Before Nehemiah came to Jerusalem there was no order. Imagine the situation: you had some Jews who were left behind, but there is no organization, they are in disarray, they have no worship, no identity. That’s what Nehemiah was stepping into when he was led by the Lord to return and rebuild the walls. Chaos and disarray.
In Nehemiah 11–12, we see the city of God replenished, the land promised to God’s people retaken, and the structure of worship ordered rightly to accomplish God’s purposes, all led by Nehemiah. It’s appropriate to study this text in concert with Palm Sunday. This city, Jerusalem, is where Jesus rode in on a donkey to begin what some call Passion Week or Holy Week. The city that Nehemiah rebuilt was now going to be changed forever by what Jesus would accomplish on the cross and out of the grave.
Anchoring the City (11:1–24)
Jerusalem at this point was still fairly uninhabited. Much had been accomplished. The walls were complete. Those who questioned the work had been put to shame. The people of God had thwarted attacks from the enemy, armed themselves, and gotten the work done in record time. All the doubters, revilers, and those who schemed against Nehemiah had been defeated and all of it is attributed to God’s providence. Nehemiah and the people worked hard and trusted the Lord, but all glory is given to God. On top of that, the people had dedicated themselves to him by hearing his word and repenting of their sins. They had made a covenant to follow it.
But the city still needed people, and no one was eager to live there.
Jerusalem at that time was not as big as Boulder. Far from it. About 30 acres which is much smaller than it is today. Think Folsom Field, Farrand Field, and the Coors Events Center combined, and you’re still probably too big. You could walk the entire perimeter in about 20 minutes. It’s not a large city. But it’s an important one.
To get people back in, they cast lots, like drawing straws. The selection is attributed to God’s sovereign hand, as it is elsewhere in Scripture when lots are drawn. And it wasn’t simply a mass lottery. The lots appear to have been drawn strategically according to what Jerusalem needed: singers, gatekeepers, Levites, priests. They were deliberate about who needed to be there so the city could operate according to God’s design.
Those selected were honored, even though they didn’t volunteer. And they were willing. But this was a real sacrifice. They had to uproot their families from wherever they had been farming or herding to move into Jerusalem. Imagine drawing the lot to live in the city after establishing yourself on land in the country. But these people did it willingly because they understood that more than their own comfort, it was God’s purposes that were most central. They had just committed themselves to God together (in a national covenant), and they were willing to do whatever needed to be done to walk in obedience, no matter the sacrifice.
The principle holds: when God wants to accomplish a great work, it will take sacrifice. People will be inconvenienced. It won’t be easy. And it might not make sense. God often works not by leaving us comfortably in place, but by calling us to places, purposes, and people that cost something.
I think of our own church in Boulder. It was a real sacrifice to begin this work in 2011. And many who are part of it sacrifice with cheerful hearts to continue, because it’s genuinely challenging to live and minister here. The Christian faith gets mocked. Checking accounts stay tight. And yet people choose to be part of it because they know God is doing something far beyond what they can see.
This is not a call to abandon prudence. The people of God in Nehemiah were unified and working within God’s revealed will for how worship should be conducted. The mature Christian doesn’t live recklessly and chalk it up to trusting the Lord. There’s an undercurrent in evangelicalism where abandoning common sense is treated as somehow more holy. I think of books like David Platt’s Radical, which essentially declared the normal Christian life insufficient and loaded people with guilt unless they were leaving everything behind. That’s not the pattern here. The mature Christian fulfills his duties with gladness, and when sacrifice is required to further the mission of God, he’s ready. But he doesn’t manufacture crisis to prove his devotion.
What are we to make of the long list of names? These are the people who sacrificed to be in Jerusalem. They knew what God required. Various tribes represented, various vocations necessary for the city to function — gatekeepers for protection, priests and Levites for right worship. There is order here. It isn’t random. And that’s because order matters to God, even in worship. We should worship the Lord according to what he has laid out in Scripture.
Possessing the Land (11:25–36)
The next section can make you lose the forest for the trees if you’re not careful. What’s actually happening is larger than it first appears: the people of God are possessing and populating the land God had promised them. The city names stretch out from Jerusalem — some over a dozen miles away. God had promised Abraham a people and a place, and for years during the captivity in Persia, that promise seemed dormant at best. Here we see it coming to fruition.
What we’re watching is God fulfilling his promises. When God makes promises, he does not break them. Too often we fail to understand what he is doing because we don’t see progress, or we’re in a season of waiting. It can feel like our own captivity, where the promises don’t seem true for us. But we have to go back to Scripture and hold on to what God has said.
And not just for us personally but also for his purpose in the world. It can be difficult when evil seems to be winning, when those who celebrate wickedness seem to prosper. But Christ is on his throne. He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He will accomplish everything he has promised.
What has he promised? The nations have been given to Jesus Christ. They belong to him. They may rebel, they may not honor him, but Christ is reigning still. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.
He has promised you an inheritance. He has already deposited a down payment of that inheritance in his Spirit, giving you new life. Ephesians 1:14 calls the Spirit the down payment on what is coming — the guide, teacher, and comforter who is a foretaste of what is promised when we stand before the face of God with faces unveiled, in perfect communion.
It’s like putting a down payment on a house and waiting to move in and make it your own. The Holy Spirit, the love and unity of the church, the preaching of the Word, the edification and fellowship of the body is what we have now. It is secured but not yet complete. Christ has prepared a place. He has welcomed us into communion with the Father, and one day we will be with him in glory. No more sin, no more sorrow.
Structuring the Worship (12:1–26)
The final section covers those who led worship but it spans more than one generation. It traces the legacy of those who led the people in worship across time. It is good to know those who came before us in the faith.
In the time of the Puritans, there was Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, published in 1563, a bestseller that recounted the faith of those who stood for the gospel against persecution from Papists. The saints of that era took courage from those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
We need that same long view. Too often our gaze is fixed on the urgent and anxious, the busyness, the responsibilities, the noise, and we lose sight of what God has been doing across generations. If we would stop and recall those who lived faithfully before us and passed the faith down to us, we would be greatly encouraged.
I think of my own family: my great-grandfather was a minister, and had six sons who became ministers and missionaries, one of whom became a seminary president. I think of my wife’s family, who has been involved in their home church for generations, serving as deacons and leaders. These are the heroes I draw courage from. There’s a reason that when an older saint who helped shape us passes on, it feels like such a loss.
God’s people in Nehemiah understand this. All these names are the people who led the worship. And worship is central to the mission. If we ourselves are not a people of worship, people devoted to prayer and God’s Word and a genuine love for the Lord, then what good can we accomplish? We may serve the poor, we may have a great fondness for one another and share life and meals together, but if we do not worship the Lord, the church is nothing more than a social club.
We need to remember those who came before us. We must have an eye to legacy. No matter how destitute things seem, God is working. As one church confession puts it: there shall always be a church on earth to worship God according to his will.
The City, the Land, the Worship
The text moves from city to land to worship, a sense of the glory of the Lord filling the land. In a similar way, the disciples started in Jerusalem, then went to Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. The movement of God begins with worship and moves to mission so that more worship may take place.
We tend to praise the ecstatic gifts and overlook what we consider boring or mundane ones. Administration. Gatekeeping. Logistics. But here in this text, all of it was animated by worship, a holy reverence and a sincere desire to honor the Lord of Hosts. That’s what drove them. Not excitement, not novelty but reverence.
Palm Sunday and the Greater Nehemiah
The city and land that once lay desolate have now been built up. The people have been ordered for worship in fulfillment of the promises of God.
On Palm Sunday, we remember that Jesus entered that exact same city, Jerusalem, in order to accomplish something greater. He, like Nehemiah, was going to restore right worship and right relationship with God. But not by rebuilding walls. By going to the cross, dying for our sins, and rising to give us new life. That city Nehemiah and the people rebuilt would now be remembered for the greater Nehemiah who came and gave his life as a ransom for many so that we could worship God.
Christ is our leader. He is the head of his body the church. And now not just one geographic region is under his kingdom but the entire cosmos belongs to him. Every nation, every land. This is why we send missionaries, plant churches, and spread the gospel. No matter how far from the Lord a people may seem, no matter how dark the times, Christ is on his throne. He has placed his church among the nations and in the cities of those nations to be a city on a hill, a light in the darkness, testifying to his great and glorious name.
There is a new city coming, the New Jerusalem, into which the nations will come. Christ is building his church. He is preparing a place. Life together as a church is a picture of that life to come. It is a foretaste of eternal glory. We get to delight in worship, in holy reverence before our Maker, because of what he has accomplished.
He is redeeming all things to himself. And when he returns, we will have the holy city, the New Jerusalem, in which we dwell and delight in the Lord forever.
Three things to apply from this text:
Be ready to sacrifice. When God wants to accomplish a great work, it will cost someone something. It may look like giving more time to serve and build up the church. It may look like investing your finances. Perhaps God is calling you to lay down your convenience and comfort to honor him more.
Remember the saints who have gone before you. Honor your fathers and mothers, both earthly and spiritual. This is the heart of the fifth commandment. Thank God for his providence. Thank those who helped form your love for the Lord.
Worship God in spirit and in truth. It is a joy to worship the Lord. We love him because he first loved us, and gave his Son as the propitiation for our sins.
This sermon was preached at The Well Church in Boulder, CO on March 29, 2026. To watch this sermon go here.