Standing Shoulder to Shoulder
Notes
Transcript
Introduction & Review
Introduction & Review
<<PRAY>> <<Children’s Church>> <<TRANSITION>>
I asked Melissa to read Nehemiah 3, she had time to look at it and she still agreed to do it - did a great job
Did you ever get to a list like this one in your Bible and wonder why they’re there, and what kind of spiritual help they could be to you?
Nehemiah 3 is in our Bibles for a reason - God preserved these lists for our instruction. In 1 Cor 9, Paul looks at Deuteronomy and says, “Does he,” meaning God, “not certainly speak for our sake?” In the next chapter, 1 Cor 10, Paul points back to the events of the book of Numbers and says,
11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
So here, we have a chapter full of names that are hard to pronounce, and repetition, and in this action-packed story it’s kind of the weird chapter you’re not sure what to do with.
Right?
Singin’ In the Rain - amazing musical, set right when silent films were replaced w/ talkies, but right in the middle, weird interlude w/
flapper girls singing and dancing
I got a feeling you’re foolin’
camera’s rotating while ladies dressed as toy soldiers march at the screen
a line of disembodied legs kicking and dancing
a man with a megaphone crooning a totally different song
All with glittery, colorful backgrounds
the cuts get closer together, more disorienting, and then out of nowhere, we transition to a guy singing “Beautiful girl" and we go back to the story.
Interrupts the story. But it serves 2 purposes — shows how disorienting the move to talkies was for the movie studios, and gives us a chance to see how the characters rediscover Debbie Reynolds’s character, who Gene Kelly’s fallen for and can’t find.
Whenever you come to a list in your Bible and you’re tempted to skip over it, stop and ask these questions:
What does this list explain about what’s come before or after it?
How does this list point to a principle that I find elsewhere in God’s Word?
How does this list preserve some bit of history that otherwise would be lost to time, and what does that tell me about what God values?
The list in Nehemiah 3 has answers to each of these questions - it explains, it points to a principle, and it tells us something about what God values.
Last week, we saw that Nehemiah had been sent by God to Jerusalem to rebuild the city — especially the city wall. God’s hand had been at work for Nehemiah's good, and He gave him success in the sight of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. He sent Nehemiah with everything he asked for: Letters proving his mission, timber for the gates, the walls, the Temple fortress, and for Nehemiah’s house.
When Nehemiah revealed the mission that God had put in his heart, you’ll remember that he turned my mission into our mission - He didn’t say, “Stand up and build.” He said, “LET’S stand up and build.” And they did.
Now, God’s mission for Nehemiah started out as a building project. God’s mission for the Church is quite different. But there’s a principle at work here that echoes what we saw in Ephesians chapter 4,
and, Nehemiah chapter 3 stands here in the story to help us answer the question:
Q: Why shouldn’t we leave the mission to the pros?
Q: Why shouldn’t we leave the mission to the pros?
3 discoveries in the text in 3 points. CPS: God builds when his people stand shoulder to shoulder in Gospel work.
I. One mission for all our works
I. One mission for all our works
EXPLAIN:
• 7 kinds of work listed in this chapter:
Build & repair walls
Build, rebuild, and repair gates
Repair tower
Consecrate the work
• Build gate (1, 3); Consecrate (1); Repair wall (4-13, 16-32); Repair gate (6, 13, 14, 15); Repair tower (11); Rebuild gate (13, 14, 15); Build wall (2)
Here are some highlights:
1 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel.
And in v13:
13 Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the Dung Gate.
Throughout the chapter, the same kinds of work come up again and again. Defensive towers, gates, and the sections of the wall between them — all three are critical to the project, for the protection of the city.
All told, the people had 2 miles of wall to rebuild, and as events in chs 4-6 tell us, had to be built under threat of battle and harassment from Jerusalem’s enemies.
• Rapid work - “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. (Neh. 6:15 ESV)”
• To accomplish this work: Gathering of stone, mixing of mortar, filling of wall cavities, repairing of breaches. Surveying, leveling, setting foundations & pillars, beams, cutting stone, laying stone
So there’s a lot to do! Too much for Nehemiah, that’s for sure. Nehemiah knew this from the beginning. I think we’ve seen already in this book that Nehemiah’s no fool.
From the beginning, Nehemiah understood this had to be a work that would that would be more than just for him.
ILLUST: Imagine if Nehemiah had arrived in Jerusalem with this mission, and everything up till chapter 2:16 was the same.
But instead of calling them all to the mission, what if chapter 3 opened up, “Then I rose all by myself to build the Sheep Gate.”
Those two miles of wall would never have been repaired. The mission was not just for him. It was for the priests, the people of Tekoa, the people of Zanoa, the sons of this guy and that guy.
They had different works on that mission. Some worked on towers, some worked on gates, some worked on walls.
But everybody’s work was on the wall. They all stepped up to the same mission.
APPLICATION:
Here’s a principle we can draw out of Nehemiah 3: Jesus Christ has given us one mission for all our works.
The priorities and the mission of the church don’t get set by the wider culture, or by Christian authors or podcasts or by me.
Churches don’t get to decide on their own mission. They don’t get to tweak it to make it more palatable or add to it to make it more culturally relevant.
So what’s the mission? And does it have enough work for all of us?
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Not just for apostles —
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
What did they preach?
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Nehemiah’s mission was urgent because of the danger in Jerusalem; the Church’s mission is urgent because of the danger facing those who don’t know Jesus Christ.
There’s one mission for all our works — the mission is the reason for everything. We gather to worship the LORD and build each other up so that we can scatter for the mission in our everyday lives. We sing Gospel-centered songs, not just fluffy songs but songs that proclaim the Word to remind us of God’s message so that we have something to say to the world that is without hope and without Him.
We center the preaching of God’s Word because it’s His Spirit working through His Word that transforms us and makes us more like Christ.
The mission is why we have small groups, Bible studies, Youth Group, worship teams, greeters, ushers, tech teams, Children’s Ministries. Many kinds of work, only one mission
Anything off-mission is out-of-place in the Church. If Jesus and His message isn’t at the center, it’s like showing up to Jerusalem and rebuilding your house instead of joining the mission God’s actually given.
Mission for YOUR work: <<RELATE both to work within the Church and our work in the world>>
II. One calling for all peoples
II. One calling for all peoples
• 41 groups of people listed -
EXPLAIN:
EXPLAIN:
Look at some of the ways the people are described in chapter 3:
• In v1, the priests.
• In vv2, 7, and 13, we have men named for their towns - Jericho (2), Gibeon & Mizpah (7), and Zanoah (13). The people of Tekoa are mentioned twice, in verse 5 and 27.
• Throughout the chapter, we have people from prominent families - Zaccur son of Imri, in v2, Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, in v4. Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph in v30.
• In verses 8 and 32, we have tradesmen and businessmen listed - goldsmiths, perfumers, and merchants.
• The Levites are listed in verse 17. The Temple Servants are in verse 26.
• We’ve also got locals mentioned - Jedaiah in v10, Eliashib the high priest in v20, Benjamin and Hasshub in v23, and others in verses 26, 28, 29, and 30
• In verse 12, we see that the calling wasn’t just for the men.
12 Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired, he and his daughters.
What do we see here in this list of names, titles, hometowns, and families?
We see a diverse people standing shoulder to shoulder for a united calling. They did different work, but they did it together for God. There were commoners and rulers, men and women, craftsmen, servants, and priests.
Among those who belonged to the Lord, no one was left out. No one was without a place on the wall. There was one calling for all peoples.
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
You know what I notice here? No one is called an architect, no one is called a stonemason.
The ruler of Mizpah didn’t say he was too busy to build. The daughters of Shallum didn’t say they weren’t cut out for the work.
They heard Nehemiah’s call and responded, all of them, by going to the wall.
The only exception, the only sorry failure in this whole chapter, are the nobles of Tekoa.
5 And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.
Nobody else begged off, nobody else sat back and watched the pros do the work, and nobody said, “That’s not my gift.” Nobody else said, “I’ll volunteer, but only if I don’t have to serve with those guys.”
The nobles of Tekoa are memorialized forever in God’s Perfect Word as the epitome of irony - they’re called “noble,” but their own common townspeople outshine them by completing not one, but two sections of the wall without them according to verses 5 and 27.
In Ephesians 4,
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—
And in v7
7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. .. 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints <<i.e. all who belong to Jesus>> for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ
Just as there’s one mission for all our works, there is one calling for all peoples today.
The mission is to make disciples; the calling is to bear witness to what Jesus Christ has done for you.
The mission is to make disciples; the calling is to bear witness to what Jesus Christ has done for you.
I said earlier that this list is in our Bibles for a reason. What bit of history does this list preserve that would otherwise be lost, and what does it tell us about what God values?
You’ll probably never remember the names in this list, but maybe you’ll remember the nobles and the people of Tekoa. The nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. But the people of Tekoa are memorialized as faithful, and they stood along that wall with rulers and priests.
This is proof that it matters to God whether we respond when He calls.
The calling in Neh 3 wasn’t just for builders, it was for priests, rulers, servants, and daughters.
And the calling to bear witness to Christ is not just for missionaries, not just for people with the gift of evangelism.
HOW to bear witness to Christ
In the Body — By our common worship - voices lifted together / participation in the ministries of the Church / serving in any number of ministries
Like the people of Tekoa
In the family — Commit your family to the LORD. “We are called to be a refuge for storm-tossed souls, a Christ-shaped haven in a hopeless world. We will speak about our calling to one another. We will pray for our family to represent Christ to our neighbors and friends. And we will pray for the Holy Spirit to help us to be the people that He has called us to be, not to look like a Christ-centered family but to actually be one.”
Husbands, are you in God’s Word and in prayer for your family? Do you have goals for your family, or for your career? What if your calling to bear witness to Christ broke through into your plans and transformed them? You could be on-mission with a Godly ambition, not just trying to figure out how to get through 2020 but asking the LORD how you and your family could be a little slice of Christ’s SHALOM to everyone who entered your home.
Like the sons of Hassenaah in v3 and the daughters of Shallum in v12, kids & teens: Not just for your parents. Your friends are stressed and worried, watching their parents struggle with their finances and their marriages, and without Jesus they’re lost. You can be like a lighthouse pointing the way, showing them what Jesus has done for YOU.
In our everyday lives —
OUR THIRD AND FINAL POINT:
III. One Lord for all of life
III. One Lord for all of life
I want us to close our time in chapter 3 by looking at the first and last verses.
1 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel.
...
31 After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, 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. 32 And between the upper chamber of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants repaired.
They started at the Sheep Gate. And where did they finish?
This is a consecrated and a comprehensive mission. It’s holy and it’s holistic.
The priests proclaim that this work belongs to God - it’s holy or consecrated. And it’s comprehensive because it encircles the entire city.
I read this chapter for years before I noticed it ended right where it started. But this is part of the reason this list is in our Bibles. The mission for Nehemiah wasn’t to build halfway around the city. And there wasn’t a single stone in that wall that was meant to be dedicated to another Lord besides God.
I said that Nehemiah 3 is in our Bibles to help us answer the question, “Why shouldn’t we leave God’s mission to the pros?”
One mission for all our works
One calling for all peoples
One LORD for all of life
When Jesus Christ called us out of darkness and into the light of His salvation, He did not call us to set aside some of our lordship over our own lives, to divide our allegiances between him and other gods. He called us to serve Him and His kingdom alone. The mission we’ve been called to is consecrated and comprehensive.
Jesus said it this way:
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. (Mark 8:34-35)
So: We will now CONSECRATE ourselves to the LORD - proclaim that we belong to Him entirely, from Sheep Gate to Sheep Gate.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.