Nehemiah 6.15‐7.4 Job Accomplished!
When you complete a task or a project are you the sort of person who then gives yourself a treat? Do you reward yourself upon completion? Task accomplished, pat on back etc. Nehemiah has completed the project of rebuilding the walls – verse 15. What a wonderful achievement and in 7.1 we learn that he proceeded to hang the gates/doors in their place – the task was complete. The walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt and the gates hung – the city was once again fortified and secure for its inhabitants. Amazing, the walls that had lain neglected for almost two centuries were rebuilt in less than two months. Why? Because the people were galvanised together, they had a strong and courageous leader and they were following the will of God.
Lesson learned – do not underestimate what the people of God can achieve when they have good leadership, stay focused and follow the will of God. Amazing walls can be built in short periods of time.
The result of this is seen in verse 16 – their enemies literally ‘lost their self‐confidence.’ The rapid completion of the building of the walls against such odds and in the face of such opposition could only have been completed with the help of God. Nehemiah gives the glory to God and to God alone for the completion of the
rebuilding of the walls and the hanging of the gates of Jerusalem. Listen to this verse from Daniel 4.30. What a contrast? Nehemiah gave all the glory to God but Nebuchadnezzar took all the glory for himself. If you read on in Daniel 4 you see the judgement of God fall on Nebuchadnezzar for his arrogance and pride.
Why is it that as people climb the ladder of success they will pray and seek God’s help but as soon as they seem to reach the pinnacle they take all the glory for themselves? Why do Christian leaders also, sadly all too often, fall into this sin? There is still a battle in our hearts with the old Adam wanting the glory. Throughout all this work Nehemiah has acknowledged God as the source of his strength, as the One who is directing the project, guarding the workers and who has brought them to this point of completion. God is acknowledged at every stage of the building work. From the first report to the last hinge – God is given the praise and the glory.
Lesson learned – God must be given His rightful place, (i.e. First), in every stage of building the kingdom. Why? Because the kingdom is His, we are His (He bought us with the blood of Christ) and without Him we would complete nothing. The completion of the work is a testimony to God’s provision, protection and providence. It has to be acknowledged in public and not just in private. What does it say on the two foundation plaques of this building – ‘To the glory of God’ – first and foremost a good church is built to the glory of God. Let me ask you all something – is your church 2011 still being built for the glory of God? Only you can answer that! Is the glory of God the only priority of your life and of your presence there? That is a very important question and one you need to answer. What is the priority of your heart as you sit in your chuch on a Sunday morning?
Verses 17‐19 – the opposition continued even after the walls had been rebuilt and the gates had been put in place. Nehemiah is very clear – the nobility are still opposed to his work. He had faced much opposition in rebuilding the walls and now, even when the task is complete, the opposition still attacks. Tobiah keeps up his opposition. Tobiah was a fellow Jew and therefore his opposition and attacks must have hurt Nehemiah deeply because he was supposed to be equally concerned with the glory of God. Do you not find that also? Do you not find that when someone who is a Christian attacks your service or your work for God that it cuts deeply? How often do you find yourself thinking: I thought they were a follower of Christ and they have just assassinated my service for God? It is very painful when the opposition is from within the church fellowship? The most painful opposition is the fifth column opposition and every church fellowship has them. Nehemiah tells us that Tobiah has people within the nobility who feed him fresh information about the workings of Jerusalem so that he can keep up guerrilla warfare consisting of constant intimidation. Tobiah does this by two means – his commercial interests and his family connections. Tobiah used the marriage ceremony as a means of undermining the work of God in Jerusalem. How more sinister can
you get than using a God‐ordained gift to attack the work of building the kingdom of God.
You know nothing much has changed in the world today and nothing much has changed within the church either. The enemies of God’s kingdom still use such relationships to intimidate the people of God as they build the kingdom of God.
Lesson learned – just because the project is complete does not mean the opposition will stop. Satan will use all sorts of connections to intimidate leaders in the church and those being faithful. When money is the source of a relationship, as it was with these nobles and Tobiah, the opposition to the kingdom of God being built is soon forgotten. Remember that when you take money from people – and I am not just talking about cash there. Those who are opposed to the building of the walls of Jerusalem will use that connection, that relationship, to continue an underground campaign against God’s work.
7.1 – with the wall complete Nehemiah’s turns now to the physical safety of the people of Jerusalem and he appoints gatekeepers. The gatekeepers would serve as guards or watchmen and in 13.22 they were also entrusted with moral responsibilities for overseeing the observance of the Sabbath in Jerusalem. These men would guard not just the physical well being of the city but also make sure that on holy days the worship of God was a priority and prevent trade taking place within Jerusalem. Let me ask you something: Who have you set as gatekeepers over your life, your family etc? None of us would ever consider allowing our children to go into a swimming lesson if the instructor was not qualified and yet we are quite happy to allow computer games, internet, tv, films, and music all to enter our homes and lives without posting a watchman. You don’t believe me – how many of you parents allow your children to play computer games, or watch films above their age classification? Who is being gatekeeper to the hearts, minds, eyes, ears and soul of your children?
Singers – the spiritual need of Jerusalem was worship. Nehemiah appointed singers to lead people in the praise of God, the One who had brought this task to completion. These singers reminded the people of Jerusalem that there was more to life than work and money. Their greatest priority was to ensure that God was at the centre of their life, their family and their community. Nehemiah was aware and alert to the creeping secularisation of Jerusalem. Are you aware of the creeping, in fact rampant, secularisation of society today? Seriously – look around you – a Christian couple are struck off the fostering register in England because they state that as Christians they could not tell a child that homosexuality was a good lifestyle choice. We could go on with that list. Who will take
a stand and remind us, remind our children and remind our community that man has a soul, an eternal soul.
Levites – what do you feed your mind with? Take a moment and think about what you have put into your mind in the past week. What have you allowed to enter into the mind of your children in this past week? What is feeding your intellect? Nehemiah appointed Levites to teach the people of God the word of God. Parents – what or whom, is teaching your children? What/whom is feeding their intellect?
If the heart is to be inspired to worship then the mind must be informed. Faith is not empty, it is not pie in the sky dreaming. Faith must be built on the knowledge of God as revealed in the Word of God. Are you as concerned with your knowledge of the Word of God as you are about your knowledge of current affairs, of the soaps on television or of value of your house? Are you as concerned that your children know the Word of God as they are that they pass their GCSE’s or A’ Levels or whatever. My friend said to me recently, I would be happy for all three of my children to leave school without a qualification if I knew they loved Jesus and would one day be in heaven. What do you desire for your children above all else in this world? What do you desire for yourself above all else in this world?
Who have you appointed as a Levite in your life? The Sun newspaper! The latest blockbuster film! The latest best selling book! Where does the Bible come in all of this? Seriously – you want to know the worst attended meeting of most fellowships – Wednesday night Bible study and please don’t give me I can’t make it. I am always amazed how we can make night classes, salsa classes or whatever but sitting at the feet of God’s Word is not a priority. Who have you appointed as a Levite in your life?
7.2 – value reliable partners in this work. The longer I walk with Christ in the more convinced I become that those you appoint in leadership decide the spiritual well being of a congregation. I want the leaders of the organisations to hear what I am going to say next because this is for you. I know at times you feel undervalued in your church. I know there are times that you feel no one would even notice if you were not there or if you did not do the work you presently do. I know the long hours you put in and the commitment that you give in serving Christ here each week. I want you to hear this publicly from me – I truly am thankful to God for your partnership in the gospel ministry at your church. I believe we should only only have born again believers in leadership – why? Because Nehemiah 7.2 tells me to appoint reliable partners in building the kingdom of God. I have always, and I will always, remained faithful to that and God has blessed us because of it.
If reliability was important to Nehemiah then so was Reverence for God and the things of God. Hanani and Hananiah put God first in their lives and so Nehemiah appointed them to leadership. In fact it was Hanani who had come to tell Nehemiah of the state of the walls of Jerusalem in chapter 1. Nehemiah heaps high praise on Hananiah when he says that he feared God more than most men. Would that not be a wonderful thing to be said of you this morning? If you would be a leader in the kingdom of God then fear God more than men.
7.3 Be on your guard. Nehemiah gave instructions about the security of the gates. Nehemiah knew that just because the walls were built and the gates in place did not mean the enemy would not attack. They needed reliable men to guard the gates and if necessary to shut the gates in the face of the enemies attacks. Have you posted a guard on the gates of your heart and mind?
These verses are filled with challenges from God concerning how we live when we have built the walls and hung the gates on God’s kingdom in our lives and in the lives of others.
These verses give us timely advice about being on our guard as we continue living in the kingdom of God and how we need the gatekeepers, singers and Levites in our lives. It also informs us about being reliable and reverential leaders – so that we can partner with one another in the work of the Gospel. lastly it warns us to keep our guard up because our enemy has not given up the fight just because we have entered into the kingdom of God – through salvation.
Amen.
VISITORS MAP
Monday, 21 March 2011
Saturday, 19 February 2011
building inspection
Nehemiah 2 – Building Inspection
How good are you at waiting? When you are waiting do you get frustrated or do you make plans for the situation ahead? When we next encounter Nehemiah in chapter two some four months have passed since Hanani brought news of Jerusalem’s perilous state and Nehemiah’s prayer. Four months before he gets an opportunity to bring his request before the king. We are not told if he was biding his time for an opportune moment or if he had to wait his turn on the rota of servants to be cup bearer before the king. Nehemiah did not just blurt out his plan but waited for a favourable moment before the king so that his plan would succeed. He had prayed to God for success but he also had to play his part in its success.
Verses 2‐3 – at the end of the verse we learn that Nehemiah entered the presence of the king with a sad countenance and that he had never been depressed in the king’s presence before. You know it was a dangerous thing for a servant to come before the king with such a sad face. In fact it could cost him his life for doing so. Some of the kings even demanded that their servants cover their mouths with the palms of their hands so that they would not breathe on them when doing their duty before them. Nehemiah’s heart is burdened for Jerusalem and it shows on his face. What is more the king also notices his sad countenance and asks him three questions – Why are you depressed? Are you unwell? Why is your heart so sad? Here is Nehemiah’s opportunity but I want you to
notice how he speaks and what he says in response to these questions. Nehemiah does not go for the jugular. He answers with deference and respect that was common in that day. He never mentions Jerusalem by name – he is wise because in Ezra 4.17‐23 Artexerxes had turned down an earlier request to rebuild the walls of that great city.
When Nehemiah is asked these questions by Artexerxes he is filled with fear. Here is the moment he has been waiting for but also if the king does not like what he is about to hear Nehemiah may lose his life. However, despite his fear he seizes the moment. Nehemiah, in verse 3, states the reason for his sad countenance. The city of the grave of his ancestors lies in ruins. For Artexerxes this may have appeared a strange reason to be sad because the Persians did not bury their dead. Instead they left them out in the open to be devoured by the animals. They had elaborate ceremonies concerning the souls of the dead but the bodies were counted as nothing and so graves were virtually unheard of. Still, Artexerxes listens to Nehemiah as he explains his sadness.
Verses 4‐5 Nehemiah immediately prays as he is about to answer the king. Here is the moment and he quickly prays before speaking. Here is the God‐given moment and he wants and needs God’s strength to answer correctly in order for success to follow. Nehemiah requests to be allowed to go and restore the city of the graves of his ancestors, again he avoids naming Jerusalem, though it is unlikely that Artexerxes did not know where he was talking about.
Verses 6‐8 the queen is mentioned, which may mean that this is a private audience because female royalty was rarely present at public festivals – do you remember king Ahaseurus sending for Queen Vashti in the book of Esther? Nehemiah asks to be allowed to go to Jerusalem and he is very wise – he asks for letters of safe passage and also a letter to the keeper of the forest so that he can get wood to do the rebuilding work. You know we read a little later in the book of Nehemiah that he will be away for an initial 12 years.
Verses 9‐10 well he makes his journey to Jerusalem, safely but in verse 10 we encounter the opposition. Sanballat is governor of Samaria and he is opposed to anyone rebuilding Jerusalem and making it strong once more. He is aided by Tobiah and Geshen. These men are politically opposed to Nehemiah and his rebuilding work. Their positions have come under threat by the arrival of Nehemiah.
Verses 11‐20 nocturnal inspections and the selling of the vision. Verses 11‐12 Nehemiah spends the first three days resting.
Nehemiah never seems to be in a hurry. He spends time recuperating before starting on the next step of the task. He takes only a few men into his confidence and tells them about the task
ahead. He goes out at night to inspect for himself the damage and the state of disrepair. He wants to see firsthand the state that Jerusalem is in. Those with him on these nocturnal expeditions see only familiar ruins but to Nehemiah here is vital information for the task ahead. Remember that – it often takes someone from outside the ruins to see what has happened and what can be done to repair and rebuild the ruins. Often those who have looked on the situation many times, maybe each day can only see familiar ruins – their eyes have become accustomed to looking on ruins. How many relationships, lives, and situations remain in ruins because people have become accustomed to ruins, familiar with disrepair and they are in dire need of fresh eyes to come and look around and see the potential to rebuild and restore?
Verse 13 – Nehemiah does not make a complete circuit of the walls. He looks only at the southern walls – why? Historically the weakest part of Jerusalem was the north and Nehemiah knows that is where the Assyrians and then the Babylonians came through – so nothing is left there, nothing is preserved but a visit to the south will reveal what is left of the walls and give hope to start rebuilding.
Verse 14 shows the destruction of Jerusalem as there was not even room for the donkey to pass through – so complete was the destruction of the walls and the rubble lying around. Nehemiah can only retrace his steps (verse 15) back into the city and ponder the task ahead. So he calls the nobles (verse 16)~ together because he needs their help and support to begin and complete the rebuilding work. Nehemiah is not a loner, he is not seeking glory for himself but seeking to bring God glory by rebuilding the walls and restoring the gates of Jerusalem. At this stage he had said nothing to them. They did not know why he had come or what he had been doing since he arrived in the city. They did not know of his nocturnal inspection of the walls.
Verses 17‐18 here are the key verses of this passage. 130 years before Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the walls of Jerusalem. For 130 years they had lain in ruin and the people had become used to seeing the walls in such a state. In fact there was probably no one alive who could remember the walls being intact. ‘This is how it has always been...’ was probably the refrain of the people. Sound familiar? It took an outsider, with new and fresh eyes to change things. Nehemiah does four things:
He begins by identifying with them. He doesn’t say “you have a problem” but “we have a problem, we are in trouble...come let us rebuild the walls together.” He is not coming to them as an outsider to tell them all their problems but to identify with them in their trouble. Here is an image of Christ Jesus – He came and identified with us in our sinful state so that through Him we might be restored and rebuilt. Secondly, he stated the problem – Jerusalem lies in ruins and the gates are burned. It might sound obvious but sometimes people need to hear the obvious. Sometimes people need the problem to be clearly stated because all too often the familiar has become normal and people need to
know that it is not normal to live with ruined walls and burned gates. Make the application where appropriate in life!
Thirdly, he calls for specific action – let us rebuild the walls and let us no longer be in disgrace. Nehemiah calls for action and gives a justification for that action. They are not going to rebuild the walls alone because he will be with them to rebuild the walls. He could have pointed out the problem and given them a plan of action but what they really needed was vision and leadership. Nehemiah provided both.
Fourthly, he bears personal testimony to the power and work of God in bringing about success. He could bear testimony to the work of God in bringing about his presence in Jersualem, the letters of safe passage and the letters allowing them to have wood from the royal forest for the rebuilding work. We too can bear testimony to what God has wrought in our hearts and lives.
At the end of verse 18 we read that these people are encouraged and decide to take action. I want you to note the two things here. They are encouraged and encourage one another to take action. Sometimes people stop there – they talk about what they want to do, the plans and the designs might even be drawn up but they never take the next step of actually beginning to rebuild. Friends don’t stop at the planning and designing stage – take action.
Verses 19‐20 opposition appears again when they hear of what is happening in Jerusalem. They ask two scornful questions of Nehemiah – they might even have been in writing.
The first question is to belittle them – are you busy doing that? It is an attempt at a put down. There is real spite and scorn, even bitter sarcasm in this question.
The second question – concerning rebellion against the king has the purpose of frightening those involved. Treason meant certain death and if the king heard that their actions were such an act the consequences would be dire for all Jerusalem. Friends there will always be people who try and frighten you from rebuilding and restoring the walls and the gates. There will always be opposition when you go to restore and rebuild the ruins of your life – the first voice will satan’s in your ear telling you that it will never succeed and you are not worthy – don’t listen to him – answer as Nehemiah did – you have no part of this and you have no right to it either.
Nehemiah rejected their interference and told them that their claim over Jerusalem had no historical validity, connection or claim to the city. He proclaimed that God will give them success in this venture and that they needed no earthly appeal or might to complete it. No earthly threat would dissuade them either.
Application – I think verses 17‐20 are important for us today. All too often I encounter people who cannot see the wood for the trees. They cannot see the ruins, the broken walls and the burned gates of their life. They think their behaviour, their relationships and their way of life is normal. They have grown used to living with all the ruins and they are familiar, even dare I say safe, with them. God in His love and mercy often brings a Nehemiah into our lives to point out the obvious, to call us to action and to walk each step as we rebuild those walls.
Opposition will come, it always does. Don’t be surprised by it, but remind them that they have no claim over your life – it now belongs to Jesus and He has promised success.
If you are called to be a Nehemiah – take your time, take courage and speak when the opportunity arises, make your plans, inspect the landscape, call them to join you in the work of rebuilding and restoring. Remember God is with you. It is He who called you, equipped you and has promised to be with you every step of the way.
Amen.
How good are you at waiting? When you are waiting do you get frustrated or do you make plans for the situation ahead? When we next encounter Nehemiah in chapter two some four months have passed since Hanani brought news of Jerusalem’s perilous state and Nehemiah’s prayer. Four months before he gets an opportunity to bring his request before the king. We are not told if he was biding his time for an opportune moment or if he had to wait his turn on the rota of servants to be cup bearer before the king. Nehemiah did not just blurt out his plan but waited for a favourable moment before the king so that his plan would succeed. He had prayed to God for success but he also had to play his part in its success.
Verses 2‐3 – at the end of the verse we learn that Nehemiah entered the presence of the king with a sad countenance and that he had never been depressed in the king’s presence before. You know it was a dangerous thing for a servant to come before the king with such a sad face. In fact it could cost him his life for doing so. Some of the kings even demanded that their servants cover their mouths with the palms of their hands so that they would not breathe on them when doing their duty before them. Nehemiah’s heart is burdened for Jerusalem and it shows on his face. What is more the king also notices his sad countenance and asks him three questions – Why are you depressed? Are you unwell? Why is your heart so sad? Here is Nehemiah’s opportunity but I want you to
notice how he speaks and what he says in response to these questions. Nehemiah does not go for the jugular. He answers with deference and respect that was common in that day. He never mentions Jerusalem by name – he is wise because in Ezra 4.17‐23 Artexerxes had turned down an earlier request to rebuild the walls of that great city.
When Nehemiah is asked these questions by Artexerxes he is filled with fear. Here is the moment he has been waiting for but also if the king does not like what he is about to hear Nehemiah may lose his life. However, despite his fear he seizes the moment. Nehemiah, in verse 3, states the reason for his sad countenance. The city of the grave of his ancestors lies in ruins. For Artexerxes this may have appeared a strange reason to be sad because the Persians did not bury their dead. Instead they left them out in the open to be devoured by the animals. They had elaborate ceremonies concerning the souls of the dead but the bodies were counted as nothing and so graves were virtually unheard of. Still, Artexerxes listens to Nehemiah as he explains his sadness.
Verses 4‐5 Nehemiah immediately prays as he is about to answer the king. Here is the moment and he quickly prays before speaking. Here is the God‐given moment and he wants and needs God’s strength to answer correctly in order for success to follow. Nehemiah requests to be allowed to go and restore the city of the graves of his ancestors, again he avoids naming Jerusalem, though it is unlikely that Artexerxes did not know where he was talking about.
Verses 6‐8 the queen is mentioned, which may mean that this is a private audience because female royalty was rarely present at public festivals – do you remember king Ahaseurus sending for Queen Vashti in the book of Esther? Nehemiah asks to be allowed to go to Jerusalem and he is very wise – he asks for letters of safe passage and also a letter to the keeper of the forest so that he can get wood to do the rebuilding work. You know we read a little later in the book of Nehemiah that he will be away for an initial 12 years.
Verses 9‐10 well he makes his journey to Jerusalem, safely but in verse 10 we encounter the opposition. Sanballat is governor of Samaria and he is opposed to anyone rebuilding Jerusalem and making it strong once more. He is aided by Tobiah and Geshen. These men are politically opposed to Nehemiah and his rebuilding work. Their positions have come under threat by the arrival of Nehemiah.
Verses 11‐20 nocturnal inspections and the selling of the vision. Verses 11‐12 Nehemiah spends the first three days resting.
Nehemiah never seems to be in a hurry. He spends time recuperating before starting on the next step of the task. He takes only a few men into his confidence and tells them about the task
ahead. He goes out at night to inspect for himself the damage and the state of disrepair. He wants to see firsthand the state that Jerusalem is in. Those with him on these nocturnal expeditions see only familiar ruins but to Nehemiah here is vital information for the task ahead. Remember that – it often takes someone from outside the ruins to see what has happened and what can be done to repair and rebuild the ruins. Often those who have looked on the situation many times, maybe each day can only see familiar ruins – their eyes have become accustomed to looking on ruins. How many relationships, lives, and situations remain in ruins because people have become accustomed to ruins, familiar with disrepair and they are in dire need of fresh eyes to come and look around and see the potential to rebuild and restore?
Verse 13 – Nehemiah does not make a complete circuit of the walls. He looks only at the southern walls – why? Historically the weakest part of Jerusalem was the north and Nehemiah knows that is where the Assyrians and then the Babylonians came through – so nothing is left there, nothing is preserved but a visit to the south will reveal what is left of the walls and give hope to start rebuilding.
Verse 14 shows the destruction of Jerusalem as there was not even room for the donkey to pass through – so complete was the destruction of the walls and the rubble lying around. Nehemiah can only retrace his steps (verse 15) back into the city and ponder the task ahead. So he calls the nobles (verse 16)~ together because he needs their help and support to begin and complete the rebuilding work. Nehemiah is not a loner, he is not seeking glory for himself but seeking to bring God glory by rebuilding the walls and restoring the gates of Jerusalem. At this stage he had said nothing to them. They did not know why he had come or what he had been doing since he arrived in the city. They did not know of his nocturnal inspection of the walls.
Verses 17‐18 here are the key verses of this passage. 130 years before Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the walls of Jerusalem. For 130 years they had lain in ruin and the people had become used to seeing the walls in such a state. In fact there was probably no one alive who could remember the walls being intact. ‘This is how it has always been...’ was probably the refrain of the people. Sound familiar? It took an outsider, with new and fresh eyes to change things. Nehemiah does four things:
He begins by identifying with them. He doesn’t say “you have a problem” but “we have a problem, we are in trouble...come let us rebuild the walls together.” He is not coming to them as an outsider to tell them all their problems but to identify with them in their trouble. Here is an image of Christ Jesus – He came and identified with us in our sinful state so that through Him we might be restored and rebuilt. Secondly, he stated the problem – Jerusalem lies in ruins and the gates are burned. It might sound obvious but sometimes people need to hear the obvious. Sometimes people need the problem to be clearly stated because all too often the familiar has become normal and people need to
know that it is not normal to live with ruined walls and burned gates. Make the application where appropriate in life!
Thirdly, he calls for specific action – let us rebuild the walls and let us no longer be in disgrace. Nehemiah calls for action and gives a justification for that action. They are not going to rebuild the walls alone because he will be with them to rebuild the walls. He could have pointed out the problem and given them a plan of action but what they really needed was vision and leadership. Nehemiah provided both.
Fourthly, he bears personal testimony to the power and work of God in bringing about success. He could bear testimony to the work of God in bringing about his presence in Jersualem, the letters of safe passage and the letters allowing them to have wood from the royal forest for the rebuilding work. We too can bear testimony to what God has wrought in our hearts and lives.
At the end of verse 18 we read that these people are encouraged and decide to take action. I want you to note the two things here. They are encouraged and encourage one another to take action. Sometimes people stop there – they talk about what they want to do, the plans and the designs might even be drawn up but they never take the next step of actually beginning to rebuild. Friends don’t stop at the planning and designing stage – take action.
Verses 19‐20 opposition appears again when they hear of what is happening in Jerusalem. They ask two scornful questions of Nehemiah – they might even have been in writing.
The first question is to belittle them – are you busy doing that? It is an attempt at a put down. There is real spite and scorn, even bitter sarcasm in this question.
The second question – concerning rebellion against the king has the purpose of frightening those involved. Treason meant certain death and if the king heard that their actions were such an act the consequences would be dire for all Jerusalem. Friends there will always be people who try and frighten you from rebuilding and restoring the walls and the gates. There will always be opposition when you go to restore and rebuild the ruins of your life – the first voice will satan’s in your ear telling you that it will never succeed and you are not worthy – don’t listen to him – answer as Nehemiah did – you have no part of this and you have no right to it either.
Nehemiah rejected their interference and told them that their claim over Jerusalem had no historical validity, connection or claim to the city. He proclaimed that God will give them success in this venture and that they needed no earthly appeal or might to complete it. No earthly threat would dissuade them either.
Application – I think verses 17‐20 are important for us today. All too often I encounter people who cannot see the wood for the trees. They cannot see the ruins, the broken walls and the burned gates of their life. They think their behaviour, their relationships and their way of life is normal. They have grown used to living with all the ruins and they are familiar, even dare I say safe, with them. God in His love and mercy often brings a Nehemiah into our lives to point out the obvious, to call us to action and to walk each step as we rebuild those walls.
Opposition will come, it always does. Don’t be surprised by it, but remind them that they have no claim over your life – it now belongs to Jesus and He has promised success.
If you are called to be a Nehemiah – take your time, take courage and speak when the opportunity arises, make your plans, inspect the landscape, call them to join you in the work of rebuilding and restoring. Remember God is with you. It is He who called you, equipped you and has promised to be with you every step of the way.
Amen.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
REBUILDING WITH PRAYER
Nehemiah 1 verses 1‐11
Rebuilding with Prayer
During last year there was a programme to tell the history of the world in 100 objects. You may have heard it on the radio. People often make lists of the world’s most influential people, or histories most influential people. If you get your face on the cover of Time magazine you are considered to be an important person. The Sunday Times publishes a rich list each year, telling you who has lost money and who has gotten even richer. So who influences history? In the world in which we live it is pretty easy to feel, and believe, that ordinary people make absolutely no difference to history but in the book of Nehemiah we shall see that the very opposite is in fact true. Nehemiah chapter 1.
Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book in many of the early Hebrew texts and they need to be read together to get the full round picture. Historically they are set during the fourth century BC when the people of Israel are in Babylonian exile. Artexerxes is king of Persia and he allows, or rather sends, Nehemiah back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and gates of the city. Nehemiah encounters fierce opposition to this task from other people and finds his own people in complete disunity and disarray. Despite all of this he rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem. When the people once again begin to fall into sin Ezra and Nehemiah read the Law of God to them and call them to repentance.
Verses 1‐3 serve as an introduction to the book and also put before us the necessary facts of the story. We are told that Hanani, along with other men from Judah, came from Jerusalem and that Nehemiah asked them about Jerusalem and about the people of God there.
Their reply is given in verse 3 – read. The reply sets the scene for the rest of the book. Nehemiah is informed that Jerusalem lies in ruins and the people are despairing as a result. The walls are broken down and the gates have been burned. There is no means of protection and it is not a city that you would be proud to belong to. Further to that the people themselves are in no better state. In fact they tell Nehemiah that the people are in great trouble and shame. Is that not a dreadful description of the people of God? What is to be done?
There are two possible reactions – ‘nothing to do with me...’ or
‘let’s get a recovery project/programme into place...’ Nehemiah does neither of these – turn to the following verse 4.
Verse 4 – this is the key verse of this passage, and in fact of the whole books. Look at what Nehemiah does when he hears the disturbing news of the state of Jerusalem and the people of God there. He sits down – he takes a seat. Quite literally he stopped what he was doing and shut out all the distractions of his life in the palace. He shut out all the riches and glamour of the royal court – he took a ‘sabbath.’ In the Hebrew ‘sabbath’ is ‘shabbath’ which meant ‘to stop’ and that is what he did. Here is the first lesson we learn from Nehemiah – to stop what we are doing to concentrate on what God would have us do. When we read on in verse 4 we read that he fasted and prayed – but he could do neither if he was still busying himself with the things of everyday life. So the first thing he did was to stop all other activity in order to concentrate on being before God. We all need to take that on board at the beginning of 2011. Let me ask you what are all the distractions going on around you when you come to read your bible and to pray. The radio on in the background, checking emails, or is the television still on? That should never be – we are to stop – to shabbath – so that God gets our full attention. I know what some of you are thinking right at this moment – do you know how difficult it is for me to get even five minutes spare time? I want to be as gentle as I can with you about this but I do want to be honest with about it – if it is a priority you will find the time. If you are serious about your relationship with God you will find the time. Some of you seriously need to examine your time management before God. You cannot find time to be alone with God but you can spend hours on face book, hours playing Farmville and all those other pointless games on websites but you cannot stop and be before God in prayer? You can read the newspapers, the latest novel, surf the internet, bid on ebay, never miss an episode of eastenders but you cannot make time to be alone before God. Nehemiah immediately sat down, stopped, before God when news came of the disrepair of Jerusalem and the despair of the people of God.
He then fasted and prayed. He didn’t do this for five minutes but for a number of days. It was not a one off arrow prayer, prayed in the moment to salve his conscience. Nehemiah was serious before God in prayer for Jerusalem and the people of God. Prayer mattered because prayer influences history, changes events, moves people and helps fulfil the will of God. Throughout the book of Nehemiah we read of him praying:
1.4 he prays for a long time
2.4 he prays in an emergency
4.4 he prays when he is misunderstood instead of getting bitter
4.9 he prays when he is in danger
5.19 he prays when he is tested
6.9 he prays even when he is exhausted
7.3 he keeps on praying
Nehemiah is saturated in prayer. He makes no decisions, takes no steps forward and does not begin a task without praying. His life was a life of prayer. When word comes of Jerusalem he prays – not just because it is the right thing to do but also because it is the only thing to do – there is no greater thing that you can do for someone or some situation than to bring it to God in prayer. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? If you do then prayer will be a priority in your life. So let us look at what Nehemiah prayed.
Verse 5 Nehemiah begins his prayer with adoration of God. He begins with praise, declaring the greatness of Almighty God. He describes God as a great and awesome God. It is this understanding of God that is the bedrock of his prayer – why else would you pray if you did not believe that God was in control? Nehemiah then states that God is faithful and loving. It is God himself who has called the people into a covenant relationship with him. Nehemiah uses the ‘name’ that God revealed to Moses when Moses asked to see God’s glory in Exodus 33. ‘Steadfast love’ – covenant love – this is the glory of God. God is His name – that is why it is not to be taken lightly, vainly or used as a swear word. Here Nehemiah reveals the glory of God and that this God of majesty, of power and might is the one who has called, and covenanted, His people into an intimate personal relationship with Himself – so that they can pray to Him. Without a relationship there can be no communication and without communication there can be no relationship. If you claim to follow Christ, to belong to God and are not praying then there is no relationship with God or a breakdown in your relationship with God. It is the same in marriage – the breakdown of the relationship is usually because of the breakdown in communication – no communication = no relationship – that is why scripture constantly uses marriage as an illustration of the relationship of God and His people.
Adoration also slows Nehemiah down – it is all part and parcel of the ‘shabbath.’ Nehemiah’s heart has been moved by the plight of Jerusalem and the people of God but his focus needs to be on God. Jerusalem is very obviously the issue on his heart that he wants to bring before God but prayer is not about a ‘heavenly shopping list’
– it is about a relationship with God. Adoration at the beginning of prayer slows him down, reminds him of before whom he now stands and to whom he is bringing his requests. It reinforces the covenant relationship and his understanding that God is gracious, faithful, loving and awesome. Remember to praise and adore God
when you begin to pray – it focuses your heart and mind on God and not on self.
Verses 6‐7 – Confession. The next part of Nehemiah’s prayer is a lesson in confession of sin. Being in the presence of God he can only confess his sin because he is aware of his sinfulness before God’s holiness. I hope and pray that the same is true of us. When we come into the presence of God we become aware of our sinfulness in His presence. I think it is important that we teach that to our children and to our teenagers. In a world where there is little respect for anyone or anything we need to reinforce by our own actions, by our own prayers and by our teaching that God is holy, He is awesome and majestic and that we are sinners in His presence. I am horrified at the lack of reverence before God. God is not you bosom buddy. Nor is He your mate and should not be treated with such flippancy as often passes for worship. He is your creator. He sustains your life each day. He decided the moment of your birth and He has already decided the moment of your death. He sent His Son to die for your sin and He is holy, awesome, majestic and all powerful. The least you can do is to show respect and reverence in His presence.
Nehemiah confesses that he, and the people of God, have not kept the word of God and in so doing they have sinned against God. They are at fault, not God. They have broken the covenant, not God. They have been unfaithful, not God. Nehemiah is honest in his confession before God and he confesses because he knows that God is gracious and will forgive those who truly repent and turn from their sin. It is the holiness of God that convicts him of his sin and it is the grace of God that brings him to confession. There is wrath and mercy here. There is both judgement and grace in confession of sin. There is acknowledgement of who God is and who Nehemiah is before God. Oh, that we would follow such an example of prayer. At the beginning of 2011 is it not right that we should we confess like Nehemiah that we are sinners, that we have broken the covenant with God and that we have been unfaithful.
I think it is fair to say that confession of sin is one of the neglected areas of prayer in the life of many. I am not talking about confessing your sins to another person. What passes for confession of sin in prayer? Often we pray and ask God to forgive us our sin – one sentence – it has not involved self‐examination before God, it has caused us no pain, remorse or regret and there is certainly been no shame or embarrassment about it. I wonder, truly wonder, how much genuine repentance and confession of sin actually happens in the life of many – the result is actually pretty easy to see. The evidence of this lack of true repentance and confession is seen in the number of those who claim to follow Christ who live lives of sin, who walk away from God and who are casual about the moral law of God.
If I have lied – do I ask God to forgive me because I am a liar? If I have broken my marriage vows do I ask God to forgive me for adultery? If I have cheated on expenses do I confess that I am a thief? If I have gossiped and destroyed someone’s reputation do I confess that I am a murderer? If I have claimed to follow Christ but lived as the world lives do I confess that I am a hypocrite? True confession leads us to naming sin for what it is, to confront it openly and confess it specifically before God. Nehemiah did, and he also said that the people of God in general were guilty of sin.
The result of such confession is that my guilt is assuaged, my conscience is seared by the Holy Spirit and purified by God and the burden of sin (which we used to confess to God was intolerable and that we were unable to bear it) is lifted from my shoulders and life. Don’t you want that? I know that I do.
Verses 8‐9 make harrowing reading for the people of God, in the day of Nehemiah and today. Look at the consequences of sin and blessing of confession. Sin scatters people because its sole purpose is the breakdown and death of relationships. The sole purpose of sin is to break your relationship with God and to lead to your death
– both physical and spiritual. If only we would understand that about sin. If only we had eyes that would see the consequences of our sinful actions before we took the next step. Adam and Eve could not see the death of their relationship with God and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the gracious provision of God – and so they ate the forbidden fruit and brought death into their relationship with God, with each other and with the earth. Nehemiah knows this and confesses that the people of God cannot claim to be ignorant of this because God had told them of such consequences through His word – you cannot be ignorant of it either. The death of their relationship with God, the removal of God’s protection and the scattering of the people (all of which has happened and is pictured in the broken walls and burned gates of Jerusalem) are because the people have been unfaithful to the covenant relationship with God. Friends, there are no blessings to be found in unfaithfulness but there is always death and scattering.
Yet there is hope, yet there is grace and yet there is blessing. If the people return to God, repent of their sin and are faithful to the covenant that God has established with them – Nehemiah says no matter how far apart they are, no matter how far they have been scattered God will gather them together to the place where He has chosen to dwell and to make His name known. At the time of Nehemiah that place was Jerusalem – God choose the place and He choose that His name would dwell there – in the Temple. What a wonderful picture – which finds its ultimate fulfilment in the book of Revelation – when God’s people, a gathering which no man can number, gather for the banquet of the Lamb. God is not about scattering people – throughout His Word He gathers His people together – around His word, around His throne of grace, a place where He dwells with and amongst His people. Nehemiah knows that this is God’s will – to gather His people and to dwell amongst them. God has not changed. God’s desire is still to gather His people and to dwell amongst them.
Verse 10 – Redemption of God’s people by the hand of God. Jerusalem may lie in ruins and the people of God may be despairing but God is the God of redemption. By His hand the people are redeemed and in that redemption they are declared the people of God. This morning you may feel that your life is in ruins and the walls of your life are broken down and the gates are burned. You may feel despairing because of your past and the past of others which has brought you to this place this morning. This morning God whispers into your life that He is the God of redemption – the one who redeems, who has paid for all the consequences of your sin and the sins of others. He has taken all the punishment for your unfaithfulness and the unfaithfulness of others and this morning by His mighty power and His strong arm He will redeem you. He wants you to know that redemption. He wants you to know the redeeming love of the saviour, not just to know it in your head but to feel it in the depth of your soul – to know you are redeemed.
Verse 11 – now Nehemiah is in a place to ask of God. Look at this verse closely this morning. He does not immediately launch into a list of requests concerning Jerusalem. Having taken a ‘shabbath’, having adored God, confessed his sin and praised God for His faithfulness and redemption he asks that God would turn His ear to his request – not because of who Nehemiah is but because Nehemiah fears the name of the Lord. Look at what he asks of God
– give me success before this man – the king.
I want you to note that Nehemiah does not tell God or ask God about Jerusalem and what needs to be done there – no he asks simply that God gives him success in the next step – before king Artexerxes. There is no racing to the end of this project, there is only prayer for the next step of the journey. Too often we pray for the end of the journey without having asked God for success for taking the first footsteps of that journey. Remember that in prayer. Pray for the next step
I want to encourage you to keep on praying and to take prayer seriously.
Make the time – take a shabbath each day. Quite literally stop whatever you are doing and come before God – use the pattern of Nehemiah 1‐11 for your prayer pattern. Don’t go through the motions. Turn off the computer, switch off facebook, the television, whatever and go before God in prayer. You want to influence your children, you want to enrich your marriage, you want the blessings of God in your life – it won’t happen unless you are before Him in prayer. Start somewhere – but you need to start. You need to keep going, be persistent because satan will through everything at you, including the kitchen sink, to stop you praying.
.
Amen.
Rebuilding with Prayer
During last year there was a programme to tell the history of the world in 100 objects. You may have heard it on the radio. People often make lists of the world’s most influential people, or histories most influential people. If you get your face on the cover of Time magazine you are considered to be an important person. The Sunday Times publishes a rich list each year, telling you who has lost money and who has gotten even richer. So who influences history? In the world in which we live it is pretty easy to feel, and believe, that ordinary people make absolutely no difference to history but in the book of Nehemiah we shall see that the very opposite is in fact true. Nehemiah chapter 1.
Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book in many of the early Hebrew texts and they need to be read together to get the full round picture. Historically they are set during the fourth century BC when the people of Israel are in Babylonian exile. Artexerxes is king of Persia and he allows, or rather sends, Nehemiah back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and gates of the city. Nehemiah encounters fierce opposition to this task from other people and finds his own people in complete disunity and disarray. Despite all of this he rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem. When the people once again begin to fall into sin Ezra and Nehemiah read the Law of God to them and call them to repentance.
Verses 1‐3 serve as an introduction to the book and also put before us the necessary facts of the story. We are told that Hanani, along with other men from Judah, came from Jerusalem and that Nehemiah asked them about Jerusalem and about the people of God there.
Their reply is given in verse 3 – read. The reply sets the scene for the rest of the book. Nehemiah is informed that Jerusalem lies in ruins and the people are despairing as a result. The walls are broken down and the gates have been burned. There is no means of protection and it is not a city that you would be proud to belong to. Further to that the people themselves are in no better state. In fact they tell Nehemiah that the people are in great trouble and shame. Is that not a dreadful description of the people of God? What is to be done?
There are two possible reactions – ‘nothing to do with me...’ or
‘let’s get a recovery project/programme into place...’ Nehemiah does neither of these – turn to the following verse 4.
Verse 4 – this is the key verse of this passage, and in fact of the whole books. Look at what Nehemiah does when he hears the disturbing news of the state of Jerusalem and the people of God there. He sits down – he takes a seat. Quite literally he stopped what he was doing and shut out all the distractions of his life in the palace. He shut out all the riches and glamour of the royal court – he took a ‘sabbath.’ In the Hebrew ‘sabbath’ is ‘shabbath’ which meant ‘to stop’ and that is what he did. Here is the first lesson we learn from Nehemiah – to stop what we are doing to concentrate on what God would have us do. When we read on in verse 4 we read that he fasted and prayed – but he could do neither if he was still busying himself with the things of everyday life. So the first thing he did was to stop all other activity in order to concentrate on being before God. We all need to take that on board at the beginning of 2011. Let me ask you what are all the distractions going on around you when you come to read your bible and to pray. The radio on in the background, checking emails, or is the television still on? That should never be – we are to stop – to shabbath – so that God gets our full attention. I know what some of you are thinking right at this moment – do you know how difficult it is for me to get even five minutes spare time? I want to be as gentle as I can with you about this but I do want to be honest with about it – if it is a priority you will find the time. If you are serious about your relationship with God you will find the time. Some of you seriously need to examine your time management before God. You cannot find time to be alone with God but you can spend hours on face book, hours playing Farmville and all those other pointless games on websites but you cannot stop and be before God in prayer? You can read the newspapers, the latest novel, surf the internet, bid on ebay, never miss an episode of eastenders but you cannot make time to be alone before God. Nehemiah immediately sat down, stopped, before God when news came of the disrepair of Jerusalem and the despair of the people of God.
He then fasted and prayed. He didn’t do this for five minutes but for a number of days. It was not a one off arrow prayer, prayed in the moment to salve his conscience. Nehemiah was serious before God in prayer for Jerusalem and the people of God. Prayer mattered because prayer influences history, changes events, moves people and helps fulfil the will of God. Throughout the book of Nehemiah we read of him praying:
1.4 he prays for a long time
2.4 he prays in an emergency
4.4 he prays when he is misunderstood instead of getting bitter
4.9 he prays when he is in danger
5.19 he prays when he is tested
6.9 he prays even when he is exhausted
7.3 he keeps on praying
Nehemiah is saturated in prayer. He makes no decisions, takes no steps forward and does not begin a task without praying. His life was a life of prayer. When word comes of Jerusalem he prays – not just because it is the right thing to do but also because it is the only thing to do – there is no greater thing that you can do for someone or some situation than to bring it to God in prayer. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? If you do then prayer will be a priority in your life. So let us look at what Nehemiah prayed.
Verse 5 Nehemiah begins his prayer with adoration of God. He begins with praise, declaring the greatness of Almighty God. He describes God as a great and awesome God. It is this understanding of God that is the bedrock of his prayer – why else would you pray if you did not believe that God was in control? Nehemiah then states that God is faithful and loving. It is God himself who has called the people into a covenant relationship with him. Nehemiah uses the ‘name’ that God revealed to Moses when Moses asked to see God’s glory in Exodus 33. ‘Steadfast love’ – covenant love – this is the glory of God. God is His name – that is why it is not to be taken lightly, vainly or used as a swear word. Here Nehemiah reveals the glory of God and that this God of majesty, of power and might is the one who has called, and covenanted, His people into an intimate personal relationship with Himself – so that they can pray to Him. Without a relationship there can be no communication and without communication there can be no relationship. If you claim to follow Christ, to belong to God and are not praying then there is no relationship with God or a breakdown in your relationship with God. It is the same in marriage – the breakdown of the relationship is usually because of the breakdown in communication – no communication = no relationship – that is why scripture constantly uses marriage as an illustration of the relationship of God and His people.
Adoration also slows Nehemiah down – it is all part and parcel of the ‘shabbath.’ Nehemiah’s heart has been moved by the plight of Jerusalem and the people of God but his focus needs to be on God. Jerusalem is very obviously the issue on his heart that he wants to bring before God but prayer is not about a ‘heavenly shopping list’
– it is about a relationship with God. Adoration at the beginning of prayer slows him down, reminds him of before whom he now stands and to whom he is bringing his requests. It reinforces the covenant relationship and his understanding that God is gracious, faithful, loving and awesome. Remember to praise and adore God
when you begin to pray – it focuses your heart and mind on God and not on self.
Verses 6‐7 – Confession. The next part of Nehemiah’s prayer is a lesson in confession of sin. Being in the presence of God he can only confess his sin because he is aware of his sinfulness before God’s holiness. I hope and pray that the same is true of us. When we come into the presence of God we become aware of our sinfulness in His presence. I think it is important that we teach that to our children and to our teenagers. In a world where there is little respect for anyone or anything we need to reinforce by our own actions, by our own prayers and by our teaching that God is holy, He is awesome and majestic and that we are sinners in His presence. I am horrified at the lack of reverence before God. God is not you bosom buddy. Nor is He your mate and should not be treated with such flippancy as often passes for worship. He is your creator. He sustains your life each day. He decided the moment of your birth and He has already decided the moment of your death. He sent His Son to die for your sin and He is holy, awesome, majestic and all powerful. The least you can do is to show respect and reverence in His presence.
Nehemiah confesses that he, and the people of God, have not kept the word of God and in so doing they have sinned against God. They are at fault, not God. They have broken the covenant, not God. They have been unfaithful, not God. Nehemiah is honest in his confession before God and he confesses because he knows that God is gracious and will forgive those who truly repent and turn from their sin. It is the holiness of God that convicts him of his sin and it is the grace of God that brings him to confession. There is wrath and mercy here. There is both judgement and grace in confession of sin. There is acknowledgement of who God is and who Nehemiah is before God. Oh, that we would follow such an example of prayer. At the beginning of 2011 is it not right that we should we confess like Nehemiah that we are sinners, that we have broken the covenant with God and that we have been unfaithful.
I think it is fair to say that confession of sin is one of the neglected areas of prayer in the life of many. I am not talking about confessing your sins to another person. What passes for confession of sin in prayer? Often we pray and ask God to forgive us our sin – one sentence – it has not involved self‐examination before God, it has caused us no pain, remorse or regret and there is certainly been no shame or embarrassment about it. I wonder, truly wonder, how much genuine repentance and confession of sin actually happens in the life of many – the result is actually pretty easy to see. The evidence of this lack of true repentance and confession is seen in the number of those who claim to follow Christ who live lives of sin, who walk away from God and who are casual about the moral law of God.
If I have lied – do I ask God to forgive me because I am a liar? If I have broken my marriage vows do I ask God to forgive me for adultery? If I have cheated on expenses do I confess that I am a thief? If I have gossiped and destroyed someone’s reputation do I confess that I am a murderer? If I have claimed to follow Christ but lived as the world lives do I confess that I am a hypocrite? True confession leads us to naming sin for what it is, to confront it openly and confess it specifically before God. Nehemiah did, and he also said that the people of God in general were guilty of sin.
The result of such confession is that my guilt is assuaged, my conscience is seared by the Holy Spirit and purified by God and the burden of sin (which we used to confess to God was intolerable and that we were unable to bear it) is lifted from my shoulders and life. Don’t you want that? I know that I do.
Verses 8‐9 make harrowing reading for the people of God, in the day of Nehemiah and today. Look at the consequences of sin and blessing of confession. Sin scatters people because its sole purpose is the breakdown and death of relationships. The sole purpose of sin is to break your relationship with God and to lead to your death
– both physical and spiritual. If only we would understand that about sin. If only we had eyes that would see the consequences of our sinful actions before we took the next step. Adam and Eve could not see the death of their relationship with God and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the gracious provision of God – and so they ate the forbidden fruit and brought death into their relationship with God, with each other and with the earth. Nehemiah knows this and confesses that the people of God cannot claim to be ignorant of this because God had told them of such consequences through His word – you cannot be ignorant of it either. The death of their relationship with God, the removal of God’s protection and the scattering of the people (all of which has happened and is pictured in the broken walls and burned gates of Jerusalem) are because the people have been unfaithful to the covenant relationship with God. Friends, there are no blessings to be found in unfaithfulness but there is always death and scattering.
Yet there is hope, yet there is grace and yet there is blessing. If the people return to God, repent of their sin and are faithful to the covenant that God has established with them – Nehemiah says no matter how far apart they are, no matter how far they have been scattered God will gather them together to the place where He has chosen to dwell and to make His name known. At the time of Nehemiah that place was Jerusalem – God choose the place and He choose that His name would dwell there – in the Temple. What a wonderful picture – which finds its ultimate fulfilment in the book of Revelation – when God’s people, a gathering which no man can number, gather for the banquet of the Lamb. God is not about scattering people – throughout His Word He gathers His people together – around His word, around His throne of grace, a place where He dwells with and amongst His people. Nehemiah knows that this is God’s will – to gather His people and to dwell amongst them. God has not changed. God’s desire is still to gather His people and to dwell amongst them.
Verse 10 – Redemption of God’s people by the hand of God. Jerusalem may lie in ruins and the people of God may be despairing but God is the God of redemption. By His hand the people are redeemed and in that redemption they are declared the people of God. This morning you may feel that your life is in ruins and the walls of your life are broken down and the gates are burned. You may feel despairing because of your past and the past of others which has brought you to this place this morning. This morning God whispers into your life that He is the God of redemption – the one who redeems, who has paid for all the consequences of your sin and the sins of others. He has taken all the punishment for your unfaithfulness and the unfaithfulness of others and this morning by His mighty power and His strong arm He will redeem you. He wants you to know that redemption. He wants you to know the redeeming love of the saviour, not just to know it in your head but to feel it in the depth of your soul – to know you are redeemed.
Verse 11 – now Nehemiah is in a place to ask of God. Look at this verse closely this morning. He does not immediately launch into a list of requests concerning Jerusalem. Having taken a ‘shabbath’, having adored God, confessed his sin and praised God for His faithfulness and redemption he asks that God would turn His ear to his request – not because of who Nehemiah is but because Nehemiah fears the name of the Lord. Look at what he asks of God
– give me success before this man – the king.
I want you to note that Nehemiah does not tell God or ask God about Jerusalem and what needs to be done there – no he asks simply that God gives him success in the next step – before king Artexerxes. There is no racing to the end of this project, there is only prayer for the next step of the journey. Too often we pray for the end of the journey without having asked God for success for taking the first footsteps of that journey. Remember that in prayer. Pray for the next step
I want to encourage you to keep on praying and to take prayer seriously.
Make the time – take a shabbath each day. Quite literally stop whatever you are doing and come before God – use the pattern of Nehemiah 1‐11 for your prayer pattern. Don’t go through the motions. Turn off the computer, switch off facebook, the television, whatever and go before God in prayer. You want to influence your children, you want to enrich your marriage, you want the blessings of God in your life – it won’t happen unless you are before Him in prayer. Start somewhere – but you need to start. You need to keep going, be persistent because satan will through everything at you, including the kitchen sink, to stop you praying.
.
Amen.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
77 times...
Matthew 18.21-35
It is vital that you understand the context of these verses if you are in any way to understand their importance for all of us and your church. Chapter 18 of Matthew contains 7 things which are vital to the life and vitality of a Christian church community. Verses 1-4 deal with humility, verses 5-6 welcoming people, verses 7-9 wholeheartedness, verses 10-14 pastoral care, verses 15-20 openness, verses 21-22 forgiveness and verses 23-35 freedom from resentment. Each of these has to do with personal and interpersonal relationships and Jesus sets them firmly within the context of a church community. Hence his reference to 'the little ones' or 'brothers' when dealing with such issues. If I had time we could go through each of these things and examine ourselves concerning them, but I don't and so I will deal with the issue of forgiveness.
Forgiveness - verses 21-35.
Don't you just love Peter in the gospels? I love his openness and his impulsive speaking - even when it gets him into bother. Jesus has just spoken to them how to deal with difficulties in relationships within the church (verses 15-20) and Peter now wants some answers concerning forgiveness. Poor Andrew having to listen to his brother asking such a question. At the time of Christ rabbi's said that you were to forgive your brother 3 times and Peter probably thinks he is being magnanimous by saying 7 times. How could Jesus not fail to be impressed by the generosity and graciousness of Peter here? Yet Peter is shocked by Jesus' answer - 77 times. I can imagine Peter's face flushing with embarrassment at this answer from Jesus. Outrageous grace and mercy is spoken of here by Jesus. Peter thought he was offering the moon in saying 7 but Jesus shows the outrageous nature of forgiveness in the kingdom of God by stating 77 times. Now can I say to you if you get hung up on counting the numbers here you will have missed the whole point of what Jesus is teaching Peter, the disciples and us. Jesus is saying that forgiveness is a hallmark of authentic kingdom life. The Christian life is born in forgiveness and such forgiveness must characterise all who claim to be followers of Jesus. Jesus tells Peter you must go on and on forgiving - constantly forgiving - just as God constantly forgives you. Being a forgiven person Peter you must become a forgiving person. Let me repeat that for you - being a forgiven person you must become a forgiving person. To be able to say 'I forgive you' is not enough - we must go on forgiving whenever we feel that sense grievance arising in our hearts again. You see forgiveness is really a matter of our wills - more than a feeling - in fact feelings are not the issue at all - our wills are the issue - and we really do need to take that on board. Your heart will eventually catch up with your head as we reiterate and repeat forgiveness until it becomes a very part of us and manifests itself to all. The supreme example of such forgiveness is Christ on the cross - towards those crucifying him and towards us whose sins put him there to be crucified. You know an unwillingness to forgive is the cause of many broken relationships and can I say, as humbly as it is possible to say, to claim to be a Christian and to not forgive someone is incompatible.
The unmerciful servant - verses 23-35.
Jesus follows on from his instructions concerning forgiveness with a parable about an unmerciful servant. The story is meant to show clearly to Peter and the other disciples, and us, how much God has forgiven him, them, and us and how trifling are the things which we hold on to. Jesus tells them of a servant who owed a vast sum of money, in fact the amount mentioned no one could repay. The amount is more than the money set aside by David to build the temple - that puts it into perspective. The point is that the debt owed to the king is incalculable and there is no way that the servant could repay that amount. When challenged by the king he begs for time to repay, even though there is no possibility to repay. Against all expectations the king forgives him the debt when he asks for mercy. Astonishing grace. Outrageous grace. Outlandish mercy is shown to this man. He should be thankful but as we read on in the story we realise that this man has not learnt forgiveness despite being forgiven so much. He should have behaved towards others with the same generosity as he had just experienced but he does not. In fact he catches a fellow-servant who owes him a pittance in comparison what he owed to the king. He demands the last penny from this man and throws him into prison until the debt is paid. So horrified are the other servants at his treatment of this fellow-servant that they go and tell the king - and the greek says they tell him in great detail what the man has done. Look at the kings response in verse 32ff. The king calls the man 'wicked' and that is exactly what he is. It is a wicked sinful thing to be forgiven so much and to refuse forgiveness, for so little, to another. The king turns the man over to the 'torturers' until his debt is repaid - but we already know from the start of the parable that it is impossible to repay such a debt - the meaning is obvious to Peter - eternity is in question here. Can I point out to you that 'torture' here speaks of 'spiritual torment' and that is exactly what you are bringing upon yourself by refusing to forgive.
To drive the point home Jesus speaks - read verse 35. These are very sobering words to Peter, who you remember began this conversation by asking how many times he had to forgive his brother (Andrew) and thought he was being generous with suggesting 7 times. Your relationship with God is affected by your relationships to and with other people, please never forget that.
Jesus tells Peter, and the other disciples, if you refuse to forgive others you are closing off God's forgiveness towards you. This is not because we earn God's forgiveness by forgiving others but our forgiveness of others is a natural consequence of his forgiveness to us. When Peter understands and appreciates the undeserved forgiveness he experiences and enjoys from God in Christ then he will be moved to forgive others, including Andrew his brother. If we have a problem with the latter it is because we have a problem with the former - in that we do not appreciate the nature and extent of our own sins and the cost of their forgiveness. When I understand the incalculableness of my sins and the debt I cannot pay to God - and when I hear God say 'as far as the east is from the west is how far I have removed your sin' or 'though your sins are like scarlet they are now white as snow' - all because He forgives me in Christ - then I will get a correct perspective and understanding on forgiving others. Colossians 3.13 is a verse we should all memorise and repeat to ourselves everyday. By forgiving others we find freedom in Christ.
Naturally we may find it hard to forgive. Peter did, hence his question to Jesus. Holding on to hurts, refusing to forgive is a deadly disease in a life and in the life of any Christian. It certainly has severe spiritual consequences. Our relationship with God is strangulated by refusing to forgive others. "Is there someone you will not forgive?" is one of the most spiritually revealing questions you can ask yourself or anyone else. You see if you refuse to forgive you are placing yourself in a place of bondage, spiritual, mental and emotional bondage - which may well have physical manifestations also. By refusing to forgive you give the past a foothold in the present and you allow the pain of the past to continue to dominate and dictate the present. By staying angry and holding on to the debt who are you hurting? Primarily you are hurting yourself first and foremost.
In finishing let me answer the question "What is forgiveness?" It is not forgetting - Jeremiah 31.34 - read - tells us that God chooses to remember our sins no more - that is not the same as forgetting. Forgiveness is a conscious decision not to remember and not to bring the past into the present to be used against someone.
It is not tolerating sin - it is not inconsistent with forgiveness not to remain in a situation where sin is being committed. For example an abusive relationship - it is right to forgive and it is equally right to remove yourself from that relationship so that the sin does not continue.
Forgiveness also means we all have to live with the consequences of our actions and the actions of other people. Christ forgave us by taking upon himself the consequences of our sinful actions - death on the cross. He made that conscious choice and we are called to do the same.
Finally can I remind you of the Lord's prayer - forgive us our trespasses (or sins) as we forgive those who trespass against us. Now - as yourself 'Did I mean it?' It has implications for your own relationship with God and your spiritual growth. It has implications for your relationship with other people. It is foundational to the spiritual health of each Christian and each congregation and the truth is refusing to forgive will be at the root of bitterness and resentment in your life and in the life of your Church congregation. Only you know how to apply this passage to your life and only you can do it.
It is vital that you understand the context of these verses if you are in any way to understand their importance for all of us and your church. Chapter 18 of Matthew contains 7 things which are vital to the life and vitality of a Christian church community. Verses 1-4 deal with humility, verses 5-6 welcoming people, verses 7-9 wholeheartedness, verses 10-14 pastoral care, verses 15-20 openness, verses 21-22 forgiveness and verses 23-35 freedom from resentment. Each of these has to do with personal and interpersonal relationships and Jesus sets them firmly within the context of a church community. Hence his reference to 'the little ones' or 'brothers' when dealing with such issues. If I had time we could go through each of these things and examine ourselves concerning them, but I don't and so I will deal with the issue of forgiveness.
Forgiveness - verses 21-35.
Don't you just love Peter in the gospels? I love his openness and his impulsive speaking - even when it gets him into bother. Jesus has just spoken to them how to deal with difficulties in relationships within the church (verses 15-20) and Peter now wants some answers concerning forgiveness. Poor Andrew having to listen to his brother asking such a question. At the time of Christ rabbi's said that you were to forgive your brother 3 times and Peter probably thinks he is being magnanimous by saying 7 times. How could Jesus not fail to be impressed by the generosity and graciousness of Peter here? Yet Peter is shocked by Jesus' answer - 77 times. I can imagine Peter's face flushing with embarrassment at this answer from Jesus. Outrageous grace and mercy is spoken of here by Jesus. Peter thought he was offering the moon in saying 7 but Jesus shows the outrageous nature of forgiveness in the kingdom of God by stating 77 times. Now can I say to you if you get hung up on counting the numbers here you will have missed the whole point of what Jesus is teaching Peter, the disciples and us. Jesus is saying that forgiveness is a hallmark of authentic kingdom life. The Christian life is born in forgiveness and such forgiveness must characterise all who claim to be followers of Jesus. Jesus tells Peter you must go on and on forgiving - constantly forgiving - just as God constantly forgives you. Being a forgiven person Peter you must become a forgiving person. Let me repeat that for you - being a forgiven person you must become a forgiving person. To be able to say 'I forgive you' is not enough - we must go on forgiving whenever we feel that sense grievance arising in our hearts again. You see forgiveness is really a matter of our wills - more than a feeling - in fact feelings are not the issue at all - our wills are the issue - and we really do need to take that on board. Your heart will eventually catch up with your head as we reiterate and repeat forgiveness until it becomes a very part of us and manifests itself to all. The supreme example of such forgiveness is Christ on the cross - towards those crucifying him and towards us whose sins put him there to be crucified. You know an unwillingness to forgive is the cause of many broken relationships and can I say, as humbly as it is possible to say, to claim to be a Christian and to not forgive someone is incompatible.
The unmerciful servant - verses 23-35.
Jesus follows on from his instructions concerning forgiveness with a parable about an unmerciful servant. The story is meant to show clearly to Peter and the other disciples, and us, how much God has forgiven him, them, and us and how trifling are the things which we hold on to. Jesus tells them of a servant who owed a vast sum of money, in fact the amount mentioned no one could repay. The amount is more than the money set aside by David to build the temple - that puts it into perspective. The point is that the debt owed to the king is incalculable and there is no way that the servant could repay that amount. When challenged by the king he begs for time to repay, even though there is no possibility to repay. Against all expectations the king forgives him the debt when he asks for mercy. Astonishing grace. Outrageous grace. Outlandish mercy is shown to this man. He should be thankful but as we read on in the story we realise that this man has not learnt forgiveness despite being forgiven so much. He should have behaved towards others with the same generosity as he had just experienced but he does not. In fact he catches a fellow-servant who owes him a pittance in comparison what he owed to the king. He demands the last penny from this man and throws him into prison until the debt is paid. So horrified are the other servants at his treatment of this fellow-servant that they go and tell the king - and the greek says they tell him in great detail what the man has done. Look at the kings response in verse 32ff. The king calls the man 'wicked' and that is exactly what he is. It is a wicked sinful thing to be forgiven so much and to refuse forgiveness, for so little, to another. The king turns the man over to the 'torturers' until his debt is repaid - but we already know from the start of the parable that it is impossible to repay such a debt - the meaning is obvious to Peter - eternity is in question here. Can I point out to you that 'torture' here speaks of 'spiritual torment' and that is exactly what you are bringing upon yourself by refusing to forgive.
To drive the point home Jesus speaks - read verse 35. These are very sobering words to Peter, who you remember began this conversation by asking how many times he had to forgive his brother (Andrew) and thought he was being generous with suggesting 7 times. Your relationship with God is affected by your relationships to and with other people, please never forget that.
Jesus tells Peter, and the other disciples, if you refuse to forgive others you are closing off God's forgiveness towards you. This is not because we earn God's forgiveness by forgiving others but our forgiveness of others is a natural consequence of his forgiveness to us. When Peter understands and appreciates the undeserved forgiveness he experiences and enjoys from God in Christ then he will be moved to forgive others, including Andrew his brother. If we have a problem with the latter it is because we have a problem with the former - in that we do not appreciate the nature and extent of our own sins and the cost of their forgiveness. When I understand the incalculableness of my sins and the debt I cannot pay to God - and when I hear God say 'as far as the east is from the west is how far I have removed your sin' or 'though your sins are like scarlet they are now white as snow' - all because He forgives me in Christ - then I will get a correct perspective and understanding on forgiving others. Colossians 3.13 is a verse we should all memorise and repeat to ourselves everyday. By forgiving others we find freedom in Christ.
Naturally we may find it hard to forgive. Peter did, hence his question to Jesus. Holding on to hurts, refusing to forgive is a deadly disease in a life and in the life of any Christian. It certainly has severe spiritual consequences. Our relationship with God is strangulated by refusing to forgive others. "Is there someone you will not forgive?" is one of the most spiritually revealing questions you can ask yourself or anyone else. You see if you refuse to forgive you are placing yourself in a place of bondage, spiritual, mental and emotional bondage - which may well have physical manifestations also. By refusing to forgive you give the past a foothold in the present and you allow the pain of the past to continue to dominate and dictate the present. By staying angry and holding on to the debt who are you hurting? Primarily you are hurting yourself first and foremost.
In finishing let me answer the question "What is forgiveness?" It is not forgetting - Jeremiah 31.34 - read - tells us that God chooses to remember our sins no more - that is not the same as forgetting. Forgiveness is a conscious decision not to remember and not to bring the past into the present to be used against someone.
It is not tolerating sin - it is not inconsistent with forgiveness not to remain in a situation where sin is being committed. For example an abusive relationship - it is right to forgive and it is equally right to remove yourself from that relationship so that the sin does not continue.
Forgiveness also means we all have to live with the consequences of our actions and the actions of other people. Christ forgave us by taking upon himself the consequences of our sinful actions - death on the cross. He made that conscious choice and we are called to do the same.
Finally can I remind you of the Lord's prayer - forgive us our trespasses (or sins) as we forgive those who trespass against us. Now - as yourself 'Did I mean it?' It has implications for your own relationship with God and your spiritual growth. It has implications for your relationship with other people. It is foundational to the spiritual health of each Christian and each congregation and the truth is refusing to forgive will be at the root of bitterness and resentment in your life and in the life of your Church congregation. Only you know how to apply this passage to your life and only you can do it.
Friday, 28 January 2011
God Loves You
GOD LOVES YOU!
I want to concentrate on chapter 11 verses 1-11. This is the amazing story of God's grace towards this sinful, wayward and immoral people.
Verses 1-7 A wayward Son?
"Is everything normal?" is one of the first questions many parents ask at the moment of a child's birth. From that moment on however they never want their child to be normal again. They want them to talk and walk before all their contemporaries do. There is such excitement when a child begins to walk. All the concentration, the taking of them by the hand and leading them on those first few faltering steps. The letting go as they take those steps and tumble forward. It is a picture of love, of care, of pride and of hope. Just such a picture is painted of the people of God here in Hosea 11.
Look at verse 1. God refers to Israel as His child. The literal translation is as His adopted son. God called them out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage and slavery. In Exodus 4.22 Israel is described as 'God's first born son' to Pharaoh. Whilst they were in Egypt God loved them and provided a deliverer, a saviour, for them - Moses. God led them out of slavery and fed them on the journey to the Promised Land. He was a loving and attentive father towards His children. How did Israel respond to such love and blessing from God? Look at verse 2. The more God called them the further they turned away from Him. Their stubborn hearts and self-pride led them to worship Baal. The more God, out of love for them, called them to come home the more stubborn they became and persisted on their path of idolatry and immorality. Some of you know how painful an experience that can be with children who do not listen to advice and wander far from the path of God. You know the amazing thing is that when they were in slavery in Egypt they called out to the living God and did not worship the gods of the Egyptians. They remained faithful to God in Egypt but when they entered the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey they became an adulterous people. Why? How come? Because they thought they had arrived and that there was nothing left for them to do. The same is true of many Christians who think that all that matters is that you make a commitment to Christ Jesus, that you are born-again. That is only the beginning, an important beginning, but only the beginning. You see if you are truly an adopted child of God you take on the family likeness and obey your Father. You live according to His ways.
In verses 3 and 4 we see the tenderness and relentless compassion of God toward His people Israel. Look at the picture painted here of a loving father who has helped his children grow and often without their knowledge. The father was there to help when the child took those first faltering steps. He was there to pick him up when he fell down. He was there to heal the hurts and mend what was broken. He did all this out of selfless love for the wellbeing of the child. The people had forgotten or taken for granted all that God had done for them. They failed to appreciate his tender mercy in lifting the yoke of slavery from off their necks and of his condescension in bending down to feed them. Let me read some verses to you from Psalm 121.3-8 and Isaiah 40.11. That is the tender compassion and love that God has towards these people and towards you. In Isaiah 42.3 he says that a bruised reed he will not break and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out - that is the gentleness he shows towards you. Here he tells the people he lifts the yoke of slavery from off their necks and not only sets them free but he also provides sustenance and nourishment for them. When we come to the NT we see this love displayed in Christ Jesus and his death on the Cross. By Christ's death and resurrection God lifted the yoke of sin from our lives. By sending the Holy Spirit he gave us the spiritual sustenance and nourishment we need to daily live for him.
Yet in verses 5-7 we see the consequences of the determination of the people to go their own way, a way other than God's way (verse 7). The rhetorical question of 5a is answered by 7a. The people will not turn to God because they are determined to turn from him. The result will be they will return to a life of slavery, as in Egypt, under the rule of the Assyrians. God makes it clear because of their refusal to repent they will endure captivity. Friends listen to that warning. If you do not repent of your sins and turn to God in Christ then you will be carried off into captivity. That is one of the saddest things about people who persist in their sins. They often make comments about 'rules and regulations' of Christian living and yet they are the people held captive in their sins. Ruled and regulated by their desires and impulses. Ruled and regulated by their addictions and by others. Know that as you read this post. Understand where sin leads - to captivity. But even more horrifying is that death will come to all who are taken captive - the sword flashes in their cities (verse 6). They had put bars on their gates and laid all sorts of plans to live in security, of their own making. But such plans and such bars proved futile in the face of the Assyrians. Such plans and such bars that you put up in your life to protect your life from 'whatever' will prove futile when God comes in judgement on your life. The things that you thought made you secure simply splinter under the hammer blow of the coming judgement, like the bars on the gates of Israel's cities before the advancing Assyrians. Yet even such a warning provoked no response other than stubborn determination to do their own thing from the people of Israel. In their apostasy they remain stubborn. The end of verse 7 may seem strange to us. We could never envisage God not answering his people but you must not lift it from its context. The context is that these people are stubbornly remaining in their sin and idolatry and refusing to repent. God has told them, time and again, that they are to turn from their sin and to turn to him but they will not listen. So God tells them he will no longer exalt them even if they cry out to him to do so. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry for God to exalt them, to deliver them from the Assyrians who have invaded their cities. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry of 'help, get us out of here.' You have done that haven't you? You have cried out to God for deliverance but with no repentance for the sin which led you into the captivity in the first place?
Well in verses 8 and 9 we see the resolve of the Father and the tender mercy and relentless compassion of God for his people. Here we see how much God loves these sinful people. Here we see how much God loves us, sinful as we are. These verses are really a window into the heart of God. Look at verse 8. Four times God asks "How can I….?" Each time the expected answer is "I cannot." The picture here is of God weeping over the very thought of the total destruction of his people. His anger towards them because of their sin turns to grief at the coming judgment because of their sin. Admah and Zeboiim had been destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 10.19 and 19.24-29. Then we hear some of thee most tender verses in all of Hosea - 8b. Can you hear Hosea saying these words to Gomer? His anger roused towards her unfaithfulness, wanting judgment to fall upon her but yet his love for her will not let him see her utterly destroyed. His love for her rouses his compassionate heart. How much more is the heart of God, the One whose love is perfect, roused to compassion towards his people? The idea of abandoning his people to their fate and to extinction rouses compassion in the heart of the Father. So how did these events unfold? In 722 BC the Assyrians took the people of Israel off into exile but a faithful remnant had travelled south to Judah and these are the people who were taken captive by the Babylonians (1 Chronicles 9.1-3), people such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abidnego. In verse 9 God gives three reasons why he will not utterly destroy Ephraim - He is God and not man, He is holy and his love for his people is inexhaustible (I will not come in wrath). Even when God comes in judgment his love is leading. When he called Adam and Eve in the garden his love was leading. When he was allowing his Son to take the punishment for sin on the cross his love was leading. God's love leads him to have compassion on these wayward people. Listen to these words from Isaiah 57.17 and now listen to the next verse, verse 18. God will punish sin but he will also heal and restore those who repent and turn from their wicked ways.
Verses 10-11 The welcome homecoming.
There is nothing like coming home when you have been away a long time? Some of you know the experience of relatives who have emigrated coming home. The welcome, the excitement and the sheer joy. Jesus spoke of such joy of coming home to the Father in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. God speaks here of a time when the people will follow the Lord and not the gods of Baal. When will such a thing happen - when the Lord calls, when the lion of Judah roars his people will come to him. The roar of a lion is heard by all for many miles around. It is a clear call of authority. It strikes fear into all the other animals of the plains and yet the other lions respond to that call and come towards him. But if you watch them coming they come timidly and with humility before the lion who rules over them. The same will be true of the people of God when God calls them to assemble before him. They will not come with arrogance or pride but with humility and timidity but they will come. It is like that moment in The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe where C S Lewis has Aslan roar and all tremble before him. It is a magical moment in the book surpassed only by the final scene in the Last Battle - but you will have to read the book to learn that.
Look at these two verses. They will come from the all the nations around them. From the west, from captivity in Assyria and Egypt the people of God will come to follow the Lord God. Out of Egypt, where they spent years of bondage God's people will come. Out of Assyria, where they endured captivity, God's people will come. When they come they will no longer be a nomadic people, carried off here and there by every nation of power but God will establish them in their own homes. When God calls them they will come out of every nation because as Christ says in John's gospel his sheep will recognise and obey his voice. When they come they will find permanent security in the presence of God. Read Revelation 21.3-4. That is what Hosea was prophesying here in these two verses. The day when God calls his people and they dwell together in the new Jerusalem. A little earlier in the book of Revelation John described those people as a multitude that no man could number from out of every tribe, nation and language on this earth. Are you going to be in that multitude?
. This chapter speaks of judgment but it is outweighed by God's love for these people. Just as Hosea's relationship with his wife Gomer is governed and guided by his love for her - so God's love directs all his dealings with the people of Israel, and with us. God will not let them go and in punishing them he will not destroy them because of his great love for them. Hosea longs for Gomer to come home to him which is an illustration of how God longs for his people to repent and come home to him.
Amen.
I want to concentrate on chapter 11 verses 1-11. This is the amazing story of God's grace towards this sinful, wayward and immoral people.
Verses 1-7 A wayward Son?
"Is everything normal?" is one of the first questions many parents ask at the moment of a child's birth. From that moment on however they never want their child to be normal again. They want them to talk and walk before all their contemporaries do. There is such excitement when a child begins to walk. All the concentration, the taking of them by the hand and leading them on those first few faltering steps. The letting go as they take those steps and tumble forward. It is a picture of love, of care, of pride and of hope. Just such a picture is painted of the people of God here in Hosea 11.
Look at verse 1. God refers to Israel as His child. The literal translation is as His adopted son. God called them out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage and slavery. In Exodus 4.22 Israel is described as 'God's first born son' to Pharaoh. Whilst they were in Egypt God loved them and provided a deliverer, a saviour, for them - Moses. God led them out of slavery and fed them on the journey to the Promised Land. He was a loving and attentive father towards His children. How did Israel respond to such love and blessing from God? Look at verse 2. The more God called them the further they turned away from Him. Their stubborn hearts and self-pride led them to worship Baal. The more God, out of love for them, called them to come home the more stubborn they became and persisted on their path of idolatry and immorality. Some of you know how painful an experience that can be with children who do not listen to advice and wander far from the path of God. You know the amazing thing is that when they were in slavery in Egypt they called out to the living God and did not worship the gods of the Egyptians. They remained faithful to God in Egypt but when they entered the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey they became an adulterous people. Why? How come? Because they thought they had arrived and that there was nothing left for them to do. The same is true of many Christians who think that all that matters is that you make a commitment to Christ Jesus, that you are born-again. That is only the beginning, an important beginning, but only the beginning. You see if you are truly an adopted child of God you take on the family likeness and obey your Father. You live according to His ways.
In verses 3 and 4 we see the tenderness and relentless compassion of God toward His people Israel. Look at the picture painted here of a loving father who has helped his children grow and often without their knowledge. The father was there to help when the child took those first faltering steps. He was there to pick him up when he fell down. He was there to heal the hurts and mend what was broken. He did all this out of selfless love for the wellbeing of the child. The people had forgotten or taken for granted all that God had done for them. They failed to appreciate his tender mercy in lifting the yoke of slavery from off their necks and of his condescension in bending down to feed them. Let me read some verses to you from Psalm 121.3-8 and Isaiah 40.11. That is the tender compassion and love that God has towards these people and towards you. In Isaiah 42.3 he says that a bruised reed he will not break and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out - that is the gentleness he shows towards you. Here he tells the people he lifts the yoke of slavery from off their necks and not only sets them free but he also provides sustenance and nourishment for them. When we come to the NT we see this love displayed in Christ Jesus and his death on the Cross. By Christ's death and resurrection God lifted the yoke of sin from our lives. By sending the Holy Spirit he gave us the spiritual sustenance and nourishment we need to daily live for him.
Yet in verses 5-7 we see the consequences of the determination of the people to go their own way, a way other than God's way (verse 7). The rhetorical question of 5a is answered by 7a. The people will not turn to God because they are determined to turn from him. The result will be they will return to a life of slavery, as in Egypt, under the rule of the Assyrians. God makes it clear because of their refusal to repent they will endure captivity. Friends listen to that warning. If you do not repent of your sins and turn to God in Christ then you will be carried off into captivity. That is one of the saddest things about people who persist in their sins. They often make comments about 'rules and regulations' of Christian living and yet they are the people held captive in their sins. Ruled and regulated by their desires and impulses. Ruled and regulated by their addictions and by others. Know that as you read this post. Understand where sin leads - to captivity. But even more horrifying is that death will come to all who are taken captive - the sword flashes in their cities (verse 6). They had put bars on their gates and laid all sorts of plans to live in security, of their own making. But such plans and such bars proved futile in the face of the Assyrians. Such plans and such bars that you put up in your life to protect your life from 'whatever' will prove futile when God comes in judgement on your life. The things that you thought made you secure simply splinter under the hammer blow of the coming judgement, like the bars on the gates of Israel's cities before the advancing Assyrians. Yet even such a warning provoked no response other than stubborn determination to do their own thing from the people of Israel. In their apostasy they remain stubborn. The end of verse 7 may seem strange to us. We could never envisage God not answering his people but you must not lift it from its context. The context is that these people are stubbornly remaining in their sin and idolatry and refusing to repent. God has told them, time and again, that they are to turn from their sin and to turn to him but they will not listen. So God tells them he will no longer exalt them even if they cry out to him to do so. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry for God to exalt them, to deliver them from the Assyrians who have invaded their cities. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry of 'help, get us out of here.' You have done that haven't you? You have cried out to God for deliverance but with no repentance for the sin which led you into the captivity in the first place?
Well in verses 8 and 9 we see the resolve of the Father and the tender mercy and relentless compassion of God for his people. Here we see how much God loves these sinful people. Here we see how much God loves us, sinful as we are. These verses are really a window into the heart of God. Look at verse 8. Four times God asks "How can I….?" Each time the expected answer is "I cannot." The picture here is of God weeping over the very thought of the total destruction of his people. His anger towards them because of their sin turns to grief at the coming judgment because of their sin. Admah and Zeboiim had been destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 10.19 and 19.24-29. Then we hear some of thee most tender verses in all of Hosea - 8b. Can you hear Hosea saying these words to Gomer? His anger roused towards her unfaithfulness, wanting judgment to fall upon her but yet his love for her will not let him see her utterly destroyed. His love for her rouses his compassionate heart. How much more is the heart of God, the One whose love is perfect, roused to compassion towards his people? The idea of abandoning his people to their fate and to extinction rouses compassion in the heart of the Father. So how did these events unfold? In 722 BC the Assyrians took the people of Israel off into exile but a faithful remnant had travelled south to Judah and these are the people who were taken captive by the Babylonians (1 Chronicles 9.1-3), people such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abidnego. In verse 9 God gives three reasons why he will not utterly destroy Ephraim - He is God and not man, He is holy and his love for his people is inexhaustible (I will not come in wrath). Even when God comes in judgment his love is leading. When he called Adam and Eve in the garden his love was leading. When he was allowing his Son to take the punishment for sin on the cross his love was leading. God's love leads him to have compassion on these wayward people. Listen to these words from Isaiah 57.17 and now listen to the next verse, verse 18. God will punish sin but he will also heal and restore those who repent and turn from their wicked ways.
Verses 10-11 The welcome homecoming.
There is nothing like coming home when you have been away a long time? Some of you know the experience of relatives who have emigrated coming home. The welcome, the excitement and the sheer joy. Jesus spoke of such joy of coming home to the Father in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. God speaks here of a time when the people will follow the Lord and not the gods of Baal. When will such a thing happen - when the Lord calls, when the lion of Judah roars his people will come to him. The roar of a lion is heard by all for many miles around. It is a clear call of authority. It strikes fear into all the other animals of the plains and yet the other lions respond to that call and come towards him. But if you watch them coming they come timidly and with humility before the lion who rules over them. The same will be true of the people of God when God calls them to assemble before him. They will not come with arrogance or pride but with humility and timidity but they will come. It is like that moment in The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe where C S Lewis has Aslan roar and all tremble before him. It is a magical moment in the book surpassed only by the final scene in the Last Battle - but you will have to read the book to learn that.
Look at these two verses. They will come from the all the nations around them. From the west, from captivity in Assyria and Egypt the people of God will come to follow the Lord God. Out of Egypt, where they spent years of bondage God's people will come. Out of Assyria, where they endured captivity, God's people will come. When they come they will no longer be a nomadic people, carried off here and there by every nation of power but God will establish them in their own homes. When God calls them they will come out of every nation because as Christ says in John's gospel his sheep will recognise and obey his voice. When they come they will find permanent security in the presence of God. Read Revelation 21.3-4. That is what Hosea was prophesying here in these two verses. The day when God calls his people and they dwell together in the new Jerusalem. A little earlier in the book of Revelation John described those people as a multitude that no man could number from out of every tribe, nation and language on this earth. Are you going to be in that multitude?
. This chapter speaks of judgment but it is outweighed by God's love for these people. Just as Hosea's relationship with his wife Gomer is governed and guided by his love for her - so God's love directs all his dealings with the people of Israel, and with us. God will not let them go and in punishing them he will not destroy them because of his great love for them. Hosea longs for Gomer to come home to him which is an illustration of how God longs for his people to repent and come home to him.
Amen.
Monday, 24 January 2011
ARE WE READY
2 Peter 3
Peter is reminding his readers of the basics. VERSES 3-7 GOD'S POWERFUL WORD. Peter now addresses one of the key issues before the believers he is writing to, namely the delay in the second coming of Christ. Peter points out that scoffers will come in the last days to pour scorn on the belief that Christ will return. Now the 'last days' is not some date in the future. The 'last days' is the time between the first coming of Christ and his second coming. The believers Peter is writing to are living in the last days and we are living in the last days. Look at what Peter says in verse 3 . These scoffers justify their indulging of their evil desires by raising questions about those points of belief which condemn them. they sound sophisticated with their questions but in actual fact they are just sinful and seeking to justify their sinful desires. On the surface their question of verse 4 seems perfectly fair but Peter points out that all it does is prove they are biblically illiterate. In answering their question (verses 5-7) Peter cites two biblical examples and draws a conclusion from them. In verse 5 he points out that God spoke and creation came to be, in verse 6 God spoke and judgment (in the flood) fell upon the earth and therefore if God has in the past by His Word intervened in time and space then we can be assured that He will keep His promise for the return of His Son, Jesus Christ. Peter points out that God is absolutely in control and the fact that God is patient in delaying the return of Christ is not that it will not happen but is an act of mercy on the part of God to allow people to repent and to be saved. God's patience, says Peter, is to lengthen the days during which a change of heart is possible. And there are some of you who need to hear that fact. God is patient so that you might have the opportunity to respond to Christ before He comes again and it is too late. These false teachers argue that everything in creation just keeps going on the same. Peter points out that the same Word which guarantees the world's stability in which they delight also guarantees the judgment to come which they mock. Because God is patient with the world does not mean that the world is closed to Him, the flood shows how He can intervene in time, history and space. VERSES 8-10 PROMISED PATIENCE. To reinforce what he has taught about God's patience in delaying the second coming Peter quotes Psalm 90 verse 4. In the NT when writers quote the OT we should assume that they want us to understand the whole passage and not just that single verse. If you look at Psalm 90 you realise that there are five things taught concerning God, and I believe those are what Peter wishes for his hearers to understand. Psalm 90 teaches that God is an eternal God, a creating God, a judging God, a saving God and a moral God. Peter wants them to understand that God sees time from a perspective that they, and we, lack and with an intensity that they cannot possibly understand. God can see the broad sweep of history in a moment, yet stretch out a day with patient care. Therefore (v9) the Lord is not slow in keeping His promises but is patient so that all who wish may be saved. Eternal life, says Peter, is open to all. The sad reality is that many, choose to perish. Peter then goes on, in verse 10, to speak of the judgment to come and he paints a terrifying picture of destruction. Look at verse 10, a harrowing picture of judgment by fire. Peter says God is patient so that you have the opportunity to respond to the gracious offer of salvation but there will come a day when there will be no more delay. Peter speaks of day that will come as a shock to all. It will be when we least expect it. Christ said two men would be walking together one would be taken and the other left. Jesus warned that if the house owner had known when the thief was coming he would have been prepared. Friends, Peter warned the believers that the return of Christ would come when they least expect it. When it does come it would be a dreadful and dread filled day of judgment. It will be a day when God pours out His wrath upon sin and sinners. It will be a day of salvation for some and perishing for others. Question is which will it be for you? VERSES 11-16 THEREFORE HOW SHOULD YOU LIVE? Peter now moves to bring out the practical implications of what he has just written, in the whole letter, not just this chapter. Look at verses 11-13. Peter says the day of Christ's return will bring destruction so they should seek to live 'holy and godly lives.' The whole of their lives are to be lived in the light of that day, not moaning about the slowness of its coming. Let me ask you - 'Do you mean it when you pray 'Thy kingdom come…?' Are you prepared for it coming? Are you living in the light of that day dawning? That is what Peter calls the believer's to here. Peter says for those who belong to Christ and live in the expectation of His imminent return there is no fear of that day because they have the promise of God of a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness - which is with Christ for eternity. Peter reaffirms (verses 14-16) that they are to live lives that are 'spotless and blameless and at peace with Him.' The hope of this new heaven and new earth should drive them on to live as 'new people' and not as the 'old man' lived. Peter then calls on Paul's writings to support what he is teaching them here. Scripture is in agreement concerning the lives that believers in Christ should live. Peter points out that those who choose to live other than according to what they teach do so, not because Peter and Paul are wrong, but because they wish to distort the Word of God to justify sinful lives. Friends the temptation for us all is to distort the Word of God so that our sinful life choices are justified. Satan distorted the Word of God in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve to sin. There is nothing new in this today. Men still distort the Word of God to justify sin. But bring it closer to home - what about you and me? Look at what Peter says at the end of verse 16 - 'to their own destruction.' Friends, there is the warning to us all. You can choose to distort the Word of God in order to live as you choose, to salve a conscious and justify a sinful choice but the end will be your eternal destruction. It is a timely warning and one we should take very seriously.. Let me say to you all, the loving thing for me to do is to graciously confront you with your sin and turn you back to the Word of God. VERSES 17-18 PETER'S CONCLUSION. Peter hasn't taught them anything they do not already know. It has been a revision class of basic Christian teaching so that they might be on their guard against the false teachers of their day who distort the Word of God in order to justify immoral lives which in the end will lead to eternal damnation and destruction. Peter concludes this letter by warning them to be on their guard so that they wont be carried away by false teaching and fall from their secure position, which some of them are in danger of doing. I believe God would have me say to you all that same danger resides in each and every one of our hearts and it resides in every church. It is easy to be swayed by false teaching and to drift away from the secure moorings of the Word of God. Friends, remember to whom Peter is writing - believers. Remember where the false teachers are resident - in the church. I have said it to you before and I think it is worth repeating - just because a pastor may say it from the pulpit does not mean it is 100% correct. I don't believe Bible believing churches have ever taught false doctrine, they patiently study the Word of God and prayerfully seek to interpret it correctly but that is no substitute for you examining it for yourselves. Let me give a bible verse to help you in this - Acts 17 verse 11 read. So be like the Bereans.Finally let me end with Peter's words from verse 18 - read. How appropriate. Friends, may we all grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ because to Him alone belongs the glory for ever and ever.
Monday, 10 January 2011
The Parable of the Sower
As we begin 2011 we need to ask ourselves, how deep the message of the Gospel has gone into our lives. There will be times this year when life is very hard and difficult and our faith will be tested. The depth of our faith will be put to the test and some may find their faith and understanding has no real depth-then I urge you now to read on. Some may have a very deep faith but I also urge you to read on and continue to grow in faith and understanding of God's word
Matthew 13v1-9 & 18-23
The Parable of the Sower
I want to begin a sermon series on parables told by Christ Jesus in Matthew's gospel. Some of the parable will be very familiar to us all but we should not allow that familiarity to close our minds to hearing God speak to us again through His Word. Most of you will have heard a parable described as 'an earthly story with a heavenly (or spiritual) meaning.' That is a simple definition of a parable. A parable is a comparison of two subjects for the purpose of teaching. It usually proceeds from the known to the unknown in order to teach something spiritual. There is generally, but not universally, one salient point to the parable. A parable holds the attention of the hearer, enables them to see themselves and whilst dealing with something well known adds a twist which fascinates and makes the hearer reflect.
Why did Jesus teach in parables? Well if you look at verse 1 of chapter 13 we see that He has moved from teaching in the synagogue to teaching in the open air, by the seashore. This move is significant in Matthew's gospel. Having been rejected by the religious leaders of the day He moves now out into the open air and addresses the crowds of common people. By telling parable He holds their attention, to fascinate without alienating them. Secondly if you look at verse 35 you will see that they are an instrument of revelation but only for those to whom it is given to see (verses 11, 16-17). The parable revealed truth to those who were hungry to receive it but concealed it from those who were too lazy to seek its meaning. Verse 12 tells us that the law of atrophy is at work amongst the hearers of the parable - if you don't use the muscle it withers and dies, the same is true spiritually of Jesus' hearers and of ourselves. The parables bring light to those who look for it but for those content in the darkness, it intensifies that darkness. Thirdly, the parables are a spur towards decision. The kingdom of God cannot be understood from outside. 1 Corinthians 2 verses 14 - read. Finally the reason Matthew groups parables together is to clarify them and to make it simple to understand them. For example these parables in chapter 13 mark the hinge upon which the whole gospel of Matthew turns, from this point on Jesus leaves Galilee and turns towards Jerusalem and the cross. As people hear these parables they are challenged to see where they stand in relation to the kingdom of God which Christ brings. Put another way they ask 'What will you do with Jesus?'
Verses 1-3 The parable begins with Christ using a familiar everyday sight - the farmer sowing seed in a field. The seed which 'the farmer' sows is able to transform the soil. The seed is the Word of God proclaimed by the Sower of God. The kingdom of God comes when the seed and the soil come together. And the kingdom comes in to a life where the seed takes root and begins to germinate and shoot.
Verses 4, 19 - The Shallow Soil/Seed. The fields in Galilee would have been unfenced with many paths running through them. The paths would have been rock hard with the countless feet, hooves of animals and cartwheels travelling over them. Jesus uses the imagery of a hard path which the seed finds impossible to penetrate and hungry birds which come to snatch it away as illustrations of how some hear the word of God but do not digest it, understand it or appropriate it in their lives. They are very vulnerable to losing it all as the devil comes quickly into such a heart and snatches it all away. Hebrews 4.2 tells us that for the seed to be effectual it must not only be heard but also combined with faith. The seed planted on to a hard heart that does not receive it with faith is easily snatched away and bears no fruit at all. It comes to nothing. Ask yourself this: Has the seed (the word of God) bounced off me like a seed bouncing off a hard path? You see the word which is only heard and not acted upon is easy prey for satan to snatch away. C S Lewis in the Screwtape Letters writes of such an account of a man who was beginning down the path to belief in Christ and how easily he was distracted by hunger and the news headlines on a billboard. We are easily distracted from the word of God when our hearts have been trampled hard by sin. As Malachi so rightly told his hearers - there comes a time in life when you have to plough up the unploughed ground in order to receive the seed. For some that is the very challenge you need to hear in 2011 - your heart is a hard path and though you hear the word of God it is so easily snatched away, even before the end of this post it is gone.
Verses 5-6, 20-21 The Superficial Soil/Seed. Jesus explains that this type of soil receives the seed with great enthusiasm, makes a great start but as soon as trouble or persecution comes they fall away because there was no root, no depth to their belief. This person can be jollied along in the right atmosphere and company but they have no roots to stand on their own and once on their own they fall away quickly. They will blow with the prevailing wind. They are superficial in their faith. This seed comes to nothing in the life of the hearer and bears no fruit in the world. Let me say as humbly as I can there are too many such Christians in churches today. Many of you started off great but now you blow with the prevailing wind of the company you are in - Christian at your church but not at work or in with some of your other friends. This seed died, it bore no lasting fruit, why would you think you would be any different?
Verses 7, 22 - The Secular Soil/Seed. This seed too seems to start very well. There is growth, there even appears to be roots going down into soil and yet all is not well. This soil has never been weaned from the secular world around it - it still contains the thorns and thistles of the old worldview and way of life. Look at what Jesus says of this soil in verse 22. It is deceived or delights in the wealth of the world. Such a person is concerned with the things of this world, his status and financial standing and these things are the priorities of his life and they slowly take over, grow stronger and choke the shoots of faith. Again this seed comes to nothing in such soil. Let me ask you seriously this morning: Are you a secular seed? Is your reputation before men more important than your standing before God today? Are you more concerned with the labels on your clothing than the label of your character? Are you more Christian Dior than Christian? The seed took root and shoots began to grow but the concerns and cares of this world were more important in this life - you know weeds, thorns need to be dug out early before they take root and become persistent problems. Such thorns are very subtle in a life - taking root unseen and then growing to choke the life of faith. Left even for a short time they quickly spread and begin to take over. The same is true in our lives - we need to be ruthless in digging out the worldview which is not biblical. We talk so easily and freely of things today that the bible considers sin. We embrace lifestyles and life choices that are sinful and we think we can embrace them and live as Christians. The truth is such things choke the life out of our faith and it comes to nothing in our lives. You know such temporary disciples of Christ are very common in churches. The warning of this seed is timeless.
Verses 8, 23 - The Successful Soil/Seed. You know this man is no different than any of the other three soils mentioned before. It is scattered in the same way upon the soil of his heart. He hears the exact same word (seed) as the first soil. He hears it with excitement like the second soil. He lives in the exact same world with all its deceits and temptations as the third soil. The difference is the roots go deep and it produces fruit in due season. But how did this seed become fruitful.? Jesus said 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds' John 12.24. There is your answer. The price of being fruitful is dying to self so that the life of Christ might be seen in and through our lives.
In this parable the sower is always the same. The same seed is sown on to each soil. It is the soil which determines the results and how much fruit is produced. This parable held up before Jesus' hearers a mirror for them to see where they stood in relation to God in Christ and it does the same for you this morning. So which soil best describes you? Which soil do you want to be?
Matthew 13v1-9 & 18-23
The Parable of the Sower
I want to begin a sermon series on parables told by Christ Jesus in Matthew's gospel. Some of the parable will be very familiar to us all but we should not allow that familiarity to close our minds to hearing God speak to us again through His Word. Most of you will have heard a parable described as 'an earthly story with a heavenly (or spiritual) meaning.' That is a simple definition of a parable. A parable is a comparison of two subjects for the purpose of teaching. It usually proceeds from the known to the unknown in order to teach something spiritual. There is generally, but not universally, one salient point to the parable. A parable holds the attention of the hearer, enables them to see themselves and whilst dealing with something well known adds a twist which fascinates and makes the hearer reflect.
Why did Jesus teach in parables? Well if you look at verse 1 of chapter 13 we see that He has moved from teaching in the synagogue to teaching in the open air, by the seashore. This move is significant in Matthew's gospel. Having been rejected by the religious leaders of the day He moves now out into the open air and addresses the crowds of common people. By telling parable He holds their attention, to fascinate without alienating them. Secondly if you look at verse 35 you will see that they are an instrument of revelation but only for those to whom it is given to see (verses 11, 16-17). The parable revealed truth to those who were hungry to receive it but concealed it from those who were too lazy to seek its meaning. Verse 12 tells us that the law of atrophy is at work amongst the hearers of the parable - if you don't use the muscle it withers and dies, the same is true spiritually of Jesus' hearers and of ourselves. The parables bring light to those who look for it but for those content in the darkness, it intensifies that darkness. Thirdly, the parables are a spur towards decision. The kingdom of God cannot be understood from outside. 1 Corinthians 2 verses 14 - read. Finally the reason Matthew groups parables together is to clarify them and to make it simple to understand them. For example these parables in chapter 13 mark the hinge upon which the whole gospel of Matthew turns, from this point on Jesus leaves Galilee and turns towards Jerusalem and the cross. As people hear these parables they are challenged to see where they stand in relation to the kingdom of God which Christ brings. Put another way they ask 'What will you do with Jesus?'
Verses 1-3 The parable begins with Christ using a familiar everyday sight - the farmer sowing seed in a field. The seed which 'the farmer' sows is able to transform the soil. The seed is the Word of God proclaimed by the Sower of God. The kingdom of God comes when the seed and the soil come together. And the kingdom comes in to a life where the seed takes root and begins to germinate and shoot.
Verses 4, 19 - The Shallow Soil/Seed. The fields in Galilee would have been unfenced with many paths running through them. The paths would have been rock hard with the countless feet, hooves of animals and cartwheels travelling over them. Jesus uses the imagery of a hard path which the seed finds impossible to penetrate and hungry birds which come to snatch it away as illustrations of how some hear the word of God but do not digest it, understand it or appropriate it in their lives. They are very vulnerable to losing it all as the devil comes quickly into such a heart and snatches it all away. Hebrews 4.2 tells us that for the seed to be effectual it must not only be heard but also combined with faith. The seed planted on to a hard heart that does not receive it with faith is easily snatched away and bears no fruit at all. It comes to nothing. Ask yourself this: Has the seed (the word of God) bounced off me like a seed bouncing off a hard path? You see the word which is only heard and not acted upon is easy prey for satan to snatch away. C S Lewis in the Screwtape Letters writes of such an account of a man who was beginning down the path to belief in Christ and how easily he was distracted by hunger and the news headlines on a billboard. We are easily distracted from the word of God when our hearts have been trampled hard by sin. As Malachi so rightly told his hearers - there comes a time in life when you have to plough up the unploughed ground in order to receive the seed. For some that is the very challenge you need to hear in 2011 - your heart is a hard path and though you hear the word of God it is so easily snatched away, even before the end of this post it is gone.
Verses 5-6, 20-21 The Superficial Soil/Seed. Jesus explains that this type of soil receives the seed with great enthusiasm, makes a great start but as soon as trouble or persecution comes they fall away because there was no root, no depth to their belief. This person can be jollied along in the right atmosphere and company but they have no roots to stand on their own and once on their own they fall away quickly. They will blow with the prevailing wind. They are superficial in their faith. This seed comes to nothing in the life of the hearer and bears no fruit in the world. Let me say as humbly as I can there are too many such Christians in churches today. Many of you started off great but now you blow with the prevailing wind of the company you are in - Christian at your church but not at work or in with some of your other friends. This seed died, it bore no lasting fruit, why would you think you would be any different?
Verses 7, 22 - The Secular Soil/Seed. This seed too seems to start very well. There is growth, there even appears to be roots going down into soil and yet all is not well. This soil has never been weaned from the secular world around it - it still contains the thorns and thistles of the old worldview and way of life. Look at what Jesus says of this soil in verse 22. It is deceived or delights in the wealth of the world. Such a person is concerned with the things of this world, his status and financial standing and these things are the priorities of his life and they slowly take over, grow stronger and choke the shoots of faith. Again this seed comes to nothing in such soil. Let me ask you seriously this morning: Are you a secular seed? Is your reputation before men more important than your standing before God today? Are you more concerned with the labels on your clothing than the label of your character? Are you more Christian Dior than Christian? The seed took root and shoots began to grow but the concerns and cares of this world were more important in this life - you know weeds, thorns need to be dug out early before they take root and become persistent problems. Such thorns are very subtle in a life - taking root unseen and then growing to choke the life of faith. Left even for a short time they quickly spread and begin to take over. The same is true in our lives - we need to be ruthless in digging out the worldview which is not biblical. We talk so easily and freely of things today that the bible considers sin. We embrace lifestyles and life choices that are sinful and we think we can embrace them and live as Christians. The truth is such things choke the life out of our faith and it comes to nothing in our lives. You know such temporary disciples of Christ are very common in churches. The warning of this seed is timeless.
Verses 8, 23 - The Successful Soil/Seed. You know this man is no different than any of the other three soils mentioned before. It is scattered in the same way upon the soil of his heart. He hears the exact same word (seed) as the first soil. He hears it with excitement like the second soil. He lives in the exact same world with all its deceits and temptations as the third soil. The difference is the roots go deep and it produces fruit in due season. But how did this seed become fruitful.? Jesus said 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds' John 12.24. There is your answer. The price of being fruitful is dying to self so that the life of Christ might be seen in and through our lives.
In this parable the sower is always the same. The same seed is sown on to each soil. It is the soil which determines the results and how much fruit is produced. This parable held up before Jesus' hearers a mirror for them to see where they stood in relation to God in Christ and it does the same for you this morning. So which soil best describes you? Which soil do you want to be?
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