Passing on the Vision
Text: Nehemiah 2:1-20
Theme: pass on the vision
Doctrine: Evangelism
Image: Broken Body
Need: faith fervour
Message: pass on the vision
Building With God's People: Passing on the Vision
Nehemiah 2:1-20
In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.” Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
I was watching 'Kid Nation' last night, and was struck by the way that religion has been left out of the society they are trying to build. The idea of the show is to take a bunch of kids, aged 8 to 14, place them in a ghost town in the middle of the dessert, and have them build a new society. They are all given a job to do, some are labourers, some are cooks, some are merchants, and some are the upper crust. The interesting thing is that there is no one given the task of religious leadership. In the town is an old chapel, but it is in essence left empty. This is a perfect example of how the world views religion, as an old relic that is but an empty shell.
Our world is turning its back on God, as it has for centuries, yet Christians seem to be content to allow it to happen. In our own fear of confrontation and rejection we refuse to tell others about God and Christ, hiding behind the excuse of tolerance. Our world is searching for comfort, for belonging, for joy, yet we refuse to tell them that our only comfort in life and in death is that we are not our own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Even when we do try to speak, our witness is compromised because the body of Christ is broken by schism and hatred. The name of God is brought into disgrace because we have let the body of Christ crumble into disrepair.
In chapter one, we read that Nehemiah heard the Israelites were in disgrace because the wall in Jerusalem was still in disrepair. He heard that the gates had been burned by fire. He heard that the people who had returned to the promised land were living in great trouble and disgrace. This was not the way things were supposed to be. The people of God were not supposed to leave the city lying in ruins. It has been ninety years since a large number of people had returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, and seventy years since the temple had been rebuilt. Why is the city still in ruins?
The Israelites seem to have taken this situation sitting down. They seem to accept that nothing can be done, that there is no use trying to rebuild what they had lost. They did not seem to care that the name of God was in disgrace because the city in which he had chosen to dwell was lying in ruins. How could they expect to be a light to the nations and to draw all people to God when the city in which the temple stood is lying in ruins? How could they expect people to put their trust in the God of the universe when his own people do nothing? The Israelites do nothing, and they allow the city to continue to slowly decay around them. They seem to have resigned themselves to the fact that the city of God will never be what God promised it would be.
Christians seem to have resigned themselves to the fact that our community will never be what Christ prayed it to be. In John 17 he prays for unity in all believers.
“My prayer is not for [my disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Unity in the body of Christ brings God's glory, but dissension in the body of Christ brings disgrace. The world-wide church does not evidence this unity. We fight amongst ourselves and have splintered into hundreds of separate groups. We seem to be content offering a broken witness to the world. We do not seem to care that people are turning away from God. We do not seem to care that our neighbour is lost and hurting, and does not know where to turn. We would rather argue about music style than get lost in worship. We set up our individual choice and preference as our idol. We care so much about our own preference that we threaten to leave if things do not go our way, holding others hostage.
Allegiance to God and his church is crumbling around us, but do we care? We have become lax in our faith. We have become content to have our own faith, our own way of worship, our own choices. We do not care that the body of Christ is broken down and crumbling around our ears. When we do respond to these problems, we seem to think that we need to build a wall around our individual congregations, just as the Israelites built one around Jerusalem. We think we need to tighten up our confessional defences and exclude those who do not agree with us. However, we must remember that our situation is not the same as that of the Israelites. When Jesus came he extended the city of God beyond the borders of Jerusalem, the people of God beyond the descendants of Israel. Jesus fulfilled God's plan for Israel and as a result people of all nations are gathered at the foot of the cross. All those who believe in Jesus are the people of God. A wall is no longer needed.
So, when we talk about building up the church, when we think about building with God's people, we talk about building up the body of Christ. Building up the body of Christ means breaking down barriers. Breaking down the barriers between people and God. Breaking down barriers between people and their neighbours. Breaking down barriers between believers. We should not be content to walk past our neighbour's house without speaking to them about our faith, and their faith. We should not be content to watch the faith of those around us deteriorate and crumble under the weight of worldly burdens. We should not be content to see the hundreds of different denominations and non-denominations around the world. We are to be God's people, to be God to people, to bring people to God. By not building up the body, we allow the place where God has chosen to live to lie in ruins, bringing disgrace on his name.
Nehemiah is so moved by the disgrace of God's people, that he decides to do something about the situation. Day by day Nehemiah is getting anxious and worried. He is fasting and praying, but he cannot get up the courage to speak to the king. This is the King of the Persian Empire, after all, the most powerful person in the world at the time. He was not to be approached by a mere cup bearer. Nehemiah had a very specific job, and he was expendable in it. His job was to make sure the king did not die of poison, and if he died in the meantime, oh well. Daily his nervousness increased. He just could not bring himself to open his mouth and address this magnificent man. So he waits. Days go by, and he still has not said anything. Weeks go by, and he still has not said anything. Months go by, and he still has not said anything. Finally, after three months, something changes. The King addresses him.
“Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
This scared the wits out of Nehemiah. See, Persian kings had strict rules about being sad or mourning in their presence. The king was never to be in contact with those who mourned. People dressed in sackcloth were not allowed within the palace citadel (cf. Esther 4). Being noticed for being sad could very well be the last thing that Nehemiah experienced. But he has been prepared for this moment.
“May the king live forever!” he says. “Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
The king knows a prepared speech when he hears it, much like a parent facing a teenager asking for the car on Friday night, so he says: “What is it you want.”
Nehemiah lays before the king all that he had prepared. He asks if he may go back and rebuild the city where his family is buried. He tells him when he will be going, how long it will take, and when he will be back. He requests official letters of permission so that opponents may be quelled and so that he will have what he needs to actually get the city built. Surprisingly, the King agrees.
When he gets to Jerusalem he takes some time to allow people to get used to his presence before he tells them what God has laid on his heart. He inspects the entire wall to see what will have to be done. Then, he gathers the people together and gives them heck for allowing things to continue as they have. He opens their eyes to the issue at hand and to their true situation.
You can picture him standing in the courtyard of what used to be a gateway. The charred and blackened stumps of the timber which used to support the doors and the towers poke out in awkward and painful angles. The stones used to build the wall lay scattered about and pushed up into piles along the edge of the road. There is grass growing out of the cracks between rocks, and moss clinging to the shaded side of the big boulders. There are vines and weeds crawling over and disguising the outlines of the stones. You can see him clambering partway up one of the crumbling heaps pointing out how easy it is for raiders to come and take whatever they want.
“Do you see this,” he says. “Do you see the trouble we are in? Do you see that the wall is broken down and that the gates no longer stand? Do you see the disgrace we are brining upon the name of God? Do you see what we have to do? We have to rebuild the wall! Listen, when I was in Persia, God gave me the opportunity to talk to the king. Artaxerxes has given me permission and supplies to rebuild this wall. But I cannot do it alone. We have to do this together.”
Do you see the mess the world is in? Do you see how many people have turned away from God? Do you hear how Christianity is mocked, and how God's holy name is invoked as a curse rather than a blessing? Do you see the damage we have done to the beautiful bride of Christ? Do you see how we have abused her? Do you see how we have dismembered her? Can you hear her pain as Christians squabble over petty issues? Can you hear the cries of the lost, the lonely, the hurting over the din of our own arguing? Do you see the hopelessness that people without Christ have?
We are the body of Christ. We are the people of the promise. God has built his temple within us. God dwells within us and works through us. When Jesus had risen from the dead he appeared to his disciples and said, “'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We need not worry because God is with us. We need not despair because God holds our right hand. Although our witness is broken, God still uses us to change lives. Christ will build his church. After all, the whole world is under the control of the creator.
As it says at the beginning of the contemporary testimony. “As followers of Jesus Christ, living in this world—which some seek to control but which others view with despair—we declare with joy and trust: Our world belongs to God.” In this world broken and crushed by sin, we declare: Our world belongs to God. In the midst of suffering and pain, in the midst of joy and praise, we proclaim: Our world belongs to God. In the midst of the broken body of Christ we declare with all our hearts: Our world belongs to God. With Abraham Kuyper we stand and confess: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'”
This is the amazing vision we get to spread. This is the amazing God whom we serve. Our whole lives are lived in service and worship to God. God is not someone who only meets us on Sunday, or when we do our devotions. God is with us while we drive truck. God is with us while we prepare and serve meals. God is with us while we work on the factory floor. God is with us while we work behind the office door. God is with us while we till the soil. God is with us when we change our oil. God is with us in everything that we do.
Though the body is broken, God is still with us. The Holy Spirit is working through us helping us to build with God's people, all of God's people, regardless of nationality, culture, or creed. Regardless of the name that is placed on the front of our buildings, Christ will build his church.
As James Schaap said at the 150th Anniversary conference:
“Should our Lord tarry through another half century, God almighty will still own his people, his church, and his world; and he will have his way with us—all of us, with all of our differences, in the full splendour—or chaos—or our diversity. Those of us who own up to a sovereign Lord and Creator who loves this very world so much he sent his son—we will be his and he will be ours, no matter what letters or words we inscribe on the shingles we hang from our buildings.” (James Schaap, What about a Bicentennial?: Mr and Mrs. CRC, lecture given at 150th anniversary conference of the Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, MI, Sept. 2007)
God will not let his church die. God has chosen each of us to work in his body with the gifts he has given us. He has chosen to place us where he has so that we can spread the amazing vision that the whole world belongs to God.
Amen
Let us Pray