The Re-Population of the City

Well, like I said earlier, I said this morning we'll cover Nehemiah chapter 11 tonight and I don't want to scare you with saying we'll cover an entire chapter. We're really not going to read much of the chapter when you look at all of the verses. I said that we will also cover this portion of Scripture in chapter 7. We'll refer over to verse 5 and I'll explain myself a little later as we get into the message. Now, we are transitioning in the book of Nehemiah. We're transitioning obviously from chapter 10 to chapter 11, but we are transitioning from the covenant that the people made.

Remember in chapter 10 they made a covenant to keep the covenant, but we're moving away from what was communicated in the story in chapter 10 and we're in a new chapter and we're in a new event in the lives of God's people, the Jews. Now, I will give a little background a little later with chapter 11, but before we get into that background of chapter 11, I want to give you a good breakdown of the chapters, a breakdown of the book of what we have covered so far. I like this. It helps me. It might not help you. Sometimes when I go back and I look at it big picture, it helps me as we get back into some of the verses little picture.

Now, if we look at chapters 1 through 6 of Nehemiah, basically those chapters consist of everything surrounding the rebuilding of the walls. Now, we know that chapter 1 is about God calling Nehemiah out of Persia. He was serving there, serving the king there in the palace at Susa, but everything in those chapters consists of rebuilding the walls there around Jerusalem. I read earlier in chapter 7, the walls were complete there. The walls were complete. Now, in chapter 7 verse 4, we see that the city was large, the city was spacious, but there were very few people living in the walled city.

All of the work was done, but it was very much desolate. Then chapter 8 deals with the great spiritual revival of God's Word among the people. We learned that was a great movement of God. God used Ezra as well as other great men and leaders among the people. And then in chapter 9, chapter 9 speaks of the great confession of sin among the people. After the reading of the Word, the great sin that it destroyed them and they were gripped by this great sin. And then in chapter 10, chapter 10 deals with the covenant that the people of God made to keep the covenant.

I explained to you briefly that they were a covenant people and they were making a covenant or an agreement to keep the covenant. Now, chapter 11 deals with the people repopulating the city of God, Jerusalem. Now that brings us to the title of the message and it's very simplistic. It is the repopulation of the city. In your note-taking, you might want to write down Jerusalem. This is the city of God, the capital city that they have been fortifying by rebuilding the walls around the city. Now, here I want to give you the background or the backdrop of the chapter.

Now for this, we need to go back to chapter 7 and I ask you to look back just at that one verse, verse 4. Now the city was large, it was spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not built. Now earlier in verses 1 through 4 that we read earlier, we see that everything was complete. So we have the city, the walls are built, and there are very few people in the city. It was not populated and this was a desolate and depressing situation. The most important city on the face of the earth, the city that was the most important to God was virtually uninhabited.

We could say that even though the walls were rebuilt, even though they had experienced even a great revival, the work was incomplete. Now I want to, I want us to turn to Nehemiah chapter 11 and I want us to read the beginning portion of the chapter and you'll see how this ties back to chapter 7 starting in verse 1. Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, but the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine tents remained in the other cities. And the people blessed all of the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.

Now starting in verse 3 and really going all the way through to the end of the chapter to verse 36, it's nothing more than a list and groups of people who came back to live in the city and then those who lived outside of the city. So if you want to tie these together it's real easy to say it like this. The city's situation and condition was exactly like it was in chapter 7 here in chapter 11, although a lot had taken place in the lives of the people in chapter 8, chapter 9, and in chapter 10. So that shows us that the work is incomplete. The walls are built but the people are not in the city.

Now you see how we're going to break these verses down. It's very simple. We're going to cover quite a few scriptures but we see the plan to bring the people into the city, verses 1 and 2. The people who came into the city, a big portion of scripture, verse 4 through 24, and then the people who lived outside of the city, verses 25 through 26. Now I will mention several of these verses. I will encourage you to go back and maybe read them on your own during your own study time.

Again I said at the beginning of this study in Nehemiah and Ezra, certain portions would be verse by verse and certain portions we would cover chunk by chunk or group by group and this is one of those circumstances. So let's look at our first major truth. The plans to bring people into the city. The plans to bring people into the city. Like I said earlier, chapter 11 is connected to chapter 7, verse 4. We have here the desolate and desperate situation. The capital city, Jerusalem is empty. Really you could almost call it a ghost town.

Although so much activity had taken place in rebuilding the walls, it seems like no one was willing to live in Jerusalem. Now we go back to that time, chapters 1 through 6, when they're rebuilding the city, all kinds of activity and people were there in the city. But now it seems that the city is desolate and no one is there. Now this leads me to a question. Why was no one willing to live in the city? Now I'm going to answer that question on the backside of this major truth. Now there are three observations I want to make out of verses 1 and 2. Three. First of all, I want us to notice the significance of the city.

To see the significance of the city, we really need to look at the last portion of verse 1. It says here that one out of ten, they were to bring one out of ten the Louvre in Jerusalem. What does it say? The holy city. Now I skipped down, down to this portion of verse 1 on purpose because we need to see the significance of the city. This is Jerusalem and Jerusalem was to be the holy city. This is why Ezra and Nehemiah and all of those leaders and all of those men worked so hard in God's work it was because they understood the significance of this city.

This city, Jerusalem, was to be set apart from the world and it was to be set apart for God's purposes. Within the city was the temple and within the temple the Spirit of God resided and it was central to their worship. So the people of God were Jews or they were a separate and unique people and their capital city, Jerusalem, was to be a holy city, a separated city, the most important city on the face of the earth in this time. Then second, we see the faithfulness of the elders. Go back to the beginning of the verse, verse 1. Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. So we see the faithfulness of the leaders.

Here we see that the leaders of the people, they were in Jerusalem even though there were no people and not even any houses or very few people. Now who were these people? No doubt it were men like Nehemiah, men like Ezra. Earlier we learned that Nehemiah had appointed his brother and then there were other men that are listed all through the book but what do we see? Some of these leaders, faithful leaders, were living in the city. They were faithful to God's purposes and they were faithful to the plan that God had for the city. And then the third observation, notice the manner of selecting the people. I'll go back and read it.

Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem but the rest of the people notice cast lots to bring out one out of ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine tents remain in other cities. And then verse 2, "And the people blessed all of the men who volunteered to live in the city." Here we see the manner in which the leaders selected the people to repopulate the city. We see that nine tents remained, if I can use this language, in the countryside, the other cities in villages while one out of ten or one tenth were selected to live in the city. Now it seems like there were two different methods of selecting these individuals.

First it's obvious some were selected by lot or casting lots. Now this is strange behavior to us but this was rather common in the Old Testament. We see this in the book of Numbers chapter 26 verses 55 through 56. We see it in 1st Chronicles 25 verse 5 or excuse me 24 verse 5 and then in 1st Chronicles 25 8. And this was a common practice. Now you have to remember the Holy Spirit of God did not dwell within individuals in that day. So this was a common practice to cast lots to discover the will of God. But then second it seems as if that there were some who volunteered.

Verse 2, "The people blessed all of them in who volunteered to live in the city." Now in all of my study I used quite a few resources but some scholars debate if these volunteers were a part of those that were selected from the previous group. Now we really don't know. My limited amount of information tells me that it's really difficult to determine which is the case. I don't have a problem believing that there were some who volunteered maybe after some were chosen by a lot. But what we see is the manner in which they selected the people to re-inhabit Jerusalem. So what do we see here? God's holy city Jerusalem.

It was desolate and it was in a desperate situation because it was not inhabited. The walls were complete, the leaders were there. We've learned that the gates were built, the doors were set, everything was complete. But we see God's faithful men out of verse 1. These men rectified the problem and they moved people into the city. Now I ran across two pieces of information, two observations concerning Nehemiah and the people. And I'll answer that question why they didn't come to the city. So notice these two observations. Notice that Nehemiah left the king's palace.

Remember he was serving the king, he was a cup bearer to the king, there at the citadel in Susa. Now as a cup bearer of the king he would have lived in comfort, he would have lived there in the royal house, he would have been in good favor with the king. We learned that he was a very wealthy man, most Bible scholars believe that he had acquired that wealth serving under the king. But Nehemiah leaves comfort, leaves security and one Bible commentator I read said it like this. He leaves all of that to come back to a dump. The city's destroyed.

They had to work their fingers to the bone and even when the work is complete the city is still desolate. Notice how faithful Nehemiah was but what about that question? Why didn't the people come back and live in the city? If the people would have come back to live in the city they would have made great economic sacrifices. They were an agricultural society. When you plowed the land and you kept herds you required space, you required land. So when they came back to live in the city they made economic sacrifices.

They basically had to leave their occupation but not only that they took great risks because if an invading army would have come, if an invading group would have come in, where would they have attacked? They would have attacked Jerusalem. They would have attacked the fortified city. They wouldn't have attacked necessarily the villages and the scattered peoples in the countryside. So to come and live in Jerusalem you're putting a bullseye on your forehead for any marauding or invading army. So it's safe to say that those people could have said, "I'm not living in Jerusalem. I'm not living there. We're not a strong nation.

We're a weak people." So what do we see? Although the walls are built we see that these men made great sacrifices, the leaders, and then also the people had to make sacrifices and take risks to come back and live in the city. Now how can we apply this to us? What can we learn? Does this apply to our circumstances? I think we need to see again and again that the church, the New Testament church, is the most holy institution on the face of the earth. It is the most important institution in the eyes of God. It is the institution that he died for and it is the institution that he is coming back for.

The Scriptures say that he shed his blood for what? For the church and that corresponds to what's taking place in Nehemiah's day. In Nehemiah's day the most important city on the face of the earth was Jerusalem and the most important institution in our day is the church. I want you to see that there are some of us we have volunteered to come back. We volunteered to come out. We have volunteered to come to a place that was a little desolate and a little desperate in people's eyes. What am I showing you? Some of us have deviated from the norm and God has brought us back. God's brought us out.

Now I'm not trying to say that we've taken risks like these people. I'm not trying to say that we have made economic sacrifices like these people. I'll ask you a question maybe not necessarily to answer. Have we made any decisions coming out to Nola where we have risked our life? No. Have we made great economic sacrifice to come out to Nola Baptist Church? Maybe a little more gas burning in our automobiles. But what do we see? What can we learn? God's people adjusted their lives, made economic sacrifices and took risks to do what? To be a part of kingdom work. I'll give you an example.

This is a small example but I think it might speak to where we are. You know that Brother Keith and I have been working with Grace Life Church of the Shoals, Anchored in Truth Ministries, about partnering with submissions. We've been working on that. I haven't necessarily said much about that lately but last February when we went to the conference there at the church, we went to Sunday School. I enjoyed that.

It's rare that I get to do things like that but I was in Sunday School class just sitting there to be taught the word and through the course of conversation there was a couple in the life of the church and in the Sunday School class I don't know how it was brought out. They moved from Muscle Shoals, Alabama to be a part of a church plant sponsored by Grace Life Church. They moved to Florida and lived their five years to be a part of a church plant and then when they felt like their time was over they picked up and moved by. Now think about that. This man was not called to the gospel ministry it seemed.

Seemed like he had a regular job if I can use that language. But what did they do? They made sacrifices. They left their families more than likely. They left their jobs. They left their home and what did they do? They uprooted themselves and went to be a part of God's work. That's what these Jews did. They left their farms. They left their lands. They left their herds. Maybe there were people that said to their wives, "Well honey, we've been farmers all our lives and now we're gonna have to be merchants in the city because being a part of God's work is worth it." You see?

The plans to bring the people into the city but it's more than that to involve them in kingdom work. Now let's move on to our second major truth. I want us to notice the people who came into the city. The people who came into the city. Now this starts right here in verse 4. So in your own personal time when you're reading from verse 4 on there are going to be a lot of names and a lot of individuals that you might not necessarily understand. But every now and then there'll be a verse that will indicate a people group. Now I'm going to mention those. But it starts here in verse 4.

So here what we have is what some could call insignificant portions of Scripture. Now no Scripture is insignificant. What I mean is this. We have names and we have peoples and we have names that we might not be able to pronounce and might not understand and it can seem just like a bland boring list. Yes, it may be a list but there are truths that we can learn from this list. Now out of these groups, out of these individuals, there are three groups that I want to mention. First of all I want us to notice the families who came.

Verse 4, "And some of the sons of Judah and some of the sons of Benjamin lived in Jerusalem." Now that indicates that these were average regular people and here we see what some would call a boring list of names but that's not the case. Looking at this list helps us see that they are real people and here in verses 4 through 9 we see the common man. We see the average man because these are not priests. These are not Levites. These are family members and sons of Judah. But I want you to see that these people were not just the average people. Look at verse 7 with me.

Verse 7 says at the end of verse 7, now I'm reading from the New American, it says that they were able men. Now the English Standard, many of you have, the King James calls them valiant men. This meant that these men were men of substance. These were brave men. These were courageous men. I like the word valiant. I like the word courageous. I like the word brave. Now how might this be important? Remember to pick up and move and go to Jerusalem could have been dangerous. So these were men and families and people of substance. Courageous and valiant to change their lives to be a part of kingdom work.

So we have the families, the leaders of the families who brought their families into the city. And then second or the second group is we see the priests who came starting in verse 10 from the priest. And then there's a list of priests all the way down to verse 14. Not only do we see names but we see numbers, quite a few. So here in these verses we see a list of priestly families and if you do some in-depth study in the Old Testament this list corresponds with a list in 1st Chronicles 9 verses 10 through 13. And what we see here is an extensive list. There are a lot of servants to do what? They were to serve as priests in the temple.

One commentator I used is called the New American commentary stated that the number indicates that it required a great deal of harmony for so many to work together as one unit. And that's what they did. But we see the priests and remember they ministered to the people within the temple. And then third we see the Levites and the gatekeepers who came. This starts in verse 25 and on down to verse 24. What does it say? Now from the Levites verse 19 also gatekeepers. So here we see Levites and gatekeepers coming into the city for the work. And these were all significant workers.

The gatekeepers they guarded the city while the Levites they worked within the temple. These were necessary workers. So what do we see here? The different groups that are chosen, maybe some who volunteered, were anything but average. Some of them were lay people yes but these were valiant and brave individuals and they were all very necessary for life in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites were needed in the temple for temple worship. The gatekeepers were needed to guard the city and at times they were used as like a police force. In the families they were to come and they were to inhabit and dwell God City Jerusalem.

Now what can we learn here? How might this apply to us? Well just like in Jerusalem in that day there were certain individuals needed within the life of the church. When you see a work of the church, an expression of the church, you will see different groups of people as well. First of all you see the regular average Joes. You see the common people. You see the average families. These are the called out ones. These are the ones who were born again. The ecclesia using that New Testament term which meant the called out ones. But when you have people who love God, when you have men and women who want to serve God, they are not just average Joes.

They become men and women of substance, brave and courageous in the things of God, valiant to do the work of God. Then the second group is the leaders, the spiritual leaders. Remember those priests came? They were the spiritual leaders and no church can be a church without spiritual leaders. New Testament language, elders, ministers of the gospel. That's what brother Keith and I are. Brother Keith and I both can explain and articulate how God led us to Nola Baptist Church and God led us here to lead the church and to serve the church. But then we also have those who are like the Levites and gatekeepers.

God brings people in the life of the church who are servants. That's what the Levites did. They serve. That's what the gatekeepers did. So what am I showing you? When we look at the people who came, the necessary people. God brought the necessary people so that Jerusalem could function as that holy city and God brings the necessary people in our day in the life of the church. I'll show you how necessary this is. Question about the situation in Jerusalem and then I'll make application to today. How would life in Jerusalem, how would life in Jerusalem be without the priests? Could they have had temple worship?

Could they have been a could they have engaged in the worship of the one true God through temple worship accurately? No, not without the priests. My wife was talking to a particular friend this afternoon. She was explaining how their parents have been struggling in the life of their church. Had a minister that was there. Sad situation. They had struggled before. I hate to say it. I don't mean to be casual. The same old story. A church struggling for what? Spiritual leadership. All of these things are necessary.

There are a lot of churches who struggle with people who will be willing to be like the Levites and the gatekeepers to just roll up their sleeves and serve. So all of these people groups are needed in the life of the church. I want us to move on. I want us to notice our third major truth and that is the people who lived outside of the city. We see this starting in verse 25 really to the end of the chapter. Now as for the villages with their fields.

See these people were living outside of the city in their villages in their fields doing their jobs and that language is all the way through to the end of the chapter and here we see the most overlooked portion of the chapter. Chapter 11. Here these verses mention those people who lived outside of the city. Remember the numbers that were given? It said that one out of ten lived in Jerusalem while nine tents remained in their villages and in their cities. Now who were these people?

They were farmers, they were keepers of herds and look they were those who pretty much fed the people of the land and they had their place in Jewish society and in kingdom work even though they were not living in the city. Now let's move past our scriptures, past our portions of scripture to the conclusion of the message and in the conclusion I want to make more application. What we must see out of these verses. Now again this can be overlooked. We must see that God desires to build his church.

It was in the very center of God's heart for Jerusalem to be repopulated and Jerusalem to be a thriving holy city and we must see that it is in the heart of God to build his church. That his church would be comprised of his called out people. The church is the center of God's activity on earth today. I'll repeat that and I'll continue to repeat that. The most important institution on earth today is the church. The most loved institution on earth today is the church and I mean from God's perspective. Now I want to make a little more specific application here, observation for us.

God has brought his leaders to this church I'm not here because it's an opportunity. I'm not here because it's a job. Brother Keith is not here because it's an opportunity or a job or a place to serve. We do not operate that way. We operate by a specific and a divine call from God in our lives. It's not about a bigger church or a larger church or an opportunity or an open door. No, we both could sit down and tell you that God has led us here and we are the God appointed elders and leaders for this church. But beyond that God has brought you here. I hope you see it that way. God has brought you here.

You know one of the wonderful things that I've seen through the years in this transition of growth is the folks that were here in the lean years of the Nola Baptist Church. They have not been resentful one bit of the new people that have come. If you are new here the people that have been here all these years are thankful and they see that God has brought you here. I believe every woman, every boy, I believe every family, every man, every child that comes, even the ones who come on Wednesday nights. God has brought his people here. But what about the future? I believe that God wants to bring more people.

Now I don't understand his timing and I'm not, I don't understand his numbers. But I believe that there are more people that God wants to bring here and I believe God wants to bring more leaders. Yes, I believe there will be a day when there will be other spiritual leaders that God brings and his growth chart might be different than our growth chart but I believe that God wants to grow the church. Now there are a lot of questions out there for us in the future. You know if you pay much attention on Wednesday nights there are times when really we don't have any room to grow. When we have any kind of a fellowship time there's no room.

I'm thankful. We're praying about what to do and what that would look like. There are things in the life of the church that Brother Keith and I would like to do but we're only two men and we have other jobs and there are things that we would like to do but we don't have that spiritual leadership and we trust God with that. What am I trying to show you? We are looking to the future. We are praying for the future. We are not complacent to stay where we are and we die to our ideas. We die to our dreams and we want God to chart our course. In all of my study this week and last week I ran across a very basic quote.

I'll get close to closing with this. I'll read this and then we'll make a few more comments and then we'll close. But David Platt who is a leader in Southern Baptist life right now he is president of our International Mission Board. He would be considered one of the young leaders in Southern Baptist life. It's not very theological and it's not very deep but I think it's real practical. He's speaking about these passages in Nehemiah but speaking in our day. Notice what David Platt says.

"God is building churches made up of seemingly insignificant people who have normal lives and normal problems." I hope you see that God's brought you here for these purposes. Yes you. I hope you see that God has us here in this day in his time for his purposes. Yes, Nola Baptist Church. Now when we look at these verses it might seem bland, they might seem insignificant, they might seem like the verses we just want to skip over. The repopulation of the city but it really does apply to where we are. But here's how I want to leave us. I ask you to pray for us as leaders. I ask you to pray for each other, brothers and sisters in Christ.

I ask you to pray for those that God has brought our way who might not be converted. We ask you to pray for the children and the teenagers that we're ministering to and we ask you to pray for our future, the ministries that we want to do, the missions work we want to be involved in around the world. Pray for God to work in our church. One prayer that I pray regularly is Lord help us to reach our potential but enlarge our potential. Lord I thank you for today.