2. Give up!

The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:

In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said:

“LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

I was cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah 1:1-11

Do you ever look at all the things that are happening in the world and think about how it could be reached with the good news? If you do, how do you feel as you think about ways that this might happen? Do you feel a deep sense of optimism, or a crushing sense of pessimism? Does the task seem impossible?

When Nehemiah heard about the things that were happening in his world, he ‘gave up’, but not perhaps in the way we might think:

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

The things he heard could have filled him with despair, he was told that:

“Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

What a mess! How on earth could such a situation be improved!

So, Nehemiah GAVE UP to SELF. Rather than focusing on his inability to do something about what seemed an impossible situation, he focused on God, the God who we know, as Christians, is able to do far more abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.

Nehemiah realized something that many us fail to see, ‘With God nothing is impossible’ and if the mess is ever to sorted out there is no sense us relying on our ability to solve it because we can’t BUT God can!

Nehemiah put himself into a place where He could see things from God’s perspective, not his own. To do this, he wept, mourned, fasted and prayed!

As you consider the great challenge of seeing your street, city, or nation changed, I encourage you, like Nehemiah, to GIVE UP! Not by focusing on your inability and therefore doing nothing but by putting yourself in a place where you will see what Nehemiah saw:

“LORD, the God of heaven, the GREAT and AWESOME God…………

3. God loves sinners!
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14,15
God loves sinners! This simple statement is so easy to make but it is so important that we grasp the full implications of the truth that lies behind these words if we are to passionately join Jesus in His Mission.
It is clear that as Jesus brought ‘The Kingdom of God near’ it was ‘sinners’ that He went to.
Luke writes:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2
As I read these verses, they create a picture in my mind, and the picture I see exposes a deep contrast into the way that people understood the mission of Jesus. The ‘Tax collectors and sinners’ were all gathering round Jesus because they wanted to hear him speak about the Kingdom of God that he was welcoming them into ‘even though they were sinners’. I visualize the faces of these sinners as they hear the Good News and I see the filled with joy and wonder at the most remarkable truth that they can be welcomed in!
But then comes the stark contrast! ‘The Pharisees and teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them”. Again, I see a picture in my mind, I see these religious leaders ‘muttering’. The word mutter means: ‘say something in a low or barely audible voice, especially in dissatisfaction or irritation’.
I see these religious leaders, dressed in their religious clothing and, as they witnessed Jesus bringing Good News to the sinners, did not have faces filled with joy and wonder. They did not rejoice in the Good News that Jesus shared, they put their hand over their mouths and muttered their dissatisfaction to one another. It is interesting that the title Pharisee means ‘separated one’. The pharisees did not want to associate with sinners, they stayed away from them because they thought that by making contact with them it would result in them being tarnished.
For the Pharisees, the message that Jesus lived and preached was unthinkable, in their view, sinners should be condemned and avoided, not be the recipients of Good News!
As I reflect upon the picture that I see in my mind as I look at these verses, I find myself thinking about the sad reality that, in so many churches all around the world, this attitude exists! It is so easy, as a person who spends a great deal of time with other Christians, engaging frequently in church related activities, to become like the Pharisees, to consider ourselves as ‘separated’ from ‘the sinners’ and, like the pharisees, to try to stay away from them and even disapprove of Christians who try to reach them!
Such an attitude is the opposite of what Jesus commands His followers to have, we, like Him, should be taking ‘Good News’ close to the sinners because, as the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst”. 1 Timothy 1:15
Paul’s grasp of the purpose of Jesus Mission is perhaps most clearly understood by him because he had experienced such a deep transformation. He had been a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee, yet, because he had encountered Jesus, he knew that it was because Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners, that he could know God, not because of his own self-righteousness or goodness.
Do you, like me, find that the same view that the Pharisees expressed in their mutterings can be a view that you have to? Do you sometimes forget that the Good News is that God loves sinners and find yourself wanting the church to be a place where the good people go because there we can separate ourselves from the sinners?
If so, this week, I urge you, as you seek to join Jesus in His Mission, to open your heart to God about the views that you have, perhaps in secret, and ask Him to transform you so that, like Paul, you can rejoice in the fact that the Good News is for sinners. When we truly know this, we can join Jesus in His Mission!
Dennis