Nehemiah 13:23-27: Distinct from the World

Nehemiah 13:23-27: Distinct from the World

Please turn with me in your Bible to Nehemiah 13. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 329. We’ve been going through the book of Nehemiah passage by passage, following the text wherever it goes. And this morning, in our final message from Nehemiah, we find ourselves in Nehemiah 13:23-27. Nehemiah 13:23-27:

23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?” 

It seems to be increasingly apparent these days that more and more people in our culture regard church as an organization that’s nice for some people but not relevant for their lives personally. I was reminded of this not too long ago when I went to sign one of my kids up for rec league soccer and discovered that all but one of the games took place on Sunday mornings. And I don’t know for sure all of the reasoning behind the league organizers scheduling the games on Sunday mornings, but I would imagine that they probably didn’t even think very much of it. After all, it’s pretty common nowadays to schedule sports events on Sunday mornings. So I don’t think the league organizers did it out of spite for churchgoers, nor do I think that they felt guilty for having games on Sunday mornings. In all likelihood, church probably just wasn’t that big of a consideration for them. And I believe that points to the reality in our culture today that many if not most people believe church is basically irrelevant for their lives. And I imagine just about all of us gathered here today have picked up on that to one degree or another. I don’t expect that any of this is new or surprising information to anybody here. Many of the people we encounter on a day-to-day basis aren’t necessarily hostile to church or to Christian teaching; they just don’t see the relevance of it. They believe it’s nice for some people but not really relevant for them. 

So how can we show non-Christians that the gospel’s relevant for them? Some Christian leaders maintain that the key to being perceived as relevant is for churches to focus on having programming that non-Christians will find exciting and entertaining, typically by trying to change our worship services so that they have more of a concert-like atmosphere.  Another solution that’s commonly put forward is for churches to constantly focus on innovation and pour all the creative energy we can into coming up with innovative business practices, cutting-edge marketing techniques, and ways to use technology in new and creative ways. Then finally, we’re told that if churches want to be relevant to the world, the pastor should preach what I’ll call “consumer-driven sermons” where we basically do research about the kinds of things non-Christians prefer to hear and then just start saying those kinds of things. And that virtually always leads to subtly downplaying the elements of the gospel that aren’t so popular like sin and judgment. 

But there’s a problem with all three of these approaches. These are all examples of Christians and specifically Christian leaders trying to be relevant to the world by making ourselves more like the world in some way. These approaches focus on the kinds of methods the world uses, the kinds of priorities the world values, and the kind of thinking in general that you find out in the world among non-Christians. And of course certain things like creativity or technology aren’t bad or worldly in themselves, but I believe focusing so excessively on them is worldly. But this passage of Scripture in Nehemiah 13 leads us in a very different direction. It reminds us that in order to be relevant to the world, we have to be distinct from the world. That’s the main idea of this passage. In order to be relevant to the world, we have to be distinct from the world. And according to this passage, there are two ways we need to guard and pursue that distinctness. Number one, maintaining a distinct lifestyle. And number two, maintaining a distinct identity. 

Maintaining a Distinct Lifestyle

So first, maintaining a distinct lifestyle. Look again at verses 25-26. This is what Nehemiah does when he discovers that some of the Israelites have intermarried with foreign women: 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. So Nehemiah makes it clear to them in no uncertain terms that marrying foreign women is unacceptable. Verse 25 says he confronted them and cursed them, which, by the way, doesn’t mean that he hurled expletives at them but rather that he called down the curses contained in the Law upon them. And then it says that he beat some of them and pulled out their hair, which was a kind of shaming ritual in that culture. Then Nehemiah quotes the Law of Moses, specifically Deuteronomy 7:3, where God says through Moses, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.” That’s what God had told them. Now at this point, you might wonder, “Why was this such a big deal? Why couldn’t the Israelites marry foreign women?” And we see the answer there in verse 26: “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women?” In other words, foreign women would inevitably lead God’s people away from him. They would introduce all kinds of idolatry into the nation of Israel and corrupt the Israelites through their pagan practices. Even the great king Solomon wasn’t exempt. So that’s why God prohibited them from intermarrying with other nations. He wanted his people to be distinct from the world and not embrace the corrupt practices of the world around them. 

And God’s intention in commanding the Israelites to be distinct is that their way of life would be a model for the other nations. So it wasn’t that God didn’t care about these other nations but rather that he had a specific plan for reaching them—a plan that involved his people Israel modeling a way of life that drew the other nations to the One True God. We see this even as far back as Genesis 12:2-3 where God tells Abraham that the reason he’s going to bless Abraham and make him into a great nation is so that Abraham would “be a blessing” to the nations and that though him “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed.” That’s why Genesis 12 is often called the Great Commission of the Old Testament. So from the very beginning, God’s design was for his people to be a blessing and a witness to all the nations in the world so that those nations would start worshiping God as well. But God’s design depended on Israel actually being in practice the distinct people he called them to be. If they weren’t distinct, they couldn’t function the way he wanted them to function. 

And even though we’re now living in New Testament times, I believe God wants his people—the church—to function in a way that’s nearly identical to the way he wanted his people Israel to function. He wants us to be a witness to the world by our distinct way of life. That’s why I say that that in order to be relevant to the world, we have to be distinct from the world. So that’s our church’s strategy for impact. That’s how we believe we can be most relevant to our surrounding community here in Pittsburgh—by being different! By being distinct! Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 5:14-16: 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. So Jesus calls us “the light of the world.” Light is something that helps people see reality. And just as physical light is distinct from physical darkness, Jesus’ metaphor implies that we as Christians should be distinct from the world around us, displaying a way of life that’s fuller and richer and better, so that the world around us will want what we have.

Think about the early Christians. How do you think the early Christians went from 120 people in Acts chapter 1 to somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 million by the year 300? How did they grow so much in just 300 years? And remember, they were severely persecuted. So that meant it was impossible for them to have nice church buildings or sizeable church budgets. These Christians had to meet in their homes and at the risk of their lives. And yet, the number of Christians exploded in those first few centuries. How did it happen? Well, that’s the question an Oxford historian named Michael Green asks and answers in a book entitled Evangelism in the Early Church. And Green conclusively demonstrates in over 400 pages of material that the secret to their explosive growth wasn’t anything strategy-related but consisted in the kind of lives the early Christians lived. 

For example, they loved people with a kind of love that you didn’t find anywhere else in society. In fact, they even loved the very people who were persecuting them. Consider the first Christian who died for his faith, a man named Stephen. As Stephen was telling his fellow Jews about Jesus, the book of Acts tells us that a mob formed around him and seized him and brought him before the Jewish council. And when he continued sharing the gospel in the course of his verbal defense before the council, the crowds were filled with such rage that he would dare to contradict their beliefs that they short-circuited any proper trial and literally threw him out of the city and stoned him. That means they threw large rocks on top of him until he died. But even as they were doing that, you know what Stephen did? He cried out for Jesus to receive his spirit and then prayed this: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And right after he said that, he died. Think about that. Stephen prayed for the very people who were killing him—no doubt following Jesus’ example when he prayed for his enemies while hanging on the cross. That was the kind of love these early Christians had—a love they demonstrated even toward their enemies. 

And not only did they possess extraordinary love, they also possessed extraordinary joy—a joy that was even present in the midst of suffering. Think about how the Apostle Paul and his missionary companion Silas responded to being imprisoned in Acts 16. Now they were in prison because they had offended some influential people in the course of spreading the gospel. We read how those people had brought them before the local magistrates, and in order to teach them a lesson, the magistrates had ordered that Paul and Silas be stripped of their garments and beaten with rods. The text says that they “inflicted many blows upon them.” Then they tossed the two men into prison. So not the best day for Paul and Silas. But guess what Paul and Silas were doing well into the night as they sat with their feet in stocks in that prison cell? It says they were “praying and singing hymns to God.” That’s the kind of joy that characterized the early Christians. It was a joy rooted in Jesus that was so great, no amount of suffering could take it away from them. 

So let me ask you a question: What do you think things would be like if every person who claimed to be a Christian in America today lived with this kind of love and this kind of joy—and, we might add, demonstrated godly character in other areas of life as well? What would things be like if Christians lived that way? What kind of an impact would we have on this culture? I think we can all agree that things would be a lot different than they are now. And even though a scenario like that all across America may seem like wishful thinking, don’t underestimate the impact our church can have among the people we know if we possess these kinds of qualities. So to what extent are these qualities present in your life? To what degree has the gospel changed you? 

As you think about the way God has expressed unfathomable love toward us by sending his own Son Jesus to die for our sins on the cross, has that led you to show that same kind of love toward other people—even people who treat you poorly? And as you think about the way God has washed away all your sins and rescued you from your state of condemnation and given you the priceless gift of eternal life, has that made you joyful with a joy that’s present even during the difficult seasons of your life? And we could go on and on. As you think about the way Jesus has brought you into an all-satisfying relationship with himself, has that caused you to actually function day-to-day in that state of contentment so that while the rest of this world is constantly griping and complaining about everything they don’t have, you possess a very attractive contentment in Jesus as he satisfies your every desire? And as you think about the reality of all God has done for in the gospel, has that produced within you such a gratitude that you want to live for him? It’s not that you’re striving to earn anything but that you’re so grateful you simply want to exhibit godly character lest you bring reproach on the gospel. So has the gospel changed you in these ways? Has it produced in you unconditional love, ever-present joy, deep contentment, and character that compliments the gospel? 

You see, this is a lot different than the pragmatic techniques and strategies many churches today are turning to in an effort to be relevant. Many of those techniques and strategies actually make us look more like the world, whereas God’s plan is for us to be strikingly distinct from the world—not in a weird way but in an attractive way. In order to be relevant to the world, we have to be distinct from the world.

Maintaining a Distinct Identity

However, there’s another issue we have to consider. As we strive to maintain a distinct lifestyle, how will people know who “we” includes? How will they know who they should be looking to as a representative of Jesus? That’s why we have point number two: maintaining a distinct identity. So point one was maintaining a distinct lifestyle. Now point two is maintaining a distinct identity. And that’s important because our moral witness as Christians depends on us being a clearly defined group of people. Look at verse 24 of our main text in Nehemiah 13. Here’s what had happened as a result of some of the Israelites intermarrying with foreign women: 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. So the Israelites were not only being corrupted by the paganism of these foreign women, they were also beginning to lose their national identity. And that was a big deal because God’s desire for Israel to be a vehicle for reaching the world depended on Israel maintaining that distinct national identity. In order for Israel to present a credible and compelling witness, there had to be clearly defined boundaries between who was Israel and who wasn’t Israel.

And here again, it’s the same with us. In order for our church to have a credible and compelling witness to the world, there needs to be a clear understanding of who exactly our church includes—who is a part of the church and who’s not a part of the church. And the way we make that distinction is through church membership. Church membership is the way we proclaim to the world who is and who’s not a part of this church. Of course, the New Testament doesn’t ever use the exact phrase “church membership,” but it does record extensive evidence that the first Christians had a very clear understanding of who was and wasn’t a part of the church. They clearly defined who was in and who wasn’t in. For example, in 1 Corinthians 5:12, Paul speaks of those who are, in his words, “inside the church” and distinguishes them from others whom he calls “outsiders.” And making that distinction is critical for number of reasons, but it’s especially critical for our church’s corporate witness to the world. Because without that distinction—without a system of church membership—anyone who walks off the street and into one of our worship services might think of themselves and be thought of by others as a part of our church. And we would have no way to control that—regardless of how deviant their beliefs may be from what the Bible teaches or how deviant their lifestyle may be from what the Bible teaches. 

This past week, I read a news story about a customer who tried to order a meal in a Taco Bell drive thru and was told by the employee working the drive thru that they couldn’t take her order because nobody on duty there spoke English. The article explained how this Taco Bell was in an area of Florida where 89% of the population spoke Spanish. So the Taco Bell employee declined to take the order and, as video evidence shows, was actually very rude to the customer and didn’t handle the situation in an appropriate way at all. So when the video went viral, Taco Bell’s corporate office issued this statement: “This does not meet our customer experience expectations. We have worked quickly to resolve with the customer to ensure this doesn't happen again. The individual no longer works for the brand.” So think about that: “the individual no longer works for the brand.” Taco Bell was able to distance their company from this employee’s rude behavior because they have a system where some people work for the brand and others don’t. You’re either on payroll or you’re not. It’s clearly defined. And as we see with this story, that helps Taco Bell guard their reputation as a company that’s polite to their customers. 

And if our church is going to have a credible and compelling witness to the world, we also have to have a way to maintain that clearly defined boundary between people we’ve authorized to represent us and people we haven’t authorized to represent us. There has to be clarity in that area. And that’s one of the things our system of church membership does here at Redeeming Grace. Here’s how it works. In order to become a member here, not only do we ask people to go through a membership class, we also have them interview with one of our church elders. And that interview isn’t anything rigorous or something people should be intimidated by. It’s just an opportunity for us to talk with folks and make sure they understand the basics of the gospel and are at least trying to live like Jesus before we let them become a part of our church. And if an individual becomes a part of the church but then stops making any effort to live like Jesus and ignores all of our attempts to bring them back in line with Jesus’ teachings, we’re able to remove them from membership so that they’re no longer authorized to represent our church. And of course, if they repent after that, we’re overjoyed and welcome them right back in. But that kind of system is necessary in order for our church to maintain its gospel witness. 

And if you’re still skeptical about whether this is necessary, take a moment and think about the reasons non-Christians often give for not believing the gospel. In your experience, what’s the most common thing you hear them say? For many of us, the most common thing we hear is that Christians are hypocrites. That’s why so many of our non-Christian friends say they’re not interested in Christianity—because Christians are hypocrites. And granted, that might be something some people still say regardless of how diligent we are in practicing church membership, but I can’t help but wonder if we might hear people say that a lot less if churches practiced church membership the way we’ve described it this morning. How much more receptive do you think the average non-Christian might be to the gospel if all churches did that? I believe people would be exponentially more receptive to the gospel. So as a church, we want to do our part to present to the world that credible and compelling witness. Because again, as we see here in Nehemiah 13, in order to be relevant to the world, we have to be distinct from the world. And that includes maintaining both a distinct lifestyle and a distinct identity. So that leads me to ask those of you who identify yourselves as Christians, have you yet become a member of the church? Yes, you may be attending regularly, and yes you maybe even be helping out in some kind of service role, but have you become a member? And if you’re interested in becoming a member but haven’t yet had the opportunity to attend the class I referenced, you’re in luck, because there is a class coming up in the relatively near future. I’ll give the details about that during our time for announcements. And I can’t encourage you enough to consider being a part of that.

Conclusion

You know, one of my consistent prayers for our church is that we would live in a way that makes even the most skeptical non-Christians around us want to be Christians. Going back to Jesus’ words I quoted earlier in Matthew 5, he talks about his followers being “a city set on a hill.” Think about that: a city set on a hill that it’s visible for miles around because it’s shining so brightly with the light of the gospel. How I pray that we would be that city set on a hill! How I pray that our verbal gospel witness would be supported and exponentially strengthened by the lives that we live—that like the early church, we too would have love even for those who treat us poorly and real, authentic joy even in the midst of suffering. And how I pray that others would see that kind of love and joy both in our lives individually and as we gather together on Sunday mornings—that even from the first few moments after our guests step foot on this property, that they would sense a unexplainable love and joy just in air around here. Let us be that city on a hill. Please pray with me.