Then Elishab, 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 next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zachar the son of Imri built. the sons of Hesani built the fish gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them, Mermoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakaz, repaired. And next to them, Meshulam, the son of Barakiah, the son of Meshebozobl, repaired. And next to them, Zadok, the son of Banna, repaired. And next to them, the Techoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve the Lord. Indeed, Amen. Dear Saints, you may be seated. Tonight's scripture title reminds us, sermon title, that the militant church's work is never done, but it certainly starts. So let's go to the Lord and start that way as well. Father, it all starts in Jesus, in his church, on his day. It really does. We restart our lives and we reorder the universe every Sabbath day. We thank you that as we close this one out, We might prepare for good work tomorrow done in the fullness of where we were today, in the presence of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. So as we study the first five verses of Nehemiah chapter 3, we will understand it as something of a paradigm or a pattern for the rest of chapter 3, as I mentioned, which we will not cover every single verse and every name. One might actually say legitimately that the work began on the wall even before one tool was lifted to build or repair that structure, and this is because, as we saw two weeks ago from chapter 2, verse 18b, that the people had, quote, set their minds to, or their hands to this good work. And hence, there we have the model. Gospel leads to faith, which issues forth in love for God, which results in good ministry labors for the kingdom or church of Christ and through her to the world. In the same vein then, let's make it our goal this evening to minister as the church for the glory of Christ in this world. Looking together at Nehemiah 3, 1 to 5, really exciting verses tonight. I think you'll enjoy this sermon. The work begins, the doctrine, the church's ministry has a domino effect on everyone and everything. Now, children, I think you probably have seen these dominoes. You set them up, you knock one down, they all go down right in a row. It's really interesting when people do that in a big set. But this domino effect is so true in the world, and this chapter is a classic example of it. Starts almost at the top with the high priest, and it just dominoes right on down. The flow of God's grace through the church to the world is seen here. And it's interesting this morning we talked about the counterintuitive nature of the gospel. How the world cannot and does not understand it. It's completely at odds with the wisdom of the world. Well, if you were to have a bird's eye view from the top, a GPS sort of satellite picture of Jerusalem back then, and you were looking at the city and the way they were going to build the wall, they actually do it in a counterclockwise way. They start on the north side of the city at the temple area, And they work their way gradually bending around the southwest and they come this way. So from the way I would look at a clock, they're going like this, just like that. And they come all the way around the city and eventually finish it in just 50 some days, which is a remarkable fact. The Church's ministry has a domino effect on everyone and everything. It starts at the top with God. Keep in mind, dears, that Nehemiah was not the highest person involved in this great project, and neither was the high priest or the priest. Rather, it was God himself. Now, there are two texts in Nehemiah that are very interesting. They're on your outline there. One is Nehemiah 3.5b, which is in our lesson tonight, and the other is Nehemiah 6.16b. And in both of these there's an allusion to God Himself being directly involved in the work on the wall. Obviously, God didn't come down in a pre-incarnate state as a Christophany or a Theophany and build the wall, but he used his church in such a way that the text implies that God himself was totally intimately involved in this process. And it was a great encouragement to the church at that time and a great discouragement to the enemies of God at that time. So the Lord himself is at the apex of the hierarchy of persons who are involved in the wall building. Because remember, God is Trinity. In fact, next Sunday morning in the adult class up here at Christian Ed, we're actually going to study a brand new book. What is the Holy Trinity? And we're going to investigate the fact that God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But there's what's also intriguing about all this is that under God, there are all kinds of people in the covenant community of the people of Israel at that time who had come back to Jerusalem. They'd been sent there by the kings of Persia who said, go back there and build the temple and now build the wall. And all of these people get involved in this expedition. There are priests and laymen, there are craftsmen and merchants, there are people from families and various towns, and all of them, with very, very few exceptions, get involved in the war. We will see an exception, a very interesting one. If the Lord God Himself is interested in getting a job done on earth, as He is through you, His beloved and precious Church, then we ought to have that same passion as well. Everything we do this week, view it as your ministry. So, it starts at the top with God. and it ends by impacting the whole world. You know that nothing God ever does through his church is ever meant to be for our benefit alone. That's really an important fact. The church exists for the benefit first of its members, true, Galatians 6.10, but also for all other people everywhere in the entire world. Everything you do this week as churchmen having taken the gospel that you have heard today, and of Jesus Christ and the sacrament as well, will be done not only for the benefit of your church and other Christians, but the whole world, of all other people, unbelievers too, completely done for them. Our impact on other people may not always be understood by them for their good, because they might view us as threats or whatever you might want to say. But the same was true in Nehemiah's time, where some people continued to try to stop and hinder and prevent the work on the wall, but that didn't stop them and it should not us either. Because we do what we do in love, first for God through Christ, and then for his people, his church, and then for the people of the world as well. We are to persevere The wall around Jerusalem was a physical testimony of God's grace to the world. Think about it. The enemies would be kept out, but all believing souls would be welcomed in through its gates that were also built. It was an emblem of the gospel of mercy in Jesus Christ, in the Old Covenant, as he came to die for sinners from every tribe, nation, people, group. And as we studied Revelation, what did we see? We saw the city with open gates, never closed, welcoming all who would come in faith and repentance toward Jesus. So let's look at this really exciting text, verses 1 to 5, chapter 3, and observe some characteristics of the church's work in a fallen universe. Children, if that word's just too big, you can put something like parts, if you will, or traits, but that's probably not too helpful for you. But these initial verses of chapter 3 give us a good glimpse of some universal principles relative to the way God operates in this world. So what are some characteristics or traits or parts of the way God works in a fallen universe? Verse 1, it is inspired by spirit-led clergymen. 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. That's really interesting. And Nehemiah, under God's Spirit's direct intervention, implores the people to get to work. They say, let's do it. And the very first people, first person to rise up is the high priest. That is a good, good thing. And he also has the company of his brothers in this building project. Now, this Eliashib, interestingly, was the grandson of a man named Jeshua, who was the high priest during the time of Zerubbabel, who served in the previous century. Because, to kind of recap that history, the people had been sent back there a number of years before to begin to build the temple, and they did. But it wasn't in a very good condition, and of course with no wall there was all kinds of vulnerability. But it did exist at that time. But notice here in this verse 1 the consecration aspect of the priest's work. So they're looking at this as a sacred duty. Not just their offering of sacrifices and the various things they did in the temple, but even this work was consecrated to God. And it comes at the beginning of the project. So God puts his consecration blessing through the priests on the church there as they begin this work on the wall, which will go counterclockwise around the city of Jerusalem, starting appropriately near the temple area. And it's also very intriguing to notice here that this work is interspersed at critical junctions along the way. And those are mentioned. So it's not like every single junction of the wall is mentioned, although a lot of them are. But here we have the Sheep Gate and the Tower of the Hundreds specifically laid out for us. Now the sheep gate is very interesting because that may well have been the area where the lambs for sacrificial service were to enter the general temple environs when the priests would take those lambs and sacrifice them. And again, the priests are listed first in this long chronology of workers and accomplishments. And their very initial attention was placed on securing the church's sacrificial system via the sheep gate through which those animals would come, which were very important in the Old Covenant order because before the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, came, there were millions of lambs whose lives were sacrificed. pointing to that ultimate Lamb, Jesus Christ, who cleanses us and transforms the world through us, his church, as we faithfully follow him through this world. It's also quite wonderful to notice that the priest's consecration is placed on the church first, the sheep gate, but also on the state. Now, this is interesting. Notice this verse 1 here. It's the Sheep Gate, i.e. the church, and the Tower of the Hundred, i.e. the state. The Tower of the Hundred was a defensive structure that was there to protect the people. That's where your soldiers would be. So the blessing is on the church and the state. And of course, biblically, we never make a distinction between God's anointing of and appointing of the church and the state. Both of them are absolutely necessary. The church is much more important. It lives and exists forever. The state is a limited entity, but it's a good one. And we don't look down upon it as something inferior or not to be esteemed or prayed for. In fact, we do pray for it as we're commanded to in 1 Timothy 2, 1 and following. So the characteristics of the church's work in a fallen world is inspired by spirit-led clergymen. And as you know, we've talked about this many times from this church in the pulpit. Everything starts here. That's why we need to pray for God to raise up those kind of men to lead his church. And then verses 2 to 4, it spreads to the greater congregation. And next to him, that would be Eliashib, the high priest with his brothers, But he's been representing all of them. Next to him, the men of Jericho built. And next to them, Zachar the son of Emry built. The sons of Hassaniah built the fish gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts and its bars. Next to them, Merimoth the son of Uriah, next son of Hachaz repaired, and next to them, Meshulam the son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabel repaired, and next to them, Zadok the son of Bayanah repaired. So, dears, remember we alluded to the domino effect. So it starts with God himself, comes down, hits the high priest, hits the other priests, and now we see it coming upon all kinds of parishioners in the church that was gathered in Jerusalem. The priest example emboldens these others, as we see in verses 2-4 and throughout the rest of chapter 3, and emboldens them. Good leadership emboldens people to live for Jesus. Now, in these verses we have the following three groupings represented. It's kind of interesting. I told you this is a really exciting text. Three different types of groupings. The first is cities. Jericho is mentioned in verse 2a, and then later in verse 5, people from Tekoa work together. So cities. Then the second group is individuals, as in Zachar in verse 2b and Merimoth, Meshulam, and Zadok in verse 4. And then the third grouping are families, as in Hasaniah's sons who labored in verse 3. And I might mention that I think the reference to the fish gate here in verse three may also have an allusion to commerce taking place in the newly restored and more vibrant city of Jerusalem, where now with some protection and some security and less vulnerability, there could be six days of commerce where people come and buy and sell, except, of course, on the old Sabbath day. And then also please notice the special attention paid to the Sons of Hassaniah here as regarding the fish gate because some specifics are mentioned. A lot of things happen that the Holy Spirit didn't include in every account, but he does here for some reason. He mentions the beams, the doors, the bolts, and the bars. So you guys who know how to work those kind of things, you understand how important those things are. And those are actually mentioned. It's neat that God would do that for us. Now, some of the parties that work on the wall built it, essentially from scratch, and others repaired it, since there must have been some semblance of structure still there with which to work. In other words, where it wasn't so badly damaged, either rotten or burned or whatever, that they could still actually work with the basic structure. And you all know what that would be like. Now, in the church today, we do the same thing. We both build and repair. where the structure has utterly collapsed and there's been a complete loss of integrity, of doctrinal purity of any sort, cardinal doctrines gone, in that case it needs to be totally and completely built again. And of course there are lots of denominations that need that and some are getting that kind of help. I think it's encouraging that the Methodist Church, for instance, is breaking away from the apostate. And they're trying to to build what they have, if you will, from that place. But the second part might more apply to them, actually, and that is repairing. Damage is done, but it's not to the end of ultimate destruction, so they repair. But how are both this building and repairing done? Through gospel doctrine or the person of Jesus? Through the preaching, the sacraments, and prayer, the ordinary means of grace in the context of the church on the Lord's Day, just what you're doing here today. So some characteristics of the church's work, inspired by spirit-led clergymen. We saw Eliashib, the high priest, the first one to get up and start working. It spreads to the greater congregation, covers a whole bunch of people, individuals, cities, families. And then verse five, important to note, it is resisted by some in the covenant. Look at this verse, very interesting. After all that, look at verse five. It says, and next to them the Techoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. Now, that is a remarkable thing. Now, okay, in English, study Bibles, different translations, the word Lord is not Yahweh here. So it's not the covenant name for God. it is probably a reference to God himself. Now, some translations suggest the possibility that the Lord would be Nehemiah, who's the sort of, you know, how we sometimes will call a human being Lord Smallwell. Even the Bible does that, in a legitimate sense. But here, I truly think it is the Lord, as I think most of your translations, and in fact in this case, their Lord. Now that's interesting because that's a little bit hopeful, right? So if the text really is referring to God, which I believe it is, and it's their Lord, well, A little bit of hope there. And we're going to try to be a little gracious with this verse, so let's look at it for a moment. This failure of some to pitch in isn't, at this point, and this is interesting, necessarily condemned by God. It's like the next verse says, and God just whacked him. It doesn't say that. In fact, the next verse is going on to some other people who did some repair of another gate. So, the principle is that we must recognize, dears, that God is patient with his covenant children, at least to a point, even if they aren't willing to do the right thing, at least right away. Okay? Again, we don't see an immediate condemnation here. And I will say that if these people from Tekoa, these so-called nobles of Tekoa, continued to persist in their uncooperativeness and their rejection of the clear direction of God among that church in that time, something would have been done about that. God would have either directly intervened or used others in his church to do something about it. Now, there may have been reasons for this. Maybe the nobles of Tekoa were jealous of this new man on the block, Nehemiah, just showing up and all of a sudden everybody following his lead. Maybe they didn't like that. Maybe they didn't trust him. Or maybe, in my opinion, probably the most likely, they had the primadonna syndrome. Just a little too good to pick up tools and move boards around and get dirty and that kind of thing. After all, they were nobles. We don't know for sure. It's not good. We're not saying it's okay even. We're not saying it's legitimate, but we're taking it at face value where it is. It could be that later on they did see the light and got involved. But they did refuse to work, even though the ordinary citizens of their city did. Now look at that. Isn't that interesting? They're supposed to be the nobles of Tekoa, but verse 5 actually says next to them, the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their lord. Wow. Well, complete unanimity, which children means complete, total, 100% agreement on almost anything, in a fallen world is almost always impossible. Even in cases where the spirit-led leadership is so abundantly obvious to almost anybody with eyes to see and spiritual senses. that clearly Nehemiah had the good hand of God upon him as he mentioned it numerous times. And by the way, remember that this book was connected to Ezra originally? I was reading Ezra a week or so ago and in Ezra that same phrase is used where it says of Ezra that the good hand of God was upon him. The good hand of God is upon you as you go into your ministry this week as well. But some people are either slow learners or just stubborn, but with God, at this point at least, we need to be patient with them, at least to a point. So let's do a little more application this evening and learn how we joyfully serve our Lord in the world today. You know, building walls may not seem to be the most exciting or glamorous thing to do, but the church may joyfully serve the Lord in the world today, first by understanding how vital VITAL, his church's ministry, really is. After all, dears, if we may appropriately put some temporal value on the goals and aspirations and ends of human beings and companies and corporations and families and networks that we are going to work for, study under this week, and legitimately. If we can put some real value on that, and we should, whatever it is that God's called us to do, then how much more value and more worth may we put on the work of the ministry of Jesus Christ that he has called us to do as his church in the world this week. Because when we do that, whether it's company, corporation, a person, whatever, we're doing it ultimately for Christ. To invest one's life and resources wisely and prudently is to seek the pearl of great price as per Matthew 13, 46. And you are that pearl of great price. Let's continue to love Jesus as his church, worshipping him, serving him as the body of Christ. How we joyfully serve our Lord in the world today. By understanding how vital his church's ministry really is, And by persisting in it wholeheartedly, and that's the hard part where most people fail. It's relatively easy to start work of any sort, a race or anything else, or even wall work, but it's another thing to stay with it to the end. hard, and you're perspiring, and you get dirty, and you'd rather do something else, and yet you stay with it until the job is finished. Jesus didn't come up short when he came here to die on the cross for us, his elect church, nor to rise from the dead for us on the third day, or to be raised into heaven in his glorious session there through his ascension. And neither should we come up short in persevering through trials and hardships in this life as the covenant community. And you have gone through those fires, and you have been tested, and you are pure, and you're showing the grace of God in your lives. Therefore, let's continue to translate our Sabbath church worship into vibrant testimonies of Christ's love in our hearts and into opportunities for service and evangelism. And as we do that, and we speak the gospel, we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ that he came to save sinners, opened doors, opened gates, led folks into the church, the city of God, the new covenant today as even it was the old covenant Jerusalem in that day. Christ's blood cleanses sinners, all those who believe in him, us included. Brethren, the work begins, but it also looks to an end. For us, the end or the goal is the person of Jesus Christ. We come to the end or the goal of our life in Christ every Sunday. And then we go back into that wonderful series of days that God calls a week. And we do it to the glory of Christ and the satisfaction of our souls, even in our labors for Him. Here, let's pray together. Father, thank you that the work begins and it ends in Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you that He did it in perfection for us and left no stone unturned. did everything and didn't leave any bars loose on that wall. Thank you that He is our absolute hope, the great cornerstone of His temple, His New Covenant Church, and we bless you for Him, in Jesus' name, Amen.