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- [Kathleen Nielson] Hello, I'm Kathleen Nielson,
director of Women's Initiatives for the Gospel Coalition. Here we are in the
third session, already well into the story of Nehemiah. Those first two chapters
showed us a man of prayer and action, as he addressed head-on the crisis
in Jerusalem. Now, we get to watch Nehemiah spurring his people to action
as they start rebuilding Jerusalem's wall. Now, to picture this scene look around and
see huge piles of rubble, heaps of stones, rotted remains of charred wooden gates.
It's a tough work site. The words labour, and work, and repair just keep pounding
their way through chapters 3 and 4. The focus of these chapters though is not
just on the hard work, but on the people doing it.
This is an amazing glimpse of the people of God at work, a glimpse that speaks
to us as God's people today even though we occupy a very different place
in redemptive history. God has from the beginning,
been calling out a people for Himself, who are to have a distinct identity
as His people. It's an identity we understand now as the body of Christ.
We have put our faith in the one who came and fulfilled all the promises Nehemiah
was holding on to. Jesus, the Son of God came,
died bearing our sins, rose again. And now, his spirit lives in us,
binds us together as his people from all the nations of the world.
As New Testament believers, we can look back to Nehemiah's time and
see an unfolding picture of God's people. It's really a glimpse into our
own history. Let's make three observations about this scene of God's
people rebuilding. First of all, it shows the unity of God's people.
This is a beautiful picture here, in chapter 3, of God's people all together.
If you try to read it out loud it's kind of daunting with all these
hard-to-pronounce Hebrew names that stretch like chain links through the text,
but that's the point. Each one of these people who are unknown
to us, was a known individual, significant enough to be recorded
in Holy Scripture playing his or her part in the work God's people were called
to do. Just look through the text, trace all these different names that are
repeatedly linked together with the words, "and next to, and next to."
That's part of the point too, they're all next to each other,
those of high position, those of low, from all walks of life.
The chapter starts out with Eliashib, the high priest and his brothers building
the sheep gate, setting the doors in place. That's impressive in itself that
these religious leaders are there doing construction. First in line,
not too spiritual to get their hands dirty in there with the goldsmiths,
and merchants, and perfumers, and probably a lot of farmer types.
There in verses 9 and 12, are two rulers of the district
of Jerusalem, one of whom, Shallum, there in verse 12, brought his
daughters with him to work on the wall. Don't you love it that we get to know that
he brought his daughters. You couldn't ask for a better live picture
of how we're called to view ourselves as the family of God. So many of us today are
used to thinking of ourselves as utterly independent entities with our commitment
to God's people just sort of fitting in there along with all our
other commitments. It's easy to forget that when we put our faith in Christ,
we receive a fundamentally new identity. We are now part of Christ's own body,
his people, his church, forever. All our other identities are temporary,
even our roles within our human families. That's an amazing thought, isn't it?
It's a great question to ask, "Do I think of my most basic identity
as being in Christ and united with his body here on earth?" And then come
more questions, "Do I think of myself as next to, linked in gospel work to the rest
of the body? Do I understand the Apostle Paul's teaching that no part
of his body is dispensable especially the seemingly weaker parts?
Do I get how satisfying it is to be not alone, but part of something much bigger,
greater than myself?" This is actually what we humans long for,
isn't it? Well, all of this is what makes the scene of workers on the wall
in Nehemiah 3 so beautiful and what makes the Tekoite nobles stick out like an ugly,
sore thumb there in verse 5, because they are not there.
The Tekoite nobles that is. The Tekoites are there working hard,
but not their nobles, who Nehemiah says right out , "Would not stoop to serve
their Lord." They didn't get this unity thing, they thought of themselves more
highly than they ought. The Tekoite nobles thought they were
somehow above this rubble of stones and rabble of people patching them
back together. What a tragic one line to have recorded forever about you?
They would not stoop to serve their Lord. Part of these nobles' problem probably had
to do with the second observation. First, we said the scene shows us the unity
of God's people. And second, it shows us the battle to which God's
people are called. They're not just called to hard work in this scene,
they're called to a battle. All around them are enemies lurking,
watching, looking to attack, jeering. As chapter 4 opens, Sanballat's words
echo loud, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it
for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day?
Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burned ones at that?"
Then his crony, Tobiah, "Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes
up on it he will break down their stone wall." The work probably looks kind
of foolish from the outside. The Tekoite nobles are right that it would
bring them down in a way to link arms with this leftover remnant of a formerly
powerful Kingdom trying to patch together a broken down city. It's messy,
sweaty work. And the prospects don't look that good. In fact, they look a
little ridiculous. I've been reading the story of one of the first American
missionary couples, Adoniram and Ann Judson, who in 1812,
sailed across the ocean, made their way to Burma,
where there was no established church, no support structure,
no language dictionaries, only disease, and poverty, and rulers who would likely
put them to death. It looked utterly foolhardy to most people.
And the Judsons' years of painful struggle there in Burma might have seemed
to justify those people's opinions. And yet, Adoniram and Ann Judson completed
a Burmese translation of the whole Bible, still used today, and they established the
first and continuing body of believers there where the gospel had not been heard.
Often the work of God looks foolish to outsiders. In 1 Corinthians 1:27,
Paul explains, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong." The gospel message
of Christ crucified seems like folly to those who reject it even though it is the
power of God and the wisdom of God to those who believe. It shouldn't surprise
us to find God's people in Nehemiah 4 being mocked by surrounding enemies.
This comes with being God's people and believing in something that other people
can't see and don't acknowledge and yet something that those people fear might
be true. Sanballat and Tobiah know the history of these people and their God.
They are threatened. God's truth is fatally threatening
to those who refuse it. And so these enemies are looking
to attack. Do you know this story personally? We, New Testament believers
still face scorn and opposition even in our very different battles.
Ones Paul tells us are not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual
forces of evils that we cannot see. The questions in this session
ask you to look up those verses from Ephesians 6, that call us to take up the
whole armor of God so that we will be able to withstand and stand firm against such
enemies through Christ and his gospel truth. That armor leads us to the third
and final, and really most important observation. This scene shows us the God
who fights for His people. This is the beauty of Nehemiah 4,
that in the face of all these threats, Nehemiah's first instinct,
we know it already, is to turn to God in prayer and to ask for protection
against their enemies who are, in effect, God's enemies. Nehemiah didn't just pray,
in that famous verse 9, he reports, "We prayed to our God and set a guard."
Faith and action go together. Nehemiah is a great example of how valiant
works do indeed grow out of great faith or if we want to say the other way around,
how great faith produces valiant works. Nehemiah wants to communicate to the
people that they can fight hard and well only because of the God who fights
for them. They are depending in faith upon the Lord God. "Remember the Lord,"
Nehemiah tells them, verse 14, "Remember the Lord who is great
and awesome." And finally, there's that wonderful cry in verse 20,
"In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there.
Our God will fight for us." As we go away with that last cry echoing
in our minds, perhaps we should hear not only the promise that our God will fight
for us, maybe we should change the verb tense. Our God has fought for us.
He was willing to stoop down low to do it. On the cross, the Son of God Himself faced
and conquered sin and death. According to Colossians 2:15, God,
there, disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame,
triumphing over them in Christ. Our faith can rest in the truth that
in Jesus Christ, God has fought for us and out of that kind of faith,
and that kind of God will come strength to fight the hardest battles of all kinds
to the very end. So what should we take away from this scene of God's people
rebuilding Jerusalem's walls? Tomorrow morning when you get up,
what difference might this story make as you carry it with you?
First, I hope you won't be able to feel alone when you wake up.
I hope you'll think about being part of a redeemed people, part of a big
ongoing story. of the God of the universe calling out a people for Himself
through His son. He gives us work to do together, work that focuses on calling
people around us to follow Jesus along with us. I am so thankful we do not do
this alone, but as part of the body of Christ. Then of course,
there's the battle, we won't be able to forget the battle as soon as we wake
up because we're all in the middle of it until Jesus comes again.
It's good to know that and not just be carried along as a passive, oblivious part
of the story. It's good to start our day putting on that spiritual armor and
readying ourselves for whatever comes as we're clear about who Christ is and who
we are. We'll have to get ready to stoop down, even appear foolish.
What will that mean at work for you tomorrow, or as you chat with a friend and
have a chance to talk about your faith in Christ, or maybe as you have the
opportunity to work alongside some people from church that you might not normally
spend time with? The battle takes all kinds of forms. But finally,
when you wake up tomorrow, I hope you'll say out loud the truth
at the bottom of it all that our God fights for us, that our God has fought
for us in Christ. He will not leave us alone in our battles. We belong to Him,
He's a great and awesome redeemer God. Only through faith in Him do we have the
strength to begin to deal with the battles that we need to fight tomorrow.
Let's together hear Nehemiah's call to remember Him. Let's remember our great and
awesome God.
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