One Holy Passion
Nehemiah 6:15-19
April 22, 2001
¡§Which Nobody can Deny¡¨
What a difference 9 months makes! Ask any woman who has ever had a baby¡Xor ask Nehemiah, either one! From Nehemiah receiving the report, until the time that the walls were completed, only nine months had elapsed¡Xand the first four months, give or take a few days, were spent in prayer, with another several months in transit from Persia to Jerusalem. It took less than seven-and-a-half weeks to complete a building project which seemed like an insurmountable task at the beginning! Let¡¦s briefly review what took place to get to this point¡Xand notice how this project is centered upon that one holy passion of Nehemiah: the glory of God!
In The Rebuilding Project, Nehemiah and the people
„h Began in the place of fervent prayer - 1:4-11
Nehemiah didn¡¦t take any action until after he had allowed the gravity of the situation to sink into his soul, and then he spent much time before God¡¦s throne in prayer. Here was a man with his priorities in the right place¡Xa man we all could learn from!
„h Acknowledged the gracious hand of God - 2:8,18
In testimony to us of God¡¦s working in the heart of the king, and in testimony to the people whom he was rallying to work on the project, Nehemiah made it clear that this project would go forward because God was in it.
„h Drew encouragement from God - 4:14
When the people were discouraged and the opposition was poised for impending attack, Nehemiah told the people to ¡§remember the Lord¡¨; he pointed them to God as their source of encouragement.
„h Feared God - 5:9,15
When there was dissension within the camp; when the poor people called to Nehemiah¡¦s attention their mistreatment at the hands of some of the well-heeled people, Nehemiah appealed to the fear of God that should have prevented the rich from abusing their brethren. He indicated that his motivation in acting with integrity was his reverence for God.
„h Answered critics by calling on God - 6:9
Nehemiah called on God to vindicate himself when the enemies stepped up their attacks. He asked God to strengthen his hands and his resolve to carry out the task God had called him to.
When we come to the last portion of Nehemiah 6, there are at least a couple of themes we could focus on. We notice that, even in the face of the completion of the project, the opposition continues. We learn here that Tobiah has inside connections, and uses them masterfully in a continuing effort to undermine the leadership and credibility of Nehemiah. But we¡¦ve talked about opposition enough; I want to focus today mainly on two verses, verses 15 and 16, because they point us to a miracle that God worked¡Xhow a group of dispirited people rallied together behind a God-ordained leader to accomplish an incredible feat.
(READ SCRIPTURE & PRAY)
I don¡¦t know if you are the kind of person who likes big cities or not; I am. I grew up in the city, and while there are some big cities that are too big for my tastes, I still like the city. Whether or not you consider yourself a big city person, one thing is for sure: the skyline and geography of downtown Pittsburgh combine to make it one of the more scenic big cities anywhere. Monday evening I drove to Pittsburgh to make a hospital visit and I arrived downtown around 7:15. It had been raining, but the sun had come out to shine brightly, even as it continued to sprinkle rain and even as there were very dark clouds covering much of the city. As I drove across the Veterans¡¦ Bridge, I was struck by the beauty of the downtown skyline as the sun reflected brilliantly off the glass of the tall buildings there, set against the backdrop of heavy gray skies and Mt. Washington. Looking further to my right I saw the Clemente Bridge and the lights of PNC Park. I remember thinking that this was hardly a night for baseball¡Xthe temperature was hovering just above freezing, and the wind chill had to make it even colder. I was amazed to leave Presbyterian Hospital and find that the game had been played and was now winding down!
Adding to the beauty of the downtown area is, of course, the convergence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers into one, forming the mighty Ohio from the two. I enjoy going to Point State Park, or up onto Mt. Washington, and watching those mighty rivers as they converge. It is a thing of natural beauty¡Xand great power.
In the book of Nehemiah, we see the convergence of two great streams of power for the accomplishment of this monumental task. To speak of one without speaking of the other would be to miss much of the point of the book. For us to say that the completion of the wall project is testament to the leadership of Nehemiah and the determined efforts of the people would be true enough and yet incomplete. We cannot speak of the people¡¦s work without acknowledging the power of God moving through them. At the same time, to speak of the power of God without acknowledging that God chooses to use obedient people to accomplish his tasks would be to miss a key point as well. All through the book of Nehemiah we see these two streams converging: the hand of God sovereignly guiding, and the joint, determined effort of His people which seizes upon a God-given vision and will not be denied its accomplishment. And so today¡¦s three-point outline, which I give to you now and upon which I¡¦ll elaborate more fully in a moment, begins with these two points:
1. The Power of God
2. The Power of Determination
3. The Power of a Testimony
Three Truths nobody can deny in the miracle of the wall:
Nobody who looks at the situation with unbiased eyes can deny
1. The Power of God
operating here. The accomplishment of this project can rightly be called a miracle, given the circumstances we understand. Miracles come from the power of God¡Xand when God works, we had better be careful to give to him the glory that is rightly due His Name!
Johann Sebastian Bach knew more about music than every member of N¡¦Sync, Aerosmith, and the Backstreet Boys combined. Bach once said, ¡§All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God.¡¨ Don¡¦t hear that real often on the MTV Awards, now do we? And so, all of Bach¡¦s compositions begin with the letters ¡§J.J.¡¨, which stands for two words in the Latin translated roughly ¡§Jesus, help me.¡¨ All of his compositions end with the letters ¡§S.D.G.¡¨¡X¡§Soli Dei Gratia¡¨, which means, ¡§To God alone be the praise.¡¨ Bach understood that the immense talent which he possessed came from the hand of a sovereign God, and that God alone deserved the glory for the songs which Bach created.
Similarly, when we consider this miracle that, only 52 days after beginning, the walls of Jerusalem, having lain for over 100 years as rubble, stood strong and tall, we must say, ¡§Praise God!¡¨ This is what we see Nehemiah doing over and over again. And as we progress as a church in obedience to God, we need to be very careful to remember that any success which we think we have accomplished has either been accomplished in the power of God or it is not success at all! We prayerfully ask God for wisdom and submit our planning processes to His will; we take His Word as the truth and submit our ideas and priorities to His control. We humbly confess our dependence upon Him and ask for His favor as we seek to do that which brings Him glory. We dare not take credit for those things which are accomplished as though He did not give us all that we have, for He has. We say, ¡§Thus far, by your help we have come, O God.¡¨
2. The Power of Determination
God accomplished the task, but He used, as He generally does, flesh-and-blood people like us to do His great work. These people were not superheroes; they were people much like we are, with their own sets of problems and trials and doubts and sins and strengths and weaknesses. But one thing which can be said strongly in their favor: they were fueled by a godly determination! Led by the bold and courageous Nehemiah, they had what it took to cross the finish line. Someone has done the calculations: there are around 400 leaders mentioned in the Bible, but of them, only 80 or so finished well! Pollster/statistician George Barna says that New Year¡¦s resolutions last, on the average, 17 days (and some of you are saying, ¡§wow, that LONG?¡¨) Henry Ford¡¦s first attempt at automobile manufacturing went bankrupt, as did his second. Only on his third attempt did he meet with a little bit of success¡Xif a little bit means the leading automobile maker in the U.S. Many of you got here this morning in a product bearing his name! What fueled his efforts despite failure? Determination!
Twenty-three publishers turned down Ted¡¦s book; this young author met rejection time and time again as he attempted to pitch his work as marketable. ¡§We don¡¦t have any use for your material, young man¡¨, Ted heard time and time again, ¡§because people just are not going to buy books written by someone named¡KSuess!¡¨ Millions and millions of copies stand as mute testimony to the wisdom of publisher #24¡Xand as a monument to determination!
And the people followed the great example set by their leader, Nehemiah. Here was a fairly ordinary guy doing a fairly mundane job, albeit for a great king. Here was a man going about the uneventful routine of his existence, but whom God chose for His great purposes and in whom God placed an extraordinary determination to see the task through to completion. And this determination rubbed off on others who became his co-workers and who shared the same dogged determination. Derek Kidner called this ¡§a triumph of concentration amidst every kind of distraction.¡¨
When we serve God, we need to have the same kind of stick-to-itiveness that Nehemiah and the workers had. And what is key to this kind of determination? I believe that a key component of this determination was, for them, and will be, for us, a focus on the vision that God has for us. When we are confident that what we are doing is exactly what God has placed before us, we will be more likely to maintain our determination. There was little question in the minds of the people in Jerusalem that this work was of God; Nehemiah had laid out for them a compelling vision and had offered proof of God¡¦s hand in everything, and the people tackled this project with determination.
And when we look at the challenges we face over the next few years of ministry together, let me say this clearly: we must have a joint, determined effort which seizes upon a God-inspired vision and which will not be denied. An attitude that says, ¡§whatever it takes, God, whatever I can do, I will do, that the vision You have given FCC will become a reality.¡¨
3. The power of a Testimony
Here is where we go right to the words of Nehemiah 6. The reality of the walls caused the surrounding, pagan nations and the enemies of the project to grudgingly admit that this was the work of God¡Xand to lose whatever confidence they had in themselves to oppose it! The people on the outside of the walls, those who had opposed the project, looked at the walls standing there, having been erected in an amazingly short time, and they had to say, ¡§this was the hand of God.¡¨
Interestingly, remember the many different groups which Sanballat had enlisted to join together in opposition to the rebuilding project? Look back at 4:7. Now what has happened? Their plots and plans have met with abject failure¡Xand because Sanballat has widened the circle of Jerusalem¡¦s enemies, there is now a wider circle of the recognition of God¡¦s power and glory! God uses what is meant for evil to bring greater glory to Himself!
And nothing less than this can happen through the ministry of FCC. As we become more and more the church that God has called us to be, even those who oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ and the work of His church will have to sit up and take notice that God is alive and that He works through His people. What a wonderful thing it was that the walls were rebuilt so effectively and so quickly, in such a way that there could be no doubt that God had done it. And what a wonderful thing it is every time we look around at what God is doing among us and are able to say, ¡§we can¡¦t explain it by our strategizing or our planning or even our great faith¡Xit¡¦s a God thing!¡¨ Which nobody can deny.
