry and
put on a robe and preached therein. I don’t think there’s anything
inherently sinful in it. When he says beware. He calls
them to a standing and solemn observance of these men. He wants
to get their attention. This isn’t something petty to
be overlooked. This isn’t something that they
have the option of partaking in if they so choose. This is
a destructive tendency, what Christ says. Beware, a severe
danger lies in front of you. That’s the sense that you get.
And what he wants them to do is stand their guard. So that
they neither take in their opinion, the opinions of the scribes.
Nor are they taken in by them. This word walk, interesting word,
it implies a walk with dignity. And this putting on these liturgical
vestments and robes and walking around as if they have really
arrived before God. In a sense, they strut around
like so many peacocks in the spring. These men were putting
on these robes. They were putting on airs. They
were putting on these robes, and part of it was directed by
Scripture. In a sense, it was in obedience
to Scripture. Numbers 15 says it this way,
speaks to the sons of Israel and tell them that they shall
make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garment
throughout their generations and that they shall put on each
the tassel of each corner a cord of glue. It should be a tassel
for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord.
There was a purpose to these. So, To remember the commandments
of the Lord so as to do them and not follow after your own
heart and after your own eyes, after which you played the harlot
so that you may remember to do all my commandments and to be
holy to your God. But here’s what happened with
these garments. They became a kind of status symbol, a clothing that a piece of clothing
that gave them prestige and honor. And the longer the tassels, the
better. The longer the tassels, the more honored they were. And
so you got these gowns that were just flowing and gaudy in every
sense of the word. As I said, going around in these
gowns wasn’t sinful, it’s the loving of doing it, priding themselves
in it, valuing that above all else, even above their own godliness. demanding respect by it, saying
to their long clothes, honour me now before the people. That’s
essentially what they were saying in wearing these robes. Give
me honour that is due me because I’m wearing this robe. As I said, this walk is a strut.
It’s a parade. And it points in a sense to needless
moving about. It was like they would just walk
to and fro just to be seen by the people. And we’ve seen it.
We see that stuff all the time, don’t we? Depending on what your background
is, you’ve seen this kind of thing. The great parade and pomp
that is given to those who should be aware that they occupy the
lowest place. Jesus says, beware of those that
are so caught up in their attire. Beware of those that want to
put you down and make sure that you give obeisance to them simply
because of what they wear. Jesus says it’s dangerous. Not
only that, and you can begin to get a picture of these religious
elite in that, but The further on in this passage you get, the
worse it gets and the more clear picture we have of these men.
Secondly, Christ says evil leaders are exposed not only by their
affection for attire, but by their affection for accolades.
Look at the next clause. They love respectful greetings
in the marketplace. The word here for salutation
can be used in a friendly sense. And it’s you know, it’s nothing
wrong to be in a marketplace and to desire to be greeted.
Hi, how are you? You know, how’s your day? Nothing
wrong with that in and of itself. But what the scribes were longing
for wasn’t just a mere token of courtesy, friendliness, rather
a demonstration of respect. They demanded a public recognition
of who they were. Terms like rabbi and master and
eminent one. Those were common, common expectations
of those scribes in that day. We’ve touched upon this before
in Luke chapter 11, verse 43, where Jesus rebuked the Pharisees. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you
love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings
in the marketplace. This was a disease and it was
running rampant. And they had invented a whole
slew, a whole list of names. And you had to do them in a certain
order. Master, Master, Rabbi, Rabbi, Holy One, Holy One. Whenever they went into the market,
wherever there were throngs of people, they loved to receive
these kinds of greetings. They demanded these kinds of
greetings. There was a protocol that was
communicated to the people. That when you come across so-and-so,
he is to be greeted in these terms. One person said that this is
common. This is common among people who
lack real worth and value, and the more they seek for themselves
a reputation from their habits, Either the gravity of the riches
and the goddery of them, the more they court titles of honor
and dignity and affect external respect. What he says was, deep
down, if you look deep down in these guys, there was nothing.
They were empty. They weren’t godly men to begin
with. And because of that, they needed all of this external respect
in order to inflate their egos. And you know what? This isn’t
dead. This isn’t dead even to this day. Whether I’m doing a
funeral or a wedding, somebody will ask me, what do I want to
be called? And the assumption is always that I want to be called
minister or reverend. Or if you ever die, don’t call
me those things. All right. I don’t want to be
called that. We’ll come back to that in a
moment. But the tendency is, in our day and age, we can’t
help. We can’t withhold ourselves from heaping on these ecclesiastical
titles on people. And men, in their pride, can’t
help but creating new ones for people to use on them. Let’s
go to the famous ones. Consider the Pope. The Sovereign
Pontiff. I mean, what is that? Most holy
father. Now, you know what? If there
was ever a time to correct your people, there’s the opportunity.
But these all come from the Catholic dictionary. This is what they’re
telling their people that they’re supposed to call the pope if
they ever come face to face with them. Most holy father. If you ever write him a letter.
This is how you’re supposed to sign it. You might want to write
this down. Prostrate at the feet of your
holiness. I have the honor to profess myself with the most
profound respect, your holiness, most humble servant. If you write
a cardinal or if you address a cardinal, you’re supposed to
say his eminence cardinal, if he’s an archbishop, bishop, his
eminence, the cardinal archbishop of such and such. If you write
to a bishop, You’re supposed to call him the Lord Bishop of
such and such or the right reverend. That’s my very favorite. As soon
as you get into talking about reverend, my skin just begins
to crawl. A bishop’s title specifically
is his most illustrious and most reverend Lord. And how any man
who knows Christ can allow himself to be called that is amazing
to me. But we do. A.W. Pink. One of
my heroes in the faith says, in ourselves, we are poor, sinful,
erring creatures, and daily do we have occasion to blush and
hang our heads in shame. He’s talking about leaders. He’s
not talking about all the people of Christianity, he’s talking
about leaders. We are poor, sinful, erring creatures. Daily do we have occasion to
blush and hang our heads in shame. Therefore, we respectfully request
that none will address us as reverend. No worm of the dust
is due such a title. Even the term bishop is such
a warped use of the of the biblical data there, the word literally
in its original meant overseer. There’s nothing wrong with calling
a man in the church who does the work of an elder and overseer,
but to bestow the title of bishop on him has so many connotations,
it goes so far beyond what scripture ever intended. And yet, Christians, we cannot
get away from this, can we? We can’t get away, we’ve got
to call him something different, we’ve got to call him a reverend
or doctor or the minister. It’s amazing to observe the biblical
data and to see what even the Apostle Paul, the greatest of
all the apostles, called themselves. In Acts 15, 23, it’s recorded
where they said they identified themselves as the apostles and
elders, your brothers. You see, just leadership in the
church doesn’t elevate you beyond the people. You know that there
is this common language that is so prevalent in our day and
age that talks about the clergy, allegedly me, and the laity,
allegedly you. You know what? Scripture knows
no biblical terminology for that. They didn’t get that idea from
Scripture. The church is a brotherhood of servants, like servants that
are all in the trench together. 1 Corinthians 4. Let a man regard
us in this manner as servants of Christ. Second Corinthians
12, 11, I’ve become foolish. You yourselves have compelled
me. Actually, I should have been commended by you, for in no respect
was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a
nobody. Can you imagine the apostle Paul
saying that? If you want to know what to put
on, you know, when I do your funeral, nobody Ron Frasco. That would work. Ephesians 3,
8, you begin to sense that this apostle was not only it wasn’t
just that he was modeling these things. This is who he was. He
was humble. Ephesians 3, 8, to me, the very
least of all saints. When was the last time you heard
an ecclesiastic say that? First Thessalonians again, Paul,
we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the
gospel of Christ. Peter also used similar language,
first Peter five one, therefore, I exhort the elders among you
as the apostle. As the the the one that sits
on God’s right hand now as the first pope, no, Therefore, I
exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder.” This is a
man who had walked with Christ nearly his entire earthly ministry. One of the first to be named
to the apostleship. If there was ever a time for
Peter to exert his authority as an apostle, wasn’t it here? But we can’t get away from it.
We insist on calling those who are in some ecclesiastical position
minister, reverend. You know, I’ve told you before,
I don’t even like the term pastor necessarily. It’s not demanded
of you that you call me pastor. Because even in that one place
of all of Scripture that that word is translated pastor, it’s
the only place in all of Scripture that it’s done so. Ephesians
4.11. I don’t think there’s a mandate
there that says that you’ve got to call me by a specific title
because those titles essentially begin to separate me from you. They separate the shepherds of
the church from the people. And wrongly so, it feeds the
pride of men. Charles Spurgeon speaking also
of this title, Reverend You see, it’s died a slow death and it
still isn’t dead. Charles Spurgeon said, no reverence
is due me. I very much demur to the designation
to the Reverend C.H. Spurgeon for no reverence is
due to me. Assuredly, reverend and sinner
make a curious combination. I know I am the second and I
repudiate the first. To me, it is surprising that
such a flattering title should have been invented and more amazing
still that good men should be found who are angry if this title
be not duly given to them. It’s a good point. It’s a good point, don’t call
me reverend. There’s one who is to be revered, there is one
to whom we give honor, and that is Christ. There are leaders
that are not to be followed, Christ says, and they’re exposed
by their affection not only for attire and accolades, but thirdly,
their love of accommodations, accommodations. Jesus said they
love the chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets.
We’ve touched on this before earlier in Luke 1143. There was
a bench at the end of the synagogue in front of the ark where the
sacred scrolls were kept and it faced the audience. And now,
as I see the smiles on your faces, you’ve all been in those churches
where the ecclesiastics all get to sit up here in the big chairs,
right? The big, soft, red velvet chairs
painted white. Jesus rebuked that very practice. He said, it’s not right. It’s
not biblical. It’s not honoring to God. You
are not the one in focus. The Talmud had all kinds of directions,
not only for the synagogue, but for these banquets. If you were placed at a table,
the table essentially had a bench that would seat three men on
each three sides of a table. One side of the table was empty.
All the tables faced inward so that everybody basically had
a pretty good seat. You could all see everybody.
But the middle seat in that bench was the desired seat. That was the seat of honor. And
you’d have these guys going in and jockeying for position, much
like you do today. The uppermost seats in the synagogue,
they were reserved for scholars. And you have here just another
picture. of what Christ was talking to.
These people with these long robes, desiring these respectful
greetings, now want to sit in these seats of prominence. They
can’t not be in the public eye. They love this kind of treatment. The person who was seated here
enjoyed the advantage of being near the person reading or leading
prayer and being able to see everybody, not to mention being
seen by everybody. He could look out on the congregation,
but the better part for him was the ability for the congregation
to see him because that’s what it was all about. William Law. One of my favorite
Puritan writers wrote in his book, a serious call to a devout
and holy life. I mean, doesn’t that title just
grab you? Don’t you want to run out and
find that? Good luck, it’s not in print. This is a great book,
a serious call to a devout and holy life. He said this, hate
and despise all human glory. For it is nothing else but human
folly, it is the greatest snare, the greatest betrayer that you
can possibly admit into your heart. Love humility in all its
instances, practice it in all its parts, for it is the noblest
state of the soul of man, it will set your heart and affections
right towards God. God will fill you with every
temper that is tender and affectionate towards men.” In other words,
he says, don’t desire the seat. Desire to sit all the way in
the back in complete obscurity. Don’t desire to be seen by men.
Don’t desire accommodations from people. Don’t demand those kinds
of things from people. For in the moment you do, you begin to cause your soul’s
demise. Jesus says, don’t follow these
kind of men. There’s a fourth. Evil leaders
are exposed by their affection for their attire, accolades,
accommodations and finally, abuse or fourthly, rather, their abuse. They love abuse. Because abuse
of someone else elevates who? Them. It elevates them. They devour, in verse 47, widows’
houses. You know from Scripture, we studied
1 Timothy 5. If there was ever a class of
people in the community that was to be cared for and loved
and protected and guarded against abuse, it was the widow. Exodus 22, you shall not afflict
any widow or orphan. Why did Scripture even need to
say that? If you afflict him at all and he cries out to me,
I will surely hear his cry. My anger will be kindled. I will
kill you with the sword and your wives will become widows and
your children fatherless.” Deuteronomy 10, 18. God executes justice
for the orphan and the widow. He shows his love for the alien
by giving him food and clothing. Paul said, you know what? In my ministry, I never came
with flattering speech. I never came demanding these
things. And it’s not right for other men to do so. It’s just
not right. It’s not right taking what rightfully
belongs to a widow. And here’s how it would go. These
scribes would try to serve as the local ministers of finance. You know, they were the local,
what would you call it? H&R block or whoever those that
do your finances. They would come to these widows
in their distress and they would say, here, let us manage your
estate for you. And they would charge just a
small fee and they would have the ability to redirect these
resources to anything that they desired, especially funding temple
projects. These wealthy widows, which were
chiefly in view here, were devoured by the hospitality, the demand
of hospitality of these scribes. The scribes, when they would
come over, would stipulate what they were to have for dinner.
They would stipulate how the woman was to give her money.
They would stipulate what she was to do with her estate. And
in so doing, they would whittle her estate away until she became
indigent and completely dependent upon them. It was evil to the
core and evil practice. One of the functions, said one
pastor of scribes, was to serve as consultants in estate planning
for widows. The role gave them an opportunity
to convince lonely and susceptible women that their money and property
should either be given to the scribe for his holy work or to
the temple for its holy ministries. Either case, the scribe gained.
In either case, they would demand of the widows that they would give more than they could even
possibly and reasonably expect to give. And in so doing, they
would, as Jesus said, devour them. There’s a fifth and final observance
from this passage of men not to be followed in the ministry,
not greedy men. Evil leaders here are exposed
not only by their affection for attire, their love of accolades
and greetings, their love of accommodations, special places
and seats, their love of abuse of others, and finally, their
love of attention. Their affection for attention.
They just loved it. They loved to be seen. And look
at where it resides. Even in their spirituality, they
were phonies. where Jesus says, for appearance
sake, they offer long prayers. You know what? There is this
hypocrisy in each one of us. You know that you’ve gone to
the restaurant before and you go with a bunch of people and
we all bow and pray, right? What’s so different the time
that you go to the restaurant by yourself and you forget to
bow and pray? There is this kind of hypocrisy
in each one of us. And so that part of it isn’t
all that astounding. But the hypocrisy of the scribes
is so notorious that even the Talmud, the Jewish writings noted
it. Jesus adds to all their other
sins, this charge of hypocrisy. They hid their covetousness and
their abuse of the widows under a guise of this great personal
piety. And they would stand up and make
these long, drawn out prayers. You say, how long is long? I
don’t know. I don’t know, because the length isn’t the issue, it’s
the attitude behind the length. They prayed long for a specific
purpose for appearance sake. You know, God has nothing against
long prayers. There are many long prayers in
Scripture. By any account, they’re long. Jesus had a similar injunction
in Matthew six. You said when you’re praying,
do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they
suppose that they will be heard for their many words. It’s not
just length of words. It’s not just loudness of prayer.
It’s not just going on and on and gyrations. Lengthy prayer in and of itself
is not wrong, it’s the motive, it’s the motive behind the lengthy
prayer. I’ve seen occasions where true saints of God have prayed
all night long. Nothing wrong with that. But the unbeliever, the Gentile
in Matthew’s gospel, they pray on and on because they imagine
that the louder and the longer they pray, the greater also will
be their chance of success. And I call you to look. Remember
the news images of Muslims in prayer in the temple three times
a day, this long drawn out thing and whipping themselves and beating
themselves and prostrating themselves on the ground and going on and
on and on. As if a long prayer will be more
effectual for them. It’s not just Muslims, the Jews
have the wailing wall. where Jews will stand there all
day and chant and wail back and forth, gyrating the whole time,
thinking that in doing so, their prayers will be the more effectual. And we’re not exempt from any
of these. We’re not exempt from thinking
that just because we dress a certain way that we’re due more respect
or because we demand some title or because we demand some good
treatment that were more worthy to be followed
than the next. Matthew Henry said of these men,
they appear to be very good. For when they pray, they make
long prayers as if they were very intimate with heaven and
had a deal of business, a great deal of business there. They
took care that it should be known that they prayed, that they prayed
long, which some think means that they prayed not for themselves
only, but for others. And this they did as a pretense
that they might seem to love prayer. Not only for God’s sake. Who they pretend to glorify,
but for their neighbor’s sake, whom they pretended to be serviceable
to. You know what he says? Their
hypocrisy goes this deep that they pretended to pray so that
others would really think that they cared for them. And they
didn’t. They didn’t. Any leader like that is not a
leader. A leader that demands special treatment, a leader that
demands special title, a leader that abuses others in the course
of his ministry, a leader that demands the attention of others.
Even in his hypocritical treatment of service to God is not a leader
to be followed. Christ wanted him to know that.
To examine our own hearts for God. A merciful God. Lord, there is
this hypocrisy in each one of us. And we know that in this
day and age, we are not exempt from any of these practices.
The titles most chiefly the demand for special treatment. Lord,
humble us, begin with me. Make us low, make us to know
who we are and that we are servants. Servants of one another and servants
by your grace of you and you alone. Lord. Bless. The leadership of this
church. with a right mindset and a right
heart, a right spirit that would glorify You. Lord God, we thank
You and praise You for Your Word. We ask Your blessing on our day.
In Christ’s name, Amen.