LEADERSHIP AND ELDERSHIP
C. K Robinson
Psalm 77: 20; 1 Peter 5: 1–4; Acts 20: 28–31
I would like to say something, beloved brethren, about the value of leadership and eldership in the protection of the saints. I am conscious of inability to speak of it, but just seek to convey an impression which is bearing upon me as to its importance.
Leadership in Psalm 77 is very significant, referring to Moses and Aaron. When you think of the number of souls that had to be guided, having crossed the Red Sea, through the wilderness, with a view to taking up their possession in the land which God had prepared for them, what a commission they had! What impresses me about this leadership is that it is a single hand, the hand of Moses and Aaron. There would be something distinctive in that, I feel sure. We have been taught that Moses relates to what is authoritative and Aaron to what is priestly, yet it is one hand. It raises the enquiry with me as to where did they join hand? I suggest they joined hand when they met in Exodus.4—on the mountain of God. Oh what a thing it is to see that side of things, what is authoritative and what is priestly joining together and embracing at the height of the mountain of God! You feel the significance of what is brotherly in relation to what is authoritative and what is priestly, as bearing on the leadership of the saints. The separation of these things can lead to disaster.
The flock, as it is spoken of in each of these scriptures, impresses me. This would be something that is sensitive, something that is worthy of protection and needs protection. Let us gather the impression that the work of God in the saints in localities needs protection and is worthy of protection. Leadership is therefore necessary. We have come through much under an authoritative leadership involving legality but, beloved brethren, the feature of leadership is still necessary for the leading of God’s people in a broken day. I would like to discern what corresponds to “the hand of Moses and Aaron” today in the maintenance of what is authoritative in relation to the truth in every locality, yet operating in a priestly way.
This will be found as we join hands in brotherliness, flowing from affections formed in the atmosphere of the mountain of God. This influence is then brought to bear on how we lead God’s people forward in a right way. Leadership for the children of Israel was essential if they were to reach their portion in Canaan. Six hundred thousand men, besides children, were claimed from Egypt and step by step their wilderness journey had to be trod. What a hand this had to be! This was leadership by the influence of what is authoritative and priestly and would set a divine pattern for God’s people down to our day. Let us realise that these features are necessary in every locality for the protection of the work of God in the saints.
So we can each raise the question—with, ourselves first—What course am I on? What course are the saints on? Is it a course that is away from the world and leading ever towards heaven? Leadership would come into that; leadership is to influence the saints in the direction of what is their heavenly portion. O beloved brethren, to be on this line! You could quote the failure of Aaron, and you could quote other things, but oh to look over the history and discern the leading by the hand of Moses and Aaron of this people like a flock. Leadership is necessary, but let it afresh flow from the merging of what is authoritative and what is priestly as having been formed together in brotherly links emanating from the atmosphere of the mountain of God.
So as to eldership, Peter is appealing in his epistle. We have been taught that the function of eldership would be particularly local. Titus having been instructed to establish elders in each city, Titus 1: 5. Think of the language of Peter, “The elders which are among you, I exhort”. It is in view of service as appreciating that there is something there worth protecting and worth serving, not for a name for themselves, but all in view of the “unfading crown of glory”. What an appreciation, what a glory, comes out in that, “when the chief shepherd is manifested”. Let us contemplate afresh the language of Peter, “Shepherd the flock of God”. Oh to be able to do that! The footnote is most interesting, and may we become that way, actively doing the thing, ‘Be shepherders’ of “the flock of God”, as realising there is something worth protecting. We think of the encouragement this week of a young one asking to remember the Lord, the work of God coming to light in younger persons.
It all enforces the responsibility of protecting what is according to God locally. Eldership would come out that way. We have not many elder brothers here, hence the need for every one of us to commit ourselves to this service. But O beloved brethren, let us do it, and let us commit ourselves to it as seeing that there is something worthy of protection. Think of it from that viewpoint. So Peter speaks of himself as a “witness of the sufferings of the Christ”, and he brings all the force and weight of that to bear upon the elders, who needed encouraging to shepherd the flock of God.
We may think of Jesus on the cross committing His mother to John. The Lord in this way sets the matter on with His on example, “And from that hour the disciple took her to his on home”, John 19: 27. These things are there, beloved brethren, for our contemplation as the Lord Jesus cares for what is worthy because it is according to God. Oh let us value the work of God that is there in all its purity and extensiveness amongst the saints, and let us see that it requires protection.
So in Acts 20 Paul encourages the elders likewise to “shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. What a lever Paul brings, like Peter, into this exercise. Having called over the elders of Ephesus he brings the whole weight of his personal appreciation of the assembly, and of the work of God in the saints who compose it, to bear upon the elders, encouraging them to shepherd, and to watch, as realising there is something worthy of protection and worthy to be served.
Oh I would love to be more in it and to be more convicted as to it, and to be able to encourage the brethren more on this line of valuing what is local and valuing what is in every brother and sister as seeing there is something worthy of protection, because, beloved brethren, the true place for the work of God is to be housed in heaven. And you find that work in your local brother; in the brother next to you, or the sister next to you, or in the combination of the local meeting as you look round and see the work of God in the saints, right down to younger ones, and realise your responsibility to protect it, to lead it, to have your own part in leading and influencing the saints afresh toward the heavenly portion and toward a calling that is not for this world, but for that world, where Christ is the Head and Centre. May we be encouraged in these things, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Glasgow
21 January 1975