Introduction: Do We Need the Church?

A few years back Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, posted a series of blogs in which he
explained why he rarely if ever goes to church. He explained that he doesn’t connect with God
through singing. He critiqued the lecture like sermons as not fitting with his personal learning
style. And in general, he just doesn’t get much out of the experience. He concludes,

So, do I attend church? Not often, to be honest. Like I said, it’s not how I learn. But I
also believe the church is all around us, not to be confined by a specific tribe. I’m fine
with where I’ve landed and finally experiencing some forward momentum in my faith.
I worship God every day through my work. It’s a blast.

This is where many in my generation have landed. They want to keep a sense of Christian
spirituality alive. They describe themselves as Christians, or believers, or Christ followers, but
they have found the experience of church unfulfilling or difficult. Church isn’t a blast. In droves
they have abandoned the corporate gathering of God’s people, with all of its relational
inconveniences and outmoded elements (singing/ sermons/ liturgy). In its place they have sought
to find a personal spirituality that is open to worshipping God in new and creative ways that meet
their emotional needs better than an ancient liturgical program.

This pattern of leaving the church for a more personalized spiritual experience has only
accelerated since COVID. This has been a time in which those who were more reticent to try
such an individualized approach to the Christian life were given an opportunity to try it out and
they discovered that it was much easier and more convenient. They may keep a tenuous
relationship with the church through online worship but for the most part their spiritual life
consists of individualized and digitized experiences that lack all the obligations of being present
with real people at a specific time and place.

Being that I am a pastor I know that I have a vested interest in people coming to church and so
my thoughts on the matter might seem biased. However, I don’t think anyone can deny that the
decline of participation in corporate worship is a harbinger of an overall decline of Christianity.
If God’s people don’t corporately unite in the commitments of worship, then by definition the
church dies. And if the church dies then there is no witness of the gospel in this world and there
is no right worship being offered to God.

Over the past several weeks we have seen the foundations laid for the rebuilding of the people of
God following the exile in Babylon. Two weeks ago, we saw the foundational importance of the
preaching of God’s Word. Last week we saw the foundational importance of repentant prayer.
And this week we will see the importance of foundational commitments. Commitments that will
unite the people of God into a community.

In the Hebrew text what we have as the last verse of chapter nine is the first verse of chapter ten.
We read that following their day of repentance and worship before the Lord the people of Israel
draw up a covenant of how they will respond in obedience to God’s Word. It says,
 Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the
names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests. (Nehemiah 9:38 ESV)

In a sense these are the membership vows of God’s people. Through this firm covenant they are
bound together with one another and with God in the foundational commitments of true Biblical
religion. And what we will see is that if we would experience the growth and the flourishing of
God’s kingdom in our generation then we too must bind ourselves together into the body of
Christ through these foundational commitments.

[Hear now the word of the Lord Nehemiah 10…Guide us, O God, by Your Word and Spirit, that
in Your light we may see light, in Your truth find freedom, and in Your will discover Your
peace: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]

Point One: Every Christian Must Separate From the World (v. 28)

If you have ever joined a branch of the military or merely watched a movie about someone
joining the military you know that the first thing that they do is strip each new recruit of his
former identity. That is, they shave their hair, they take away their civilian clothes, and they
make them live and train isolated from the rest of the world. Why do they do this? To separate
them from their former patterns of life. To display in a very tangible manner that they now
belong to a new group. They must separate from the world to join the corps of soldiers.

In a similar fashion the first commitment that God’s people must make is to separate themselves
from the unbelieving world. In the first twenty-seven verses we have a list of the individuals who
signed the covenant. And then in verse 28 we see a general statement of the rest of those who
also signed this covenant. There we read of who had taken these vows.

“The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple
servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law
of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and
understanding,” (Nehemiah 10:28 ESV)

Who signed the covenant? Those who had separated themselves from the unbelieving people of
the land to the law of God.

We live in a cultural environment that does not like the idea of exclusivity or separation. There is
a pressure for everyone to participate in all the most base and sinful of attitudes and behaviors.
As an example, recently a professional hockey player refused to wear a rainbow adorned jersey
for pride night based on his stated Christian beliefs. And from the reaction of the media, you
would have thought he committed the most heinous of crimes. There were calls for his team to
be fined a million dollars. For him to lose his position on the team. How could such hatred and
bigotry be allowed to continue. And all the man said was that he would not participate. His
commitment to the Law of God meant that he had to separate himself from this worldly activity.

This is the first commitment that we must make. If the kingdom of God is going to go forward in
strength the people of the kingdom must separate themselves from the world. We must commit
ourselves to not giving into the cultural norms of our society that deviate from the commands of
God. Rather we must make a commitment to be different. That we will not blindly follow the
ever-changing dictates of prevailing culture.

This separation is central to the identity of God’s people who have been given the name saints.
The word saint is based on the term holy one. And the word holy means separate, distinct, or
other. Throughout the word of God his people have been identified with this moniker. If you
belong to God, you are a holy one, you are a separate one. While we often think of the word saint
in its moral sense of being righteous. The root of its meaning is separateness, distinction.

This separation is also seen in the word church. The Greek word for church means the called out
ones. We have been called out of the world just has Israel was called out of Egypt. By the blood
of the lamb their homes were marked off as distinct and they were passed over. Then they were
called out from the domain of Pharaoh’s wickedness to be formed into the people of God. And so
too have we who have placed our faith in Christ been marked by his blood. Separated from the
world that we might flee the kingdom of darkness and be formed into the Church, the called-out
ones. And we need to ask ourselves, is there a separateness to my life? Is there a distinction
between how I live and how the rest of the world lives? If I was charged as being a Christian
would there be enough evidence to convict?

Of course this idea of separateness can be taken too far. We are not the Amish. But rather we
must live in the tension of Jesus’ prayer in John 17,

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the
world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but
that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the
world. (John 17:14–16 ESV)

We continue to live in this world, but we are not of the world. We are of Christ. And therefore
just as the people of Nehemiah’s day committed to separate themselves from the unbelievers, we
too must be called out and separated from being of the world.

Point Two: Every Christian Must Unite with God’s People (v. 29a)

But we are not called out of the world to live as disconnected atomized individuals. Rather we
are called out of one kingdom and into another. We are to separate from one group to be joined
to another group. Look beginning in the middle of verse 28 into verse 29. There we see the
second commitment we must make. It says,

“The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple
servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law
of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and
understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath
to walk in God’s Law… (Nehemiah 10:28–29 ESV)
It seems almost too elementary to highlight, but the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of two.
Just you and God. A kingdom is a community. God saves individuals, yes. You must have a
personal trust in Christ to be saved, yes. But you are not saved unto yourself. You are saved into
a community. You are saved into a body.

To use an illustration, someone might have believed that God was going to flood the earth in the
day of Noah, but if they didn’t get on the ark they drowned. In a day of radical individualism we
must assert that there is no neutral ground. You are either in the kingdom of Satan or in the
kingdom of God. You either get in the boat or not. You either unite with God’s people, the
church, or you drown.

The language of the Bible concerning salvation is overwhelmingly corporate in nature. Christ
died to save his Church. Christ laid down his life for the sheep. We are adopted into the family.
We are members of his body. We are stones in a building. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12,

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. ( 2 Corinthians 12:27
ESV)

Or as he explains to the Ephesian church,

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God, (Ephesians 2:19 ESV)

I don’t know how you can hear that and still believe the image of a Christian life as an individual
experiencing church all around. No. We must reject that view. The church is not everywhere.
Church is not an experience. It is not a feeling. The visible church is the gathering of God’s
people along with their children who have covenanted together to walk in God’s law, which
finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

We worship, we pray, we sit under the preaching of the word, we receive the sacraments, we
commune in loving fellowship, we submit to biblical authority and discipline, we go forth with
the gospel of Jesus Christ calling people out of darkness into light. Calling them out of the
kingdom of Satan into the kingdom and household of God; into the body of which Christ is the
head.

As a culture we have gone so far down the trail of individualism that it is difficult for us to
submit to such an idea that we must be joined to the body of Christ to be saved. It feels wrong to
join our voices with the historical witness of our forefathers in the faith. Such as the early church
father Cyprian who wrote,

“No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.”

Or the Westminster Confession of Faith (our church’s doctrinal statement), that says the visible
church is,
 “…the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there
is no ordinary possibility of salvation.”

I know that people will want me to adjudicate all the different scenarios in which people have
their reasons for not joining the visible church. People want to find a loophole. And I understand
that there are situations in which someone might come to a true and saving faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ and be providentially hindered from joining the people God. There are health
concerns and aging and geographical limitations. However, you don’t build the rule upon the
exception. And most people who choose to avoid the inconvenience of church are not doing so
because they are unable to come but rather because it takes sacrifice and commitment and dying
to self to be joined with something that is bigger them yourself.

But if we would see the kingdom of God grow and flourish in our generation then we must stop
making excuses for why we cannot be present with the visible gathering of God’s people and
even as the people of God did in the day of Nehemiah we must join with one another in covenant
bonds. In a curse and an oath sealed with the blood of Christ.

Point Three: Every Christian Must Commit to Obedience (vv. 29b-39)

The kingdom of God will not be rebuilt and flourish in our generation by accident. We will have
to commit to separate from the world, we will have to commit to unite to the body, and the final
thing that we will see is that we must commit to obedience to God’s word. The final ten verses of
chapter 10 outline the specific ways that the people of Israel would obey God’s law. While we
understand that their commitment was not merely to these specific applications but to the whole
of God’s word still it is important to see what laws were of relevance to the rebuilding of a
culture grounded in God’s law. And we see three general areas of committed obedience.
Marriage, Work, and Worship.

First they commit their family to God. Look at verse 30,

We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our
sons.

As we have spoken of before this is not a racial distinction but a religious. The separation from
the people of the land exists to protect the body from pagan influence. God’s people were to
marry only those who submitted to the law of God. And this commitment continues in the New
Testament church as well where we are commanded to marry only in the Lord (1 Cor 7:39).

If the kingdom of God is to be rebuilt, then as a body we must commit ourselves to biblical
marriage. Marriages founded upon the covenant bonds between one man and one woman for life.
Single folks this means that if you are called to marriage, you only pursue partners who are
Christian. And you marry with the intention of living out the purpose of marriage to show forth
the love of Christ, to be a mutual support in headship and submission, and to birth and raise
children as God blesses and provides.
The rapid decline of the family in our culture will mean that in the very near future one of the
distinguishing marks of Christ followers will be their commitment to lifelong heterosexual
marriage that is focused upon raising the next generation in a stable and loving home.

And if we do not commit ourselves to such Christian marriage as God’s word commands the
kingdom will not flourish. But if we do, then we will live within the healthy and loving
community that God desires for his people. And his kingdom will flourish and grow.

Second, the people of God commit their work to the Lord. That is to follow God’s Sabbath
command. Look at verse 31,

And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we
will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of
the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. (Nehemiah 10:31 ESV)

If you were to go back and read through the Mosaic law, you would find much about the
Sabbath. It is rooted in the pattern of creation and rest found in Genesis chapter one, in which the
Lord created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. This pattern of work and rest is
what is given to God’s people to follow. We are commanded to work six days and rest on the
seventh. This pattern was farther displayed in the command to allow the fields to rest every
seventh year, and after every forty-ninth year (seven times seven) in the fiftieth year to release
people from debt and return ancestral lands, called the Jubilee.

At the heart of this commitment to obey the Sabbath is a commitment to trust the Lord with our
work and our time. And if we would see the kingdom of God flourish and grow in our generation
then we will have to be a people who submit ourselves to the Sabbath. There is much that can be
said about how the Sabbath principle is expressed in the New Testament church. We are not
under the same ceremonial obligations as the Old Testament saints in this regard. Nevertheless,
the command to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy remains. And this means that we
give ourselves to a one in seven pattern of work and worship. We live in a world in which we are
tyrannized by our obligations at every possible moment of our lives. We need to commit
ourselves to one day, the Lord’s Day in which we are free from our worldly commitments, and
we do everything to be present with God’s people in worship.

Third, the people of God commit their worship to the Lord. In verses 32-39 we have outlined the
tithes and the offering that the people of God will faithfully bring to the temple. Look at the last
verse and see the summary and the reason behind these offerings. It says,

For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine,
and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests
who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our
God. (Nehemiah 10:39 ESV)

They commit themselves to the tithe and to the offering so that the worship of God will continue.
Just as there are questions about the application of the Sabbath in the New Testament so are there
questions concerning the tithe. Of course, it would make little sense for us to offer oil or animals
for sacrifice or wood for the burnt offerings, since Christ has fulfilled those as the final and
complete sacrifice. Nevertheless, for the worship of God to continue there must be an offering to
God. We must commit ourselves to sacrificially give to the church (And the tithe is a good
starting point). If we are not giving sacrificially then we must ask ourselves who is our true
Lord? Is it God or money? We can’t serve both.

Conclusion

Throughout our lives we have times we take vows. And these vows are meant to be bonds of
union that establish a relationship. When you get married you take vows that establish a special
relationship between you and your spouse. They make it so that you are untied together in a
unique fashion that is not to be experience by anyone outside of these covenantal bonds. When
you join the military you take an oath that says,

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution
of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith
and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United
States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the
Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

This oath, among other things, gives you the right to bear arms on behalf of our military. And
within this body you have the right and obligation to act in ways that would otherwise be
criminal if you weren’t in the military.

And the same can be said for the Hippocratic oath to become a doctor. Or the oath to become a
policeman. Or the oaths you take to be a minister. Even to be a member of the Trail Life scouting
group you take an oath. Why? To establish the foundational commitments of union.
Commitments that ensure the stability and unity of the body.

And to be a member of the church you must take vows. An oath. Foundational commitments.
These are not empty words, but they are the very ground upon which the kingdom of God is
built. For our vows are a commitment to the gospel of which the Lord Jesus Christ says,

“…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
(Matthew 16:18 ESV)

If we would see the kingdom of God rebuilt, growing, and flourishing then we must be a people
who live out our foundational commitments to separate from the world, to unite with the church,
and to obey all that the Lord Jesus commands.