I Saw the Lord- Part 8 "A Move of God
March 23, 2008
Rev. Meagan Boozer


Just a couple of weeks ago, I was having breakfast with a friend, and some people came into the restaurant who know our family.  They asked about our son, Douglas, since they have a son who graduated with Doug.  We asked some questions back and forth about how things were going for the boys, and then the man said, “I hear Doug and his friends are pretty religious.”  I didn’t quite know how to take that, but I responded with something like, “they are very committed Christians.”

            Would you say that a group of young men who are involved in weekly Bible study at PennState, who attend church every Sunday, who are giving up 2 months of their summer to do missionary work, are religious?  Would you say that we are all religious because we’re here today – or were here more than 2 Sundays in the last month? 

            What if today’s the day I leave my body behind and go to Heaven.  What if the gatekeeper says something like this:  “I have one question to ask you before letting you go in.  If you get it wrong, well, too bad for you.”  “Okay,” I say.  “Ask away!”

            Here’s the question:  “Why should I let you into this glorious place of peace, purpose, and eternal adventure in the Kingdom of God?”

What if I answered very proudly, “Well, I was very religious.”  I can tell you right now, that it would be the last hopeful answer I would ever give.

            Jesus, who has always been fully God, came to earth in the form of a Jewish baby being fully God and fully human at the same time, (truly a supernatural miracle) grew up in the midst of religious people.  He went to the temple every time he was supposed to be there.  He studied the Torah (the early books of the Old Testament).  He knew the history of his people, and he knew of the prophets and their prophecies.  He quoted many of them in his teaching.  Some would say he was very religious.

            But, here’s the truth:  Jesus came to break down the walls that “religious” people tried to build.  God gave us laws – ways to live our lives in the fullness of joy.  But the “religious” people, the Pharisees of the day, made more laws, and built walls made of laws, and more laws, and even more laws to keep people so busy they didn’t have time to know God.  The religious people were judgmental people.  It was “their way or the highway.”  And the sad thing was, they were convinced “their way” was “God’s way.”  Jesus came to break down those walls.  Here’s how he addressed the religious leaders of his day (Matthew 23:13-15):  “How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees.  You are hypocrites!  For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.  For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them!  You cross sea and land to make a single convert, and then you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”  He was not Mr. Popularity with the unrighteous religious leaders of his time!

            Our granddaughter Riley is four now.  She likes to stack things, as most children do.  Just last week she was stacking some blocks to make a high tower.  Can you guess what her 20 month old brother did as soon as he saw the tower?  Down they went!  I remember being out at Dawn & Drew Johnson’s house a little while ago.  Gabe loves to set up his farm set with fences and horses and cows.  He is really careful about how he does it.  Can you guess what younger brother Clay likes to do to those farms?  He wants to knock it all down!  Gabe gets mad, Riley gets mad, and the hard-hearted religious leaders got mad, too!  But that didn’t stop Jesus, because that is what he came to do – to knock down walls, including the walls religious people put up, that keep people away from knowing and loving and serving and glorifying God with freedom and joy.

            This past week, our Lenten Study, “I Saw the Lord” had us reading several chapters in the book of Nehemiah as we finished out the series.  Nehemiah – what a leader!  Many Christian businessmen use Nehemiah’s leadership example as a model for their own servant leadership style.  There’s a Nehemiah non-profit Corporation that specializes in helping people find affordable housing .  There’s a Nehemiah Re-construction Company in Atlanta.  Their motto:  Restore, Re-side, Renew.  In Chicago, there is Vision Nehemiah.  Their mission: To ignite a network of churches committed to purposeful ministry that evangelizes the unsaved, establishes believers, and equips leaders in each of Chicago's 77 neighborhoods by the year of 2020 – All inspired by Nehemiah – what a leader!

It was approximately 450 B.C.  Nehemiah was a Jewish exile, whose ancestors had been deported from Jerusalem along with hundreds of thousands of others in the invasion of the Babylonians.  Nehemiah was of such strong character, that he ended up being given a place of high responsibility in the kingdom of the Persian King Artaxerxes.  His work was stellar – and he earned the respect of the King.  One day, the King noticed that Nehemiah looked “downcast,” and he asked him why.  Nehemiah told him how he wanted to go to the holy city of Jerusalem and rebuild the city walls.  The temple had been rebuilt by people permitted to return to the city, but the walls of the city were in shambles.  The King gave Nehemiah both the time and the resources to go and rebuild the walls. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            It would have been very important in those days to have walls around your city, for good, strong walls were vital to the health of the community.  The wall protected the people from the constantly roving enemies who sought to kill, steal, and destroy.  Surely, without walls, the holy temple wouldn’t stand for long!

            Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem, organized the people and the materials, and here’s what we read in Nehemiah chapter 6:15, 16, “So, on the 25th day of the month of Elul [approx. Oct. 2], the wall was finally finished – just fifty-two days after we had begun.  When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated.  They realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.”

            Well, duh!  Fifty-two days . . . an impossible feat without the help of God because, let’s be clear: we are not talking about a wall the size of the stone wall that’s down here along old Rt. 75.  We are talking about a wall that is as high as this room, and that is so thick that it has a track that runs in the middle of it so soldiers could stand on the track and see over the top of the wall for approaching enemies.  When John and I traveled to Israel back in 1999, we walked these tracks on the high walls for long distances around the city of Jerusalem.  But Nehemiah was such a great leader, that he got everyone working together, rotating shifts, doing their part non-stop without grumbling, sometimes even laying stone with one hand and holding a sword in the other to keep the enemies away!  That wall was standing in a mere 52 days!  Surely this was a move of God!  Surely only God could have positioned Nehemiah in a place of responsibility and influence in the PersianPalace.  Surely only God could have softened the heart of King Artaxerxes towards a Jewish exile.  Surely only God could have provided all the resources – materials, laborers, protection against enemies, and the will to work together so religiously!  Surely it was a move of God that enabled the work to be accomplished.  Can you see those walls in your mind’s eye?

            So, on this Easter Sunday, how do we put together Jesus’ work of tearing down the walls of sin and religious pride and Nehemiah’s work of building walls of protection?  We put them together right here at the glory of the cross and the miracle of the empty tomb! 

In Jesus’ dying on the cross for us, he broke through the prison doors that hold us back from knowing and loving God.  He died with every sin we have committed and will ever commit on his back, so that we don’t have to live chained to our sin.  Jesus allowed himself to be taken into custody, tortured, stripped, mocked, and nearly killed by beating even before being nailed to the cross.  He spoke not a word in his own defense.  What was he going to say that he hadn’t already said?  “I’m not guilty, but everyone else is guilty, so because I came to save everyone from their sin and guilt and shame, I allow you to go ahead, consider me guilty, and crucify me.”  It was better for him to remain silent, because those who accused him would not have understood any better than we do – and we live on this side of it!  We know how it turned out!  We know how he took those walls that cage us in, and keep us all bound up in lackluster, worry-filled, dry, empty, lonely, dark, boring, and hopeless places – we know how he took those walls and knocked them down in a move of God that shook the earth and supernaturally tore the curtain in the temple that separated & protected people from God’s wrath and power, that curtain was torn right in half - a ceiling to floor, one-foot thick curtain ripped, not from bottom to top, but from top to bottom,  (Mark 15:37), showing the people then and us today, that what Jesus did on that cross, made it possible for every man, woman, and child to know and love God personally, and big bonus time - making it possible for those who die, to live forever in a new and glorified body!

            What I love about Nehemiah’s story is how all the people worked together to get that work done.  They did it!  FIFTY-TWO DAYS!

But it only took Jesus THREE DAYS to break through the walls of death & destruction that the enemy, the devil, gets his little, pathetic crew of demons to put up in our lives.  Let’s remember, the devil comes ONLY to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).  The devil is here to steal your joy, to kill your hope, to destroy every relationship God has given you.  The devil is here to steal the building materials God has given us for spiritual wall-building.  Now, I’m not talking religious wall-building that keeps people out of a real relationship with God - I’m talking spiritual wall-building that keeps the devil out, and protects the people whose lives are devoted to building a relationship with God and with others whose foundation is a holy mixture of faith, hope, and love. 

Come on, let’s face it – we can do a lot of stuff religiously – and the devil can and does convince us that it’s what God would want us to spend our time, energy, and money on – but the key question at the gates of Heaven will not be looking for an answer that claims how religious you were about anything.  The key question at the gates of Heaven will be:  Why should God open the gate for you to go in?  And folks, there is only ONE answer to that question that will make that gate swing open so fast you won’t even see it moving:  “I can come in because I have the key:  Jesus Christ gave me the key after he took my sin into the pits of hell (and left them there) and rose again from death and darkness to bring me the gift of freedom on earth and eternal life in heaven.  God’s grace, in bringing me to believe, by faith, in what Jesus did for me, is the key.”  And with that, I get to run through those gates into the arms of my mom, my dad, my father-in-law – I get to see my little granddaughter, and be with Martha, Herb, Anna, Dorothy, Jim, Linda Harter, Doug Kelley, Ted Hale…  Because of Jesus, we have the gift of anticipating heavenly reunions unlike any we’ve known before.

            In these last weeks, this congregation has been on a revival journey.  We found out that the only way to reviving our relationship with God and others is repentance.  We discovered that without turning away from the behaviors, attitudes, and speech patterns that are against the will of God for us, we are nothing more than religious people,  doing certain things to earn some temporary satisfaction.  And who wants that, really?

That one word is the Name of Jesus.  Romans 10:13: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 

James 4:7-10: “Humble yourselves before God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.  Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done.  Let there be sorrow and deep grief.  Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.  When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.”

On this Easter Sunday, with renewed love or perhaps a brand new love for God, let us be about the work of building spiritual walls in our lives and in our church, with the stones of confession, repentance, forgiveness, obedience, truth of the Word of God, faith, hope, love, a commitment to worship not to fulfill a religious duty, but to know & love God more, commitment to studying our Bibles, not to fulfill a religious duty, but to know and love God more, and commitment to prayer and acts of service, not to fulfill a religious duty, but to know and love God more.           What a journey this has been.  I believe we have experienced a move of God!  And because of what Christ has done, it ‘ain’t’ over yet! 

If you have never opened your heart to receive the gift of freedom from slavery to sin and the gift of eternal life with God, I invite you now to respond to God’s gift of grace.  “Behold,” Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”  (Rev. 3:20).  Open your heart & let him in.  I will pray a prayer that you can say quietly in your heart to welcome his gift of grace into your life.  Let us pray: 

 

Dear God, in many ways I don’t understand

what is happening to me today. 

But, I know I need you.

 I know my life is empty without you. 

I confess that I am a sinner, and I need a Savior. 

I believe Jesus is the only Savior –

the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Jesus, I open the door of my heart to you.

 I welcome you into my life, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to live within me. 

Fill me.  Use me. 

Change me to be more like Jesus.

 I pray this in his name, Amen.

 

“Oh God, here are our hearts. 

O take, and seal them. 

Seal them for thy courts above. 

Renew.  Restore.  Revive. 

All for the sake of Jesus, our Risen Savior,

 in whose power we live,

in whose name we demolish

 the works of the devil,

 and in whose steps we follow

all the way home to heaven. 

Alleluia, Amen.”