Sermon Brief
Date Written: January 31, 2013
Date Preached: February 3, 2013
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Building with God
Sermon Title: Internal Strife and Opposition
Sermon Text: Nehemiah 5 [ESV]
Introduction:
Nehemiah had heard of the great trouble Jerusalem was in and God had guided and provided for Nehemiah to come and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Nehemiah’s character has been revealed in that he had a love and trust for God and a deep abiding care for his fellow man. We see that Nehemiah’s life was filled with prayer and submission to God and God’s plan for his life!
Thru ch1-4 Nehemiah is on a mission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and by the end of ch4 the wall is taking shape and the people have come together to work and DO the job God is leading them to do… but not all is well!
When we arrive in ch5 we find that there is trouble in the camp… there are some INTERNAL issues that have the potential to derail all that had been accomplished up to this point and threatens to stop them altogether…
In ch2 and 4 we have seen the opposition come from those OUTSIDE, but here the issue and problem was one that originates from within the community!
This morning we will look at ch5 in its entirety and we are going to see how damaging internal opposition can be, but also how we are to face that internal opposition and move forward with a plan to eliminate it! Turn to Nehemiah 5 and lets begin to read:
[show Neh:1:1-5 (ESV) – follow along as I read]
Nehemiah 5:1-5 [ESV]
1Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” 3There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
Setting the Stage v.1-5
Now just what are the problems that Nehemiah is facing here? Well he had managed to get a people who had ignored the building of the wall for many years to come together to begin the project of rebuilding the wall… BUT all was not well!
We find in v1 here that there was what is described as a ‘great outcry’. This is the same language that is used when the people of Israel were in slavery in Egypt (Exodus 3:9 [ESV] – show verse here) and they cried out under great oppression and heartache for God to rescue them…
9And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
The difference here is that in Egypt they were being oppressed by the Egyptians… HERE those who are crying out are not being oppressed by an outsider or someone from another land… the oppression was coming from other Jews… from their ‘brothers’ which made it even worse!
Another aspect of v1 is the mention of the wives. Normally wives would not be mentioned because they were not considered to be equal BUT because Nehemiah had so successfully established the sense of community in this project… husbands, wives, brothers and sisters were all working on the wall! The voice crying out was a cry from ALL of these people!
When we look at these 5 verses we can see that there are 3 distinct groups of people revealed:
The wage earner… these people were at the lower part of the socio-economic ladder. They are the people with the hourly jobs, people living check to check. We could compare them with many of our lower scale hourly wage earners today!
Remember Nehemiah had called ALL the people to come and work TOGETHER. These people would have normally been in the fields working the harvest and earning money, but now they were dedicated to working on the wall and they were now being forced to borrow money to just feed their family.
There were the landowners… these were people who owned the land where the crops were grown. They would employ the wage earners to harvest their crop. These land owners were subjected to heavy taxes from the King in Persia, but also from those in charge of the government prior to Nehemiah coming…
We could compare these people to the small business owners of our day. Creating jobs for those who need work and providing products needed in society.
They would have usually had plenty of workers for their fields, but due to the work on the wall, the workers were few and the harvest may not have been going so well. They also faced heavy taxation from the King… this led to them having to borrow to survive in their business!
Then there were the wealthy! These were the ones who were doing the oppressing! They were taking advantage of the situation and of the people who were dedicated to rebuilding the wall! The things that they were doing were not illegal necessarily, but they were highly objectionable and immoral.
What were they doing? Why was this such an issue to Nehemiah? Well the main issue WAS a legal matter. Jewish law forbid the charging of interest to another Jew, however Nehemiah saw that this went further and deeper than the charging of interest!
These people were also loaning money and then foreclosing on the loans and taking the land used for collateral! Using this situation to unjustly obtain land rather than offer a fair price and buy the land! What they were doing was akin to stealing the land!
Again, this was NOT illegal, but it was highly immoral! Here were people who were doing God’s will in rebuilding the wall, they were not being paid for this and they had left paying jobs to come to the city!
Nehemiah had instructed people to not come and go, but that it would be safer to stay in the city because of the opposition to the rebuild of the wall.
These people had left their livelihood to do the will of God and now they were being taken advantage of by the wealthy of society.
Can you imagine a hard working individual that is called away to another responsibility? [Example: National Guard or Reserve]
They are called away to serve for a pittance of what they can earn in the private sector. They are called away from their job to work on a greater mission!
Can you imagine anyone taking advantage of these people while they are deployed serving their country? The mere thought of this should sicken ALL of our stomachs but this is what was happening! Those who could afford if the least were being hit the hardest.
Those who employed the laborers were the landowners but the building of the wall had created a shortage of laborers…
These land owners were losing money because of a lack of workers and they had to borrow money against their field and the situation was growing worse because it the harvest was about to come in and they had NO ONE to work it and the Creditors were beginning to close out their loans and were taking the fields for themselves!
This situation was inexcusable… there was a class of people set above the others because of their wealth and the privilege that comes with that wealth. These people were using the extreme circumstances to their advantage and to the detriment of those under them…
Now in our society today this may NOT sound so bad, after all these people were just making the most of a difficult situation, right?
They were not doing anything illegal, but, as believers, we should see the immorality of these actions… but more importantly the immorality of the attitudes behind these actions!
This issue basically has 2 parts:
The OBVIOUS – which is revealed by people taking advantage of many who were down and out and in need
The NOT-SO-OBVIOUS – which was these people using the legality of a matter to disguise the immorality of their actions. Just because it is legal or an accepted practice doesn’t make it right!
One day as Jesus was walking thru Jerusalem, he saw a situation that was both legal AND accepted, but we find that he did not allow the legality of the matter OR the acceptance of the practice to convince Him that this situation was right!
Of course, I am speaking about the time when Jesus cleared of the temple of the money changers! The money changers were there for 2 reasons:
1) to exchange foreign money for Temple coins and their ‘exchange’ rate was very corrupt.
2) they had ‘approved’ animals that could be sacrificed, but their price was far above market value of the animals.
Usually what would happen is that anyone who brought their own animal… it would be rejected as ‘unworthy’ and they could sell it to these men and buy an ‘approved’ animal for sacrifice…
Well you can see how corrupt this seems and WAS… and Jesus saw it and was ANGRY! So we read that Jesus cleared the temple of the money changers.
I am sure that these men had a permit to be there and I also know that the people had accepted them because the priests had allowed it, but NOT Jesus!
There are times when believers must STAND for what we believe and just because something is legal and accepted by the majority does NOT mean it is morally right! I see abortion falling into this category!
But what did Nehemiah do when he saw the situation here in ch5? [show Neh:1:6 (ESV) here]
Nehemiah’s Anger - v.6
In v6 we find Nehemiah became VERY angry! But not only was he angry THEN he wanted all who read his letter to know that he was angry!
Many would say… WOW! He got angry, how ungodly of him? My friends anger is NOT a sin… It is what becomes of the anger in your heart! Its is all about how you apply that anger… for good or for bad
In other words, does that anger consume you and drive you to sinful behavior, if so Paul tells us in Col 3 that we must lay aside anger!
But Paul also states in Eph 4:6 that we can be angry and still NOT sin… so it is NOT anger that is the issue here!
Nehemiah was angry that these wealthy men were taking advantage of those less fortunate! He saw someone taking a situation and profiting off of others misfortune. This was what made Nehemiah angry!
This is exactly what Jesus saw in the Temple! He saw a bunch of greedy, self serving men taking advantage of those who came to give a sacrifice and they had no say in the matter… the situation caused Jesus to get angry and STOP it altogether!
This is what Nehemiah did… and LIKE Nehemiah, when we see oppression and injustice it should anger us, we SHOULD be MAD. Scripture tells us in the first part of Amos 5:15 [show highlighted Amos 5:15 (ESV) here]:
Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate;
This verse tells us to HATE evil, so now we can see where Nehemiah’s and Jesus’ anger came from! They saw EVIL and they had a hate for it!
Hate EVIL and love the good… but also seek to establish JUSTICE in the gate or in the community! We should seek to provide a just world around us. I know that in most cases we cannot establish justice for everyone, but in our realm of influence we are called to do so… to BE just and to see justice done!
Doing evil in the sight of God is not tied to something illegal… in fact there are things that are allowable by man that God simply will not tolerate and God hates!
God is a just God and wants us as His children to seek justice – to seek out what is right and good and for us to hate that which is evil and does Injustice to others!
Nehemiah saw this INJUSTICE and it moved him to anger! We must be moved to anger as well when we see evil around us! But Bro Bobby what evil are you talking about… well my friend you don’t have to look far to see evil in our world.
General evil is all around you – things of sin, sinful nature, this worldly culture… these things should anger our hearts and move us to act!
Specific Evils – blatant acts against the holiness of God, such as abortion, human trafficking, or oppressing others for your personal gain! These things should anger us to action!
Spiritual Evils – the sin stained souls of those in our community… those NOT sitting in these ‘empty seats’ we have surrounding us this morning! This is an EVIL we should see and it should drive us to anger to the point we ACT!
There are people in our community who are covered with sin… they are lost and separated from God. They have ONE destination and that is oppression from the evil one and ultimate destruction in hell. This should make YOU as a believer VERY ANGRY… this should drive YOU as a believer to action!
We must feel ANGER toward injustice and evil… Nehemiah saw it and he was MOVED to anger!
But I want us to see that it does NOT stop with ANGER! Nehemiah did not allow anger to consume them, but he took that anger and began to act! [show Neh:1:7 (ESV) here]
Nehemiah’s Action - v.7ff
Look at v7 from this morning’s passage!
7I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them
We need to understand something important about this verse. Thru the 1st 4 chapters of the story we have discovered that Nehemiah is a praying man, and we know that he takes EVERYTHING to God! So we have to presume that he does the same thing here…
But the 1st part of this verse reveals the self control that God had imparted to Nehemiah as a leader. He did not lash out in anger, but it says, “…he took counsel with himself…”
Do you know what he was doing here? This is a godly trait being revealed! When he says he ‘took counsel with himself, I want us to understand he was not GIVING counsel to himself…
There is a WISE action for anyone who reaches anger… and that is to step back, take a breath, and maybe count to ten! Well this was sort of what Nehemiah was doing, but I am sure that in his ‘stepping back and taking a breath, he did not count to ten BUT he prayed to God!!
Nehemiah did not fly off the handle at these men, but he settled his spirit and then began to act in clearing up the situation!
The next part of this verse let’s us know a couple of things about Nehemiah. Number ONE here is that he was NOT going to allow evil to flourish when he was in charge! When he saw evil and injustice he was going to do what he could to cut it off and kill it!
Look what happens, “…and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials… and I held a great assembly against them…”
Nehemiah saw evil and it angered him INTO action, but his action was not evil, but driven by a sense of godly righteousness. He simply turned light onto a dark subject! He illuminated the problem by bringing it out in the open!
So often we find ourselves at this juncture… we see what NEEDS to be done, but our actions do NOT mesh with our beliefs! We see evil and oppression, but we simply turn a blind eye OR bury our head in the sand!
This past week there were teams staying at our church from all over the country! They were here because they had all been angered by what they saw and knew about… Human Trafficking… the slave/sex trade in America!
They came here to ACT on that anger… they did not lash out but all prayed about coming and allowed God to lead them… the result was MANY women and children being rescued from a life of forced sexual prostitution!
We have injustice and evil all around us and it should anger us to take action, but our action cannot be in rage or reactionary, but our action must be thru God’s counsel and seasoned with His Holy Spirit!
The evil around us is great, but I want us to focus on a more BROAD area… the arena of SIN! Sin and sinful nature exists and as children of God we are called to hate sin and seek to lead those IN sin to a redeeming relationship in Jesus Christ!
We cannot REACT in hate when we see sin around us but we should take counsel with ourselves and pray… and then ACT under the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit!
In our passage this morning we find Nehemiah acting by putting light on the situation and before all the people telling what was being done! He did not sit idly by when evil was flourishing, but he took a stand and spoke out against that evil!
People, evil is flourishing EVERYDAY we sit idly by and do not take the LOVE of Christ into the world around us! As a believer this should anger you to NO end, but what has happened is that we have become callous to the situation and the enemy has convinced us that there is NOTHING we can do to make a difference!
My brothers and sisters… when we shine the light of Christ on the sinful world around us 2 things are going to happen! First it is going to reveal all the ugly evil and that is NOT a pretty sight…
Many here simply don’t want to see that, and because we don’t want to see it we AVOID shining the light of Christ at all! That is sin people… that is sinful behavior to keep the light of Christ to yourself!
The 2nd thing it does though is a something we don’t think about and the enemy has convinced us won’t happen! When we shine the light of Christ on evil, it is like turning on the light and seeing the roaches SCATTER!
The evil, disgusting things of this world HATE the light and when we shine the light of Christ upon them, they run and hide!
We have the oppression of sin and the evil of Satan himself THRIVING in our communities. It may not be crack houses or street gangs, but it is people who are lost and do NOT know Christ and they are living their lives immersed in this evil and don’t even know it… and that should anger us to action!
But Bro Bobby what can we do? What can I do? What action can I take? Well a couple of weeks ago I told you of what our focus this year was going to be… I told you that God had led me lead this church in four very specific areas… Discipleship, Ministry, Outreach and Prayer!
Today you see we have 4 tables set up down here at the altar. Each of these tables has a specific area of service written on it… one table for Discipleship, one for ministry, one for outreach and one for prayer!
This morning I am calling you to let your anger BURN against the evil in this world… the sinful oppression of Satan’s rule in so many lives in our community! Get angry at Satan! But your anger must lead to action!
These are four areas where you can put your faith IN ACTION to strike out against and shine the light of Christ on the evil of this world.
I am going to call you down here in just a minute to have you come and sign your name on the ministry focus where God is leading you…
But I am sure that you have also noticed something else here at the altar… it is a cross… a rugged and simple cross… and I want you to know that this cross is here for a reason!
Just as Nehemiah took counsel with himself to pray, before you come and commit to a focus of ministry you need to take counsel with yourself and pray to God for His leadership and guidance in this matter!
BUT most importantly you cannot set out to serve God with sin in your life! Inside your bulletin is a blank sheet of paper…
In a few moments I am going to pray a short prayer and I am challenging ALL of you here… while I am praying… I challenge you to prayerfully write down any sin that has come between you and God!
Then when I finish my prayer, Bro ken is going to sing our hymn of invitation and I am challenging ALL of you to leave your seats, come to the Cross with your sin and leave it at the foot of the cross!
It is NOT your place to nail your sin to the cross, that is what Jesus has done… it is your job to bring it to Him and HE WILL NAIL IT TO THE CROSS! Bring your sin to Him in confession and with a repentant heart and THEN go to a table and print your name!
I want you to know that you are NOT limited to ONE area of ministry focus, you can have your name on all four tables if you want… if you are not sure, look at the things those areas will be focusing on… they will be listed on the table…
But EVERYONE should take part… just as Nehemiah called EVERYONE to work on the wall, I am calling ALL members and active attenders of Oak Park to get involved…to be a part of a ministry!
If you feel you cannot DO anything, I know you can pray! Prayer teams are going to be formed and YOU should be on a prayer team at the very least!
I am about to pray… I am challenging EVERYONE of you to step out and come… come and sign up for service to BUILD this church… to BUILD the kingdom of God… to reach out with the LIGHT of Christ to drive away the darkness of sin and evil from our community! Now as I pray, I want you to write down your sin…and when I am finished, step out and come!
Father in Heaven, this morning we come to You as a fellowship, broken and confessing our sin! We come to you knowing that YOU and YOU alone are great and due all glory! We worship You and give You all the praise!
God this morning we come to you seeking your guidance for our people… God show them where they should be serving… God convict their hearts to step out and get involved! God convict US as a church to stop turning a blind eye toward the evil and sinful oppression in our world…
God move us to shine YOUR light on this dark evil and drive it away! We thank you for YOUR love and the redemption you bring to our hearts, in Jesus name we pray… AMEN
As Ken leads us, I call on you to step out NOW and come!
