Preached in Markham Baptist Church, July 29, 2007

There is an old slogan that we don’t hear very much in the Christian church for some reason – maybe because we’ve had it up to here with bumper sticker Christianity – but it is a good saying and sums up in part what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. The slogan is Saved to Serve.  Saved to Serve - that describes the Christian life well.  We are saved from sin and death and self in order to serve the King of Kings, to go where He wants us to go and do what He wants us to do.  We are saved by Him through His sacrifice on the cross to serve Him by giving ourselves to Him sacrificially.  So we read in Romans 12:1 “… In view of God’s mercy, [to] offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – This is your spiritual act of worship.” 

Do you know there’s no such thing as an unemployed Christian?  Each one of us has been called into service.  Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  There are no pew warmers in the kingdom of God.  Having been saved, we are called to serve.

This morning I want us to think of Christian service and what it looks like – not from a pastor’s perspective or a missionary’s perspective but what does it mean to serve God in the world of commerce, business, politics, kids, family and community?  What does it mean to serve God as a lay person? 

And our survey today brings us to the wonderful book of Nehemiah.  It is an autobiography of a man who served God as a layman.  He is not a priest, prophet or even an anointed king.  He is a layman working in the king’s court in service to the King of Kings. Throughout this book we see him being the head of the secret service, then a governor, and a foreman of a huge construction project.  All the while he is one who practices his faith in God and seeks to make his job and faith mesh.

If you have your Bibles with you I invite you to open them to the book of Nehemiah.  First let me tell you about the historical context of Nehemiah.  If you go way back, you will remember that the nation of Israel has had some wonderful times of unity and prosperity under the rule of David and Solomon.  But soon after that, the kingdom became divided in two, so we had the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.  The Northern Kingdom is eventually taken over by the Assyrians (722).  Some time later another world power arises and takes over the Assyrians and takes over the Southern Kingdom – the Babylonians (586).  The Babylonians are led by Nebuchadnezzar who eventually flattens Jerusalem, burns the temple and leaves the place desolate.

50 years later a new world power comes on the scene - the Persian empire led by Cyrus - and they allow the Israelites to go back to their home land and rebuild.  At this time the temple is rebuilt.  About 90 years after that first group of refugees goes back home, we come to Nehemiah who is serving in the court of King Artaxerxes.  If you look at the end of chapter one you discover that Nehemiah is a cupbearer to the king.  Now this is more than a butler’s job.  No - a cupbearer in ancient oriental courts is always a person of rank and importance, a person who is trusted and given a great responsibility.  I liken him to the head of the Secret Service - he had to be willing to take a bullet for the king, so to speak.  He was responsible for the care of the king - he tested everything that the king drank.  If it was poisoned, Nehemiah would take the bullet first.  And so the king trusted him with his very life.

But as the book progresses, we see that Nehemiah does not serve the king but the King of Kings.   Nehemiah was a servant to of God and is a picture for us of what it means to be live in service to God as a layperson.

So with this in mind we see that the book can be divided into 3 parts.  The preparation of God’s servant – chapters 1-3; opposition to God’s servant chapters 4-6; and the dedication of God’s servant in chapters 7 through the end of 13. 

First then, the preparation of God’s servant.   And we see that the preparation for service begins with heart-felt prayer. 

One day Nehemiah’s brother and some other Jews return home from a visit to Jerusalem and Nehemiah asks, “How are things in Jerusalem?  I do so love that city.”  And he might quote the words from Psalm 122, “that is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel.  There the thrones for judgement stand, the thrones of the house of David.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:  May those who love you be secure.  May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.” 

To us of course it is only a city, but for the Jew it was the capital city where David had built his palace – it represented the promised land given to them by God.  But more, it was the place where Solomon built the temple and it was here that the glory of God came and dwelt in an awesome cloud. It was here that the people of God met with their God, intimately and powerfully. To be sure we can meet with God any place and anytime – but even in our minds there are those special places where we have met God that we still long for. For some of us it is camp, or a home, or a sanctuary where we met God powerfully and intimately – so Jerusalem is in the Jewish mind.     

“How is Jerusalem?” Nehemiah asks. 

And his brother says, “Things aren’t good Nehemiah.  The temple has been rebuilt but the city is in ruins, and the people are in great trouble.”

“What do you mean, trouble?”

“Well the walls are broken down and the gates are burned – there is constant danger of attack from our enemies and the people live in great stress over this.” 

And Nehemiah is crushed by the news.  His heart is broken because he knew that this city was special – it was the capital city of the people of God. In a sense it represented God Himself – a city that was to be a place of praise and prayer where the people of God would shout, “Our God reigns!”  Instead, it was a city destroyed, living in fear of her enemies. What kind of testimony is that for the living God? 

And the text says at verse 4 that Nehemiah sat down and wept. “For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”  We could meditate on that verse for hours – it is an amazing picture of a person who is deeply distressed about the pitiful testimony that this is to God.  The enemies of God would gloat and mock, “Hah! Look at the so called city of God!” but a man or a woman who has given themselves to God in service could only weep. 

Have you ever wept like that over the state of the church?  Do you ever weep over the church’s apathy; it’s pettiness, its smallness?  Have you ever said, “This is what Jesus Christ has started so that the gates of hell will not prevail against it?  O God help us!”

Have you ever wept like that over those who are lost without Christ?  I know that I don’t cry often enough.  I would suggest that we need to ask God to break our hearts with the things that break His.  That we would truly be in tears over the fate of the lost – that we would really be in tears for those kids in the high school across the street that face so many pressures in life but do it without the presence of the living God in their lives.  I would suggest that we, I, need to be broken by the state of church, the lost. 

And this is not simply being negative and talking about how the younger generation these days – nothing is to be done with them.  No – it’s not here in the lips - it’s here in the heart.  It’s actually seeing with your heart that the church is losing ground, not gaining it, that the church’s testimony is tarnished in the world – that lost are truly lost without Christ. 

It is the beginning of service – to pray with a broken heart.  Before we start any kind of Christian service we need to see the ruins that are around us and turn to God in prayer about those ruins. 

This is crucial, for it is only as we see the vastness and completeness of the ruin that we cry out in despair, “Who is able to fix these walls?  This mess?  Who is able to save these kids?  Who is able to repair the testimony of the church?  Who is able to change this situation?”

And the answer comes back, “Only God.”  It is as we see the completeness of the ruin that we recognize our weakness and inability and are made dependent on our mighty God.   And this is crucial because if we don’t see the need, we won’t respond by a total dependence on the power and grace of the living God.

Note Nehemiah’s prayer. Notice the structure - it begins with adoration, moves to confession, and then petition.  God’s servants must be a people of heartfelt prayer.

Notice too the strength he gains from his prayer.  He ends the prayer at verse 11 with the words, “Give yours servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of this man.”   Basically Nehemiah gets up off his knees here, stands up, takes a deep breath, knowing what he must do and says, “Lord, give your servant success today,” – and he takes the step.

Having been reaffirmed in his prayer of God’s intention and purpose for his people, Nehemiah went forward in that power.  Heartfelt prayer.

In chapter 2 we see the next step in the preparation – that of patient dependence upon God.  If you compare verse 1 of chapter 1 with verse 1 of chapter 2 we discover that there is a time lapse of 4 months between the time Nehemiah learned of the Jerusalem’s state and the time God opened the way for him to take action.  All this time Nehemiah had been patiently waiting on God in prayer and fasting.  Note that he doesn’t dash impatiently into the king’s presence.  He knew that before he could be successful in any work for God he must have the favour of the king on the one hand and he must be sure that God was calling him on the other.

How often have you heard of a need in the church and said to yourself I can do that – and you volunteer to do it without ever consulting God as to whether or not you should do it?  And the result is disaster.  You burn out, you get discouraged.  This sense of God’s calling – “this is what God wants me to do” – really enables us to keep going any type of service.   But when we don’t have that, and we do something simply because we can, we run out of steam and give up. 

Listen very carefully – “The dominating factor in all our service in the church – any service in the name of Jesus Christ is not the need of other people – but the command of the Lord Jesus Christ – His absolute sovereignty, His right to send His people anywhere, His right to order our steps as well as order our stops.”¹ (page 33).  

I’m very aware of what I’m saying – I mean as a church we are always in need of people to help – and I may well be giving you an excuse to not lend a hand, “Well, Pastor, God hasn’t told me to help out there.”  That is fine – as long as it is true.  We need people to help with the mission of this church – but we need people who have waited patiently on God in prayer and have heard him say, “Doug, Dave, Nancy, Mary, this is how I want you to help meet this need.”

So after discovering the need in heartfelt prayer, we need to patiently depend on God to show us what it is that He wants us to do to meet the need. 

We see in chapter 2 that Nehemiah, having waited on God, doesn’t even have to bring up the subject with the king.  The king asks him at verse 2, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill?  This can be nothing but sadness of the heart.”

We see that Nehemiah petitions the king and is given an armed escort, materials to do the work, and letters of recommendation.  So Nehemiah is sent to Jerusalem – not only by the king but by the King of Kings.

In chapter 3 we see the third step in the preparation of a servant of God and that is careful planning.  And there are four stages to this planning and see them all in chapters 2 and 3.  

There is investigation as Nehemiah goes and looks at the ruins himself.  He goes under the cover of darkness and surveys the walls to get a sense of the task ahead.

Then there is cooperation.  At verse 17 of chapter 2, Nehemiah shares his dream with the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and they say, at verse 18, “let us start rebuilding.” 

Then at verses 19 and 20 we see his determination.  Israel’s enemies are not happy that he is rebuilding the walls.  Nehemiah’s enemies are represented by three men, Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem.  They ridicule the work and laugh at their efforts.  But Nehemiah does not allow them to stop the work – he is determined, having received a calling from God, to see it through.

Investigation, cooperation and determination. 

Here’s the questions for us at this point – have you been called by God to do an act of service?  Have you investigated it thoroughly?  Thought about the problems you may find, the resources you will need? 

Have you sought out the cooperation of the body of the Christ? Have you shared your burden with the deacons so that they can support you in your ministry through prayer and encouragement and aid?  Or are you seeking to do it all on your own? 

All of these are important questions for us as we seek to serve our Saviour. 

But not only investigation, cooperation and determination, is involved in careful planning there is also organization.   In chapter 3 we see that Nehemiah organized, directs and delegates the work.  There is a great variety of workers mentioned here, priests (1), rulers (12-19), women (12), craftsman (8,32), and even Jews from other cities (2,5,7).  No one can do everything, but every person can do something.  And they are organized by Nehemiah.

Unless we Christian servants are willing to depend on God and then act on what God shows us to do we have no right to ask others to do the same.  I sometimes wonder about people who say the church is full of hypocrites – well my response is why not join the church and show us how not to be hypocrites?  Or there are others who say we should pray more as a church, but never come to a church prayer meeting, or others who say that we should know each other better in fellowship, but never have anyone in their home for dinner or desert.  If you have a burden about the direction of the church don’t lecture about it - meet it; demonstrate how the need can be met.

The preparation of the servant of God.

We move next to the opposition to the servant of God in chapters 4 through 6.

You need to know what whenever the people of God rise up and say, let us build – let us do this for God, let us do that for God – you need to know that whenever the people of God say that – Satan says, “let us arise and oppose.”  It doesn’t matter what area of service you undertake – any kind of Christian service – teaching Sunday School, practicing your spiritual gift, taking a pie to a sick neighbour – whatever field of service God has called you to – as soon as you say, “Let us arise and build,” Satan says, “Let us arise and oppose.”

You know there were plenty of other Jews in Jerusalem and they’d been there for a long time – but they didn’t do anything about the broken walls of their city.  They were satisfied with the way things were going. Sure the broken walls were a pain and an annoyance, but they never did anything about it.  They were no threat whatsoever to the devil. 

But Nehemiah was a man with a burden and a vision and a dependence upon God – here was a man whose whole attitude was a declaration of war against things as they were.  And as the enemy and his forces saw his determination to retrieve ground that was lost, at once they were aroused to oppose.  

You know, we have to ask ourselves, does our service for God cause Satan to worry at all?  How much overtime has the devil to do in hell because of our church?  Have you done anything to make Satan angry and rise and oppose you or do you absolutely nothing to garner his attention?  It really is a good question - if we are not facing any satanic opposition in our life it just may be that we aren’t doing anything for Satan to oppose? And that’s not a good thing.    We’re in a spiritual battle, remember?  We are supposed to be engaging the enemy. 

Certainly this is what we witness in the book of Nehemiah.  The enemies of God rise and oppose.  They use every weapon in their arsenal to destroy the work that is being done.  There is ridicule in verses 1-6, force (7-9), discouragement (10), fear (11-23), selfishness (5), guile (6:1-4), slander (6:5-9), and threats (6:10-14).

The opposition really comes from two sources.  From without and from within.

There is external opposition lead by the three men I have already mentioned – Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem.  In chapter 4 we witness the first round of opposition and we see that it is filled with scorn and mockery.  In verses 2 and 3 Sanballat says, “What are those feeble Jews doing?  Will they restore their wall?  Will they offer sacrifices?  Will they finish in a day?  Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble – burned as they are?”  Then Tobiah adds, “What they are building if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones.” 

Basically the two of them are saying, “You are too weak to accomplish this and your materials are too old and useless and even if you were to build the wall it would not stand up to a little fox running along it.” 

This is a very modern approach to opposition – mockery.  When we Christians stand up and say that the only hope for our world is God’s redeeming grace, the world says, “You and your feeble little prayer meetings and worship services and plans for converting people one by one.  Do you actually think you can possibly stand alongside the great economic, social, political, machinery of the world?  You are a feeble group, out of date and out of touch.”

The world judges everything by size, by headlines, by imposing schemes, by vast advertisements and big personalities and therefore looks at the people of God with mockery.

The danger for the church is that the world’s priorities have infiltrated the church so that we Christians think we cannot accomplish anything for God without it being big, impressive and filled with big personalities, when in reality the word of God depends on people with praying with broken hearts, depending on God and stepping out in faith in Him. 

Not only is the opposition scornful but it is powerful.  Chapter 4 verse 7 describes a powerful alliance of Arabs, Ammonites, men of Ashdod all joining against the work of Nehemiah.  And we are made to ask why?  Why are these people so determined to stop the work of the people of God? And the answer is that it is because the people of God were determined to do the work. 

Notice how hard the people worked at the wall – they worked as if they would accomplish it in a day – of course it took them 52 days – but they worked as if they were trying to do it in a day.

It was that determination, that spirit which caught the eye of the enemy and raised his wrath.  Do you know that Satan never bothers with half hearted Christian people?  Never worries about Christians who are apathetic.  But once you become  burdened for people, once a church actually seeks to fulfil the great commission, and not just talk about it and study it – when Christian people actually begin to care that hundreds of teenagers right across the street live without Christ every day – when Christian people actually seek to love one another instead of a polite nod on Sunday – well, all hell breaks loose.

Notice how Nehemiah responded to this type of opposition in 4:4-5 .  Did he panic?  Did he answer back or retaliate?  No.  He did two things – First he prayed.  Next he continued to work. He just kept on working and ignored those who ridiculed him.  Notice that prayer is not a substitute for work.  They go hand in hand.

Boy, this attitude gets Satan angry.  He would have loved to see Nehemiah leave the wall and get involved in a dispute with Sanballat, but Nehemiah never fell into that trap.

Unfortunately today Satan manages to laugh people out of work for God and the proverbial wall remains broken.  Or he gets them involved in some controversy at the expense of the great commission.  For instance, there was a big dust up in churches a few years back about which Bible translation was the “right” Bible translation.   Which one was truest to the original text.  There were some over here who believed that it was the King James Version.  And there were others over here who thought it was the New American Standard Version.  There were some churches who were advertising in the paper that they read only from the King James Version – a sign of holiness no doubt.

But talk about silliness.  Satan is laughing at us the church - he has got us so caught up with things that are not essential that he has detracted from the real task of Christianity, to go and make disciples of all nations.

External opposition.  But his leads us to internal opposition – from within.

This opposition comes in the form of complaints, compromises and a conspiracy.  The complaints are two fold.  One is that there is too much rubbish to complete the work (4:10).  And the other is that they are too vulnerable to the enemy (4:11,12).  These complaints come from Nehemiah’s own people.  And this kind of opposition is often the hardest to deal with in service to God.

When those inside the church don’t share the burden, when they complain about he work and fail to see the vision, when the task is plain for all to see, but fellow Christians say, “We can’t do it,” this is the hardest kind of opposition.  Ask any pastor – it is a huge source of burnout.

And note that Nehemiah and the builders are at the hardest place in the work.  Verse 6 says they had built the wall so it was halfway done - at half its height.  It is the hardest place to be.  To be half way through a thing – to be half way up the hill, or halfway through a  task is the hardest place.

Again, what is his reaction to this at verse 14?  He says to the people, “Remember the Lord who is great and awesome.”  His focus is all on God and his sovereignty.  Don’t worry, he says, about these minor things, God is great and is able to overcome. 

But not only do they complain, but they compromise.  In chapter 5 we read of a famine in the land which is taking its toll on the people.  Not only that, but the people were obliged to pay heavy taxes.  Unfortunately there was a group of Jews who were wealthy and they were loaning to their fellow Jews to help them pay the taxes but they were demanding high rates of interest.  It lead to a lot of hard feelings as homes were taken and sons and daughters were sold as slaves. The people who had been working together were now divided and the work was coming to a stop.

Nehemiah dealt with the situation beautifully.  Chapter 5:15 -“The earlier governors, those preceding me placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine.  Their assistants also lorded it over the people.  But out of reverence for God I did not act like that.”

Nehemiah did not argue, he did not lecture. Instead he modeled a life that was beyond suspicion.  And because he was able to say in front of the whole nation, “I did not act like that,” the devil was confounded and the wall went on being built. 

There is no compromise in the servant of God.  You know, Satan is always trying to get us to compromise God’s standards.  It is unfortunate, but we Christians are eager to show everyone that our beliefs are distinct and different from the worlds, but at the same time we are often eager to show the world that there is no difference in matters of practice between those inside the church and those outside the church. 

“We’re just like you,” is the cry of the church to the world, when in fact we’re not.  We’re a holy people – living holy lives with a different Master, different purposes, different attitudes and different values.

“But out of reverence to God I did not act like that.” That is the motto of every Christian seeking to be of service to God.

Complaints, compromise.  Then in chapter 6 there is a conspiracy designed to get Nehemiah to stop working but it fails.  Nehemiah responds by continuing the work.

After all this you have that great verse in verse 15 of chapter 6 – So the wall was completed on the 25^th day of Elul in 52 days.  God is glorified, the people jubilant and the enemy is embarrassed.  Verse 16 - “When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.”

This brings us to the third part of the book.  The dedication of the servant of God (chapters 7-13.)

Here we witness that the servant of God is dedicated to the proclamation of the Word, the glorification of the Lord, and separation from all wickedness.

In chapter 8 we witness the priest, Ezra, reading and expounding the law.  What happens is a massive pulpit is built for him and all the people gather round and for 3 hours the word of God is proclaimed and as a result the people are made conscious of their sin, and their failure and they weep.  It is powerful preaching for the people come under great conviction.  But notice that Nehemiah doesn’t let them stay there.

That’s where Satan would like us to remain.  With the feeling that life is no use, and we’ll never be able to live in God’s favour.  But the Holy Spirit doesn’t leave us there – He says to us as Nehemiah says to the people in verse 10 of chapter 8, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”  It is a joy based on forgiveness, and it is a joy based on dependent obedience to God, and not to being a success.  This the one thing that matters in service to God – it is not acclaim, it is not results, it not success, it is whether or not we are doing the will of God and are obedient to His Word in the power of the Holy Sprit.  If you are true to that call, then there will always be joy for you.

I can tell you from experience that we soon lose joy when we look for recognition from other people. The joy of the Lord means that our eyes are on God at all times – not on what others think or say or do – the joy of the Lord is your strength. 

Next the servant of God is dedicated to the glorification of the Lord (chapter 9).  Notice their services in verse 3 now, “They stood where they were and read from the book of the law and the lord their God for a quarter of the day and spend another quarter in confession and in worshipping the Lord their God.”

Wow.  What a worship time.  Why were they able to worship so long when we can’t seem to worship longer than an hour?  Padded pews?  No!  It was because they were focused on glorifying God.  Nothing else, no other thoughts but glorifying God. Look at verse 5 and 6, “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting – Blessed be your glorious name and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.”

IF you continue to read the rest of that prayer you will see that is it is primarily focused on glorifying God, of telling of His goodness, His faithfulness, His grace and His  blessings.  As a result the people are moved to fresh acts of obedience and in every part of their lives, their homes, their lives, their social lives, and their church life.

The servant of God is dedicated to the proclamation of the Word, the glorification of the Lord and finally the separation from all wickedness.  In chapter 13 verse 6 we see that Nehemiah returned to Babylon for a time, leaving the governing of the city in the hands of this brother.  When he returns he discovers that the people had fallen back into their old ways.

The people were marrying with foreigners, even one of the sons of a priest had married Sanballat’s daughter.  On top of that they weren’t keeping the Sabbath holy.  All sorts of business was going on during the day they were to set aside for God. On top of that, Tobiah, the old enemy, is housed very comfortable in the courts of God’s house.

Well, Nehemiah is swift to act, he begins by throwing all of Tobiah’s furniture out on the street, and Tobiah along with hit. Then he shuts the gates of the city the evening before the Sabbath. Some tried to sell their goods outside the wall but Nehemiah told them to go away.   And then he disciplined those who married foreign wives and made them get rid of them all.

This principle of the servant of God, is the principle of separation.  It is cutting away everything in our lives that seeks to compromise our relationship with God.  It is the divorcing of every influence that is ungodly; it is the throwing out into the street every character trait and habit that is of the world; and it is the complete condemnation of wickedness in our lives in order to live for God.

Well, we have come to the end of the book of Nehemiah, the servant of God.  From him we learn the importance of the preparation for service, we learn of how to handle inevitable opposition, and we learn the importance of dedication to the Word, to the Lord and to separation from all wickedness.

I hope that you are all involved in some form of service. If you’re not, the church needs you.  Our church needs you.  So I encourage you to begin looking at the walls around our church, the walls of spirituality and prayerfulness and witness and stewardship and discipleship. See the cracks that exist in them and then wait on God to see what He says to you about those broken walls.  I pray that as He calls us to service, and He will call us, that we will respond with total dependence up Him, saying, “Let us arise and build for the glory of God!”

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - July 2007

ENDNOTES:

1. Alan Redpath, Victorious Christian Service, (U.S.A. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1958), 33.

[Home] [Coming Up] [Programs] [Sermons] [About Us] [Contact Us]