God’s people had been in bondage for over 140 years, they had been living in exile and longing to return to Jerusalem. The Babylonians had captured and destroyed Jerusalem, exporting the people to foreign and distant lands. While Daniel was alive the Persians conquered the Babylonians and had a different policy of dealing with people, they let them return home in order to keep the goodwill of the people. Many Israelites returned and set to work to rebuild much of Jerusalem, particularly the temple but it was nothing in comparison of its former glory. Many Israelites remained where they were because they had families, jobs, like the places they were living. Nehemiah was one such man, he served in the royal court, had a nice job, a good living and was comfortable where he was at – does that sound like anyone you know. One day all of that changes…
Unity Today
- Can you imagine what we could do if we all banded together? What if we seriously, got together on one project and took maybe two weeks to do something. Let’s say we were going to build something, maybe a tower, and we all pooled our money, someone donated some land and we just got to work. Habitat for Humanity does something like this in their program called Blitz Build and they can build five houses in five days! Could we build fourteen houses in fourteen days?
- As we can collectively create good, we can also collectively create evil. Can you imagine what harm we could do if we all banded together? Think back to what happened when two young men in the town of Littleton, CO came together for a united purpose in Columbine high school. Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold killed twelve students, injured many more and left scarred with these memories countless people for life.
- Unity in purpose and spirit isn’t always such a good thing.
Unity of Babel
- There was a group of people in Genesis 11 who said, “Let’s get together and make a name for ourselves.” And it was here that God scattered humanity in order to save humanity from itself. God was afraid of the great evil that would spread as a result of humanity banding together – their potential was exponential.
- Why is it that God didn’t permit this work?
- They united for the wrong purpose. God did not create us to make names for ourselves, that might happen in the course of our lives but our lives are to glorify him. Yet, even today many find themselves striving to make names for themselves and neglect God.
- They united with the wrong spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:12 draws a line of distinction between the spirit of this world and the Spirit that comes from God.
- Ephesians 2:1-2 talks about this Spirit, Paul says, “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.”
The Unity of Acts 2
- Pentecost – a history
- Before we get to the story of Pentecost we need to know what it was first – before the Spirit came. It was instituted by God through Moses in the Torah, God calls his people to unite together for a feast. This feast was to celebrate the harvest, to celebrate their work. (see Deuteronomy 16:9-10)
- It was a reminder that our labor and our profit were gifts from God. It reminded the people to not be like the people at Babel who forgot the purpose of God and instead adopted a spirit of selfishness.
- And so it was on this feast day, 50 days (pente), after the Passover, and after the cross, and 7 days after Jesus’ ascension that the Spirit of God comes on all those who united in him.
- Tongues come on the faithful, why? So that they could reverse the centuries old curse of Babel. So that they could proclaim the message of Salvation.
- In Acts God blessed this group’s unity, why? Because they were united with the purpose of proclaiming Christ, they were united in the Spirit of God, and as they went on they passed the test of faithfulness.
Ephesians 4:4-5 reminds us, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
What is the one Spirit that you have? What is the one Spirit that we share?
Anonymous message this week from Facebook: “I wanted to let you know one of my attempts to be still this week. In a world where Facebook is everywhere, I have chosen to deactivate my account and be one of the few who no longer is a participant. While I find FB fun and entertaining, for me I also find it a source of envy, jealousy, and time consumption. I have found myself to feel depressed or blue when I log off FB because I compare myself to others way too much (what they have, what they are doing, etc.). In addition, the few times I have found myself on FB I have noticed that the few minutes I intended to be on there turn into many more. I am not a big fan of cell phones and computers for several reasons, but mostly for the time they steal away from things that are most important in life.”
It seems that sometimes we are overly connected through the internet. Sometimes things said, mistakes made could go unnoticed, but now they are displayed for all to see on the internet. We feel compelled to update, compelled to talk, compelled to look and read. I think now more than ever Will Durant’s quote is true, “Talk is cheap because the supply always exceeds the demand. One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.”
But the truth is that time alone, time spent in solitude can be so good for us and our relationships. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s last letter to his fiancee, from the Gestapo prison at Christmas 1944, before being hanged by the S.S. for resistance to Hitler: “These will be quiet days in our homes, but I have had the experience over and over again that the quieter it is around me, the clearer do I feel the connection to you. It is as though in solitude the soul develops senses which we hardly know in everyday life. Therefore I have not felt lonely or abandoned for one moment. You must not think I am unhappy. What is happiness and unhappiness? It depends so little on the circumstances. It depends really only on that which happens inside a person. I am grateful everyday that I have you, and that makes me happy.”
We were not meant for permanent isolation. Genesis 2:18
- True, total and permanent isolation is not what solitude is about. Henri Nouwen says it this way, “It is probably difficult, if not impossible, to move from loneliness to solitude without any form of withdrawal from a distracting world, and therefore it is understandable that those who seriously try to develop their spiritual life are attracted to places and situations where they can be alone, sometimes for a limited period of time, sometimes more or less permanently. But the solitude that really counts is the solitude of the heart; it is an inner quality or attitude that does not depend on physical isolation. On occasion this isolation is necessary to develop the solitude of heart, but it would be sad if we considered this essential aspect of the spiritual life as a privilege of monks and hermits. It seems more important than ever to stress that solitude is one of the human capacities that can exist, be maintained and developed in the center of a big city, in the middle of a large crowd and in the context of a very active and productive life. A man or woman who has developed this solitude of heart is no longer pulled apart by the most divergent stimuli of the surrounding world but is able to perceive and understand this world from a quiet inner center. –Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1975), 25.
- The very first place that the word “alone” shows up in scripture is in Genesis, where God looks at man who is alone and says, “It is not good that man should be alone.” To be in a perpetual state of aloneness is not good, but seasons of withdrawal from people can be very healthy for your spirit.
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Deuteronomy 8 tells us that God’s people wore sandals that didn’t wear out for forty years. Can you imagine how blessed we would be if God preserved our shoes and our clothes for forty years? We would all consider it a curse to have our clothes from the seventies last that long, because we like change and we like swapping things out for the newest and the best. Consider this with the recent release of the iPad, Steve Jobs at Apple announced that as of January of this year there had been sold over 250 million iPods. With close to 300 million people in America that is almost one iPod for every American man, woman and child. The average iPod has a life span of 2 – 3 years. You can buy a washing machine for the price of an iPod, but expect to have it longer than 2-3 years. Why is it that when it comes to consumer electronics we consume so much and expect so little?
I like the iPod, I have an iPod, I like electronics, I have electronics. But, I’m concerned with myself, my family and us as a church that we have forgotten the gifts of simplicity, of sacrifice, in our disposable culture. What if our iPods lasted 40 years? I have a feeling we would still want a different one, a faster one, one with more storage. So, we need to consider what we buy and how we consume. I want to look at five principles from scripture that will help us to become simpler in our shopping habits. I received this text message this week, “The net is a tool for virtue or vice. It is what we make of it. One thing is for sure, though. It doesn’t help anyone get away from the desire for instant gratification.” It sure doesn’t.
Electronics definitely can simplify our lives, but they definitely can consume our time and our resources. Consider this from the NY Times which tells us that the average adult is exposed to screens from TVs to Computers to Cellphones an average of 8 ½ hours a day. So, this morning as we talk about simplicity, I want to talk about living lives of value. I want to gives us five points that go with the acrostic “Value” to help us evaluate how we spend our time and our money.
View eternity. (1 John 2:15-17)
- Remember what’s important, that’s what John advocates in 1 John 2:15-17. Here he advocates:
- Not love the world or the things in the world.
- Not take pride in riches.
- “The world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.” (1 John 2:17)
- As I read through the Deuteronomy text I thought, we’ll that’s great God kept things together for the Israelites as they wandered through the desert – but it doesn’t apply to us. Then as I poured coffee Tuesday morning at home it hit me – we are the wanders, we are sojourning to the promised land. We forget that and set up shop here thinking that this is it.
- James 4:14, “Life is but a vapor,”
- Our possessions won’t last forever and our life here is limited – let us live with an eye towards eternity. G. K. Chesterton said this, “One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”
- Too often we live life staring at great things, but from a heavenly perspective it is only a small thing.
- The best way to gain this eternal perspective is through worship, through stillness, through communion with God.
- Some of you took last week’s challenge seriously and struggled with it.
- But Psalm 43 celebrates this [read Psalm].
- In Psalm 43 we see three movements valley (v1-2), encounter (v3-4), new view (v5)
