The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Classic Version, 2015Sample

The Life of a Leader

‘Leadership is influence,’ writes John Maxwell, whose organisations have trained more than 1 million leaders worldwide. He points out that, according to sociologists, even the most introverted individual will influence 10,000 other people during his or her lifetime!

In one sense there is only one leader. In our New Testament reading today Jesus says, ‘there is only one life leader for you ... Christ’ (Matthew 23:10, MSG). On the other hand, every Christian is called to be a leader in the sense that other people will look to you as an example. You have influence over others in different ways. To be called by God to be a leader is an enormous privilege, but it carries with it great responsibility.

Psalm 18:25-36

1. A leader’s challenge

David was a leader who had confidence. However, it was not self-confidence but confidence in God: ‘With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall’ (v.29). David recognised that he needed:

• God’s protection
  ‘He is a shield for all who take refuge in him’ (v.30b). ‘You protect me with salvation-armour’ (v.35, MSG).
• God’s strength
  ‘It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights’ (vv.32–33).
• God’s training
  ‘He trains my hands for battle’ (v.34a). I was reading this psalm back in 1992 and it was this verse that made me realise we needed to train the leaders (small group hosts and helpers) before each Alpha Course began. This was the origin of ‘Alpha Training’.
• God’s guidance
  ‘You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light’ (v.28). ‘As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is flawless’ (v.30).

Lord, as I look at the challenges ahead, I need your help. I pray for your protection, strength and guidance. Lead me in your perfect way.

Matthew 23:1-39

2. A leader’s character

Jesus attacks the religious leaders of his day with strong language: ‘You snakes! You brood of vipers!’ (v.33). This language would have come as a complete shock to the people. Our image now of ‘scribes and Pharisees’ is very different to how they were perceived at the time. They were highly regarded, respectable people.

The scribes were lawyers. They preserved and interpreted the law. They were authorised to act as judges. They had been ordained after a course of study. They were experts in the Scriptures. They were teachers who gathered pupils around them.

The Pharisees were laypeople. They tended to come from the middle classes (unlike the Sadducees who were more aristocratic). They were much respected for their piety. They prayed and fasted often. They attended the services. They gave regularly. They led ‘upright, moral lives’. They had a big influence in society. They were much admired by ordinary people.

Yet, Jesus criticises them for being hypocrites: ‘They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behaviour. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer’ (v.3, MSG).

Jesus’ ‘Seven Woes’ challenge us to seven characteristics of Christian leadership:

• Integrity
  Jesus attacks the hypocrisy of the religious leaders (vv.3–4). He says, ‘They do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them’ (vv.3b–4). Integrity is the opposite of this, it means practising what you preach and making sure that your preaching lifts people up, rather than weighing them down with guilt or other burdens.
• Authenticity
  Jesus attacks their superficiality (vv.5–7). He says to them, ‘Everything they do is done for others to see’ (v.5a). But what matters is who you are when nobody is looking. Jesus speaks about your ‘secret’ life with God. We need to develop an authentic private life with God.
• Humility
  Jesus warns us against loving titles and recognition (vv.8–11). We are to be on our guard so that we are not enticed by ‘prominent positions’, ‘public flattery’, and being given titles of one sort or another (vv.6–7, MSG). Jesus warns us, ‘Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that’ (v.8, MSG). This is such a temptation but Jesus says, ‘For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’ (v.12). Always seek to exalt Jesus, rather than yourself.
• Compassion
  Jesus attacks the religious leaders for putting stumbling blocks in the way of others (vv.13–15). He says, ‘You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to’ (v.13). Leaders need to have the opposite spirit – one that is open and welcoming to everybody.

Jesus himself sets an example of compassion. He says, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem … how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings’ (v.37).

• Vision
  Leaders should have big vision. Jesus attacks the small mindedness and pettiness of the religious leaders (vv.16–22). The ‘ridiculous hairsplitting!’ (v.19, MSG). They could not see the wood for the trees. You need to concentrate on the important issues, pray for God’s vision, and don’t be side-tracked. Ask God to give you a vision that is so big that without him it is impossible.
• Focus 
  Focus on what really matters (vv.23–24). Avoid getting caught up with minor details and becoming legalistic. Jesus says, ‘You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel’ (v.24). Rather we are to focus on, ‘The more important matters … justice, mercy and faithfulness’ (v.23), (‘fairness and compassion and commitment’, MSG). Fight against injustice and poverty; and demonstrate ‘faithfulness’ in your relationships with your family and others.
• Generosity
  This is the opposite of the greed and self-indulgence, which Jesus decries (vv.25–28). Their inner life is so different from the outer life. Jesus calls you to be yourself – for the inside to be like the outside (vv.27–28).

These are extremely high standards and very hard to attain. Jesus’ words here, as the ‘woes’ come to a climax (vv.29–36), are some of the strongest to come from his mouth. It is important to note that they were not addressed to ordinary people. Jesus was criticising powerful leaders, who were seeking to ‘exalt themselves’ (v.12), and who ‘shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces’ (v.13).

We should not use these words as an excuse to berate ordinary people, or even leaders who are genuinely seeking to point people to Jesus. They are challenging words – but the challenge should not be directed at the wrong people!

What is so amazing about Jesus’ words is that humanly speaking he was in a position of great weakness, and yet he was not afraid to take on the powers of his day.

Lord, forgive me for the times that I have failed in these areas. Help me to lead a life of integrity, authenticity, humility, compassion, vision, focus and generosity. Help me to have the same concern for my city as Jesus had for his.

Job 33:1-34:37

3. A leader’s critics

Criticism is the price of leadership. As Rick Warren has pointed out, ‘Criticism is the cost of influence. As long as you don’t influence anybody, nobody is going to say a peep about you. But the greater your influence ... the more critics you are going to have.’

Poor Job, who was in a prominent position of leadership (see ch.1), as if his suffering was not enough, he has to put up with a constant tirade of abuse from his critics. It is more distressing because it comes from his so-called ‘friends’. Criticism is always hardest when it comes from those who should be our friends. It is sad when unjustified criticism of Christian leaders comes from within the church itself – from the so-called ‘friends’.

It must have been extremely galling for Job to have to listen to Elihu, who was much younger and yet convinced of his own experience, arrogantly saying to Job, ‘I will teach you wisdom’ (33:33) and ‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight’ (34:35). And to suggest that, because he disagreed with his critics, ‘To his sin he adds rebellion [against God]’ (v.37).

Elihu, like so many critics, claims to be ‘carefully thought out’ and to ‘have no ulterior motives’ (33:2–3, MSG). He claims that others agree with him, ‘All right-thinking people say – and the wise who have listened to me concur – “Job is an ignoramus. He talks utter nonsense” ’ (34:34–35, MSG).

It is tempting to dismiss Elihu’s words with the suggestion that he is the one who is talking nonsense. But we too can easily fall into the trap of judging God’s people on a superficial basis, just as Elihu does. We need to beware of the dangers of criticising others.

Although it has been pointed out that no one ever built a monument to a critic, it does not stop us all wanting to be critics. We need to be very careful of what we say. And if we are on the receiving end of criticism we should not be surprised.

Lord, help me to avoid passing superficial judgments on other people. Give me wisdom and sensitivity towards those who are struggling with life. Deliver me from pretension. Help me to fix my eyes on the one true leader, Jesus Christ, and to come under his Lordship and follow his example.

Pippa Adds

As I don’t have much physical strength, I love all these verses: ‘With my God I can scale a wall’ (Psalm 18:29); ‘It is God who arms me with strength’ (v.32); ‘He enables me to stand on the heights’ (v.33b); ‘He trains my hands for battle’ (v.34); he gives us his saving help which is my ‘shield’ (v.35a); his ‘right hand sustains me’ (v.35b). When I am feeling weary, physically not on top of things, these words really encourage me.

Notes:
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.