THE SISTERHOOD
William S Chellberg
Nehemiah 2: 6
With the Lord’s help, I would like to speak to the sisters about sisterhood, and I would like to speak to the brothers about sisterhood. It is an important thing and there is a feature here that is generally missed, among us, and among all believers.
In the early 1800’s Christians around the world became exercised about the place the Holy Spirit would have among them, and they were not finding it in any of the churches. It began, and largely focused upon Ireland, but it was also in England, on the Continent, in India, all pretty much at the same time, and even in New York, probably other places - places we do not know. Persons were leaving the churches, leaving the establishments, leaving whatever churches there were, and they were seeking to make room for the Spirit. We should hold to that foundation - making room for the Spirit. In the course of years of time various gatherings were worked out among those who had been exercised in this way - first of all, the Lord’s supper followed by the service of God, and then the prayer meeting. There are scriptures for those two meetings. The reading meetings, this meeting for ministry, the care meeting, a meeting of assembly character in the case of a matter of discipline - those are all meetings that were worked out on the basis of the Scriptures over the years, amounting to almost two centuries. They were worked out in such a way, and the primary exercise was, that the Spirit would have His place, and this is no less important today than it was two hundred years ago - four hundred years ago, two thousand years ago. The Spirit should have His place; Paul says, “the Spirit speaks expressly”, 1 Tim 4: 1.
In Acts 13 we see that a meeting was proceeding, and some brothers were named in this meeting. I will say at this point, that in God’s order, beginning in Genesis, men have the responsibility of speaking and praying in a public way; Paul says, “I will therefore that themenpray in every place”, 1 Tim 2: 8. Women, he says, are to “be silent in the assemblies”, 1 Cor 14: 34. As this meeting in Acts 13 was proceeding, “the Holy Spirit said, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13: 2); the Spirit said that. We would assume, because of God’s order, that brothers were speaking and this came out. But there is no reason that a sister could not have been there praying, and brought that about. There is plenty of Scripture to indicate the importance of sisters, and that is what I want to speak about. When I say, ‘sisterhood’, I am speaking about spiritual sisters. These meetings that we have: the Lord’s supper and the service of God is the central gathering in the Christian experience and in the testimony at the present time.
And so, we come to this scripture that I read. It is very interesting, though maybe an unusual scripture to read in the ministry meeting, “the queen also sitting by”. Why did the Spirit say that? There were three people mentioned at this meeting, just three people: the king, the queen, and Nehemiah. But the Spirit, you might say, goes out of His way to say, “the queen also sitting by”. There is a reason for that, because in spiritual things, sisters are no less than brothers spiritually. Brothers speak, and that makes them more important in a public sense, but spiritually it does not make them any more than a sister who quietly speaks to the Lord or the Spirit herself. I say this not as a challenge, because I think we have godly sisters in this place, but it may be that sisters generally get talked down to - perhaps because of clothing, because of hair, because of whatever. Those things are important, but they are also important for brothers as well.
But the Spirit here says, “the queen also sitting by”. The king here was about to make one of the most momentous decisions in his kingdom, probably the most momentous decision. He was going to let Nehemiah go back to Judah, taking a number of people who had been born in Babylon, and he was going to let him take them all back to Judah. That was a huge decision in those days and would be in these days even; that was a huge decision. But the queen was “sitting by”, a moderating, modifying, quietening spirit. Someone could perhaps go on and speak about what the sisterly spirit is; Peter says, “a meek and quiet spirit”, 1 Pet 3: 4.
I love the expression “the queen also sitting by”, because I can just picture this ornate palace and a king sitting there, and the queen sitting there. I do not know if the queen was Esther - I do not think so, but she was of that character of a person. Esther says quietly to Mordecai, ‘Well, you go and fast and I and my maidens will fast’, Esth 4: 16. What a wonderful sister Esther was. I just raise this so that we can think about this fact that sisters are as important spiritually as brothers are important spiritually.
We come to the Lord’s supper - it is not just a ‘you and me’ thing; it is not just each one of us coming and partaking; remembrance is a collective experience. Paul does not praise in 1 Cor 11: 17: “each one in eating takes his own supper” (v 21); that is what they may do in the churches; they have these little wafers and a little cup - very little collective remembrance. That sort of arrangement is just between the communicant and maybe the Lord, if they are attached to the Lord. But when we come together, we are united in our love for Christ. And while the brothers do the talking, I trust the sisters will not just sit there and say, ‘Well, we have to wait for the brothers to say something’ - that is not my exercise - because the spiritual power of a sister can change the whole meeting. How many times has it been that a brother has given out a hymn or said something and a sister has said, ‘I was just thinking of that at the same time’? That is one way in which spirituality in sisters can be seen.
So that when the Spirit says, “Separate me now Saul and Barnabas”, how did that come about? There were six brothers there who were significant, of various backgrounds; but it does not say what sisters were there. However, I think you would find that there were some godly sisters there, and three chapters later we find Lydia, a seller of purple who was at Philippi. It says, “whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul”, Acts 16: 14. That is a tremendous statement. Not much else is said about Lydia, and not much needs to be said, because she was a spiritual sister. She invited Paul into her house; Paul was the centre of the testimony at that time; in one sense he carried the testimony. Of course, there were other brethren too, but because of his prominence and what the Lord had given him he was carrying the testimony. Yet, here was a sister, Lydia, and others - we get, “Aquila and Priscilla”, and, “Priscilla and Aquila”; either way, the husband and wife are equal.
I just want to encourage the sisters that they are not insignificant. Sisters are not insignificant in the meetings. They should not be looked down upon because, whatever the Spirit will say in a gathering such as this, or a reading or whatever meeting it may be, His power is there. Paul speaks about it in Corinthians; he says, “ye and my spirit being gathered together”, 1 Cor 5: 4. He shows that it was not just Paul who was saying this. It was a difficult time in Corinth when he was saying that in chapter 5, but he was pointing out that it is a collective experience. When we come together for a reading, we hallow that meeting; it is not just any old ‘get-together’. We hallow it, and all of our meetings, and most importantly the Lord‘s supper.
I just say these few things based on this scripture. The way the Spirit speaks it is to alert us to this fact, because He says, “the queenalsositting by”. We do not have Haman here; in Esther we have Haman by the king; in other places we have other advisors to the king. Here Nehemiah was the cup-bearer for the king, which was a very close position to the king, but the Spirit says that this woman, the queen, was “sitting by”.
I trust that our gatherings would be like that; I think in some sense they are like that, but I would encourage the sisters especially. Why I said I was speaking to the brothers about sisterhood is because brothers need to know that there is something coming from the sisters spiritually. That is why I said I speak to the brothers about sisterhood; we need to be open and ready for what the Spirit would say. A brother may take what a sister says in prayer and bring it into the meeting, and this is an important thing.
I just leave that with the brethren and suggest we ponder on it a little, for His Name’s sake.
Word in a Ministry Meeting, Wheaton
5th March 2020