And Nehemiah chapter 3 is where we are. Nehemiah chapter 3. We started on this last week. Last week we finished chapter 2 because there was a point that we had not yet quite finished in looking at chapter 2. So we looked at that and finished that part of our study and then we I'm going to move this because if I don't I'm going to trip over it. I keep kicking it with the back of my foot like, what is that? We started chapter 3 last week and really I just presented an introduction so we're going to pick up where we were last week as we look here at chapter 3. I'm not going to read the whole chapter, just as a representative I'm going to read the first four, five, maybe six verses, but they're pretty much representative of the entire chapter. This is a chapter that my guess is in your Bible reading, when you come to Nehemiah chapter 3, you may or may not read the entire chapter. I think there's profit in doing so. It is God's Word and God does promise that it has been presented to us for a positive reason, for our good, for our benefit. But passages like this seemingly don't really have a purpose. I hope tonight we can point out how this passage does, but I wanna read the first few verses and then we will jump into our message tonight. So, Nehemiah 3.1, "...then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate. They sanctified it and set up the doors of it, even unto the tower of Meah." They sanctified it under the tower of Hananiel. And next unto him builded the men of Jericho, and next to them builded Zachar the son of Emory. But the fish gate did the sons of Hassaniah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof. And next unto them repaired Merimoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Chaz. And next unto them repaired Meshulam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabiel. And next unto them repaired Zadok, the son of Baanah. And next unto them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord." Moreover, the old gate repaired Jehoiada, the son of Passaia, and Mesholam, the son of Bethsadea. They laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof." And we could continue on reading, but you get a sense of what is in this chapter. Let me begin with an observation. God has made us as individuals. We're all individuals. We're not the same. And that's a good thing. And it's a positive thing that we're not all cookie cutter, right? God has given each of us uniqueness all to ourselves. Now having said that, God has made us interdependent individuals. So even though we're all individuals, God created us to be social creatures. I know some of us sometimes think that we are individualistic and, you know, we're islands out in the sea and we don't need nobody. I intentionally did the double negative. That's the way we feel, right? Sometimes. But the reality is we are not individual islands set out in the sea. We are more like an archipelago. We are a series of islands that are all interdependent upon the other islands around us. We have our individuality, but that individuality is expressed within the interdependent group that God has brought us into. And that's true generally speaking around the world. We are social creatures. God made us that way and I think that's part of our being made in His image, frankly. I may touch upon that again here before we're finished this evening. So there is this interdependence that we have. To put it in a New Testament perspective, we are many members but we run body in Christ. So in the church, we are individuals, and there are many individual members of a church, but there is one body, the church. We are unified, we are to be unified within that body. So the point is simply this, God wants us to learn to work together. That is his expectation for us. That is His desire, that is part of His purpose, that you and I learn to work together. Now, I mentioned the Trinity a moment ago, so let me just take a moment to touch upon that idea. God Himself is presented to us in a one in three, or a three in one. So we see the fact there is one God in three persons in perfect unity, in perfect harmony. And so being made in the image of God, we, as we see presented to us and exemplified in the Trinity, we are to be social creatures. We need each other. God wants us to reflect His image. by working together in unity and harmony. I think we see that exemplified here in Nehemiah chapter three. This is a picture of God's people unified and harmonious in accomplishing a purpose that God had raised them up to accomplish. And that is true for you and me in the body of Christ. He wants us to work together in unity and in harmony. Now that's beautiful, isn't it? You know, in this Christmas season, it's like, oh yeah, that's great. Another observation. It's easier said than done, isn't it? I mean, as much as we would like to think that, you know, we're born again children of God, we're the redeemed family of God, we never have any issues with each other. But if I were to present it that way, you would be looking at me like, Is he serious? Is he trying to make a point by being sarcastic? I mean, I wish it were so, but the reality is there are problems that we face. in our social interactions with other people. How much of the New Testament, how many of the epistles speak to some aspect of our interrelatedness with other people and what we need to do to maintain or to establish a relationship with others that pleases God. So having said that, then the question is, all right, if this is what God's will is for us, to be unified and harmonious in accomplishing his purposes, How do we do it? If it's easier said than done, how do we do it? That brings us here to Nehemiah 3. Nehemiah 3 is an illustration. answering the very question, how are we able to accomplish the unity and the harmony that should exist among the people of God? What do we have here in Nehemiah 3? Well, the verses that I read for you, representative of the entire chapter, all 32 verses really, is an account of the division of labor in rebuilding the wall under Nehemiah's leadership. That's what this chapter's all about. So in a very simple way to put it, this chapter is saying, all right, the Bereas worked on the wall next to this gate, and the Hughes were next to them working on their part of the wall, and the Wells were next to them working on their part of the wall, and you just go all the way around the wall of Jerusalem, all the way in circumference around the city, and here is the division of labor. Here, this family worked on this portion, this family worked on this portion. Oh, there was a gate, this family worked on the gate. Oh, this family worked on this portion. Oh, here's another gate, this family worked on this gate. That's why we come to it and we say, well, Okay, I know it's important, but here are our named individuals, like we said Sunday morning, why is it that we have this list of names in Matthew 1 of people who lived thousands of years ago who have names we can't even pronounce? Why do we need to know them? And we can say the same here in Nehemiah chapter three. Okay, fine, isn't it enough for us to simply say, okay, they got together and they rebuilt the wall? Why do we need to know anything else? What is the real weight of the chapter in terms of God presenting it to us this way? To say it, I could perhaps say it this way. This is not an easy passage to preach. Because typically, working through a book, we would say, okay, verse one presents X, and verse two presents B, or whatever. We would break it down, we would organize it, we would say, okay, as we move through this, this is where we're going. You can't do that with this chapter, because all you're gonna say is, okay, this part of the wall was built by this family, and here are their names. And this part of the wall was built by this family, and here are their names. So how do you divide it up and how do you get various points from this chapter? Because of that, as I mentioned last week, a lot of preachers down through the centuries have allegorized this chapter. So they've taken gates, like the sheep gate, and they said, okay, the sheep gate represents Christ, who is our great shepherd. And then they go off on a tangent talking about Christ. Or the fish gate is representative of the fact that God has called Fisher of men. And then you go off on a message about being a fisher of men. Do I agree that Christ is the great shepherd? Do I agree that God has called us to be fishers of men? Absolutely. But can you get that from this chapter? Not really. It's just Well, how else are we to preach this chapter? I mean, if you're working through the book of Nehemiah, what can you get from this chapter that you can really preach? Some have used this as a launching point. Because as you work through this, what we'll find is that families worked on the portion of the wall near their homes. Makes sense, doesn't it? Hey, you know the wall behind your house? You work on fixing that part of the wall, and your neighbor will work on fixing the part of the wall behind his house, and so on and so forth. Hey, it makes sense, right? So some have said, you know what this chapter represents? It represents the importance of the Christian family and how you have to work to maintain your family for the Lord. Do we agree with that? Yes, family is important and we have to work to maintain it for the Lord, but can you get that from the chapter? All I'm simply saying is we have to be careful when we come to scripture that we don't simply use it as a springboard to go to where we want to be, you know, hobby horses. Some preachers have hobby horses. And it doesn't matter what verse they start from, they're always gonna end up at the same place because that's just sort of the place they always tend to go to. I would imagine that if you hear me long enough, you might say, well, you know, you have a few hobby horses too because I'm human. So I'm sure that I probably have some blind spots where I've spoken about the same thing more than once in different messages, but I hope that that's rare because I hope that in my preaching, I'm really just sticking with the text. And sticking with the text means you will be repetitive, right? Because some things are repeated within the same book, but surely over the course of different books, you're gonna be hitting the same themes, even from different authors. Because ultimately, isn't the Bible unified? And why is it unified? Because though there may be 40 some human authors, there's only one real author. and that is God and God the Holy Spirit who moved the men to write these words. So the Bible is unified even though it was written over a 1,500 year period of time. So having said that, then we ask this question. Why did God include Nehemiah in Nehemiah chapter three in scripture? What does he want us to learn from this passage? And I think the answer is really simple. This chapter highlights the importance of working together to accomplish God's purpose. Remember I mentioned unity? We see unity, we see harmony, and that mirrors the unity and harmony that we see in the Godhead, and that it is God's will that we be unified and harmonious. And the fact is, if we are to accomplish God's purpose, can we accomplish God's purpose minus being unified and harmonious. I think we all know the answer to that, right? If we don't have unity and we don't have harmony, then we're gonna be working at cross purposes with each other and we're not gonna be accomplishing God's purpose, we're each gonna have our own agendas. And unfortunately for far too many churches around our country, they are filled with various factions who are seeking to accomplish their agenda. They want to win the battle to do things their way. But the real impetus that should move us is not seeking what I want. but seeking what God says. We have to have, and this brings us to the first point, we need a shared vision. If we're to accomplish God's purpose, we must have a common vision, a shared vision. And that's what we see here in Nehemiah 3. There is a common vision. You can't work together with anyone to accomplish something if you have different goals. And we mentioned this last week as we just barely touched upon this point. Think about these families. Think about these individuals working on this wall. What if they each had a different vision of what they saw that wall ultimately to be? And you looked at the wall and said, you know, we need strength. The purpose of a wall is to keep the enemy out. And so, the wall, the part I'm working on, I'm gonna make sure it's stable, I'm gonna make sure it's thick, I'm gonna make sure it's high, I'm gonna make sure it's solid, because it's for protection. It's for defense. Great. But your neighbor looks at the wall and says, you know, I have a little artistic flair. And I'm more about decoration. I think that, I think the wall should make a statement. And the statement the wall should make is that we're really good people and we like beautiful things. And so my part of the wall that I'm rebuilding, it's all going to be about making it just look very nice. You know, this idea about strength and all of that, I mean, you know, that's antiquated. You know, that's the old way of thinking. I'm all about something new and refreshed and so I'm going to make it look beautiful so people will come and say, wow, look at that. People in Jerusalem must be great people. Look at the wall. Okay, we can debate whether either one of those is the right view, but the fact is, if those are two competing views rebuilding parts of the wall, how's it gonna work? Because people are gonna walk up and they're gonna say, whoa, wait a minute. You can see every little bit around this wall, it's a different wall. People are working to accomplish different things. I mean, some is high, some is low, some is about artistic view, some is about strength. But it makes for a hodgepodge. It does just the opposite. It doesn't make for anything beautiful because even though part of it may be beautiful, it's next to something that is conveying strength and you can't make me move. Competing visions. You're not gonna build something that's really going to accomplish anything because you're trying to accomplish different purposes. Does that make sense? Now it's kind of absurd because you're rebuilding a wall. I'm sure they all had the same idea of what the wall would look like, but I'm just trying to convey that idea that there had to be even then some unifying vision of what is it that we want this wall to do? What is its purpose? So they wouldn't have gotten very far if they had that competing vision before it would begin to look ridiculous. They could only work and rebuild the wall in 52 days, which is what they did, if they were unified and harmonious and they had a shared vision. Now, I wanna say this, just to be fair. In a way, we can envy what they had to do. Because what they were doing could be completed within a certain period of time, and then they could say, we did it. Right? I mean, however long it took, there's a finite period of time we're just rebuilding a wall. And then we can all have a big party and say, we did it, the job is done. But if we're going to apply the principle in this chapter to the church today, can we say that the purpose God has for the church is something that we can finish within a short period of time, relatively speaking, and then we can have a party and say it's done? And the answer would be, well, not really, because what is the task, what is the purpose that God has given to us as a church? And not just to us specifically here in West Seneca, but to the church for 2,000 years in various places around the world, we all share something in common when it comes to God's purpose for us as believers. We call it the Great Commission, right? God has given us a shared commission that can only be fulfilled by proclaiming the gospel to every people group around the world. So we have a responsibility to carry the gospel, proclaim the gospel to our Jerusalem, if you will, to borrow from Acts 1.8, and then to Judea, and then Samaria, and then the uttermost parts of the earth. That's why we have missionaries. That's why we support missionaries, both domestic missionaries within the United States and missionaries around the world, because it is our way of being a part of this commission, not only to reach our own location, but to be a part of reaching, proclaiming the gospel around the world. But it's more than just evangelism, isn't it? We're to proclaim the gospel, but what else does Matthew 28 say that we are supposed to do? Is it just proclaiming the gospel and saying, okay, we did it, we proclaimed the gospel, now we can dust our hands off and go about our merry way? What else is a part of this commission? Discipleship, making disciples. Now, how is it, what is the vehicle through which God not only makes disciples but the process of discipleship ultimately is to be done? Church. God ordained the church. And it's through the ministry of the church. It's through that interdependence as God has brought us together, in this case, in a local church assembly. It is one of God's purposes for us, not only to proclaim the gospel outward, but then within our body to exercise this idea of discipleship. And that would be raising up churches. So we do that here, but part of missions is raising up churches around the world. So what ultimately do we want our missionaries to be involved in? We want them to be involved in church work. Because the church is not an American institution. Where was the first church? Jerusalem. And then the church, you read the epistles, you have the church at Ephesus, you have the church at Philippi, you have the churches in Galatia because Galatia was like western New York. There was no place named Galatia as in a town. It was a region and within that region there were different churches. Point being, you have In the New Testament, this picture of churches within locations, that's what the early church did. It multiplied itself by churches being raised up in towns and villages around the Roman Empire and beyond. and that is part of what our shared purpose is. We want to help in the raising up of churches. Now, not every missionary that we support is directly involved in planting churches, because what else do churches need? So, for instance, we have the young lady that just went to France. She's not planting a church, but she's working with the missionaries who are planting churches to help teach and train and specifically to use music to aid them in what they do. So it's still focused upon that idea. And the point I'm trying to make is there is something that you and I are to be unified around. They had a purpose, that purpose was rebuilding the wall. The principle is they did it and they did it well and they did it in 52 days. because they had that unity of purpose, they had the harmony of working together, they had a shared vision. And if you and I are to accomplish God's purposes for us, then we have to share, we have to have that shared vision, and within that shared vision, there needs to be unity and harmony amongst us as well. So the supreme goal of the church, just to take that bird's eye view, the supreme goal of the church is to glorify God, that His name would be hallowed throughout the earth. And how do we do that? Chapter 1, when we spent time in Nehemiah 1, we saw that God is glorified ultimately when His people find their sufficiency and their joy in Him. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. So our goal is to spread a passion for God's glory among the nations by proclaiming the gospel and by being engaged in the work of discipleship. That's our vision. Everything we do for the Lord should have this vision in mind. Now, even though that may be our shared vision, let me just, I'm almost finished, so just give me a couple more minutes, all right? Is it immediately obvious that every task that is performed by us through the life of our church contributes to that vision? Let me say that again. Is it immediately obvious that everything we do in the life of our church is contributing to the vision of raising up people who see the glory of God as we proclaim the gospel and do the work of discipleship. Well, if we have an opportunity to share the gospel with someone who doesn't know Christ and they respond to the gospel, absolutely, we just met the parameters, right? I mean, here's our vision and it is working. People are being saved, praise God. But let me ask you this question. In just a few weeks, really is coming quickly now, it's gonna be January. And what happens in January and February? We have on Sundays, the noon meal, right? We share a meal together for eight weeks. Every Sunday, Lord willing, we will share a meal together. But what comes with that? What is necessary? Well, somebody has to clean up, right? I mean, you know, we make a mess when we share a meal, and somebody's gotta go sweep the floor, wipe off the tables, wash utensils, whatever else we may have used from the kitchen. Somebody has to clean up. So, it's a vital task, but does it contribute to our shared purpose, our shared vision. I mean, it's exciting to share the gospel with somebody and see them get saved, but am I serving the Lord and am I fulfilling our shared vision if all I'm doing is helping clean up after a meal on a Sunday? How would that contribute to the vision that, you know, that great vision, the great commission that God has given to us? Surely I can just sort of put that aside because that's not important. Is that true? Well, think with me. If no one chose to do it, would that seriously hinder the well-being of the church? I mean, you know, the first Sunday it might be like we all go home and leave it down there and the school aside, what would we find the next Sunday when we come? Oh, nobody cleaned up last week. Well, and then we have another meal and nobody cleans up. And the third week we come, we're starting to push things to the side, right? So we can have the third meal. How long would it take before people would just say, you know what, I'm not gonna be involved in these meals anymore. Nobody cares enough to clean up. Would it affect the well-being of the church? Absolutely. It may be something easily overlooked. I mean, we don't really make a list and put it up on the screen. Hey, last week these three people really stood out in cleaning up after our meal. We generally don't Maybe we should acknowledge it more than we do, but it's usually just something that is done, right? But it is contributing to the well-being of the church. Let me just add to that picture. What if there is somebody who does clean up, but after the third or fourth Sunday of cleaning up after that meal, they look around and say, you know what, this just isn't right. I mean, every week I'm in here cleaning up and there are able-bodied people who could be down here helping me wash these dishes and they're not even lifting a finger to do it. That grumbling, complaining spirit, even if there may be some truth to it, is that going to contribute to unity and harmony or is it going to be divisive? Do you get the picture that I'm trying to paint? How about this? You're washing the dishes, and the next week you come and you wash the dishes, and the next week you come and you wash the dishes, and you do this for eight weeks, and nobody's thanking you for it, nobody's patting you on the back for it, but you're doing it with a joy in your heart because you know you are contributing to the glory of God by helping the well-being of the church. After all, whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God. So it's not about, hey, look at me! It's about, thank you, Lord, for the opportunity I have to be a part of a body of believers and that I can contribute in some small way, even if it's washing dishes every week. And I'm not asking anybody here to say, okay, I'll get it. I'll wash dishes every week. You made me feel guilty. That's not the point. I'm using this as an illustration because there's so many things. like washing dishes over the course of a year that have to be done in the body of Christ, things that need to be done just so we operate well, right? That if they're not done would be just the opposite, not building unity and harmony, but actually feeding division. Picking up paper, throwing out trash, vacuuming carpets, dusting. I mean, these are things that we would look at and say, well, how does this contribute to the glory of God? Come back to Nehemiah 3. Somebody had to be carrying those blocks, right, that they would add to the wall. Somebody would have to do some trimming. It's not like everything's been sitting there for 150 years, you know, on a pallet ready to go, already, you know, pre-measured and pre-chiseled and all of that. I mean, there is work that would have to be done. Who gets the greater glory? The guy who's down on the ground chiseling and chiseling and chiseling or the guy that's up on the ladder putting the stone in place and folks saying, oh, that looks beautiful. You've done such a great job as you put that wall together. Is the other guy important? If he has a shared vision, then he's not saying, look, I'm doing as much as he is, why is he getting all the accolades? He is saying, I'm doing this for the glory of God. I'm doing this because I love the Lord. I'm doing this because I share in the vision. And what I can do to further the cause that God has called us to do collectively, I'm happy to do that. I think when we look at Nehemiah chapter three, that's part of the idea. We need a shared vision. Now I'm just gonna mention the second point and we'll touch on, we'll build on this next week. We need a shared vision. but that division has to be developed. That's the second point. It has to be developed. It doesn't just happen, right? I mean, we're all the children of God and we all have the same Bible and we all have the same Holy Spirit who indwells us and empowers us, but we are individuals who have our own ideas So there needs to be a development of us coming together and recognizing here is our shared vision. Here is what we're all working to accomplish. It takes work. It takes effort. God accomplishes his purpose through people. We've talked about that before. But it takes motivation and organization for them to achieve what God has called them to do. So that's part also of what a church is to do. That's what Nehemiah did here. I'll say this and then we'll close. If you read the chapter, and I hope you'll take time to read it, you will find that Nehemiah's name is not mentioned in this chapter. We see him in chapter two, we see his challenge. We see him at the end of chapter two telling the enemies, you have no place or memorial or right in Jerusalem. Chapter three, they start building the wall. Where's Nehemiah? Now you'll see Nehemiah's name mentioned later, but it's a different Nehemiah. And there could be more than one person with the same name, right? I mean, we have a few Mikes in our church. So we can have people with the same name and it'd be a different individual. It's not the same Nehemiah mentioned here in chapter 3. Does that mean Nehemiah had nothing to do with rebuilding the wall? No, he had everything to do with it. We're going to use that next week because there are some principles that I think are applicable to how a church is able to create that unified spirit and it's exemplified through Nehemiah. And the first point under that, it takes work, and the first point is, Nehemiah wasn't worried about his own reputation. He didn't wanna make a name for himself. That wasn't his motivation. We'll build upon that, Lord willing, next week. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for the opportunity we have to study the book of Nehemiah. Lord, we're talking about actual factual events, true history, and there may be names of individuals here that we've never heard of before and would never hear of again after this chapter, but collectively they represent something important. They accomplished a task. They accomplished it in a short period of time, and they did it well. And they did it for your glory. They had a shared vision. They were unified. There was a harmony among them. And Lord, you accomplished something great through them. Lord, it is my prayer that we, as a church today, made up of individuals, recognize our interdependence upon one another, and that, Lord, you would help us to have that shared vision. that there would be a unity and a harmony as we work together to accomplish your purpose, what you've called us to do, ministering to one another within the body of Christ and collectively together being stronger and being enabled to accomplish not only that ministry to ourselves and discipling among ourselves, but reaching out, proclaiming the gospel to those around us, friend, family, neighbor, coworker, Lord, help us to accomplish Your purpose in a unified and harmonious way. We'll give You the glory as we pray this in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen.