Today we’re going to look at a verse in Hebrews 13 that has to do with our response to those who lead us in the church. Who has had an impact upon your life spiritually? What men or women have taught you truth that has changed your life? Who are your mentors? More than likely someone has planted seeds in your life that have helped you to become the man or woman you are today. Hebrews 13:7 encourages us to remember them and imitate them.
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Oh how the church, and even our culture, needs leaders who faithfully speak God’s Word and live in such a way that we want to imitate their faith. Unfortunately, even in this past year we have seen pastor after pastor fall to moral failures.
How we need models. We need men and women that we can pattern our lives after. Men and women of ironclad integrity, strong faith, indomitable courage, sacrificial kindness and genuine humility.
The Bible puts a high emphasis on remembering, usually remembering things about what God has done for us and who He is. But we are also to remember our leaders, those who taught us and modeled the faith for us. We are to regularly call them to mind so that we can imitate their faith. The verb consider actually means to “look at again and again,” to “observe carefully.” (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 414)
It’s too easy to forget those who are dead and gone. Our attention span can only focus on so much these days, and the new and spectacular tends to grab our attention. Warren Wiersbe reminds us that “while we do not worship people or give them the glory, it is certainly right to honor them for their faithful work.”
Unlike the Lord, who is ever with us (Heb. 13:5-6), human leaders, just like the Old Testament priests are “prevented by death from continuing in office” (Heb. 7:23). Therefore, in addition to “remembering” those presently suffering imprisonment and abuse (13:3), the hearers must also “remember” their congregation’s original leaders, who no longer serve among them.
It is important to have guides and mentors from the past. Maybe for you these are people who have long since passed from this life, people like John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Simeon or even more recently J. I. Packer or Eugene Peterson. I would encourage you, if you cannot think of someone who has impacted your life significantly, to turn to some of these mentors from the past and learn from them.
In fact, I would encourage you to read Christian biographies. There are some compilations which feature several key Christians, like John Woodbridge’s Sketches of Faith: An Introduction to Characters from Christian History, Eric Metaxas’ Seven Men and the Secret of Their Greatness and Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness, and James and Marti Hefleys’ By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the 20th Century and Tim Chester’s Bitesize Biographies. All of John Piper’s compilations of men from the past which he calls The Swans are not Silent, seven books each covering three biographical sermons about men from the past are excellent.
Then there are individual biographies as well. I would recommend John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Iain Murray’s Amy Carmichael. There are several biographies of C. S. Lewis, Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther and John Newton that are excellent as well. All of these will encourage your faith. Tim Challies has a long list of Christian biographies on his website: https://www.challies.com/book-recommendations/biographies/
Now, the key concepts here are remembering and imitating. One of the dangers we have in our society is what is widely known as the “celebrity culture” in which pastors are often put upon pedestals and almost treated as gods. This is unhealthy. It is fine to remember them and imitate their lives, but don’t worship them.
R. Kent Hughes reminds us how this passage fits in this context. He says…
“Significantly, this is beautifully consistent with the purpose of chapter 13, which is to strengthen the little Hebrew church so it will ride out the coming storms of persecution. A church that adequately recalls its godly leaders and considers the outcome of their way of life and attempts to imitate that way of life will sail well! Remembering, considering, and imitating the virtues of departed believers is of greatest spiritual importance both to one’s family and to the broader family of the Body of Christ. Doing so will certainly help keep the boat afloat” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, An Anchor for the Soul, volume 2, p. 227).
Our author points out two specific characteristics of these men. They had taught them the Word and they lived out their faith. In other words, they preached the Word, then they practiced what they preached (Ezra 7:10). First, these are men “who spoke to you the word of God.” When you recall how few copies of Scripture these first century churches possessed, you can see how highly dependent they were upon teachers of the Word. This teaching the Word is a vital part of our mentoring and discipling of others today, that we engage with them over the Scriptures. We open the Scriptures and seek to interpret its meaning just like Ezra and Nehemiah did. “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (Neh. 8:8).
Likely this author wanted his readers to become so proficient with the Scriptures that, like the Bereans, they could “examin[e] the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
Relationships that impact us deeply are relationships that are built upon the truth of God’s Word. Oh, we can have relationships with people outside the faith. In fact, we should. But our spiritual lives are nourished by being around people of the Book. We need the Word of God to guide us, especially today with its emphasis on feelings.
In Paul’s final imprisonment he wrote the Pastoral Epistles. Over and over again in those three letters to Timothy and Titus Paul emphasized the importance of sound doctrine and instructing people in that sound doctrine.
Paul gives instructions for many ministries of the church, but the one he emphasizes most is the ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God. He exhorts Timothy to “devote [himself] to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation [preaching], to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13). The ministry of the Word is critical to faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Moreover, sitting under the Word strengthens the faith of God’s people. In 2 Timothy, Paul exhorts his younger colleague to “preach the Word . . . in season and out of season . . . for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:2-3).
Paul told Timothy, “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). We are to teach the Word so that it is passed on from generation to generation.
But we are not only to listen to these men teach, we are also to watch their lives, the way that they live and (likely) the way that they died. This is so that we can imitate them. They say that more is caught than taught, meaning that the way you live preaches more powerfully than the words of your mouth.
Remember that Jesus chose twelve men “so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach” (Mark 4:13). These men learned by watching Jesus. It was not just what He taught that was vitally important, it was the way he interacted with people, cared for people, and lived His life before the Father. They saw him pray and then asked, “Teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). It was this very reality that these men had been “with Jesus” that was so obvious to the religious leaders after Pentecost. In Acts 4:13, as Peter and John are preaching before the Sanhedrin, their conclusion was “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
Life on life is so very important. Those who disciple, don’t just depend upon some written curriculum and believe that once you have finished that you have discipled someone. They need to see how you live. That was the genius of Dawson Trotman, the founder of the Navigators. He would invite sailors into his home to see how he and Lila and his children lived together. They need to see your “way of life.”
Now, it is quite possible that our author is speaking of leaders who are no longer with them. In the past they “spoke to you the word of God,” and hearers must now recollect the “outcome of their way of life.” That “outcome” (ekbasis) was their exit from life on this earth, the completion of their pilgrimage. Whether their deaths were due to natural or accidental causes or to martyrdom, our author does not say. Although the hearers of Hebrews themselves had not yet shed blood (12:4), some of their leaders may have done so.
Scholars agree that the author here is referring to past leaders who have already died. In 13:17 & 24, he refers to current leaders. But in 13:7, they are told to consider (Greek = “to look at again and again”) the result or outcome of these past leaders’ way of life, implying that they successfully finished their course. While some of them had been martyred, it is not specifically the actual death which they were to consider and imitate, but rather the “sum total” or “achievement” of their day-to-day behavior, manifested in a whole life. Yes, they had finished their race well.
This, of course, is what our author had earlier encouraged all of them to do, to run the race so as to win. Back in Hebrews 12 he encouraged them:
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Elsewhere in the NT, congregational leaders are called “elders” or “overseers” (Acts 20:17-35; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:2-3). Teaching and spiritual shepherding are the ministries of such elders/overseers. The original leaders of the people reading this letter “spoke . . . the word of God,” and their successors were “keeping watch over your souls” (Heb. 13:7, 17). The first generation’s integrity and conduct were no doubt exemplary, but our author spotlights their faith as that which must be imitated (reinforcing the point of 10:26-12:3).
Now, reading this passage in its context, we realize that the dilemma these readers were facing, in addition to losing some of their leaders, there was the possibility of being “carried away by varied and strange teachings” (13:9), including returning to Judaism. So he calls them to remember the godly teachers who had spoken the word of God to them (13:7). Even though these men had now died, Jesus Christ, whom they preached, is the same yesterday, today, and forever (13:8). His grace (13:9) and His sacrificial death on the cross (13:10-12) are at the center of sound doctrine.
Jesus and His death on the cross have become our altar, which supersedes and replaces the Jewish altar in the temple. Therefore, we must turn our backs on Judaism or any other religion and hold firmly to Christ and the cross (13:13). If such faith leads to hardship, rejection, persecution, or even death, keep in mind that we are not living for rewards in this life, but for the reward He has promised us in heaven (13:14).
The fact that our heroes do sometimes fall and every leader eventually dies is what makes verse 8 so powerful. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The reality is, even for those of us preachers and leaders who are still here, we need to point our people to Jesus. Their focus must be on Him, not us.
Warren Wiersbe relates how after announcing his resignation from a church that he had been pastoring for several years, one of the members said to him, “I don’t see how I’m going to make it without you! I depend so much on you for my spiritual help!”
His reply shocked her. He said, “Then the sooner I leave, the sooner you can start depending on the Lord. Never build your life on any servant of God. Build your life on Jesus Christ. He never changes.”
So, keep pointing to Jesus. Give him all the glory. Don’t steal the glory from God.
But all of us, as leaders, should want to finish well. Seeing men that we have known and respected crash and burn through moral failures makes this all the more urgent. We should want to be like Paul, neither coasting into the final years of our lives, nor crashing and burning, but finishing well.
Paul said at the end of his two letters to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:7-8)…
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
Paul fought, Paul finished, Paul kept the faith. Finishing well means that we deal with our sins decisively, killing sin and confessing it when we commit sin. It also means treasuring God, beholding Christ, and being filled with the Spirit — finding all our satisfaction in Him.
It made me think of Robertson McQuilkin, who served as president of Columbia International University for 22 years, died in 2016. He wrote these words before he died:
It’s sundown, Lord … I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays himself at last, thrusting me forever into life: life with you, unsoiled and free.
But I do fear … That I should end before I finish or finish, but not well. That I should stain your honor, shame your name, grieve your loving heart. Few, they tell me, finish well. . . Lord, let me get home before dark.
McQuilkin feared “the darkness of a spirit grown mean and small, fruit shriveled on the vine, bitter to the taste of my companions … the darkness of tattered gifts, rust-locked, half-spent, or ill-spent, a life that once was used of God now set aside.” He longed for fruit “lush and sweet, a joy to all who taste.” He wanted to burn brighter at the end.
“Of your grace, Father, I humbly ask. . . Let me get home before dark,” he prayed. And to that we say, “Amen.”
When we use the phrase, “finishing well,” we mean following Christ to the very end of our lives, finishing his assignments for us and hearing his “well done, good and faithful servant.” That should be our highest desire, our greatest goal in life.
Ultimately, the only thing that can keep is in the race and help us to finish well is to drink deeply of God’s grace constantly. Grace is also how we start the race. Grace is what keeps us in the race. And grace is what takes us to the end. As John Newton put it in his famous hymn, “Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”
When all is said and done, grace is the ultimate explanation for why any of us make it. We are kept by the grace of God. It is then very appropriate to pray, “Lord, give me the grace to finish well.”
Jerry Bridges identifies four practices that can help us finish well. He says…
There may be other issues that are important, but I believe these four are fundamental. They are:
daily time of focused personal communion with God
daily appropriation of the gospel
daily commitment to God as a living sacrifice
firm belief in the sovereignty and the love of God
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/four-essentials-to-finishing-well
So if you are a leader, set your nose to the grindstone and pursue those practices that will help you to finish well. The church depends upon it. Future generations of Christians depend upon it. Teach the Word well, but also live a life that is worth imitating.
If you are a Christian, look for leaders whose life you can imitate. If you cannot find one that is near you, get on the phone or go visit them. If you cannot find anyone that is alive, find a mentor among the biographies I mentioned earlier.
For the Hebrews, it was their regular recollection of the victorious witness of those persons who had first led them to Christ by faith, of their joyful living for the glory of God, and of their untroubled dying in the assured hope of resurrection, that would put away from them all thoughts of giving up their own struggle. It would encourage them to “keep on keeping on.”
And I hope it will do the same for you today.
Grace Still Amazes 