Wall to Wall Workers - Part 1. What Does a Busy Church Look Like? (Nehemiah 3)
Apr-8-2018-AM-Wall-to-Wall-Workers-Part-1.docxPosted by: craigaledbetter <craigaledbetter@...>
Wall to Wall Workers – Part 1
What Does a Busy Church Look Like?
(Nehemiah 3)
April 8, 2018 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
I. Introduction
A. This is a book about REBUILDING things. Fixing things. Mending things. Repairing, Restoring things – not leaving things as they are
B. Which is exactly what is needed today!
C. We are looking way back at about 445 years Before the birth of Christ (B.C.) – that's 2,462 years ago!
D. What was wrong with the city of Jerusalem?
1. Heaps and piles of rubbish EVERYWHERE throughout the city streets of Jerusalem (4:2)
2. These were OLD wastes - they had been there for a long time
3. This was the Result of a load of SIN on the part of God's people (2Chron 36:11-21)
4. 3km of 15 foot thick walls that were broken through, and thrown down and piled up into heaps of burnt stones…
5. Sounds like something so far removed from our "normal" life now
E. So many things are broken today!
1. MARRIAGE is broken – been that way for a very long time
2. People's MINDS are broken – unable to sleep, forgive, reason and think through their problems
3. People's TRUST is constantly broken – no one takes responsibility anymore for ANYTHING! Always blaming others!
4. People's HEARTS are broken – haven't been happy for so many years
5. People's FAITH is broken – trusting in themselves, and in religious icons, and priests and prayers, and in fairies, and angels, and Bitcoins! Only to be constantly let down!
6. Society is broken – believing that abortion is a good thing, and Same Sex Marriage is fine and dandy, and that no one should have to work! BROKEN!
F. Worse still… Many people have never built anything spiritual in their lives – only just done what came natural. So for many people, it is time to START building!
II. Review
A. Since the first Sunday in January, we have worked verse by verse so far through the Book of Nehemiah up until chapter 3, verse 1.
B. Last Time – Where Do You Begin to Rebuild?
1. You Let Your High Priest Start It (3:1)
a. The work of the High Priest, normally was…
1) MEDIATOR between people and God – praying for them constantly, interceding for them, holding back the judgment of God
2) He often DISCERNED the will of God for the nation using two stones called the Urim and Thummin, which he kept in a vest pouch
3) Worshipped God continually, even when everyone else was too busy – it was a 24/7 job. There was never a moment that he stopped being the high priest
4) Offered the sin offering for all the people every year when he alone could enter the Holiest of Holy places in the Temple, with the blood of the sacrifice of a lamb, and sprinkled it upon the Mercy Seat to obtain forgiveness for the people
b. But this day, and until the walls and gates were finished, Eliashib was a worker, alongside everyone else, a living example to the people of what they should all be doing, and A finisher of what he was starting
c. Eliashib, the High Priest, pointed to a FUTURE Messiah - a type/shadow/preview of who Jesus would be coming 440 years later! He…
1) Did ALL the works necessary to satisfiy the law of God
2) He began agood work in every believer
3) He finished the work, and is seated on the right hand of God right now
2. You begin at the SHEEP GATE and adjoining walls (3:1)
a. This was just the FIRST of TWELVE Gates listed here in Nehemiah 3
3. SANCTIFY the Work (3:1) – prepared the Gate NOT for looks, but for use!
4. You CAN'T Do It Alone (3:2,4,5…)
a. EVERYONE had to Get Involved (the rest of the chapter, which we will look at two weeks from now)
C. This morning, we dive into the rest of Nehemiah Chapter Three
1. Thirty-eight individual workers are named in this chapter
2. Forty-two different kinds of people are identified (masons, carpenters, Levites, priests, merchants, apothecaries, goldsmiths, men and women, daughters) besides the many workers that Nehemiah did not name whose labours were ALL important to the task of rebuilding the ruined city of Jerusalem.
3. Evangelist D. L. Moody said, "A great many people have got a false idea about the church. They have got an idea that the church is a place to rest in ... to get into a nicely cushioned pew, and contribute to the charities, listen to the minister, and do their share to keep the church out of bankruptcy, is all they want. The idea of WORK for them—actual work in the church—never enters their minds."
4. I aim to change that!
III. Background (Romans 15:4)
A. Nehemiah in this chapter Writes Down an Overview of the Work going on:
Nehemiah starts to record all the work in a counterclockwise direction
1. Started at the SHEEP Gate (3:1)
2. Then the FISH gate was started (3:3)
3. Then the OLD Gate (3:6)
4. The VALLEY Gate (3:13)
5. The DUNG Gate (3:14)
6. The FOUNTAIN Gate (3:15)
7. WATER Gate (3:26)
8. The HORSE Gate (3:28)
9. The EASTERN Gate (3:29) – that is a special gate!
10. MIPHKAD Gate (3:31)
11. The Gate of EPHRAIM (8:16)
12. There have been more gates added over time, and some have been sealed (like the Eastern Gate), but Nehemiah lists ELEVEN - the NEW Jerusalem has TWLEVE (Rev 21:10,12,21)!
B. Evidently, there was a LOT of work to do to rebuild that city
1. Clearing the rubble and rubbish - heaps and piles of rubbish (4:2)
a. You cannot BUILD upon rubbish and rubble – had to be cleared away (Jer 1:10)
b. In other words, you cannot leave things broken for very long (i.e., broken leg) or it will settle to be that way for the rest of your life – it has to be RESET!
2. THEN, building and rebuilding massive sections of the wall around the city of Jerusalem
3. TRUTH: Broken things do NOT fix themselves over time!
a. People say, Time heals all wounds – not normally
b. Wounds, and broken things usually only grow worse and spread more and more
C. And thankfully, there were a lot of Workers
1. So here, in Nehemiah's Journal, as he is looking out at all the people gathered, It must have been awesome to see hundreds and hundreds of people gather every morning, and take their places and work from sun-up to sun down, on a BIG task; on something very hard, and get it done!
D. This morning, I am just going to make some observations as we read through this chapter
1. I think it might just blow you away…
2. As we just take a look at the workers – Wall to Wall workers
3. And discover how WE need to be working together to build and REBUILD so many broken down things!
4. You MIGHT just get some good hope this morning in tackling the broken walls and gates in YOUR life, and in THIS nation of ours!
5. And it begins right here, as we seek to build our church! Don't neglect the building-up of each other!
II. Message
A. What Was Everybody Rebuilding?
1. Three Things…
a. A long Wall
b. Eleven Gates
c. Ultimately their Nation again!
2. They were determined to Rebuild the Wall (1:3)
a. Walls are meant to be
1) A Defence
a) To protect worship - the temple was in the city walls - not out in the open
b) There is great safety if you live in a GATED community
c) Against wild animals
d) And against attacking enemies
2) A Divider
a) That there is an inside and an outside - modern world doesn't like that
b) People want no walls today
c) Just about everything is common knowledge, and known about almost everyone
d) While God said there were some things that are shameful, and not to be common knowledge. Eph 5:11,12 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
3) A Wall is a Binding Force – in a good way
a) It defined the limits for everyone, AND liberty! People were free in those walls – free from attack, under laws and rules that were expected of everyone
b) Those within the walls of a city, or a HOUSE for that matter, HAD to get along, work together, be neighbourly because they were grouped together
c) When there is no need to get along with other people, then you won't!
4) A Wall is an Identity
a) It marked a place of gathered people, who lived, loved and worked with one identity (when a building has walls, like a church, it marks the PLACE that they gather, and identifies them as one people!
b) it labelled the people as people of that city (like we are associated with the NEW Jerusalem, a city with MASSIVE walls)
c) It made this inside as ONE. YES, divided from the surrounding nations
d) That there would be a central government
5) Most people have been taught to despise walls, and to have open boarders, and just to get along with everyone… Hmmmmm
6) Yet, every home still has walls and doors and locks FOR GOOD reasons!
b. There have been many famous walls built throughout history
1) The Great Wall of China
a) 25 foot high walls that extend about 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles) along the northern border of China. Built to keepthe Mongol nomads out of China.
b) Started during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), but the major construction of the "modern" walls began in the Ming Dynasty (1388-1644).
2) The walls of Jericho – three rings of impenetrable walls around that city, that fell at the shout of God's people in Joshua 6
3) The Berlin Wall. An 155km wall, built in 1961 that locked east Berliners inside since so many were fleeing the Soviet Communistic government of East Germany!
4) Cork was a walled city from the 13th to the 17th centuries, as was Dublin, and Youghal, etc. The walls were said to be beautiful, surrounded by the branches of the River Lee at the harbour.
c. But none are more needed that the Christian's personal walls against the devil and sin and even his own nature. I will talk more about that next week!
3. Eleven Main Gates into and out of the city
4. And Ultimately their Nation
a. Jerusalem was and still is known as the eternal city
b. And yet here it was in ruin
c. These people NEEDED their capital city rebuilt - Their government, and courts rebuilt - The streets and houses and markets and schools
d. Otherwise, they were only nomads, wandering with no permanent city
e. Always at the mercy of a more powerful army that might pass through and rob them
5. These three things were priority for them!
B. Some Truths About Gates
1. What was a Gate Built Of? (3:3)
a. Stones for the walls on each side of the doors
1) By the way, I have searched and search and not found where anyone had to go and cut out new stones for the walls
2) No. No new material was needed. In the debris of all the ruined masonry lay all the material required to rebuild those walls!
3) That means that God can take all the mess you give Him and that is all He needs to make it all new! And make it work again!
4) Shout Amen!
b. Beams – the wood frame around the doors that supports the weight of the doors
c. Doors (2 sides) and hinges - not like a castle gate that raises and lowers - but one that opens out
d. Locks – hook braces that the locking bar was placed into across the door
e. Bars that spanned across the back of the doors
f. A lot of work went into these gates
1) Most Irish gates are almost useless – only decorative
2) But these gates needed to be solid, and to work – not collapse or cave under pressure
2. Do you ever wonder what is the Purpose of a Gate?
a. It controls what come in and goes out
b. Every HOME has WALLS, and GATES
1) Walls, doors, windows, fences
2) Why do we think that just because modern cities don't have walls anymore, that we don't need walls still?
3) Don't let the world talk you into just letting anything and everything into your home and heart and lives in the name of diversity and open mindedness!
c. Every BODY has walls and gates
1) Your SKIN is a wall, backed up by both bone and muscle
2) Your body has basically 5 gates in and out of your body
a) Ear Gate
b) Eye Gate
c) Nose Gate
d) Mouth Gate
e) Refuse Gate
f) And a Reproductive Gate
3) When they don't work, and crumble under attack (from germs, or abuse) you become crippled, or YOU DIE!
3. Here is another question. Why have all these gates? Why not just have one main gate?
a. It keeps things decent, and orderly
b. It is like having several delivery doors into a Shopping Mall
c. Refuse goes out the DUNG Gate… NOT the Fish Gate!
d. Sheep come in the gate where they are expected, and inspected – not in one end of the city only to get lost on the way to the market at the other end of the city
e. Made it so that people didn't mix fresh fish with dung – kept things very healthy
f. GOD is not stupid! He didn't have to explain germs, to just command His people to do nothings that kept them very healthy compared to the other cities of the ancient world!
C. How Were They Doing It?
Just THREE things were working together to accomplish this work!
1. Hard work
a. There was a lot more to do that you or I or any of them had figured – always is that way
b. Clearing the rubble and rubbish
c. Heaps and piles of rubbish (4:2)
d. You cannot BUILD upon rubbish and rubble – had to be cleared away (Jer 1:10)
e. In other words, you cannot leave things broken for very long (i.e., broken leg) or it will settle to be that way for the rest of your life – it has to be RESET!
f. Broken things do NOT normally fix themselves over time! They spread and affect more and more
g. Slow work (3:8)
h. Will stay at it until it is completely finished
i. Team effort – ordinary people who worked together (Heb 10:25) as a body (1Cor 12)
2. Teamwork
a. It took many hands and shoulders and backs to clear away and rebuild
b. Next week's main thought
3. And Knee-work. Nehemiah prayed constantly throughout the entire project. Did not rely on the people, or on his leadership abilities, or on the walls even. He constantly turned to God in desperate prayer, begging for help and wisdom and protection and encouragement!
D. A Glimpse of the Work (3:1-13)
1. So we have already read how Nehemiah started with the work that began on the SHEEP Gate (3:1) by Eliashib and his fellow priests
2. Then Nehemiah records how there were loads more – people I call Wall Builders (3:2)
a. The men of Jericho
1) Not a very fancy title
2) But, these were people responsible for repairing their assigned sections of the city walls and gates
3) Again, all being done decently and in order – not just DIY, and haphazardly
b. So, here are "the men of Jericho"
1) The men of Jericho were well known as rebuilders of walls!
2) Their forefathers had the job already of rebuilding the collapsed walls of Jericho by Joshua
c. Here are some amazing things about these men
1) These men were NOT from Jerusalem – they had come from another city to help with the work! Amen! Thank God! There was more work than could be done by those in the city!
2) Another thought – the men are not named
a) Your name is not as important as your hands
b) Same is true with politicians, and preachers – work hard!
3) But THEY got to work NEXT to Eliashib the High Priest - You never know who the Lord will put you alongside when you just decide to serve!
d. Next to them, was a guy name Zaccur, the son of Imri. We don't know anything about him other than the fact that he repaired a part of the wall of Jerusalem! That made him famous in God's eyes!
e. The important thing is that these guys took ownership of this section of wall, and got to work, and stayed at it, determined to finish the task.
3. The FISH Gate (3:3)
a. This gate was right next to the fish market in the city
b. Repaired by the sons of Hassenaah
c. Again, they are not particularly named, but they had an ethos of work that they evidently got from their father!
d. A work ethic is mainly passed onto sons by their FATHER!
e. Rebuilt everything necessary to make a solid, fully functioning Gate
4. More Wall was Repaired (3:4,5)
a. Four men and their families were put in charge of rebuilding a long stretch of boring wall
1) Meremoth
2) Meshullam
3) Zadok
4) The Tekoites
b. Boring yes – to just slab mortar and cement on stone, and then stack more stone on top of that, in layer after layer of wall until it reached 15 meters high and 7 meters thick!
c. But did you notice that they all worked ALONGSIDE – right next to each other?
1) Not so individualistic – but part of a team that didn't mind different personalities
2) They just knew they had a job to do!
d. Also, notice that Nehemiah writes that NOT everyone was putting their backs into the work… NOT their "nobles" (3:5)
1) These nobles were people who thought they were more important than labourers
2) These were used to supervising, not labouring
3) We have WAY too many "supervisors" in the Lord's work
4) Too many people claiming EXEMPTION from hard work!
5) It makes ME and everyone else doing their best, to watch lazy, apathetic believers do nothing. That is just not right!
6) EVERY Christian is to be putting their NECKS/BACKS into building their church – not leaving it to ANYONE else!
7) 1Cor 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
5. We will Stop at the OLD Gate (3:6)
a. A very ancient gate that had been part of the original city that Joshua conquered when it was called Jebus
b. It was evidently necessary to keep that old gate – maybe as a reminder of their history
c. Not all history all to be forgotten!
E. Next Week, We will learn more than 20 absolute truths about teamwork and building things that last!
III. Some Closing Thoughts
A. Too many things are broken today!
1. MARRIAGE is broken – been that way for a very long time
2. People's MINDS are broken – unable to sleep, forgive, reason and think through their problems
3. People's TRUST is constantly broken – no one takes responsibility anymore for ANYTHING! Always blaming others!
4. People's HEARTS are broken – haven't been happy for so many years
5. People's FAITH is broken – trusting in themselves, and in religious icons, and priests and prayers, and in fairies, and angels, and Bitcoins! Only to be constantly let down!
6. Society is broken – believing that abortion is a good thing, and Same Sex Marriage is fine and dandy, and that no one should have to work! BROKEN!
B. Rebuild the things that matter most, FIRST
1. That is what these men and women were doing – rebuilding the walls, not their homes, or gardens
2. Well, you and I need to rebuild and keep strong:
a. A Clear Conscience
b. A Walk with God
c. A God-Governed Marriage
d. A Tender Heart
e. Good living habits
C. There is always a LOT of work to do to rebuild those things
D. There probably are plenty of Workers, if only they would get busy!
E. Just like these men and women, we need THREE things working together to accomplish this work!
1. Hard work
2. Teamwork
3. And Knee-work. Lots of each!
F. A church, and a home needs everyone working ALONGSIDE each other – not most everyone spread out like spoiled brats expecting someone else to do the work
G. NEVER think of yourself as too important to work in this church
IV. Here is the Good News
A. Some things can never be fixed on our part
1. Our sins against God
2. The coming judgment against all ungodliness
B. So, God stepped down from heaven, and did the hardest work… took the wrath of the justice of God IN OUR PLACE on the cross
C. He INVITES you to simply, and ONLY believe that it is finished!
D. God made you. Sin broke you. Jesus saves you!
E. Believe it today!
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