I love Nehemiah 3 (Please take a few minutes to skim it.) where nearly everyone is working on the wall. It’s the theme of my book Everyone on the Wall, and I write often about God’s intention that all his people are on mission. I wrote yesterday that the first people mentioned in Nehemiah’s list of wall builders was the high priest and the other priests:

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. (Nehemiah 3.1, ESV)

The high priest and his fellow priests would have had to leave the daily duties of the newly rebuilt temple. That’s really important. I frequently challenge pastors to invest in people (Please see 2 Timothy 2.2, where Paul tells Timothy precisely that.), but the number one excuse for pastors is they’re too busy doing the work of the church. (Too busy doing the work of the church to do the important work of the church!) These priests just had their temple rebuilt. Now they can get back to the daily sacrifices! No. Leave that and go build the wall.

Continuing with Nehemiah. The list of laborers in chapter 3 includes only one set of non-laborers:

And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. (Nehemiah 3.5, ESV) 

Except for them, a lot of people worked. Identified by where they were from, their family names, their occupations, etc. Daughters were mentioned. In chapter 3, the work was getting done because everyone was involved. The famous English preacher Charles Spurgeon said:

Each of us must give personal service to Christ. Do you not know that all God’s people are priests? God’s priests are those who are alive from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, and every man and woman who loves Jesus is a priest to God. Let us never say, “We have a minister; let him serve God for us.” I can do nothing to carry the responsibilities God has given you. Serve God yourself. It is as much as I can do to serve Him, and it is only by His grace that I am upheld under my own load. But as for being a proxy for you, I cannot do anything of the kind. – Charles Spurgeon, The Power of Prayer in the Believer’s Life, pages 88, 89

We can’t hire pastors to do our work even though that’s part of the assumption sometimes. A friend of mine told a story years ago about a young man called to be a missionary. His father said, “I’m really glad, son. I think God was calling me to be a missionary, but I didn’t do it. You can go for me.” The son replied, “Dad, I’m going for me. You have to go for you!”

I’ve written many times that before we can be a “missionary” to some far-off land, we are already missionaries here. On mission. Doing the work that God has called us to. “On the wall.”

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2.10, NLT)

Let’s spend at least a couple of days in Nehemiah, one of my favorite Old Testament books. From Nehemiah 1.3 to 6.15, we go from a problem to a solution:

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire…So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. (Nehemiah 1.3 and 6.15, ESV)

The title and Part One of my book Everyone on the Wall comes from Nehemiah. Here are some simple observations from the first two chapters:

• Nehemiah was a layman, both in wall building and in potential leadership in Israel. Not a priest. Not a prophet. “I was a cupbearer to the king.” (Nehemiah 1.11)
• God obviously put it on Nehemiah’s heart to lead this effort, especially after 4 months in prayer. He probably didn’t start out thinking he would lead. He was just sad about conditions and began to pray. As he prayed, no doubt God began to say to him, “What are you going to do about it?” “Me? What can I do? I’m a captive in a foreign land serving the king.” But he formed a plan and continued to pray.
• Prayer, planning, and petition – he asked the king for what he needed. And, as I pointed out yesterday, because God was with him, the king was with him.
• Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem, and there is opposition mentioned from the beginning: Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem. (The first two were mentioned early in chapter 2 and Geshem at the end of chapter 2.)
• Nehemiah scopes out the damage first hand. There’s a lesson: don’t go by what you hear or read about a problem. Witness it, first-hand, on the ground.
• Then Nehemiah casts the vision, challenges the leadership, and the first guy mentioned as “on the wall” is the high priest! I’ll write more about that tomorrow.

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work…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. (Nehemiah 2.17 – 3.1, ESV)

Where there is no vision, the people perish… Proverbs 29.18, KJV)

It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote something from the book of Ezra, and Ezra himself is worth a look. One of my life verses, which I quote here from time to time, is this:

Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and do it and teach his statutes and rules in Israel. (Ezra 7.10, ESV)

Ezra lived it out. We see two examples of this. Here’s the first:

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. (Ezra 8.21 – 23, ESV)

I memorized verses 21 and 22 decades ago. “I was ashamed to ask the king for protection because I told him the hand of our God will protect us.” (Paraphrase) That’s putting your money where your mouth is!

It’s not a hard and fast rule to do as Ezra did. In the very next book, Nehemiah asked the king for protection (Nehemiah 2.7, 8), and he says the king granted his request “because the good hand of my God was upon me.” To Ezra, the hand of God meant he didn’t need anything from the king. To Nehemiah, the hand of God meant when he asked the king for something, the king would respond favorably.  

Then in Ezra 9 and 10, Ezra lives out his view of the prohibition against intermarriage by making all the Jews get rid of their foreign wives and children. Dr. Willie Peterson of Dallas Seminary told me when I asked about Ezra’s action that Ezra was wrong.

Ezra was motivated by his pledge to do the will of God. But sometimes it’s not clear what that will is. It was certainly clear to Ezra in both chapters 8 and 9. And foreign wives can turn your hearts away from God as Solomon’s did. But they also have the option to turn their wives to the true God.

For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages—Christian married to nonChristian—we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her. If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer but he wants to live with you, hold on to him. The unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out; as it is, they also are included in the spiritual purposes of God. On the other hand, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you’ve got to let him or her go. You don’t have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it, as peacefully as we can. You never know, wife: The way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you but to God. You never know, husband: The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you but to God. (1 Corinthians 7.12 – 16, MSG)

If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of things to do and not to do, you won’t find it in following Jesus! We commit ourselves to do the will of God and carry that commitment out with increasing skill and accuracy.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12.2, ESV)

My friend John Schmidt, pastor of Centerpoint Church in Prattville, AL, has posted seven things we can pray for Afghanistan. It’s a good list, and I present it without further comment.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… (Matthew 5.43, 44, ESV)

Joy is something we seem to miss in some of our traditions. The older brother in the Parable of the Two Sons (Luke 15.11 – 32) certainly missed it:

The father said, “My son, you are always with me by my side. Everything I have is yours to enjoy. It’s only right to celebrate like this and be overjoyed, because this brother of yours was once dead and gone, but now he is alive and back with us again. He was lost but now he is found!’” (Luke 15.31, 32, TPT)

Everything I have is yours to enjoy… The son had complained about not being given a goat to celebrate with his friends. Had he asked? It was all there. But he did not serve the father out of relationship or joy but out of duty. “I’ve never disobeyed one of your commands.” But did he know the father’s heart? His heart for his wayward younger son AND for his duty-bound older son? 

These things I have spoken to you that my JOY may be in you and your JOY may be full. (John 15.11, ESV, emphasis mine)

The fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace… (Galatians 5.22)

We’ve been looking at Luke 15, the chapter that contains the parables:

• The Lost Sheep
• The Lost Coin
• The Two Lost Sons (most of the time called the parable of the Prodigal Son, but that’s much too narrow a look)

We opened by observing that the parables were designed to get the attention of the self-righteous religious leaders. For as many powerful sermons that have been preached (and rightly so) about the graciousness of the Father toward the younger, wayward son, many of those sermons have missed the true point of that story: the Father’s graciousness toward the older wayward son! Remember, the sheep was lost outside the fold and knew it was lost. The coin was lost inside the house and didn’t know it was lost. The religious leaders are the older brother. The brother who was:

• Angry

But he was angry and refused to go in. (Luke 15.28, ESV)

• Arrogant

But he answered his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” (Luke 15.29, 30, ESV)

“Never disobeyed your command.” Really? But did he know his father’s heart? The father had servants to work in the field. Who would go search for the younger son?

• Alienated

His father came out and entreated him… (Luke 15.28, ESV)

The story ends with the older brother still outside. Alienated from the Father. Alienated from the restored younger brother. Alienated from the joy. (I want to write more about that tomorrow.)

Which one of them left for home that day made right with God? It was the humble tax collector and not the religious leader! For everyone who praises himself will one day be humiliated before all, and everyone who humbles himself will one day be lifted up and honored before all. (Luke 18.14, TPT)

The Apostle Paul was once an angry, arrogant, and alienated older brother.

As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem. If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion…I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene. Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus. I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities. (Acts 26.4 – 11, NLT)

For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. (Philippians 3.3 – 9, NLT)

We’ve been looking at the parables of Luke 15, and we noticed one difference in the parable of the Two Lost Sons: no one goes to look for the younger son as the shepherd looked for the sheep, and the woman looked for the coin. I observed that perhaps the father hoped/expected that the older brother would do that. 

More about the older brother tomorrow, but I was struck by an essay by Andrée Seu Peterson who writes in World Magazine. In “Talks we never had” (well worth the read in its entirety), she talks about people she knew that died before she shared the gospel with them. Here’s a poignant section:

Mary B. was not a Christian when I knew her. And if I can read obituaries well, she wasn’t one in the end either…

An unusual number of people die of cancer on my street. My first husband started the fashion in 1999. Since then, Marie across the way succumbed, then Catherine three doors to my right, then Steve two doors to my left, then Kathy to my immediate left. And now the lady down the street is battling it. Some say it’s the power lines running like a spine along the railroad tracks behind our houses. I looked it up:

“There is no known mechanism by which magnetic fields of the type generated by high voltage power lines can play a role in cancer development. Nevertheless, epidemiologic research has rather consistently found association between residential magnetic field exposure and cancer” (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1995).

So knowing he had cancer, I invited 50-year-old Steve to dinner, shared the gospel with him, saw him come to faith in Christ, and was present as he passed into the arms of the Lord.

Except no, that didn’t happen. I never invited him to dinner. I kept dithering till it was too late…

What would have happened if last summer, or the summer before, or 10 summers before, I had thrown fear to the wind and cast my bread upon the waters and tracked down my old friend Mary B. and told her about Jesus?

Ours is not to know the endings of the roads we never ventured on. – Andrée Seu Peterson, Talks We Never Had, August 12, 2021

God through Ezekiel speaks to the matter, and the Apostle Paul took it to heart. (I’m writing to myself – I’m very much like Andrée Seu Peterson in this respect.)

If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. (Ezekiel 3.18, ESV)

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20.26, 27, ESV)

Yesterday I started writing about the Luke 15 parables:

• The Lost Sheep
• The Lost Coin
• The Two Lost Sons (often called The Prodigal Son)

After yesterday’s introduction on the Listeners, I intended to spend one blog on each parable, but I can’t do that. They form a set. So let’s consider them together at least one more time.

Yesterday, I offered this summary:

Jesus attempts to reach the religious leaders with these three stories, which we’ll explore briefly over the next few days.

• The sheep was lost outside the house and knew he was lost.
• The coin was lost inside the house and didn’t know it was lost.
• Of the two sons, one was lost outside the house and knew he was lost; the other was lost inside the house and didn’t know it.

Today’s let’s notice that the three stories contain common elements:

• Something is lost (the sheep, the coin, the younger brother)
• Someone searches (the shepherd, the woman)
• Something is found
• There is a party

EXCEPT in the third story, no one searches. The Father waited expectantly, but no one searched. I believe it would have been the older brother’s job to do his Father’s will by searching, but he doesn’t. We’ll explore that third parable in more detail. Remember, the Bible doesn’t call it the “Parable of the Prodigal Son:”

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons.” (Luke 15.11, ESV)

If more of us were searching, maybe there would be more celebrating.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19.10, ESV)

One of the fun things of reading the Bible through in a year is coming across “old friends.” For example, I’m back in Luke 15, the chapter that contains the parables:

• The Lost Sheep
• The Lost Coin
• The Two Lost Sons (most of the time called the parable of the Prodigal Son, but that’s much too narrow a look)

Let’s spend a few days with these old friends, beginning with another “L”: the Listeners. Knowing who the listeners are is critical to understanding what Jesus is saying.

Many dishonest tax collectors and other notorious sinners often gathered around to listen as Jesus taught the people. This raised concerns among the Jewish religious leaders and experts of the law. Indignant, they grumbled and complained, saying, “Look at how this man associates with all these notorious sinners and welcomes them all to come to him!” In response, Jesus gave them this illustration: “There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs… (Luke 15.1 – 4, TPT)

“In response, Jesus gave them this illustration.” Who are “them”? The Jewish religious leaders and experts of the law, who are indignant that Jesus is hanging around with the people listed in verse 1. But I’ve written before that this is a ridiculous matter to be indignant about! If you are a teacher, whom should you be teaching? Shouldn’t you be teaching people who need the teaching?

…Anyone who does not know the Teaching, you teach them. (Ezra 7.25, MSG)

And how can you teach people if you’re not around them? I’ve written before that if I want to teach mathematics, I have to hang around non-mathematicians! The horror of it all.

Jesus attempts to reach the religious leaders with these three stories, which we’ll explore briefly over the next few days.

• The sheep was lost outside the house and knew he was lost.
• The coin was lost inside the house and didn’t know it was lost.
• Of the two sons, one was lost outside the house and knew he was lost; the other was lost inside the house and didn’t know it.

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?” Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” (Matthew 9.10 – 13, MSG)

OK, THIS is the final blog in the Olympic series: the Fiji 7-man rugby team singing a hymn after they won the gold medal:

Here is BreakPoint’s description, posted August 5:

Normally when an Olympian wins the gold, we see happy tears. We see families back home cheering. We see the pride in carrying the national flag around the field. It’s such a pure moment. It never gets old. So, when the Fiji men’s rugby team recently won the gold over New Zealand, there was something about this that was even more pure and enjoyable.

This was the second Olympic gold for the Fijians. They got on their knees, they prayed to God in thanksgiving, and sang a hymn of praise. It was so beautiful. It’s a traditional tune that contains these words,

“We have overcome, by the blood of the lamb, and the word of the Lord, we have overcome.”

It was a wonderful moment, and a wonderful reminder, that whether we win in rugby, or anything else, the most certain thing in the world is what Jesus Christ has done for us, not what we will ever do. – Breakpoint, August 5, 2021

Click the picture, the caption, or the reference to the hymn in BreakPoint’s narrative. It’s a 12-second loop, well worth listening to a few times!

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12.11, NKJV)