Sept. 1, 2024: Message: Walking In Christ, Part 1 | Scripture: Nehemiah 4:1-14 | Speaker: Pastor Stephen Choy
Worship Songs: How Great Thou Art; How Great Is Our God | Jesus Paid It All | Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me
Full Manuscript
Introduction
If able, please stand as I read to you from Nehemiah 4:1-14. TWoL: 1 Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” 3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!” 4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
6 So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. 9 And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.
10 In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” 11 And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” 12 At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.”5 13 So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. 14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
From Nehemiah 4-6, we’ll be embarking on a mini-series within the book, and the series is meant to answer the singular question: what is the Christian life like? And depending on who you ask, most people who call themselves Christians these days would say that to be Christian is “to do good in order to get good.” If you want a good life, then live a good life. If you want a good job, then do good work. If you want a good family, then become a good parent.
And whether we want to admit it or not, many of us in this room operate with this thinking. I mean there’s an entire book in the Bible dedicated to truisms like this, isn’t there? Honour the Lord with your firstfruits, then your barns will be filled with plenty (Prov 3:9-10). We take that as proof that when we’re doing what’s right—when we’re obeying—when we’re working—when we’re parenting—then we deserve—we’re entitled to the filled barns. We think that, for Christians—or for people who belong to God, struggle is outside the norm, while comfort ought to be expected and anticipated.
Yet, Nehemiah 4 seems to correct us in that thinking, not because Proverbs 3 is wrong, but because our thinking about ourselves is wrong. Nehemiah seems to be teaching us that the Christian life—the God-possessed life—is not easy—it’s not guaranteed comfort. In fact, it seems to be guaranteeing the opposite—that Christian living is, at times, very difficult and very filled with fearful opposition, even when, or especially when, you’re doing what you should be doing. And we have to ask, knowing that the Christian life is often fraught with struggle and resistance, why or how, then, should we approach it?
My hope this morning, for you Christians, is that you approach fearful opposition by remembering the Lord and fighting for the church—for your faith—for your life in Christ—for your family that Christ has adopted you into through his own blood. These three things form our proposition and outline to answer the question: what is the Christian life like? It is a life that expects fearful opposition, remembers the Lord, and fights for the church. Let’s look, then, at that first point: in the Christian life,
1) Expect Fearful Opposition
When you look closely at our passage, what you see is that it’s divided into two parts. The first part, summarized for us in this first point, is that Christians will be opposed in the world. This is a theme that we see over-and-over again throughout Scripture, namely, that whenever believers display their willing obedience to God, their willingness is almost always followed closely behind with difficulty.
You need only think of Adam and Eve. They strive to obey God’s command not to eat of the fruit, but then the Devil shows up and tempts them into disobedience. Or when Moses has finally convinced Pharaoh to release God’s people, they arrive at the Red Sea, thinking they’ve escaped only to find the Egyptians in hot pursuit. Or more recently in the book of Ezra, how the people have finally returned from captivity only to find resistance at every turn by these Samaritans. For each step that the Israelites take forward in faithfulness, they’re met with resistance or temptation that threatens to push them two steps back.
Our text, here in Nehemiah 4, is no different. The Israelites are rebuilding, renewing, and recommitting themselves to the work of God, but as they labour, when they think that they’re giving God their firstfruits—their restless lifting, sculpting, and setting—instead of filling their barns, they come under threat. And it almost seems like God stops watching or that he doesn’t care.
Now, before I get to the part where I tell you that your hardship has nothing to do with God’s lack of care—that it, in fact, is the exact opposite—you need to hear, first, that this is how the Christian life is—that you need to be expectant and prepared for opposition as you do what is right. It is very likely that following Christ will make your life harder and not easier.
And it won’t be just any opposition, but sometimes fearful, unexpected, perhaps even, in our minds, undeserved opposition. Nehemiah tells us that the opposition that Israel faces is great, and it comes in three intense waves as they begin their rebuilding process. The first, in verses 1-3, is a verbal attack; it’s the reviling, jeering, taunting, and accusation of others, particularly Sanballat and Tobiah, against Israel.
And this first wave is interesting because I want us to look at the words that Sanballat and Tobiah use. Sanballat says, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore [the wall] for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” Then Tobiah, like a court jester sucking up to his master chimes in, “Ya, what they are building—if a fox puts a paw on it, the whole thing will fall apart!” In other words, both Sanballat and Tobiah are trying to imply that the Jews are wasting their time—that their effort will be insufficient and ineffective—that they will fail.
And the reason why they say these things, or at least why Sanballat says these things, is because he finds no ability in himself to do what Israel is trying to do. Just look at what verse 1 says: “when Sanballat heard the wall was being rebuilt, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews.” He makes it about himself. He looks at his own strength and finds himself insufficient. He finds himself outside the favour of the king because by now he would have known that Artaxerxes had given the Jews permission to do this, and he is overcome by his lust and jealousy for power, for recognition, and for hope like these people have.
This is what opposition seeks to do, church, above all other forms of opposition—this is what the devil, the slanderer, who is also called Satan, the accuser, has been doing since the beginning. They know that they’ve been cast out of the kingdom, so they’ll come, like bullies, and attempt in the most cowardly ways to bring us down with them and turn us away from the truth—to make us pity ourselves and think about what we’re unable to do. They work hard to turn us away from our thoughts about God and his capacity. They’ll try to convince you that following God and doing what he commands is impossible.
But they won’t stop at that, see how they continue their attacks in verses 7-8 with the second form of opposition, namely, they threaten violence against Jerusalem. If verbal threats aren’t sufficient, then perhaps, the thought that Israelites will lose their lives for this will stop them. And this was a very real threat because Artaxerxes is 1000 miles away, so even if the king seeks to avenge Nehemiah and his people, Sanballat would have more than enough time to set up a defence or to prevent messengers from delivering news to Susa.
It also seems Sanballat is quite influential because we see it’s not just him and Tobiah anymore, but the group grows to include the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites. So, perhaps, Sanballat and the others are thinking, even if the king hears about this, he’ll likely not do anything about it because our contingent could cause real problems for him. Notice, again, like we did a few weeks ago: Sanballat and the Horonites are north of Jerusalem, the Ammonites to the east, the Arabs to the south, and the Ashdodites were a part of the Philistine plain on Judah’s western border. That whole block united against the king would be a fearsome thing regardless of how strong the empire was.
And more, importantly, the Jews were, seemingly, isolated from the rest of the world, just like how bullies want us to feel when they intimidate and threaten us. This is how the devil wants us to feel. This is what satan did to Adam and Eve in the garden: “did God really say don’t eat of the fruit? Where is he now to stop you? Why would he give this to you, if you weren’t supposed to eat it.” The devil and the world want us to feel like we cannot go to anyone for help. They want us to feel like we are the only ones who can and should protect ourselves.
And then, when we think the threats are at their worst—when we’ve been ridiculed and threatened with violence—while we’ve toiled away in obedience, sometimes with tears and blood soaked garments—dear Christian, expect that even more opposition might come. It’ll come in the form of self-doubt, like what’s described in verse 10. Those in Judah, themselves, were saying, “there’s just too much rubble—too much baggage—by ourselves, we can’t build.” They weren’t just tired from lifting boulders but imagine the threats on every side as they’re lifting—their resolve must have been nearly empty.
Or it might even get to a point where your own friends and family, like those in verse 12 who lived near to the Jews and who were helping the Jews, they’ll become that voice in your head that says, “Leave this place—stop trifling with these impossible things—stop fighting for holiness—stop trusting in God—and return to us—return to safety—return to comfort.”
What is the Christian life like, you ask? The Christian life is one that expects fearful, overwhelming, isolating, vindictive, and sometimes even violent opposition. I remember one time when I was out evangelizing with my church, we came across another group that was lifting one of their members covered in blood and carrying him to a nearby hospital because as he was evangelizing, some stranger ran up to him, yelled, “Jesus sucks,” punched him in the face with some hard object, and ran away.
The opposition doesn’t care about your feelings. It won’t take responsibility. It will be cowardly, and yet, this is what you can expect, that opposition will come for those who walk in the Way of the Lord. And I’m not trying to scare you, but being Christian—truly Christian—is not for the faint of heart, the self-sufficient, the proud or arrogant, the envious or boastful. It’s for those who possess a desperate heart of mercy towards sinners condemned to hell because we’ve received mercy from a merciful God. He is our sufficiency more than we are our own safety or comfort. Who is this God, you might ask? Well, that leads us to our second point: Christian, as you walk this life and expect the coming of fearful opposition, find strength and solace in your remembrance of the Lord.
2) Remember the Lord
Here, we get to see the first half of the second part of our passage. I said there are two parts: the first part is summed up in the Christian’s expectation of fearful opposition, and the second part is summed up in the Christian’s capacity to persevere, and the first half of that capacity—really the overwhelming reason for why you can persevere in the face of opposition is because you know God. But we must ask, what is it that we know about God?
Hear what Nehemiah has to say in verse 14: “And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome.” Why don’t we need to be afraid? Because God is great and awesome. Because God is sovereign, loving, provident, and sufficient for us in everything, especially in our trials.
The Judahite might say, “By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” And we say, “By yourselves you cannot, but with God, he is able.” Or the Jews living near them might say, “You must return to us,” yet we know God speaks with perfect effect when he says, “You must and shall return to me.”
Sanballat asks, “What are these feeble Jews doing?” And we, the readers, are inclined to answer, “They’re doing the will of God.” “Will they restore it themselves?” “No, God will.” “Will they finish up in a day?” “No, God shall complete the work in his time.” “Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that? Shall they make something out of nothing?” “No, only God makes something out of nothing, just like he’s made the sun, moon, stars, earth, and all the creatures upon it.”
Okay, but “Will they sacrifice?” asks Sanballat. And we reply, “No, God shall provide the sacrifice.” He provided it to the Jews when they completed the temple. He provided it to Ezra as he journeyed from Susa to Jerusalem. And he shall provide it again for Nehemiah, just like he has since Abraham, and just like he did for us, fully and finally, through Jesus Christ. God is great and awesome. God is sovereign and sufficient.
And yet, not only is God great and awesome over us, but he is infinitely and intimately great and awesome to us. Trial and suffering aren’t evidence that God is far from us or that he is uncaring, they are evidence that he cares deeply—that he desires to draw near to you, even though your penchant is to run away from him. The reason why you may feel like God hasn’t filled your barns with plenty isn’t because he is unwilling to do so or that his Word has lied to you or because he simply wants you to trust him more—though these things are true, but you may feel like your barns aren’t full because of your own conscience. See, the condition for his filling is that you give him your firstfruits, yet truly, none of us do this, do we? We do not ascribe him his worth.
Jerusalem was in shambles, and its people had no inclination to do anything about it. But it’s here that we must remember that God sends Nehemiah who comes, pretty much, to the Jews out of nowhere—uncoerced, unhindered by his own socio-economic status in the Persian kingdom. He brings his royal favour and his concern for Israel—a people who are destitute and undeserving of his attention. And he doesn’t come to chastise them or condemn them for their sinful lethargy.
Rather, he comes to satisfy them, to offer them new life, a new perspective, new courage—a renewed covenant. He restores them in the joy of God’s hand that is upon them and working for and amongst them. Nehemiah shows them grace where they deserved opposition. He brings them out of their sorry state and gives them hope. He comes as a Saviour for a people who don’t deserve any saving.
The question is: how is it that we might joyfully persevere in doing good in the face of overwhelming, fearful opposition? Let me answer it this way: often when we read texts like this, we are inclined to think that we are the innocent victim in the story—that we stand as those who labour and seek the glory of God while the opposition ridicules us, threatens us with violence, or tempts us to abandon the task.
But, very honestly, we are not the victim in this story. We are the Sanballats, Tobiahs, Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites. We are the scoffers and mockers. We are the revilers and persecutors. We are the opposition and enemy of God. We are the bullies and the murderers that come to crucify his Son upon a cross.
And yet, instead of praying, “Hear, O God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives”—instead of asking that our guilt not be covered and that our sin be remembered as we’ve provoked his anger—he prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they’re doing.” He prays, “Father, I desire that they might be with me to see my glory. Keep them in my name. Fill their barns with my joy. Keep them from the evil one, even though they themselves do evil. For what they meant for evil, you have accomplished for their good.”
Trials in our life aren’t just meant to draw us near to God, they’re to bring us to the cross where our great and awesome Saviour died our death, and to know that in our darkest night, God has not abandoned us or forgotten his love for us. No, his Son suffered our darkest night so that we might be brought out from that pit of hell into marvellous light and life, if we trust and remember him.
What is the importance of the cross to you, and what fear have you in the world? Did Nehemiah not say, “do not fear, remember the Lord?” And did Christ not say as one greater than Nehemiah, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”? Those who persevere in doing good aren’t those who do so out of grudging weariness, but those who place their hope and satisfaction in God—those who are enlivened and filled by his sovereign grace and the forgiveness of sin that comes through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who persevere in doing good are those who remember the Lord and know their barns shall never lack for anything in him.
And how do we show that we remember the Lord? Verse 4: Nehemiah prays for deliverance. Verse 9: And we prayed to our God. I have said it before, and I will say it again: if you have no prayer life with God, then you have no life with God. If, as a Christian, you think all you need is to read the Bible and come to church, yet you forsake your own regular fellowship with him, then you can know all the things about him, but I guarantee you, you do not know him.
Prayer is all about getting what we want and need, but that is because the Lord is my Shepherd, and with him—in him—I need nor want anything else. It is when we pray—when we place our full and utter confidence in him to do that which only he can do—that we show, most truly, our trust in the gospel because prayer is the gospel lived out. It acknowledges that God cannot be controlled, that only he can provide, that we are weak, and that we, by necessity, must place our lowly selves at his mercy, especially when opposition seems overwhelming. We pray, and we trust in the effectiveness of prayer because we know God has already made himself our rest and our peace, and he holds us close when our affliction is at its greatest—the cross and our Christ assure this.
This then is the first half of the answer for how Christians might persevere in the face of fearful opposition. It is what the Christian life is like—that even though opposition comes, we know it will not overcome us, because we remember: the Lord is great and awesome, and his trials are merely another opportunity for us to say, “in this, we have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of his testimony.”
3) Fight for the Church
And yet, in our remembrance—in our prayerful trust of his sovereign purposes and his nearness to us—we must then act and fight for the church. Look at the last portion of verse 14: Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. Or look at verse 9: “And we prayed to our God, and then, we set a guard as a protection against [our enemies] day and night. Or look at verse 6: After praying for God’s justice upon their enemies, what does Israel do? Cower in fear? No: “So, we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”
In other words, if God is watching over us, even under the greatest and gravest of threat, the people of God have a mind for the work and the joy of God set before them. Why is it, then, that we stall? Why do we prevent ourselves from being and doing what we were always meant to do? Why do we cease in our worship? Why do we hesitate in our evangelism? Why are we mute in our exhortation to each other to pursue greater and greater holiness?
If the gospel is ours, we need not fear anything, because we have a God to turn to and a people to protect. Stop wasting your life worrying about yourself like Sanballat or Tobiah. Stop thinking of your own weakness because God is strong. Stop listening to your friends and family who want you to give more of your time and effort in things that will rot and decay. Remember the Lord and fight for your church—for each other.
Are you looking to build this up—to pull together in unity of spirit and truth? To prepare and guard yourselves as the city of God set upon a hill to resist the enemies’ threats? Are you pre-empting thoughts and habits of temptation? Are you desirous to learn and grow in the things and ways of God as one body, committed and covenanted together, so that the joy of God might be your increasing satisfaction—the majesty of your storehouses?
What does our Nehemiah and his cross mean to you? If you do not know, the enemy lies in wait, and he is coming to destroy because we are feeble, we cannot restore, we cannot revive ourselves. But for those of us who know God, and who are known by God, have a mind to work, to set a guard as a protection against fearful opposition day and night, and fight—fight for your life, fight for your faith, fight for this family of God because his greatness and awesomeness, displayed most fully in the sacrificial love of his Son, is our portion and our strength forever.
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