“Sharing God’s Vision” – Pastor Grant Clay

His Work, His Way, For His Glory:

The Story of Nehemiah

Nehemiah 2

Sharing God’s Vision

When I was in college taking courses on ministry and leadership, I was assigned to read a book which was quite influential for church leaders at that time by George Barna called “the power of vision”. In the book, Barna (who I really like, by the way, and is a good statistician) expounds on Proverbs 29:18 which reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

The gist is that if you are a ministry leader – pastor, missionary, campus worker, children, youth, adults – you need to have a “vision”, that is a God-ordained direction for where the Lord is leading you. This vision then had to be cast and spelled out in detail in order for people to “catch” the vision. A successful ministry, I was told, depended on a captivating “vision”. Later in seminary, I read other books by different leaders who also used this Proverb in similar ways.

One influential pastor at that time maintains that without the vision of Proverbs 29:18 people “can’t focus, can’t reach their goal, can’t follow their dream…. I’ve seen it with my own eyes—without vision, people lose the vitality that makes them feel alive” (Courageous Leadership [2002], 31). This vision is a “clear call that sustains focused effort year after year, decade after decade, as people offer consistent and sacrificial service to God” (ibid.).

When I first began in ministry at the ripe age of 22, I felt this internal pressure to get the right “vision” for what I was doing. Even after seminary, when I started my time in Kansas, there was so much pressure (I felt) from other leaders, to get the “right vision”. And I found the whole experience absolutely exhausting…

Now, don’t get me wrong: vision, in terms of discerning God’s direction and purpose for ministry is important, but the notion that what the writer of Proverbs is describing is a ready-made success formula for ministry is simply not true.

The context of the whole verse is actually this:

Proverbs 29:18

The word here for “vision” actually refers to God’s revelation, that is His revealed will as spoken by His prophets and leaders. The word “perish” here means to “cast off restraint”; in other words, where the word of God is not being spoken or made clear, the moral restraints of the people are removed and they flounder – like what we see in the book of Judges where everyone simply did what was right in their own eyes. However, the following verse assures us that blessed is one who follows God’s law. I think the ESV gets it right:

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,
    but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Why do I share all of this? Because today in our study of Nehemiah, we are going to find him doing exactly this: providing leadership, direction, and “vision” for the people. But the “vision” is not of his own making, but borne from the very heart of God.

In other words, it’s not us figuring out what the vision is supposed to be and then asking God to share it or bless it, but rather its humbling ourselves to share God’s own vision – the vision He has revealed to us already in scripture and aligning ourselves with His!

Exposition of Nehemiah 2

Here is a brief recap of what we found last week.

Nehemiah’s historic place in history

586 – Jews taken into exile

539 – Cyrus defeats Babylon and establishes the great Persian Empire

538 – Cyrus makes a decree for the Jews to come back to their homeland

516 – Temple was reconstructed under the guidance of Zerubbabel and Jeshua

458 – Ezra the Priest goes to Jerusalem to help spiritually lead the community

445 – Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem to help rebuild the walls

Let’s pause here for a moment and take in the bigger picture…

History: Why hadn’t the walls been rebuilt yet?

Last week I shared with you about the prophecy Moses makes in Deuteronomy 30 (one of the most important chapters in the Bible!) about the return of the people to the land following their repentance. Moses predicts that they will have circumcised hearts by the Spirit of God, and live under a new covenant. This prophecy is later fleshed out in more detail by the prophet Jeremiah (31) and Ezekiel (36-37). So, what Nehemiah is looking for is the sign of the prophets.

Now, the people had returned from exile and were initially overwhelmed by the task of rebuilding the ruins of Jerusalem that lay before them. God sends the prophet Haggai, and the godly governor Zerubbabel and the priest Joshua to help encourage the people to the work.

However, by the time of Nehemiah, though the temple was rebuilt, the walls were still broken down. I shared last week that the broken walls were a sign of the spiritual condition of the people. There was an apathy, a complacency, and a lack of concern to pursue God’s purposes for them. They seemed to be content with just trying to survive, and get by the best they could. They weren’t idolaters like the previous generation, they were orthodox in their beliefs – its almost as if they were saying: we’ve done enough! We have restored the temple, repopulated the land, and maybe a future generation will see the Davidic king, and the promises Moses, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel lay out; this is our time to simply catch our breath and enjoy the small beginnings the Lord has given us.

However, as we will see in Nehemiah, the service to the temple was slack (not giving their tithes to keep it in proper operation), the people were intermarrying the local populations around them, and there was continued economic disparity that violated the law of Moses. Worst of all, the temple had not been visited by God the way it had under Solomon.

In short, the people who were supposed to be preparing for the way of the Lord were complacent, and luke-warm. And the fact that almost a hundred years had gone by with no one attending to the walls was a sign of this.

The prophet Malachi, who is a near contemporary to Ezra and Nehemiah, states emphatically God’s purposes for restoring His people to the land remained unchanged! Listen to what he writes:

Malachi 3:6-12

In other words, they were to prepare for the coming of the Lord! Which in their day, meant, the promised return of YHWH to fill His temple with the glory of His presence, and extend His rule throughout the world by a coming Davidic king.

Malachi summarizes this “vision” here:

Malachi 3:11

Nehemiah believed all of this – he believed in this “vision” which the prophets spoke of – and he knew the only way for this vision to be realized was for the people to prepare, to seek the Lord, to be obedient, to rebuild Jerusalem, renew themselves spiritually by returning to their first love – which is what is at the heart of the law of Moses, and at the heart of God’s plan for us:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Deuteronomy 6:4

But as long as the temple service, was slack, and as long as the walls were broken down, and the people were complacent – it wasn’t going to be.

Let’s begin verse 1 of chapter 2…

Nehemiah meets with the King

Neh. 2:1-4

Think about this – he has spent about four months preparing for this moment with prayer, fasting, confession, hoping, dreaming, that it would be in the will of God for him to return to Jerusalem and help build the walls. So, think of this prayer as “arrow prayer” – Nehemiah saying, “Ok Lord, here we go!”

Nehemiah makes his request to the king

Neh. 2:5-8

What a scene of God’s mercy and grace, intervening in the midst of the great political events of our day, with this humble cup-bearer who is God’s chosen instrument to change the course of history. Nehemiah concludes by saying, “for the good hand of God was upon me.” This phrase will occur again in Nehemiah, and shows up frequently in the book of Ezra too (who was a contemporary and fellow-worker with Nehemiah).

What do we learn here? Namely, prayer is not an end in and of itself but God’s appointed means by which He prepares us to do His work, His way, and for His glory.

Watch what happens next…

Nehemiah surveys the walls

Nehemiah 2:9-16

He makes his journey to Jerusalem, and takes a look first hand at the condition of the walls and the gates. And they are, presumably, just as he had heard: torn down, and destroyed by fire. Shambles, and in a deplorable condition. Notice, he does this work by night, and doesn’t immediately share what his plans are. Instead he wisely takes stock of the situation before announcing his grandiose plans.

Nehemiah casts his “vision” for rebuilding the walls

Neh. 2:17-18

What is he doing here? Giving them a word from God, reminding them that God is with them, and that the status quo of broken walls and burned down gates is not what He intended for them.

Again, going back to Proverbs 29:18: where there is no revelation (God’s will made known), the people perish due to casting off restraint (ignorance? Rebellion?). However, blessed are they who follow His laws (in other words, align themselves with His revealed will and purposes).

With his words he stirs the hearts of the people to rise up, take action, and rebuild the walls!

Hints of the coming opposition

Neh. 2:19-20

We will get into this next week, but we already begin to see hints of opposition that are brewing among those whom do not want to see this project going forth.

Main Idea:

God calls His people to share His “vision” for their lives by continuously turning back to Him as their “first love”

Application: Sharing in God’s Vision for His Church Today

So how does Nehemiah’s vision and call to the people of his day to rebuild the broken walls of Jerusalem apply to us today? What is the “vision” that God that would have us share with Him, suffer with Him for?

When I was first starting out in ministry in Spokane (at the ripe age of 22!), a ministry leader from my denomination approached me at a conference and after asking me who I was, etc., said, “So what’s your vision?” I stumbled for a moment and then just said, “For the kids I’m working with to know Jesus!” He wasn’t too impressed with that simplistic answer, but that was the best I could think of at the moment; but also, it was true. Later during my time in Kansas, my title was “Pastor of Preaching and Vision” – which looking back, sounded a little pretentious, but it was well-intended. When asked what my vision was, I realized it hadn’t changed at all since I was 22 – I said I want people to know Jesus; either for the first time, or for the 1000th; I want it to be all about Him.

And you know what? If you ask me today, the answer is exactly the same. In fact, I would say it in a more concrete and succinct way today because, thanks to our eldership, we have what I think is a simple yet challenging, biblically-informed vision statement for our church:

That Christ would be seen by all

It’s so simple, and yet how often we become side-tracked and distracted, and deviate from the simplicity that the NT gives us in terms of what the focus of our church and our lives should be.

We don’t have broken physical walls to rebuild, but we certainly have spiritual ones to guard and keep. And what is the purpose of the wall for Nehemiah? To keep them secure from enemies and focused on the Lord. What is the purpose for the spiritual walls in our own lives?

The true challenge for God’s church isn’t to discover the right “vision”, but rather staying devoted to the vision God has already revealed: Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Friends, I don’t wake up in a cold sweat at night worrying about our theology, commitment to sound doctrine, and the like. But I do have the same concern for my life, and for us as a church that Jesus warned the church in Ephesus about:

Rev. 3:2-5

It’s possible to be very orthodox, very solid, very biblical – like the exiles coming back in Nehemiah’s day, and to also be very complacent, and very content with lesser things than God’s best.

Turn our eyes to Jesus, that Christ may be seen by all!

Main Idea: God calls His people to share His “vision” for their lives by continuously turning back to Him as their “first love”.