Sermon Tone Analysis

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.