Chosen and Faithful Followers

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"Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten of them to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. The people commended all who volunteered to live in Jerusalem." Nehemiah 11:1-2

Main Readings: 1 Peter 4 & Nehemiah 11

Supporting Readings: Psalm 92:12-14 & Nehemiah 12

Visit the BBC web page today and chances are you’ll find something about The Celebrity Traitors. I don’t know if you’ve watched but I bet you’ve heard of it.

It's a show with few good qualities and yet, I myself have been drawn into the spectacle along with a large slice of the nation – or so it would seem based on viewing figures.

Here’s why I bring it up, as I’m sure you will know, the contestants are designated one of two types – faithful or traitor.

And the aim of the game is that the faithful, by careful deduction and collaboration attempt to identify correctly who the traitors are.

And the traitors by every tactic of deception and skullduggery attempt to evade detection at all costs.

In my experience, along the way, you find yourself asking the question ‘who am I really rooting for here? And why?’

And that ‘why’ question becomes especially troubling if you find that you’re actually, somehow, rooting for the traitors!

Well, this morning’s passage, I’m glad to tell you, is thoroughly represented by the faithful. In fact, there’s not a traitor in sight!

Not something that can be said for earlier chapters of this book!

And if that makes you feel slightly disappointed, then I guess you know who you’re rooting for in the show!

Unlike the game show though, there’s nothing artificial or strategic about the faithfulness of these people. Here we’ve got real life. Here we’ve got God’s community. And so, here we need to be glad that there are only the faithful.

I’m also pleased to tell you that God’s moral standards vastly exceed those of the celebrity traitors. And that, in matter of fact, it is faithfulness that God is expressly looking for in his blood-bought people. That is to say, in you and me – people redeemed by Jesus.

Faithfulness is by no means a merely Old Testament theme though – Jesus majors on it too. You might remember, He once told a parable about faithfulness.

The one where a master entrusted his wealth into the hands of his servants.

To one servant he gave 5 bags of gold, to another two and to the third just one bag. And then he went off on a journey.

Now of course, we know that the master is Jesus, and the servants are Christians in his parable.

So, when the master returned from the journey – namely at Jesus’ return - he asked the servants what they did with his wealth.

And as you know, I’m sure, the one with 5 bags made five more. The one with 2 made two more.

But the one with 1 bag made no more because he hid it in the ground.

To the servants who had invested his wealth, the master said these words: ‘well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things’.

However, when it came to the third servant it didn’t go so well for him because his master had no return for his investment.

That servant was treated by his master as a traitor – ‘throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’, Jesus said.

Last time we saw how faithful God was in all Israel’s history. And now the question is: will his people reflect that faithfulness in their own lives?

Because, make no mistake, both God and Jesus really care about faithfulness in their covenant people.

Here in chapter 11, we’ve got the roll call – the record if you like - of the faithful. All the names here are exiles who have returned to Jerusalem and who are committed to the Lord.

Just imagine it – families, priests, guards, singers – all coming back to this doomed city because they believe God still has a purpose there.

So far as Jerusalem is concerned, the city walls are completed, but will the people live in it faithfully? With courage and with holiness?

Because, the reality is, God’s purposes ripen fast when his people are faithful like he is faithful. 5 bags become 10 bags. 2 bags become 4 bags. But buried talents yield nothing for His kingdom.

Well, what we have here is extraordinary - a whole community of people amongst which there is great diversity. And in that diversity, a remarkable, unity also.

The people are especially happy it seems, to exercise the gifts God has given them to the best of their abilities.

That’s especially good news because, what we find as we start out in chapter 11 is that Jerusalem is not the cosmopolitan place you’d expect any city to be.

Some of you love the countryside. I know you do Lois.

But typically, it’s the city that is regarded as the place to be. It’s city where it’s all happening.

But that wasn’t the case with Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day.

The city – the Holy city – was almost empty even though the construction work was completed.

All the people were living in their own villages and homes. And the city of God was like one of those towns in an old western movie, where tumbleweeds are the only thing that move through.

Jerusalem was not your typical city. It was still the focus of enemy attack.

It was still a place that lacked the kind infrastructure and government that could provide for its citizens.

And so, it wasn’t a desirable place to live. Picture the scenes from UK city-centres during Covid lockdown – when you could hear the echo of footsteps in the empty streets. That’s what I imagine Jerusalem to be like at this time.

What, then, is it going to take to get this city up and running, with life in it again?

Well, it’s going to take people with faithful courage and faithful vision to move into the city and establish its daily patterns and order.

And sure-enough that’s what Nehemiah records. It’s exemplified first and foremost by the leaders of the people who ‘settled’ in Jerusalem according to verse 1.

It takes courage doesn’t it, to be the first to do something? The first to speak in a meeting. The first to stand when no one else does.

There is more uncertainty when no one has yet trodden the path you now have to tread.

Will it be painful? Probably. Will it be costly? Almost certainly.

These leaders, though, set the example by being the first to move in.

And in actual fact, it’s a measure of the unified purpose of the people, that the others commended those who volunteered to go.

Isn’t that a beautiful picture of unity? No jealousy. No competition. Just commendation from the rest of the community.

Here are two things for us the grasp then.

The first is, not everyone has the same courage as everyone else. This is why Paul says, we have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.

And secondly, whatever gift we have been given, we must exercise it – not bury it, not hide it, but use it. There has to be somebody with enough courage to venture along the path less trod for example.

Notice – those who were courageous didn’t look down on those who weren’t. Do you see that?

Rather, even some of those with less courage may have been emboldened to volunteer by the example set in the first place. And indeed, that is often how courage multiplies.

Surely this is what God wants for his church. He wants us to recognise each other’s gifts. But he also wants us to stretch our gifts. To reach beyond where we think the limit is. Muscles grow stronger when they’re stretched, I’m told.

Can I just observe for a moment, that most of us underestimate where the edge of our gifting really is.

I think we largely have capacities beyond our appreciation. It takes faithful courage, doesn’t it, to push the limits of our gifting? Knowing that the Holy Spirit can do amazing things with very ordinary people. Of which I am one. We could explore that more – and maybe we will another time – but for now, let’s keep moving.

Beyond the volunteers, the process for repopulating the city was more of an exploration of God’s will. Which they did by casting lots.

They didn’t rely so much on preference now – do you want to go? Do you want to go? - as on God’s providence at a moment when more people were needed.

Imagine for a minute, 1 in every 10 families uprooting from their hometowns and moving into the city. Whilst the other 90% remained in their home villages and ancestral farms. Preference might have had it very differently don’t you think? But it was providence was allowed to order their decisions.

And you might be tempted to think that being in the 90% was like winning the lottery. The giant finger in the sky comes down and points at you, ‘you can stay’. But it wasn’t like that.

What the people in the city lacked by way of support, the people in the country simply must have supplied. Or else those in the city would have starved. One group couldn’t survive without the other.

You see co-operation, not competition, is the hallmark of God’s people.

Different people, different places – but one unified purpose.

God’s kingdom, then, is served by many roles, not by just one kind of service. Paul says, ‘From Christ the whole body grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work’.

I’m struck, aren’t you, by the large number and variety of roles in this community? You’ve got officials and organisers. You’ve got guards and gatekeepers. You’ve got singers and servants.

You’ve got people in the limelight and people in the shadows. And yet, all are crucial to the functioning of the community.

You see, it takes people with all manner of roles and responsibilities to carry on the work of the Lord.

Here’s an observation from church life as I watch it function. The Lord’s people can, so often, fail to recognise the beautiful and unmeasurable worth of the gift God has given them.

And this mainly happens because they spend too much time looking at others around them and drawing the erroneous conclusion, that somehow their gift isn’t worth pressing into service because, in their estimation, it doesn’t measure up to the standard of the person sitting next to them.

If that’s you, I’m happy – I’m very happy - to tell you that’s not a call you have to make or are expected to make.

All these diverse giftings are the work of one person. And do you know who that is? It’s not you and it’s not me. It’s the third person of the Holy trinity – the Holy Spirit of God!

And we’re told that He distributes those diverse gifts to each person just as he sees fit.

So, if he gave it to you, it is by definition, both necessary and good.

Can you remember that the next time you’re thinking you’ve got nothing to offer? You do have something to offer because the Holy Spirit gave you something to offer!

The hymn writer Elsie Yale got this just right when she wrote these lines:

‘There’s a work for Jesus, ready at your hand,

Tis a task the master just for you has planned.

Haste to do his bidding, yield him service true;

there’s a work for Jesus none, but you can do’.

Now, I know what goes through our minds. And maybe it’s going through yours right now. Didn’t Jesus gently rebuke Martha for doing stuff when her sister came and sat at his feet? Shouldn’t we sit at Jesus’ feet rather than emphasise doing?

Well, we should certainly sit at Jesus’ feet.

Sitting comes before serving, because love always comes before labour. But, know this, there’s not a single work – not one - you can do for Jesus, unless you sit at his feet first!

It wasn’t Martha’s doing that was wrong – it was the disconnection between her doing and her delight that was the problem.

She was actually annoyed that others were leaving her to do the hard slog. Who of us hasn’t felt that before!

‘I’m in here making the teas and coffee whilst everyone enjoys fellowship out there’.

‘I’m here late into the afternoon, whilst everyone else has gone home and relaxed on their sofas’.

You know the kind of thing I mean.

But let me tell you, Mary did do things. Do you remember what she did? She went a got a costly jar of perfume and she anointed Jesus with it. That’s what she did!

That jar cost her a year’s wages! What she did was out of the overflow of her love for Jesus you see. And that’s how it needs to beloved ones.

We’ve seen that the Spirit gives each of us something precious to faithfully exercise. Now here’s another place the church can get it wrong.

Failure to recognise the ‘every member functioning’ reality that the New Testament anticipates.

I never quite get this one. There’s simply not an organisation in the world that could be effective unless everybody in it fulfilled their role. And yet the church somehow is seen an exception to the rule.

Now if you’re thinking to yourself, ‘yes but what do the world, and the church have in common’. Then that’s a good instinct - I like that instinct.

The Apostle Paul uses a different image -a better one. He uses the image of the body.

Each of us has one body, but all the members have a different function. And they do indeed all, function. If something stops functioning, the whole body suffers.

I know someone who is paralysed from the waist down. And his whole life is so much harder for it.

His upper body has to compensate for what his lower body can’t do. And I sense that it’s quite exhausting for him!

To each person – and I do mean each - in the church, is given a gifting specifically designed for the collective good of the church.

Paul says that in the church people should be equipped to exercise their gifts. In what he calls, ‘works of service’. So that the whole body of Christ can be built up.

Why is he concerned with the church being built up? Precisely because the church is the body ‘of Christ’.

Jesus died to create this community of believers calling them his body. And referring to himself as their head. That’s the image of how the church relates to Christ – like a body relates to a head.

We’ve seen a little of why leadership really matters in the church. Faithful leaders are essential. Unfaithful leaders can destroy the unity of the church.

And the fact that leadership is sprinkled liberally throughout this passage shows how leadership and non-leadership are meant to grow together.

You’ve got lots of different types of leader mentioned here: rulers, overseers, high priests. Governors – like Nehemiah. Teachers – like Ezra.

Different functions but striving to the same end – to lead God’s people forward in faithfulness.

That was then. Because leadership really does come down to one main role in the church, and that’s the role of elder.

There are other names for that one role: pastor and overseer for example that express different functions of the same role. But they are the ones, in the church, who will have to give a special account for how they looked after the flock.

But just like every other role and gifting in the life of the body, it’s not about status, it’s about faithfulness. If leadership ever becomes self-promotion, it’s already disqualified itself.

Jesus said, ‘whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many’.

Faithfulness is what’s called for. Which is none too glamorous! In fact, in my experience, the more you try to be faithful as a leader, the less glamorous the job becomes.

Paul knew it. He asked the Galatians if he had become their enemy by telling them the truth. That’s what it can be like.

But he said to the Corinthians, those entrusted with the mysteries of God must prove faithful with them.

As some of you know that I’ve experienced some opposition here at Riverside in recent times, yet – and I say this sincerely - it’s been more of a joy to serve as your pastor here than it’s ever been a burden to me.

And that’s how it should be. Have confidence in your leaders, submit to their authority – unless they’re woefully wide of the mark – do this so that their work will be a joy not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. Hebrews 13:17.

One more thing about leadership here. Faithful leaders can, and should, produce faithful leaders. Faithfulness today lays the foundation for faithfulness tomorrow. That’s what we see in the first 26 verses of chapter 12.

Because what’s spelt out for us there is generational leadership succession.

Verses 1-7 give us the leaders who pioneered with Zerubbabel to begin with.

Verses 10-11 give us 5 generations of high priest from the time of Zerubbabel to that of Alexander the great.

And verses 12-23 give us the new generations, from the time of Nehemiah, who continued in the same service as before.

First the pioneers; then the priests; and finally, their successors who kept serving faithfully.

What it takes to see that kind of generational succession, is sustained faithfulness on the part of current leaders.

Because, by their example they not only encourage faithfulness in the people as a whole, but also in the leaders that will replace them down the road.

Why does generational succession matter anyway? It matters because the church is not just a one generation thing.

Just like the family is not a one generation thing.

Fail to pass the baton in a relay race and the race is lost!

Parents don’t neglect faithfulness in the family setting thinking that this family only matters for our generation. No! If we did that, the family unit would break down altogether.

And the church is not a single-generation institution either. It is the multi-generational family of God. It is a haven for every generation of Christian. It is a beacon for every generation of unbeliever. It is citadel of Christ until he returns.

That’s why godly leaders don’t only look to the needs of today – they look to the faithfulness of tomorrow.

Here’s how Paul envisions that handover, ‘be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others’.

So, you’ve got Paul with reliable truth, that Timothy is receiving. And Paul is saying to Timothy ‘you pass that on to others who can teach it to, yet others’.

Part of our vision just now, here at Riverside, is that there would be other men who aspire to the role of elder – who will help to establish the future of Riverside for this generation.

But we’ve got to enlarge our vision and our prayers in light of Nehemiah 12. That God might raise up another generation of men here at Riverside. Who will faithfully lead the church into future generations of witness and faithfulness for Christ.

Do you remember how the church age closes out in Revelation? It’s with the sound of a great multitude in heaven shouting ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!’

It’s with worship.

Worship is what we were made for. Worship is what we were redeemed for. And worship is what we will enjoy eternity for.

And here, worship runs like a golden thread through these one and half chapters. Levites in charge of thanksgiving and prayer. Choirs. Antiphonal worship. Singers persevering in praise. And so on.

All week long we serve and strive for the kingdom. But when we come like we do on a Sunday morning to gather – we come to worship.

Our hearts are refreshed with the goodness and faithfulness of God.

We go out of worship. We go into work. Pulsating with the things of God. Faithfulness rising up in our hearts. Praise like a poker, stoking the fires of our hearts.

A church without worship is like a heart without a beat.

It can only flourish so much as every generation takes their place in worshipful service, exercising the diverse gifts it has been given for the glory of God.

I don’t think God leaves his church short-staffed. We look around the place right now and perhaps we remember a time recently when more chairs were occupied. When the singing was louder. When the atmosphere was richer.

It’s good to reflect on why things have changed. But the numbers are not the main thing.

What counts is unified faithful endeavour and worship. Whether we’re 9 or 99!

I would rather have a church of nine committed, faithful followers of Jesus, than have a congregation of a hundred - just so we could say ‘we had a congregation of a hundred’.

You know why? Because when Jesus returns, he’s coming with these people – and these only - he calls them his ‘chosen and faithful followers’.

And I know that in this age Christians show that they belong to him by their faithfulness.

It’s those that show his grace by their faithfulness that he calls his ‘chosen and faithful followers’.

I for one, looking forward to being amongst that multitude with you, when he returns.

There’s a record of the faithful here. And there’s going to be a record of the faithful in the future too.

It’s called the Lamb’s book of life. And everyone whose name is in it will be a part of the new heavenly Jerusalem. It’s a place where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple!

And so, I hope that this example of faithfulness in Nehemiah will stir you to faithfulness in your life this week.

And that you’ll join me in looking forward to the day when Jesus calls you: chosen and faithful follower!