Since September 11, 2001, Americans have had to live under the threat of terrorist attacks. It has changed many aspects of the way we live. We face increased security checks at airports and international borders. We hear of possible attacks at shopping malls and sporting events, although I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do about it, other than report suspicious looking characters or abandoned packages. It is difficult and frustrating for our government to fight this enemy, because it is often not visible as other enemy armies have been. This enemy hides and uses surprise attacks to achieve its evil goals.

The threat of terrorist attacks should not be anything new for Christians. Centuries ago, the apostle Paul warned, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). Our enemy has used deception, trickery, and other schemes to try to destroy or at least neutralize God’s people from doing what He has called them to do. If we want to finish our course and accomplish His purpose for our lives, we must learn how to resist Satan’s schemes.

In his goal of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah had to stand up to the violent threats of the enemy (chapter 4). He had to deal with internal conflict between the wealthy and poor Jews (chapter 5). He is almost done now. The breaches in the wall have been repaired, and the wall is complete except for the doors in the gates. But the enemy has not given up. In chapter 6, he hits again with four schemes: intrigue (6:1-4); innuendo (6:5-9); intimidation (6:10-14); and, infiltration (6:15-19). (The first three headings are from Cyril Barber, cited by Edwin Yamauchi, Expositor’s Bible Commentary 4:712.) In the first three schemes, Satan moved first and Nehemiah had to respond. In the last situation, Nehemiah won the victory of the completed wall, but Satan responded with his scheme of infiltration. We learn that …

To complete the work God has given us to do, we must discern and resist Satan’s many schemes.

1. Satan’s scheme: Intrigue. Nehemiah’s response: Firm in his priorities (6:1-4).

The local Samaritan Daily Sun might have reported the incident like this:

Nehemiah Says No to Ono

Samaritan officials have disclosed that Nehemiah, governor of Judah, has again turned down the offer of Governor Sanballat of Samaria to meet at one of the villages in Ono, on the Judah-Samaria border. The proposed conference would include the Big Four of the area: Geshem, leader of the Arabs; Tobiah, leader of the Ammonites; Sanballat, and Nehemiah.

Sanballat issued a statement today in which he sharply criticized Nehemiah for his repeated refusals to cooperate. He reports that the purpose of such a meeting would be to work on a formula for lasting peace in the region. The Samaritan leader said with evident frustration, “This is the fourth time Nehemiah has turned down my invitation to meet and discuss our mutual concerns. These repeated refusals mean that the responsibility for increasing tensions and any violence that may result, rests solely upon Jerusalem.” (Adapted from Donald Campbell, Nehemiah: Man in Charge [Victor Books], p. 55.)

Sounds like today’s news, doesn’t it! Note Satan’s first scheme:

A. Satan especially targets leaders with his schemes of intrigue.

You’ve probably seen the Gary Larsen “Far Side” cartoon that shows two deer standing upright. One has a huge target on his chest. The other one says, “Bummer of a birthmark, Ernie!” Every Christian leader has that target on his chest. If Satan can bring down the leader, he will cause extensive damage to the flock. But whether you’re a leader or not, the enemy uses the same schemes to try to sabotage your walk with God. Note two things:

(1) Satan uses subtle deception and plausible sounding appeals, but his intent is to destroy us.

“Come, let’s meet together. We should try to iron out our differences. You’re in favor of peace, aren’t you? Don’t you want good relationships with your neighbors? We just want to foster mutual understanding.” It all sounded so good, but Nehemiah rightly perceived that their intent was to ambush him if he went.

Satan still uses all sorts of innocent-sounding appeals to lure believers into a trap. He isn’t playing games: he wants to devour you (1 Pet. 5:8). I have seen him repeatedly use the trap of luring a Christian young person (usually a woman) into marriage with an unbeliever. Of course the unbeliever is always a nice guy! A drunken, abusive bum wouldn’t lure you into the trap! But a nice, good-looking, successful unbeliever who promises to go to church with you, will do the trick just fine!

Many pastors and Christian leaders get lured into Satan’s trap of compromising sound doctrine for the cause of unity. I have heard over and over again, “The Bible does not say that the world will know us for our correct doctrine, but for our love. We need to set aside the matters that divide us and come together on the matters we agree on.” And so pastors set aside the essentials of the gospel, that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from our merit or works. They join with Roman Catholics, who preach a “gospel” of works, by signing unity documents and attending unity services. Charles Colson, who is a leader in this deception, tells with approval the story of an Evangelical Free pastor who swapped pulpits with a Roman Catholic priest, to show that “what binds us together is stronger than that which divides us” (The Body [Word], p. 103).

What Colson fails to see is that what divides us is nothing less than the gospel. The divide means either heaven or hell! The apostle Paul strongly opposed the Judaizers. These men claimed to believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. They believed that He is the Jewish Messiah. Why, then, did Paul oppose them? Because they said that in addition to believing in Jesus, you had to be circumcised to be saved. They added this one biblical work to faith, that’s all. And Paul said, “Let them be damned” (Gal. 1:8, 9). He said that if you add any human work in order to be justified, you are severed from Christ, you have fallen from grace (Gal. 5:4). Satan’s aim is to destroy you through subtle deception and plausible sounding appeals. “Are you against Christian unity? What’s wrong with you?”

(2) Satan is relentlessly persistent in his schemes.

They sent messengers to Nehemiah four times with the same invitation. Four times he sent back the same answer, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” (6:3). “What part of no don’t you understand?”

Just because you resist the devil once, don’t think that he is going to give up and leave you alone! He will hit you again and again with the same temptation, to wear you down. Look at how Delilah wore Samson out with the same request, to tell her the secret of his strength. Finally, he yielded and the enemy triumphed. His life was a disgrace to the Lord’s name. How did Nehemiah resist this scheme of intrigue?

B. Nehemiah resisted Satan’s intrigues by standing firm in his priorities.

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” He wasn’t being arrogant. It was just that he knew that what God had given him to do was important for the Lord’s sake and for His people’s sake. And it was not quite finished. Walls without gates were as effective as no walls at all. His priority was to finish the wall. He didn’t allow an unnecessary meeting with the enemy to distract him from that one aim.

As believers, our chief priority is to glorify God by knowing Jesus Christ and by being conformed to His character beginning at the heart level. Anything that pulls you away from that priority, even if it is a ministry, is a ploy of the devil. Beyond that, we have other priorities in accordance with our gifts. As a pastor-teacher, I must devote myself to prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4; 2 Tim. 4:1-4). To get distracted with other things, even good things, would be to yield to the enemy’s schemes.

2. Satan’s scheme: Innuendo. Nehemiah’s response: Forthright rebuttal coupled with prayer (6:5-9).

After four frustrated attempts to lure Nehemiah into an ambush, the enemy shifted tactics. He sent an open letter to Nehemiah that contained a rumor accusing him of plotting to rebel and become the king. The word was that he had hired prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem that he was the new king. The letter also contained a not-so-veiled threat that if he didn’t want these nasty rumors to get back to King Artaxerxes, he needed to agree to a meeting (6:5-7). This shows us that …

A. Satan spreads slanderous false rumors against godly leaders.

Normally letters between officials were sealed and private. Sanballat knew that the servant who delivered this letter would read it, and so would countless other people along the way. The nice thing about a rumor is, you only have to launch it with one gossip, and it will spread like a virus from person to person, growing more malicious as it travels. Invariably, such rumors attack the character and the motives of a godly leader. “Did you know what Nehemiah was planning?” “No, but I had wondered why he was working so hard on that wall. It sure makes sense!”

Since I have been at this church, I have heard through the rumor mill that I was leading the church into a cult. The reason I was doing this was that I am psychologically unstable and I need counseling to deal with some deep issues that I may not even be aware of. Also, I’ve heard that I’m trying to lead the church away from our Baptist roots because I preach that God is sovereign in the matter of our salvation. Never mind that the solid Baptists John Bunyan and Charles Spurgeon, not to mention the old Baptist Confessions of Faith, all uphold God’s sovereign grace! Those who spread such falsehoods never asked me what my goals are. They just dropped the germs of rumors, and let the virus spread. How did Nehemiah respond to this scheme of the devil?

B. Nehemiah resisted Satan’s innuendoes with the truth and with prayer.

In his Lectures to My Students, Spurgeon has a chapter titled “The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear” ([Zondervan, pp. 321-335). He is right in saying that in most cases, pastors should let such rumors die a natural death. He said (p. 332),

Falsehoods usually carry their own refutation somewhere about them, and sting themselves to death. Some lies especially have a peculiar smell, which betrays their rottenness to every honest nose…. Your blameless life will be your best defence, and those who have seen it will not allow you to be condemned so readily as your slanderers expect.

But he adds (p. 333),

Yet there are exceptions to this general rule. When distinct, definite, public charges are made against a man he is bound to answer them, and answer them in the clearest and most open manner. To decline all investigation is in such a case practically to plead guilty, and … the general public ordinarily regard a refusal to reply as a proof of guilt.

Since this open letter was serious a public accusation against Nehemiah, he did not remain silent. First, he sent a message back to Sanballat stating the truth and firmly denying the charges: “Such things as you are saying have not been done, but you are inventing them in your own mind” (6:8). Then, he shot up another of his sentence prayers, “But now, O God, strengthen my hands.” (The translators have supplied the words “O God” to reflect the sense of the Hebrew imperative verb.)

Leaders must pray for God’s wisdom as to whether to remain silent or to reply to false accusations. But however we respond, prayer and keeping on with the work that God has given us to do are always right.

The enemy checked Nehemiah with his schemes of intrigue and innuendo. Nehemiah resisted by standing firm in his priorities and with forthright truth and prayer. But Satan didn’t give up.

3. Satan’s scheme: Intimidation. Nehemiah’s response: Fearlessly obey God (6:10-14).

A. Satan uses religious people to scare us into wrong behavior that would ruin our reputation.

Here the enemy combines deception with intimidation and fear. A prophet named Shemaiah was confined at home. We do not know if he was ill or if he was doing this as a prophetic drama, as the prophets commonly did. He was not outwardly with the enemy, although Nehemiah would later discern that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him (6:12). Apparently they had also hired or at least influenced a prophetess named Noadiah and other Jewish prophets to try to frighten Nehemiah (6:14). But Shemaiah called for Nehemiah and then suggested that the two of them meet within the temple and close the doors, adding “for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night” (6:10).

Here was a man claiming to have a word from God that could save Nehemiah’s life! “Hide in the temple while you can, because the enemy is going to kill you some night while you are asleep!” If Nehemiah had followed this counsel, he would not have been a good leader, and even more, he would have sinned. If he had gone into hiding, his example of fear would have spread fear among the workers on the wall. And, not being a priest, Nehemiah would have disobeyed God’s law by going into the temple (Num. 18:7). Non-priests could flee for protection to the horns of the altar in the temple courtyard (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28; Exod. 21:14), but they could not enter the temple itself. If Nehemiah had acted in fear and fled to the temple, his enemies would spread the evil report to ruin his reputation (Neh. 6:13).

Be careful when someone claiming to be a Christian invites you to do something that you know is wrong. He may use scare tactics to get you to go along with whatever it is: “Everyone does this. If you don’t join in, nobody will like you. You won’t get invited to any more parties if you don’t drink and do drugs with everyone else.” It is the enemy, trying to scare you into sinful behavior to ruin your testimony. Don’t yield! How did Nehemiah respond?

B. Nehemiah resisted Satan’s intimidation with fearless obedience and prayer.

“Should a man like me flee? And could one such as I go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in” (6:11). Nehemiah didn’t perceive until this point that God had not sent Shemaiah, but that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him (6:12). One thing that gave Nehemiah this insight was that he knew God’s Word and that a true prophet would never counsel someone to do something against God’s Word. It is always right to obey God’s Word no matter what the threatened consequences may be. It is always wrong to disobey God’s Word, even if it looks like your disobedience will gain you something good. It is better to lose your life, if it so happens, in the path of obedience to God than to save your life through disobedience.

So Nehemiah refused Shemaiah’s counsel and he then reverted to his common practice of lifting up his situation to God in prayer, asking God to take care of his enemies (6:14). When Satan sends people to intimidate you to disobedience, respond with fearless obedience and prayer.

The result of Nehemiah’s staying the course is almost anticlimactic: “So the wall was completed … in fifty-two days” (6:15). So the final section leads off with Nehemiah’s victory, followed by the enemy’s rejoinder:

4. Nehemiah’s victory: The finished wall. Satan’s scheme: Infiltration (6:15-19).

A. Nehemiah’s persistent resistance gained the victory for the Lord.

When the enemies and surrounding nations saw that the wall was completed, they lost their confidence. They had to admit that this work had been accomplished because of God (6:15). All of the enemies that Sanballat had drawn into his plots against the Jews only widened the circle of God’s glory when the wall was finished. Even though Nehemiah and the workers on the wall had worked hard, not even their enemies attributed their success to their hard work. Rather, they knew that it was from God.

That should be a model for us. We should work as hard as if the success depended on us, but all the while we should lean totally upon the Lord, remembering that unless He builds the house and guards the city, we labor in vain (Ps. 127:1). We want even God’s enemies to glorify Him (1 Pet. 2:12).

Then we read, “So Satan gave up the battle and went home, and Nehemiah and the Jews lived happily ever after.” Not exactly!

B. Satan lost the battle, but he didn’t give up. He infiltrated the ranks.

Tobiah, the governor of the Ammonites, was probably a nominal half-Jew (his name is Jewish, meaning “Yah is good”). Furthermore, he was related by marriage to at least two influential Jews (“nobles,” 6:17), and he had business contracts (“bound by oath,” 6:18) with these men. They were not only in frequent contact by mail, but they often told Nehemiah about Tobiah’s “good deeds,” and they reported to Tobiah things that Nehemiah said in their presence. But Tobiah showed his true colors by writing threatening letters to Nehemiah.

Satan often uses such espionage. He infiltrates the ranks of the church with secret agents that profess to be believers. But their hearts are in the world, and they oppose godly men like Nehemiah who expose their spiritual indifference and sin.

This section gives us three practical lessons:

(1) Do not expect perfection in Christian work.

We can expect God to accomplish significant advances for His kingdom through our labors, even as Nehemiah did by rebuilding the wall. But until Jesus comes back, there are no endings that go, “And they lived happily ever after.” Even after the wall was built, the enemy infiltrated the ranks and stirred up further trouble. We will never see a perfect church in this fallen world, and if we expect such, we will quit in frustration. Trust God to use you to advance His cause, but don’t fall into the trap of perfectionism.

(2) We must never put confidence in our work, but only in the God who enables us to work.

Nehemiah couldn’t kick back and admire the wall because these ongoing problems forced him to keep on fighting the battle and trusting in the Lord. Sometimes we mistakenly think that some program or building project or other accomplishment will solve all our problems at the church. But we no sooner achieve our goal than other problems erupt. The Lord uses these things to keep us looking to Him rather than kicking back and trusting our work.

(3) When God’s people compromise with the world, it hinders God’s work.

Tobiah and his son had intermarried with some of the Jewish nobles. He had convinced them that he was a good guy (6:19), even though he was militantly opposed to Nehemiah’s wall project. Later, during Nehemiah’s absence in returning to Persia, Tobiah managed to get personal quarters in the temple. But when Nehemiah returned, he saw this for what it was, compromise with the world, and personally threw his household goods out of the room (13:4-9)! I hope that each of you ponders often the apostle John’s warning: “Do not love the world, nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Conclusion

There is a story of a lady who never spoke ill of anyone. A friend told her, “I believe that you would say something good even about the devil.”

“Well,” she replied, “you certainly do have to admire his persistence.”

She’s right: He is persistent! To finish our course, we must fight the good fight of faith by discerning and resisting his many schemes. When our Lord returns, we will ultimately triumph over this evil terrorist!

Discussion Questions

1. How can a believer grow in discernment so as to avoid Satan’s traps?
2. How can we discern when to respond to false rumors about us versus letting them die out on their own?
3. How can we know which doctrines are worth dividing over and which doctrines should be set aside to preserve unity?
4. Since Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his servants as servants of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:14-15), how can we be on guard against his servants in the church?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Two little old ladies were walking out of church one Sunday. One said, “My, that preacher certainly preaches for a long time!” Her friend replied, “No, he really doesn’t preach a long time, it just seems like a long time!” (J. Vernon McGee, Ezra, Nehemiah, & Esther [Thru the Bible Books], pp. 139-140.)

I wonder what they would have thought about a service that had about six hours of Bible reading and preaching at the people’s request, during which the people stood the whole time! And not only that, they came back the next day for more! That was the remarkable situation that we read about in Nehemiah 8. It would be accurate to call it a revival or a time of unusual spiritual renewal. At the center of this revival was the exposition of Scripture. In fact, Derek Kidner states, “This day was to prove a turning-point. From now on, the Jews would be predominantly ‘a people of the book’” (Ezra & Nehemiah, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries [IVP], p. 106). Our text teaches us that …

A strong emphasis on God’s Word is a primary mark of spiritual renewal.

Down through the centuries, God’s people have gone through cycles where His Word has been neglected and the spiritual condition of His people deteriorates. In His grace, God sends renewal. Inevitably, one of the main marks of such renewal is a renewed emphasis on God’s Word.

We see this in the Old Testament, when Judah languished under the godless reigns of King Manasseh, and his son, Amon. Amon’s son, Josiah, began to seek the Lord when he was 16 and to institute spiritual reforms. Then Hilkiah the priest found a copy of God’s law and Josiah called the nation to repentance (2 Chron. 34:14). Revival ensued because God’s Word was obeyed.

The same thing happened during the Reformation, which at its heart was a revival of God’s Word. The Roman Catholic Church had neglected the Word. Priests were the only ones with access to it, and most of them were ignorant of its contents. John Wycliffe and William Tyndale labored to get the Bible translated into common English. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. John Calvin began to preach expository sermons, explaining and applying the Word to the people of Geneva. The Reformation theme, sola scriptura, renewed God’s people.

The same thing was true of the great Puritan revivals in England and America during the 16th and 17th centuries. J. I. Packer (A Quest for Godliness {Crossway Books], p. 98) writes,

For Puritanism was, above all else, a Bible movement. To the Puritan the Bible was in truth the most precious possession that this world affords. His deepest conviction was that reverence for God means reverence for Scripture, and serving God means obeying Scripture. To his mind, therefore, no greater insult could be offered to the Creator than to neglect his written word; and conversely, there could be no truer act of homage to him than to prize it and pore over it, and then to live out and give out its teaching. Intense veneration for Scripture, as the living word of the living God, and a devoted concern to know and do all that it prescribes, was Puritanism’s hallmark.

Nehemiah 8 shows us four marks of spiritual renewal related to God’s Word:

1. For spiritual renewal, God’s people must read His Word.

The people gathered and asked Ezra to bring the book (scroll) of the Law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel (8:1). They read from it publicly from dawn until noon! Kidner (p. 104) refutes the liberal view, that the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) was the creation of a recent redactor who pieced together the older materials. He says that what Ezra read from was obviously not a new manifesto, but rather “the foundation articles of the faith, laid down at the exodus.” Also, this law had full divine authority. The phase translated, “which the Lord had given to Moses” is literally “commanded Moses.” As Kidner observes, “one does not tamper with material that one would describe in such terms.” The people recognized and respected the fact that God had given this material to Moses, and therefore it was His authoritative word to them.

Copies of the Law of Moses were probably somewhat rare, and many of the Jews may never have heard it read before. Even in the New Testament, Paul instructs Timothy to give attention in church meetings “to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13). Until the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, the Bible had to be copied by hand, and often there would only be one copy in a city, often chained to the pulpit. Since people were often illiterate, the Bible had to be read publicly for the common people to know what it says.

God could have communicated with us in some form other than writing. He could have sent an angel to each language group with His message and saved Wycliffe Bible Translators a lot of time and effort! He could have had the message communicated verbally from generation to generation. But He chose to put it in written form. That means that for people to know God and His message of salvation, at least one person in the group, and preferably many, have to learn to read and study. I would argue that the strength of a church will be in direct proportion to the number of people in that church who read and study God’s written Word.

We live in a culture where almost all of us know how to read. Those who can’t read or can’t read well can readily learn how. We have multiple translations of the Bible in our language. And yet most American Christians spend far more time playing pointless computer games or sitting in front of a TV set that spews out garbage than they do reading and studying the words that God has given to us in the Bible!

For the good of your soul I would challenge you to read and reread the Bible all the days of your life. If you want spiritual renewal, it will come through God’s Word. In Psalm 119, which extols God’s Word, nine times the author (probably Ezra) mentions how God’s Word (or some synonym for the Word) brings revival (Ps. 119:25, 50, 93, 107, 149, 154, 156). If you have never done so, I’d encourage you to read through the entire Bible in the New Year. For spiritual renewal, God’s people must read His Word.

2. For spiritual renewal, God’s people must reverently hear His Word expounded.

Having ears that work does not guarantee that we really hear. Although God made us with two ears that we cannot close and one mouth that we can (which ought to teach us something!), we sometimes close off our minds so that we do not really hear what is being said, even though we did hear the sounds of the words. Anyone who is married has had that experience. Your wife is talking to you, but you are reading the mail or the paper and you didn’t hear a thing she said. In the same way, it is possible to hear the Bible read or preached and not hear a thing. Your mind was elsewhere.

That’s why Jesus often said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9, 23). He said, “Take care how you listen, for whoever has, to him shall more be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him” (Luke 8:18). If the Bible contains the very words that God Himself is saying to us, then it certainly behooves us to listen reverently to what He is saying!

The people in our text were both attentive and reverent when God’s Word was read to them. Verse 3 mentions their attentiveness, and verses 5 & 6 show their reverence. They stood up as if to greet a royal visitor, and then they bowed down in worship. They were not worshiping the actual scroll that Ezra held in his hand, but rather the God who had given the words of that scroll to Moses and through Moses to them.

Attentiveness stems from reverence. If we maintain our reverence for God and that fact that He is speaking to us through His Word, we will pay attention to what He says. If we forget that this is the Word of the living God to us, our minds will wander to other things. I realize that preachers can sometimes be boring. But if I lose your attention, direct your mind to the text of Scripture and ask the Lord to open it to your heart.

Rowland Hill was an 18th century English preacher greatly used of God. Shortly before he died, he was visiting with an old friend who told him that he could still remember the text and part of a sermon that he had heard Hill preach 65 years before. Hill asked him what he remembered. He said that Hill had said that some people when listening to a sermon did not like the delivery of the preacher. Then he said, “Supposing you went to hear the will of one of your relatives read, and you were expecting a legacy from him. You would hardly think of criticizing the manner in which the lawyer read the will. Rather, you would be all attention to hear whether anything was left to you and if so, how much. That is the way to hear the gospel preached” (told by Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students [Zondervan], pp. 391-392).

Spiritual renewal comes through reverently hearing God’s Word when it is read and preached.

3. For spiritual renewal, God’s Word must be taught.

Verses 7 & 8 report that these men who stood on the platform with Ezra explained the law to the people, “translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” Scholars debate the meaning of the word “translating” (NASB). Some say that since many of the people spoke Aramaic, the biblical Hebrew had to be translated into Aramaic. But probably the sense of the NIV is correct, that the teachers made the reading of Scripture clear and gave the meaning. Probably Ezra would read a section and then his assistants, perhaps in smaller groups, would expound on that section to make the meaning clear to the people.

Much of the Bible is plain to anyone who can read. As Mark Twain is reputed to have said, it wasn’t the sections of the Bible that he couldn’t understand that bothered him. It was the parts that he could understand that troubled him! But there are some sections of Scripture that are difficult to grasp and so God has given to the church pastors and teachers to help His people understand and apply His Word to their lives. Also, we are blessed with many excellent study tools to help us learn the Word in times of personal study: study Bibles, Bible handbooks, word study books, commentaries, Bible encyclopedias, and theological books.

To properly apply the Bible, you must properly interpret it. To properly interpret it, you must understand what the author meant for the people to whom he was writing in the context of that day. Also, since the Bible fits together as a unified whole, you must get a grasp of everything that the Bible teaches about a subject by comparing Scripture with Scripture, interpreting the Bible by itself. Sometimes this requires historical research to discover the customs and/or historical events that relate to the biblical text. Sometimes it requires either knowing the original biblical languages or consulting scholars who do in order to understand words and/or grammatical constructions. Always it requires interpreting a particular verse or paragraph of Scripture in the larger context of the book in which it is written. If you take a text out of its context, you can make the Bible say just about anything you wish!

Much could be said, but let me make two observations about sound Bible teaching:

A. Sound Bible teaching must be accurate, clear, and applied to life.

It must be accurate. You can make all sorts of interesting points, but if you are not accurately reflecting what the passage is teaching, you are not teaching the Bible rightly.

It must be clear. Granted, some texts are very difficult to understand (even Peter says such about some of Paul’s writings, 2 Pet. 3:15-16). Sometimes Jesus seemed to be deliberately obscure, especially in His parables, to hide the truth from scoffers. But usually the job of a Bible teacher is to communicate the truth clearly and simply. Martin Luther condemned preachers who aimed at the intellectuals in the crowd to the neglect of helping simple, unlearned people understand saving truth. He said that even though he had more than 40 doctors and magistrates in his church, when he preached he spoke to the young people, children, and servants. If the educated people weren’t impressed, Luther said, the door is open; let them be gone (The Table Talk of Martin Luther, edited by Thomas Kepler [Baker], pp. 253-254).

Sound teaching must be accurate and clear. But also it must be applied to life. As you study the Word personally and if you ever teach it, your aim should be to answer the question, “So what?” What difference should this text make in my life and in the lives of my hearers? John Calvin did not view theology as an end in itself. He said, (cited by T. H. L. Parker, Calvin’s Preaching ([Westminster/John Knox Press], pp. 11-12, 15),

When I expound Holy Scripture, I must always make this my rule: That those who hear me may receive profit from the teaching I put forward and be edified unto salvation. If … I do not procure the edification of those who hear me, I am a sacrilege, profaning God’s Word…. The Word of God is not to teach us to prattle, not to make us eloquent and subtle and I know not what. It is to reform our life, so that it is known that we desire to serve God, to give ourselves entirely to him and to conform ourselves to his good will.

B. Sound Bible teaching requires commitment on the part of the teacher and the taught.

Those who teach must be committed to take the time and effort to study and prepare. You cannot teach the Bible accurately, clearly, and with proper application to life if you just read a text and say whatever pops into your mind at the moment. And yet many pastors do just that, claiming that the Spirit is leading them! Even the apostles, who were taught directly by Christ and by the Holy Spirit, had to say no to certain ministry demands so that they could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4). If they had to devote themselves to the task of preaching, how much more do we!

But the ones who are taught also must be committed to the Word. In the church this means that those who are not gifted in the area of teaching take on other necessary ministry tasks so that those who teach can study and prepare. In other words, there must be a division of labor according to spiritual gifts.

You see this principle in Nehemiah 8. Until now, Nehemiah has been in the forefront. He was a gifted administrator who could organize and mobilize people to get the wall built. But when it came time to teach the Word, he took a back seat to Ezra, who was skilled in the law of Moses, who had set his heart to study it, practice it, and teach it (Ezra 7:6, 10). These two men illustrate beautifully the principle of team ministry.

Thus for spiritual renewal, God’s people must read His Word, reverently hear His Word, and the Word must be taught. Finally,

4. For spiritual renewal, God’s people must respond to His Word.

It is spiritually dangerous to study the Word without the goal of obedient response. Knowledge apart from obedience leads to pride (1 Cor. 8:1). Our aim, as Calvin put it, should always be to transform our lives by Scripture. There are five responses here:

A. Repentance.

The people wept when they heard and understood God’s Word (8:9), because they realized how much they had sinned against God. We will see this in more detail in chapter 9. But the fact is, the more the light of God’s holy Word shines into our hearts, the more we will see areas where we do not conform to His righteousness. Spiritual renewal always involves repentance.

B. Joy.

The clouds of godly repentance should quickly break up, allowing the sun of godly joy to flood our hearts (8:9-10). God never wounds us to hurt us, but only to heal. The joy of knowing that He has forgiven all of our sins and that we are His people should fill our hearts. We will look further at verse 10 in our next study.

C. Good deeds.

Ezra and Nehemiah reminded the people to send portions from the part of the sacrifices that they could eat to those who had nothing (8:10). God’s Word should produce compassion in our hearts for the needy. His salvation is “to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14).

D. Obedience.

The people heard in the reading of the Law that they should observe the Feast of Booths. Since it was only two weeks away, they immediately made preparations to do it. This feast commemorated both the harvest that God had just provided and the deliverance that He had granted under Moses, when Israel lived in temporary shelters in the wilderness. The Israelites had not celebrated a Feast of Booths like this one since the time of Joshua (8:17)! Again it is noted that their obedience resulted in great rejoicing.

E. Worship.

The Feast of Booths lasted a whole week, and every day consisted of more reading of God’s law, culminating in a solemn assembly on the final day (8:18). In other words, there was great rejoicing along with reverential attention to God’s Word. As the people camped in the temporary shelters, they reflected back on God’s faithful dealings with the nation, in spite of their sins. And so they were filled with gratitude and love toward God for His gracious dealings with them. The reading, study, and preaching of God’s Word should produce in all of us a heart of worship as we reflect on His abundant mercies toward us.

Conclusion

Chuck Swindoll (Hand Me Another Brick [Thomas Nelson Publishers], pp. 152-153) tells of a time when he spoke at a family conference. He noticed a young couple with several small children. Although they looked and sounded like a Christian family, it was evident to him that they were very miserable. He knew that divorce was on the back burner of their minds.

But as the week progressed, he saw that couple change as they listened to the teaching of God’s Word. The husband hung on every word. The wife had her Bible open and followed the messages closely. At the end of the week, this couple came up to Swindoll and his wife and said, “We want you to know that this week has been a 180-degree turnaround experience for us. When we came, we were ready to separate. We’re going back stronger than we have ever been in our marriage.” But that joyous news was dampened by another family’s response. Chuck continues,

At the same conference with the same speakers, the same truths, the same surroundings, the same schedule, another father was turned off. He wasn’t open. He attended the first few sessions, but by and by the guilt became so great and the conviction so deep that he went home. He had stayed awake the entire night before and reached the decision to leave and not come back. His family left hurting—perhaps even more than when they came.

What was the difference? Swindoll says, “attitude.” The couple who benefited had teachable hearts. The other man did not.

Some people come to church with reverence for God and His Word, saying, “God, teach me! I want to know You more!” They are ready to respond to the Word. They profit from the teaching. Others come to the same service with sin in their hearts that they don’t want to deal with. They are turned off by the very same message that helps others to grow. If you want spiritual renewal, check your heart. It comes when responsive hearts read and reverently hear God’s Word faithfully proclaimed.

Discussion Questions

1. How can a non-studious type develop a hunger to read and study God’s Word?
2. How can we develop the kind of responsive hearts that are needed to profit from God’s Word?
3. How can we guard ourselves from the spiritual pride that often accompanies knowledge (see 1 Cor. 8:1)?
4. Jot down one spiritual goal that you could work on in response to this message.

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Thirty years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court made it legal to kill babies in the womb right up to the time of birth for just about any reason. Making it legal did not make it moral in the sight of God, the creator and sustainer of life. Forty million human lives have been snuffed out, mostly because it was inconvenient for the mother to have the child.

It is to our shame as Protestants that most of those working in the pro-life movement are from the Roman Catholic Church. God used the late Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop to help call evangelicals into the battle in the late 1970’s with their “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” seminars.

God has called us to differing ministries, so that not all of us can work for the pro-life cause. But it seems to me that there should be some in our congregation who sense the burden from God to work on behalf of justice for the unborn. Some need to devote themselves to helping women with difficult pregnancies to bring their babies into this world.

All of us, whether we are called to the ministry of the pro-life cause or not, should mourn the sin of abortion and demonstrate ongoing repentance before God for this and the many other grievous sins of our nation. We begin the Christian life through repentance and faith (Acts 11:18; 16:31). If we have not repented of our sins, we have not truly believed in Jesus Christ in a saving way. Colossians 2:6 instructs us, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Since we received Him through repentance and faith, we should walk in repentance and faith. Ongoing repentance should mark believers in Christ.

Nehemiah 9 should be linked with Nehemiah 8, where the people heard God’s Word read and wept in repentance as they realized how seriously they and their forefathers had sinned. But it was a time for a feast and so Nehemiah and the other leaders exhorted the people not to weep, but to rejoice, adding, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10).

But now, two days after the end of the Feast of Booths, the people gather again, this time with fasting, sackcloth, and dirt on them to express grief over their sins. Again the law of the Lord is read for several hours, and then the Levites, perhaps led by Ezra, pray in repentance, asking God to take note of their subservience to a foreign king (9:5-38). Along with Ezra 9 and Daniel 9, it is one of the great prayers of confession in the Bible. It is full of rich instruction about who God is, who we are, and how God has graciously worked on behalf of His people. It teaches us that…

Because we are so prone to sin and because God is so rich in mercy, ongoing repentance should mark our lives.

Before we look at the chapter in more detail, let me repeat what I said when we looked at Nehemiah 8:10, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Some of you by nature are more gloomy, whereas some by nature are more cheerful and upbeat. The more gloomy types will especially need to work at joy in the Lord, but even the upbeat types need to cultivate this quality, because it is not the joy of an upbeat personality, but the joy of the Lord that we need.

The same observation applies to Nehemiah 9. Some by nature tend to be more introspective and conscientious, always lamenting over their imperfections and sins. Others can commit serious sins with hardly a twinge of conscience and shrug it off with a glib, “We’re under grace!” If you are the gloomy type, you probably need to camp out in passages like Romans 8, which asks, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns?” “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:33, 34a; 1). If you are the glib type, who too easily shrugs off your sin, then you probably need to camp out in passages like Nehemiah 9, which confesses both personal and corporate sins. The chapter brings out three simple but important lessons:

1. We are so prone to sin.

The chapter rehearses not just the sins of God’s chosen people, but worse, the sins of God’s chosen people in the face of His abundant mercy and grace. It is one thing to sin repeatedly if you do not know God, but it is far worse to sin repeatedly when you have tasted of God’s grace and love. Derek Kidner (Ezra & Nehemiah, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries [IVP], p. 112) observes, “Sin abounds, grace superabounds…. Throughout this miraculous pilgrimage ‘they lacked nothing’ (21)—and appreciated nothing (17).”

It’s easy to read this account of Israel’s repeated sins in the face of God’s abundant mercy and think, “How could those Jews be so ungrateful? How could they be so hardhearted?” It’s also easy to read this account and think, “How can my mate be so prone to sin? He [she] reads the Bible and goes to church where the Bible is preached. What’s wrong with him [her]?” Thus we fail to apply it to ourselves. We ought to read this chapter and realize that we’re looking in the mirror. It describes the propensity of my heart! “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love” (Robert Robinson, “Come Thou Fount”).

Keep in mind that this prayer of confession followed and flowed out of the extended reading of God’s Word (9:3). The Word of God reveals to us the true condition of our hearts. Sin deceives and blinds us to our true condition. We’re prone to compare ourselves to others, invariably to those who aren’t quite as godly as we are. We think, “I’m not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12).

But “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:12-13). The Bible lays bare the true condition of our hearts before God.

John Calvin opens Book One, “The Knowledge of God the Creator,” of his Institutes of the Christian Religion [ed. by John T. McNeill, Westminster Press] by pointing out that as we gain some knowledge of God, we will see how corrupt we are and thus seek Him. Then he writes (1:1:2),

Again, it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself. For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy—this pride is innate in all of us—unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured.

Work your way through Nehemiah 9 and see as in a mirror your own heart. God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt through His mighty power. But as soon as they encountered trials in the wilderness, they wanted to go back to Egypt. Even so, even though we have experienced God’s salvation, we’re all prone when we encounter hardship to think, “If this is how God treats me, forget it! I was better off when I was in the world.”

The chapter goes on to describe the abundant blessings that God provided for His people. But in spite of all of His goodness, “they became disobedient and rebelled against [Him], and cast [His] law behind their backs and killed [His] prophets who had admonished them” (9:26). So God delivered them over to oppressors. When they cried out to Him, He mercifully delivered them, only for them again to do evil. This cycle was repeated many times (9:27-30). Again, read it and see your own heart in the mirror. In spite of God’s repeated and abundant compassion on me, the sinner, I am so prone to lust after the things of the world rather than to be satisfied with the supreme blessing of God Himself.

There is a paradox in the Christian life: the longer you walk with God, the more godly you become. And yet, the more godly you become, the more you are aware of the terrible depravity of your own heart. It was not at the beginning of Paul’s Christian life, but toward the end that he said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim. 1:15). He did not say, “among whom I used to be foremost of all,” but rather, “I am foremost of all.” The closer Paul walked with God and gazed upon His perfect righteousness, the more he was aware of his own sinfulness, even though in his daily walk he was growing in holiness. Even so, the more that you come to know God and your own heart through His Word, the more you will realize how prone to sin you really are. This will keep you at the foot of the cross, trusting in God’s free grace. That leads to the second lesson:

2. God is so rich in mercy.

God’s abundant mercy is the dominant theme of this prayer. It begins by exalting God and His glorious name (9:5) and then it starts where the Bible does, with God as the almighty Creator of everything, who gives life to every living creature. All the angels bow before Him (9:6). God chose Abram, brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name Abraham (9:7; the only Old Testament reference outside of Genesis to God’s changing Abram’s name). God made a covenant with Abraham to give him and his descendants the land of Canaan (9:8). God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt and provided for them in the wilderness (9:9-15). Note that God is the subject and the initiator throughout these verses.

Then, after recounting the arrogance and stubbornness of the people, they pray, “But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; and You did not forsake them” (9:17). Even when they made the golden calf, “You, in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness” (9:19). It continues to list the many gracious blessings that God conferred on His disobedient and ungrateful people (9:20-25). Yet in spite of their repeated rebellion, God’s compassion was greater (9:27, 28, 31).

This is the great news of the gospel, that no matter how awful and terrible and numerous your sins are, God’s grace is greater!

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin! [Julia H. Johnston]

You may think, “But you don’t know the extent of my sins!” That’s true, I don’t know, but God does and He reveals Himself as a “God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness” (9:17). You may still think, “But you don’t know how often I have sinned, even after coming to know Jesus Christ.” True, but God does know and He reveals Himself here as a God who keeps on forgiving, not because people deserve to be forgiven, but rather in spite of their not deserving to be forgiven. We need to understand two things here:

A. God’s abundant mercy is primarily so that He will be glorified and only secondarily for our benefit.

The prayer states that God performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and the Egyptians to make a name for Himself (9:10). This reflects Exodus 9:16, where the Lord says concerning Pharaoh, “For this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.” Paul cites that verse in Romans 9:17 and then goes on to assert God’s sovereignty by saying, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” He does not say, as many would like the verse to say, “He has mercy on whoever trusts in Christ, and He hardens all those who reject Christ.” Rather, Paul puts the reason for God’s giving or withholding mercy solely on God’s good pleasure, and not at all on anything in man.

He develops this further by stating that as the potter, God has the right to make one vessel for honorable use and another for common use. The reason God endures with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction is so that He could “make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory” (Rom. 9:21-23).

I am saying that salvation is not primarily man-centered; it is primarily God-centered. It is not mainly to make us feel good; it is mainly to make God look good. John Piper, who develops this theme at length in his excellent (although not easy!) God’s Passion for His Glory [Crossway Books], also touches on it in his book for pastors, Brothers, We are NOT Professionals [Broadman & Holman]. Piper says that he was raised with the verse, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” But it was not until he was confronted with the writings of Jonathan Edwards in seminary that he was hit with the biblical truth that God is the most God-centered person in the universe. “God’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy His glory forever.” Piper explains why this is important,

Because many people are willing to be God-centered as long as they feel that God is man-centered. It is a subtle danger. We may think we are centering our lives on God, when we are really making Him a means to self-esteem. Over against this danger I urge you to ponder the implications … that God loves His glory more than He loves us and that this is the foundation of His love for us (pp. 6-7).

After several paragraphs of demonstrating from Scripture that “God performs salvation for His own sake” (italics his), Piper writes (pp. 7-8):

This is no isolated note in the symphony of redemptive history. It is the ever-recurring motif of the all-sufficient Composer. Why did God predestine us in love to be His sons? That the glory of His grace might be praised (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). Why did God create a people for Himself? “I created [them] for my glory” (Isa. 43:7). Why did He make from one lump vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor? That He might show His wrath and make known His power and reveal the riches of His glory for the vessels of mercy (Rom. 9:22-23). Why did God raise up Pharaoh and harden his heart and deliver Israel with a mighty arm? That His wonders might be multiplied over Pharaoh (Exod. 14:4) and that His name might be declared in all the earth (Exod. 9:16).

Piper continues with more Scriptures to demonstrate the same truth, that “God’s most fundamental allegiance is to His own glory”(p. 9). Don’t get caught in the man-centeredness of our day by thinking that salvation is primarily for man. Salvation is primarily to glorify God.

B. God’s abundant mercy does not come to us through anything in us, but through His free grace in Christ.

This point flows out of the previous one and is just as practical. Many Christians think that God’s mercy and grace are contingent on our faith or (even worse) on our works, whereas Scripture plainly declares that our faith and our works are contingent on God’s mercy and grace. In Ephesians 2, after stating that we were dead in our trespasses and sins (vv. 1-3), Paul states, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (vv. 4-5). Then (2:8-9) he repeats, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Paul could not make it clearer, that it was when we were dead that God made us alive and saved us by His grace. He grants us repentance and saving faith as His gifts (Acts 11:18; Phil. 1:29). Salvation is totally by His grace, and not at all from ourselves.

This, too, has to do with God’s glory. If anything about our salvation was rooted in us, we could and would boast in what we contributed. But how much can dead people contribute to their resurrection? God did it all; He gets all the glory!

This prayer in Nehemiah 9 shows that we are so prone to sin, but God is so rich in mercy. Therefore,

3. Ongoing repentance should mark our lives.

Again, there is a paradox (or irony) in Scripture. Believers should rejoice always, and yet we should mourn over our sins. This mourning for sin should be both for our personal sins as well as for the corporate sins of God’s people.

James Boice (Nehemiah, Learning to Lead [Revell], p. 148) shows the progression of thought that flows from this prayer: First, “There can be no genuine forward moral progress for either a nation or an individual without an acknowledgment of, sorrow for, and a true turning from sin.” Second, “But there can be no true sense of what sin is or a knowledge of why it is sinful without a hearing of and response to the law of God.” Third, “Consequently, revival must be preceded by sound preaching of the whole counsels of God, particularly the Law of God, which we have violated.”

He goes on (pp. 148-149) to point out that what these people did in confessing the sins of their fathers (9:2) was the opposite of what most people do today. Today, if people refer to the sins of their parents at all, it is to excuse themselves by blaming their parents, rather than to confess and mourn over the sins of their parents that have also tainted them.

Ongoing repentance takes sin seriously and takes the necessary steps to break from it. True repentance accepts responsibility for sin and does not blame God. As they prayed (9:33), “You are just in all that has come upon us; for You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly.” The chapter ends on what may seem like a down note, with the mention of the great distress of the nation. But as Kidner points out (p. 113), “The great distress which ends the prayer is a sign of life and of a vision that has not been tamely given up.” Because God is so rich in mercy toward sinners, whenever His word convicts us of sin or reveals the sins of our nation or our fathers, we should come before Him in repentance, appealing to His great compassion and grace.

Conclusion

It is my prayer that God would graciously use this message, in light of the infamous anniversary of legalized baby killing in America, to prompt some, through ongoing corporate repentance, to get involved in the pro-life movement. Not all will be so led, but just a few can make a huge difference. It should not be just women, but also men, who are moved by compassion for unborn children and compassion for misguided, confused, self-centered pregnant women, to get involved so that God would be glorified through the good deeds of His people.

I also pray that if anyone here is overwhelmed by guilt because of your sins (including, perhaps, the sin of abortion), you will realize that God is abundant in mercy toward sinners and that His great love will draw you to the cross of Christ for forgiveness and refuge. And I pray that all of us who have tasted God’s mercy will glorify Him through ongoing repentance and increasing godliness in our daily lives.

Discussion Questions

1. In what sense and to what degree should we confess the sins of our fathers (Neh. 9:2)? What does this mean?
2. One popular author argues that if we view ourselves as sinners, we will sin more. Why is he mistaken? Where is the right balance between seeing ourselves both as righteous in Christ and yet “the chief of sinners”?
3. Why is it important to see that God’s chief aim in salvation is His glory even above our well being?
4. Why does it matter that salvation is totally of God and not a joint endeavor between God and sinners?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2003, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

If I were to ask, “How does a person go into the ministry?” many Christians would answer, “The person needs to go to Bible college or seminary. After he has served in a ministry position for a while, he needs to be ordained.”

All right, I admit that it was a trick question. The question itself and that answer reflect a deeply entrenched, but erroneous, mentality among God’s people, which divides people into two categories: those who are “in the ministry” (“clergy”) and those who are not (“laity”). To the extent that we buy into that mindset, the body of Christ will be crippled. Just a few will be committed to doing the work of the ministry, while the majority sit back and let them do it. But the biblical picture is that those who are gifted as pastor-teachers and evangelists are to equip the saints (all believers) for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-12).

So the correct answer to the question, “How does a person go into the ministry?” is, “He or she trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.” At the moment a person trusts Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit baptizes him (or her) into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). As members of His body, each one has a spiritual gift which he is to exercise for the building up of the body. It is proper and usually necessary for those who are gifted as pastor-teachers and evangelists to pursue formal training. It is also proper, according to Scripture (1 Tim. 5:17-18; 1 Cor. 9:14) to support those who devote themselves to these ministries. But it still is true that every believer has a spiritual gift that he or she is to use in ministry.

I’m talking primarily about a mindset where each of you sees yourself as entrusted by God with a vital ministry for which you will give an account. In the parable of the talents, it was the one-talent man who buried rather than invested his talent. Often in the body of Christ, it is the “one-talent” person who thinks, “I’m not gifted in an important way, so I can’t do much for the Lord.” That’s a wrong mentality that I want to challenge. The lesson I want to draw from our text is that…

All of God’s people should be ministry oriented.

Nehemiah 11 & 12 is another one of those portions of Scripture that you look at and think, “Why did God put this in His inspired Word?” From 11:3-12:26 there is a lengthy register of the names of the Jewish citizens. These two chapters include:

1. The families who repopulated Jerusalem (11:3-24)

A. Lay families in Jerusalem (11:3-9)

B. Priests in Jerusalem (11:10-14)

C. Levites, gatekeepers, and temple servants in Jerusalem (11:15-24)

2. The families who lived in the cities of Judah and Benjamin (11:25-36)

3. The priests and Levites of Zerubbabel’s return (12:1-9)

4. The high priests (12:10-11)

5. The priests and Levites after Zerubbabel and Jeshua (12:12-26).

6. The dedication of the wall (12:26-43)

7. The organization of temple support (12:44-47)

Derek Kidner (Ezra & Nehemiah, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries [IVP], p. 117) aptly says,

It is not bureaucratic pedantry that has preserved these names. The point is, once more, that these people and their chronicler are conscious of their roots and of their structure as God’s company. This is no rabble of refugees, settling down anywhere: they have the dignity of order and of known relationships; above all, of their calling to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6).

These people had willing hearts to do whatever God wanted them to do, and each functioned in their own unique capacity. As we examine the section that lists the names of the Jewish citizens, four factors emerge that help us define what ministry involves. The section dealing with the dedication of the wall reveals four requirements for the person involved in ministry (= every believer).

What does ministry involve?

1. Ministry involves a willingness to live where God wants you to live.

Nehemiah got the wall built, but there were not many people living in the city (7:4). When the people returned from the exile, the walls were torn down and there was a lot of rubble from the previous destruction. It would have required a lot of work to clear the rubble and restore the city. As the former capital, the restored city would have been a major target for enemies to attack. At first there wasn’t much economic opportunity there. It was far easier to settle out in the country and farm your own plot of ground. So most of the people had been content to live in the surrounding villages scattered across the land.

But Nehemiah knew that if the city was to be strong and prosperous and if the worship in the temple was to thrive, the city had to be well populated with citizens who could defend it in case of attack. As 11:1 notes, the leaders lived in Jerusalem, but most of the people did not. So they cast lots to pick one out of ten who would move to Jerusalem. It seems that some who were not chosen volunteered to move, either in place of or in addition to those who drew the lot (11:2). The ones who stayed in the villages blessed those who were willing to move to Jerusalem.

Those who moved had to pull up roots where they were already established, give up their acreage in the country, and move into what quickly became a somewhat crowded city. Based on the number of men who moved to the city (3,044), there were about 10,000, conservatively estimated, who moved into the city, with a total population of 100,000 Jews in the land (Howard Vos, cited by James Boice, Nehemiah: Learning to Lead [Revell], p. 175). Although it was inconvenient and less desirable in some ways to move from the country to the city, these people were willing to live where God wanted them to live in order to serve His purpose.

One of the first considerations that any servant of God should think about is, “Where does God want me to live?” That should be determined in large measure by the potential for your ministry in that locale. Is there a solid Bible-teaching church where you can grow and serve? If not, is God calling you to help start such a church? That should be a primary factor in any move that you make.

I meet many Christians who say things like, “I moved to Flagstaff because it was a small town and not too crowded. But it’s becoming too big. I’m thinking of moving to (and they name some beautiful remote setting).” They haven’t given a minute’s thought to what sort of church may be there. Their main aim is to get away from people and the city.

Has it ever occurred to you that God pictures heaven as a city? It’s not pictured as a ranch or personal retreat, where you can live in seclusion and ignore others. It’s a city, the New Jerusalem! The reason Christians think about escaping from the city is that they don’t have a ministry mindset. If you’re thinking ministry, you’re thinking people. And while people live in the country and in suburbs, it is tragic that American evangelicals have, in large part, abandoned the cities. Rather than complaining about all the people in Flagstaff, we should view them as an opportunity for ministry!

2. Ministry involves serving in the sphere in which God calls you to serve.

Chapter 11 lists the heads of families in Jerusalem (11:3-9); the priests (11:10-14); the Levites (11:15-18); the gatekeepers and temple servants (11:19-21); various officials appointed by the king of Persia (11:22-24); and, the people who lived outside the city (11:25-36). Each served in his respective sphere for the effective operation of the city and the nation. Those who lived outside of the city had to farm the land to provide food for those in the city. Each had a different role, but each role was vital to the entire cause.

In the body of Christ, God has gifted us in different ways, but every part is vital for the overall functioning and health of the body (1 Cor. 12:12-30). We should learn to coordinate and complement each other without friction or rivalry. Problems often develop in the body because the eye looks at everyone from the perspective of the eye only, and the hand views everything from the perspective of the hand. But the eye should value the hand and the hand should value the eye.

I once heard Carl George make the astute observation that the things in the church that people usually complain about reveal the person’s area of spiritual gift. For example, if a person says, “This isn’t a caring church,” she is probably gifted in mercy. The one who says, “This church doesn’t emphasize outreach enough” is probably an evangelist. The guy who says, “This church is a disorganized mess” is probably a gifted administrator.

The solution is not for the gifted person to sit around criticizing others for not doing what probably is not their area of gift, but rather to get involved in the areas that he thinks need fixing! The merciful person should help us all become more merciful by showing mercy. The evangelist should show us how to reach the lost. The administrator should help us get organized. God has made us all differently, and we only work as a body when we work in our sphere and affirm others in their sphere.

3. Ministry involves a willingness to serve without acclaim.

Most of these names mean nothing to us. Some aren’t even listed by name, but are lumped together with all of their kinsmen as a group (11:12-14). Zabdiel is named (11:14), although he means nothing to us, but 128 of his kinsmen go unnamed, except to say that they were valiant warriors. But 128 valiant warriors were no small part of a secure, safe city!

The church needs many people like that in order to function well. This place would shut down in a week if we didn’t have many who labor faithfully behind the scenes. You never see them up front, but they do what God has given them to do. They’re like your vital organs: you never see them, but when one of them shuts down, you’re in big trouble! Note two things about these people:

• Faithfulness, not fame, is the issue.

Motive is what matters. If we serve to try to gain esteem and recognition, we’re doing it for the wrong reason. We’ll get angry when others do not give us the strokes that we’re seeking. Chuck Swindoll writes, “If you desire fame and recognition, you will most likely fail as a leader and your efforts will go unrewarded for all eternity. That’s not a threat; it’s a promise” (Hand Me Another Brick [Thomas Nelson Publishers], p. 171). He goes on to cite Matthew 6:1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

• God notices even if others do not.

God saw fit to record these names that mean absolutely nothing to us. But they meant something to God, and that’s what ultimately matters. If you’re getting upset because no one in the church notices all that you do, your focus is in the wrong place. Look to the Lord, whom you are serving. And remember Hebrews 6:10: “For God is not so unjust as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.”

4. Ministry involves people first and programs second.

These long lists underscore the importance of people to God. Each one of these strange, hard-to-pronounce names represents a person whom God loved and knew. Jesus said that the good shepherd “calls his own sheep by name” and that his “sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:3, 4). The Christian faith is all about personal relationships, first with God, and then with one another (the two great commandments, Matt. 22:37-40).

Programs should always be the vehicle through which we minister to people. If a program is not doing that, we need to axe the program and replace it with something that ministers God’s Word to people. Apart from programs, if you have the proper ministry mindset, you will seek to relate to people. On Sunday mornings, take the initiative to meet new people. Make them feel welcome here. Introduce them to others. While we can’t get well acquainted with everyone, if it is a person to whom you can relate, set up a time to get together for coffee or have them over to dinner. Share your own testimony and ask them about how God has worked in their lives. Ministry takes place though relationships.

That threatens some people. It’s safer to work in a program, or to be involved in maintaining the building, where you can keep your distance from people. But God isn’t saving buildings or sanctifying programs. He is saving and sanctifying people, and He does that through His people reaching out in love to others.

Thus ministry involves a willingness to live where God wants you to live; to serve in the sphere where God wants you to serve; to serve without acclaim; and to put people ahead of programs.

What are some requirements for ministry?

Do you need seminary training? Do you need to know Hebrew, Greek, and theology? Those things may be helpful in some spheres of ministry. But they are not the main thing. The main requirement for being involved in ministry is that your heart is right before God. In the section describing the dedication of the wall (12:27-43) and the organization of temple support (12:44-47), there are four aspects of a heart that is right before God:

1. A servant (= minister) needs a pure heart (12:30).

Before they dedicated the wall, the priests and Levites purified themselves, the people, the gates, and the wall. The Old Testament rituals for purification symbolize the fact that our hearts are sinful and God is absolutely holy. Those who serve Him must be cleansed from all known sin of thought, word, and deed.

A scandal hit the front page of our local paper and the evening news this week, in which a man who was formerly an elder here, who also was in full time ministry, was charged with 17 counts of molesting girls who were at sleepovers with his daughters. When that sort of hypocrisy is exposed, the world mocks the name of Christ.

All of us struggle against temptation. All of us are vulnerable to fall into sin. But if you are not guarding yourself from temptation and walking in consistent victory over sin, please do not make a claim of being a Christian. Don’t get involved in any sort of ministry. Rather, humble yourself before God, repent of all of your sins, and take measures to protect yourself from falling again. Purity on the heart level is an essential requirement for Christian service.

2. A servant needs a worshipful heart (12:27, 31-43).

The dedication of the wall was a time, not to praise Nehemiah, but to praise the Lord. Nehemiah organized two choirs to walk in opposite directions on top of the wall until they converged at the temple. They sang praises to the accompaniment of cymbals, harps, and lyres. The chapter refers six times to David, who is twice called “the man of God” (12:24, 36, 37 [twice], 45, & 46). David was a man after God’s heart because he was a worshiper of God. He had set up the whole system of worship that these people were seeking to follow (12:46).

God doesn’t want your work if He doesn’t have your worship. To worship God is to rejoice in and extol His great attributes and actions. It is to reverence God above all else. True worship is not just outward, but inward. It engages the mind, the heart, the will, and the emotions. Whether you’re setting up chairs or preaching a sermon, it ought to flow out of a heart of worship for God.

3. A servant needs a joyful heart (12:43).

As you read the account of this dedication service, you get the distinct impression that these people were enjoying themselves! Chuck Swindoll (p. 186) pictures it as a sort of Jewish Disneyland Parade! Note the emphasis on joy in 12:43: it is mentioned four times in that verse, and again in 12:44. It says, “the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.” It wasn’t their song that was heard from afar, but their joy (Swindoll, p. 188). Outsiders heard their joy!

Have you ever been outside of a stadium when a ball game was going on inside, and suddenly the crowd roars? You know when that happens that something good happened inside! Probably someone for the home team just hit a homerun. In the same way, people should be able to walk by the church and think, “Something good is going on in there!” In fact, God has hit a grand-slam homerun for us through Jesus Christ. We need to so caught up with what God has done that His great joy radiates from this place!

A servant needs a pure heart, a worshipful heart, and a joyful heart. Finally,

4. A servant needs a giving heart (12:44-47).

These people gave joyfully so that God’s work could go forward. They saw the importance of worship at the temple and they were willing to give the necessary offerings to support the many priests, Levites, gatekeepers, and singers who served there. The people did it because they “rejoiced over the priests and Levites who served” (12:44).

Have you ever been attracted to a stingy, tight-fisted person? No, we’re all attracted to warm, generous people who freely share what is theirs with others. As I mentioned last week, one of the most reliable gauges of your heart before God is your checkbook. If God is going to use you to minister to others, you need to have a generous heart. You will see the importance of supporting those who are called to serve God on the mission field. You will see the importance of supporting the local church. Just before Peter exhorts us to use our spiritual gifts in serving one another, he says, “Be hospitable to one another without complaint” (1 Pet. 4:9).

Conclusion

The pioneer missionary, William Carey, was a cobbler before he left for the mission field. He would keep a map of India before him in his shop, stopping every so often to study it. He longed to go there and preach the gospel.

He did a lot of preaching and teaching on the side, with the result that his trade dwindled. One day a friend admonished him for neglecting his business. “Neglecting my business?” Carey said. “My business is to extend the kingdom of God. I only cobble shoes to pay expenses.”

That should be the mindset of every Christian. If you know Christ as your Savior, you’re in the ministry now! But may I ask, Are you ministry-oriented? Is that your mindset? Are there people in your schedule on a regular basis? When you gather with God’s people, are you thinking about others and how you can show the love of Christ to them? If you’ve been coming here for more than three or four weeks and you’re thinking, “This is an unfriendly church,” you may be part of the problem! The solution is for you to reach out in friendliness to others. Rather than coming to get your needs met, come to meet the needs of others.

I heard about the son of a pastor who also decided to become a pastor. The dad told the son, “Keep close to God, keep close to men. And bring God and men together.” That’s ministry! God’s people should stay close to Him and close to people and bring the two together.

Discussion Questions

1. To what extent (if any) do our desires enter into the question of where God wants us to live? How can we know His will in this decision?
2. How can a Christian determine what His spiritual gifts are?
3. To what extent does a naturally shy person need to overcome this trait in order to minister effectively to people?
4. To what extent does a believer need to “have it all together” before he/she gets involved in ministry?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2003, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation