The city of Berlin, Germany will be forever famous for its infamous Wall. When the wall
was still in existence, you could walk up and down in front of the wall and see shrines
dedicated to those that were killed trying to escape from the oppression of the East to the
freedom of the West. The Berlin wall gained fame as a wall that divided, but the city of
Jerusalem is also famous for its walls. In Nehemiah’s time, it was a wall that united
people together.
The latter part of Chapter 12 that we will be using as our focal passage this morning, tells
the story of the dedication of the wall around Jerusalem. It describes a wonderful event
which was evidently postponed for a while until the city had been repopulated. Over the
past four weeks we have been looking at the book of Nehemiah and his works for God in
the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem.
In today’s portion we find that the wall is built. The gates are hung. The city is well
defended and it is filled with people. There is an air of excitement and great joy seems to
be bursting forth from every person regardless of age. There is a great celebration taking
place and I think that we can learn a great deal about our God, about His desires for our
joy and enjoyment, and learn much about ourselves along the way.
Celebration of and celebration before our God should be something that is well planned
and well carried out. Most of the time when we get together to celebrate we simply allow
what ever happens to happen. We don’t give the celebration much thought or planning
and don’t stop to consider that in the book of Colossians 3:23-24 we are directed to,
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the
Lord Jesus Christ that you are serving.” You see even when we celebrate we are to honor
God with our best effort.
The workers of Nehemiah had reason to celebrate and they had reason to do so with great
joy. God had provided strength with which to complete the wall. He had afforded them
protection from the opposition that we learned about a few weeks. God brought them
back to their ancestral city, one that had not been inhabited for 160 years. And most
importantly, God had provided a means by which a great spiritual awakening could and
did happen for the people of Israel.
Read Scripture:
27 Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites in all their
places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with
thanksgivings and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps. 28 And the
sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Jerusalem, ... 30 Then
the priests and Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, the gates, and the
wall. 31 So I brought the leaders of Judah up on the wall, and appointed two large
thanksgiving choirs.... 40 So the two thanksgiving choirs stood in the house of God,
likewise I and the half of the rulers with me... 43 Also that day they offered great
sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and
the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.
From these scriptures I think that we can mine four keys, four truths , four directives as to
how to celebrate.
1. Set aside time, calendar your celebration! Set aside time, calendar your
celebration. This is probably one of the hardest things for us to do in our society today. If
you are like I am and like most in America today, we work and we plan and we complete
the tasks of both everyday life, as well as those things that we feel God is calling us to and
then we simply move on. We move on to the next task, to the next challenge, to the next
job. And we move on without stopping to celebrate and most of the time to even
celebrate what has been accomplished.
The Levites that we read about in the first portion of our scripture were busy, busy
people. They were the teachers and the musicians of the time, and as such were always on
the move from one completed task to another. They simply did not slow down.
How much time do you think that it takes to prepare one of these sermons for Sunday
morning? Do you think that I can simply sit down with God’s word and read it through
maybe once or twice and then God miraculously provides me with every word and with
every point that I am going to say? Well, I wish that was true but it is not. Nationally
statistics show that in those churches that are growing and thriving and are impacting lives
through the power of the Holy Spirit, that the teaching pastor spends one hour of
preparation for every minute of talking time on Sunday morning. So, for example, if this
sermon were thirty minutes long (and most of you are probably praying right now, “Oh
Lord let it be short!”) then I would probably spend about thirty hours in preparing it. This
is the kind of thing the Levites were doing at the time that Nehemiah called them to the
wall.
Since they were a busy bunch, I am sure that there was at least one Levite who was
thinking and probably told Nehemiah, “I don’t have time for this, for I am a busy, busy
person. I mean after all, isn’t doing God’s work more important than celebrating God’s
work!?” “Nehemiah, there is a lot of good stuff happening, but we have a lot of stuff to
do as well, and I don’t have time for silly singing and dancing, that is kid’s stuff!” I can
just imagine a few of the Levites either thinking or actually saying this. But I am sure that
Nehemiah came right back at the Levite and told him that we have not finished the job
until we celebrate. We have not completed the job until we thank God!
So what are we to do, if we are to follow Nehemiah’s plan? We are to first gather the
team. Gather the team. You will notice that the Levites were sought out and brought to
the wall at Jerusalem. These were not simply those that were standing around the wall
watching, these were recruited, and brought in by the bus load to help with the
celebration. The bible tells us that they celebrated with gladness and thanksgiving and that
they sang and played their stringed instruments.
Then we must plan the job. We must plan the job. In a portion of the scripture that I did
not include in today’s handout we find that Nehemiah sent all of the singers and musicians
to the left on the top of the wall and he sent the remainder to the right. Why did he do
this? He wanted everyone, everywhere to hear and to be able to either participate or to
wonder what was going on. The Bible goes on to tell us that the two groups eventually
circled the entire project singing and dancing and celebrating the work, but more
importantly praising the one who had made it all possible, God in heaven! So Nehemiah
planned what was going to occur, how it was going to happen and recruited those to help
him make it happen.
Of course this is all after the work had been completed. We must complete the work! We
have been talking fairly in-depth over the past four weeks about that portion of Nehemiah
and the monumental task that He was called to do for God, so I won’t say much about
that here. The tapes are available on those if you wish to refresh your memories as to
what transpired through the preparation, the participation, the opposition and last week
we learned of the determination of Nehemiah and his workers. So they had a completed
task to celebrate!
And of course all of this leads up to Celebrating the accomplishment. Celebrating the
accomplishment!
2. Set aside time, get clean! We must set aside time and get clean! Verse 30 says
this, “When the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, the
gates and the wall....” Before anything happened, before the first singer had sung a note,
before the first instruementalist had plucked a string, before the first shout of joy was
allowed to go forth and waft up to God’s holy ear, they cleansed themselves. They
cleansed themselves.
It is interesting to look at what order they cleansed and purified. The priests and the
Levites first cleansed themselves. They knew that in order to anything great for God or to
truly celebrate before His throne that they must be cleansed. This cleansing is what we
would call today a “sin offering”. They sacrificed sacred animals and washed themselves
both with water and also had ceremonies with the animals blood and prayed and
beseeched God through the confession of what they had done wrong or the sin that they
had in their lives. We cannot come before the throne of God and truly celebrate until we
get rid of the sin and get rid of the filth and cleanse the stench that is within us!
Next, they purified the people. They purified the others around them. And finally they
purified the gates and the walls, they purified the project or today what we would call the
ministry that we are attempting for God!
We need to cleanse and purify in the same order! We need to do it in the same order.
But, sadly, most of the time we purify the project or the ministry and ask God’s blessing
on it first.
After that we all have a strong tendency to seek out the “speck in another’s eye, while
ignoring the plank in our own” as Jesus said in Matthew 7:3. We do this in a feeble
attempt to help them cleanse themselves, and do so because it is the “right” thing to do.
And then maybe, just maybe, we might turn the magnifying glass upon ourselves to
cleanse ourselves.
I am afraid that in today’s society, that in today’s church, that in this church that in my life
and in yours, that we all are guilty of trying to cleanse the outside while the inside is rotten
and stinky and filthy.
Our first task, our first responsibility our first duty before God is to cleanse ourselves. We
must confess or admit those things specifically that we do wrong and against God’s plan.
Specifically, we must do that.
Chuck Swindoll wrote that “Holiness precedes happiness”. Holiness precedes happiness.
I think that he has hit that right on the head. We can put on a happy face and come to
church, but true joy, true happiness only comes after we are clean, after we are spotlessly
clean. For when we are spotlessly clean we are free of guilt.
Sin always brings about guilt. The more that you are in the presence of God and the more
that you read His word the Bible, and the more that you pray and the more that you are
around those who profess Jesus Christ with both their mouths and their actions , the more
that you do all of the stuff, then the more that you are aware of your actions. You are
aware of your sins on a much greater and deeper scale. and every time that you become
aware of your sins, the more guilt that you feel.
Some may say that I am so guilty of sin, so dirty, so bad. that I am so filthy from the
actions of my life and from the decisions of my life, that it is just so ugly, that I can never
become clean. In Isaiah 1:18-20 we read, “Come now and let us reason together,” says
the Lord. “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat
the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel; you shall be devoured by the sword”;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
How can you claim and receive this promise from God? Simply by saying a prayer that
seeks His forgiveness.
In 1998, Marganita Laskey probably one of the best known naturalists and humanists said
this right before her death, “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness. I
have nobody to forgive me!” the real sad part about that is that she was wrong. God
wanted to forgive her, he was waiting to forgive her. She never asked!
My Salvation Story!
Unconfessed sin can eat away at the joy that God has for us. It is like a tree that is blown
over in the forest by a wind storm. After the storm you walk into the woods and see the
tree that just days before had appeared to be fine and strong and vibrant. then as you get
closer you se that the inside of the tree had been eaten by little insects and that it was
rotten and hollow and had no core, no substance other than what you saw on the outside.
Friends, unconfessed sin is like those little bugs and we are like that tree. If we don’t bow
before God and confess and say, “I know what I have done wrong, please forgive me”
then we will bow, but it will be to the hard times and the hard pressures of life.
Listen, my God will instantly forgive your sin if you simply ask. And if you desire to
celebrate the way that He intends, we need to release the sin and when we do we will be
released from the burden that it brings.
3. Set aside inhibitions, get joyful! Set aside inhibitions, get joyful! In Nehemiah
12:43 we read, “Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had
made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced, so that the joy
of Jerusalem was heard afar off.”
Have you ever went to a football game and as you approach the stadium you hear the
bands from blocks and blocks away? And as you get closer you can hear the occasional
cheers or even boos depending on who is the home and favorite team? That is not how it
was here in Nehemiah. for we read that the sounds of rejoicing was heard afar off. Note
that it wasn’t the choirs that were heard afar off. It wasn’t the bands and the instruments
that were heard afar off. It was the sound of great rejoicing that was heard afar off.
Everyone was having a grand time celebrating the completion of the wall for sure, but I
think what they were celebrating more than anything was the very presence of God and
the realization that he was real, that he was powerful and that he was a personal God!
They were truly a joyful bunch.
I mean the bible tells us that there were two choirs, that there were stringed instruments
and other music making pieces, that the people were dancing around and shouting and
singing. Joy, is how I would classify this. Joyful celebration!
Why can’t we be like that today? I think that being a Christian today is viewed in much
the same way as the little girl who saw the mule for the first time. She looked at it and
said, “I don’t know what you are, but you must be a Christian because my Grandfather is a
Christian and you look exactly like he does.” Society views being a Christian as dull and
unexciting. Is it any wonder why we get the responses that we do when we invite people
to church. In a non-believer’s mind they are asking the question, “If that is what being a
Christian is about, what is so great about that lifestyle. It is not exciting and has so many
rules that you can never have any fun.”
Friends, living for and with Jesus Christ is a joyful experience. I mean do you really think
that God sent his son to die on a cross so that we could live a dull, painfully boring and
unexciting life? NO! He desires for you and for me to live our lives to the fullest, for
when we do it is truly a grand experience and one in which God is honored and praised.
Why don’t we live an inhibited life in and with Jesus Christ? Why don’t we live as God
desires for us to live? I think it is because we are truly only unhibited over those things we
really care about. We are only truly unhibited and excited over those things that we invest
our lives in or those things that really mean something to us.
It has always amazed me that people say that they cannot learn hymns and choruses in
church and yet they can learn college fight songs and can recall songs from their youth 20
- 30 - 40 years ago. that shows, I think what they truly value and in what they are willing
to invest their life.
How often do we truly invest ourselves in the things of God? How often? For when and
if we do, there is an excitement that we cannot comprehend and it sets our souls and our
minds ablaze with the desire to honor and thank our God with great joy!
How can you, How can I tell when and if we truly invest in the things of God? I think that
we can ask ourselves some honest questions like,
1. What do I truly treasure?
2. What do I do that makes my heart beat faster?
3. What event would I sacrifice everything just to be there?
4. What is it that grabs my allegiance in uncontrollable ways?
Is it Jesus Christ? Or is it something else?
4. Set aside self, get thankful! Set aside self, get thankful! Who made everything
possible? Who created the heavens and the earth? Who created you and who created me?
God is the answer to everyone of those questions! Philippians 4:13 says it this way, “I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” God made it all possible.
When I get feeling good about myself and begin to think more of myself than maybe I
should, a still small voice comes to me, (don’t you just hate it when that still small voice
comes at you? I mean I know that we are to listen to it for it is from God, but sometimes
I wish it would simply just go away) and the conversation goes something like what
happened to a friend of mine.
Mercedes Benz story!
We must set aside self and get out of the way! Steve Kerr, who played for the Chicago
Bulls a few years back hit a three point shot at the buzzer during the NBA finals one year
to win the game. The following year in the finals, the Bulls found themselves in a similar
situation and Kerr relates this story, he said, “As we called timeout and came to the
bench, I told the coach that it would be a great time for me to take a three point shot. He
told me to shut-up, that I was to take the ball and give it to Michael Jordan and then get
out of the way. So, that is what I did. But for what it’s worth, I think that I did a great
job of getting out of the way!” How good are we at getting out of God’s way?
There is a poem out there that says it this way,
Without Him, I could do nothing, Without Him I would surely fail
Without Him, life would be hopeless, I would be like a drifting ship without a sail.
Is your life like a drifting ship without a sail? If it is, maybe today you need to set aside
self and get thankful and faithful and hopeful.
There is a chorus that goes something like this:
For all that you’ve done I will thank you............
Joy is a by-product of obedience!
We’ve got to be thankful to truly celebrate!
Prayer
Invitation
