Ryan Hale

If he were here today, I feel reasonably sure that Jesus would be called a radical, a zealot, an extremist, if you will. He never hurt anyone, but he certainly didn’t “pull his punches” or “mince” his words.

My sense is that Jesus was focused on one thing: Reestablishing his kingdom so that he could glorify God. Jesus spoke some difficult words, he said some difficult things to anyone that stood against that goal.

For example… One day, as Jesus was traveling from village to village, his mother and brothers came to find him, presumably to take him away from what he was doing and to take him home. John tells us that his brothers didn’t believe in him in the early part of his ministry, so my sense is that they wanted to intervene, to bring his work to an end, to take him home so as to end the focus and embarrassment that had come on their family because of the crowds that were following Jesus’s ministry work.

But his mother and his brothers remained outside. They stood outside the house where Jesus was teaching. They didn’t go in, so as Jesus was told that they had arrived, Jesus responded directly to the person who came to tell him that they were there:

“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Matthew 12:48-49

Can you imagine? Even in a culture that doesn’t practice the closeness of familial ties, this would be an incredible rebuke, a slap in the faces of his family we might even say. What would the person go back out to tell his mother and brothers? “Sorry, Jesus says that his family are those that are inside listening to him… Not sure what that means for all of you…”

But this IS a culture that practiced those familial ties. In their culture, the family stayed together. The family worked together. The family even lived together even in the same house or houses, and here is Jesus saying, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”.

He isn’t disowning them. No, they have denied him. They have denied his identity and their hope is to take him home and return back to the way it was before. They thought that he was out of mind. They thought that it was time to end this madness, this delusion that Jesus was living within. No, everyone was supposed to be at home. Everyone should be quiet. Everyone should be doing what they were supposed to be doing, contributing to the family and living in the way that they were supposed to be living, according to the way a good Jewish boy should be living.

However, Jesus didn’t see it this way. He responded to the person who had told him that his family had arrived by looking at his disciples and those with him there in the house and essentially saying, “This is my family.” Those that are doing the will of God, those that are listening to me, these are my family members.

How often do we get swept up into our cultural norms, into thinking in the way that our culture thinks instead of thinking with a focus on the kingdom of God? All of the time! I can say that it required me moving outside of my own culture to be able to see it with more clarity. In fact, I had many places where I was blind to see my own self in the light of the kingdom of God because the culture in which I had grown up was my dominant perspective. In many ways, it probably still is, and probably still prevents me from seeing how the kingdom of God is working all around me.

This is our challenge. We need to continue to remain in Christ, abiding in him and walking with him to such an extent that we can see with greater clarity the priorities of the kingdom of God over the priorities of the world around us. From there, once I understand those priorities and see them with that level of clarity, I must then reorient my actions so as to organize my life based on what Jesus wants and is doing over those things that I want, or those things that the culture tells me that I should want. This is the question that I should ask myself on a daily basis: How can I do all of that?

Jesus spoke directly, and at times with difficult and challenging words, so as to help people see clearly and wake them from their sleep that had come on related to the culture that would lie to them about the priorities of life. May we also be a people that sees clearly the priorities of Christ and that of his kingdom.

After having been questioned about his identity, even by his own cousin and the prophet who was called to prepare the way for his coming, John the Baptist, Jesus began to reflect on the desperation of the spiritual situation that he had walked into as he entered the world:

To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.

Matthew 11:16-19

This generation of people, Jesus says, can’t seem to make up its mind. If a song that is intended for dancing is played, they won’t dance. If a song that is intended for mourning is played, they won’t mourn. No, instead, they will only doubt and will never believe. They prefer to call out that which they perceive, or they themselves consider to be the faults in the others and go on to ignore the message that they were receiving.

In many ways, we can say that this is still the same today. In a very similar way to how the Jews would not dance nor mourn in the days of Jesus, neither will we listen to the “music” that is being played today. The kingdom of darkness that rules our world tells us lies continually and we routinely listen to those lies, preventing us from reacting to the music that is being played. Instead, we remain distracted, continuing on with our regular routine, continuing on with our normal business, our daily life, never actually hearing the music and neither dancing nor mourning.

My prayer is that we would awaken, that God would shake us from the blindness and deafness that are the distractions that Satan has placed in the world all around us. Instead, I pray that we would hear the music that Christ has been playing and that we would dance, or we would mourn, moving to the rhythm that he has been sounding out, no longer distracted and unable to hear his call.

Jesus traveled around to all of the villages and towns in the area where he did his work. Even though there were times where his disciples wanted him to stay and set up their ministry work in a particular area, or even though the people would ask Jesus to stay for a much longer time, Jesus continued on, covering an entire area with his message, that the kingdom of God had come near.

In what seems like an effort to be able to cover more ground more quickly, Jesus also sent out his disciples. Jesus would be subsequently coming through that same area where he would send the disciples, but he would send them in advance of his arrival.

As he sent them, though, he started with this command:

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:37

Jesus commands his disciples to pray and to ask God to send out workers into his harvest field. Now, in one sense, the disciples themselves are the answer to the prayer, but in a completely other sense, their first instruction as he sends the disciples is that they are to pray for workers.

But at that time, they themselves are the only workers! In all of the earth, they are the only ones carrying the message of the kingdom of God that they had heard Jesus telling and that they are now to go out to repeat. Who else are they going to pray and ask God to send?

There are no pastors.

There are no missionaries.

So who will it be? The only possible response to this question that I can think of is that these workers will come directly from the harvest. The harvest field itself will provide the workers who will be sent to do the harvest work that needs to be done.

So, practically speaking, what does that mean? It means that when Jesus sent his disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God, they were not only looking for believers in the message, they were looking for workers for the kingdom.

Do we have any less of a harvest that needs to be done today? There are billions and billions of people across the earth that need yet to even hear the message of God’s redemption through Christ and the only way in which that will happen is to pray that God will send out workers into his harvest field.

Within those billions of people, there are many languages that most of us will never speak. There are differences between our cultures that will block the Gospel from moving forward. There are natural human tendencies that will continue to create tribes among the peoples that will divide us between “us” and “them”.

We also must pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out workers into his harvest field. Those workers can and should, come from anywhere and everywhere, but given the size of the harvest field in certain parts of the world, let us pray that the Lord would send out workers into his fields where the name of Christ is not known and where the kingdom of God has not yet been proclaimed. And let us pray that those workers will look like, speak like, and understand the cultures of the peoples of those cultures where the harvest fields are today the largest around the world.

Jesus performed miracles to confirm what he was saying was true. Only by doing the works that only God could do could Jesus show that he was speaking the words that only God could speak. The people were amazed at Jesus’s teaching because he spoke as one who had authority. Why? Because he did have authority. He is God. He is the Creator himself who had come in human form to make himself known to us.

As Jesus finished his sermon on the mount, he began to climb down, but as he did, Matthew records that he began to perform several miracles. He healed a man with leprosy, Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever, and several others showing his power over disease. He healed demon-possessed people showing his power over evil. And he even calmed the wind and the waves showing his power over creation.

Jesus was performing miracles, doing things that only God could do, so that people would see and believe. They would believe what he taught them. They would believe that he truly was God. And they would not only believe, but they would give their lives to him… completely.

One of Jesus’s greatest challenges, however, was to get his own people to accept him. Even seeing the miracles that he performed, the Jews were rarely able to accept and believe that Jesus was the Christ, nor the son of God.

There was one man, though, that demonstrated that he truly knew who Jesus was. Except he wasn’t a Jew. In fact, he was a Roman. He came from among those that the Jews believed needed to be overthrown, to be conquered by the Messiah, for whom they were waiting. This man knew that Jesus could heal others, not because of some magical power that he seemed to possess, but because Jesus truly had authority. In fact, he knew Jesus’s authority spanned space and time. He could give a command in one place and in one time and it would be carried out in another place at that same time, or in a different time, or in whatever way he chose.

Why? Because Jesus is God. This Roman centurion understood, based on his own tiny experience, relatively speaking, with 100 soldiers, that when he gave a command, that command would be carried out just as he had said that it should be done.

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Matthew 8:8-9

It is an amazing thing to try to understand what this man understood. As a centurion, even he was used to giving orders to his soldiers. He gave orders to specific, physical people. They then went and carried out those orders. In other words, there was someone that was responsible. Someone that he could see. If that order wasn’t carried out, the centurion would know who it was that he should hold responsible.

But the centurion is saying that he knows that Jesus can simply say that word and that his servant would be healed. That is a different type of authority! That is an authority that goes well beyond the authority of the centurion. Who would Jesus be telling to go? Who would he be holding responsible if the order wasn’t carried out?

Those were unnecessary questions because this centurion knew something incredibly important: Jesus’s authority was absolute. Jesus is God. He is the creator over all things. What he says is to be done is what will be done, whether Jesus tells someone else to do it, or he simply says the word, what he says is what will be done. Period. No questions. He has the authority to express his will, and the authority that gives him the assurance that his will is carried out when he declares something to be done, whether he is there or not, just because he says the word.

I picked out the word “disturbed” from the text that I chose to reflect on today to title this short post. However, my sense is that a better word, at least in English and in the context of what was happening, might have been “threatened”. Herod, in all likelihood, sensed a threat to his rule when the Magi passed through Jerusalem asking about about the king of the Jews.

“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Matthew 2:2-3

The rest of the people in Jerusalem likely had a sense of wonder, or possibly anticipation. In that sense, they likely were disturbed. But if I think about Herod, I’m thinking that it was definitely a threat. He ruled over the area after having been appointed by the Roman senate. He ruled as king over the area, even if he was a “client” king, subject to Rome.

Jesus’s arrival on the scene made everyone, including Herod, presume that there would be a king that would come to overthrow the government, to cast off the oppression of the Roman government, and lead Israel to victory as God’s chosen people on the earth. That is, in fact, the same thing that the Jews wait for even today. They believe that there is a political leader, a Messiah, who is yet to come who will lead their people to greatness to save them.

Yet as Jesus arrived, similar to his cousin John the Baptist, Jesus called people to repentance, called them to believe in him, called them to place him as the king over their very lives. He never intended, nor tried, to be an earthly, political king. In fact, he had several opportunities to become king and routinely shunned the role. No, instead, Jesus called people to his kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, where he reigns as king over people’s lives. Not just in power, in government, and through laws. Not a political kingdom to rule a territory or even an attempt to rule over the entire world. Not yet, at least. No, Jesus’s claim as king is to be a king over our hearts, to give ourselves to him completely.

This same disturbance, or threat, that Herod felt, is the same that people feel even today. Jesus makes a claim for kingship and continues to call us into his kingdom.

Jesus hasn’t forced anyone. He hasn’t subjugated or conquered people or lands so that he will rule over them. No, we have to willingly repent, recognizing that our lives do not work without him as king. We have to realize the emptiness, the meaninglessness of our lives without a king that not only reigns for a short time, but reigns for eternity.

Like Herod, this disturbs many people though. It threatens them because they do not want to give up their own authority. They do not want to give up their own decision-making power. They do not want someone else having authority over them, so they refuse to follow Christ. They refuse to acknowledge his kingship. They stand in opposition to his kingdom.

This is the decision that we must make. Often, we speak of salvation from our sins, and it is true that this is what Christ did for us. He did save us from our sins. But that was done for a purpose, so that he would give us entrance into his kingdom. He purchased us away from the kingdom of darkness to come into the kingdom of God.

Yet where there is a kingdom, there is also a king and our true decision is whether or not Jesus will not only be our savior but that we will allow him to truly be also our king, our head and ruler over us. Jesus described gaining the kingdom being like finding treaure in a field or a priceless pearl, but that is a decision that each of us make make, whether we will receive the news of our king with great joy, or we will receive that same news and be disturbed or threatened because he claims to be the king of our life.

We typically think of the stories of Ishmael and Isaac and the struggle that ensued as a result of Abraham and Sarah’s disobedience. It is, I believe, a struggle that continues even today and is at the genesis of the ongoing problems that we see in the Middle East.

But beyond Ishmael and Isaac, Matthew actually also refers to Jesus as Abraham’s son.

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Matthew 1:1

Why would that be?

Matthew traces Jesus’s lineage back to Abraham because Jesus’s coming brought fulfillment to the promises that God made to Abraham. Here is what God said to Abraham all of the way back in Genesis 12:

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.

Genesis 12:3

And then subsequently in Genesis 15, God says this to Abraham:

“Look up at the sky and count the stars —if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Genesis 15:5

The problem, at least at that time, was that Abraham had no children. Abraham was, in fact, worried that he would need to give his entire estate to one of his servants. But God assured him that, despite his old age, he would have children, and his offspring, his descendants, would be like the stars in the sky.

As it turns out, Abraham does have even more children, even after Ishmael and Isaac, but even with all of these, they wouldn’t have necessarily been like the stars in the sky. No, that fulfillment would come through his grandchildren, and his grandchildren of his grandchildren, and so on.

So Jesus is referred to as Abraham’s son to show the lineage and connection that he had to Abraham as one of Abraham’s descendants.

Yet still, I wonder whether even these, after all of these generations and all of these descendants, would be enough to be considered like the stars in the sky. Obviously, there would be many, many people, but like the stars? That is a big number.

And what is more, we still have the first promise that God made to Abraham. How is it that all of the peoples on the earth will be blessed through Abraham?

In Jesus, this comes to pass and these promises are fulfilled. This is how:

Matthew places Jesus within the bloodline lineage of Abraham, so he is a direct descendant, but Jesus also fulfills the promise in a different way. In Genesis 15, we see a situation where God promises that Abraham’s descendants will be like the stars in the sky and Abraham believes God. He believes what God tells him, and so God “credits” Abraham with righteousness because of his belief in what God told him.

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:6

Most people would say that we have to be a good person. We need to make ourselves righteous before God and then he will accept us. But in Abraham’s case, he was considered to be righteous as he stood before God because he believed what God told him.

That’s it. He believed and so he was declared to be righteous.

As Jesus came, he taught people that they must believe that he was – and still is! – who he said he was. As people believed, he made them righteous. He forgave their sins. He sent them away telling them to sin no longer, but first, based on their belief, just as God did for Abraham, Jesus also did for those who believed. Jesus was a son of Abraham in the sense of human lineage, but he was also the son of God, in one sense amongst many, that he made people righteous as a result of their belief in him.

Even today, Jesus makes us righteous as we stand before God based on our faith in him. Jesus continues to fulfill the promises that God made to Abraham becoming a blessing to all nations. Anyone that will place their faith in Christ, believing that Jesus took the punishment for their sin upon himself, will be made righteous. The blessing of Abraham became a blessing to all nations because of Jesus. And that blessing came to all nations because, like Abraham, we can be made righteous because of our belief.

In these ways, Jesus is a son of Abraham and we, as people who believe in Christ, become a descendant of Abraham by faith, one of the stars in the sky.

After King Xerxes had approved Haman’s declaration that all of the Jews would be exterminated across the Persian empire, Mordecai began to weep and mourn, both for himself and for his people there within the empire. As Esther heard about Mordecai and what was causing him to cry out in this way, she courageously put a plan into action to reverse the course of the declaration, risking her own life in order to save her people.

Esther threw a banquet for both the king as well as for Haman, making Haman feel great about himself and his position within the empire. He was close to the king, and now he was even being honored by Esther, who was, unbeknownst to him, one of the Jews that he intended to have killed.

Upon returning home after the first of the banquets that Esther would hold for the two men, Haman was, on the one hand happy, but on the other continued to fume with anger because of what he perceived as Mordecai’s insolence, his refusal to honor and bow down to Haman as he passed. His wife suggested that he set up a pole so that Haman could soon place Mordecai on the pole when the time came to execute the Jews. In this way, not only would the Jews be killed, but Mordecai would be set up as a symbol that the Jews had been exterminated, but would also be an example to anyone else who might dare to not recognize Haman’s greatness.

His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.

Esther 5:14

Of course, as we follow the story, we find that not only was Mordecai not placed on the pole, but instead, Haman finds himself parading Mordecai around, honoring Mordecai instead in front of all of the people there in Susa. It is an incredible display of irony that won’t end there. Haman’s plan, and the motivations behind it, as a result of Esther’s wisdom, is exposed before the king and Haman himself will be placed on the pole, the very pole that he had set up to hang Mordecai.

It reminds me of a beautiful song that I’ve heard, and I believe have also noted before. A lady named Jess Ray sings it, called Gallows, which I believe was originally found within the video called Sheep Among Wolves II. Here is the song:

In this song, Jess is singing about the way in which Haman not only acts in satanic ways, but also shows himself to be a type of Satan within the story of Esther.

Why?

Satan’s hope was to destroy the Messiah in an effort to completely thwart the plans of God. If he could exterminate the Jews, the Messiah could not come as the Messiah would come only through the Jews.

Yet Jesus did come, and a “pole” was set up for him in the same way that the pole had been set up for Mordecai. Satan directed the actions of the Jewish leaders and intended to use the Romans to kill Christ, but he played directly into God’s plan. By killing Jesus, Satan himself lost the war that he had been waging with God. All of Satan’s power was stripped from him because upon Jesus, God placed all of punishment for the sins of the world. All of Satan’s power was found in the fact that he was able to accuse people for the sin that they had committed, yet on the same cross where he directed people to hang Jesus, Satan lost all of his power because Jesus took all of the punishment.

As Jess sings in the song above:

The devil is gonna hang on his own gallows.

That is exactly what happens with Haman in the context of the story of Esther, and the same thing has happened also with Satan through Christ’s death on the cross.

Throughout the book of Esther, we do not see God specifically mentioned, but we can clearly see God moving. In the first three chapters that we are reading today, the plot sets by Queen Vashti being sent away as a result of her refusal to be paraded around as a trophy wife, another demonstration of Xerxes’ wealth and power.

Esther is then chosen, amongst all of the other virgins in the kingdom, to replace Vashti and Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who raised her after her parents had passed away, uncovers a plot to kill the king, only to report the plot through Esther and have his loyalty recognized, written down in the annals of the king.

Now, the table is set for the primary conflict of the story to come forward and be presented. Haman is honored by the king and all of the people at the gate, except for Mordecai, bow down to Haman as he passed by them. Haman, therefore, hated Mordecai, but he also learned that Mordecai was a Jew, so he made a plan to not only kill Mordecai but in fact all of the Jews throughout the Persian empire:

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

Esther 3:5-6

Haman becomes, within this story, a type of Satan or Antichrist figure in that he hopes to not only destroy one of the Jews, but their entire race. Despite the fact that the Jewish people had broken the covenant that God had made with them, no longer obeying God and thus being punished for their disobedience by being destroyed as a nation, God still intended to fulfill his promise to Abraham that a blessing would come from God, through their nation, to be a blessing to all nations.

Yet if Haman were to have his way and the Jewish people were to be destroyed as a whole as he had desired, the Messiah could not come through the Jews as God had planned. Not only is Haman threatening Mordecai, not only is he threatening the rest of the Jewish people, but he is even threatening the Messiah. Without the Jews, there would be no Messiah. And without the Messiah, there would be no relationship with God, neither for the Jews nor for the rest of the Gentiles around the world.

God’s hand continues to be visible within the story of Esther as he guides the people such that his plan will not be thwarted. God will carry his plan to completion, both in that time and even today.

As Nehemiah continued toward finishing the project to build the walls around Jerusalem, he faced quite a bit of opposition. Opposition from within and external opposition as well.

From within, the Jews were doing their best to rebuild the walls, but they had several pressures that they were facing as well. They had needed to pay taxes, so they had sold their land or even sold their children into slavery. The local nobles, the governmental officials and Jews themselves, were lending and charging interest back to their own countrymen. And they had to take out mortgages on the little bit of land or property that they did own so that they could have money to eat. They weren’t working to earn money for their families because of the project of building the wall, and to make matters worse, there was a famine that was even in progress at the same time, so it was difficult for the people to be able to eat at that time.

Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

Nehemiah 5:2-5

At the same time, the Gentile leaders living in the Trans-Euphrates area, what we would roughly call today the areas of western Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, the countries to the west of the Euphrates river, very much preferred that the walls of Jerusalem remain down, leaving Jerusalem exposed to attack. They began to call Nehemiah for a meeting, even accusing him of building the walls so that Jerusalem could lead a revolt against the Persian empire.

“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.”

I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

Nehemiah 6:6-8

As we do the work that God has called us to do, we should expect opposition. Opposition will come from within and it will come from external sources as well. Opposition will come from every side.

God may even call us to do the work in less-than-optimal conditions. In Nehemiah’s case, there was a famine at the time making it difficult for the people to continue to do the work when, in reality, it was difficult for the people to even eat.

There is rarely, if ever, an optimal time in which God’s work is meant to be done. Today, God calls his people to make disciples of all nations, to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God to all of the peoples of the earth.

Is now an optimal time to do that work? Probably not. Even today, there are many wars. There is terrorism. The political climate is very challenging. There are militant people everywhere who want to stop the work, to stop God’s work and his mission from moving forward. However, in the same way that we see Nehemiah move ahead, finding solutions to the problems that he faced both internally and externally, we must do the same.

We should expect opposition. We should expect that the conditions will be challenging. Yet God calls us just the same. He calls us to carry out the work, praying and persevering all the same, working wisely yet moving forward, despite the opposition.

Nehemiah came to Jerusalem with a vision, a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down when Babylon had destroyed the city nearly 140 years before. He started by surveying the work, but then he laid out his vision to recruit the other people in the work. Nehemiah didn’t, in fact, start by swinging a hammer. Instead, he knew that this was a big job and he called many people into the work.

In all, just among those that are listed in chapter 3, I counted 39 sections of workers, made up of multiple men and women in each section, who were called into service and were counted as those who were completing the work. All of the way around the city, the wall was to be rebuilt and the work didn’t require one worker, a small crew, or even a large team. No, this was a huge job and required an army of workers who would rebuild the walls.

The repairs next to him were made by the priests from the surrounding region. Beyond them, Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs in front of their house; and next to them, Azariah son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house. Next to him, Binnui son of Henadad repaired another section, from Azariah’s house to the angle and the corner, and Palal son of Uzai worked opposite the angle and the tower projecting from the upper palace near the court of the guard.

Nehemiah 3:22-25

In a similar way, the work that Christ has called us into, to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations, to make disciples of all nations, also requires many, many workers. It is no small work. It is a work on a global scale and requires a number of workers commensurate with the calling that Jesus has given to us. A church here, a pastor there, or a few missionaries aren’t enough. No, the work that is in front of us requires workers. A lot of them.

This is our aim. Jesus told his disciples when he sent them out – recorded in Luke 10 – to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into his harvest field. This is what we must continue to do today. Not just hope that workers will go, but pray that God will send them, and as God identifies those people who are willing to go, even some who will go to their friends and family or others that will go across the world, we must prepare them and send them.

This is the work that God has called us into. The walls are broken down. The world is in desperate need of Christ and we can no longer “play” church… – please hear what I’m saying. It isn’t enough to just go to church once a week and move on with the rest of our lives. It isn’t enough to be part of a Bible study. The Lord is sending out workers to a world that is broken and the only solution is Jesus himself. Will we be the workers? Will we rebuild the walls? Will we call others up to service to bring many into the kingdom of God?