The other Sunday I was preaching on Nehemiah 11. It struck me that there was a crucial link between what was happening here and what the situation was described as back in Nehemiah 7 where we are told:
4 Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt.
Nehemiah’s response was to begin to gather the people together. The were gathered around God’s Word as the Law was taught and their response was repentance. The follow on from that seems to be a recognition that this empty city now needed to be populated. Who wouldn’t want to live there. To be sure it was not the great city it had been and life would be difficult but you would be within the protection of the walls and you would be close to the Temple, a visible reminder of God’s presence with you and the promise of atonement through sacrifice.
This readily suited itself to application through Christ. We are the New Jerusalem and so we want to be as close to Christ as possible. This is a better offer than the people in Nehemiah’s day had because they had to win a lottery and be part of the ten percent chosen to be in.
However, I also picked up on a side point and its that which I want to highlight and fill out here. I observed that an empty Jerusalem was of no use. There was no point getting all the structures in place if you didn’t have life. I compared that to programmes in the church today. However, I also noted that the walls were about defence and we can put in place things to protect our churches, I was specifically thinking about sound doctrine but this is of no use if there isn’t life. Preachers and elders need to protect God’s people but we also need to provide for them and feed them too.
Walls matter. It is important to keep God’s people safe. A city without walls was defenceless. Yes, the elders of a church have a responsibility for protecting the church from false teaching. That’s why I encourage all elders, not just paid pastors to study a bit of doctrine and why one of the priorities of Faithroots is to make doctrine accessible to those who aren’t able to get to theological college and don’t have time to read heavyweight Systematic Theologies.
This also means that there is a responsibly for church networks and fellowships to help local churches to guard and protect. A few years ago, I was part of some meetings for the grouping of churches that we were linked to at the time. There was a lot of discussion about whether such networks should focus on having boundaries or having a centre. At the time it was considered cool, trendy and missional to focus on “the centre” and so on Jesus. However, that of course begs the question as to how you know where the centre is if you don’t have boundaries.
However, as important as having those walls is and caring about protecting God’s people is, there are dangers if this is all we focus on. One danger is that we end up with churches that suffer from something similar to an autoimmune disease. You will be familiar with those illnesses where the immune system is so overactive that it ends up attacking itself. It’s dangers to have a suppressed immune system and be at risk from infection but it is also dangerous to have an overactive immune system that attacks healthy cells. Similarly, some Christians reach the stage where they see heresy everywhere. It must feel very anxious both to be around such people and to be those people.
The other primary risk is that we get so focused on watching out for heresy and danger that we forget about our other responsibilities. We end up failing to feed the flock, to make sure that they are nourished with God’s Word, that they are growing in gifting, joy and maturity. Remember, that, sticking with shepherd imagery, God’s people are meant to be lead to Green pastures, via refreshing waters. Of course, Christ is the Good Shepherd who ultimately does this but he does it through his under shepherds.
We want there to be joy and life and fullness in our churches. This means that we need to care about the Gospel. This means not just preaching it to the lost but applying it to believers so that they grow through grace not legalism. It also means that we need to care passionately about the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our churches.
Are you just repairing the walls or are you seeing the church filled with life?
Faithroots 