Nehemiah 3
Please turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah 3. Nehemiah chapter 3 and verse 1. Nehemiah 3 and beginning in verse 1.
This week Drew forwarded me a video whose headline said, “This is how I pronounce Bible names” and then it was a video of a baby going (make baby noises). If any of you feel that you would like to read Nehemiah 3 out loud for us, now is your opportunity. Since there are no takers, if any of you don’t like the way I pronounce some of these Old Testament names, just shut up, because I don’t want to hear about it. I’m sure Hashabneiah, listed in verse 10, mother called him Hash anyway.
- Read Nehemiah 3
- Pray
If we were to briefly recap the first 2 chapters of Nehemiah, you would remember Nehemiah was a cup bearer for king Artaxerxes, the king of Babylon. Many of the Israelites were still in Babylon, where they or their parents/grandparents had been taken as captives more than 70 years earlier after Israel had been disobedient to the Lord. God had them invaded because of their disobedience.
Earlier, the king had allowed some of these exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, but the city had not been rebuilt. Nehemiah’s brother and some traveling companions had come to visit and he had asked about Jerusalem. They had told him that, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned.” (Nehemiah 1:3)
I can almost picture him standing there like Charlton Heston did at the end of the movie Planet of the Apes, when he saw the statue of liberty lying down, nearly covered with sand. He was gut-punched. He was overwhelmed.
So, the Bible tells us in chapter 1, that he prayed and fasted, probably for 4 months before he went in to see the king.
Those are the beginning keys to any great undertaking. A heart for the situation, and prayer asking the Lord’s direction, blessing and wisdom in the situation.
In chapter 2 the king gave him permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls and gates.
Several items we draw from Nehemiah 3. First, this rebuilding was a huge task.
I. HUGE TASK
The Jerusalem that King David conquered from the Jebusites covered only about 12 acres and was defined on three sides by high ridges and deep valleys. The Jebusites had built a massive wall on the vulnerable north side of the city. King David’s son, Solomon, enlarged the city northward to include the area of the Temple Mount. Jerusalem then covered about 32 acres which was still defined on its eastern side by the Kidron Valley. King Hezekiah later expanded the city westward to accommodate its growing population. The entire city then consisted of about 135 acres. When the Assyrians threatened to attack in 701 B.C., Hezekiah built a wall and repaired sections of the original, Jebusite, wall on the eastern side of the city that had been constructed between the top of the ridge and the bottom of the valley (the mid-slope wall). Hezekiah’s wall was very strong, being five meters (16.4 ft.) wide entirely around the city. Archaeologists have uncovered large portions of it that have survived to this day (Benjamin Mazar, The Mountain of the Lord, 1975, pp. 176, 177; Yigal Shiloh, Excavations At The City Of David I, Qedem 19, 1984, p. 29). It was this wall with its gates that Nehemiah repaired after his return from Babylon. King Cyrus captured Babylon in 539 B.C. and by 536 B.C., exactly 70 years after they were taken captive, the Jews were allowed to return to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. In 458 B.C. Ezra brought another group of captives to Jerusalem and in 445 B.C. the final expedition of Jews came to Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah. Artaxerxes agreed to send Nehemiah to Jerusalem, appointed him as Civil Governor for 12 years, and authorized him to complete the rebuilding of the wall (and gates) of the city (Nehemiah 2:8).
So this would be a huge task. The city walls and gates would be 2 1/2 miles long, encompassing roughly 200 acres. And we’re not talking about rolls of wire and and fence posts, we’re talking about walls that were nearly 16 1/2’ thick and over 20’ high.
That wasn’t all that had to be done. The trash from the previous wall would have to be cleared away. The towers had to be rebuilt, the gates had to be rebuilt. But, a city isn’t just walls, towers and gates, it is businesses, homes, people. There was a huge task set before the people.
And Nehemiah didn’t quit or faint when he thought of the task set before him. A lesser man might throw in the towel and say it couldn’t be done. A lesser man might paint flowery pictures and present pipe dreams, but Nehemiah had gone out and surveyed the walls. He had collected a realistic picture of what needed to be done.
I remember years ago, during my first pastorate, attending a community meeting in the town of Ridgely, TN. It was a meeting where many folks in the community gathered, trying to figure out what to do about the drug problem in the town. One thing after another was suggested until many came to the conclusion that the problem was the result of Marshal Lee, the chief of police not doing his job.
Well let me tell you my friends, more law enforcement is not going to fix the ills of our country. Ya’ll know I come from a law enforcement family, but law enforcement is not going to fix the problems in our country. All they can do is lock people up. They can’t change them, so if those folks don’t change, they come out of prison just like they went in, except a little older and a little wiser in how to avoid being caught.
Better politicians are not going to fix our problems. The worse a society gets, the more laws they make, and more laws are not going to fix the problem. No. What our nation, our neighborhoods, and our neighbors need are changed hearts. Only Jesus, can bring about that change. Only Jesus can change a persecuting Saul, into a preaching Paul. Only Jesus can change a cursing thief, into a testifying saint. Jesus is the One Who can open the eyes of a transgender person and show them they are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God and He loves them like He made them. Jesus is the One Who can restore hope to the workaholic dad trying to find meaning in life, or to the strung out street person living for his next fix.
As Andra’e Crouch used to sing in the 70’s, “Jesus is the answer for the world today, above Him there’s no other, Jesus is the way. Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him there’s no other, Jesus is the way.”
“At the first commencement of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, SC, many years ago, Dr. . . . Manly, wrote a hymn which has been sung at every commencement from that day to this. It begins with these words, ‘Soldiers of Christ, in truth arrayed, A world in ruins needs your aid.’
‘A world in ruins needs your aid.’. . . This should be the challenge of every church. We are not to be overly concerned about our personal benefit, we are to be concerned about the blessing and benefit we are to be to others.” [1]
If Nehemiah and the nation faced a great task, then we face an even greater one, for Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples of every nation. For, a world in ruins needs your aid.
This was a huge task.
Second, notice if you will, it was a shared task.
II. IT WAS A SHARED TASK
- Read Nehemiah 3:1-4
The priests built the walls. The goldsmiths built the walls. The druggists built the walls. The merchants built the walls. Everyone shared the work.
This week I was able to attend CattleCon, the national convention for the National Cattle and Beef Association. My daughter-in-law was kind enough to get me in. While there, I got to visit with a lot of people. Landon went with me one day and later complained to Gladys that I would go to a booth, talk with the people there 20 minutes, then move to the next booth and talk to them 20 minutes, on and on, while he acted like an over caffeinated squirrel. He’d disappear and come back a few minutes later with another tee shirt, or another ball cap or something.
Anyway, I got to visit with a lot of people. I stopped at the Purina feed booth and talked with the folks there. They were giving out leather gloves, but only the right hand gloves. If I wanted the left-hand glove, then they told me I had to go to another booth and talk to them about mineral feed supplements and they would give me the other glove.
Well, I went to the second booth and the salesman I met there was the son of a Baptist minister. He said, “Let me tell you about the ministry we are doing.” Then he showed me some pictures of the Montana backwoods, where they take teens hiking and camping and lead the teens in Bible studies.
Later, Landon and I went to the blue jacket social, where current and former FFA members were supposed to visit. Landon and I sat with an older couple and began to talk. The man was a teacher and FFA adviser for 10 years, until he quit, and along with a couple of partners, opened a feed lot and later a livestock auction house.
After a while he began to tell me about their church in South Dakota, and the work they were doing there.
In just a short amount of time, a preacher, a livestock feed salesman, and a slaughter house operator all talking about Jesus. Why? Because building the walls isn’t just for builders, and sharing the gospel isn’t just for preachers. You and I all have a responsibility to be ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I all have the responsibility to tell people about a God Who loved them so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross, to pay the price for their sins, so if they have a relationship with Him they can live with Him in eternity forever.
My friend, this life is short. This life is passing, and it is just preparation for what is coming next. Eternity is a mighty long time, and you and I all have a responsibility to share with others the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And what is the Gospel?
1. God created us all.
2. We have sinned.
3. That sin separates us from God.
4. Jesus came and died on the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we never have to be separated from our heavenly Father again.
5. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And elsewhere we are told, whoever calls upon the name of the world will be saved.
What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
You may say, “But brother Gene, I’m a builder, or I’m a truck driver, or I’m a housewife and mother, or I’m a whatever.” No, you are salt and light, you are witnesses, that makes a living doing those other things.
We are different people, with different occupations, but at the foot of the cross we stand on common ground. The task we have is a shared task.
We often have it wrong and think that everybody at church needs to look the same, when in reality the Bible teaches that we will be very different and have very different gifts and skills and backgrounds and even views on some things that are not biblical absolutes.
Yet that is what makes the body metaphor so beautiful. Even though you can be as different from somebody else as a big toe is different than a nose, that does not make one or the other less important or less needed.
There are some hands that only you can hold.
There are some people who will only cry on your shoulder.
There is someone here who needed to hear you praising God out loud today.
There is someone in the world this week who needs to hear about Jesus from you today.
There is someone here who needs to be ministered to by you today. That’s one of the reasons we have a coffee time and we try to give at least 25 minutes for that, because church is about not just teaching and worship but also fellowship and encouragement through being with each other.
But even though we can be and were even made so differently by our creator God, we all have one purpose.
Notice the phrase that comes up most often in Nehemiah chapter 3: “Next to him…next to him…next to him…next to him…” Do you think everybody there was just best friends? Even if they couldn’t stand each other, they worked next to each other because the mission was too important to let petty things get in their way!
There was a purpose and a focus that was incredible as they built this wall together. It gave them motivation and joy and teamwork. If you asked a person on the northern side of the wall what they were doing, they would have said, “Building the wall of Jerusalem so that God’s people can come and worship without fear and so that God’s purposes can be carried out because Messiah will come to Jerusalem.” Then if you went to the southern side of the wall and asked a worker what he was doing, he would have told you the same thing. [2]
You say, “Well brother Gene, I don’t know where to start.” Where did many of these people build? Many of them built near where they lived. You start where you are, and you start with those near you.
> Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Did you notice how Jesus listed those towns? He started at home and worked out, and that’s the way we are to share. You start at home. You start with those closest to you, and you work out from there.
It is a shared task.
III. IT WAS A MULTDIMENSIONAL TASK
In this passage we are told that walls had to be built. Towers had to be built. Gates had to be rebuilt and rehung. There was the rubble of the old walls that had to be cleaned and cleared away. New foundations had to be laid or old ones cleaned and prepared. There were all kinds of jobs that needed to be done.
There needed to be people skilled with working with lumber. There needed to be people skilled with laying and or making brick. Some needed to be good with mortar.
The same is true in the church. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, beginning in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 21,
> 1 Corinthians 12:21-26 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, which our respectable parts do not need.Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
There is various kinds of work that needs to be done in the kingdom. There is various kinds of work that needs to be done just in this church family. There are buildings to construct. There is grass to mow, weeds to spray, buildings to clean, children and adults to teach, canoes to repair, songs to play and sing. There is stuff to be done in the kingdom, and God has a place for everyone.
Those of you who know Dan/Richard may question what I am about to say, but there no one without a talent or a skill the Lord can use.
Have you ever considered how much you just showing up and worshipping with others encourages them? Have you ever thought about how encouraging it is to Tom when you attend his Sunday School class and pretend to listen? Have you ever thought about how it must encourage Landon when you act like you enjoy his music?
God didn’t make us all the same. We have different gifts. We have different talents, gifts, temperaments and abilities. He made us that way, and He put us together as a church family to work together to share the Gospel.
This is a multidimensional task with something for everyone to do.
And don’t tell me you are too old or too broke down to serve in some way. I’ve told you before about my friend Miss Jennie. Miss Jennie was a missionary in China until the communists took over and kicked the missionaries out. Then she served as a missionary in Japan, until she finally retired. After she retired she moved to the New Tribes Village in Sanford. She prayed for the other New Tribes missionaries, she prayed for me, regularly.
Even after her eyesight got so bad she couldn’t live alone anymore, and moved into the nursing home, she continued to pray for us. She prayed for ya’ll.
Don’t tell me you can’t do anything. Like parts in the body, there is something for everyone to do.
I would challenge every man, every woman, every child, no matter how few or many talents you have, to join in the work of the Lord.
We have only 1 life to live. It will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.
It was a multidimensional task, utilizing the gifts of everyone.
IV. IT WAS A SEPARATING TASK
- Read Nehemiah 3:5, 20
In verse 5, we read of the people from Tekoa, the hometown of the prophet Amos. They jumped on board. They got busy with the work. Their nobles though, didn’t lift a finger to help. They didn’t do a thing.
When folks first started coming to America, there were some men who did the same thing. They believed themselves to be gentlemen and they thought that work, manual labor was beneath them. They just wanted their servants to do the work.
The leaders in the colonies soon put an end to that. They said like Paul did in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If a man will not work neither shall he eat.”
I remember guys I went to school with, who thought they were too good to go preach at the Union Mission. They wanted to preach in big venues where they could see and be seen. I once knew a girl who complained that the worship leader asked her to sing in the evening service. She wanted to do the special music in the morning service where more people could see and appreciate her talent.
My friend, if you believe there is any work that is beneath you, then honestly, I question your salvation. If you remember, Jesus washed the feet of HIs disciples, even the feet of Judas, who was about to betray Him, and then He said, > “Matthew 22:26 It is not to be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever is greatest among you should become like the youngest, and whoever leads, like the one serving.”
Now, compared to these leaders who thought they were too good or too important to work, look in verse
- Read Nehemiah 3:20
The Holy Spirit, in leading Nehemiah to write these memoirs included this statement, “Baruch son of Zabbai[g] diligently repaired another section.”
He didn’t just repair another section, but he did so diligently did so. He was excited about the work being done and he was excited about the opportunity to serve.
What a difference it makes when you serve with people who see the importance of the work we have been called to, and who understand the honor we have been given to be ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, and who serve enthusiastically and passionately.
The task, true mission separates who who are hangers on, and those who truly love the Lord and who love their neighbors, and want to serve both.
Let me ask you this morning a couple of things. First do you know Jesus and do you have a relationship with Him? . . .
Nehemiah Speaks Again, K. Owen White, Broadman Press, Nashville, 1964, p 62.
Why God Calls us to Work Together, Northshire Baptist Church
