Loving Your City By Loving Your Church

Scripture Reading/Prayer

Today’s Scripture reading is going to come from Nehemiah Chapters 12 and 13, but we are going to skip around several different places because there is too much text to read at once. If you want to read those later on, you’re more than welcome to.

We are going to begin reading in Chapter 12 verse 27, and I will let you know when we are going to skip ahead to other verses. Beginning with 27:

Nehemiah 12:27–31 ESV

And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites; also from Beth-gilgal and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem. And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall. Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. One went to the south on the wall to the Dung Gate.

Nehemiah 12:43 ESV

And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

We are now going to read the last two verses of Chapter 13:

Nehemiah 13:30–31 ESV

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

Let us pray:

Almighty God and Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for today. We thank you that you have allowed us to freely gather together to worship and praise your name, to hear your Word and fellowship with other believers. I pray that as we conclude our series on Nehemiah tonight that we would understand how we are to love and serve your church, and how you love your people so much you sent your son to be the sacrificial offering to atone for their sins. I ask this in the name of Christ, amen.

Nehemiah 13:1–31 ESV

On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent. Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense. I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses. And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers. Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service. In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love. In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?” And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

Introduction

Tonight we are going to be wrapping up our series on the book of Nehemiah, and just like Andrew talked about last week how we can love our city by loving the word of God, tonight we are going to look at how we can love our city by loving the church. But, like we have seen throughout the entirety of the book of Nehemiah, it’s not always easy to do these things. We deal with confusion, opposition, fear, and other obstacles as we seek to love our city and serve it, and tonight will be no exception as we talk about loving the church.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering why I skipped basically all of chapter 13 when reading the text. If you look at the text and skim over it, you’ll see there’s quite a bit of stuff going on! The reason why I skipped all of these verses was because, as I was studying and preparing for this sermon, I realized that the easiest way to talk about all of these verses wasn’t to read them all at once, but to summarize what is going on instead. Some of the things that take place in the verses I skipped over could receive entire sermons on their own. At Redeemer, we want to preach through the entire Word of God, line by line, verse by verse, but sometimes in order to communicate the text effectively we have to take a different approach with it. We are not ashamed of the contents of the Word of God, and it’s because we believe that all of God’s word is important for us as Christians that we want to make sure we present it in such a way that is genuinely helpful.

First, let’s establish a birds-eye view of everything that is going on in this text.

But first, let’s establish a birds-eye view of everything that is going on in this text.

Narrative

Chapter 12 is largely a chapter of celebration. The walls of Jerusalem have been rebuilt and it was time to dedicated the completed wall to the Lord. Service at the temple was also resuming to what it once used to be. Both of these events result in these grand and massive celebrations for the people. Nehemiah assembles these two gigantic choirs and puts one choir at the south end and another at the north end, and their singing and celebration was so massive and loud that the text says “the joy of Jerusalem was heard from far away.” And if you think about all of the events of the book of Nehemiah, it’s amazing that they got to this point! There was so much to celebrate! A commentary that I read for this sermon lists several things that Nehemiah does over the course of this book, starting with:

Now it’s at this point that I want to stop and make a couple of things very clear. I know there are some of us in here

Securing permission to rebuild the city from King Artaxerxes, who was a pagan king

Constructing a plan to build the walls

Inspiring a defeated and dispirited people

Overcame a massive barrage of internal and external opposition

Successfully reconstructing the walls

Leading a national revival in obedience to the Lord

Reorganizing and repopulating the city

This is a remarkable lists of accomplishments and deserve the largest celebrating you can throw for it! The city had been rebuilt. The people of God had returned from exile. They were able to worship and serve the Lord in the temple. Do you remember the excitement and joy the city of Amarillo had once the Sod Poodles stadium was finished and open to the public? Imagine that multiplied by a thousand, and you’d be getting close to the joy the people of God had as a result of what God had done for them.

And then we get to Chapter 13, and much like the title of this sermon series, we come to find that all is not well. Nehemiah, having done what he set out to do, leaves Jerusalem and returns to the service of the King for a season. We don’t know how long Nehemiah is gone, but judging by the issues that crop up, it seems like it’s a good amount of time, because the stuff Nehemiah has to deal with isn’t stuff that just comes up overnight.

First, while Nehemiah is gone, the priest at the temple, who’s name is Eliashib, gives a particular individual a large chamber in the temple. This chamber had been used to store grain, frankincense, and other materials necessary to the work of the temple, but now it was this particular individual’s rent-free pad. Want to guess who this person is? It’s none other than Tobiah, one of Nehemiah’s enemies from earlier in the book! Nehemiah’s enemy is living in the house of God! You can imagine how angry Nehemiah must’ve been - the text says that when Nehemiah shows up, he just starts cleaning house and yeets Tobiah and all his stuff out on to the streets. But this is only the first of Nehemiah’s problems that he has to deal with.

The rest of the chapter then begins going into a list of sins the people of God had fallen into during the time Nehemiah was gone, and in order to make sense of everything that is going on here, we actually need to look real quick at chapters 8-10 of Nehemiah. In chapter 8-10, we see Nehemiah and Ezra the priest (the guy who the book of Ezra is named after) reading the entire Law to the people. The people become convicted of their sins and respond in repentance, and they make renew their covenant pledge to follow in the Law that the Lord has given them. Specifically, there were six things in particular the people agreed to do:

Not to intermarry with people of other nations.

To honor the Sabbath and abstain from commercial trade on the Sabbath

To pay the temple tax required in the Law

To provide for the other needs of the temple when required

To dedicate their firstborn to the Lord

To pay their tithes to the Levites

So fast forward a little bit - when Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem, guess what the people are doing? Yep - everything that they said they weren’t going to do. Nehemiah has to call the people to repentance again on each of these points in Chapter 13. He confronts the officials of the city for neglecting to take care of the temple and the Levites. He confronts the businessmen in the city who are working on the Sabbath. He publicly rebukes and shames those who have married men and women from other nations. Nehemiah is not going to let the people of God fall back into sin, and is willing to do whatever he needs to do to lead the people to holiness.

Nehemiah the Shepherd

Now at this point you might be thinking “what does this have to do with loving your church?” And that’s a fair question to ask. As Christians, our spiritual lives do not revolve around the temple and the sacrificial system anymore, and so a lot of what is going on at the end of Nehemiah doesn’t seem very relevant to our lives. Instead of looking at the issues the people of God are struggling with, I want us instead to look at Nehemiah and his actions and ask what