Repair Work (Nehemiah 3:1-32)

Introduction

A. Preliminaries

Good Morning.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the third chapter of Nehemiah. The text for the sermon this morning is the entirety of the third chapter, which we will read selections from this morning. You can find it on Page 469 of the Bibles in your pews.

Where we last left off was Nehemiah’s call to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. That’s the central plot line of the Book of Nehemiah—the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls.

So we find in Nehemiah 2:17

Nehemiah 2:17 ESV

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.”

B. Sermon Text

And so if you will join me at the start of Chapter 3, the whole chapter is 32 verses. For our purposes here, I’m going to read the first 15 of those to give you a sense of the pattern that goes for the whole of the chapter:

Nehemiah 3:1–15 ESV

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built. The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz repaired. And next to them Meshullam the son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabel repaired. And next to them Zadok the son of Baana repaired. And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Gate of Yeshanah. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, the seat of the governor of the province Beyond the River. Next to them Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, goldsmiths, repaired. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, repaired, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph repaired opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah repaired. Malchijah the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section and the Tower of the Ovens. Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired, he and his daughters. Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the Dung Gate. Malchijah the son of Rechab, ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king’s garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David.

And that’s just half our passage this morning. But let us stop there for the moment and acknowledge that however confusing we might find such lists, we must confess again that

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God!

C. On Preaching Difficult Texts

When I was preparing this sermon, it occurred to me that it might be profitable to sort of pop the hood on the work of preparing a sermon and let all of you in on some of the process.

Because sermon writing is not magic. The process requires a lot of you, but it boils down to grasping the meaning within a text and helping us apply it to the sin that tempts us, and the fears that threaten us and so on.

And sometimes finding that meaning is pretty easy. There are didactic portions of Scripture that are easy to read and easy to preach.

Love the Lord your God

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Be doers of the word, not hearers only, so deceiving yourselves.

It is by grace you have been saved through faith.

These passages do not stretch the brain that much concerning what they mean. They stretch the heart. They stir the soul. The applications are limitless. These are passages that are hard to live out, but easy to understand, easy to grasp, and easy to preach from.

But what do we do with narrative portions like this? What do you do with stories in the Bible? Or lists of names like this? It’s not exactly the same kind of approach. The stories in the Bible are often shrouded in subtlety, and they don’t usually spell out the meaning or the moral of the story.

In cases like that, what a Preacher is given to do is to figure out what are the timeless principles that are in this story. What’s true in the story that remains true today? And sometimes that means noticing things that might not have bright spotlights on them, and drawing out the principle, even if by metaphor or analogy.

So, that’s what we are going to do this morning. Reflect on some things that are going in in this list in Nehemiah and how we might be encouraged and admonished by them. Some of them are not going to be obvious from the text, but as I will show you—the principle is still there.

So what is this?

The third chapter of Nehemiah works through the names of the various people involved in the rebuilding of the wall, and tells you who they were, a bit about their background, and what they had been assigned to do. The wall of Jerusalem gets divided up into sections for the work, and the sections are usually marked out by the various gates.

D. Sermon Prayer

Let’s Pray

O Lord, make your Word a swift Word, passing from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip and conversation; that, as the rain returns not empty, so neither may your Word, but accomplish that for which it is given. Amen.

(Prayer by George Herbert)

E. Transition to Sermon

So, the sermon this morning will be a bit different. We’ve got a list here. A list of names and the repair work they get assigned.

But I don’t want you to forget this. God writes the best stories. And the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah are stories, and Chapter 3 here—this list—is part of the story.

And from this part of the story, I think we can draw out some principles that are relevant to our work today as a people and a church.

So it won’t be three points this morning. I’ve got five observations I’m going to go through at a brisk pace, and then some concluding thoughts on why all of this matters.

So, first, the first thing I want you to notice is,

First: Almost Everyone was Working

Including the high priest (3:1). He starts working on the sheep gate. It’s called that because that’s where the sheep were brought for sacrifice.

But this is important to note that the priests usually did not engage in this kind of work. Their gifting was elsewhere.

And there’s some sensibility in having a division of labor in the church. The elders, for example are charged with the ministry of the word and prayer and the shepherding of the people. The deacons are charged to oversee mercy ministry, and to handle a lot of the surrounding work of upkeep and maintinence.

But this doesn’t mean that there’s a priestly class in the church that’s above certain kinds of work.

Because the work of the church is for all the people—something we will come back to a lot in this sermon.

So. Everyone was working...

Second: ...Except those who were too Good for Work

We meet these people called the Tekoites. These are people who lived in a town called Tekoa which was in Judah, and was about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. And we find there that not everybody was working Their nobles were too good to work. We read

Nehemiah 3:5 ESV

And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

What a verse. Imagine being immortalized for being too good to serve the Lord.

Probably what this is, is resentment of new leadership. These guys had been living on the land before the exiles returned. And now suddenly here comes this big group of returned exiles with special orders from the Persian King. And commentators have supposed that there might be some resentment in play here--who is this Nehemiah? Who does he think he is?

Let us remember that Jesus took a towel and washed feet the night before his betrayal. And there is work to be done in the church that doesn’t feel especially glamarous. We are constantly in need of volunteers to brew some coffee on a Sunday morning, or prep a meal for Wednesday night, or teach a children’s class, or show up for a church work day where we continue to work and keep this place that the Lord in his kindness has given to us. So, everyone was working, except for those who weren’t.

Third: The Work of God’s People is “Unity in Action”

We can see here in Nehemiah something that was rarely seen in his day, and--if we are honest--rarely seen in ours, too. And that is that almost all the people were working together across social and economic distinctions. You had city officials, security officials, priests, men, women, sons, daughters, all working on different sections of the wall.

Derek Thomas mentions that the roster includes 41 separate groups including Levites, temple servants, goldsmiths, merchants, private individuals, and even a man working alongside his daughters who get special mention in verse 12:

Nehemiah 3:12 ESV

Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired, he and his daughters.

That should be a strong encouragement to children and young people in the church. You can help too. You may not be strong enough to build a wall, but you can help pick up trash, or be kind to someone who’s new, or sing loudly when we worship together. Jesus loves it when we help each other, and no one is too small to be useful in His Kingdom. I want the children and young people in the room to know I love it when you show up for church work days. You might not be running the chain saw, but you are helping, and I so appreciate that help.

And I think it is interesting that we see God’s work getting done, when people are united on mission together, working shoulder to shoulder.

And I think there’s some good things for us to learn here. Because usually what takes shape in churches is that all the work becomes a matter of preference and specialization. Here’s what I mean.

It’s a children’s event? Oh, I don’t have kids, that’s not for me. It’s a singing thing? Oh, that’s not really my thing, I don’t do singing. Oh, it’s a Bible study? A topical study? Eh, I don’t really care for that topic, that must not be for me. Oh there’s a church picnic? Well, I can’t really bring anything, so I won’t go.

And then, before you know it, we feel disconnected from each other, because everything we do is some sort of specialized nieche event, meant only for certain people.

And the problem is that the question we ask is not, is this good for the body and am I a part of the body? The question we tend to ask is does this suit me? Is this my thing? Was this made for me? And dear saints, that is the wrong question. The better question is what might our Lord Jesus do with a body of different gifts and different parts united in mission before God and men, committed to building the Lord’s Kingdom on earth together with the help of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of the Triune God?

Fourth, there was Personal Investment

An interesting thing you might notice as your read through this list is that several of the people were building near their homes.

Nehemiah 3:10 ESV

Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph repaired opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah repaired.

Nehemiah 3:23 ESV

After them Benjamin and Hasshub repaired opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah repaired beside his own house.

Nehemiah 3:28 ESV

Above the Horse Gate the priests repaired, each one opposite his own house.

And that’s really smart, because nothing ensures committed work like building near your home. Do you think that people might have had a vested interest in making sure the walls of Jerusalem were strong right around the area where they lived?

This was the heartbeat behind our study on Wednesday night about hospitality. If you want to see the Kingdom of God expand, start with your street and your neighborhood. This is just basic tactics—you take the ground closest to you.

So that’s #4: There was personal investment.

Fifth, the Focus was not on Expertise

There’s a conversation in our culture that’s been happening I think especially since 2020 above the proper function of experts in the larger society. Certainly you want highly qualified people in important positions where they can do the most good. That’s a good thing to have.

What you do not want is a manigerial class telling everyone what to eat, what to drink, how to enjoy the good life, how to relate to others, what they should and should not buy, when to get divorced, how to raise the kids, and so on.

And in this list, as I said you’ve got merchants and goldsmiths and priests. You know what’s missing from the list? Nobody is called a “skilled wall builder.” And remarkably enough, there’s not even mention of carpenters or stone masons.

So how were nonprofessionals able to achieve so much? The simple answer is behold the power of the Holy Spirit in a highly motivated and highly united people. Be amazed at what is possible when all the people of God are working together toward a goal.

You might remember, when we went through the book of Ephesians, we got to a really important passage in Chapter 4 that talked about how God blesses his people with gifts

Ephesians 4:11–13 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And I think it was Steve Mathis who pointed out to me when I was preparing that sermon, he said “Did you notice how the text doesn’t say that the shepherds and teachers are sent to do all the work of ministry? They’re sent to equip the saints for the work of ministry, and that’s for every single member of the body.

The work of the church is not something entrusted to theology experts. It is for the entire body.

Conclusion: For the Worship of God

Jerusalem needed to be in order so that the people could offer worship as God had prescribed it. Additionally, the city had to be protected from enemies.

In other words, the wall wasn’t just about security or infrastructure. It was about enabling the people to come together in the presence of God to offer Him praise, repentance, and thanksgiving. It was about their covenant life together.

On this side of the cross, the city and temple have taken on new meaning. Now, the people of God are the temple. Peter calls us living stones, being built into a spiritual house, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And we all belong to Jerusalem above, in the words of the author of Hebrews, the “city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God”

But the truth remains: God is still in the business of rebuilding broken things. And He does so not with mighty armies or elite builders—but with ordinary people, gathered and gifted by the Spirit, committed to the glory of Christ.

And this leads us to the greatest repair work in all of Scripture: the cross of Jesus Christ. When our lives lay in ruins because of sin, when we were broken beyond repair, Jesus came not simply to give us a job, but to do the impossible work for us. He bore our shame outside the gates of the city so that we could be welcomed into the eternal city, one that he has already started building here. He was torn down so we could be restored. He was cast out so we could be brought in.

And now He is building His church with living stones by the power of the Holy Spirit. And He calls us not just to admire His work, but to join in it.

So ask yourself today: Where is God calling me to pick up a shovel? Where can I stand shoulder to shoulder with the body of Christ—not out of guilt, not to earn anything, but out of gratitude for the Savior who came to repair what I could never fix?

This is the great work we have been given. To be a people marked not by personal preferences or slothful passivity, but by joyful labor in the Kingdom of God—until the day when the work is done, when every tear is wiped away, and the New Jerusalem descends in glory.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.