Sermon Tone Analysis

*“No Pain, No Gain”*

*Nehemiah 4:1-23*

 

Praise God for opposition!

I didn’t hear any hearty “Amens”!

These are not pleasant words to hear and even more difficult to say.

You know, in Christian circles we often talk in terms of opened and closed doors.

It's as though we can determine God's will for our life by these perceived opening and closing of doors.

And don’t we often associate least paths of resistance as open doors?

Now I want to be clear that I am not saying that God does not often go before us and pave a path for his work in our lives.

But often we can too quickly conclude that a difficult situation must be a closed door.

And conversely, a smooth ordeal is an open door from God.

Let me ask you, do you think the apostle Paul believed this?

If we were Paul, would we conclude that every beating, every imprisonment, every shipwreck, every verbal attack must have been a closed door from God? Or do you think that sometimes God may want us to persevere in prayer, recognize our dependence on him, and demonstrate his great power amidst our opposition?

I must admit that I am glad that Paul did not quickly abandon his mission of proclaiming the gospel because of perceived closed doors.

And I am glad that Nehemiah did not either.

This week we will be looking at some opposition that Nehemiah faced as he desired to carry out the task committed to him by God.

I’ve entitled this sermon, *“No Pain, No Gain”.*

And I want you to notice a few these this morning.

I want you to see the opposition that Nehemiah faced, and then see his responses to them.

The lessons we will learn are that opposition is inevitable and that there are appropriate and necessary responses to it.

Where would we be without opposition?

I would suggest that we would be full of pride, self-sufficiency, and without an understanding of our need of God.

So, in that light, we would have to say praise God for opposition.

How else do we learn perseverance, humility, a theology of prayer.

*“No Pain, No Gain.”*

I would even suggest that without any pain or opposition we would turn away from God.

We would go backwards!

Well, let’s dive into the text.

Please turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 4. While you are turning there, let’s briefly recount what has happened to this point.

Our man, Nehemiah, was a cupbearer to the King.

He was in a privileged and trustworthy position.

Hanani and some other men returned from Judah and spoke with Nehemiah.

And from what might have been a casual inquiry regarding the state of things in Jerusalem, he received a report that deeply affected him.

Things were not going so well in his homeland.

The report was that the remnant was in great trouble, the great wall of Jerusalem and its gates were in shambles.

And having turned to the Lord in prayer and with fasting and weeping, remembering the covenant that God had made with his chosen people, Nehemiah decides he wants to be a part of the promise fulfilled.

He wants to see his people reconciled to their God.

He wants to see the great walls of Jerusalem strengthened again to testify to their glorious God.

So Nehemiah approaches the King – jeopardizing his very life in the process – and requests that he be given permission to go to Judah so that he might begin this undertaking.

Recognizing that this is of the Lord, Nehemiah goes above and beyond and requests that he also be equipped with the resources for the project.

And the King granted his request, because as Nehemiah puts it, “the good hand of my God was upon me.”

Upon arrival, he spends several days assessing the situation, inspires the people, and in chapter three they get to work.

They* all* get to work – not just the carpenters, masons, and drywallers.

Well, I suppose they didn’t have drywall then.

But you get the idea.

And then chapter 4 begins with our old friends Sanballat and Tobiah.

They were the guys who were accusing Nehemiah of rebelling against the king in chapter 2. The text reads, “Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews.

And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, ‘What *are* these feeble Jews doing?

Will they restore it for themselves?

Will they sacrifice?

Will they finish up in a day?

Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”

And then his sidekick Tobiah pipes up, “what they are building – if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”

So here are Sanballat (who we will recall is a governor in Samaria) and Tobiah again attempting to demoralize the builders (in verse 5) and to reassure their own supporters.

For this was said in the presence of Sanballat’s brothers and the army of Samaria.

We all know what this is like.

You get a group of people together (of whom you may or not be a part of) and discussion revolves around a controversial topic or person.

It’s not long before the people get animated around the issue.

Look at protest rallies over environmental issues, land development and usage, abortion, gay rights, etc.

The emotions can take over and before you know it you can really see people rally in opposition.

The first opposition that Nehemiah faces in this chapter is this intimidation by taunts and jeering.

They are attempting to dispirit and discourage the work before it gets anywhere.

I will assure you that where there is a work of God, opposition is near at hand.

There will always be nay-sayers and those who openly protest.

When you make a decision for Christ, for example, there will often be family members or co-workers who will try to discourage you from continuing in your faith.

And what is our response to opposition?

Lash out or fight back?

No.

Our response should be the same as Nehemiah’s.

Look at verse 4.

He immediately turns to his God who has entrusted him to the task.

He writes, “Hear, O our God, for we are despised.

Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where /they/ are captives.

Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.”

And you say, “Wow!

Jonathan, that seems rather harsh.”

And I thought the same thing at first read.

Then I looked at it again and reevaluated this prayer.

I looked at it from the perspective of those who were in captivity for their unfaithfulness to God.

And realizing that the parallel cannot be pushed too far because Israel was God’s chosen people… But in the same way that Israel was taken into captivity for turning their backs on God, shouldn’t these nations also be judged accordingly.

And then He implores the Lord not to cover their guilt or blot out their sin.

For they have provoked Him to anger in the presence of the builders.

Truth be told, they shouldn’t be forgiven because they have not asked for forgiveness, they have not turned to the Lord, confessed or repented of their sins.

Therefore, it is not harsh or unjust request.

Their sin should not be blotted out and their guilt not covered.

And what this really amounts to is righteous indignation.

Nehemiah is not upset that he is being taunted or jeered.

But rather it is because the purposes of God are not being forwarded.

They are discouraging the workers who are seeking to build the walls where God will receive the glory.

His anger is directed to the *minimizing* of God’s glory.

In essence, Nehemiah’s prayer is “Hear, O our God… we live to glorify you.

We want you to be glorified in this.

And these people… they stand in the way of your glory.

This is *your* battle.

These are *your* enemies.

This is beyond us… and we lay them at your feet knowing that you are all-powerful, and this can only be done by you.”

And how applicable is this to us today?? Well, there is a sense that we as the church should be indignant at the things that minimize and hinder God’s glory.

We should be appalled and grieved at the murder of unborn babies, abuse of innocent children, rape, blatant sin in Christ’s church.

And how do we respond to such atrocities?

The same way Nehemiah does.