Teamwork

This morning we're not going to be able to read the entire chapter of Nehemiah 3 because as you turn there, you'll notice it is a complete list of all the families, the individuals, the community groups that were involved in building the wall of Jerusalem. It's a complete list of who did what part, who built which segment of the wall, who built what gate, who put on a door, who put on a bolt, whatever. So we're not going to be able to read that whole thing, but it is still God's word. And there is still a purpose to God's word, and there is still something for us to glean from it. But I just want us to maybe have a snippet of what it is about, what it sounds like.

And we're going to read a few verses from Nehemiah chapter 3, verses 3 to 5. And you get the idea from what this chapter is about from these verses. Nehemiah 3, verse 3. The fish gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hasanah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place.

Meramoth, son of Uriah, the son of Hakoz, repeat the next section. Next to him, Meshullam, son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel, made repairs, and next to him, Zadok, son of Baanah, also made repairs. The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors, and so on and so forth. Some missionaries from the West came to a remote place in the Philippines in the past century or two centuries ago, and they set up a game of croquet in their front yard. In a remote place in the Philippines, set up a game of old fashioned croquet.

And several of the indigenous people there called the Agta Negrito became interested in this weird thing that was going on in the lawn. And so the missionary invited them over to explain the rules to them, gave each one of them a mallet and a ball, and got them playing. Now as the game progressed, the opportunity came for the players to take advantage of another person's ball, if you know the game of croquet, by bunting it away, which you're allowed to do. The missionary explained the procedure, but his advice puzzled his Negrito friend. Why would I want to knock his ball out of the court?

So you'll win, explained the missionary. The short native shook his head in bewilderment. In their hunting and gathering society, people survive not by competing, but by sharing in everything they do. It was completely out of their frame of reference. The game continued but no one followed the missionary's advice.

When a player successfully got through all the wickets, the game was not over. He went back and gave advice and aid to his fellow players. As the final player moved toward the last wicket, the game was still very much a team effort. And then finally, when the last wicket was played, the whole group shouted happily, we won. Now as a guy who's both very competitive and very individualistic, this story is challenging to me.

So much of what I want is to do with competition, and so much of what I believe is that there is a good in individualistic aspirations. But when we come to the Bible, we so often see that the good of God's kingdom comes about in community, comes about as a team effort. God's kingdom is established by His people, not by individuals. And we see it again here in Nehemiah chapter 3. You may have been wondering, as I did this week, as I was sweating over this passage, why did God include Nehemiah chapter 3?

Why the list of names? Why this specific detail of the bolts and the nuts and the bricks that were laid so precisely? What does God want us to learn from it? I believe that it's here to teach us something about the growth of God's kingdom and God's people working together to make that work. And there are three things we see in this passage, either explicitly or implicitly.

The first thing is to impact and grow the kingdom of God, God's people need a common vision, a common purpose. Secondly, to impact the kingdom of God, we need to realise it often starts in the family. And thirdly, to impact the kingdom of God, it needs willing workers to do their part. Let's have a look at the first of these points. The expansion of God's kingdom needs a common vision from God's people.

Or to put it another way, the kingdom of God does not grow if the church is not unified in accomplishing its mission. What we see in Nehemiah chapter 3 is a unified vision of what needed to be done. We see in chapter 2 last week that the people heard Nehemiah. They heard that God had been gracious to him, that God had granted him success in the eyes of the Persian king and granted him favour, and he comes and says, the work has to start again. And all of them said, this is good.

We will start rebuilding. But everyone needed to start rebuilding the same thing. If one man had thought the purpose was to construct a decorative picket fence with a nice little herb garden around it, or a nice little hedge, and the next guy building the next section built a double bricked fortress, the whole thing would have been a mess. It would have looked ridiculous.

It would have been ridiculous. It wouldn't have served its purpose. They needed to agree on a common vision so that they could work together harmoniously. Now their task was specific. It was measurable.

We need to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. And once we do that, it's done. We've contributed to the kingdom. But it was far more than building a wall. Now they may not have understood this completely then.

But this was kingdom work. This was kingdom work. This was part of the establishing of God's kingdom. They were laying the foundation for Jesus. Do you recognise this?

What would have happened to Jerusalem if the wall wasn't there? It would have been overwhelmed by every sort of raider, every sort of brigand group that came across. There would have been no temple, and there would have been no Calvary. These citizens of Jerusalem were part of God's people. They were part of God's church, and they had a mission.

Today, God's church has a mission, but it's not as simple as building a wall. Sometimes as a pastor, I wish it was that simple. I wish it was that specific and measurable, then we could do it and get it over and done with. But before Jesus ascended to heaven, He said to His disciples, this is the mission. Go.

Make disciples of all the nations, teaching them all that I have commanded you, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Why did He send the church to go? Why did He send them to baptise and to teach? Because the supreme goal of that mission was that through His church, God would be glorified. That His name would be made hallowed on earth as it is in heaven.

That is the mission of the church. Do you know? Do you understand? Do you believe that this is the purpose of our church? Do you realise that this church, sitting here on 2 Arjuna Way, is about spreading a passion for God's glory among the nations?

To teach them all the commands of Jesus Christ, to baptise them all in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We need to be able to look to one another and say, this is our mission. This is our purpose as a church. We need to say, yes, this is what my Christianity is about. All these individuals building the walls of Jerusalem agreed to build the same wall.

One didn't say I need to go and plant some, I don't know, potatoes, and another said I need to go and buy some cows. Everyone stopped. Everyone went and built their little section of the wall. The expansion of God's kingdom needed a common vision from His people. The second thing we see is that the expansion of God's kingdom often starts with the family.

We see in Nehemiah 3 that entire families went to work on their little section of the wall. And as you read this, you will see that they built a section very practically, very pragmatically, right in front of their house. It was what they saw when they walked out the front door. That is what they built. An entire family builds it.

Nehemiah chapter 3 says a man by the name of Shallum, son of Halohesh, is explicitly mentioned to have built a section of wall with his daughters. Now that was so strange that it was written down. All his girls, he didn't have boys, all his girls helped him carry bricks, pasted the mortar on those bricks, put them in there. One family built their section of the wall right across from their house, another family built a section right across from their house, and so they continued to build and expand and then later joined them all up together. And bit by bit, this whole impressive wall was simply put together by families building in the area that they had found themselves.

So often we can become overwhelmed by this mission that God has given us. So often we think, oh, man, it's just too big. The world is just too massive. What can a tradie like me do about this situation? What can a stay at home mum like me do about this situation?

What can a high school student like me who has never experienced the world yet, have never left Australia? What can I do about this? So often we become overwhelmed with the idea of God's mission for His church. And Jesus said, the harvest is plentiful. It's the workers that are few.

But we imagine this huge field and we think, man, this is too big for me to handle. But really, God is simply asking you to build your little section of the wall. He's only asking you to harvest in your little veggie patch that He has given you, part of that harvest field, your little veggie patch. I believe one of the recurring aspects of biblical theology in terms of mission is the fact that God has chosen the family unit. Listen to this.

That God has chosen the family unit as a primary means of spreading the gospel and building His kingdom. Not the mavericks, not the individual Charles and John Wesleys, the family. The first and foremost responsibility, mum, dad, is to spread the gospel to your son or your daughter. To teach them everything that Jesus commanded. First and foremost, you are preachers to your kids.

But then additionally, we see that the whole family becomes a vessel of God's kingdom growth. I've been blessed with a family that are all saved and didn't get saved in the same way, very uniquely, very differently, some earlier, some later. But all through these different unique stages of life, each member of that family with their unique personality, with their unique characteristics have become vessels by which God has been able to reach others, non-Christians, to encourage Christians to transform their profession in godly ways. Where one has an interest in basketball, another has an interest in music. Where one is a bit more forceful and direct and can stand and preach to people, or thinks he can preach to people.

Another is patient and gentle and cries with their brothers and holds a sick person's hand. But we all, this family, come together every so often and ask for prayer communally around a dinner table for friends, for loved ones. We have a great Facebook chat group going on. We need prayer for this. Please think of this.

We all seek godly advice for doing our little part in our little veggie patch of God's kingdom. All individuals with their own brick, with their own little mortar, shovel, working together on the project. And I'm sure if you think about it, if you reflect on it, you'll see in your kids, you'll see in your brother or your sister or whatever, that they are able to reach people that you would never be able to reach. They are able to invest in God's kingdom in a way that you could never invest. God often, according to the Bible, uses the family to expand His kingdom.

Think about it. Think of Abraham's family. Think of his descendants that came. Think of the witnesses. They were to be a blessing to the nations.

Through them, the nations would be blessed. Think about Moses and his brother Aaron and his sister Miriam and his father-in-law Jethro, the wise man that gave him such godly, wise counsel. Fast forward to the New Testament, think of Peter and his wife who went travelling through the world preaching to the lost. Think about Priscilla and Aquila, that dynamic duo, husband and wife in the early church. Family units.

The expansion of God's kingdom often starts with the family. Now I want to also recognise that some of us may not have this experience today in our families, not yet at least. There may be families with sceptics. There may be families with unbelievers. You may not have experienced ever a unified vision of the kingdom in your family life.

Jesus knew about this. He foresaw this and said that the gospel may bring division in families. A father and a son may not agree. But once again, the mission never changes because of that. Your primary veggie patch is going to be your family.

It may be easier, it may seem easier to build the kingdom somewhere else with some strangers to go and stand on a street corner and share the gospel there. But there is something in scripture that points us back to our family as a mission field too. So the expansion of God's kingdom often starts with the family. And then thirdly, and our last point this morning, is that the expansion of God's kingdom needs willing workers to do their part. People heard Nehemiah's vision.

They heard that God had blessed. And so they said, yes, this is good. Let's start rebuilding. But we see that although this was only a small group of families, although there were these community groups involved, and not all of them were family. Some of them were a group of priests, maybe they didn't have families that started. Some of these were residents of little villages around Jerusalem that would send people to come and work.

Although there were these communities, it still needed individuals to put up their hand to do the work. The workers were willing to cooperate and to coordinate with one another for the overall cause. While some worked in the front of their homes, many others came from outlying cities. Have a look at chapter 3, verse 2. The men of Jericho, which is like a few kilometres away, the men of Jericho built an adjoining section of the wall.

Verse 5, the next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, another village. Verse 13, the valley gate was repaired by Hanun and the residents of Zanoah. So these were different groups, not necessarily related to Jerusalem. After the project was through, or at least after they finished every day, they returned home without any personal direct benefit. This was a blessing to Jerusalem directly.

Perhaps in some way, they would be more economically well off if they had their capital safe and secure. But beyond any personal benefits, they were working for the overall cause. The greater benefit of society. So we see workers that were willing to work for a cause greater than themselves with no personal direct benefit to them, which is a challenge for us sometimes. What's in it for me?

What do I get out of this? The second thing we see in this is that the workers, each individual was willing to complement one another for this cause. Everyone couldn't do the same job. Some worked on the walls. Some worked on the gates.

Some worked putting bolts in those gates. Hanging a large gate is not an easy task. So some who were strong enough to do this were able to lift these heavy beams and these massive boulders. Others had to do lighter work, but each worker was important to the cause. In the New Testament again, we see how the church functions this way when Paul says in First Corinthians 12 that the body is made up of many parts.

He says, if you're a hand and you have to do work as a hand, don't despise the foot because it's a foot. If you're a foot, don't be envious of the hand because you were made to do something different. It would be foolish to be envious of one another. It would be foolish to want to do the work of someone else. Each part depends on the other parts in order for the whole body to function properly.

So each worker here had to understand that they were complementing the other worker to fulfil the mission of God. Something important to remember as we are in this church. Thirdly, some workers were willing to work outside their areas of strength. Think about this one. In chapter 3, verse 1, we see that it's a bunch of priests that get involved in building the sheep gate and a portion of the wall.

I can guarantee you at Bible college, they did not teach me how to build walls. These priests, I'm sure they would have probably been more rugged than some of our scrawny Bible college students now, but they weren't specialist masons. They had to probably get some pointers on how to lay a straight line and how to mix mortar and how to properly chip away and chisel stones. Some of the city officials in verse 9 and 12 we see rolling up their sleeves and joining in the people in their work. Some were goldsmiths and jewellers used to making fine things and specialised with crafting beautiful things, and here they were doing rugged work.

I'm sure that they realised they had muscles that they didn't know existed. We might be tempted to say likewise that I'm not going to put my name down on the cleaning roster because that's not my spiritual gift. We might say the church is a body with many different members, many different parts doing their job, and my job is not cleaning. But unfortunately, the Bible doesn't list cleaning as a spiritual gift. So probably, we all need to do it at some point.

The point of Nehemiah 3 is that everyone got involved. The New Testament is clear that if you're a Christian, you are a minister. If you are a Christian, you are in service to the King. Jesus said in Matthew 25 that your service will have to be given an account of when the master returns. The talent that you were given will need to be paid back with interest.

You are in service to the master. But some of us may need to be willing to work outside of our area of strength. And maybe, who knows, God may surprise us and we discover it is our area of strength. And then the last thing in this section is some workers were willing to do the less glamorous or the less desirable jobs. Malchijah in verse 14 repairs the dung gate.

Can you imagine what that would have smelled like? It was at the south side of the city. If you've ever been to Jerusalem, it's still there. It opens to the Kidron Valley where people brought all their trash, all their sewage to burn. If it was the same Malchijah mentioned in verse 31, he was a goldsmith by trade, probably a wealthy guy.

And he also helped with repairs on another part of the wall, but he was working on the dung gate. I'm sure there would have been a lot more volunteers volunteering to repair the fountain gate than the dung gate. But Malchijah realised that the job needed to get done, and he was willing to do it for the kingdom. Now the expansion of God's kingdom needs willing workers to do their part. And all of this indicates to me that although our work in the kingdom should be understood as glorious and praiseworthy, we need to realise that it is still hard work.

It is glorious. It is beautiful. There are moments that are earth shatteringly powerful working in the kingdom of God. We need to realise, however, that it is still hard work. It still will be unglamorous at times.

It will still need planning. It will still need strategy. It will need team effort even when you are frustrated with your team. But the end result will be magnificent. John Piper said, famously, that missions exists because the worship of God doesn't.

Think about it. Missions exist because the worship of God doesn't. The church has a mission to advance the kingdom of God because there are people that don't belong in that kingdom yet. And I love this quote from Piper because it highlights the central motivation behind all this hard, all this sometimes unglamorous work. This work that will keep you up praying at midnight.

This work that will make you cry for loved ones. This work that will make you feel restless listening to a sermon like today. Friend, I love this quote because Piper holds out this one motivation. The only motivation, the thing that will always be the truest motivator for our actions and that is the worship of a worthy God. Why do this work?

Because if you understand who God is, if you come back to remembering Him over and over for what He has done for you, what He has given you, you won't ever want to do anything else but serve Him. You won't ever want to do anything else but worship this guy because He is so worthy of it. Psalm 8 is a brilliant example of this. In prayer to God, the psalm writer wonders, what is man, O God, that You are mindful of him? What is the son of man that You care for him?

Who are you, who are we, God, for You to realise and see our situation, to see our predicament? Who are we to receive the Saviour Jesus Christ? Who are we to have received so much responsibility in this life, so much blessing in this life? How merciful You are, O God. How rich is Your grace.

And in pondering and reflecting on all this, being overwhelmed by this, this is how Psalm 8 finishes. The final verse simply reads, O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. How majestic, how matchless, how unsurpassable is Your name, is Your character, is Your revealed nature. I must bring nothing less than my entire self to You, my King and to Your kingdom. It is the very least I can do.

So God has called us, church, to be at work in bringing every facet of this world, this broken, crumbling world, back into the glorious light of the kingdom of our majestic God. And we do this with a common vision knowing that we are part of this team. We do this within the sphere of influence of our families, those nearest and dearest to us, and with absolute willingness, with absolute determination to do our part. Let's pray. Thank You for Your word, Lord.

Thank You that You speak out of it, out of seemingly strange and incomprehensible words sometimes. Thank You that there is gold in every single sentence. Father, we pray that as we see the example here of Your people, as we look at other parts of Your word shining and reflecting and guiding our lives, we pray, Lord, that we will be faithful. We pray, Lord, that we will be obedient. Father, this is not something to be guilty or shamed about.

This is something that You are inviting us to be a part of. There is joy in this mission. And Father, that joy comes from being reminded of again and again as we participate in Your kingdom, as we share our faith with our brothers and sisters, as we show an example of discipleship to our kids, as we transform our workplace, Lord, by the decisions we make, by the godly principles and values we live by, as we expand Your kingdom in every facet of this society, there is worship that will come to You. And that worship, Lord, is the essence of our life. That worship is the strength of our existence.

Father, I pray that You will give us encouragement today. I pray that You will give us opportunities, that You will give our eyes the ability to see where there is need, that You will make our souls restless about things that need to be changed. And Father, we pray above all that You will establish Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Hallowed be Your name. How majestic is that name in all the earth. Amen.