Having considered Jesus’ view of those Christians who do not pay attention to His Word I now turn to notice Jesus’ opinion about ecclesiastical leadership.

Leadership

During His time on Earth, Jesus criticized Jewish officialdom.  It was not “the Jews” but the leadership who persecuted Jesus and finally secured His crucifixion. The ordinary Jewish public “heard Him gladly” Mk 12:37.  Jesus was popular with them, both in His teaching and especially in His healing ministry.  This popularity troubled the Pharisees Jn 12:19 and provoked “Jewish officialdom” to develop their murderous plans.

Jesus’ compassion towards the public manifested itself in exposing their hypocritical leadership, and He gave the public and His own disciples this memorable comment:

“They are bind leaders of the blind. Leave them alone.  If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

Matthew 15:14

He told His disciples and the public to do as the Pharisees taught from the books of Moses but not to do as they do, because they did not practice what they preached Mat 23:1-5. He contradicted the false teaching of the religious leaders Mat 15:1-9 and while He was teaching in the temple Mat 23:23-39 He publicly called them hypocrites to their face.

He taught the people to scrutinize the behaviour of ecclesiastical officials Mk 12:38-40.

Jesus was in the same vein as the Old Testament prophets. Isaiah excoriated Jewish officialdom Isa 3:12-15 and the other prophets exposed their civil and religious leaders – priests and princes.

But what about Christian leadership?

Jesus warned the apostle Peter about his vulnerability to Satan’s temptations.  Nevertheless Peter did not take warning and he fell headlong into Satan’s sieve and publicly denied Jesus three times in quick succession.  He learned from his public denial of Jesus and more particularly he benefited from Jesus’ restoration of him to his teaching office Jn 21:15-19.  However, even then, Peter wanted to know about his fellow disciple John, and Jesus corrected him yet again. Jesus told him that it was none of his business but Peter was to pay attention to his own following of Christ Jn 21:20-22.  Later,in his first epistle, Peter warned the Christian church against lording it over God’s heritage 1Pe 5:1-3.

One might think that the man in Rome who pretends that he is Peter’s successor would have learned from Peter and given up his pretentious claims by now.  This reminds us that sinful human nature likes authority and will not easily give it up.

In his second epistle Peter considers his imminent death and directs his readers once he was gone from this world to the inspired and incorruptible Bible rather than to any college of imaginary cardinals or popes in Rome 2Pe 1:13-21.

The apostle John was very close to Jesus and imbibed His teaching and Christian spirit.  John had severe words against Diotrephes who loved the pre-eminence in the church 3Jn 1:9-11. John reminded the Christian church through his epistles of the true spirit of Christian leadership and fellowship, which he noticed was changing even during his long lifetime. He warned them that Christian love was diminishing and sometimes absent.

Jesus’ teaching and scrutiny of Christian leadership in apostolic times continued after His ascension to heaven. 

Seven churches of Asia

In the Book of Revelation Jesus tells us that He is still walking in the middle of His church Rev 1:10-13 monitoring its progress.  He addressed the leader in each of the seven churches of Asia with His assessment of their congregation Rev 2–Rev 3.  What is Jesus saying about your congregation? Do you know, or do you not know? 

Jesus told his apostles that He is the Vine and they are its branches.  He warned them that fruitless branches will be broken off and burned Jn 15:1-6.  This happened with Judas Iscariot and with multitudes of congregations and denominations ever since.

Blaming congregations

In politics or warfare, when things go wrong it is usual to blame the leaders.  Strangely, this does not happen in the Christian church.

This may be because leaders in the Christian church do not provide a forum to measure or challenge their leadership.

Leadership will only be considered when a scandal emerges, then the main issue will be damage limitation to protect the church’s reputation.

My readers may be familiar with those preachers who vent their frustrations to their congregation about  those who are not present, as if the absence of others is the fault of those who are present, whereas their own poor preaching and leadership might be more blameworthy than the congregation.

Brotherly love

It is a significant challenge to any congregation: What would your congregation be like if everyone was like you? Would it be a flourishing congregation, or would it go into decline? This is certainly worth considering, although a full answer might reflect on the church leadership rather than the congregation. However, how often have you heard preachers applying the same message to the office bearers of the congregation?

What would the congregation be like if they were all like the preacher, or its elders?

The apostle John’s criticism of Diotrephes was not simply because of his arrogant dogmatism and control freakery, but John also focused on the need for brotherly love in his epistles. Do your preachers do so? Do your elders practice it? Do they explain and practice it?

Is Christian brotherly love preached and practised by your preachers, and is it found among your congregations? Examine the leadership and remind yourself that you are to follow Jesus Christ only Mat 24:4-5, Jn 21:21-22.

Update:

20 Feb 2024: when I posted this yesterday I did not realise how timely it would be. The leadership of the Church of England [21:05 hrs] is under attack.