Committed Teamwork (Nehemiah 3.1-12)

Introduction

On the 12th July 1998, France played Brazil in the final of the World Cup. France, the hosts who have never won the trophy, against the four-times winners and defending champions.

The French are a team of good players, but only one great player; Zinedine Zidane. They even have some quite average players; Franck Leboeuf and Stéphane Guivarc’h for example.

On the Brazilian side, there is the best player in the world, Ronaldo. There is Rivaldo; goal scorer supreme who plays for great Barcelona. There is Bebeto; fast as lightning and deadly in the box. There is Roberto Carlos, the man with the most powerful shot on earth, who can strike and bend a ball from 35 yards into the net before the goalkeeper even moves. Brazil are the dream team, an eleven-man carnival of footballing magic.

But France win the game with a decisive 3-0 margin of victory. Why? Because even though they are not as gifted technically (except Zidane) as the Brazilians, even though they have fewer stars, they work brilliantly as a team.

Aimé Jacquet, their coach, said after the game, “We won this trophy because our desire was greater than theirs. It is the fruit of great team work.”

Nehemiah chapter 3 is, for many people, a rather uninspiring list of names and tasks. Even those of us who consider this to be inspired by God (and I am unashamedly one of them) Nehemiah 3 is not exactly a page turner, let’s be honest. It’s long and contains many unpronounceable names. We only read about a third of the chapter to show mercy to this morning’s reader.

I want to outline four principles on teamwork that are applicable to the church, the work place, the world of sport, everything. We’re going to look at those four points in turn.

1) Good Teams Are Led by Example

Firstly, in good teams the leader shows the way. Verse 1; “Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the sheep gate.” Verse 2; “The men from Jericho built the adjoining section.” Eliashib is the Bishop. He’s the High Priest. Spiritually nobody is in authority over him except God himself. It would have been easy enough for him to say, “Listen, I’ve got important business to attend to. It wouldn’t be right to mix the sacred with the profane.” Everybody would have said, “Fair enough.”

But no! The Big Cheese from the temple leaves his robes in the vestry, puts on some old jeans and is the first to get stuck in. This is the first High Priest who makes cement with holy water! There he is doing masonry and woodwork right next to some nobodies from Jericho. Nobody knows their names; they are just a bunch of blokes from somewhere else. But this top leader is not above getting involved with them.

When Justin Welby came here last December, he jumped out of his car just outside the church and picked up the traffic cones and carried them into the narthex. And one of the wardens said to him, “No Bishop, not you! You’ve got so many other important things to do.” This was the man nominated to be the Primate of all England, the Most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of 80 million Anglicans. But he absolutely insisted on it. “Why not?” he asked.

Leaders win respect and build team morale if they are not above ordinary tasks.

2) Good Teams are Well Organised

The second thing here is that the work is really well organised. Like bees. Did you know that bees organise themselves differently in cold weather that they do in warm weather? When it’s a hot, sunny summer’s day, half the bees go off looking for nectar and pollen. The rest stay in the hive and flap their wings, creating drafts to lower the temperature by about 10 degrees. So the bees that stay to ventilate the hive one day leave to look for nectar the next and vice-versa.

Nehemiah’s teams are well organised. Starting to the north at the Sheep Gate, the construction of the wall goes anticlockwise all the way round the city until the circle is joined up.

At each gate there is a dedicated team working on it. Each team has a leader. Everyone knows what to do; men women, nobles and nobodies, young and old alike. People just seem to get on with it without fuss.

28 times in this chapter it says something like, “Next to them, so and so and his family rebuilt the next section, X carved the stone, Y crafted the gateposts and Z fitted the gates.

You see, the organisation of church life is simple. It’s the vicar’s job to lead the services, welcome newcomers, arrange the flowers, play the organ, preach all the sermons, visit the sick, take the youth group skiing, count the offering, lead the children’s ministry, make the coffee, serve it and do the washing up afterwards.

The two slight drawbacks of that model are that firstly, the vicar burns out after about a fortnight and secondly, the church becomes frustrated because it’s impossible to get involved because the vicar’s in the way.

Back to the World Cup final; 22 men desperately in need of a breather watched by 80,000 men desperately in need of a bit of exercise.

What is your role at All Saints’? You might say “Well, I only do the cleaning or take part in the welcome team or serve the coffee.” But that’s great! The thing is, are you committed to your role? Can people count on you? You leaders, do all your team members know what is expected of them? Is your communication clear? Could it run more smoothly, for the glory of God, with a bit more attention to detail or a bit more personal contact?

3) Good Teams Embrace and Grow from Outside Input

The third characteristic of good teamwork embracing input from outside. In Nehemiah 3 several teams of workers come in from outlying villages. From Jericho (v2), from Tekoa (v5), from Gibeon (v7), from Mitzpah (15) to name just 4. These towns had nothing at all to do with Jerusalem, but note their solidarity, working together and becoming greater than the sum of their parts. These guys from the other towns didn’t say, “Look I’ve got my own city walls to keep up, I can’t be sorting yours out as well. Your wall is your problem.”

Actually, it is true that some of the nobles from Tekoa in v5 refused to help. But look what happens. Other workers from that town came and got stuck in, it says so at the beginning of v5. And they must have completed their section early, because they reappear in v27 to lend a hand in another section of the wall which wasn’t going so smoothly. I love people who look out for the needs of others and say “How can I help you?”

There’s nothing that damages team spirit and team morale as much as people saying, “That’s not my job.” Have you ever worked with people like that? Aren’t they a pain? Aren’t they just the least popular people in the office?

On the other hand, have you worked with people who do their job well, and who discreetly get on with other things not strictly on their job description? I bet those people have a high level of job satisfaction and are well appreciated by everyone else. What a testimony it would be if every Christian worked like that at work.

4) Good Teams Have Motivated People

The last component in good teamwork is motivation. Good teams make sure their people are fired up. This is crucial in any team; the people doing the work have got to find what they do is interesting and significant. It makes a difference in people’s lives. It’s worth doing. Four times in this chapter (v10, v23, v28 and v30) it is recorded that certain people repaired a section of the wall that was adjacent to their homes. In other words, they had a personal interest in the stability and aesthetic quality of their work. They had a personal stake in doing their job well.

When people come to me and say, “I really want to serve the Lord in the church, but I don’t know what I am called to do,” I usually ask, “What are the passions that God has placed in you?” Even I know that it’s pointless asking people to invest time and effort in things they will find draining and wearisome.

Ending

So let me end by asking you that very question. “What are the passions that God has placed in you?” How do you want to serve the Lord in All Saints’? How do want to serve him in the world?

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 23rd June 2013

Audacious Faith (Nehemiah 2.1-20)

Introduction

Question: why did the chicken cross the road? Answer: perhaps we’ll never know. But you know why the duckling crossed the road don’t you? To prove he's no chicken.

If you asked Nehemiah why the chicken crossed the road, I think he would probably say something like this: “Because whatever the risks involved, that chicken absolutely trusted the Lord to get him to the opposite pavement without being flattened by a lorry.”

Because Nehemiah was a man who, through faith, defied all the odds stacked against him to achieve his goal. That’s one of the reasons it’s good to get into this book. The words “defeat” and “failure” and “give up” and “lose” were just not part of Nehemiah’s vocabulary. They shouldn’t be part of ours either.

If you belong to Jesus Christ, then know for sure this morning that you are not only called but also equipped by God, like Nehemiah was, to triumph over every spiritual adversity that the devil can put in your way.

So how’s your week been? Marvellous? Just O.K? Full of hassle? The worst week of your life? There’s no right answer, only your honest answer and following Jesus, your week could be any of those.

Consider the Apostle Paul. He probably had more bother in an average week than all of us put together get in a year.

He puts it this way (and this is from The Message paraphrase):

“In hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; … when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honoured; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumoured to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on hand-outs, yet enriching many; having nothing, yet having it all.”

One of the glorious things about being a Christian is this; no matter what Satan pelts at us, God’s grace is sufficient, it is enough, to stand up to it and prevail. That’s one of the things this book of Nehemiah is about.

Getting from Here to There

Nehemiah is a pretty good role model for standing tall in times of challenge and anxiety.

We saw last week in chapter one, that Nehemiah had a burden from God and prayed that God would give him favour. That’s a good thing to pray. I hope you’re praying for the Lord’s favour on you, on your family, on your church, on our nation.

But having prayed for favour, Nehemiah doesn’t leave it there. He flexes the muscles of his faith – and so should we.

This is a key chapter in the story. It starts with Nehemiah hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem and he hasn’t even asked permission if he can go and repair the wall. By the end of the chapter, every obstacle has been cleared, he’s in Jerusalem and ready to build.

That’s pretty well where we are in our own rebuilding project. The plans have been approved, authorizations have been granted, the finances are pretty well in place, the roofers will be here three weeks tomorrow. But it’s been a lot of work to get us from square one to where we are now.

On 25^th May 1961, US President Kennedy said we’re going to put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of this decade. OK, but how do you get from the drawing board to the launch pad where you’re ready for take-off? With a huge amount of creative planning and hard work and belief, that’s how.

Think about a huge challenge to your faith; maybe someone you would like to see converted or impossible circumstances at work or a financial situation that’s got “no way” written all over it. Or whatever… How are you going to get from here to there?

The journey is one of persevering faith and the sovereignty of God.

Six Tests of Faith

In this chapter, God puts it in Nehemiah’s heart to do six outrageous things. Now, bear this in mind if you think God is calling you to do something that is going to take you out of your comfort zone. If you feel that the Lord is stirring you to be adventurous, that’s usually because he wants you to grow in faith.

Faith hears the inaudible, sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible. I hope that’s where you want to be. That’s certainly where God wants you and me to be.

Six outrageous things... So firstly, God says to Nehemiah, “I want you to go round with a miserable face in the presence of your boss.” For some of us that sounds like a normal day at work, but not Nehemiah. Believe it or not, failing to smile in the company of the king of Persia’s was a capital offence. It’s a bit harsh isn’t it? I mean, who always looks cheerful all day at work? (Well, obviously the staff here do). But in the royal courts of Persia in 500 BC turning up with a sullen disposition could be a matter of life and death. In v1 Nehemiah says “I had not been sad in his presence before.” I bet he hadn’t! But this time, Nehemiah, by faith, turns up for work with a face that looks like he is sucking a lemon.

Secondly, God says “Nehemiah, you’re going to ask the king for a holiday.” And I don’t mean a week’s camping with the family at half term. You are going to put in a request for twelve year’s paid leave.” (We know that because if you turn to 5.14, it says there that Nehemiah left for Jerusalem in the 20^th year of Artaxerxes’ reign. And when you turn to 13.6 it confirms that he didn’t return until the 32^nd year of that reign).

So Nehemiah asks for a bit of time out. And naturally, the king wants to know how long his cupbearer is going to be away. A couple of months? Half a year maybe? So in v6 he asks “How long will your journey take and when will you be back?” I’d love to have seen the king’s face when Nehemiah said “Err, about twelve years, Your Majesty.” But Nehemiah does just that. How many bosses do you know who’d say “A dozen years paid leave? Well, that sounds fair enough”? But v6 it says “it pleased the king to send me.” That’s favour!

Incidentally, in having the gall to make that request, Nehemiah was asking the monarch of the Persian Empire to reverse a written policy he himself had made several years earlier banning all reconstruction work in Jerusalem. You can read about that in Ezra 4.21. So Nehemiah is asking the king of a vast empire to make a very public U-turn. And he says “yes.” That’s favour.

Thirdly, God says “And that’s not all. Nehemiah, not only are you going to go around looking like death warmed up, request twelve years’ paid leave, and ask the king to repeal his own law. You are also going to have the audacity to request full military protection, tons of free building materials and some official authorisations signed by His Majesty in person.”

So in v7-8 that’s what Nehemiah does. And he says this in v8; “Because the gracious hand of my God was with me, the king granted my requests.”

I love that! When the gracious hand of God is on us, doors open, blessings flow, spiritual blockages clear, oppressive atmospheres shift. Did you know that last week, we were awarded another grant of £5,000 for our own roof project. That’s over £29,000 in grant funding now over and above the £60,000 we have freely given. We are now only about £5,000 away from being able to fund the entire project loan-free. The gracious hand of our God is with us. Pray for favour in every area of life.

Fourthly, God says, “Now, you’re going to travel several hundred miles, probably on the back of a camel (careful, they spit!) and through a no man’s land, notorious for bandits and raiders.” So in v9, with a few armed guards around (who were an absolute necessity), Nehemiah sets off.

Fifthly, once he arrives, God says, “All right. You’re going to undertake a meticulous inspection of the walls secretly at night.” Why does he have to do this covertly? Because, as we’ll see in a minute, rebuilding this wall was a highly sensitive matter politically. It was going to inflame the wrath of the surrounding peoples, no doubt about it.

Even today, there are endless land disputes in the middle-east. You’ve seen on the news how emotional they get about who owns which bit of land and who can build what, where. Well, it was the same then. No matter. In v12-15, Nehemiah carries out his survey.

As we know, Jerusalem’s defences were a pile of rubble. It was, by any standards, a massive task. A conservative estimate of the dimensions of the walls is as follows: The circuit of the city wall was a little over a mile long, and it would need to be about four feet thick, and about sixteen feet high.

That may not sound all that much, but the equivalent of that is if you and I had to build a solid wall about as thick as the screen and as high as the arch behind me from here to Yarm High Street. Are you ready for work? It was a massive undertaking!

But I love Nehemiah’s faith. He absolutely refuses to settle for the status quo. Here’s a challenging question. What, specifically, am I doing in my life that requires me to take a step of faith?

And sixthly, when three neighbourhood bullies come along and intimidate Nehemiah, by faith, he just laughs it off. In v20, he affirms, to their face, his absolute confidence that what God has told him to do will come to pass, whatever their threats and whatever the obstacles.

“The God of heaven will give us success” he says. “We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”

Facing Spiritual Adversity

It took guts to say that because the three men he said it to were formidable opponents, and each for different reasons.

Sanballat, first of all, had ambitions to take political control of the city, something that would be impossible once the morale of the people had been restored by the rebuilding of the wall.

Tobiah’s agenda was not political but religious. He had a vision to mix up the worship of our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with pagan practices. He knew that his plan would never work with a new wall in place.

Geshem’s motivation was neither political nor religious; it was financial. The rebuilding of the wall would be bad for business (well, his business anyway) so he was also desperate to obstruct the project.

According to my Study Bible, opposition to rebuilding Jerusalem had been going on for 90 years.

So this visit from Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem isn’t an isolated and spontaneous attack on the work of God; it’s part of a sustained, entrenched resistance to it. Nehemiah is up against a mighty spiritual stronghold.

As we go through the book of Nehemiah we’re going to see that this hostility is repeated and intensified. Next week, Mark is going to take us through chapter 4, where the resistance takes the form of anger, insults and bullying. In chapter 6 it manifests itself in timewasting tactics, scaremongering, intimidation and defamation of character.

We’ll look more closely at those things over the next few weeks. But these men begin, not with anger or bullying or slander, but with ridicule.

What is true physically in the Old Testament is true spiritually in the New. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, people like Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem. It’s against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms. The tactics of these human adversaries in Nehemiah are the same tactics our spiritual enemy, the devil, relentlessly uses against us.

In the media, instead of reporting really good things like Soul Survivor, the Alpha Course and the Welsh Outpouring, Christianity is routinely lampooned. That’s ridicule – but don’t be ashamed…

Christians who are married to an unbelieving spouse sometimes tell me that their husbands or wives say to them, “Oh, you’re not going off to church again to be with those naive people are you?” That’s ridicule – but don’t be ashamed…

In our schools, young believers in Jesus are subjected to teasing. When our young people stand up for what they believe in school, they know that their peers will poke fun at them. That’s ridicule – but don’t be ashamed…

Whenever I engage in a debate online about faith in the public sphere I get a predictable avalanche of abusive comments about how I believe in flying spaghetti monsters and the tooth fairy and how I haven’t grown out needing an imaginary friend. That’s ridicule – but don’t be ashamed…

In Nehemiah, mockery was the first tactic of the enemy and it still is in 2013.

You see, the devil is sly. He knows that we hate to be laughed at. Like everyone else, we want to be appreciated and accepted. We want people to like us, not pour scorn on us.

But hold your head high and count it an honour to suffer ridicule for belonging to Jesus Christ.

Ending

Remember they poked fun of the Lord Jesus too. And I want to end here by encouraging you to lift your eyes and look at Jesus. Think of the scorn and mockery he endured.

They gave him a flogging and dressed him in a fake royal robe. Then they curtseyed in mock homage. They said, “You’re a king; here’s a crown, then.” And they twisted some thorny briers and pushed it onto his head. Then they crucified him. And they looked up at him. “You’re supposed to be the messiah! Come down from the cross then and save yourself – and us.”

Little did they know that the only way he could possibly save them was not by coming down but by staying up there to suffer and die in their place – and yours and mine too.

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 23rd June 2013

Why I am a Christian (13)

Jesus’ Death Solves the Problem of Sin and Changes History Forever

In 2012 I jotted down all the reasons I could think of why I am a Christian. I found 26 so I decided to serialise them in a blog every fortnight for a year.

The first four explain why I think belief in a creator is compatible with science. The next two examine the human condition and find that it is consistent with the Bible. Then there were three theological considerations that added further weight to the case for Christianity.

This is now the fourth of five posts on Christology. The first three looked at Jesus' remarkable fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, his compelling persona and the unique appeal of his teaching.

But the symbol of Christianity is not a manger or any feature of Jesus' itinerant ministry; it's a cross. For Christians, the central feature of Jesus' time on earth is not his unusual birth, or his amazing miracles, or his revolutionary teaching; it's his ignominious death. And for Christians, Jesus’ death is of more than mere personal interest - it's bigger than just 'saving my soul' - it is the very fulcrum of human history.

At one level, you could say there is nothing remarkable at all about Jesus’ death. Roman occupied Judea in the first century saw dozens of young Jewish revolutionaries making a bit of a stir, exciting a popular following and ending up on a cross when they unsettled the pax romana a bit too much for comfort. To the Romans, Jesus was just another would-be messiah who was ruthlessly silenced for disturbing the peace. All these popular movements subsided immediately following their hero's demise and nothing more was heard of them. This one would no doubt follow the same script.

But on another level, the events surrounding Jesus’ last 24 hours are quite unique. Rome didn't quite get what it bargained for this time. Why has the judicial murder of Jesus of Nazareth become by far the best known tribunal and execution in human history?

And why is it that the popular following centred on this Galilean carpenter-turned-preacher is the only one that did not collapse and fade into obscurity on the death of its leader; in fact, quite the reverse? Why did it explode into life and conquer the ancient world - and in the face of severe persecution moreover? Mostly, that was to do with the resurrection which I’ll come to in the next post, Reason 14. But, even putting that to one side for a moment, Jesus' death itself has immense significance. The resurrection would not mean at all the same thing if Jesus had just died of some illness or of old age.

Much ink has been spilled on the subject of who should shoulder the blame for Jesus' death. The Gospels show that no one comes out of the narrative well.

- The Jewish leaders were guilty of pursuing Jesus to death because he was such a threat to their religion and their positions of power.

- The Roman procurator Pontius Pilate was guilty of condemning him, knowing full well he was innocent.

- The Roman military was guilty of acting with excessive, sadistic cruelty when its soldiers met no resistance from the condemned man in their charge.

- Judas was guilty of betraying Jesus for a bag of coins and the other disciples were guilty of deserting him and denying knowledge of him having sworn just hours earlier that they never would.

But the matter of finding a scapegoat for Jesus' death is of no real interest to the Gospel writers - and we should not be distracted by it either. The Gospels are much more interested in stressing Christ’s innocence than finding someone to blame.

And Jesus' innocence was beyond doubt. Not a single charge stuck. No two witnesses were consistent. Not a shred of damning evidence for any crime was produced. Nothing in cross examination added up.

Pilate would have been delighted to have been able to find Jesus guilty of something - anything; it would have kept the excitable rabble outside his palace quiet. He could have gone to bed and been done with it. But, the closer Pilate examined the case, the more persuaded he became that Jesus was being framed.

In all four Gospels, Pilate tries to reason with those baying for his blood. Wary of getting drawn into an internal Jewish squabble he doubtless had little appetite for, he tries on four occasions to avoid sentencing Jesus. At first, he just declares the case closed, finding the charges frivolous and a waste of his time.

When that doesn’t work, he tries to pass the buck to Herod who happened to be in town for the Passover. Let him sort his squabbling fanatics out. But Jesus didn't cooperate at all, completely blanking the vain, self-important fool who had stupidly executed his cousin John the Baptist.

When that doesn’t work, Pilate tries to bargain with those intent on doing away with Jesus, offering the obviously out of the question option of releasing a violent insurgent onto the streets instead.

When even that doesn’t work, he has Jesus beaten to within an inch of his life, hoping the Chief Priest and his cronies will agree that it's enough to make Jesus go away quietly. No chance.

Only when the mob blackmails Pilate with the threat of reporting him to Caesar for weakness and disloyalty does he give up and sign the death warrant they demand.

Never has anyone been so manifestly innocent. And yet never has a miscarriage of justice been so inevitable. No ingenious scheming or herculean effort could have stemmed the inexorable tide of events.

It wasn't an accident. Jesus had to go to the cross. Nothing could have stopped it. It was God’s sovereign resolve to proceed with the unthinkable. This is why he came.

The crucifixion itself makes upsetting reading. The positioning of a man's body on a cross made it difficult to breathe. The Victorian author Frederic Farrar described this graphically in his book Life of Christ: "A death by crucifixion seems to include dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, shame, publicity of shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds, all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the suffer the relief of unconsciousness."

According to the prominent expert in forensic pathology Dr. Frederick Zugibe, the piercing of the median nerve of the hands with a nail can cause pain so incredible that even morphine is of little use, "severe, excruciating, burning pain, like electric shocks traversing the arm into the spinal cord." Rupturing the foot's plantar nerve with a nail would have a similarly unpleasant effect.

Such is the uniqueness of the pain and distress of suffering crucifixion, that the English language accommodated a new word in its vocabulary to adequately express that agony. We call unbearable suffering “excruciating” – ex meaning “from” or “out of” and cruci meaning “cross." Excruciating means “out of the cross.”

Dr. Zugibe concluded that Christ probably died from heavy loss of blood and fluid, plus traumatic shock from his injuries, plus cardiogenic shock, causing Christ's heart to pump weakly, then fail altogether.

But interestingly, there are no details whatsoever about what the crucifixion actually looked like in the Gospels. They don’t say, “There was so much blood…” or anything of that sort. There is no description of his physical suffering at all.

Nor is there the slightest speculation among the Gospel writers about what Jesus may have died from. Was it cardiac rupture, shock, asphyxiation, dehydration? That may be our interest, but it wasn’t theirs.

The New Testament doesn’t tell you what it was like; it tells you what it means.

All those Old Testament sacrifices, so laboriously prescribed, all that shedding of blood (to show that sin is deadly serious), all that offering your very best lamb (to make the point that forgiveness cannot come cheap) looked towards this moment.

All those obscure prophecies in the Old Testament about a suffering - yet triumphant - Messiah come into focus here.

Like an unexpected twist in the last chapter of a great novel in which the seemingly incidental subplots all find satisfactory resolution, the cross makes sense of everything.

In Reason 7 I argued that sin offers the best explanation there is of what’s wrong with the world. It deforms us. It leads to untold misery. It estranges us from God. It messes up all relationships. It fractures our vision of all that is good and true. It spoils everything. I’m a Christian because I believe that is true.

And I’m a Christian because I believe the cross of Christ is the one and only way to right the wrong of sin. Through the cross we can be reshaped, we can be reconciled to God, we can enjoy truly wholesome relationships, we begin to see goodness and truth the right way up and our eyes become opened to anticipate the renewal of all things.

Perhaps the best known verse in the Bible, John 3.16, says “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The cross means this: because God loves us, he didn’t just leave us just to make a mess of our lives and assume the consequences. He came to sort it all out.

Sometimes people misunderstand the New Testament message and suggest that God is in some way unfair. “How can God punish an innocent man on behalf of other people? That's unjust and immoral." Some have even called it "cosmic child abuse" and condemned it as sadistic or sick.

But that is a gross misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the atonement. The point is (as the Bible specifically claims) that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." God himself came in the person of his Son Jesus Christ, to die in our place and to make it possible for us to be forgiven and restored.

And anyway Jesus was not an unwilling victim. "No one takes my life from me" he said, "I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10.18).

Amazing love! There is nothing that lights up my life more brightly than an insight into the sheer majesty and wonder of the cross. It's like a brilliant shaft of sunlight that suddenly breaks through heavy blanket cloud on a grey afternoon. The experience of knowing myself to be - and truly feeling - cleansed, loved and forgiven is sheer delight. It is health to my soul. Nothing compares. It’s the 13^th reason I am a Christian.

So Jesus' bursting onto the scene in about 30 A.D. wasn’t just another of those failed 'Messiah movements', here today, gone tomorrow, squashed by the ruthless might of Rome. No. Jesus’ death, grimly unexceptional in its day, became world history's best known trial and execution for a very good reason.

Not least because this particular Messiah movement remains to this day the only one that provoked a massive public disturbance about the body of the executed man going missing three days later. Some even said they'd seen him alive again and nothing, not even the threat - and meting out - of violence, could silence them.

And that's when this small, defeated, ragbag collection of lame ducks and small town losers became an unstoppable force all over the then-known world, growing faster than the empire could throw them to the lions. "He is alive and has appeared to us" they claimed. Many thought they were completely barmy and dismissed them as an eccentric irrelevance. But those who embraced the movement found the force within it changed their lives beyond their wildest dreams.

And that’s what I’ll write about in two weeks’ time.

Holy Discontent (Nehemiah 1.1-11)

Introduction

There was once a little old rural church with a leaking roof, of which the congregation was three old ladies and a cat. One of the ladies loved the cat very much, so one day she took it to the vicar and said, “I want to make sure that this cat goes to heaven with me, so I need you to baptize him.”

The vicar tried to tell her that he couldn’t baptize cats. But she insisted, and said, “You know, it would make me so happy if you baptized him, I would pay for a new roof for the church.” Well, the vicar thought about it, Why not? And so he baptized the cat, and the old lady was good on her word, she paid for a brand new roof.

But then the bishop heard about it. So he called the vicar to him, “Now look here. What’s this I hear about you baptizing cats!” “Well, Bishop it was only one cat, and now we a brand new roof on the church.” The bishop told the vicar he was thoroughly out of order and he didn’t want to hear of anything like this again.

A few weeks later the bishop was visiting the church. He looked up and saw this beautifully restored, brand new roof. “Oh, vicar,” he said, “What has happened to your church?” The vicar smiled and said, “Remember that cat I baptized?” And the bishop, thinking about the cathedral heating system, said “Bring it here, I’ll confirm it!”

In the middle of the Old Testament there are two books all about the not very spiritual business of building works. Ezra is all about the reconstruction the temple in Jerusalem. And Nehemiah is about rebuilding its walls, somewhat later.

To coincide with the renovation and upgrading of our roof, we’re going to be looking at Nehemiah over the next few months. And, no, I am not baptizing any cats.

Nehemiah may not be among the books of the Bible you are most familiar with. So let me give you the beginning and the end. At the beginning of the book, Jerusalem is Desolation Row. Though we are not actually told this, the rebuilding of the walls had actually already started a few years earlier. But the work was frustrated and sabotaged by extremists and came to nothing.

Chapter 1, verse 3 tells us that the walls were now rubble and the city gates had been burned to ashes. Nehemiah turned out to be the project manager who organised the rebuilding works.

But he did more than just reconstruct a city wall. Under his leadership, the whole community got reformed. Chapter 1, verse 3 tells us about the people as well as the walls. And it says, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.” The local population was in bad shape, morale was low and living conditions were appalling.

So chapters 1-7 are about bricks and mortar. But chapters 8-13 are about spiritual renewal and getting right with God. 

We often say that it's about people, not buildings, but in God's word, surprisingly, both are important.

How Nehemiah got from the chapter 1 to chapter 13 is what we’re going to explore together over the next few weeks.

Here at All Saints’ we've been on the verge of a new building project for some time now. We have also faced a challenge, with limited resources and complex obstacles. But five weeks tomorrow, God willing, the scaffolding will go up and we’ll be on the way to getting a new, improved roof.

With Nehemiah, the rebuilding of the walls took time, required imaginative vision, involved hard work, cost money, demanded organisation and was a spiritual exercise undergirded by a united, praying community.

It has been exactly the same for us. It has taken time. It has required imagination. Some us have had to work really hard. It has demanded organisation. We have had to keep the vision fresh and give regular updates. It is going to cost a lot of money – about £97,000.

But at the heart of our project has been prayer. As much as organization, generosity, hard work and vision – this project is a testimony to the power of prayer.

And prayer is what Nehemiah 1 is about. If you’re a Christian, you should want to grow in prayer. 

Do you want to grow in authority and faith and effectiveness in prayer? Well, one of the best models we have in the whole Bible on prayer is in Nehemiah 1.

I want us to learn how Nehemiah prayed and then set our minds to pray like he did - because his prayer was effective. Everything he asked for came to pass. So let’s look at his model. There are four essential ingredients.

1) See God As He Really Is (v5)

Firstly, he sees God as he is. He starts with a declaration of the truth about who God really is. This is so important. If, deep down, we really think God is puny and inadequate and a bit off form, our praying will be feeble and ineffective.

But Nehemiah lifts his eyes in v5 and addresses “the Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands.”

He is the God of heaven says Nehemiah. That means his greatness and sovereignty and authority and might are high above our earthly experience or understanding. Nehemiah calls him “the great and awesome God.”

Our God doesn’t need anyone’s help. He just speaks and things come to pass. He stands alone in himself. His reign is omnipotent and everlasting. The light in which he dwells is unapproachable. He is totally in a class of his own. All heaven exults and delights in the unparalleled perfections of his glory.

As Richard Taylor says, “We need to stop telling God about how big our problems are and start telling our problems about how big our God is."

And yet Nehemiah remembers that this is the God who keeps covenant. He is the God who binds himself to the people he loves. He says “I will” and never goes back on his word.

I’m telling you, we will never pray with authority and conviction if we don’t bring our vision of God’s greatness into line with what Scripture reveals about him.

2) Confess Buried Sin (v6-7)

The second thing Nehemiah does is in v6-7.

If you were to ask me “What most hinders the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in a church?” I would reply straight away “Sin that is not dealt with.”

Nehemiah confess to God buried sin. This how another version translates it: “I’m confessing the sins of myself and my ancestors. We have sinned against you. We've treated you like dirt: We haven’t done what you told us.”

I know a church where for decades there has been a culture of criticism and arguing. I know another church where for decades there has been a stronghold of pride; an attitude that says, “we’re superior to other churches.” I know of churches where from generation to generation there has been a paralysing fear about confronting stuff in church that is contrary to God's word. 

I want you to notice that Nehemiah identifies some of the Achilles heel patterns of sin from previous generations and recognises that they are issues not just for them – but for him. And he confesses it. “We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed [your] commands.”

3) Hold On to God’s Promises (v8-10)

The third thing Nehemiah does is he holds on to God’s promise, in v8-10. He holds on to God’s promise. He reminds God of what he said.

He’s saying, “here is the firm, unshakable basis for my trust in you. You said ‘if our hearts turn to you, no matter how low we’ve gone, you will restore us.’ You said that Lord. Today, I believe it. And that settles it.” 

“Remember what you said, Lord. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.”

Here are some selected promises that God makes to you.

If you are worried that God is not really with you, he promises his presence - “I will never leave you or abandon you” (Hebrews 13.5).

If you are anxious about big changes on the horizon, he promises his peace - “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil” (Jeremiah 20.11).

If you are fearful of burning out, he promises true rest - “Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

If you feel you have blown it and you will never get it right, he promises his thorough, total and complete cleansing - “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1.9).

If you are confused, he promises his all-conquering providence - “All things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to his plan” (Romans 8.28).

And if anyone this morning is wondering where all the money is going to come from, he promises provision from his inexhaustible supply - “I am the Lord you provider” (Genesis 22.14).

These are promises God has made to those who walk with him. Remind him of them and hold him to his promise.

4)  Ask God for Favour (v11)

The last thing Nehemiah does is to ask for God’s favour in v11. The dictionary defines “favour” as “to regard with special kindness or approval.”

Why did Nehemiah feel he needed to ask for special kindness or approval? Because he knew that the odds were overwhelmingly stacked against him and without God’s mighty hand on him he would never build that wall.

Here’s what he said. “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favour...”

I have to confess that about a year ago, after a PCC meeting about the roof, I wobbled a bit. I told myself, “You have to be realistic, John. It’ll cost too much money. We haven’t got enough people. You can’t go and burden the church with that kind of thing, not now. What about the credit crunch? Don’t forget this is a recession! What if you plunge All Saints’ into the red? This is on your watch.”

At the beginning of this book, Nehemiah had fewer people than us, less money and a much bigger project than ours. But he still asked for favour – and he got it too! One of the messages of Nehemiah is this: Never forget that you and the Holy Spirit together make up an invincible minority.

“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servants success today by granting them favour…”

That’s the bold prayer of a man who really believes in the grace of God. Passionate and prayerful, seeing God as he really is, confessing to God his sin, holding on to God’s promises and asking God to show him favour.

May the Lord give us an anointing in passionate, believing, bold prayer, so that, whatever the devil throws at us, we will prevail for his glory.

Ending - Holy Discontent

But in the last 5 minutes I have, I want to talk about the one thing that really stole my heart when I looked over this chapter a few weeks ago. If you take nothing else away from this talk, take this.

It comes in v4 where Nehemiah says, “When I heard these things, [that is to say, when I heard what disarray Jerusalem was in] I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

This is what Willow Creek’s Bill Hybels calls “holy discontent.”  Hence the title for this talk.

What does holy discontent mean? It means this: Look, the place where God has promised to manifest his glory in the midst of his people is a wreck and I just can’t rest until the problem is dealt with.

His heart is stirred. His soul is in turmoil. There is within him a burning frustration, a Spirit-filled restlessness. God’s honour is at stake! Nehemiah cannot just let it go and say, “Oh well, these things happen…”

And it’s not as if Nehemiah had reason to be restless either. It’s not as if he would have needed a change in scenery. He had the mother of all cushy jobs. Verse 11; “I was cupbearer to the king.” So he lives in a palace. He eats like royalty. He gets designer clothes provided. He’s got a generous pension lined up. And his job is basically to select and taste the finest wines in the empire.

(There is an element of risk to be fair. He has to take the first sip from every bottle just in case someone has tried to poison the king. But anyone wanting to assassinate the king would try something else because they know it would only get as far as the cupbearer, so Nehemiah's risk was minimal really).

In his book, Hybels talks about an old cartoon character called Popeye. Does anyone here remember him? Popeye had a special girl in his life called Olive Oyl. If anything caused his damsel to be a damsel in distress Popeye would try to stay calm but in the end, his pulse would race, his anger would rise up, his blood would boil and he’d yell out, “That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!” And he’d rip open a tin of spinach, swallow it in one gulp, his forearms would burst through his shirt and he would be an unstoppable force.

We tend to be uncomfortable with words like “discontent” in church. We tend to want contentment and happiness.

But I feel that is a big mistake. I want everyone here to have a stirring, restless frustration. Every church, every Christian, needs just the right amount of dissatisfaction in order to grow healthily.

This is actually the biggest key to Nehemiah getting done what he got done; a God-driven frustration about what's wrong that compels him to work with all his might for change.

That’s where I think we were at All Saints’ over the roof about two and a half years ago. We just felt, “We can’t go on patching up this roof every year. Every time it rains, we’re running around with buckets. Every time the temperature goes below 10 degrees outside we can’t keep warm inside. This is God’s house! Our garages and sheds have better roofs than this! That’s all we can stands, and we can’t stands no more!

And God has blessed that sense of holy discontent. Till here we are on the verge of change.

But I feel this is a challenge from God for us now. Look around you, like Nehemiah looked at the state of Jerusalem’s walls. What’s bugging you?

Think about an area of work that you are responsible for. What would it look like if the Holy Spirit got hold of it and there was greater respect, cleaner language, better relationships and more honesty?

Are you content with what you see – or do you have a burning passion to see more, to see safer, to see better, to see finer..?

Think about any area of church life you might be involved in; welcome, sung worship, your small group, children’s or youth work, serving tea and coffee, pastoral care, communication, outreach to retired people, flowers, prayer ministry…

Are you just content to put up with something that you know is only half-decent? Or are you yearning for something better? Has God moved to you to pray, and to seek his face about it? Do you burn with a desire that the house of God will be filled with his glory, as any place can be this side of heaven?

Think about the state of the nation and the continual rise in godlessness. Do you yearn and pray for a sweeping move of God that will turn this nation back to him? Are you passionate about God’s honour in our land?

Or maybe a major global issue like hunger or human trafficking or AIDS orphans. Are you content to just accept it or does it grieve you so much you're going to pray like never before and make a stand so things start to change?

Let's stand to pray...

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 9th June 2013