Hard-Pressed but Not Crushed (Part 1 of 4)

A superstar basketball player, if he's all by himself, can never win a championship. Even the best needs other players around him to form a team.

Everyone has to work together to win a game. In the same way each person's faith may be personal, but as we'll hear today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains that our faith is not meant to be practiced all alone. Let's come to the section of Scripture that we read a wee while ago from Nehemiah, and as you open to the page, let's come before God in prayer. Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. Wean it from the earth.

Through all its pulses move. Speak to my weakness, mighty as thou art, and make me love thee as I ought to love. We listen for your voice, Lord Jesus Christ, and your voice alone, you the living Word, through your written Word, to which we now turn with expectant hearts. As we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. In embarking on these studies in the book of Nehemiah, we are essentially seeking to answer one question.

The question is straightforward. What does it mean to do God's work in God's way? We are not studying Nehemiah because we are about to begin to build once again, but the real nature of the building upon which we find ourselves focusing is the building of the people of God comprising the living stones built into a spiritual house. So if any of us have the idea that the studies in Nehemiah are somehow able to be externalized in terms of building actual physical buildings, then we are missing the point, and I'm not doing justice to the Scriptures at all. In coming to chapter 3, what we have is a catalogue of largely forgotten names and places. For every name that is mentioned, there are a whole host of names that are unmentioned—many names that we will never know, that were vitally important to what was an extraordinary feat of organization. The construction work that is described here in chapter 3 would stand alongside any large-scale project, given its time and place, that has ever taken place.

And it is a quite incredible piece of work. In reading those opening verses as I did and allowing your eyes to scan beyond, you're perhaps tempted to think that since what we have is simply this catalogue of names and a rather boring illustration of their building project, we might be tempted to believe that there's nothing really here for us that we can learn from this chapter. We should, of course, never ever assume that with the Scriptures, because the Bible tells us that all Scripture is inspired by God, and it's profitable for rebuke and for correction and for teaching and for training and righteousness. Therefore, whether it is a long list of names, whether it has a scant storyline to it, nevertheless, the Bible's claim for itself is that it is there for our instruction. That Namaiah chapter 3 is in the Bible because God the Spirit intended it to be so, and since it is there, we should pay attention to it. That doesn't mean that we pay the same detailed attention to every part, but it does mean that it is there purposefully.

So what I would like to do is this. To skate, as it were, across the surface of chapter 3, and then in reaching chapter 4, to start to walk more slowly through it. In skating across the surface of chapter 3, let me point out for our help a number of important factors which were fundamental to what was taking place in Jerusalem and are equally important today for what is taking place here in Cleveland.

I think they're fairly straightforward. I don't expect you to be awed by my insights, but I nevertheless want to point them out for our benefit. The first observation is simply this, that a project of this magnitude could never seriously have been entertained without the mobilization of the entire community. What we have in chapter 3 of Nehemiah is everybody involved, everyone filling a part.

This is not the picture of the average soccer game with sixty thousand people in the stands badly in need of exercise and twenty-two fellows on the field badly in need of a rest. This is not your classic church situation where twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work. For this project to have been undertaken and successfully completed demanded something much more than that. And what you have here is the involvement of each individual. I say to you this morning, and it's a straightforward point of application, if ever we're going to take seriously the mandate given us by Christ himself to go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations, then it demands the mobilization of the totality of the people of God. No pew sitters, no pew fillers, no observers—total mobilization of the troops. Second observation is this. The participation of these mobilized people needed to be and was harmonious and simultaneous.

When you go through chapter 3 and count up, you will find that there are some forty or forty-one sections of wall, all broken up, subdivided into various areas of responsibility. And these people had an individual part to play, they had a small group part to play, and they had a big group part to play. Because the Old Testament knows nothing of an individualized form of religion. It knows nothing of a personal relationship with God that is unconnected from the community. Now, that is something that some of us have not, frankly, come to grips with. Because we are at pains to tell people all the time—this is what we say—I have a personal relationship with God. And that's true.

At least it may be true, in your case. And sometimes we're tempted to believe that it is this singular, if you like, direct connection through Jesus to God which is the total expression of what it means to be in Christ, when in point of fact the Old Testament and the New Testament and the whole Bible knows nothing of that kind of description. There is no solo flying to heaven.

It's all in relationship to the other pilots around us and the other planes. We are saved and brought into community because God has purposes for his people together that can never be achieved when his people are apart. Now, the implications of this we will see as we proceed in these studies. But let us not miss in passing this fact that while there is rich diversity amongst the people then and, for example, this morning, their diversity is subsumed in a unity of purpose. If you asked the people what they were doing, they would all answer with one voice, irrespective of which part of the wall they were engaged in.

They would have answered to the effect that they were involved in doing God's work, God's way, under the leadership of Nehemiah. And in the same way, loved ones, it is absolutely important that the stated purpose of the church universal and the express plan and strategy of the church local is something which is shared by, enthusiastically committed to, by everyone who names themselves a part of that church. So that if our responsibility is to see the people of God edified or built up so that we may in turn see the people of God multiplied or expanded and extended, then it shouldn't matter whether we attend a small group Bible study or a Sunday school class or engage with people in the choir or be involved in youth ministry or take part in some outdoors project, but that we would find that there was a cohesion about all of that which attached to the broad, overarching purpose of the community of God's people. That was involved in sustaining this objective, and that must be involved in sustaining every large-scale project, such as the one that God has given us here—something that we have not peculiarly sought, nor are we endeavoring in any special way to try and engender the scale of it.

Nevertheless, to look out on this congregation, you've got to know, loved ones, that unless there is harmonious and simultaneous commitment to the overarching purpose of the church, there will only be disintegration and failure. The third thing that we can say by way of observation is that the immensity of the challenge in the building project could only have been met by an unquenchable dedication and an ardent enthusiasm. Unquenchable dedication and ardent enthusiasm.

I like both those words. Enthusiasm and dedication. And it takes both amongst the people of God to do the work of God, empowered by the Spirit, guided by the Scriptures, challenged and encouraged by one another, but enthusiasm and dedication. May I ask you, are you enthusiastically dedicated to the work of the gospel? Well, you say, why would you ask me that? Because that's the question I ask myself.

Am I committed? Would people in my company say, this guy's enthusiastic about this! We know what makes him tick. We know what rings his bell. We know what fires his passion. I know what makes that girl go.

I understand why she is that way. Do people know that of us? Or are we marked by a kind of that horizontal scan on the screen when you go in and encounter death in the hospital room? It goes ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.

Soon it goes like that. If you're lying in the bed hooked up to that and it goes, you won't ever know. But the people around you will know. You'll never know you're dead if you're a Christian. So you don't know how dead you are. The people around you know how dead you are.

If you're not marked by enthusiasm and dedication, that's what it takes. The fourth thing skating across the surface is this, that what we have here are small groups of all different kinds. You need to read the chapter three and notice this. When you go through it, you find that all these wee groups of people were divided up in multivarious ways. For those of you who want it in the parlance that is most accurate, the groups were heterogeneous rather than homogeneous. For the rest of us, all the groups were different. Some were made up according to family relationships.

Some were divided geographically on the basis of the towns from which they came. Some were involved on the basis of their crafts. There were perfume makers, and there were goldsmiths that had a little group. Some were gathered up in terms of their trading responsibilities. There were merchants. There were some who were gathered religiously—priests and Levites and temple servants. Some were gathered politically. District officers, and in verse 12, one man even at a small group that comprised his daughters. And that was how he endeavored to play his part in the overarching purpose.

So they split up on the basis of a variety of circumstances, and they were equally effective. Now, let me just make a point of application here for our church. From the very first day that I came to this church, I always said this. I believe wholeheartedly in a large, worshiping, gathered congregation. I don't care how large it is, but the people come together, and they're able to offer praise in community in a way that isn't as good in a wee group. They are able to give in community in a way that they can't do in a wee group. They are able to do elements of evangelism in a large-scale operation rather than the smaller. And so I said, I believe in that, and I believe also that if you bring people together in those large groups, they need to find their feet, they need to be able to share, develop, grow, and establish relationships in smaller groups.

Okay? We've always said that. What we have discovered, though, is this—that as our church has continued to grow both numerically and in terms of ministry development, it seems increasingly unlikely that it is impossible to give people the small-group experience by means of one strategic approach. In other words, we cannot micromanage what will be a person's small-group experience. Because I think what the Lord has been impressing, at least upon my own heart, is this—that once you get to a certain size and you begin to maximize and multiply ministry, you must make the principle subservient to the program.

There is no program that will ultimately be able to cater for all of that. And so the principle mustn't be let go of while the programs will be developed in their own way. Well, you say, what are you saying? I'm not saying anything more than that.

That is simply me. The elders may come to me and say, Why did you go and say that? You put the cat among the pigeons, and now we've got all this stuff?

Yeah, well, that won't be the first time they said that to me. What I'm telling you is this, that in the same ways there's groups and groups and groups that were involved in the wall, and they weren't all the same dimensions, they weren't all the same characteristics, they were heterogeneous rather than homogeneous, I think that's probably the way the church has to be developed. I don't know what the implications are, I'm not sure what it will mean, I don't know where we'll be twelve months from now, but I think it's going to be different.

I think it has to be. Fifthly, as we skate over the top, it is impossible for a project of this size to be undertaken without interference. And in verse 5 you will notice that the men of Tekoa had some nobles who would not put their shoulders to the work. In other words, there will always be people bucking the system, always be folks who do not wish to submit to leadership, those who are unwilling to put their shoulders to the plow. So what you have in chapter 3, if we could summarize it, is a classic illustration of the principle of interdependence. Not living in independence but living in interdependence, connected with one another, dependent upon one another. Let me summarize it in these statements. Interdependence involves every individual taking responsibility for something.

Every individual taking responsibility for something. If you had gone about Jerusalem and said, Who are you and where do you work? they would have been able to say, I'm Manasseh, and I work at the Jackal Gate. I'm Zadok, and I work at the Valley Gate. If you went and somebody said, Who are you? and they said, I don't know, and where do you work? I don't know, you could assume safely that they had not either grasped the overarching purpose or had determined that they had no interest in being involved in the project.

Second, the interdependence means setting aside personal disagreements. You see, building the church, as we've said before, is not like building with precast concrete. It's not like building with little bricks that all come out of a machine.

It's just the same size—eight by three or four or two and a half or whatever they come out. It's like building with bananas. You ever imagine building a wall with a bunch of bananas? You get a picture of what it's like to try and build a church with people like you and me.

Funny shapes, some are soft, some are hard, some are green, some are overripe, some are very tender, some are very sensitive, some have got that thing on the end that really jags you when you grab for it. I mean, it's just a hard project. It's a hard project. And it was a hard project here, because they weren't building with little symmetrical lumps.

They were building with stones of various sizes. And some people are just really uncomfortable to sit next to. Some people have sharp elbows. And if you happen to be one of those with sharp elbows, you wonder why it is that no one snuggles up to you.

You can't snuggle up to those razor-like elbows. And therefore, if interdependence is to work, it demands that we set aside our sharp edges, our personal disagreements, and we realize the need for the love of God to be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, so that love will be the mortar, if you like, which molds all of these multivarious stones together. But interdependence demands setting aside personal disagreements.

And the third thing, skating across the top, is that interdependence means keeping the overall purpose in view. Every one of these wee groups had an objective, and that was to meet the next group. So the people at the fish gate were moving from the fish gate up to whatever the next one was.

We need to check the chapter. And the people who were at the jackal gate or the tower of the 100 knew what they were doing, and that was, they were seeking to build in such a way that they would arrive and see their neighbors coming around the corner. The problem—if one wee group gets so focused in its little project that it forgets what it's actually endeavoring to do, then it diminishes the totality of what's going on.

Obvious, right? I mean, so you've got this little group, and their part of the wall is here. They get it up and get going, and somebody says, you know, I've got a fabulous idea. I think we could build a deck off this wall, don't you? I mean, don't you think it'd be a fabulous view just out there like that? Why don't we build a deck? Someone else says, you know, if we're going to build a deck, these orange groves are magnificent here. We could haul down some of those oranges, and we could put together a little orange business. We could squeeze the oranges, and we could sell them off the deck. Somebody says, that's a fabulous idea. You know, maybe we could make some furniture, and then we could bring the people—and before they know where they are, they've lost sight of what they're supposed to be doing, which is hurrying up to finish their piece of the wall so they can meet Fred and his brothers around the corner.

The principle's obvious. If I get so consumed with preaching the Bible that I lose sense of what my part is in the overarching purpose of Parkside Church, I'm going to be a jolly nuisance. And if you get into some project in this church that consumes you, the kind of I-me-mine deal, you can't see beyond your deck and your orange juice, then loved ones, check and see whether you haven't lost sight of the overarching purpose of the church. The church ultimately does not exist to rearrange the furniture so that all who are inside it feel comfy. It exists so that people who are outside of it may be brought inside of it. The church exists not for itself. It exists for other people who don't know Jesus.

That's why we exist. Not ultimately to find out how to be good parents, although we should be. Not ultimately to memorize the books of the Bible, although it's helpful too.

Not ultimately to sing songs and preach sermons, but ultimately to evangelize the world for Jesus Christ. That's the overarching purpose. So, you see, when you get in your small group, ask yourself the question, Am I in sync?

Or am I building a deck? We don't exist for ourselves. We don't exist to draw attention to ourselves. We don't exist to become notorious.

We don't exist to become well-spoken of. If someone walked in here and asked the question, And what is Parkside Church doing? There's only one legitimate answer. Namely, we are helping, by the power of the Spirit, to do the work of our head and Lord Jesus Christ, who determined he would build the church. That's what we're doing. And that's all we're doing. And that's the only thing we have a mandate to do. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life with the message he's titled, Hard-Pressed But Not Crushed.

We'll hear more tomorrow. As we're learning, a good leader is a true treasure. And since October is Pastor Appreciation Month, if you'd like to find a way to encourage your pastor to bless him with a gift, we want to recommend a series to you. It's called The Pastor's Study. This is an extensive collection of messages from Alistair on how to be a pastor. It covers topics like biblical leadership, personal holiness, submitting to God's vision for his people, and careful stewardship of God's word. You'll find The Pastor's Study on a USB drive in our online store at truthforlife.org. The USB contains 68 messages that your pastor will find very helpful. And if you include a donation to Truth for Life today, along with your purchase, we want to invite you to request a copy of a documentary titled Revival, The Work of God. This is an engrossing film that shows how God works during times of social darkness. You'll trace your way through key periods of revival led by commentary from pastors and church historians.

You'll look at the Reformation and see how God sparked biblical faith across Europe and in the U.S. in the 17th and 18th centuries. The documentary comes on DVD and also with a streaming link so you can choose how you'd like to watch. The streaming version includes hours of additional material. Request the documentary revival when you donate to the Ministry of Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. You would think that going out and cleaning up the neighborhood would be something folks would celebrate, but instead when Nehemiah did it, it was ridiculed. Join us tomorrow to find out why and how Nehemiah responded. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.