One Holy Passion
Nehemiah 2:11-20
February 25, 2001
¡§The Vision Thing¡¨
¡§He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year, coming home to a place he¡¦d never been before.¡¨ That was how John Denver described his feeling as he saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time. Karen and I had the joy of living for two years in Colorado, one of the most beautiful places in this country. I understand Denver getting a ¡§Rocky Mountain High!¡¨ Nehemiah, in chapter 2:11-20, after hearing of the plight of his people, after much prayer and weeping, and after seeing the hand of God move mightily in changing the heart of a pagan king, comes home to a place he¡¦d never been before. Let¡¦s read about it! (Prayer and Scripture)
George Bush, that is, the first George Bush, for whatever strengths he possessed, admitted that he struggled with what he called ¡§the vision thing¡¨. When I think of vision as found in a person of God as recorded in God¡¦s Word, one of the first people I think of is this man Nehemiah. I want to explore some truths we find about vision in the latter half of Nehemiah 2 today. Let¡¦s set the stage first.
The journey from Susa to Jerusalem took about 4 months in those days. The traveler would awaken at the crack of dawn ready to begin travel as early as possible so as to escape the most intense of the sun¡¦s rays. In a typical day, Nehemiah would likely travel a distance about as far as separates Mercer from Grove City; wonder what Nehemiah would have given for a Chevy and an interstate highway! The terrain was inhospitable to boot; he didn¡¦t travel through green meadows! And so it is quite understandable that Nehemiah checked into the Jerusalem Hilton and spent three days by the pool as is recorded in verse 11 (more or less!). His would not be an easy task and he knew it; it was likely to be an arduous work, and he needed to replenish his physical resources before plunging in. There is a lesson there for us, by the way; it¡¦s a lesson I personally need to take to heart, as do many of us: we need to take care of our bodies, the ¡§temples of God¡¨, as Paul calls them.
So we come to verse 12 with a rested Nehemiah, eight months after becoming aware of the situation in Jerusalem, ready to begin to fulfill the vision that God had placed in his heart regarding Jerusalem. Let¡¦s notice some valuable truths about vision!
I. Vision Comes from God - :12
Nehemiah says that he doesn¡¦t tell anyone else ¡§what God was putting into my mind.¡¨ This is not some concoction from his own mind; Nehemiah clearly signals to us that it is God who provides the impetus for Nehemiah¡¦s incredible vision. ¡§Lord, I want to know your vision¡¨ is the song we sing. That is exactly what we ought to be praying; it is what Nehemiah had. God was the One who was working in Nehemiah¡¦s heart and mind to show him the work He had for Nehemiah to do.
You know what I want for FCC? I want to find out what God is doing, and then find out how He wants us to cooperate with Him in the doing of it! I want to be tuned into the heart and mind of God; I want to be open to His leading and His wisdom. I want to dream the dream that God gives us, not a vision arrived at by committee consensus or denominational directive or peer pressure or ecumenical expectations. I believe that a vision that comes from God will always be in line with God¡¦s Word; will require faith and commitment to see accomplished; and will bring glory to God¡¦s Name. God, give us that vision!
II. Vision Does its homework - :13-16
Here is the other side of the equation! While a vision comes from God, it takes circumstances and situations into account. I believe that God often uses many instruments to shape the vision that He has for us. How does this work out in Nehemiah¡¦s life?
Nehemiah goes out at night to inspect the city, so as not to arouse suspicion. ¡§Why is this guy here from Persia scoping out the town?¡¨ He wanted to do the job the right way, even including the way that he announced the project to the people. He took the time to initiate himself to the situation. You can imagine people saying, ¡§You¡¦re the new kid in town, Nehemiah; what do you really know about our circumstances?¡¨ And had he tossed out half-baked ideas to every Tom, Dick, and Zecheriah, he could easily have been discredited right from the start.
Sometimes, what might strike us as a disadvantage is actually just the opposite. While Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem before, perhaps in the eyes of some a disadvantage, what he brought to the situation was ¡§fresh eyes¡¨. Sometimes people in a situation who have been there for awhile don¡¦t see things as clearly as newcomers do. We often ask people who are new to our church to let us know what their first impressions of FCC are. They see things that we don¡¦t! Wiersbe said, ¡§Nehemiah saw more at night than the residents saw in the daylight.¡¨ It had grown easy for the folks in Jerusalem, who had never known what it was like any other way, to get used to the sight of the rubble.
It is important as we consider God¡¦s vision for us as a church to take the situation into account. There is a place for doing our homework. I am encouraged by the recent work of our Future Development Team; they have surveyed the landscape and done their homework and presented to the elders some options regarding solving our current space crunch. The elders are in the process of working through those and we hope to have at least a few things to announce on Anniversary Sunday, March 18. I believe that it is God¡¦s vision for this church to provide space to grow this ministry; I don¡¦t believe that it is God¡¦s will for us to get satisfied with things as they are and forget about reaching out to others. It¡¦s very important for us to take into account the situation as we seek God¡¦s direction for our future.
There is a time in your own life as well for taking inventory. Mac Davis, whom I realize was old news before many of you students were even born, sang, ¡§You gotta stop and smell the roses along the way.¡¨ Well, that is true, but it is also important to look for the thorns as well. What is the reality of your walk with God, not as compared with someone else or compared with some level of comfort that you have declared to be ¡§good enough¡¨, but where are you right now in the level of your obedience to the Word of God? One of the things I want to assure you on the basis of the Word of God is that there is hope; I¡¦d even go so far as to suggest that there is a personal vision of spiritual maturity that God wants to give to each of us; that it is certainly not His will for us to live in some mediocre life of defeat at the hands of the evil one. Where are you now? Where does God want you to be? You ought to regularly do some self-evaluation on the first point, and then ask God to impart to you a vision of His answer to the second point!
III. Vision Paints a Picture of the
Future - :17
George Barna defined vision in this semi-technical way: ¡§A clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God to His chosen servants and based on an accurate understanding of God, self, and circumstances.¡¨ Not bad; I like a shorthand version of that: ¡§dreaming the most possible dream.¡¨
Vision that comes from God sees walls where there is rubble! Nehemiah identified with the people of Jerusalem, saying in effect, ¡§We are in this together; in this mess and disgrace, but also together we must rebuild these walls.¡¨ He didn¡¦t come condescendingly to upbraid them for their negligence until now; he merely stated the fact of the disgrace and said, ¡§We gotta do something about it!¡¨ But do you see the motivating issue? ¡§So that we will no longer be a reproach.¡¨ He is most concerned about the shame of the rubble, and while it is not stated here, it is clear that Nehemiah was most concerned about the fact that, while God had determined that Jerusalem was the place where His great Name would dwell, it was a place of disgrace. By extension, the Name of Yahweh was being subjected to shame and disgrace, and Nehemiah couldn¡¦t take it any longer.
Interesting and instructive is the fact that he appeals to the intangible, the reproach of the rubble, rather than merely the rubble itself, as the motivating factor. He doesn¡¦t care to build a wall for the sake of building a wall, or even for the sake of defensive reinforcement. His concern is the reproach! Let¡¦s pull over and park here for a minute: what is most important when we think of motives? What I¡¦m getting at is this: the first reason to do anything that is the right thing to do is the glory of God, not the secondary benefits that might accrue. The reason I¡¦d encourage you not to smoke cigarettes, for instance, is not first and foremost the health concern; the first reason is the fact that your body is the temple of God, and we ought to be careful what we do with His temple because we are to glorify God with our bodies! Young people, the worst thing about having sex outside of marriage is not that an illegitimate pregnancy or a venereal disease might occur; those issues, as true and important as they are, are secondary. The worst thing about it is that it brings reproach to the glory of God! The worst thing about abortion isn¡¦t that babies are killed; it¡¦s that murder is contrary to the will of God! The worst thing about lying and gossip isn¡¦t the people that are hurt; the worst thing about adultery isn¡¦t the lives that are torn apart. The worst thing about lust isn¡¦t what it does to your mind. The worst thing about greed isn¡¦t the fact that other people don¡¦t reap benefits they would if you weren¡¦t so stinking selfish; the worst thing about these is that the glory of God is defaced!
Why am I parking here? Because the world, having no real foundation to make moral judgments anymore, has to resort to pragmatic concerns in order to urge clean living. ¡§This is your brain on drugs¡¨, as the commercial used to go, but as true as it might be, the reason not to use drugs isn¡¦t because of what they¡¦ll do to your brain, but because of what it does to God to see one of His children using drugs.
Nehemiah said, ¡§This situation of ours is a disgrace¡Xbut I have a vision that we can be God¡¦s instruments to rebuild these walls. I have a dream that one day in the not-too-distant future the walls of Jerusalem will tower above the Kidron Valley; I have a vision that the glory of God¡¦s Name will be restored to this city.¡¨ Nehemiah¡¦s dream may have seemed nearly impossible, but it was that ¡§most possible dream¡¨, and notice the effect it had:
IV. Vision Inspires Effort - :18
I love the response of the people there: ¡§let us rise up and build!¡¨ Wait a minute, these were people who had grown accustomed to things as they were. It¡¦s hard to imagine that there weren¡¦t some naysayers, though they don¡¦t show their hands here. Most of the time when there is a vision, there are enough faithless people who will say, ¡§Well, we¡¦ve never done it that way before!¡¨ ¡§He¡¦s just a dreamer, a nut!¡¨ I heard one recently I liked pretty well; it said, ¡§Today¡¦s mighty oak is just yesterday¡¦s nut that stood its ground!¡¨ But the vast majority of the people said, ¡§Let¡¦s get the job done.¡¨
Why did Nehemiah¡¦s vision motivate complacent people to action?
„h Not because of the cleverness or originality of the idea
„h Not because it could be accomplished easily
„h Because God was in it!
Nehemiah said, ¡§I told them the story of how God had worked in my life thus far, and how the king had given his blessing, again because of God¡¦s good hand.¡¨ Nehemiah, days earlier a total stranger to these people, rode into town and, because God was in it, inspired people to commit themselves to what would be hard work. It would take sacrifice and commitment, dedication, teamwork, and time. But when people saw that this was the work of God, they said, ¡§We¡¦ll pay the price; we¡¦ll do the work; count us in!¡¨
Sometimes I think that the problem with most churches is that they ask, not for too much from people, but for too little! They expect little holiness, and so they tolerate all manner of sin to go uncorrected within their congregation. They go to great lengths to explain to people that any little thing they can manage to do with their time and talent for the church is just great. You know what? To the degree that that is the case here, we¡¦re wrong! We¡¦re just plain wrong! The work of reaching people with the gospel, of seeing them grow in Him, of helping them to learn and apply the Word to their lives, of bringing them into vital relationship with other believers¡Xthis is God¡¦s work, and it is the most important thing on earth!
ƒá It is worth our time¡Xlet me tell you, if you aren¡¦t investing some time into growing in your relationship with God, you have wrong priorities and need to change them! This is God¡¦s work!
ƒá If you have little concern for being in fellowship with God¡¦s people, you need to change your priorities, because this is something God expects of you¡Xwhether you¡¦re an introvert, an extrovert, or whatever! This is God¡¦s work!
ƒá If you can spend money lavishly on yourself and then put a pittance in the offering plate, who are you kidding when you say you can¡¦t afford to give? This is God¡¦s work!
Nehemiah had a big God Who had given Him a big vision which he communicated to his people in Jerusalem, and because they understood that the vision was the work of God, they said, ¡§Yes! We¡¦ll rise up and build!¡¨
V. Vision answers its critics - :19-20
We saw just a glimpse of the critics last week; in verses 9 and 10 we are introduced to Sanballat and Tobiah.
Sanballat was the governor of Samaria. His concern would have been that Nehemiah, in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, would be a military threat to him. Additionally, Sanby had probably previously held jurisdiction over Jerusalem; Nehemiah was stepping on his turf! Imagine Saddam Hussein.
Sanballat
Tobiah was an insider, one with certain ¡§connections¡¨. He was a close-working colleague of Sanballat. His name, ironically, means, ¡§Yahweh is good¡¨; he had Israelite roots. He had apparently gained a ruling office in Ammon. Toby might have used his connections to his kin on the inside to gain information Tobiah
about Nehemiah¡¦s plans. Imagine Benedict Arnold.
As for Geshem, he was an influential Arab who, along with his son, gained control over a federation of Arab tribes and thus ruled over a large area in Northern Arabia. He carried on a lucrative trade in myrrh and frankincense, and might have feared Nehemiah encroaching upon his business. Khadafy.
Geshem
Birds of a feather flock together. These guys end up being a thorn in the side of Nehemiah and the people the entire way through the book, and we catch here the first response Nehemiah makes to these birds. By what we know of Nehemiah by now, we could probably predict what his first recorded words would be to these turkeys: ¡§hey, God is going to bless us; we¡¦re going to obey Him and build; and we¡¦ve no time for your nonsense.¡¨ Because he knew that God had given him a clear vision, he refused to be sidetracked or to quail before the turkeys.
Swindoll wrote, ¡§Vision is essential for survival. It is spawned by faith, sustained by hope, sparked by imagination, and strengthened by enthusiasm. It is greater than sight, deeper than a dream, broader than an idea. Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected. No wonder we perish without it!¡¨
Some thought he was just a crazy old man, maybe a dreamer who mouthed platitudes but not really much of an intellect. Why, he fell asleep in meetings and let others do his work for him. But just this week a new poll came out asking Americans who they thought the greatest American president was, and the astonishing answer, ahead of Lincoln, Kennedy, Washington, and FDR: Ronald Reagan. Whether the Gipper truly ranks as number one is a matter for debate, but one thing we¡¦ll never forget about Reagan: in the late summer of 1987 he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin Wall and dared to voice what others considered only a wild dream. He said to the president of the USSR, ¡§Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!¡¨ He concluded his speech by assuring Gorbachev and the world, ¡§This wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith. It cannot withstand truth. It cannot withstand freedom.¡¨ A wild dream, maybe, or just maybe a vision of freedom and hope, of how things could be. No one listening to his words would have believed that less than two-and-a-half years later the world would watch astonished as joyous East Germans and West Germans took sledge, pickax, and hammer to that monstrosity of repression and tore it down.
Inspired by a vision¡Xas in Nehemiah¡¦s case and, I pray, in our own, we can see God do amazing things!
