Sermon 25-36 Ex18 Guide

Ex 18:13-27 theme verse Ex 18:21-22

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this thirty first Sunday of 2025, on Pentecost Sunday, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we looked at what the marks of true church are, yet this week, we would like to look at how the church is governed together.

1)    First, to summarize today’s text, when the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt, where they had been enslaved for 430 years, and arrived at Mount Sinai under Moses' leadership, Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, came to see Moses with his wife Zipporah and their two sons. After witnessing Moses' busy days dealing with all the lawsuits of over two million Israelites, Jethro made a suggestion to Moses that first he warned that Moses might burn out due to his overwhelming tasks and that he might miss more important and complex matters for the Israelites by getting involved in trivial matters, potentially putting the nation in danger. So he suggested that Moses could represent the people before God, teaching them the statutes and ordinances, and showing them the way they should go and what they should do, and judging the people's major issues. And also he suggested that Moses could find capable men among the people—men who fear God, are trustworthy, and not greedy for unjust gain—and appoint them as leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. These leaders would judge the disputes among the people yet bringing all major cases to him.

2)    The system proposed by Moses' father-in-law, Jethro was that after Moses appointed a leader for every ten people, if a dispute arose among them, they would take it to the leader of the ten. Yet if the leader of the ten couldn't resolve it, they would take it to the leader of the fifties. And if the leader of the fifties couldn't resolve it, they would take it to the leader of the hundred, and then to the leader of the thousand. But, if even they couldn't resolve the issue, they would take it to Moses and if even Moses couldn't resolve it, Moses would take it to God. Through this system, we can see that God respects human reason and judgment and allows human to participate in His providential government.

3)    However, there is some disagreement about accepting Jethro’s suggestion to the Israelite community. Some say that if Moses needed this kind of help, God would have already told him. Yet, first, we have to consider the fact that Jethro did not commend Moses to follow his suggestion. Instead, he said him Mosese spoke to God to follow His word. Secondly, sometimes God directly provided the person and the assistance, yet He also allowed each person to carry out their ministry with their own reason and judgment. Furthermore, as the Lord said in Luke 16:8, "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light," we can see that He acknowledged worldly wisdom too. Furthermore, through this, we can know that God’s leader does not need to do everything alone, even though Moses, as God's chosen leader, could not be replaced until his work was completed. Therefore, we can know that the wisdom under God’s common grace can also be used for our ministry.

4)    And also, in Jethro suggestion, the system in which God's community had to be run by leaders of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands, which is also used in the world, there's something we need to think about. I mean, the system of leaders of tens, fifties, hundreds, thousands, and then Moses is different from the system of the world which has a hierarchical structure, rather each leaders are all important even though there’s order in God's kingdom in which small matters are handled by the leaders of tens, and as matters become more serious, they progress through the leaders of fifties, hundreds, and thousands, until Moses ultimately who represented Israel before God. For example, in Numbers 16, when Korah sought to become a priest, as Moses rebuked him, saying, “Is it a small thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the entire assembly of Israel to come near to himself to do the work of the LORD’s tabernacle and to stand before the assembly to minister to them? He has brought you near, you and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you. So why then do you seek the priesthood?”, we can clearly know that both the priesthood and the tabernacle ministry had the same importance before God.

5)    And also today's text introduced the qualification of the officials in the community, I mean, the leaders of the tens, of the fifties, of the hundreds and of the thousands in v.21, saying, "Select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain—and appoint them over the people." In other words, it says that the capable men fear God, since they know that they judge before God, be trustworthy, since he is honest, and do not accept bribes to pervert their judgment. And also Deuteronomy 1, which deals with the same incident, states that the qualifications for leadership are wisdom and knowledge with recognition by others. So, according to this passage, a capable person is one who possesses wisdom and knowledge and is also recognized by the people. This qualification is very similar to the instruction in Acts 6, I mean, when selecting the seven deacons, Peter said them to select those with a good reputation who are were recognized by others and full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Thus, we can know that being a servant of God's kingdom requires not only a faithful and sincere relationship with God, but also good relationships with others.

6)    As such, regarding the government of church, Belgic confession article 30 confesses that “We believe that this church ought to be governed according to the spiritual order that our Lord has taught us in his Word. There should be ministers or pastors to preach the Word of God and administer the sacraments. There should also be elders and deacons, along with the pastors to make up the council of the church. By this means true religion is preserved; true doctrine is able to take its course; and evil people are corrected spiritually and held in check, so that also the poor and all the afflicted may be helped and comforted according to their need. By this means everything will be done well and in good order in the church when such person are elected who are faithful and are chosen according to the rule that Paul gave to Timothy.”

7)    So through this government of the church, we want to keep true religion and true doctrine, to correct the evil spiritually, and to comfort the poor and the afflicted.

8)    So, as 2 Tim 2:20-21 says “Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable so that if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work,” I hope we all cleanse ourselves to be used in His kingdom. Therefore, I pray that this year, we can all be used to build God’s kingdom, for His glory.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that true church of Christ is built with various gifts together. So, thinking on what gifts you received from God and how you want to use them, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And, also in order to be used for the church, 2 Tim 2:21 says that we have to cleanse ourselves. So after thinking about what it means, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.