The Dedication of the Walls

I think Nehemiah could have sung that one as well. Great is thy faithfulness. It's one that we know, we're familiar with, but fits, definitely fits the book of Nehemiah and where we are and what we're learning. Go ahead and take your Bible, turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 12. You know that's the chapter we're gonna be covering. I announced that this morning, and also we had our scripture reading out of chapter 12. And like I said, verse 27 really is the high point, it's the culmination of so much work.

If I can use this phrase we're familiar with, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, a lot of prayer and obedience and walking with the Lord went into getting the people of God and the work of God to verse 27, this dedication of the walls. Now we've not been together in Nehemiah and quite some time. I went back this week and looked at my notes and our last message in Nehemiah was October the 29th. That's why I said this morning, we hadn't been in Nehemiah since the fall. But we covered chapter 11 and the title of that message was, the repopulation of the city. Remember they had to call people to reoccupy the great city of Jerusalem.

The temple was complete, but it was virtually empty. And those men and those women, many were chosen by lot. They really risked their lives and many of them had to change their occupations. Why? To go and fulfill God's work in repopulating the city. Now we took a break from Nehemiah quite a long time for two reasons. We started back in the fall that study with our friend and brother Ed Lacey. We went through Christ's center of evangelism. That was very necessary, we're gonna revisit that. I believe that's part of what God wants us to do in the new year. And then we did take a break during the Christmas holidays.

We take some time off on our evening messages and I think that's healthy. That's a good time for us to spend time with family. And then we, in the new year, we hit the ground running and we get back together on Sunday nights. Now the last time we were in Nehemiah, I gave you a good breakdown of the book. And I wanna revisit this because I want to refresh our memory with what's taking place in the book of Nehemiah. Now chapter one through chapter six consists of everything surrounding the rebuilding of the walls. If you go back to chapter one, that's the story of God calling Nehemiah to be a part of this work.

He was there in Persia in Susa, which was the capital city. He heard the report from his brother that the city was in ruins, the walls were in the ruins and he's brokenhearted and the spirit of God called him to be a part of that work. And that began this great work of rebuilding the walls. And then in chapter seven, verse four, we see that the city is complete. It's a large and spacious city, but there are very few people living inside the walled city. I said earlier that to move back to the city was dangerous. Any foreign or marauding army would have attacked the city.

The city was walled for protection and also from separation from the world. So for those Jews to move back to the city, in many ways they would have had a bullseye on their hearts, I mean on their lives and on their families because they would have been in the crosshairs of any invading army. So in chapter seven there in verse four, we see that the work is not complete. But there's a space of time here between chapter seven and chapters 12. But some wonderful things went on in the life of God's people. In chapter eight we saw that there was a great revival of God's word among the people.

We saw the leadership rediscover, if I can use that language, the written word of God. And they began to bring the word of God to the people. And then in chapter nine there was a great confession. There was a confession of sin among the people. And there was a great work of repentance. So much so that in chapter 10 we see that the people made a covenant to keep the covenant. They were a covenant people, they were bound by covenant, and they made a covenant to adjust their lives back to the original covenant of God.

And then the last time we were in Nehemiah, back in October, we covered chapter 11, and that deals with the repopulating of the city of Jerusalem. Verses one and two dealt with the plans to bring people back to the city. Then verses four through 24 dealt with individuals who moved back to Jerusalem. There was a whole host of individuals who had to move back and they had a plan. And then verses 25 through 36 dealt with those who lived outside of the city. Now in application we learn that God is building his church much like he was building his work then.

Remember, they were God's chosen people, the nation of Israel, and the center of God's activity was there in the temple, and the center of God's activity was in the temple and in Jerusalem and with the Jewish people. So for the people to move back to Jerusalem, to engage in temple worship meant that they were engaging in kingdom work. And that corresponds with where we are. God is about building his church today. God does not reside in a temple anymore. God resides in his people. And the most important institution on the face of the earth is the church. And just like in chapter 11, God brought his people back to Jerusalem.

We have seen in our church that God has brought the right people to know the Baptist church in this day. God's brought his leaders. You attest and believe in that. Brother Keith and I have been led by God to be here in this day and this time, and God has brought you. God has brought his people to his work. And in my notes here, I have one little word and some question marks by that. What about the future? Who would God bring here? I know that there are people around in the Lawrence and Lincoln County area who do not know of Nola Baptist Church and the work that God is doing here.

And we're to be about on God's mission, taking the gospel to others. And I wonder who God is gonna bring our way in the future. If you think back to the past year, 2017, there have been people that God has brought here and they've slowly become a part of the work here. And there are people that God is going to bring in the future. Now that leads us to chapter 12. And in chapter 12, we really have a natural progression from chapter 11. This is the story of God's people doing God's work and it just progresses along in a good way. It just progresses along in a good way.

I said earlier, they've completed the walls in chapter seven, they've repopulated the city in chapter 11, and now they are having the dedication of the walls. And we will see that this is more than just a dedication service. This is a worship service. And this is a service, a dedication that brings great glory to God because his work is complete. This is a fulfillment of his plans. Now we're going to cover an entire chapter, and I know that's a lot of information. And it's a very simplistic outline. It's because of how much information we're going to cover.

You see the title of the message, it's rather simple, but it fits the dedication of the wall that comes right out of verse 27. And you see how we're going to divide the verses or the chapter. We have those involved in the work in verses one through 26 and the dedication of the wall in verses 27 through 47. Now, I'm going to give you lots of sub points in these major truths. They will be easy for you to follow. And this is just fleshing out the message as we progress. Now, I'm not going to read all of the chapter. I'm going to refer to various verses and various portions of scripture. You can go back and read on your own.

We'll touch on these verses as we progress through the message. So look at the chapter, if you would, with me. If you'll look at verse one, what do we see? Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel. And there, here starting in verse one is a list of individuals. We see in verse eight and the Levites, a listing of Levites. And then in verse 12, another listing of individuals. And then starting in verse 22, a call for the Levites and the head out of their households. What am I showing you? Verses one through 26 is a list of those individuals who were involved in the work.

Now if you do some in-depth Bible study of these verses and the chapters, you will see that these verses are a continuation of what took place in chapter 11. There are more details in verses one through 26, but the information represents what took place in chapter 11. Now, a question. Why would we cover this material? Why not just skip over it? If it's part of chapter 11, why not skip over it? Well, there's an important lesson here and I believe it's one that we need to remember and one that will apply to our church in a great way. And I'll make application here at the end. Now there are four observations I wanna make here.

First, I want us to see the priests and the Levites. Now the priests and the Levites are listed in verses one through nine. Here we have a listing of the priests and the Levites mentioned in verse one and verse eight, just like we have seen before. But notice what verse one states. These are the ones who came up with Zerubbabel. Isn't that what it says? Now these are the priests and Levites who came up with Zerubbabel. That means they were a part of the first wave who returned from Babylonian captivity. If we're looking at this entire work, they would have been considered the old timers, why? Because they were some of the first ones who came.

They had been a part of this work for quite some time. But quickly I want to mention what these men did and who they were. The priests were direct descendants of Aaron who was Moses' brother while the Levites were direct descendants of Levi, the son of Joseph. A priest was a Levite while a Levite was not necessarily a priest. Now what's the point? They both ministered in the temple within the temple worship services. And these individuals were important and they were important because they were a part of the early group who came. Second, notice the high priests out of verses 10 through 11. There's a listing there.

The high priests, here we have six generations of high priests listed. The high priests were chief among the priests and they officiated in the temple worship services. The high priests were definitely distinguished above and beyond ordinary priests. And then third, the priests of the second generation. Starting in verse 12 to verse 21. These men listed here were priests who were descendants of those priests who came back from captivity. They were the second generation, if I can use that language. And then verses 22 through 26, we have fourth, more details in the genealogy.

Here we have more information of those who were registered or those who gave their genealogy. In the last verse, we saw, in the last verse, verse 26, we see both Ezra and Nehemiah mention. This leads some Bible commentators to question if both of them were here in Jerusalem at the time. We do not know that. Some believe that Nehemiah had already gone back to serve in Persia and we really can't be certain. But what do we see right here in this big portion of scripture, verses one through 26? We have a portion of scripture that can easily be overlooked and it can be discounted.

Coupled with verse chapter 11, in these verses we simply have all of the people in Jerusalem, not only those who were in, but those who were out, and those who were a part of the dedication of the wall. But what we need to see here is this is a reminder that God's work is performed by a wide variety of people. We see some language here. In the New American Standard, it uses the word community. We would use a New Testament word corporate. And what we need to see here is a wide variety of individuals who were a part of this community, a part of the work of God, a part of what God was doing in the work.

And this can easily be overlooked and it needs to be mentioned because there is great application. Let me show you how. In the life of any church, you have a wide variety of people serving. In the life of our church, we have a wide variety of people serving. Let me give you a great example. Most all of you know that Brother Keith and Teresa have been facing a difficult set of circumstances. Teresa's mom and dad were involved in an automobile accident and Teresa's had to give some extended care to her mom. But what has taken place? As their family has been in need, a wide variety of people have stepped up to serve. Ladies have cooked meals.

Ladies have kept children. Some of you have done things that we don't know about and we don't need to know about. You've risen to the occasion. You've stepped up and you have served. I heard Brother Keith say, there were times when he didn't know he was coming to keep his children. He got up and got dressed to work and lo and behold, somebody from the church showed up to take care of his children. Now what am I trying to show you? You might say, well, pastor, all I did was cook a meal. It was easy for me to keep the children. It was easy for me to do this or do that.

It takes a wide variety of people to serve the body and do the work of the church. I can't tell you how many times I hear some people say, well, what I do is small or this is insignificant or it's no big deal. No, it is a big deal. Just this morning, I heard one of the ladies in the church say to my wife how much of a joy it was to serve in the nursery. I believe in nursery ministry. I believe it's valid.

We put children in the nursery to love on them and to care for them while parents can sit in the service and listen to the word of God without being hindered and I heard a lady this morning say to my wife, she loves serving in the nursery, sign me up. It's a joy, I'll be glad to do it, that it takes a wide variety of people to serve.

I'll go back to the days when some of you began to come and I began to watch some of the people at NOLA who had been here all these years see some of the new people begin to serve and see some of the new people start doing things they used to do and their heart was, they were glad that God brought people to serve. No doubt some of those priests and Levites who came up was the rubbable. When they saw some of the second generation serving, they weren't jealous, they were happy. And I think you can see how this applies. We see that it takes a wide variety of people to serve. We can't do all this, it takes all of us.

Now here I wanna point you to the future. As we grow and as we grow larger and as we reach more people, there will be more people serving and more people ministering. And it takes a wide variety of people. And I'm thankful and in our New Testament language is called the body of Christ serving. So what do we see? Insignificant, seemingly insignificant verses, verses one through 26. But we see those who were involved in the work. I believe if you took any of these individuals out, the work would have been hindered. Let's move on, I want us to see the dedication of the wall. We see this transition in verse 27.

Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem and then we see everything in the rest of the chapter pertains to this event. Now it might seem strange to us this dedication, but this was very common in these Old Testament days. After the first temple was completed, there was a special time of dedication in 2 Chronicles. This was the dedication of Solomon's temple, of the first temple. As a matter of fact, it is a wonderful story to read because at the dedication, they prayed and literally the fire of God failed. Then there with the completion of the second temple after it was destroyed and rebuilt, they dedicated it as well.

We learned of this in Ezra chapter six. Now the walls around Jerusalem were a big part of God's plan for his work and for his people. I've said it numerous times, yes it was protection, but it was distinguishing them as the unique people separated from the world. And the people of God would have understood this dedication. So therefore dedicating the wall would have been a big deal, but yet normal and expected in their life and worship. There are quite a few observations that I wanna make here. First of all, I want us to see the preparations. We see that in verses 27 on down to verse 30. Excuse me.

First of all, we see that they dedicated and then they sought out certain individuals. Now the text does not tell us the timeframe. It seems like that it could have been a long period of time. Most of the scholars, the commentators that I referenced do not believe there was a great amount of time between the completion in chapter seven and the dedication. But here we see preparations being made for the dedication. And I wanna break these verses down. Notice they sent for the Levites. Look at verse 27. They sought out Levites from all of their places to bring them to Jerusalem. Here we see that they brought the Levites in for the celebration.

Remember the Levites were the spiritual leaders and they were in charge of leading within the temple and temple worship. Now you've gotta remember some would have lived in Jerusalem and some out of Jerusalem and they would have come in and out as their time of service was appointed. But they sent for all of the Levites to come in this celebration. So that's part of the preparation. Then notice they had the celebration here in verse 27. Within this dedication, the word celebrate is used. Notice the verse, they sought out the Levites from all of their places to bring them to Jerusalem so that they might celebrate the dedication with gladness.

So within this dedication, there was a great celebration. Now that might seem odd to you. How would you worship and celebrate? Well that's what they did. This was a worship service but it was more because they were celebrating the completion of God's word. Then in verse 27, we see that they had music and they had hymns. Go back to the verse so that they might celebrate the dedication with gladness, with hymns of thanksgiving and with songs to the accompaniment of cymbals and harps and lyres. Here we see that the song centered around thanksgiving, the songs they followed a theme and they consisted of musical instruments.

They used musical instruments that were common in their day. As a matter of fact, if you notice, some of those would have been rather loud instruments. Some were stringed instruments. And then notice, they assembled choirs for the occasion. Verse 28 says, "So the sons of the singers "were assembled from the district around Jerusalem." So we had Levites who were singers and they were used in worship within the temple and now they're here for this celebration. If you look at verses 28 and 29, we see that there was a wide celebration because there were a lot of different villages that were named.

Now in these verses, these are unknown villages to us unless we study the geography. This meant that the Levites came from a wide variety of places. So this meant that this celebration reached the masses. This was a large group of people. And then notice, the celebration required purity because in verse 30, the priests and the Levites purified themselves and they purified the people and the gates and the walls. So this was a preparation for this dedication. Then starting in verse 31 to verse 33, second, we have the dedication service itself. Now I wanna point out a shift in the language.

For the first time since chapter seven verse five, we see the language I. Look at verse 31. Then I had the leaders of Judah. Now this I is referring to Nehemiah. Most commentators believe that this comes directly from Nehemiah's writings. Now there's some that believe that that puts Nehemiah here. Now we don't know for sure, but the point of the matter is, we see that Nehemiah has firsthand knowledge of what's going on. So we hear, we have a shift in the language. But then notice that this was a large celebration for a large work. Verse 32 states that there were two large crowds and they were on top of the wall.

This obviously shows the magnitude, the width of the walls. As a matter of fact, modern archeology and they have discovered the walls. Some of the walls are over 10 feet wide. And then we see that Ezra the scribe was present. We see that in verse 36. This speaks of the spiritual leadership that would have been there at such a time. So we have this dedication service. And then third, notice that worship was involved. We see this in verses 44 on down the verse 47. Here we see that tithes and offerings were made. Verse 44 states, this was a fulfillment of the law of Moses. So they were being obedient to the word of God.

And in this great celebration, there was worship. Verse 45 states that they performed this singing for the worship of their God and for the service of purification. This was all part of worship. So what do we see here in this large portion of scripture? There was a great dedication of the wall, but it was more than that. They dedicated and they worshiped. They celebrated. They celebrated the completion of the work. They worship because they had fulfilled their responsibility in building the walls. The work of God, kingdom work was complete. Now I want you to see that this is both civil and spiritual.

Civil in that the walls function for protection. The walls function to separate them, but also spiritual in that they were being obedient to the word of God. So this was a physical work. Yes, it protected the people, but it was more than that. It was a completion of God's work and that was spiritual. Now, what can we learn here of this large portion of scripture? This dedication of the walls. Now we do not have walls in our day, obviously. Culture is dramatically different, but what can we learn here? I don't know about your church background. Maybe you've been in a place where a church dedicated a building to the Lord and to his work.

That's a common thing. I think that's a good thing. This reminds me and there's a lesson here to be learned. I was talking with a particular friend of mine who's at a larger church and they are in the middle of remodeling much of their church facility. They're remodeling some of their education space. Now remember, it set aside for the Lord in his work, but he began to explain to me how certain individuals were angry and mad because they could not move into their Sunday school space. They had to move to a different class. They had to be inconvenienced.

And I listened to him kind of complain and lament because he's working hard in the life of the church. And the whole time I'm studying this and I'm thinking about my friend, I'm thinking that's not the way it should be. Do you think any of these individuals stood by a section of the wall that they built and said, "No, that's mine." It was the Lord's. Now I'm okay with dedicating church buildings. I think we should. Why? Because it's not ours.

And look, I believe when we accomplish great works, I believe when we have tangible accomplishments in the life of the church, it should be recognized, it should be celebrated, and it should lead to worship. And that doesn't always pertain the buildings. Let me give you an example. It wasn't that long ago we had very few children. I remember vividly the first year we did Vacation Bible School. I remember someone coming up and saying that it could have possibly been 20 years since we had Vacation Bible School at Nola Baptist Church. Listen, that is a tangible accomplishment. Our children's ministry began to grow.

Brother Keith and I prayed for a year how to progress in that ministry. And God led us to have our children's classes on Wednesday night and have our youth class on Wednesday night. I've explained to many people that we do Sunday school on Wednesday nights. That's very well attended. We have good participation. We have teachers working hard. The word of God is being taught. And look, that is a tangible accomplishment. That is growth in ministry. The word of God is being taught. We have more teenagers hearing the word of God. More children hearing the word of God. We pray over those works, over those teachers, and over those children.

What am I showing you? Tangible accomplishments in ministry. That is worthy of celebration. That is worthy of praise. And that is worthy of worship. That is God enabling us to accomplish His work. And I think about our future. I've had some people ask me questions about when will we have adult Sunday school? We believe in that. We want that. We pray towards that. There have to be certain pieces of the puzzle in place for that. I long for that. And look, when that day comes, that will be a tangible accomplishment. An advancement in ministry. It will meet people's needs. The word of God will be taught. Ministry will be done.

And that will be a tangible accomplishment worthy of celebration and worship. Along for more consistent missions ministry. Along for growth in missions. And when that day comes, it will be tangible, it will be growth, it will be at our fingertips. We can celebrate, we can worship. I think you see where I'm going. This can be applied to more than just buildings. I'm very thankful for our spirit here. I'm very thankful for your spirit. I'll never forget several years ago before we had adequate heat in the back of the church one Wednesday night. It was rather cold back there. I passed one of the ladies of our, in our church in the hall.

And I looked at her, I said, "I'm sorry it's cold. We're gonna have heat soon." And she looked at me and she said, "I don't come here for the heat." And I believe this can be applied, yes to buildings. But I think it would be better applied to ministry. Now buildings are good, we need them. But I hope and pray that we will celebrate and we will recognize accomplishment in ministry and we will worship and we will serve and we will acknowledge growth and the ability to do God's ministry. Now, two major truths, a lot of scripture. What have we looked at? Those involved in the work.

I think it's important for us to see that God's called all of us here, no matter your gifts, no matter your talents, no matter your experience. If you're called here, then you're called to serve. And it takes a wide variety of people to do his work. Then the dedication of the wall. What do we see? The accomplishment of ministry, obedience to God's plan. And when we are growing and accomplishing, that is worthy of celebration and worship because it's his work, not ours. Now, in conclusion, I wanna make a little more application. Most all of you know the story of Nola Baptist Church. You know her past.

She almost died as a church, almost ceased to exist. It's been a rebirth, a second life, and we're thankful. But I wanna step back to this work here in Nehemiah, with that in the back of our mind. I want us to step back big picture. We have all these people, names that we can hardly pronounce, men like Ezra and Nehemiah, they travel thousands of miles, they endure a lot of heartache and hardship, and they put their hands to the plow to accomplish a great work. Now, what's big picture? It's not just the walls. It's not just the temple in Ezra. It's the entire work.

It's the people of God coming out of the world, coming unto God to accomplish the total work. Yes, the temple, yes, Jerusalem, yes, the walls, yes, the repopulation of the city. And look, these people were just a small wheel in the greater good, the greater work. They were just a small part of the greater work. They were a small cog in a larger machine. And look, they had to see it correctly. Otherwise, they would taint the whole thing. You see? Now, how does that apply to us? Yes, we know our past. Yes, we know that we almost died as a church. Yes, we know that we have a rebirth, but we need to see big picture.

It's more than just no Lebabian's church. We are a part of a greater work. We are a part of God's kingdom work here on earth. We are a part of taking the gospel around the world, yoking up with other brothers and sisters in other churches, trying to reach more, trying to reach families like you, trying to reach the lost, trying to reach children. We are a part of a greater work, which was kingdom work. Now, let me go back to Nehemiah. Were these individuals who worked on the wall more important than those who worked on the temple? Let me take it one step further back.

Were the individuals who came out of captivity, worked on the temple and worked on the wall and here at this celebration, were they greater than the previous generation who never got to leave captivity? You see? They are a small wheel, a part of a greater work. And we must see that we are a small wheel, a part of a greater work. It's not just about Nola Baptist Church. And I think that you see what I'm trying to say. It takes all of us to be involved in kingdom work. And look, when we see accomplishment in ministry, we celebrate, we worship, and we recognize that it's part of kingdom work. Otherwise, it'll be about us.

Now, what are we looking at? A chapter that can easily be overlooked. I mean, when we study through the chapter, we could really hit verse 27, dedication of the temple, and dedication of the walls, and move on. But I think it's more for us to learn here. And I hope and pray that it's spoken to you. And I believe it's prepared us for the future, the future and what God would want to do. Let's pray and then we will dismiss.