Put Your Name on Something

If you go to many war memorials, you will find a list of the names of those being memorialized. The memorial helps us remember their sacrifice, and it is meant to inspire us to action.

Last week I was in Washington, DC, for a church planting conference. While I was there I visited the new National World War I Memorial. It was sobering and inspiring. The figures of the men fighting capture the desperation, and their belief in the cause. On the back of the monument is an excerpt from a poem by Archibald MacLeish, a World War I veteran.

Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope, or for nothing, we cannot say. It is you who must say this. They say: we leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.

The monument is meant to inspire those who visit to make, by their living, the sacrifice of those who died worthwhile, and to make the civilization of peace and hope they fought for a reality. That is the effect this list of names from Nehemiah has on me. The list comes as a kind of grand accomplishment. It is reminiscent of the mighty men in Samuel. It recounts their great struggle to do what God gave them to do despite the hardship and danger. They spurned discouragement and pain and, with God’s help, accomplished something magnificent.

My aim today is that this list of names would have that effect on you. I want you to leave praying for God’s help to put your name on something. Toward that end, I will preach to you on this theme: God’s glory in Christian civilization.

I have three arguments. First, Christian civilization is good. To see that, we have to ask what this list is doing here, define what I mean by Christian civilization, and then hear two reasons it is good. Second, our Christian civilization is in ruins. In that section we will look around and see the ruins for what they are. Third, I will show you six lessons from Nehemiah 3 on how to build Christian civilization. Hidden in these names are treasures for us to put into practice.

Why This List Is So Grand

When we get a list of names like this, the most important question is what it is doing here. Think about the genealogy at the beginning of Matthew. What matters most is not the particular names, though there is plenty of interesting material there for those who dig. What matters most is the function of the genealogy. In Matthew’s case, it shows that Jesus is the king of Judah, the blessing from Abraham, and the second Adam.

So what is the point of this list? The point is to show the grandeur of what they accomplished in building the wall. Not only are their names listed, but also how much each person built.

There is another list structured like this in 2 Samuel 23. There David’s mighty men are listed by name, and with their accomplishments.

Jeshebbassebeth a Tahchemonite; he was chief of the three. He wielded his spear against eight hundred whom he killed at one time. Next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the LORD worked a great victory.

Do you see how the list in Nehemiah 3 works the same way? Name, provenance, and then accomplishment. The men are presented as a new set of mighty men, who waged war by building a wall instead of fighting at David’s side. This list, and the ones that follow later in the book, record for perpetuity the accomplishment of this group of returnees.

But that leaves another question. Why do they think their work is so grand? Why are they like new mighty men? The wall mattered, but these people came from Susa. Compare the walls of Susa to these walls and it is no contest. These just are not that impressive. We know from archaeological evidence that the wall was thrown together from whatever stones they could find, and from the rubble left after the destruction. It was not the work of professional masons. It was amateur work. So why did they think it was so impressive? Because of its trajectory. Because of the mission.

While Israel was in exile, Ezekiel wrote his great vision of a temple and a city. Fresh on their minds was Ezekiel 47. In that chapter the prophet sees water flowing out from the temple, through the courtyard and the city, and out the gates to the world. As the water continues out from the city it grows deeper and deeper. Around the river stand trees with good fruit. And the angel says — just sit with the symbolism for a moment —

On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.

You do not need to be an expert to understand it. Water flows from the temple, through the city, to the world. It provides fresh water, fruit from the trees, and healing in the leaves. This is a vision of God transforming the world. He sends healing waters from his temple. First they travel through the city, and then to the world. He provides trees of life for sustenance and healing.

Their work is so grand because it is the first step in the healing of the world.

That prophecy is why the Bible presents their work as so grand. From where Nehemiah sits, this is the first step in the healing of the world. He does not expect an actual river to flow out of the temple. He understands that the image is the grace and saving power of God. But there does need to be a civilization, a city on a hill, for that power to flow out of, according to the vision.

Building the temple and the city is a grand accomplishment not because the stonework is impressive in itself, but because it contributes to God’s mission of redemption.

I have mentioned before the story of JFK visiting NASA. While he was there, he met a janitor and asked him, “So what is it you do here?” And the janitor said, “I’m putting a man on the moon.” He understood how his little piece fit into the grand mission, and so his little role was filled with grand dignity. That is what is happening with this list. The specific outcome of their work is not all that stupendous. What is great is the mission they are on: to build the civilization, the society, that God will use to send his living, healing water to the ends of the earth.

What Christian Civilization Is

Civilization is the high level of technology and culture that comes from humans working together. It emerges from generations of men and women making a way of life. As such, a civilization is the manifestation of a culture. If you want to know what a culture is like, look at its cities. In cities, values are cast in steel and stone. And culture flows from worship.

People live together and worship God. They establish a God-honoring culture that finds specific ways to demonstrate joy and love and grace, and to celebrate the gifts of God. As time goes on, they advance in technology, and their culture becomes thick enough that you look at their way of life and call it a civilization.

Civilization is the organized way of life, including technology, architecture, and customs, created by a culture that has advanced to a sufficient degree.

Now, what makes a civilization Christian? A civilization is Christian if it embodies Christ’s values. A Christian civilization is not necessarily all Christian. Not everyone in a Christian city or a Christian nation needs to be a Christian for us to call it Christian. But conscious obedience to Christ, as a people, constitutes a Christian people.

The Kingdom of God

To situate the term, let me set “Christian civilization” next to two related ones: the kingdom of God, and Christendom.

The kingdom of God is the rule and realm of God. Kings have both rule and realm, power and a place. In one sense, God’s kingdom includes everything, since he has all power and authority and dominion. But in another sense, the kingdom is coming and growing, just as Scripture says. Jesus’ parables do not describe the kingdom as a static, always-infinite power. It grows and works through the world. Think of the parables where Jesus says the kingdom is like leaven working through a loaf. So God’s kingdom is, in one sense, all that there is, and in another sense the places on earth where his will is done as it is in heaven.

The kingdom of God is not the same thing as Christian civilization. Christian civilizations are manifestations of the kingdom of God, because they are places where God’s will is done on earth. But the kingdom of God is a much bigger category. In one sense it includes all things. In another sense it includes every Christian civilization, and any place, even a single household, where God’s will is being done faithfully.

Christendom

Christendom is another overlapping term, and it is often used in two senses. First, it means the global church, all believers still alive on the earth. Someone might say “Christendom is growing” and mean that the global church is growing. A second sense is the one Wilson uses in Mere Christendom. There he advocates a civilization given to Jesus in every sphere, especially the political. There is a lot of overlap between how Wilson uses “Christendom” and how I am using “Christian civilization” in this sermon. “Christendom,” though, often focuses on the political ramifications of having Christ as lord of a country, things like the Apostles’ Creed in the constitution, or Sabbath laws. I am all for those ramifications, applied in wisdom. But when I talk about Christian civilization, I am talking about far more than politics.

Christian civilization is the fruit of generations and generations of Christian obedience. It takes thousands and thousands of faithful moms and dads. Tens of thousands of kids honoring their parents. It takes thousands of moms who create the culture around holidays, making sure there are gingerbread men to be dentally decapitated around Christmas, and ham to eat over Easter, and that the “Happy Birthday” sign is hung in celebration of God’s image born into a home. It takes thousands of men committed to serving their community at great cost to themselves. Men who pour out their lives to roof houses, run electrical wiring, manage employees, found organizations, and serve the body politic.

Over time, people’s intelligence increases as they become better at educating their children. Their morality increases as they learn to parent more faithfully. They grow in knowledge of the Bible as their pastors minister more effectively. They develop helpful patterns of celebration and thanksgiving around holidays. They establish ordinary household rhythms that most people follow. They create new technologies that buy back time and turn a profit.

Christian civilization is what happens when all of life is taken captive to Christ for generations, and God blesses the effort.

Why Christian Civilization Is Good

Here are two reasons, as if we needed any evidence, that a civilization like that is good.

God’s Design for Humanity

God designed humans to create civilizations. He made us so that civilization is inevitable. You can build cities and technologies that incarnate a God-honoring culture, or that incarnate our wicked hatred for God. But there is no way to avoid civilization. God is a community in himself, three in one. He made us to live together in community and so demonstrate what he is like.

God did not make us “noble savages” who are better on our own. That was Rousseau’s idea in the Enlightenment. It was beaten into the American consciousness by the transcendentalist writers, who wrote as though if we just walked away from civilization and joined them out at Walden Pond, everything would be better. Instead of believing the biblical doctrine that we are born sinful, and that civilization often restrains our wickedness, they believed we were good, or at least neutral, and that civilization is what made us wicked. They are wrong. Human culture and civilization are good. We do not mess up everything we touch. The earth would not be better off without us. God put us here to complete and glorify the earth by working together. God prepared the earth for us to civilize. He put gold in the earth for us to dig up. He pressed diamonds for us to learn to work. He stashed oceans of natural gas for us to harness.

Civilization is so natural to how God made us that even in our fallen state, it took zero generations to plant fields and keep livestock. It took only seven generations to go from skin garments to tents, livestock, musical instruments, bronze, and even iron tools. Think about that. Adam was still alive when someone made the first iron plow and strummed the first lyre. God did not create the world hoping we would not inhabit it. He made it for us to tame, to take dominion over. God designed humans to civilize the earth.

But Rousseau’s ideas are still alive in today’s conservative movement. They are the assumption underneath the conservative tendency to retreat, to get away, to try to be alone. “That civilization will infect me and my family. If we can just get away, then we’ll be safe.” Well, civilization will infect you. It may pull your family down. But getting away is not the solution. You will find plenty of sin in your own hearts even if you retreat. The solution God has provided for us in Christ is a new society, a new civilization: the church of God, building one another up.

We want to retreat from the civilization secularism has made, because in it we are like fish out of water. That does not mean civilization is bad. Our cities encapsulate our values as a people. In The Lord of the Rings, the Elven cities are works of art. They live in nature and still make a comfortable civilization. The dwarves make another kind of civilization under the mountains, wholly different, but still grand and impressive. Of course secularism makes a sad civilization. The question to ask is, “What kind of civilization will we build? How will we capture our love and joy and peace? How will we put hospitality in brick and mortar?”

Christian civilization is good because God designed humans to form civilizations.

God’s Design for Redemption

A second reason Christian civilization is good is that it is part of God’s design for redemption.

This is not a way to smuggle postmillennialism in for everyone. As far as I know, I am the only pastor here who is post-mil, and I would never try to smuggle it in, hidden in a sermon.

There are two places where it is biblically clear that Christian civilization is bound up with God’s redeeming grace.

God receives the fruit of our civilization as offerings. God has used, and keeps using, elements of our civilization as pieces of his redemption. This is astonishing. He does not ask us to bring him rocks or trees in their raw state. He asks for the fruits of civilization. It started at the very beginning, when Cain and Abel both brought the fruits of their civilizing efforts, livestock and agriculture. God continues to use the fruits of civilization in his acts of redemption. He receives sacrifices. He commands a stylized tent, the tabernacle, inlaid with gold, its instruments the work of master craftsmen. His temple makes still more use of human civilization. He gives us his word in human language and human writing. And now he feeds us with bread and wine, neither of which exists in the natural world.

God planned to use human civilization to communicate his plan of redemption. He continues to use it each week as we come to worship him.

God shows that redemption flows out from Christian civilization. God says that his redeeming grace flows from a civilization. He gives us not one but two great prophetic images of the world renewed by his grace, and in both of them that grace flows out from a city, the symbol of civilization. We have already looked at Ezekiel’s vision, water flowing from the temple through the city to the ends of the earth.

In Revelation we see a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. It is presented as the height of civilization, decked with jewels, jasper and emerald and the rest. But in this city there is no temple, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” The city has no temple because God dwells in the whole city with its inhabitants. This city, the new Jerusalem, is the bride of the Lamb. It is us, the church. In the verses that follow, Ezekiel’s vision is more or less repeated. The nations walk by the light of the city. The kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. The river of life flows from the throne of God through the city to the world, with trees bearing fruit, and leaves for the healing of the nations. In John 7 Jesus says that rivers of living water will flow from him for the world. John clarifies that he meant the Holy Spirit. But now the Holy Spirit has come, and he dwells in us. We are the vehicle through which that living water comes to the world.

Christ’s church is the vehicle through which God’s power and grace flow to the nations, so that their kings bring their glory to God. You can believe that happens gradually now (post-mil), cataclysmically in a future millennium (pre-mil), or generally on the new earth (a-mil). But no matter what, we are the society, the city, that brings God’s blessings to the world for their healing.

It is not by accident that God chooses a city to picture how his grace comes to the world through us. Christian civilization is implied by the church. If you gather Christians and they live faithfully together, they will form a distinct culture, and eventually their own civilization, living within the nations of the world. I believe this is exactly what Jesus has in mind when he says that the kingdom of God is like leaven working through a loaf, or like a mustard seed that grows. While it is small, right at the beginning, it looks like the New Testament church. What happens when it has had a chance to work through the world? Traditions form. Culture builds. Holidays are established. Integrity is enshrined in law. And before long, you have a Christian civilization. We, the church, are here to be a new humanity, and remember that civilization is inescapable for humanity. Rather than being separated by national boundaries, like Israel, we are set apart by the sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We are those washed clean by his grace. We are those who eat with God. Set free from the old Adam, we get to make a new way of life based on the life, death, and accomplishment of the new Adam.

Our Civilization Is in Ruins

Unfortunately, our civilization, which was founded as a city on a hill to shine the light of Christ into a dark world, is in ruins. You do not need much evidence for that, but I will mention two categories that concern me.

Morally Compromised

American Christianity is awfully compromised.

• We are compromised by greed and materialism.
• We are compromised by the fear of man.
• We are compromised by irreverence.
• We are compromised by moral slip. And this is perhaps the most dangerous. Many do not know how far they are from God’s good standards. I recently sat at a coffee shop working. Next to me sat two young ladies. They were lamenting the awful plight of their friend. Her boyfriend had convinced her not to wear her cute mini skirt for Halloween, the only night of the year you can do that, apparently, and to dress up as something else with him. He was supposedly being controlling, and they felt bad for her. Then, without flinching, they pulled out their Bibles and turned to 1 Timothy for their Bible study.

Moral compromise is insidious because we probably do not see it. So be vigilant to raise children with tender consciences that earnestly desire to please God.

Low Capacity

Our potential is lower than our forefathers’. If you want to be humbled this afternoon, go looking for late-1800s and early-1900s eighth-grade exams. You probably could not pass. As a society, our technology has certainly advanced. But you would be hard-pressed to convince yourself that the average person is smarter than people were a hundred years ago.

Our Bible literacy is at an all-time low. Most Christians are not concerned. They think Google can answer the Bible questions and find that verse they were thinking about.

Our work ethic is tragically underwhelming. What would the Puritans have done with as much free time as most of us have?

We do not need to be discouraged by this. God will help us. It also creates a marvelous opportunity. Education being what it is, our country will soon face a serious crisis of competency. The ability of the average worker will have fallen so drastically that a lot of work will get worse. We have a chance to show the glory of God by offering goods and services in another league from our competitors. We have the opportunity to rise quickly through the ranks of a company and influence it for good.

Still, our Christian civilization is in ruins. And God put us here. It is ours to rebuild. So let us learn from these mighty men how to rebuild a Christian civilization.

Learn from these mighty men to rebuild Christian civilization.

Here are six lessons about building Christian civilization that we can learn from the mighty men listed in Nehemiah 3.

Build and Fight to Win

This whole list comes as the response to the wicked rulers of the land. The last thing Nehemiah told their enemies is that God’s people will build the city, God will make them prosper, and the wicked will have no portion in it. They are in a competition, a near war, with the enemies of God, building and fighting to win. So they roll up their sleeves. This list is like the crescendo at the end of the piece. It may help to imagine the scene as a movie. Nehemiah tells them, “We will rebuild this city, and you will have no right or claim here.” This list is the building montage. They get to work.

Do not box as one beating the air. You have work to do. This is why godly ambition matters so much. Your problem is probably not that you are too ambitious, but that you are not ambitious enough. There is territory to be gained, markets to win, real estate to own, and talented employees to attract. And in all those endeavors, as everywhere, God makes all the difference.

There is a great line from Rebecca Merkle that came across my wife’s daily calendar recently:

No matter what house God has given us, our job is to throw ourselves at it and turn a profit. To work, to run, to build, to glorify, and to transform. If we actually did this, we would discover that we will never really run out of scope.

There is no end of scope. Keep building.

Build as an Offering

Look at Nehemiah 3:1. The first to begin the building is the high priest. When he completed his section, they consecrated it as a kind of firstfruits offering. When the wall is complete, they will dedicate it to God as well. That is significant. A wall is not a holy space. They were doing ordinary, “secular” work, and they dedicated it to God. This is how we need to learn to think about everything we do.

In one of Wilson’s books, he comments that if we are living sacrifices, then everywhere we are is an altar. Monday morning, your desk is an altar. Monday night, your dinner table is an altar. Whatever you do, you do as an offering to God.

So as you do your part to build Christian civilization for God, give it to him as an offering. Give him the Thanksgiving dinner, the family gathering, the sourdough, the spreadsheet, the sales pitch, all of it. As you do, it will do three things.

1. Increase your integrity. You will not feel right selling someone hard on a product they do not really need if you are trying to do it as an offering to God.
2. Increase the quality. No one wants to offer something up to God and say, “Well, it’s good enough.”
3. Increase your work ethic. It feels good to work as hard as you can for your God. I love turning time and talent into an offering for God, whether it is a sermon, a lesson plan, a family vacation, or a hard morning workout. Working in God’s presence, as an offering to God, changes everything.

Brothers and sisters, remember what happens in our worship service each week. We are cut up by the word of God and consecrated for his service. We are set apart again for his service. We eat with him as royal sons and daughters at his table. And then we are sent out. We are commissioned into the world. We ascend the mountain of God to meet with him, and then he sends us back to earth so that we can keep taking dominion, keep praying and laboring for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. So keep building as an offering to God.

Do Your Assigned Work

There are two things to notice here. First, no one was a professional mason. The goldsmiths and perfumers probably did not think wall-building was what they would be remembered for. It is their amateur work on the wall that we remember, not the crowns or the signet rings. In the same way, we should put our backs into whatever work God puts in front of us, whether or not it is “our thing.” We cannot see God’s story yet. Who knows what amateur work God will put in front of us that will turn out to be the most important thing we do.

Second, each man was assigned a specific section. Brothers and sisters, put your name on something. In fifty years, say our kids are sitting around at a potluck after the service, recounting the stories of God’s faithfulness and how much he has done. What will they say you did? What will your name be on?

Be Scrappy

Archaeological evidence shows that this wall was nothing impressive. It was the work of amateurs doing their best with subpar materials. That is not a bad thing. Do not fall prey to the thinking, “If only I had more money, or a different location, or more time, or more of anything else, then I could really make something great.” Remember Caleb’s message from November 2. You have everything you need. So get to work, and be scrappy.

Focus on progress, not on being perfect.

Build Humbly

Be under the authorities God has placed over you, and build from there. The leaders of Tekoa, Nehemiah says, “would not stoop to serve their Lord” (3:5). The ESV footnote notes that the word can also be translated “lords,” and I think that makes better sense in this context. The Tekoite rulers would not take a supervisor. They would not accept the authority God had placed over them for the building.

You may not be under the authority you want to be under. But it is where God has placed you to build, so build from there. If you are able to get out and serve with more freedom, do so. But until then, do everything that you can.

Let Forgiveness Be Your Fuel

Finally, there are three men listed here whose participation really matters. They are not mentioned with special fanfare. But their work is significant. Meremoth, Meshullam, and Malchijah were listed at the end of Ezra as men who had intermarried with foreign wives.

There are many of us who have made really big mistakes. Mistakes we think we should not be able to come back from. But hear me loud and clear: the mercy of Christ has never met a sin so big it could not be washed away. Confess your sin to God and believe that he has forgiven you. God does not expect you to spend the rest of your life groveling before him. He wants you to believe him when he says you are forgiven and that he loves you.

So if you have messed up, even really badly, see the example of Malkijah. Do not stop building. Confess your sin, receive forgiveness, and get back to work. You are not saved because you are the kind of person who does not make mistakes. You are saved because God loved you.