Rev. Seth Yi
Newberry Reformed Presbyterian Church Sermons
(8/11/24) Nehemiah 3:1-32 - The Family of God Builds the City of God
A scripture reading taken from Nehemiah chapter 3, beginning at verse 1 to the end of the chapter, can be found in your pew Bibles on page 399 to 469. Let us give heed now to the reading of God's holy word. Then Elisha, the high priest, rose up with his brothers, the priest, and they built the sheet gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated as far as the tower of hundred, as far as the tower of Hananel. And next to him, the men of Jericho built, and next to them, Zakur, the son of Inmeri, built. The son of Hasanala built the fishgate. They laid its beams and set its door, its boat, bolts, and its bars. And next to them, Mirimah, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakaz, repaired. And next to them, Meshulam, the son of Barakiah, the son of Meshuzabel, repaired. And next to them, Zodak, the son of B'anai, repaired. And next to them, the Tukkites repaired. But their nobles would not stoop to serve their lord. Joya died, the son of Pashiyai, and Meshulam, the son of B'sudai, repaired the gate of Yeshana. They laid its beam and set its door, its boats, and its bars. And next to them, repaired Melatiah, the Gibianite, and Jaddon, the Maranaiite, the men of Gibian, and of Mismah, the seat of the governor of the Providence beyond the river. Next to them, Uzziel, the son of Herhai, Goldsmiths, repaired. Next to Hananai, one of the perfumers, repaired. And they restored Jerusalem as far as the broad wall. Next to them, Refiai, the son of Herh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. Next to them, Jaddai, son of Harumoth, repaired opposite his house. And next to him, Hatush, the son of Hashanai, repaired. Melchazai, the son of Harim, and Hashu, the son of Pahath Mo'ah, repaired another section of the tower of Oven Ovens. Next to him, Shalom, the son of Halohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired. He and his daughters. Hanun, and inhabitants of Zhenoa, repaired the valley gate. They rebuilt it and set its doors, its boats, and its bars, and repaired a thousand qubits of the wall as far as the dungate. Melchazai, the son of Rikkaab, ruler of the district of Beth Hakarem, repaired the dungate. He rebuilt it and set its doors, its boats, and its bars. And Shalom, the son of Ko Hose, ruler of the district of Mispod, repaired the fountain gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its boats, and its bars. And he built the wall of the pool of Shalaya, the king's garden, as far as the stairs that go down to the city of David. After him, Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of Beth Jour, repaired to a point opposite the tombs of David, as far as the artificial pool, and as far as the house of the mighty men. After him, the Levites repaired. Rehum, the son of Bani, next to him, Hashibai, ruler of half the district of Kalai, repaired for his district. After him, their brothers repaired. Bavaai, the son of Hanadad, ruler of half the district of Kalai, next to him Azura, the son of Joshua, ruler of Mispod, repaired another section opposite the ascent to the armory of the buttress. After him, Baruch the son of Zabai, repaired another section from the buttress to the door of the house of Elishib, the high priest. After him, Miramah, the son of Uriah, son of Hakaz, repaired another section from the door of the house of Elishib, to the end of the house of Elishib. After him, the priest, the men of the surrounding area, repaired. After them, Benjamin and Hashib, repaired opposite their house. After them, Azuraia, son of Maasaiya, son of Ananiya, repaired beside his own house. After him, Benui, the son of Hanadad, repaired another section from the house of Azuraia to the buttress and to the corner. Palau, the son of Yuzai, repaired opposite the buttress and the tower projecting from the upper house of the king at the court of the guard. After him, Padadiah sent up Baruch and the temple servants, living on Ophail, repaired to a point opposite the water gate on the east and the projecting tower. After him, the Takaiya, repaired another section opposite the great projecting tower as far as the wall of Ophail. Above the horse gate, the priest repaired each one opposite his own house. After them, Zabak the son of the mayor, repaired opposite his own house. After him, Shema Maa, the son of Shekanaa, the keeper of the east gate, repaired. After him, Hananaa, the son of Shemaaya and Hanum, the sick son of Zaloth, repaired another section. After him, Mashulam, the son of Baruchaya, repaired opposite his chamber. After him, Makajai, one of the ghost myths, repaired as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, opposite the muster gate and to the upper chamber of the corner. And between the upper chamber of the corner and the sheep gate, the ghost myths and the merchants repaired. Here in the reading of God's holy word, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. So obviously, this is one of those passages and if you've ever done your read through the Bible in the year, you eventually come to first and second chronicles, at least first chronicles and you have all the begats that you just sort of read through, name after name after name. And like a section like this along with other parts of Scripture, you may ask the question, why? Why in the world does God provide for these names, most of whom we know very little about. Some of these names, if you look back at Ezra and later on in Ema, they are mentioned in some greater detail, but the vast majority of these names are for us at least lost in the chronicles of history. And yet that being said, we all believe and we all profess here that this is the word of God, every word, every jot, and so it is inspired as we hold from 2 Timothy chapter 3, 16, all Scripture is literally God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reprove, for correction, and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So I firmly believe and I trust you to do this word is for us as the people of God. There is profitable, true, exhortation and learning for us, even this morning. That being said, there are scholars, biblical scholars, I'm not sure exactly where they lie in terms of their understanding of Scripture or their view Scripture, who would look at a passage like this and call that monotonous, possibly even uninspiring and by and large useless for the people of God. Some of you may know and have heard of Chuck Swindall or Charles Swindall, he was very famous, especially in the past 30 years, where he had a radio show where by and large there were sermons that were being aired. He has a very helpful book on the book of Nehemiah, a study book and entitled, "Hand Me Another Brick." And yet, in that book, he completely ignores chapter 3. He doesn't deal with it at all. Obviously, that is not the position that we hold, and in fact, it's more to the position of Howard F. Boss, somebody may have never heard of, nevertheless, he's a reformed scholar, and he says, "Rather, what appears here at first blush to be a list of forgotten names and boring details of Wall's construction, and closer examination becomes something quite dramatic and exciting." Now, that may be a stretch, and yet his point is, I think, worth listening or hearing, and that is, if we give ourselves rightly to the working of God's Spirit, even in the list of names and minute details that even today, we can't confirm exactly where these particular locations may have been, there are clear truths here for us, I believe, that are of great importance to our life and especially the life of the church, we as the people of God. Now, as I've said before, especially when we are studying through the book of Acts, where you have much historical narrative, meaning events that are tall from the perspective of the author, even though he's an inspired author, that we need to be very careful not to take examples per se and make that prescriptive, meaning this is what we always must do. That is not how we are to properly understand Scripture. However, I think there are principles of wisdom that we can draw, whether it's stated in the positive or the negative, and I think that's going to be sort of the pathway to which we're going to address this passage this morning. Unlike what I typically do in going verse by verse for Scripture, we will avoid that pathway, but rather, if you have your bulletin, you'll see there are three general headings that I like to address as we work through this chapter and principles and truth from which we are to continue to live out our lives. The first one there is God's plans fulfilled through his chosen servant. Well, it's interesting, of course, and I believe it to be the case, despite what some critical scholars may think, I'm a firm believer that Nehemiah, by and March, is the author of Nehemiah, the book that we're reading here, and they're studying. And yet in this chapter with all the names, some names that are hard to pronounce or even make sure that we are saying it properly, his own name is not mentioned. Nehemiah, who is clearly the leader that God has chosen to carry out this task, and we can go back to chapter 1 and chapter 2 and see exactly how God was personally and directly preparing Nehemiah for this task, along with all the other circumstances, the fact that he was indeed the cut bearer of the king. That is no small inconsequential event that we saw that led to Nehemiah being able to even approach our desert seas and have not only letters that secure his passage and his authority coming back to Jerusalem, but also all the resources, all the material that he would need to actually finish this task. And so Nehemiah, even though he doesn't name himself, is indeed God's chosen servant. And typically, as you know throughout the book of not just the Old Testament, but even the New Testament, God has his chosen servants, not that they are somehow better than others, not that they are somehow more worthy than others, but God uses means. And one of the chief means that God uses are people, you and me, based upon how our circumstances may have been by the providence of God, how he is gifted us by his Holy Spirit, and all the other opportunities that we may have had. God uses people. He uses his people to accomplish his purposes here on the earth. God did it through the person, the main person, Jesus Christ. He didn't just stand in the sense in heaven and say, "Well, I'm going to do salvation." He came in the person of Emmanuel, God with us, to ultimately accomplish salvation. And we see that Nehemiah is God's chosen servant for this task. And even though he's not named, he is indeed a leader. He is sort of the architect, the engineer, who makes all of this work possible from beginning to end. So more importantly, beyond just sort of his technical or his sort of mental skills and even his leadership skills, I think what comes out more than anything else is Nehemiah's conviction. And that is picked up on, of course, not in chapter 3, but the very end of chapter 2. Remember when he arrived in Jerusalem, he was already confronted by some of these other governors, these other rulers of the area who are not Jewish and who clearly opposed this project. And we read in verse 20 of chapter 2, "The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we, his servants, will arise and build." Nehemiah is not just a man who sees a work or a project that needs to be accomplished. He is a man who is fully convinced in his heart through prayer, through God's mighty hand, that he has witnessed, that he is to do this task to the glory of God. And there are certain individuals that we can sort of look back in time and history where God has done that over and over again. He picks certain men who may not be looking for the limelight or necessarily pursuing a certain place of prominence, but they are chosen by God and they are given a spirit-inspired determination, conviction to carry out the task. So we see that and exemplified already in the first two chapters of Nehemiah, and now we see it being laid to the rest of the people who come under his authority and his leadership. Nehemiah likewise was not only a motivator in a sense, because to get all these people who for years as we know and have looked upon the walls that were in ruin and just sort of left it there, they didn't care of the fact that the walls of Jerusalem were in disrepair. It didn't factor into their daily lives at all. But within, we are not owed exactly, but I think within a very short period of time, we know that after three days, after resting, Nehemiah went through out that evening and looked at firsthand what need to be done. And I would think it was relatively quick before the enemies found out that he began to organize and administer what needed to happen. And so he was not just a motivator of people, but he was also an administrator. He was able to delegate all the various responsibilities that needed to take place in order for this project which would take hands and individuals laboring one with another to see the end of the project. Throughout chapter three, you see his ability to organize. There's almost somewhere between 40 to 45 different stations that you can pick up on and of course, 10 gates. And he assigned certain groups to be responsible for doing that particular work. And it's very unlikely that these sections were of equal length depending on where these various gates and corners and whatnot would have been. But nevertheless, he found the right people, typically, if you took notice, people who had some vested interest in that portion of the wall because we read in various ways, they either live right on the wall or right across from the wall. So Nehemiah realized if you want people to have sort of their own skin in the game, you put it to them in a way that it's going to serve them to some degree even though this is a greater work. The greater work of course is to establish protection. And like anything, the weakest link is where the walls of Jerusalem would somehow be under still ruin. So everyone worked together under the leadership of Nehemiah and others. We can tell clearly that there were, quote, other rulers who are likely assigned and given authority within certain sectors and segments of the wall. But I don't think it's by accident that Nehemiah, as he is writing this down, places at the very beginning, the high priest and the priest, they're the first ones to be named. And again, it's not by accident that what happens from this point on sort of as the wall is consecrated in this northeast corner, that's where the temple would have been, and that's why you also have a reference to the sheep gate. It would have been very convenient for people who were coming to the temple, especially to offer up sacrifices to come through that sheep gate. And so who's involved in repairing that portion of the wall, the high priest and the others? And this is, I think, noted for us because it shows us that even those who may have not been gifted per se in the kind of work that would be involved in building a wall, these are priests. It's kind of like what they say about ministers, they only work one hour a week, what else are they good for? Well, these guys, at least we're willing to participate in whatever form they could to be a part of the greater cause. And what you find, of course, is Nehemiah and noting that they devoted that portion of the wall. We're not told, at least Nehemiah doesn't record that that happened with any other portion surrounding the walls of Jerusalem. And yet, these men who, of course, would have known about consecration, they would have been the only ones who actually could have consecrated anything, they committed themselves to this job. And in a sense, in a symbolic way, the part of that wall made the whole holy, that principle of the yeast, which spreads throughout the whole dough, consecrates the whole work that is taking place. This wasn't just a rebuilding effort, if you will. Yes, that was clearly a necessary part of what was happening. But this was a spiritual work along with the physical task that would be involved. So Nehemiah, who orchestrates and who architects his whole design, even though he's not named, you can see clearly his hand and the emphasis and the priority that he has placed, even in the order in which this chapter is recorded. It starts in this upper northeast corner. And again, sort of in a counterclockwise way, he mentions all the various sections and segments of the wall with these various groups. Secondly, God's people work together. Now, that's a given, of course, because a task of this magnitude cannot be done by just the priests or the Levites or even a sub-segment of those who are living in Jerusalem. As you read throughout this chapter, what you take note of is interesting. You have represented in Will of Society. We've already mentioned the priests and the Levites. They were sort of the spiritual leaders, but you're also told about rulers, various high officials who maybe had positions of government rank. We're told a couple of those men were rulers of half of Jerusalem, almost like governors who are under Nehemiah now. Then you had people who were gatekeepers and guards, people who did manual labor along with farmers, but also guildsmen mentioned, goldsmiths and merchants and perfumers. So even those people who may not have been directly involved in their everyday life in such tasks as picking up large stones and lumber, they were committed to come together to put aside their own work to engage in this overarching work of building the walls of Jerusalem. For the craftsmen, that is the goldsmith, the perfume makers and even those merchants, they would clearly be sacrificing profit, meaning their own business would suffer as they gave themselves to this type of work. And yet they knew that if this work would need to be accomplished in a timely fashion, they themselves would have to participate. And so what you find here is what's oftentimes mentioned in church work, the 2080 rule, if you've heard of that, which means basically 20% of the congregation does 80% of the work. That would have never worked in this scenario. If that was the case, it would have taken them months, if not years, to fulfill this task. Later on in Chapter 6, when we're told about the completion of this work, they did this work in 52 days. And I'm sure they took off at least seven sabbits while doing this work. So almost in 45 days, they completed this task. It's a picture that you have of the people of God coming together, being led by a God-inspired leader to do a work that was absolutely critical for their survival in that region. Moreover, it's not just the inhabitants of Jerusalem. We read here various sons of different people who came along and participated in the work along with those who were likely residents in Jerusalem. We're told about those from Jericho in Chapter Verse 2, from Tekoa in Verse 5, Gibbian in Verse 7, Nispan in Verse 7, 15 and 19, Zenoa on and on. These are all regions outside surrounding Jerusalem. And yet, when they saw what work was taking place and how Niamhai, along with all those others who were living in the proper city of Jerusalem, were engaged, they didn't simply sit back and watched. They came along and participated in the work. Even though, if some may say, there was nothing to be gained for them, they were just as exposed before, as well as after, the walls would have been completed. And yet, in service of Christ, in service of our King, oftentimes we will find ourselves laboring alongside of others. People either in the church directly or even the church broadly, where we may find, at least on the surface, there's really no benefit or gain in this project for me. And that may be legitimate at times if we have to be wise in terms of the impact and our limited resources. We all have 24 hours in a day. We all have a certain amount of resources that we have in terms of funding and so on. But there are times when you will have to participate in service, in something in the life of the church, where you may not see immediately some gain or return for you. Thank God Jesus had that attitude. He was going to find no immediate gain in not only coming to earth, but ultimately dying for us. He has set the example. What did Jesus say even on the night before his going to the cross? "I have served you." He took the basin and the towel and he set to serve one another. And so this attitude of dying to self is essential if we, as the people of God, in the church of God, are going to advance the kingdom of God. This morning during Sunday school, Aaron made the announcement. God has blessed us with little ones and we celebrate with great joy for the little ones he's provided for this congregation. Well, blessings also bring responsibility. And so I would ask you to pray if you would be so led to help in the nursery, as it was mentioned earlier this morning. Another maybe aspect of this chapter that may go overlooked is several times it's mentioned another section, another section. And what we take from that is that these people, whoever these groups may have been, had finished and had completed one area of their work and they went and did another. In other words, it wasn't enough for them just to have completed their task. They did what Jesus said, "Go the extra mile." Now this wasn't possible possibly for everyone. And again, this is not to say that everyone has to go and do more than what is able, but if you are able, if God so leads, if you are responding to the movement of the Holy Spirit, don't be satisfied with just doing what is expected. And if it wasn't for a good number of these men, these groups who were not only committed to being willing to do what was assigned to them, but then going off into other perceptions to do the work, well, who knows how much longer it would have taken for the wall and the project to be finished. We're told, however, in verse 5, as pretty and as encouraging as chapter 3 is by itself, overall, there is a little reminder to us, again, of the fallenness of mankind. Even in the church, we have sinned to deal with, verse 5, and next to them, the two coites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. After all that is taking place on a daily basis, you got all these people mobilized working, you still have some who are just sort of looking and saying, "No, not going to do it." And the picture that is painted about why these people, these nobles, would not participate is because they were too proud. They would not stoop to serve their Lord. The image is comparable to what we read sometimes in the book of Exodus and Numbers about the Israelites who are stiff-necked. In other words, this wasn't a case of physical unwillingness. It was a matter of pride. They didn't want to stoop that low to do such a menial task. And I suspect at times there are opportunities in the church, again, where you may say, "Well, someone else can do that." We have deacons for that job, or whatever the case may be. Again, Jesus lowered himself and did a task that even his own disciples thought that they were too good to do, which was washing the feet of one another. That was for the loneliest of servants, not one of us. It's clearly not Jesus. If we are too high on our estimation of who we are, then we might find that there are many opportunities in the kingdom of God where our service can be of great benefit beyond our recognition. That being said, though these, to co-ident nobles, were unwilling to stoop, it goes on to say that there were those of their clan who gave themselves, even again, to repair another section. This wasn't true of all that the co-ites who lived outside, of course, of Jerusalem, but at least of these rulers, and these two co-ites showed themselves to be one with their brethren in Israel. Thirdly, God City will indeed prosper. Chapter 3, which is kind of interesting, tells us of all the work that was done, in a sense, completed for the construction of the wall. But then you turn over to chapter 4, then all of a sudden it goes back in time. It tells us of the continuing opposition that the Israelites faced while they were doing this work. In other words, chapter 3 is strategically placed in the sense, even though it is not chronological with what will continue to be laid out in the rest of the Amaya. What you find in chapter 3 is Nehemiah in the sense saying, with almost an exclamation point, going back to verse 20 of chapter 2, that God of heaven will make us prosper. And what is he doing in chapter 3? He shows us that it is done. This work that God has called him to, that he is leading the people of God in doing chapter 3, is that record. It's a clear historical point where Nehemiah is saying, God did it. He will fulfill his promises. And so even though, as we'll read in the next chapter, there are clear oppositions that they will have to face. This project, this work of God, is successful because God willed it. Again, God uses men and women even to accomplish his purpose, but we can be confident that what God purposes, he will also equip and complete. The wall, as it's described throughout this chapter, is mentioned as being repaired. It's an interesting word because even if you sort of follow some of the outlines of the wall, we know pretty clearly that it's not the original wall, at least the wall prior to the exile, and when Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed Jerusalem. Especially on the eastern half of the wall, they clearly went up sort of the mountain slope because there was so much debris, it was pointless for them to go back down to where the original wall was. So they built it almost the new wall on the high point of Jerusalem. And that's kind of what this word repair points to. It really speaks about renewal, not necessarily just putting things back to its original design or condition. The basic root of this word means simply to make solid. Some of it was, of course, repairing what was there in terms of the floor structure, while others was a complete new structure that had not been there. And it reminds us so often times of how God is fulfilling his redemptive purposes on the earth. To put it in terms of revelation, if you will, we're not mainly as God's people to look back to Eden. Yes, what we lost was glorious. What we lost was the very presence of God in our midst. But as we've been reminded, as we've been taught through revelation, what we are looking towards is a renewed, a better Eden, something that is far more glorious and something that will excel in anything that even the first Eden that God made. Now, of course, we won't see all of that in our lifetime, barring the small window in relationship to the bigger purpose of God's working in the world. But we can be certain of this, whatever sliver of time and space we are engaging in the work of God. We can be confident that he will use to paint that tapestry of the glorious picture that we saw in revelation, especially towards the end. And so as God's people, and I believe that was clearly the mindset, the vision that Nehemiah set for the people of God, don't simply look back to what once was. Look forward. Look with the hope and the faith that God gives to you and to us as the people of God to march ahead. Yes, there are opportunities to thank the Lord and praise God for what he has done. But there's more to be done as we move ahead. It reminds us that as believers, we are new creations in Christ. The oldest past, behold, all things have been made new. And in order to advance not only as individuals in our Christian life, but also as the people of God, we will have to be reminded that death must precede life. We must be willing to forsake and by the grace and the faith of God to move forward. Jesus gives us a picture of this, now in John chapter 12, truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. As individuals, yes, we are limited. There's only so much quote that we can do, but if we die to self individually, we see this image of something greater than the individual that comes about as a result of the whole, the body of Christ working together. And so as we see the consecration of the wall that began there at the corner of the sheet gate, this passage ends with a cock around to that same location. And it shows us of the picture of that how we enter into God's presence and what we participate in our lives, one with another, isn't simply the work that we do and I believe it's work. Church work is work, even our very worship is work, if you want to think in terms of service unto the Lord. But as believers in Christ, our work doesn't end after the benediction. It really begins. As we come in a sense to hear God's marching orders, you are sent out with God's benediction, knowing that God's face shines upon you and his grace and mercy is with you. And as you go out into the world with the callings that are unique to you and the gifts that God has given to you, we continue to service that we have been fueled by here in the corporate worship of God. Paul, I'll give him the last word from Philippians chapter 1, verses 27 and 28, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit." Now if you know a little bit of the background of Philippians, you know that there are these two ladies that he mentions who are at odds with one another. So even in the very opening chapters of Philippians, Paul is hinting at the necessity of their unity. Because this is a church, as you know, Philippa, that has been very encouraging and supportive of Paul's ministry, even sending one of their very own with a love offering where Paul lives. And yet in the midst of that very congregation, there seems to be some disunity among two members of that church. And so he says, "Stand firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents." This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. You obviously realize that we as a congregation face them difficult than challenging questions in the days ahead. Who or what all those questions are uncertain. And yet I believe that God will work his mighty purposes within us as we seek to take heed of these very words from the Apostle Paul, to stand firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side. This is a picture, literally, of what was taking place there in Jerusalem. Various groups, households, and clans, if you will, who were serving next to one another for the central purpose of not just building a wall, but advancing the kingdom of God and making his name great among the nations there. Our task as we move forward in the days, the weeks, months, and years ahead to his glory is no different. And we will accomplish that task only as we stand together as God's people, knowing that he has called us, he has equipped us, and ultimately he will use us for that purpose. Let us pray.