Building The City Of God Series

In preaching class they taught us to know our congregations, so speak to their concerns. So as I was preparing this sermon, I asked myself “What do I know about the inner city? Well, when I lived on Eliot just south of Lake St I was mugged walking from my car to my front door. When my brother lived over on 28th and Columbus he was held up at knife point. When I lived over on 33rd, the other side of the freeway, my house was broken into three times in two months. So in many ways I have a very negative view of the inner city. But at the same time it’s also positive. Because in the inner city, at least people aren’t trying to pretend their problems don’t exist. In the suburbs I sometimes think that people are so busy trying to look good that they forget how to be real. But we all face pretty much the same problems because we all live in life, and life’s problems - the ones that matter - are the same for everyone. We struggle with temptation and priorities and discouragement. We all face problems from unemployment to crime, injustice and immorality, alcohol, drugs, broken marriages and rebellious children. Most stressful of all can be a sense of powerlessness, perhaps sometimes even hopelessness in the face of life’s difficulties. But wherever God is working in his church, because of what He can do and has done none of the enemies we face can conquer the love and joy and strength that He gives His people.

God knows everything about my life, and He knows everything about yours. And he has something to say to everyone, whatever their situation. The book of Nehemiah is particularly relevant to city dwellers, I think, because it was written for and about people trying to scratch out a living in a city crumbling into decay. Jerusalem had been sacked and burned by the Babylonians over 100 years before. The people had been carried off into captivity and the city left in ruins. When Cyrus, the Persian King, let the Israelites return, only a few dedicated people went back. They managed to rebuild the temple, but times were hard. The people who had moved in while the Israelites were gone were hostile. Crops had failed and people were hungry. The Arabs and the Greeks were fighting a trade war over their heads, and tradesmen in Jerusalem got squeezed out. The Persian army marched through on its way to Egypt, and then turned around and came back again, this time chased by the Egyptian army. To add insult to injury the Persians then raised taxes to pay for the war. (Does any of this sound familiar, by the way? Taxes and trade wars?) At any rate, the news that came to Nehemiah, who had a nice secure well paid job working for the king of Persia, was this: The walls of the city were broken down, the wooden gates hung broken and useless. Anyone who wanted could come and take over the city. The Jews who were left were really discouraged. They felt that God had abandoned them.

Nehemiah knew that God hadn’t abandoned them. He asked for, and got, a leave of absence from his boss, King Artaxerxes, to go put things right. The book of Nehemiah is the story of how one man who believed in God got everyone to work together. Nehemiah was quite a man. He had extraordinary gifts of leadership and faith. But he didn’t do it - he couldn’t do it - all by himself. Every person in Jerusalem had a part to play. And that’s how God works: he calls all of his people to get involved. That’s why Jesus built the church, so that all of us, working together, can get the job done.

The city of God is no longer just one place, one city, Jerusalem in Judea. The city of God grows wherever His people are working together to build His kingdom. And God is building that city, through the faith and obedience of every one of His people, right here and right now.

We’ll be looking this morning at the third chapter of Nehemiah. I’m not going to read the whole thing because it’s one of those chapters that often make people wonder why God included it in the first place. It’s almost as bad as the genealogies or the lists of nations. Let me give you an example.

Neh 3:1-6. Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the Tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zaccur son of Imri built next to them. The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah.... Meremoth son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, repaired the next section. Next to him Meshullam son of Berekiah, the son of Meshezabel, made repairs, and next to him Zadok son of Baana also made repairs.... The Jeshanah Gate was repaired by Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah.... Next to them, repairs were made by men from Gibeon and Mizpah Melatiah of Gibeon and Jadon of Meronoth....