Lessons from Nehemiah

To all those contemplating ministry,

In the first installment of this study there were many lessons to be learned about being personally involved in reaching a lost world during our time.  The church of Jesus Christ of each generation has responsibility for reaching its own generation.  The present church is struggling by not knowing what is going on in the world.  The present church in the US is struggling to reach the world because we are not beseeching our Father to send forth laborers into His harvest, not praying for our missionaries, and not praying for open doors to reach the lost.  We have not confessed our sins and drunk deeply of the Word of God.  We are not reaching our generation, because we aren’t prepared or developing a plan.   When there is a plan we usually don’t include ourselves in that plan.  Also, much like Jerusalem of old, our churches lie waste and we are a reproach for failing to fulfill the ministry to our own generation.

In the second installment, one of the focus’ of ministry is that opposition will happen.  All kinds of opposition:  Verbal, racial, mocking, threats, ridicule, and overtly malicious persecution.  Our response to opposition is prayer, first and foremost.  This third study will be the last in this series.

Now in this installment we see the progression of how spiritual ministry advances under Nehemiah.

1. Developing family ministry is the way to develop ‘world Christians’.

Neh 4:13 Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

Neh 4:14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

While sometimes it is not possible, in many instances families can work together in the ministry.  Visitation, short-term missions, housing traveling ministers and missionaries, full-time missions, etc.

In part one of Lessons from Nehemiah I mentioned the church in the West is losing its youth.  88% abandon the church after high school.  The numbers rise to nearly 95% by the time college is done.  We need to take heart from the above verses and…’fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, yours wives …’ What better way to ground our families in the faith than to have them involved in the ministry with us.  Give up the Disney World vacation and go on a short-term mission trip-fight for them!  Give up the new house and have the family fix the old one while explaining why you’re doing it-fight for them! Give the money and support a missionary or mission.  Have a garage sale and support a missionary-fight for them! Have the family send letters or emails to a missionary regularly-fight for them!

The church needs to re-evaluate it’s current structures of leadership, teaching, Sunday School, discipleship, building programs, etc., in favor of a more effective and passionate pursuit of our God, His Word, and a lost world.  We need to fight for our families by pursuing ministry with them.  What we are doing in most cases is not working!  I can look back over my own family life and see the areas that I failed to do this.  Remember, the 88% who abandon the faith all went to Sunday School and were from evangelical churches.

We need to build the walls together.

“And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives… and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.” - Nate Saint (missionary martyr)

“It is just as proper, maybe even more so, to say Christ’s global cause has a Church as to say Christ’s Church has a global cause.” - David Bryant

2.    Ministry may frequently mean learning new skills that are way out of our comfort zones.

Neh 4:17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.

Neh 4:18 For the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.

We may be a teacher, doctor, sports fanatic, or computer whiz, but in the Lord’s work we need to not only carry these skills to the field, but be open to expanding our horizons as to how we can be used by our Great God in other areas.  If you don’t see how you can be used in the Lord’s work given your interests, skills, and education, be open to being involved in new areas.

Remember from part I, ministry is never just physical, but always a spiritual issue.  We cannot get lost in the physical issues of ministry without waging the warfare that accompanies it, as illustrated by the armed workers above.  Why then do we preach during prayer meeting?  Of course the Word of God is important.    But this is prayer meeting.  Jesus was quite clear that His Father’s house would be a house of prayer for all people.  The actual holy place and most holy place were reserved for worship.  Teaching by Jesus and the Apostles was done in the outer courts.  If you knew me well, you would know that I am passionate about the  Word of the Lord and study it everyday of my life.  But, it too has its place.  It might actually take more time to teach the Word of God than pray, but preaching all too often replaces the few minutes we dedicate to prayer.  We need to return to our knees for missions to be accomplished. Leave prayer meeting for prayer.

“Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.”
- J. Hudson Taylor

“I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth.” - James O. Fraser

3.    A desire for more money and to hold on to what you have only hinders the ministry, dishonors the Lord, and hurts the other people who are trying to be involved in the ministry.

Neh 5:1 And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.

Neh 5:2 For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.

Neh 5:3 Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.

Neh 5:4 There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.

Neh 5:5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

Neh 5:6 And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

Neh 5:7 Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.

Neh 5:8 And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer.

Neh 5:9 Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?

Neh 5:10 I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.

This section is sad indeed.  This passage suggests what is the heart of discouragement for Christian workers, why the work had not gone forward in the past, and what was currently hindering the work of the Lord is selfishness and greed.  In Nehemiah’s day the rich took advantage of the poor, took their money, and families sold themselves into slavery just to survive.  Remember the context-the building of the wall.  This chapter is set in the midst of the work of the Lord and during this chapter no building of the wall is mentioned.  Many were being kept from the work due to their need to supply necessities for their families.  Many could not labor as hard due to lack of strength from not having enough food.

Is this not the state of the church today in the West?  Many Dominican pastors and missionaries I work with go days without eating due to lack of food.  They can’t attend needed training sessions because they have no money for transportation.  One couple we know lost 25% of their support due to changes in the economy in the US.  Another American missionary couple we know lost 90% of their support overnight!  Another missionary we work with dramatically reduced his discipleship program due to lack of funds.  Does this not hinder the building of the wall?  Do not pastors and missionaries do the work of the ministry as representatives of our churches?  Is not the ministry hindered when full-time laborers can’t dedicate themselves to building the wall because they don’t have money for transportation, food, resources to run their ministries?

Yes, I am only applying this passage to a modern context, but I don’t think the stretch is that far.  The brethren, due to greed, hindered the work of the Lord-that is the context.  Our churches build mega-million dollar complexes.  We buy 2, 3, 4 cars.  Two houses and a cabin in the woods.  “But it’s my money.”  Can’t we do with our money as we choose?”  Still think I’m stretching the context?  Follow with me in the Book of Haggai.

Hag 1:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.

Hag 1:3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

Hag 1:4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

Hag 1:5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Hag 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Hag 1:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Hag 1:8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

Hag 1:9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

Haggai the prophet lived just prior to Nehemiah’s time and prophesied to the same rich Jews who lived in Israel.  He brings an indictment against the rich religious people for living in excellent housing while the work of the house of the Lord went undone! Is not this the state of the church in the US?  Do not Christians live in excellent houses (sometimes more than one) while God’s work in the fields goes unfinished?  As Nehemiah says:  Consider your ways! Do we really think the Lord is pleased with us?  Forsake the new housing addition and fund the construction of a village church.  Give up the boat and support a missionary for a year.  Give up the new SUV and send someone to the field.  Church, give up the 70 million dollar complex, build multipurpose buildings and support a thousand more missionaries.

Jesus did, after all, make clear that God and money are at odds, and we must choose which we’ll serve (Matthew 6:24). Such may be a shocking revelation for some American Christians trying to clinch both. – Jonathan Merritt

“When we gather in our church building to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible,” “Instead, we may be worshiping ourselves.” – David Platt (Southern Baptist Pastor)

Jesus (never owned anything-died penniless)

Jas 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Jas 5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten.

Jas 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Jas 5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

Jas 5:5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

“Could it be that Christians have simply succumbed to the ’deceitfulness of riches’, placing the building of an earthly kingdom (the American Dream) instead of the Kingdom of God?”

“Obedience to the call of Christ nearly always costs everything to two people- the one who is called, and the one who loves that one.” - Oswald Chambers

4.  The world will spare no effort to see the work of our Lord stopped and us defeated, physically and spiritually.

Neh 6:1 Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)

Neh 6:2 That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one ofthe villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.

It seems there  is no end to their machinations.  Next, they plan to lure him away from the work and the security of his fellow workers into an isolated area to do him harm.  One person wrote: “With what hellish subtlety they courted him to meet with them.”  They tried multiple times to lure him into a meeting for apparently good reasons.  One almost gets the idea they wanted his friendship.  But they are liars.  Nehemiah, led by the Spirit and perhaps receiving good intel, says the work that God had called him to is too important to stop and have ‘pow wows’.  How wise that is.  Even people in churches find all kinds of things in the church to replace the work of equipping the saints, reaching the lost, and feeding the hungry – in essence -’ building the walls’.  Many of these are claiming to be ‘friends’ of the gospel of Christ!!  Professing Christians go to church and live like the world throughout the week.  As someone has said:  “This is what the unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Christians that are takers and not givers.  You know the type, they come to church on Sunday (sometimes) and soak and soak and soak it up.  Never helping.  They send their children to the programs, but never help.  They put their $5 in the plate (sometimes) and never give to Faith Promise.  They critique the choir and never join.  They criticize the SS teacher or preacher and never consider becoming equipped themselves to carry the load.  Then, there are those who would rather fight over inconsequential things than ’endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).

We even have ‘devote’ Christians who stay home to watch the ‘big game.’  I’m sure our Lord finds that kind of love and devotion very ‘inspiring.’

Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever

therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

1Jn 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1Jn 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

This kind of lukewarmness is, in reality, being an enemy of the gospel.  This kind of person the Lord will vomit out of His mouth.  And while they are still in the church this people drive other people away from it!

Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Sadly, there are enough enemies outside of the church also.  There are politicals like our characters in Nehemiah.  The educational system seems to conspire against Christian academic freedom and young people to hinder the gospel.

The believer must act wisely like Nehemiah and continue in the work despite the efforts to sidetrack and destroy him.

Neh 6:4 Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.

Neh 6:5 Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;

Neh 6:6 Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words.

Neh 6:7 And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.

Neh 6:8 Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.

In order to keep on track it may require that we change jobs, schools, houses, and vacations.  Don’t laugh.  Anna and I went to one church in a home while in Florida where I offered to go out door to door witnessing with one of the pastors.  He told me they couldn’t because their was a zoning law against churches there and as long as they stayed small they would be under the radar!!!

“The reason some folks don’t believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn’t worth propagating.” — unknown

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light” — John Keith Falconer

“God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him” — Hudson Taylor

5.    ’Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the conquering of it.’

Neh 6:9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

It seems even our hero Nehemiah was afraid at times, but goes to God in prayer and continues in the work.

Again, it is prayer-even when we know the Bible verses, it is prayer that wins the day.  Afraid for your finances if you give?  Afraid for your finances if you go?  Faith is not the absence of those fears, nor is it the certainty that all those things will be supplied.  Faith is confidence in Him, pure and simple.  Not in what He can give you.  Him, and Him alone.  You may never have the things you need.  Will you still follow Him? Afraid for your children?  Afraid of the politics of other countries?  Or do you fear God?  Do you reverence His kingdom and politics-’Thus saith the Lord’?

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” — Henry Martyn, missionary to India and Persia

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?” — David Livingstone

6.  There are many liberals and false ones who are willing and ready in the name of Christ to help you halt the work of the Lord.  “Oh, but there are needs here at home to take care of first.”  “Why should we send out loved ones and money overseas?”  ”We can’t touch that money it’s for the building fund.”  They don’t need the gospel they need a cup of water.”

“Who are we to change their religion?”  “All religions lead to heaven.”  Etc.  ”If God wants to save the heathen He’ll do it Himself!”  “They aren’t chosen.”  Etc., etc., etc.

Neh 6:10 Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.

Neh 6:11 And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

Neh 6:12 And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

Neh 6:13 Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might havematter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

Neh 6:14 My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

False prophets and teachers abound everywhere.  This age-old war of the seed of the serpent against the Seed of the woman continues to this present day.  Nehemiah’s enemies came waving the flag in one hand and the Bible in the other.  Sound familiar.  ANYTHING, but preach the gospel to the poor.  ANYTHING, but take care of the fatherless and the widow in the Name of Christ.  ANYTHING, but feed the hungry in the name of Christ.  But, Nehemiah resolved not to yield to protecting himself when God had called him to work.  This is true bravery.  Or as the song says, “we will abandon it all for the sake of the call.”  Nehemiah was more concerned about offending his God, than offending men, even other spiritual leaders.

Again he resorts to prayer when he knows he has not the strength to overcome them on his own.

Brothers and sisters, there is much ‘building of the walls’ to be done.  The gospel needs to be preached in all the world.  Are there men and women yet who will “forsake all and take up the cross?”  Are there churches yet who will have a ‘supreme love for God’ above all other loves?  We leave The Work because our children need to go to soccer practice, when we fail to realize they needed to go with with us on visitation instead.  We go to Disney World instead of a mission trip.  Are there yet ones who ‘will take up his cross’ and follow Christ?”

“Sympathy is no substitute for action.” — David Livingstone, missionary to Africa

“The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible” — Ralph Winter

“Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.”— C.T. Studd

“Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.” — Oswald J. Smith

Neh 7:1 Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed,

Build the walls!

Bob

Bob Nilsen

Director of Medical Evangelism
Score International
Dominican Republic