Sermons

Good morning, Trinity. It's good to be with you. My name is Austin Duncan. I'm a guest here today, like some of you, perhaps. And maybe you've been here before. If not, you're like me, a repeat visitor. And it's good to be back with the people of Trinity Bible Church. And I'm privileged to open the Word of God with you. Nehemiah chapter three is my assignment. I'm grateful. This is a chapter full of lots of Hebrew names, and I'm gonna do this a little differently this morning and differently than we did this first hour. Live and learn, as they say.

I'm gonna have you stay seated while I read Nehemiah chapter three, and I'm gonna have the guys put this map up of the walls of Nehemiah that you can stare at. I'm kind of in the way, so I'm gonna stand over here. It depends on your angle, but you can find a map like this if you Google it up. This is the same exact map as in almost every commentary on Nehemiah that I have. And I think it helps to look at this while we go through this chapter. And you can kind of follow along and then follow along on the map.

See up there in the top right-hand corner where it says Sheep Gate? That's chapter three, verse one. So, we'll start there, and then as I read, you'll notice some of these places moving counterclockwise, right? To the left, from the top right corner, all the way down to the south, and then up along the eastern wall. So, this is kind of a reconstruction of that.

Nehemiah lists 42 different sections built by 41 groups and individuals that he names. Some notable things just to kind of have in your mind before I read it. Verses 1 through 5 are the north. There's kind of eight work details listed. Verses 6 through 13, it goes on the western side. There's 10 work details. 14 to 15 verses are the south part of the walls, and there's two work details listed. 16 to 31 is the whole eastern side, there's 21 work details, and then the final section is the east, kind of north, and it's one work detail in verse 32.

One more little thing to note, verse 1 through 15, he uses the phrase next to him repeatedly, so I'd like you to notice that as I read it. And then verses 16 to 31, he uses the phrase after him, and then after him. So that'll give you kind of a, something to hang on to while we work our way through, well, while I work my way through some challenging pronunciations. So, I would just appreciate if you would extend me a little grace. So, I grew up in Albuquerque, so Lord help me. Nehemiah chapter three, verses one through 32, the title of this message is The Ministry of the Many. The Ministry of the Many.

(Scripture Reading) Nehemiah 3:1 "Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.

The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz repaired. And next to them Meshullam the son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabel repaired. And next to them Zadok the son of Baana repaired. And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Gate of Yeshanah. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, the seat of the governor of the province Beyond the River. Next to them Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, goldsmiths, repaired. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, repaired, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph repaired opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah repaired.

Malchijah the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section and the Tower of the Ovens. Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired, he and his daughters.

Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the Dung Gate.

Malchijah the son of Rechab, ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

And Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king’s garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David.

After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, repaired to a point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool, and as far as the house of the mighty men. After him the Levites repaired: Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Keilah, repaired for his district. After him their brothers repaired: Bavvai the son of Henadad, ruler of half the district of Keilah. Next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section opposite the ascent to the armory at the buttress. After him Baruch the son of Zabbai repaired another section from the buttress to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. After him Meremoth the son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz repaired another section from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliashib. After him the priests, the men of the surrounding area, repaired. After them Benjamin and Hasshub repaired opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah repaired beside his own house. After him Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to the buttress and to the corner.

Palal the son of Uzai repaired opposite the buttress and the tower projecting from the upper house of the king at the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh and the temple servants living on Ophel repaired to a point opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower. After him the Tekoites repaired another section opposite the great projecting tower as far as the wall of Ophel.

Above the Horse Gate the priests repaired, each one opposite his own house. After them Zadok the son of Immer repaired opposite his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, repaired. After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah repaired opposite his chamber. After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate, and to the upper chamber of the corner.

And between the upper chamber of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants repaired." (End)

This is the very Word of the living God. Let's ask Him to bless us through His Word this morning.

(Prayer) Father, thank You for Your Word. And it's in sections like this we acknowledge that we need Your Word to be our teacher as Your spirit applies its truths to our hearts. There is not a verse or a chapter in Holy Scripture that is not intended for our edification and our instruction to root sin out of our lives, to correct wrong thinking, to provide and promote encouragement and edification, and to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, Father, would you speak by Your Spirit, through Your Word, to the hearts of Your people this morning. We genuinely ask You in the name of Christ, amen. (End)

Maria Konnikova, as if I haven't said enough names this morning, wrote an article in the New Yorker on December 19th, 2013, called, "Why Your Name Matters." It begins like this:

"In 1948, two professors at Harvard University published a study of 3,300 men who had recently graduated, looking at whether their names had any bearing on their academic performance. The men with unusual names, the study found, were more likely to have flunked out or to have exhibited symptoms of psychological neurosis than those with more common names. The Mikes were doing just fine, but the Barareens were having trouble. A rare name, the professor surmised, had a negative psychological effect on its bearer."

The article goes on to talk about the research that's been conducted by sociologists and psychologists since the 1940s, findings widely reproduced that there are impacts that a name has on its bearer.

Some research suggests that names can influence your choice of profession. Where you live, who you marry, the grades that you earn, the stocks you choose to invest in, whether you're accepted to a university or not, whether you're hired for a particular job. Your name, they say, can indicate the quality of your work in a group setting. And one interesting study even goes so far to say that it can be ascertained if you'll give to a cause of hurricane relief if the particular hurricane starts with the same letter as your name.

I don't know about all that, but I do know that names matter. And what Nehemiah 3 teaches us is that names matter to God. Derek Kidner in his excellent commentary on Nehemiah says, "this catalog of largely forgotten names and places reveals an extraordinary feat of organization and concerted action." That's true. This catalog of largely forgotten names and places reveals an extraordinary feat of organization and concerted action. And I think most approaches to Nehemiah 3 would have you consider all the work that went on to make Nehemiah 3 happen.

We learned last week as we've been studying the book of Nehemiah, Adam Ashoff was here and he walked us through Nehemiah's midnight survey as he took his way around the southern walls, that bottom of the kite shape. Nehemiah took the bottom section on horseback or donkey back, if you will, and when he got to the south, the rubble was so severe that he had to dismount and take the rest of the survey on foot. He did that as part of his planning, as part of his attempt to prayerfully engage and assess the situation before he would enlist the help of the people.

Well, this chapter indicates that the people were motivated to help. And so many have considered all the delegation principles that Nehemiah would have brought to the scene in a chapter like this. It's a chapter that really underscores the importance of Nehemiah's leadership, the genius of his leadership.

But I don't think that's what Nehemiah wanted you to get. Nehemiah listed names and places and methodically worked around each section, 42 sections and 42 different individuals and families that worked on these sections and meticulously records every name and their involvement.

And for the reader, it's a bit of a tongue twister, and for the listener, it may seem a little bit, I don't know, what do the kids call that, boring? I mean, is this a Hebrew phone book we just read? But what's going on here I think is more significant for all of us. Delrath Davis says it this way, it's true that Nehemiah 3 is not as stirring and scintillating as many other Old Testament narratives.

Yet the names here constitute a role of honor of Yahweh's workers in place to be remembered. Names matter. That's why they're here in Nehemiah 3. Maybe few will remember them, but Jesus surely will. And so, as we work our way through this chapter, there's some things I find notable in these names. I wanna make five observations, five notes through this chapter that I hope are increasingly provocative and insightful and have something to do with how you relate to God's work as God's people today. That's the takeaway.

And though I know that Nehemiah chapter three is not a chapter on church polity, church order, church structure, I think it has something to teach everyone involved in God's work about what God prioritizes. And Nehemiah lays it out here with certain emphases to help us see why names matter and what we can learn from the ministry of the many, the ministry of the many. So, let's dive right into this chapter. Though not stirring and scintillating, I think it's incredibly helpful for the saints.

Let's look at their shared labor, at their assigned faithfulness. Let's look at this humble leadership and the costly obedience and complete devotion that is on display in Nehemiah chapter 3 in five observations. Number one, servants lead by example. What are these servants on display for all time in God's Holy Word? In verses 1 through 5, I think we see servants lead by example. When Eliashib in verse 1 is featured, it's because we're right there at the top of the map.

Picture a kite. You could just scribble one down on your own notes if you like. Put your kite on. We're up at the top right-hand corner of the kite. The temple is at the top of the city, the northern side. And so right there would have been the headquarters for the high priests. The priests, the high priest and his family are featured as building that prominent sheep gate, the place where sacrifices likely entered the city. That's why it was called the Sheep Gate.

And their work is actual construction work. They are building and rebuilding a broken and fallen wall, eight feet to 12 feet thick, a substantial wall built for the defense of an ancient city. Their work was accompanied by priestly consecration. Verse one, talks about the consecration of the wall and the towers that these priests worked on.

And I think what we see here by leading off and starting with these men is a reminder that these spiritual leaders are actually not only leading spiritually, but they're physically involved. These servants have rolled up their sleeves. These priests are participants. And they're a positive example of showing the way. They're leading the way.

God's work involves the participation of God's people. And the leaders, the priests, those who represent God to the people and the people to God in their unique devotion to Yahweh and to their work to sacrifice on behalf of the people and to offer offerings of thanksgiving and worship. The Levites will be mentioned later in the chapter. All of them are leading by example.

They're not just going to encourage the people with thoughts and prayers. These pastors are rolling up their sleeves and they're doing work. They're putting in time. They're brick and mortar kind of workers. And this is an example of good spiritual leadership. These priests are participants. They're workers. And not all the nobles are like that. Look at verse 5.

The Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. This is an indictment on some leaders who, the phrase there in Hebrew is interesting, it's they would not lower their necks to get involved. They wouldn't bring their necks down in a way to be in service to their lords. That was the attitude of some nobles. Thankfully, the people, the Tekoites, made up for their nobles' lack of work. But their nobles wouldn't work. The priests, on the other hand, were exemplary in their service.

All were involved in this project, including the spiritual leaders. Jesus, when He led His disciples, He always led them by example. He showed them the way. Like any good teammate, to offer only instruction, but not to model hard work, not to model the necessity of putting your own hands to the plow. That's what the priests are doing here. That's what the wise leaders are demonstrating for the people. They're not showing them how to work; they're working alongside of them. God's servants lead by example.

Jesus was not too proud to gird himself up, to get down on all fours, and to wash His disciples' feet. In that memorable moment, Jesus wasn't just making a parable of service for them to enact going forward, but He was literally serving His disciples in a practical, lowly, humble, household slave kind of a way, because He was showing them that spiritual leadership operates the opposite of the way it operates in the world. It's not a top-down, but it's a bottom-up. It's servant leadership. And so, He'd instruct His disciples, those who want to be great among you must be servant of all. Don't be like the Gentiles and lording it over. That's not the kind of leadership we should see in the church. But in God's economy, what we see on display in Nehemiah 3 is leaders who are serving the people, not just to be an example, but because they're actually doing the work. They're putting it out there. They're active and they're involved.

A second note. These servants served where God placed them. They served where God placed them. As Nehemiah works through this map of the city in his mind, as he's detailing the sections and the workers involved. He doesn't give us a chronological account. It wasn't as if they built this thing in counterclockwise structure. They worked in various times and sections over the course of those 52 days, according to chapter six, verse 15, that this construction project, this massive construction project, which in the understanding of maximalist archeological minds, was two and a half miles in distance, 220 acres in scope, or in minimalist archaeological constructions, just under two miles of 90 acres. Either way, this is a huge project requiring an extraordinary amount of manpower, of leadership, but the servants mainly worked in the allotment and assignment that God had them in.

Look at verse 10. Next to them, Jedidiah, the son of Harumph, repaired opposite his house. And next to him, Hatush, the son of Hasebaniah, repaired. And another opposite the tower of his house. Verse 29, opposite his own house. Verse 30, opposite his chamber. What you see happening is God's people are working primarily in the section that is the closest to their homestead.

In other words, they are motivated to defend the section of the wall that is going to be the section that protects their own family. There's some wisdom there. There's some priority there. Now they're working together, and this isn't an act of selfish work. What I interpret it to be is an act of assignment, an act of providence. They work where they were, and they were where they were because of their trade, because of the kind of work that they did, or because of their tribal allotment. This is where their family lived. And the people of God are on display in verse 10 and verse 23 and verse 28 through 30 as working section by section opposite their own homes in order.

Sometimes it's difficult for us to see why God has us where He has us in our lives. One of the marks of immaturity is to be unable to be grateful for where you are, but instead to always be stretching your neck towards what's next. I think that's common for young people to feel that way, but we can all be eager to get out of the season we're in, anticipating that the next season might be better or best, a single person is tired of it and wants to get married, a young married couple really eager to have children. And when you have young children, you want them out of the diaper phase and into a school, and then you want them to finish school, and you're eager to get to the stage and age of, of college kids and then we'll get beyond that and you think about what that next phase will be with grandkids and then retirement and sometimes we're eager to get to the next phase and stage and not acknowledging that God has placed us where we are. The family we're born into, the vocation that you've been called to, God is using that to perfect us and use us where we are.

I think that's a simple reality, but it's an important one. As I have entered a stage, an age of transition in my own life and ministry, there's been a valuable truth that I've held close to my heart in these days. Something I wrote in my notebook more than a decade ago for sure. A quote that I found in one of Samuel Rutherford's letters. I want to read it to you and see if this see if this helps you think about the stage of life that you're in, the place where God has assigned you to serve Him and give you some perspective.

Rutherford says it this way, "the great master gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with His own hand, planted me here in this part of His vineyard and here I grow, and here I will abide, till the great master of the vineyard thinks it fit to transplant me."

That kind of contentment and awareness that God has orchestrated your life to put you where He has you, not for the purpose of so that you can figure out where to go next, but for the purpose of serving and growing and thriving and abiding in this part of the vineyard. Like a master gardener, He dug you there and when He sees fit, He'll undig you and put you somewhere else. And there you'll find the same usefulness, and you'll grow where you're planted. Growing where you're planted is what I see these people doing. They're working on the section of the house in front of them, and section by section, their responsibility being highlighted as they defend their home and their family, and they rebuild the wall. Servants are thriving where God put them. Thirdly, the servants bring, God's servants bring differing gifts and abilities. Differing gifts and abilities. And I think this is obvious from this chapter. Look at the different kinds of people that are involved.

Verse eight, verse 12, verse 17, verse 31. There's goldsmiths, there's perfumers, there's priests and Levites, there's merchants. Verse 12, there's a man that apparently has no sons but only daughters. If you study the list here, you find names of towns, and these towns are outside of the walls of Jerusalem.

Some of them as many as 18 to 20 miles away. And so, everyone out of a concern for the nation and the security of the holy city has come together from their various backgrounds with their various abilities. Some of them have refined and careful skills like goldsmiths who make jewelry. I mean, this is a very detailed kind of careful work. Some of them are perfumers working with organic materials to blend botanicals and whatever else is that we would use to make incense and to make perfumes and to make costly oils. And so, these are some of the most skilled tradespeople.

They aren't bricklayers. But here they all are doing their work. You'll notice there's no bakers mentioned, there's no potters, likely because those professions would have been busy supplying the things that workers needed, food and tools and equipment and water. drinking vessels and all the stuff that would have gone to the workers.

But everyone, it's shown, is involved in a widespread way. Merchants and goldsmiths and perfumers and priests, every single person using their abilities to the best of their ability to accomplish what God has called His people to do. This is a beautiful picture of the variety and the diversity of God's people and the spiritual gifts He entrusts to them, isn't it? I mean, Paul would instruct the Corinthians as they were prone towards factionalism and infighting, to not overvalue their own gifts and abilities, and some of them prophesied, and some of them taught, and some of them administrated, but he wanted them to understand that the body needed every part, that all of it worked together, all of it to give glory to Christ, and here we have, in this portrait of leadership, a beautiful, picture, not of the leader's ability to delegate here, but everybody involved, everybody doing the work.

And how are they doing it? Well, a fourth observation, they are serving with zeal. They are serving with zeal. This is true of Baruch, who is underlined in his service. It's true of those who are called out for doing double work, the Tekoites are the ones whose nobles wouldn't stoop to serve the Lord, but they make up for it with double work. They're mentioned in verse five, and they're mentioned again, repairing another section in verse 27. They're doing extra. Same with Merimoth in verse 4 and he's featured again in verse 21 repairing another section of the door.

It's a beautiful example that there are no excuses here by those who are giving credit for the work. Shalom, the son of Halohesh, is my favorite guy in verse 12, because he is the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, and he repaired the wall, he and his daughters. Girl power let's go. And on Father's Day, I have four kids, three of them are daughters.

I was getting ready to get on the plane yesterday, but I had to take care of some stuff in the garage and get things ready. I was putting some tables away, and I was thinking about this sermon, and I was thinking about Shalom and his daughters, and my son was at a basketball tournament with my wife, and my daughters were inside on a Saturday doing absolutely nothing. And so, I stuck my head in the door and was like, girls, come out here, come out here. And I had them come to the garage and I said, will you move these tables for me?

And they're like, okay. And so, they move these tables and they're putting some stuff where I'm telling them to put it. And I don't know, it was like six minutes of not hard labor. And they're just looking at me because, I think one of them said something like, Dad, normally these are the tables you move by yourself. Something like that. Teenagers. And they're not wrong. Normally I did it by myself. And when they were finished, I was like, thank you for your help. And they were like, okay. And I said, you know, may you be blessed like the daughters of Shalom, the son of Halahesh. And they just rolled their eyes and went inside.

But I like that his daughters are getting involved in the work. Everybody's doing it, and what's happening is it's being done with zeal. There's people doing double work. There's girls stacking rocks. Everybody's involved, and Nehemiah writes it down because he remembers how faithful these workers were. 1 Corinthians 15:58 comes to mind. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For you know that your labor is never in vain in the Lord.”

Friends, when we serve God, we should serve him with the kind of zeal and enthusiasm because we know we're not working for nothing. Stacking rocks on a wall does not seem like the most noble or intellectually stimulating or monumental kind of work, but it's the work that needed to be done, and God's people come together to do it, and they do it with zeal.

Fifth, and finally, and I think most significantly, what I wanna drive home to you this morning, and this is from all of Nehemiah chapter three, it's that God remembers faithful servants. God remembers faithful servants. And these names matter. They matter because Nehemiah wrote them down, because the Holy Spirit inspired them, and they are forever inscripturated in the pages of our Bible. Here's the big idea. God loves to accomplish his work through ordinary servants whose names are never forgotten in heaven. That's what I take away from Nehemiah chapter three. And I hope that's what you hear as well. God loves to accomplish His work through ordinary servants whose names are never forgotten in heaven. And if you've ever felt like your work has gone unseen for the Lord, I want you to know it is not the case.

God sees it all. Every one of these 10 gates was surrounded by people who were not considered to be significant or noble or heroic. This is the Hebrews 11 of normal people, of everybody. And as they're all listed out here, we're shown that their names matter to God, that God remembers them and no work goes unseen.

Yes, there's leadership lessons here about teamwork and leadership and delegation. That's fine, but that's not what Nehemiah says. Nehemiah shows us that God's work advances through God's people. And the fact that we can be so leadership-oriented instead of servant-oriented shows that we're trying to find, well, what's the leadership principle here? The leadership principle is get to work, everybody. That's the leadership principle.

I think if a modern megachurch pastor was going to preach Nehemiah 3 or write Nehemiah 3, he would put a preface on here before he listed all these crazy names. He would say, I supervised. I delegated. I inspected and inspired. I authorized. I secured funding. I planned and executed.

And all those things were true of Nehemiah. I'm not trying to denigrate the place of leaders. But this is 32 verses of names. And it's not Nehemiah's name. In fact, Nehemiah's in here, but it's a different Nehemiah. And so, there's all these ordinary people because God's work belongs to God's people.

This church does not belong to the pastors of the church. This church doesn't belong to the elders of the church. No church is the property of the management or the staff. And as churches grow larger, the greatest danger is that the ministry is delegated to the professionals.

And the people of God come, and they sit and they take it all in. But Nehemiah 3 doesn't say when Pahlal, the son of Uzzi and Hanadad watched and dropped off their kids and had a donut, the walls went up. But that's what most church people are doing. They go to church like they go to the movies. They just sit there and they take it in. And that's not how God wants it to go. Turn in your Bible quickly to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. I invite you to go over there to click into it. Ephesians four, verse 11. This is so important.

And He gave the apostles. We're talking about Christ, the one who gave the gift in verse seven, the one who led the captives to freedom in verse eight, the one who ascended and descended, Christ the Savior. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. He gave them as a gift to the church, a grace gift to the church. Leaders are a gift. But what are they for? What is the gift for, verse 12?

To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's why it's such an unhelpful phrase for someone to say, you know, I think God's calling me into ministry, like you're some kind of higher creature, getting some kind of special assignment. Ministry is the purview of all the people of God. And they are equipped by the teachers and evangelists, by the leadership of the church, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

Not to watch ministers do the work. All the people are supposed to be involved in different places, in different ways, equipped, not replaced by leaders. Yes, Nehemiah did work, but he doesn't monopolize and he doesn't give the credit to his gifted leadership. He shows and highlights the participation of God's people because God's people in God's work are not supposed to be an audience. They are supposed to be the workers. God builds His church through faithful people and churches do not belong to elders or pastors or founding members, they belong to Christ.

I had breakfast this morning at 4:55 in the morning with my friend Kent Stainback. My time, 4:55. I try to remind him of that when I get up. And one of the things he said, we were talking about this chapter, is what he loved about the earliest days of this church was everybody helped.

Everybody helped, because there was just three families, you know? Who's going to do something? Well, you get three choices, right? And so, everybody was involved. And as this church grows and matures, there should be more of that, not less. Trinity Bible Church, your work is needed. We don't need seat fillers. This church needs saints actively involved in service to one another and for the Lord. That's what's going on here. God is building his work through faithful people. Now again, this isn't a chapter in Nehemiah 3 about church polity, but it is reminding us that church members matter, that the congregation is the church. That the church is not consumers or spectators who are passively taking it all in.

God's people bear responsibility, real responsibility, for the church's health, witness, doctrine, discipleship, and mission. And pastors can and need to equip and lead and serve the people, but the people are the church. The church belongs to Jesus Christ. He appoints pastors to shepherd his people. But Christ's church is not the elders. Christ's church is the congregation gathered under the authority of the Word of God.

And healthy churches are not egalitarian. In other words, no one's in charge. Healthy churches are not leaderless or elder ruled in a way that sidelines and ignores the people. Healthy churches are full of people who together own the responsibility for the work that Christ has called us to do.

Leaders don't steamroll. Leaders don't highlight themselves. Leaders don't remind you who the leaders are. Leaders are looking like people because they're working right alongside of their brothers and sisters to accomplish the work of God in his project.

Healthy churches are full of people who own the responsibility for the work that Christ has called us to do. Look, we love our leaders and our spiritual heroes, but Nehemiah 3 isn't about one man. It's about priests and perfumers, merchants and laborers, daughters and dudes who are pulling double duty. Names that are enshrined that we can hardly pronounce, but names that remind us that God never forgets faithful service. Will you join Him? In your service to King Jesus together to accomplish great things for God.

Ephesians 4, the passage that reminds us of the entrustment of ministry to the church also reminds us of the reality that not only does Christ give leaders to equip the saints and builds His church, but before we're workers, we're worshipers, aren't we? That's the priority. And before we're builders, we're recipients of Christ's mercy, and before we serve Christ and one another, Christ has served us, and the way that He's served us is through the gospel.

If you do not know Christ savingly, it's because you have yet to believe that God sent His Son to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin and to offer us free and full forgiveness solely based on the grace and mercy of God. His love for you is on display in the death of Christ and the cross. His victory over sin and death is evident by Christ's resurrection from the grave and His offer of forgiveness and freedom and new life is yours because of the free offer of the gospel. If you do not know Christ as your Savior and Lord, I would urge you to come to Him today. If you do know Christ as Savior, then we know that before we ever serve Christ, Christ serves us. He gave His body for us, and He shed His blood for us.

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