The Community that Works (Nehemiah 3)

The last time we studied Nehemiah, we saw that Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to begin his calling to lead the people to rebuild. The Persian king had granted Nehemiah, his trusted advisor and cupbearer, the resources and permission needed to carry out the rebuild. Now it was up to Nehemiah to lead the people to accomplish the task that God set before him.

His first act was to survey the damage and strategize how he might repair the walls. He goes on a covert night mission to observe the needed repairs and then he lays out the plan before the Jews in Jersualem. Their response was beautifully portrayed,

“Let us rise up and rebuild”

When opposition from neighboring Samaritans started to arise, Nehemiah quickly responds with a confident cry of faith in YHWH,

Nehemiah 2:20 (ESV)

20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build…!

Chapters 3-6 documents the building process with chapter 3 describing the detailed process of the work and workers while chapters 4-6 deals with opposition and distraction to the work.

I had (READER) read chapter 6:15-16,

neh 6:15-16 “15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”

This is a good summary of the next 4 chapters as the people work on the wall which was completed extremely proficiently in 52 days.

Our focus this afternoon will be chapter 3 as we look at how 4 observations of community of faith working together to accomplish God’s task for them. When considering this passage, these observations are most helpful for the church today as we consider our mission in this world. These chapters will demonstrate a resolve and unity among the people of Judah to accomplish God’s mission by working together, being unified in the midst of people trying to bring division, distractions, and disfunction in their midst. The church can learn these great lessons as we bear proudly the task from the Lord Jesus of maximum Kingdom impact for God’s great name.

The role of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility 2:20

How does God fulfill his mission in this world? How are the lost won to Christ? How does the church continue to grow and expand across the world?

These are great questions that God’s people must inquire of in regards to teh teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the answer that we will find is this:

By God’s sovereign faithfulness to work and Man’s responsibility to act in His work!

At the end of chapter 2, in response to words of skepticism, Nehemiah gives a solid theological foundation for his efforts, “The God of heaven will make us prosper.” What Nehemiah is stating is that prosperity will come THROUGH their human efforts by the power of God’s sovereignty working.

The sovereignty of God is an undeniable and necessary theological tenet of our belief in Him. He is the Lord who sits in heaven (ps 3:4) on the throne (ps 11:4) as king forever (ps 29:10) ruling the nations (ps 22:28). This truth of God’s absolute power to carry forth his will in His creation gives His people great comfort as we trust in Him day by day. We find comfort in his power in our weakness and in our rejoicing. He provides, protects, and guides us according to his will.

Nehemiah was trusting that no matter what difficulty might come their way, God’s power and gracious hand would lead them to accomplish the task of rebuilding set before them. No one could stop the work from being completed with God’s power driving it to completion.

But Nehemiah was not idly sitting back trusting bricks to fall from the sky, with mortar spontaneously appearing to fill the joints. He was called to lead the people to action and they had a responsibility to act. They sacrificed their time and their energy to accomplish the task God’s leader set before them and they would accomplish it in His strength.

In the church today, especially in our church, we want to preach a healthy balance of God’s sovereignty our lives with mankind’s responsibility to submit to that rule and act accordingly. This means that action is necessary, actions of faith by His people to orient their lives according to his will. We trust him to do great things and we align our lives to be the vehicle by which he does them.

Also, this requires that we avoid the dangers of leaning too far in one direction while ignoring the tension in both these things. In other words, we can stress the importance of the follower of Jesus Christ being holy, living according to the words of God, being faithful, but if we are not careful, then we might begin to deny that only in God’s power working in us to obey. This danger is to begin to think that man’s efforts are powerful in and of themselves and in our strength do we find God and please God.

In the opposite direction, we can also lean so heavily in God’s sovereignty that we are theologically paralysed to actual work for the Lord. Some call this a fatalistic belief that states that, “well if God is sovereign, then he will make what needs to happen, happen!” This is not a theologically correct belief because we clearly see in Hebrews 11 that it is the faithful people who love God that God uses to accomplish his great power and strength.

Like the Jews in Jerusalem accomplishing this great task of rebuilding the walls, God has called his church to trust in His sovereign power and to act in obedience and faith to his commands. We are not rebidding walls but we are co-laborers in the construction of God’s kingdom. We all are called to participate and build together for the glory of God’s name.

The Unity of workers

There is a lot of repetition in this chapter as the work is described and the workers are documented. Try not to get lost in the repeating phrases and instead see the rhythm of what is occuring by God’s people. There is unity among the people as they work for a common goal. Tim talked about this two weeks ago as he taught from Philippians 1 about the mission driven focus of God’s church to united as one and working together in partnership. Paul wrote:

Philippians 1:3–5 ESV

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Paul was thankful for the Philippians and the way that they supported him and worked with him to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we fly over chapter 3 at 30,000 feet, we can see also how there is a united focus of the Jews to one common goal, to rebuild the city of God in order that His name would be honored among the nations.

The unity of the work can be seen in a few reoccurring words and phrases:

Built (5x), Repaired(35x)

Next to…(15x)

set its doors, its bolts, its bars (7x)

There are 10 gates listed in the city that were repaired along with the walls that connected each gate. It appears from the text that 40 sections are mentioned and are rebuilt so the city can be secured again.

VIDEO( this sketch on the screen shows us the vast nature of the work, how the work is listed starting at the Sheep Gate and working counter-clockwise around the city)

To complete this task in a little under two months is a miracle in itself but it goes to show us what amazing feats can be accomplished when there is unity among people and we are all working towards one common goal.

Unity in the church as a whole is in jeopardy in this day and time. The diversity of ideas and beliefs floating out there in the world are wedging themselves into the church and splintering the church from within. Disagreements among brothers and sisters in Christ are leading to disfunction from the body of Christ.

There are theological stands that we take as the church, to guard and protect the good testimony that has been entrusted to us. We must fight to keep the gospel message from being corrupted and manipulated by the culture. The culture does not change the gospel message although the gospel message does change the culture. But while the preservation of the good news of Christ is worthy battle to engage in, secondary issues should not divide and distract us from the spread of the gospel in this world.

The Lord Jesus died upon the cross and supernaturally wed all of his followers together in a mystical union with himself and each other. There is nothing on this planet throughout the ages that exists like the union with Christ and his church. Because we are united with him in his death and resurrection, then we should strive to focus our attention on what really matters to Jesus Christ- his message is proclaimed and the power of the gospel changes lives.

One example that I might give regarding these distractions is COVID. If I asked everyone to raise their hands as to who is and is not vaccinated, then our minds would be so flooded with ideas and opinions about the narrative surrounding COVID, then we would completely distracted from the purpose of why we gather at church, to declare the glory of Christ, the show the love of Christ to each other and the world. Upon knowing the fellow brother and sister in Christ’s vaccination status, you might then choose to act differently towards them in the future, thus hindering how you might minister to them because their actions and beliefs about COVID might be different than yours. We can have different opinions, disagree and still love each other and work towards a common goal of accomplishing the mission God has given us.

The Diversity of workers

Notice also the diversity of those working on the wall that shows unity with diversity. These workers all banded together to work on one common goal and yet their diversity shows that we God had formed different invidiuals to work together.

Religious leaders

High Priest

Nehemiah 3:1 ESV

1 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.

This chapters also mentions the Levites working (v. 17) and the temple servants (v. 26)

You might expect that the religious leaders be the ones who refrained from the physical labors in order to focus on their religious duties, but in this case, they labored along with the rest of them, building their sections near the sheep gate.

Civic leaders

8 different rulers of districts in and around Jerusalem are mentioned as those engaged in the rebuilding. They are rulers with authority and yet they worked with the rest to accomplish the goal.

While most were active in the work, it is sad to see verse 5, which reads,

Nehemiah 3:5 ESV

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

This shows that not everyone was united as you might expect when the work of the Lord is being accomplished. There will be nay-sayers, critics and skeptics from outside the church and within. We will look next week at opposition to the work on a greater scale. Yet the Tekoites, without the support and help from their leaders, worked doubly hard as they were documented in v 27 as finishing an additional section of the wall.

Common people

The work was not just left to the leaders to accomplish but families of the Jews rose up to rebuild. The names listed clarify that these people were from all different walks of life. Business leaders are mentioned such as goldsmiths, perfume-makers, merchants. But the rest of the people listed are just common people, men and women assigned by Nehemiah to work, and who were faithful to work towards the goal. They were given their section of the wall to rebuild and they accomplished the goal. It didn’t matter their social status or their income level. They worked together United with diversity.

I talked about this three weeks ago about the need for all of us to carry out the Kingdom Mission work that GOd has set before us. I reminded all of us that God has gifted his people by his Spirit with gifts to serve the church.

James Boice states in his commentary on Nehemiah,

“This is the basis of what the Bible teachers today call, “every member ministry.”It means that the ministers in the churches are to prepare the people in the pews to do the work of the ministry. That is the clergy are to teach the laity and the laity are to do the work serving each other and the world.

Unfortunately, many churches have it completely turned around. It is said that today the churches are more than anything else resemble a football game played in a large stadium. There are 80,000 spectators who badly needs some exercise and there are 22 men on the field who badly need a rest.”

This is so true of so many churches but I will say with such great thankfulness of you that this is not true of our church. We have established from the beginning of our churches existence that the elders cannot do all the work of the ministry. We have encouraged you to serve and be involved, and you have and continue to meet the needs of this body of believers. Each one of our members serve in a multitude of ways and for that I am thankful. You reflect the unity that is seen by the Jews and the unity that Jesus Christ came to bring with his death and resurrection.

The Totality of the work:

Finally, we fast forward to the scripture passage read this morning

Neh 6:15-16 “15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”

We will finally get to this in a few weeks but I want you to see that the finished the wall. Their work was not in vain but it was completed in 52 days. All 40+ sections of the wall were finished and in doing so, the labor of their hands was a way of worshipping God.

This completion of the work shows the willingness of the people who sacrificed their energy and time to do what God called them to accomplish. There are numerous examples of this in Scripture like the Jews building the wall, Noah building the ark, but there is no great example than the Lord Jesus finishing the work that He was sent to complete. He was faithful to the end to provide all that was needed to that His people could be saved from their sins and that peace could be once against established between God and man. His faithfulness to go to the cross is our motivation as His church to be faithful also to the mission He has for us.

As a church, completing another year of existence, let us commit together to bond together for the work that God has called us to accomplish for his name. Let us work hard and fight hard for the faith. Let us be united like a herd of elephants traveling across the plains of Africa who travel together united, who bond closely when danger is near to protect the weak, and who reach their end destination. Let us not allow our differences to be distractions, or our opponents to be victorious in paralyzing our work for the glory of Christ. Most of all, let Jesus be our reason and motivation to do all that is set before us as His church!