Shadows of Jesus

Introduction

It’s really good to see everyone this evening. I’m thankful to be back. I’m thankful that you’re here. It’s an encouraging time for Nick. I didn’t mention today. I brought Nick with me, and it’s just good for us both to be here with family and friends, and everybody’s great back home, and that is obviously important to me too, and just thankful for our time. Let’s just talk a little bit about what we’re doing this week, and then we really need to jump in. This is the first time I’ve taught this lesson this way, where we’re going to try to package in several examples and investigate a concept a little bit, so we need to get on into it. Let me just start with this. We want to learn to put Jesus first in everything.

Colossians 1, which will be a big point for us tomorrow night, is that he should come to have first place in everything. So whatever you’re doing, you ought to process it through mindfulness about Jesus. A great place to start is when you open the scripture. Wherever you’re reading, hold off the concepts about yourself or the person three rows behind you, or the world around you, and start with, what can I learn about my Savior? All of this book, beginning to end, is designed to teach you more about him, to help you love him more deeply and feel stronger because he’s your king. And then you work your way around to how it helps you, like we did today with David and Goliath. We see Jesus as the victor over the insurmountable foe, and now we are the soldiers who stand up with a breath of fresh air and new courage.

So here’s the thing if you’ll practice that a lot, and you’ll get up in the morning and you’ll read and you’ll look for Jesus. What we hope happens over time is that leaves the scripture and just starts to dominate the way you think about everything. What if everything you are and thought about and did was processed first through the name of Jesus? Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. A couple weeks ago, had the opportunity to be with some college kids in the Florida college area, and I asked them four questions. I ask them, why are you a Christian? Why did you go to church today? Why do you fight immorality with all your heart? And why are you kind to people even when they don’t deserve it?

They gave a bunch of great answers. And I said, okay, we’re going to go through that again. The same four questions again, except this time there are two rules. The most important is rule number one your answer must begin with the name Jesus. I only want to know what you think about those things through the lens of Christ first. And the second rule is your sentence has to be longer than one word, because I knew they would just answer Jesus to everything. So let me ask you that. Just think about it. Can you process who you are through who he is? Why are you a Christian? Jesus, something. Why did you go to church today? Jesus is worthy. Jesus is called. You see how it changes?

Then when you come back in after an appreciation for him, you know why you’re doing what you’re doing. If it’s fighting immorality or the like. So that’s where we want to grow. And reading through scripture can help. Here’s what we’ve decided to do today and tonight is go into the Old Testament and try to practice this idea of not ourselves first, but Him first. We looked at one example today, David and Goliath. Tonight we’re going to look at a series of those examples. And here’s how I thought we might do it for fun. I’m going to give you information, and then you try to figure out what character we’re talking about. Alright? So there’s going to be four of these, I think, four or five, depending on how you count it.

1. Your Savior Is the Better Joseph

But let’s begin. So, Old Testament looking for the Lord. Number one. He was a beloved son, a special son, a select son of his father. He was rejected by his brothers in part for that reason, also because of pure jealousy. And so they betrayed him for silver. He suffered for a period of time after that betrayal, innocent at every turn, and yet constantly maligned by the people around him. No matter where you put him, no matter what he was facing, he held his integrity in every case. And as a result of that, by the will of God, he was exalted after his suffering and exalted to a place of glory, so that by God’s help and God’s wisdom through him, all around him might be saved.

He even, he even became the savior of the very brothers who maligned him. Who is that? I’ve heard a couple of good answers. It’s Joseph. Real picture of Joseph, hard to find. Very hard to find. You know the story of Joseph. You’ve heard it many times. By the way, these are going to get tougher. But we’re starting with one that I thought everybody can go, got it. But I heard someone out there say, Jesus, why did you say that? Look at this list of things again. I’ll tell you who it ain’t. It’s not me. This is not my. Now I learn a lot from Joseph. I learned a lot about how to live and how to do better, and I should. But a better way to learn through Joseph is to learn how your Savior is the better Joseph.

How everything that he lost, Jesus lost more. The way he’s maligned, Jesus was maligned more. The way he was exalted, Jesus was exalted more. The way he can save, Jesus can save more. And as you get down to chapter 50, we get to these bottom couple of points when it comes to Joseph. We see in chapter 50, do you remember his brothers? Things come full circle. The very ones who reject him at the beginning are now subject to his power. He is second to the one who is over all, which has some mirroring as well. And in chapter 50 and verse 15, when Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him?

They know that they should be punished. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, Your father charged us before he died, and they’re trying to talk their way into this. Then verse 18, his brothers came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place. As for you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. So therefore, number one instruction of all scripture, noted multiple times by our Savior, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Good news. That’s a great story.

But it is merely a shadow of the story of Jesus. He was suffering innocently, and he held his integrity in every place. He had the wisdom of God that brought salvation, the power of God, and he becomes exalted to the place. Even on the cross, he asked for it. He asked for forgiveness for the very people who were sinning against him, so that he might become the Savior even of those who had maligned him. Now here’s my second question for you. If this is really about the Savior, Jesus, who are you in the Joseph story? Did you open your Bibles in chapter 50? Because I found you. I don’t know if you found yourself. You know who we are in chapter 50? We are his brothers.

We sinned against him. We disregarded him. We did not appreciate him. And yet we learned that God was with him and that God exalted him. And at some point in your life, you came to the throne room on your knees and you said, I deserve to die for this, but I beg for mercy. And what did Jesus say to you? God has worked all of this for this purpose so that I could forgive you and redeem you and provide for you. You’re still in these stories. You’re just in a very humble place. And he gets the place of glory, and we get the place of gratitude. I mentioned that to you this morning. Nothing affects me in these stories like the gratitude that hits my heart.

That Jesus should not have come around at the end and saved, and he did. Now, before we leave Joseph, that’s just a starter story, but before we leave that, go to chapter 40. I want you to note that when you start reading, and maybe you’re doing this already, but when you investigate these stories going, are these about him? What can I learn about him? How is he better? You’re going to start to notice a lot of things that connect to Jesus. Back home in Lyndale, for the last year, we have been doing Lord’s Supper talks. So we meet in the morning at 9 30, and for the first 150 minutes, we have a service where I usually get up when I’m in town and I do a 15 to 20 minute talk just to prepare our minds for the Lord’s Supper.

And so we’ve been doing this. We’ve been going all over the Bible. You can go back how far? Genesis 1 through 3. Or you can go the other way how far? Revelation 22, and you find Jesus, and then in those talks, we try to bring it to the cross, and we end it there. And a few months ago, we went to Genesis chapter 40. This isn’t the story of Joseph. I just want to illustrate how deep and beautiful I think this can get. And we were in chapter 40, and what we saw was we were about to talk about two super important things. I mean, we’re getting ready to take the Lord’s Supper. So we’re going to talk about the bread. And the bread is representative of Jesus’ body and suffering and death.

And we’re going to talk about the cup. And the cup is Jesus’ blood for forgiveness and life. And we’re trying to find a way to appreciate that. And so I had them go to Genesis chapter 40. And you know what we talked about? We talked about two people. The first is the baker, who is the maker of bread. And in three days, don’t miss that. In three days, he would suffer and die because of that which was held against him. And then there was the cupbearer. Do you remember the two? The bread. They’re both in jail with Joseph. And the breadmaker’s like, what’s going to happen? He said, in three days, you’re going to die. And the cupbearer comes, the server of the cup, and he said, In three days, you will have restoration in life.

The body will die. The bread represents the body in death, but the cup represents the power of restoration. And the bread is imagery for the body, and the blood is imagery for the cup. That sounds really familiar to me. As we get through our story and we read through, we see that Jesus offered his body. And his body became suffering in death, and there were three days involved. And the emblem is the bread. And Jesus also shed his blood. And what’s the result of his blood? His body had to suffer and die. His blood brought forth restoration and life. The emblem for that is the cup. So we’ve been doing things like this at home. Where you take a story like chapter 40, and you go, why is that there?

Why the bread and the cup? Why the death and the life? And then you get to chapter 40 and in verses 14 and 15. In case you’re going, I don’t know about that connection. You’re going to know about it here. Do you remember what Joseph told the two men when they left? In Genesis chapter 40, he said, Only keep me in mind. Some versions say, Remember me when it goes well for you, and do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. He ended by saying, Remember me. When all these things come to fulfillment. Did they remember him? Well, one of them died. And the other did not remember him. And so the challenge is when you see the body of Jesus that suffered and died, and the restoration of his blood, and he asks you to remember him, will you do it?

Will you do it? On a Sunday, Monday, or any day of the week. So that’s just an example of how delving into these stories and trying to understand them better can lead us to more thinking about Jesus. You will never, not one time in your life think too much about him. He will never be too centric. You’re rarely going to make a mistake where you attribute glory to Jesus in Scripture that God didn’t intend. I don’t even know if that’s possible. But it can sure go the other way. Or we skip over these stories and we try to apply ourselves to these characters and we miss the one who made it all work, Jesus. Can I give you a second one? Let’s go again. That was an easy one.

2. Jesus, Like Job, Becomes Our Intercessor

This is a little bit tougher. Second story. He was holy and blameless, righteous and good, in a wonderful relationship with the Father. And because of his righteousness in that relationship, the Father had put many blessings upon his life. He was in a place of comfort and glory because, in some senses, he deserved it, only in the sense that God was with him. And then, in a moment, everything changed. And he became the target of the devil. He was subjected to the temptations of the devil. He was subjected to suffering and loss and unrelenting sorrow. The Father had held him in glory and then allowed the devil to go after him as this representative of mankind’s hope. Instead of attacking all of mankind, I think you know where this is going, he said, Why don’t you attack that one?

And let’s see if he can represent the goodness of all mankind. He cried out to God. He cried out in sorrow. He cried out in pain, he cried out in distress. Because everybody deserted him, his friends deserted him. He was all alone. But after his trial, God did hear him. And holding his integrity, he was in the end restored after trial. And a lesser known part of the story, which is going to be part we’re going to look at, is after he was restored from trials, he becomes the intercessor, the go-between those who had spoken against him, a lot like Joseph and Jesus, and the God from whom they needed mercy. Who is this? This is Job. That’s right. This is the story of Job.

I want to get on that last part. Go with me to the book of Job in chapter 42. A couple of things I want to say about Job. I have preached about Job many times, Bible classes and otherwise. Rarely, if ever, thought about my Savior. I have some shame in that. More than that, it’s usually like you need to like be Job. Like go be Job. Have the patience of Job. Stand against the trials of Job. But I’m just going to tell you, I’ve always struggled with that connection. I don’t feel much like Job at all. Like what Job went through is so much more extreme than anything I can even comprehend, which I think is kind of the point we’re usually making. We’re usually like, if Job could do that, then you can, you know, do whatever you’re dealing with.

But instead, for me, it just felt unattached. Job’s friends, the way he was deserted, the way that they tried to help him spiritually, but with things that were not helpful at all, I don’t know what that’s like. I’ve rarely been able to connect to that. And some of the things Job said are a little sketched to me. Like some of the ways he addresses God, and some of the ways he voices the depth of his agony. Like, I don’t know, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt like that. It just doesn’t feel like me. And then again, in the end, I don’t know if I could be him anyway. Can I just, is it okay if I tell you that? You’re like, we brought in this guy, he can’t even be like Job.

I don’t know if I can’t. I prayed that I could. I don’t know. I get caught in faulty reasonings about what God is doing. Does anybody else do that? Like I think, you know, I think it’s this, but it’s not that. I’m in the story, but my name doesn’t start with Jay. What we see here in the end is really beautiful. I want you to note this last thing. In Job 42. Now there are some aspects of Job’s story that connect to us, like verses 1 through 6, where he repented before God. That’s something we can learn from Job. But in the end, what we’re going to find out is he’s a whole lot like someone greater than me. Pick up in verse 7 at the end, after he had been restored.

It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord, this is chapter 42, verse 7, said to Eliphaz, it’s one of his friends, My wrath is kindled against, not him, you, and against your two friends. Because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and my servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept, not you, not you. I will accept him, so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. So Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar went and did as the Lord told them, and the Lord accepted who?

Them. He didn’t even accept them on their merit after they did what was right. He accepted Job. And because he accepted Job, he forgave them. Who is that? This is the story of our Savior. Start at the top. Holy and blameless and blessed and secure. And gave it all up so that he could represent what’s possible in mankind or impossible in mankind. And so that instead of us all facing the wrath of the devil, it could be channeled upon the Son of God. And he was tempted, wasn’t he? And he was forsaken. And he suffered greatly. And he cried out to God. I think about Psalm 22 on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Or Jesus in the garden when he talked about, Lord, let this cup pass from me, the anguish of it all.

Crying out to God. And what happened as a result of his integrity, he was restored. And the result of that? Well, go to Hebrews 2. The result of that, Hebrews 2 are some passages we know really well. Jesus tested and tried beyond measure, beyond even Job, beyond even him, becomes our intercessor. Our Savior has suffered on this earth more than anyone ever will. He knows what it’s like to be here and to face whatever you’re facing. And because of his victory, he is now uniquely prepared, like Job was, but more to help us. Look in Hebrews 2, these intercessor passages. In Hebrews chapter 2 and in verse 17, you know these well. He had to be made like his brethren in all things. That’s an understatement.

He wasn’t just made like us, he was made like Job. He was made to face worse than us, deeper than us, even the cross, Philippians 2, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God and to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. He proved himself so that God would hear him. God would never hear me. I have no right to be heard by God. But God is heard by Jesus. And when I come to him, here’s something really cool, by the way. In Job’s case, they had to make a blood offering and then go to Job.

Jesus becomes our blood offering and our high priest and all of it. Hebrews 7 is another great passage for this. Look with me briefly. Hebrews 7. We talk about these verses a lot, but after reading Job, it was interesting. I came upon this idea a couple months ago and taught on it, Job 1 through 5. And I happen to be reading Job as the daily Bible read. So for the next 40 days, 35 days, I just got Job chapters. I encourage you to do that. If you want a nice challenge, read Job over the course of a month or two, but find Jesus first. And you’re going to see how continually he matches up in wonderful ways, powerful ways. Hebrews 7 23, the former priests on the one hand existed in greater numbers.

They were prevented by death from continuing. But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continued forever, holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore he is also able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for him. What we miss there in the Job read is Job ended up living to what, 140 or something, and continued to represent his family. I like to think that I’m in Job’s story because I’m the three friends, finding God through him. But also, do you guys remember what Job did for his kids in chapter 1? How he would just make offerings on behalf of his kids. He would represent his kids even if they didn’t know he was doing it. Just in case they’d sinned.

3. Jesus Is the Fulfillment of Esther and Mordecai

I pray like that about my kids. I go, look, I’m Lord, just forgive them and let the blood of Jesus cover them, even if they don’t even know what they’re doing. Job represented his family for years. I’ve got a Savior. He’s my elder brother. His name is Jesus. Maybe you’ve heard of him. He lives forever. And he’s proven his integrity to the perfected degree. He’s praying for me, or hearing my prayers and representing me. These stories are about gratitude. They’re about our Savior. All right. How about another one? I guess they’re pretty good. I heard a lot of Job and Jesus there. This one’s tricky because it’s got two characters. Let’s start with this. She put her life on the line for others. Death was a strong possibility.

In fact, she had an identity that was dangerous in and of itself. But she courageously chose to reveal that identity, even though it could bring about hatred and death. And because of her courage, she judiciously, wisely, beautifully outsmarted and defeated her enemy, who was truly a bad person. She changed everything, not for herself, but for an entire nation of people. Who is she? She is Esther. Esther’s a beautiful book. Go back to that text. I want to look at it with you. Esther, what an amazing character she is. And maybe you can learn some things from her. I mean, maybe you can learn these three things. Maybe you can put your life on the line for others. Maybe you’ve got an identity as a Christian. You can reveal and not be worried about what people are going to say.

And maybe you can fight differently. I mean, there’s ways of connecting yourself to her, but she is so different. And what she did so grand that maybe we need to be thinking bigger. I’ll just show you a couple of passages. Remember when she got challenged to do what was right? And it was like, you need to do this. God’s going to deliver us. And in verse 16 of chapter 4, she said, Assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days. No surprises, never a surprise when you see three days, night or day. I and my maidens will fast in the same way, and thus I will go into the king, which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish.

And she did so. And ultimately in chapter 7, verses 3 and 4, she reveals that she’s one of those marked for death, the Jews who were set to be annihilated, and everything changed. But she’s not the only one in that book. There was another character, maybe you remember. He lived with honesty and integrity. In fact, there was a point where he heard that the king was under threat of death. And so he went and he revealed to the king, he said, Hey, look, I we don’t always see eye to eye, but I don’t want these people to kill you. He lived with great integrity. He refused to be conform. You want to know what integrity looks like? It’s protecting people, but it’s also refusing to be conformed to the enemy.

And in the end, he was glorified even higher than Esther. Who’s he? Morty. Mordecai. I gotta tell you, I’m perfectly fine with the book of Esther being called the Book of Esther. I’m not putting in for a change of name. But if it was called the Book of Mordecai, that’d be pretty cool too. In fact, when you go to chapter 10, like it ends with Mordecai being placed at the right hand of like the main one overall, being put in a place of glory so that he could protect them. A couple of things about Mordecai that are really great. Chapter 2, verse 21, that’s the story I was just recalling, Esther 2, where he’s sitting at the king’s gate, and he hears they want to kill King Ahasu Eres, and he makes that plot known.

And that becomes important later. Like his integrity there gets remembered later. In the very next chapter 3, Haman or Hammon, or however you want to announce his name. That dude is a bad guy. And he wants everybody to bow down to him. But Mordecai chapter 3, verse 2 will not be bow down to him and will not pay homage to him. And so that’s when death is delivered. An edict of death against Mordecai and all the Jews. But in the end, through Esther’s wisdom, through Mordecai’s bravery, the people are saved. And in chapter 10, there’s only three verses. There’s this great tribute, and all the accomplishments of his authority and strength, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai is recorded in the books.

Last verse of the letter, for Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuirus, and great among the Jews, and in favor with his many kinsmen. One who sought the good of his people, and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation. Sometimes one character is a great shadow of Jesus. And sometimes it takes two. Jesus is the fulfillment of both of these together. Look on the right side. In his life, Jesus lived with honesty and integrity, trying to teach and help and save those who were not worthy. The enemy sought to have him bow down to him. Remember that? He refused to conform to the enemy. And in the end, he was glorified to the right hand of God. But in between was some very dangerous stuff.

He put his life on the line for others. And of course, here’s the thing about shadows. Usually the shadow gets to live, and the substance doesn’t. In most of these cases, they lived through it barely. In Jesus’ case, he always had to what? He always had to die. Job lived, Jesus died. Joseph lived, Jesus died. Mordecai and Esther lived, Jesus died. He put his life on the line for real. Courageously reveals his identity as the Son of God, blasphemy to those around him, and judiciously defeats the adversary. That goes in line with what we said this morning about how he fought on different terms. He didn’t fight like the devil fought. He didn’t use aggression and war and jealousy and anger. He used humility and silence and so forth.

One thing I meant to add here, I think I flashed by it. You remember at the end of the story? They created what? The feast of Purim. Do you remember that from Esther and Mordecai? They said, let’s never forget, let’s never forget that the entire nation of God’s people were going to be annihilated by the enemy. But because of the work of Esther and Mordecai, we have been saved by God. Let’s have a memorial every year, and let’s never forget. They got honored. How much more so should he be honored? I got an idea. How about instead of once a year, we meet every week? The Lord’s Supper is the greater feast of Purim. Covers more deeply, more strongly, more lastingly, and more people. Jews and Gentiles alike.

4. Would You Have Followed Nehemiah?

These stories are designed to help us think about our Savior first. You want to go back later, you want to see how you can be more like Mordecai, go for it. That’s not where you start. By the way, you’re in this story too. Do you know who you are? You are the helpless, hopeless people of Israel who were going to die, and there’s absolutely nothing you could have done to stop it. Except what Jesus did. He stopped it. He changed it. And we honor him. Alright. One more. I saved my favorite for last. But I’m not gonna set you up. I’m gonna come straight because this one to me has been the best representation of my personal change of thinking. The first time I really learned about this guy was probably my mid-20s.

List is here. We were raised in good teaching. Mr. Steve Delia just didn’t listen a lot as a teenager. Alyssa did, I did not. But in my 20s, he because he taught about him. I really learned the story of this Old Testament guy, and I fell in love with the story. But I applied the story only to myself. Like if I could be more like him, I could make my life better. My pro listen to my pronouns. And then I finally kind of went back and saw the story and said, wait a minute, this isn’t about me being like him to make my life better. It’s actually about me being like him to help make all of our lives better, which is a big jump in the right direction.

Turns out I still didn’t get there because I hadn’t started with Jesus. I love it. I love the story of Nehemiah. You guys know the story of Nehemiah? Just blink if I can have an hour. Just go. Just do it. I dare you. The story of Nehemiah. I’ll give you the quick tell. The quick tells you because the quick tell shows how you can use it. Here’s Nehemiah. He finds out that the people of Israel have been home for 90 years. 90 years they’ve been home. And they’re walking across these broken walls. They’ve completely given up, and he gets fired up about it. He’s praying about it. He’s pleading for the help of God. He’s taking it personally. He wasn’t even there, but he’s taking it personal.

This is a passion project for Nehemiah. So he leaves the Susa area and he travels all the way to Jerusalem and he surveys the damage and he draws everybody and says, Everybody gather up. This is not good. We have got to make this right. We’re going to turn things around and we’re going to get this going. And everybody’s like, yeah, let’s do it. And so they all get to work. And they start building this wall. 90 years. Nehemiah’s passion started them back to work. Then comes the outside men threatening to kill them. And the men are like, we’re done. Nehemiah’s like, we are not stopping. And Nehemiah kept them working even though the enemy was threatening them. He said, Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to hold a hammer like this, and your brother’s going to hold a sword behind you, and we’re going to keep going.

Then came the more threatening problem, which is internal problems. You think external problems are a problem? They ain’t nothing. Compared to internal people. Turns out, as you get to like chapters five and six, the brethren are starting to like enslave each other and mistreat each other. We’re working on this project together. And all of a sudden we’re like selling each other as slaves to pay for your labor. And Nehemiah gathered them up and said, No, we’re not doing that. We’re not going to fight each other. We’re not going to tear each other apart. And the mission’s too important. And they said, okay. And so do you guys remember chapter six? Go to Nehemiah. You guys remember? We put all these together here, Esther and Nehemiah. You guys remember chapter six?

How long it took them to rebuild the wall? Anybody know? 52 days. 52 days. In less than two months, they were able to accomplish what they did not do in 90 years. So I got really passionate about this in my 20s and 30s. And I did a bunch of podcasts on it too. I’m like, all right, check this out. You can change everything. You want to read a book, you want to lose 20 pounds, you want to start a new business, what do you want to do? Here’s the deal. You can go your whole life and never get it done. Or you can change your whole demeanor and direction in 52 days. Sounds like a course you would sell online or something. You need to get passionate about the project.

You need to make some costs first. You make costs. You need to rally up a good support team. You need to keep rallying them when people outside and inside try to stop, and you need to follow it all the way through. And that’s okay, I guess. But I want to go back through this story and I want to show you the real details. That’s when we grab this is the way we do in Bible study. When we’re looking for ourselves, we grab the parts of the story that we can use. But if you really look at what happened here, I think something else comes together. Had a lot of verses on the right, but this was a lesson all in itself, and I need to go more quickly, so I’ll probably just reference them.

Here’s the real story. From very far away, from very far away from the people, Nehemiah observes that the people are in sin. They have dishonored God, they have broken down what should be put together, or had it broken down, and they refuse to fix it up. And from far away, he laments what’s happening. And he’s prayerful about it. And he attaches himself to it. He loves them so much, he attaches himself to it. And he leaves his home safe and secure. He leaves his home and he travels all the way down to them. And when he gets there, he gathers them up and he says, Listen, you need to repent. I’ve come all the way here to tell you we can do better. And we’re going to do better.

And we need to get together and love each other and work hard and do things. And he motivated them to stand side by side. Really great. All of chapter three of Nehemiah had these phrases, next to him and next to him, and next to him and next to him. And then the second half of the chapter says, after him, after him. I mean, they’re this wide and this deep, working together. He said, We’ve got to do this as a team. It won’t work on your own. I want to lead a body of people. And then he came, as I said, outside opposition. The nations around them maligned them, spoke of their actions as insignificant, and that they wouldn’t stand. And the people got really scared if you go to chapter 4.

They got super scared and they wanted to quit. And verse 12, they’re like, oh, they’re going to come up against us. And what are we going to do? They told him ten times this won’t work. He said, It will work. I’m strong enough. God’s strong enough. We’ll pray to God. God will give us strength and we will protect each other and keep going. He stands against them. When they tried to fight each other, he said, Stop it. I think we need more of that in church, by the way. It’s just like, stop it. We’re one body, one family, one purpose. This is part of what I think is the mistake we make in Nehemiah. I’ll go ahead and get ahead of myself. We read Nehemiah, it’s like, I’ve got to get passionate about something.

Like I’m waiting on my Nehemiah moment. And I’m going to get super passionate about it, and I’m going to go and do it. And maybe you’ve got a passion, you’ve got a passion, they go different ways, and our paths cross, and I’ve got to take you out so I can do my passion. And brethren behave like that. Stupid and they do it. And they take their passion, they use it against each other. In this case, it is Nehemiah that has the singular passion. It’s his passion. And he’s asking them to get over your problems and get back behind him and keep going. And what happens? What happens is you’re gonna have to face threat of death. By the way, I do want to note that for you because you know where this is going.

Chapter 6, this is kind of left out of the story a lot. But in chapter 6, here’s what the enemies thought. They thought, man, we can’t stop this group. This group is working together, and nothing is going to stop. So here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna kill their leader. If we can take out Nehemiah, we can stop the entire movement. And like five times they wrote notes to Nehemiah in chapter six and said, Hey, come on out and meet us for a sandwich. It didn’t say sandwich, but come out and meet us. Five times they tried to trick him to just come out. They thought we kill him, we win. Now, he’s just a shadow. So if he dies, probably true. But he used his wisdom and he averted their problems, and Nehemiah ended up surviving.

When we get to the real substance of this story, he did not get that resolution. He did die, and he did have to die. But the result? The result is they finished the work. They did more in a short period of time, 52 days, than what they hadn’t done without him. He’s the factor in 90. There’s more here, and I appreciate that we read chapter 8 in the Lord’s Supper Talk today. But he stays and becomes a leader. He becomes their governor for 12 years. He doesn’t just get them through one project. He says, I’ll take on the lead, much like Mordecai, much like Joseph, much like Job, much like many characters. And really cool if you keep going through the rest, because there’s more after chapter six as you keep going.

He says, Look, we’re just getting started. And that was referenced in the Lord’s Supper today. We’re going to restart these festivals. Like building the wall is just the beginning. We have so many projects we’re going to do together, and we’re just going to keep growing from here. And so I like to ask the question, are you a 90 or a 52? So we’ll do that here near the end. You know, you can go 90 years and not do the things that matter. Or you can go 52 days and you can make the difference. But I’m not asking you, listen carefully. Ten years ago, if I had to preach this sermon, I’d ask you, who’s ready to be like Nehemiah? Who’s it gonna be? Who’s got that passion?

Who’s gonna go out and pay that cost? Who’s gonna rally everybody up? I’m not gonna ask you if you would be willing to be Nehemiah. I’m gonna ask you if you lived in his day, would you have followed him? You don’t have to have the passion. You have to trust in his passion. You don’t have to be the leader. You have to follow the leader. Would you be willing to pick up a sword because he said we will win? Would you be willing to pick up a hammer even if you had to work next to Blake? Because he said so. And his passion is enough. I’m not asking you if you would be him. I’m asking you, would you follow him through all things? Because Nehemiah is not me, and I am not him, but Jesus is.

Repent for the kingdom of let’s build a kingdom and let’s do it together. But we’re going to have to do it together. It’s a kingdom, it’s a family, it’s a city. You’re gonna have to stand against outside opposition. The world will not appreciate what you’re doing. You’re gonna need each other more than ever. Every once in a while, you’re gonna look at each other, you’re gonna treat each other poorly. That will not stop us. It will not. We will work through that. We will give grace to one another and liberty. We’ve been freed. I think it’s so powerful when Nehemiah’s like, you’ve been freed by God. Now you’re enslaving each other. Is there something wrong with you? We will live free together. And he said, he faced not only the threat of death, of course, but he had to face death itself, death itself, so that he could finish the work.

It is finished, the work that God had planned to do, create a body of people who serve him, and yet he didn’t stick around to rule for 12 years. He ascended to the right hand of God and he’s been ruling for 2,000 years. And he’s calling you not just to initially become a part of the team, he’s calling you to be continually faithful. See what happens in these stories? We learn so much about him. We learn different ways of respecting him. We get some perspective. Would I follow Nehemiah? I think I would follow Nehemiah. I think what he wanted to do was good, and he was willing to take the brunt of it, and he’s worthy to follow, and he had a relationship with God. Then follow Jesus then.

Then follow Jesus. Because he’s greater in every way. Let me give you a few, I gotta go faster than this. Let me give you a few questions. I’m not asking you to be Jesus. I’m asking you, would you allow him to call you to repent? What if Jesus comes to you and says, you know, you need to repent. You’ve been walking over rubble for a while, and I’ve got better plans for you. What if he said to you, I want to pull you into communal service? Not just you fixing you. You think that’s what this is about? I want you to come be a part of this and work with us. I want you to get involved with the group. Is he worth overcoming external pressures and internal annoyances?

Ephesians 4 1. What does it say about loving your brother? It says you’ve got to tolerate each other. That means put up with. We put up with each other. Why? Because he is worthy. You see how that works? Why do I put up with the brethren here? Keep coming to this church. If your answer doesn’t start with Jesus, you’re not going to answer very well. Start with him. Jesus saved us, built us, united us, protects us. Jesus is worthy. You go, well, I did a few things years ago. Can he call you back out? Can he say, actually, I’m still ready to use you? Here’s the problem. Too many Christians are waiting on their Nehemiah moment. You’re waiting to get out of bed one morning and go, I’m on fire for something.

I’ve been waiting on that. Years I’ve been, 90 maybe. I’ve been waiting my whole life. I’m finally on fire. I’m ready to pay a cost, do something amazing, and everybody’s gonna hop on board. I mean, you got probably a little rude awakening coming. You don’t need a Nehemiah moment. He’s already had it. You don’t have to be Nehemiah. You have to decide that Jesus is great enough that you’re willing to adopt his passion as yours. If we had more time, we would look at all kinds of examples like this. See these things right here? How many of you are waiting until you get super excited about one of those? You don’t have to wait for that. You have to decide if is Jesus excitement about what’s possible enough for you.

I think about elders, I’ll just end with this. 1 Timothy 3. If a man aspires to the office of overseer, it’s a good thing. You guys remember that? That gets used to say, I gotta have my Nehemiah moment first. I’m not gonna become an elder, I’m not gonna become a deacon, I’m not gonna become a servant until I wake up one day and I just aspire to it. I got a better question. Do you aspire to follow Jesus? If it’s his will and passion that you become an overseer, is that enough for you? It’s not do I aspire by my own passion, it’s so I aspire to him. And that works for teachers, evangelists, hosts, givers, workers, encouragers. Romans 12, Ephesians 4. So are you a 90 or a 52 is not a question about your journey and discovery and excitement.

Conclusion

It’s that you can go your whole life not recognizing the glory of the Son of God and the passion that he’s begging you to buy into. But if you will, he can use you and he can affect change in a short period of time. Alright. I think I went okay. I don’t know when I was supposed to stop. Somebody’s like 30 minutes ago. Where are we going with all this? I want to tie it together. Here’s where we’re going with all this. We’ve been in the Old Testament today. We’ve looked at a handful of characters, about a half a dozen. Here’s what we learn. We learn that Jesus is my David. I want you to say this to yourself. Jesus is my David. His victory changed my life.

Jesus is my Joseph. God raised him so that he could save me. Jesus is my Job. He went through more than I can even imagine. And so now he has become, for that reason, he has become my sympathetic, compassionate intercessor. Jesus is my Esther. He risked his life to save me. Jesus is my Mordecai. He is my exalted right now. Right now. He is my exalted protector. And Jesus is my Nehemiah. He has called me to serve his passions and desires and will. Start at the top. You start at the bottom, you walk out of here and do nothing. You start at the top, and by the time you get down to he is calling you to service, you will want to do his will. You will want to obey him because he is worthy.

Start with Jesus. Four questions. Your answer must start with Jesus. Why are you a Christian? I’ve given you a few things you can use if you’d like. Why are you a Christian? Why are you here tonight?

Jesus first. Why do you fight immorality in a world that’s inundated with it? Why keep fighting? Why do you treat people kindly even when they don’t deserve it? Jesus loves me. Jesus is kind to me. Jesus is gracious to me. Can I ask one more? If you’re not a Christian, why won’t you be baptized for the remission of your sins under the will of the Savior so that you can be added to his family and protected by him? You might answer, well, I stop. I had to do it with this college kid. Well, I go start with Jesus. No ums. Why do I need to obey the gospel? Jesus is everything and has done everything and has implored me to follow him. If you need to follow Jesus, do so now as we stand and see.