Barbarians At The Gates
Nehemiah 13:1-31
Intro: Back in 1990 Bryan Burrough and John Helyar wrote a book titled Barbarians At The Gates. In 1993 that book was made into a movie. Some of you may have seen the movie. It was about the hostile takeover of RJR Nabisco by unwanted investors. As I read and studied our scripture this morning, I saw the same thing happening in Jerusalem. There was a takeover of what God had intended for his people. People who weren’t focused on God but rather on themselves are taking over the church. There were barbarians at the gates and the future of Jerusalem and God’s people was at stake. You see these barbarians were attempting a hostile takeover of the church.
. Now I googled hostile takeover and in basically says that this happens when someone or some organization takes control of an organization even when the leaders or board of directors don’t want it to happen. It happens many times because the people in charge are not paying attention to what is going on.
. What had happened here in Jerusalem was that Nehemiah had returned to Babylon and king Artaxerxes.
. If you remember back several months ago when we started in Nehemiah, Nehemiah had asked the kings permission to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls
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. Part of that conversation is recorded back in chapter 2 verses 4-6
. 4The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?”With a prayer to the God of heaven,
5 I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.”
6The king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked, “How long will you be gone? When will you return?” After I told him how long I would be gone, the king agreed to my request.
. Nehemiah traveled back to his homeland and successfully led the people in rebuilding the walls.
. Being true to his word, he returned to Babylon to resume his duties as the Kings cupbearer after the walls were finished.
. While he was gone though, the barbarians started gathering at the gates.
. As we look through our scripture this morning we see that they wanted to do.
.Change the purpose of the church.
. The first thing we see here is that they wanted to change the purpose or function of the church.
. Look with me at verses 4-9 of chapter 13.
…. Eliashib the priest, who had been appointed as supervisor of the storerooms of the Temple of our God and who was also a relative of Tobiah,
5 had converted a large storage room and placed it at Tobiah’s disposal. The room had previously been used for storing the grain offerings, the frankincense, various articles for the Temple, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and olive oil (which were prescribed for the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers), as well as the offerings for the priests.
6 I was not in Jerusalem at that time, for I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign, though I later asked his permission to return.
7When I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about Eliashib’s evil deed in providing Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of the Temple of God.
8I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out of the room.
9Then I demanded that the rooms be purified, and I brought back the articles for God’s Temple, the grain offerings, and the frankincense.
. When Nehemiah left, the barbarians started to weasel their way into the fabric of the Jewish community and faith.
. Eliashib was the priest who had been left in charge and he defiled God’s house by taking a room that had been set aside for the things of God and allowed Tobiah , one of his relatives to remove the things of God and move into the Temple of God.
. Nehemiah found out what had happened and threw Tobiah out.
. Scripture says that he purified the room.
. The word in the original language that we translate purify could also be translated fumigate.
. Nehemiah wanted all of Tobiah’s sin gone, even the smell of him.
. The Temple was God’s house and there was a purpose for each and every room within the Temple.
. The church was a place to worship and teach their children about God. Not a boarding house.
. While we don’t have a Temple today, we do have churches and they should be established for the purpose of worship.
. Folks, the barbarians are at the gates of our places of worship today.
. We are turning them into coffee houses and restaurants.
. Places of networking instead of places of worship.
. Clay told you last week about a man he knew that was saved in his seventies. He had spent his whole life in church. He told of going to church because that what the upstanding people in the community did. He had been ordained as a deacon and served on many committees year after year.
. For Him, The function of the church was to help him in his business.
. Look with me at verses 15&16.
. 15In those days I saw men of Judah treading out their winepresses on the Sabbath. They were also bringing in grain, loading it on donkeys, and bringing their wine, grapes, figs, and all sorts of produce to Jerusalem to sell on the Sabbath. So I rebuked them for selling their produce on that day.
16Some men from Tyre, who lived in Jerusalem, were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise. They were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah—and in Jerusalem at that!
. The gathering at the Temple for worship had become an opportunity to sell goods.
.The people were not coming to the Temple to worship, they were coming for commerce.
. Look at what Nehemiah did in verse 17.
17So I confronted the nobles of Judah. “Why are you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way?” I asked.
. He confronted the people and then in verse 19 we see what he did.
. 19Then I commanded that the gates of Jerusalem should be shut as darkness fell every Friday evening, not to be opened until the Sabbath ended. I sent some of my own servants to guard the gates so that no merchandise could be brought in on the Sabbath day.
.The barbarians were at the gates so Nehemiah guarded the gates so that the merchants could not come and make God’s house something that it was not supposed to be.
. Jesus handled this problem a little differently.
.John Chapter 2. Jesus comes into Jerusalem for the Passover and He goes to the Temple and He sees much of the same thing Nehemiah saw.
.Look at what He did. John 2:13-16
. 13It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem.
14In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.
15Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.
16Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
. The merchants would have turned the church into nothing but a market place.
. Sadly, for many, that’s what the function of the church is today.
. It is not a place to worship God. It is a place to gather and fellowship and be seen. A place to build our networks and businesses.
. Folks the enemy would love for the function of the church to be nothing more than a place to meet or a place to come and be entertained.
. The barbarians are at the gates of many of our churches who are more concerned about entertaining you than telling you about Jesus.
. I realize that the church serves many functions in this day and age but we cannot allow it to become just a tool for our entertainment or position within the community.
. We must preserve and use what God has given us to honor and glorify Him.
. Folks the Barbarians would love to change the function of the church.
. Nehemiah says NO, you must not allow Gods church to become something that God does not intend for it to be.
. Our church must be a place of love and compassion with a mission of sharing Jesus Christ with the community.
. Next we see that the barbarians wanted to infiltrate and bring idol worship into the worship of the true God.
. Look at verses 23-26 with me:
. 23About the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all.
25So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with the pagan people of the land.
26“Wasn’t this exactly what led King Solomon of Israel into sin?” I demanded. “There was no king from any nation who could compare to him, and God loved him and made him king over all Israel. But even he was led into sin by his foreign wives.
. The marriage to non Jewish men or women had been forbidden by God.
. Not to be prejudice, but to keep the faith pure and not bring other pagan religions into their worship.
. The people were in danger of bringing idol worship into their families and into the Jewish faith.
. Nehemiah was so distraught at this that he beat some of them and pulled out their hair.
. This could not be permitted. The worship of the one true God had to be preserved.
. Paul in writing to the Corinthian church warned them about this very same thing.
. Look at 2 Corinthians 6: 14-16:
. 14Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?
15What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?
16And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.
. The KJV says that we are not to be unequally yoked.
. We should not bond or marry ourselves to non believers.
. In those days, they were concerned that idol worship would be brought into the church. That was the custom in many areas.
. Today we don’t worry about idol worship but what happens is our faith gets watered down.
. Our churches are moving away from the substitutionary atonement for our sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
. The blood offends people so we don’t want to talk about it.
. Many churches don’t teach that in order for sin to be forgiven, there must be a shedding of blood.
. In order for our sin to be covered, blood must be shed.
. This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
. Man had sinned and had tried to cover their nakedness and shame by making aprons out of leaves to cover themselves.
.You remember the story.
. Then God made coverings for their nakedness and shame out of animal skins.
. In order for this to happen, blood had to be shed for the skins of the animals.
. God did and has always required this for the covering of our sins.
. Churches are watering down what all this means and Jesus is becoming just a nice guy who tells you how to live a good life.
. Folks, the barbarians are at the gates and they want to infiltrate the faith and worship of the one true God.
. We must guard our faith, just as Nehemiah and the Apostle Paul told us.
. Folks we must be ever vigilant that we don’t allow our church to lose its focus.
. There are Barbarians at the gates just waiting to change our focus off God and onto ourselves.
Invitation.
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
