Drawing Near to the Body 1981

For quite a while now, we've been talking about the concept of the open church. I believe there's a fair consensus here that the Spirit of the Lord is directing us that the body of Christ should take the form, at least among us, of a fellowship that has an open door so that everybody's welcome. A fellowship where brothers and sisters are open to the Lord and also open to each other so that we're walking in the light.

And that the atmosphere of the fellowship should be open. By this I mean that the thing that holds us together in unity is not a series of rules or disciplines imposed on individuals from outside them, but that the individuals in the body are drawn and held together by an inner commitment of the heart to Jesus. And that by this inner commitment, we find unity.

Now this last idea, this last thing that we often talk about and think about and pray about, is very critical. And it also can become the source of tremendous problems for us. In other words, that inner commitment of the heart to the Lord has to be strong enough that we're really, truly held in unity with each other.

If not, the body then disintegrates. And there's a tremendous temptation if it's left up to the individual heart. Temptation for each brother or sister to kind of drift and go his own way or do her own thing.

And then you have the picture of a man walking down the boulevard whose right eye suddenly spies a beautiful Christmas tree. And so the eye pops out of its socket, bounces across the snow for a closer look. The left hand notices some dollar bills blowing in the wind.

And so it disengages itself from the arm and starts crawling toward the money until it gets run over by a truck. And after a while, it goes with the mouth and with the ears until the whole thing has disintegrated. And each heart member of that body dies, separated from the other.

Now, if we truly are functioning as the body of Christ, that process is reversed and that there is a supernatural, miraculous gathering of the members from distant places and distant areas of concern and thought. And they are brought together and held together in unity so that the mouth and the hand and the eye and the foot are brought together by the Lord, formed and held into a body that in fact functions as a manifestation of Jesus in this world. Consider Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was a Jew in exile. He grew up in Susa, the capital city of the Persian Empire, and he had risen now to a place of considerable power. He was chief security man for the king.

He made sure that nobody poisoned his wine. Nehemiah never forgot that he was a Jew. He loved his people.

He loved his homeland, which he had never seen. He loved his God. He prayed every day toward the West, toward Jerusalem, which was now a devastated city, and no doubt figured that that was about all he really could do.

But then something happened which awakened in Nehemiah a concern for Jerusalem that he didn't even know could exist in his heart. Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 3 verses. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekeliah.

Now what happened in the month of Kislev in the 20th year as I was in Susa, the capital, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with certain men out of Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews that survived who had escaped exile and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the survivors there in the province who escaped the exile are in great trouble and shame.

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. Now you can imagine that Nehemiah would shed some tears over that and really perhaps be upset for several days and then move on and take care of business, his responsibilities in the court of the king. But this news of those broken walls of Jerusalem stirred something in this man that changed him into a new man.

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. And I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let thy ear be attentive and thy eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I now pray before thee day and night for the people of Israel, thy servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against thee.

Yea, I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against thee and have not kept thy commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, which thou didst command thy servant Moses. Remember the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the people.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though you're dispersed be under the farthest skies, I will gather them thence and bring them to the place which I have chosen to make my name dwell there. They are thy servants, thy people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and thy strong hand. O Lord, let thy ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who delight to fear thy name and give success to thy servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, the king.

I'm going to go in and talk to the king. Help me out, Lord. Here he is.

He's hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem. He's never seen that city, but Nehemiah knows that he belongs to Jerusalem. He's part of it.

And it's problems are his problems. And notice now how he prays. He doesn't pray, you know, I know they're in bad shape, Lord, but for the sins that they've committed.

But rather he prays, it's my sin, our sin. I and my fathers have sinned against thee. We have acted very corruptly and we have not kept thy commandments.

Now, if we begin to see ourselves, really see ourselves as part of the body of Christ, the way Nehemiah saw himself as part of Jerusalem. When we see a problem in the body, we immediately identify it as our own problem. We see ourselves as part of this thing.

And it's not Lord, forgive their sin. But now it becomes forgive our sin. Help us, Lord.

Help us. May God bring us to the place where we begin to see this, see ourselves as part of the body, the way Nehemiah saw himself as part of Jerusalem. Bring us to the place where we begin to weep for the body and care about Jerusalem and love Jerusalem and draw near to Jerusalem with our hearts.

But Nehemiah did more. As he drew near with his heart to Jerusalem, it began to become clear to him that he was going to have to leave his niche there in the court of a king. And he was going to have to go to this messy place that he'd been praying for.

Now, I was cupbearer to the king. In the month of Nisan, the 20th year of the king, Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had not been sad in his presence.

And the king said to me, why is your face sad? Seeing you are not sick. This is nothing else but sadness at heart. Then I was very much afraid.

And I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, lies waste and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then the king said to me, for what do you make requests? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you may send me to Judah, to the city of my father's sepulchers, that I may rebuild it.

Hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem. Yet he knows now that the wounds of Jerusalem are his own wounds. And he's going to have to do something about this.

And he's going to have to go there and help to repair those walls. You and I are very much like Nehemiah. We're aware very often of a distance between ourselves and Jerusalem.

It may not be a geographical distance. It may be a distance of heart, you know, of mind and spirit, something between us. We know that there are problems there in the body of Christ.

We can see that things are wrong, but we we don't see how we can do anything about it. Then the Lord begins to open our eyes, even as he did with Nehemiah. He begins to give us a vision that includes us in this body of Christ.

And we begin to pray a new kind of prayer and have a new kind of concern and have a new urgency and a new repentance. We see now that the reason those walls of Jerusalem are broken down is because of sin. And we see the sin no longer is their sin, but our sin.

We begin to repent and we begin to cry out and we begin to draw near with our hearts. And as we draw near to Jerusalem with our hearts, God begins to show us that we also have now to leave Susa, the capital of the world, and draw near to Jerusalem, the city of God. We're going to have to go in there and start serving the servants of God and repair those walls.

We're going to have to do something. And we say, but what? What can I do? And how can I really, in fact, move from Susa to Jerusalem? What is it there that I can really bring of any value to the body of Christ? We read now from Ephesians chapter four, excuse me, but grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the cunning of men, by their craftiness and deceitful wiles.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and up builds itself in love. But grace was given to each according to the measure of Christ's gift. Each of us has given some of this, and we bring this gift, this grace, and we offer it up for the up-building of the body.

For the up-building of the body, the Lord is calling us to draw near with our hearts, to take this gift of grace which we've been given, each of us, to bring this measure of grace that we have and offer it up for the up-building, for the edifying, for the strengthening of the body. And so we then say, Lord, if this is the place, wherever this happens to be, that you put me, if this is where I'm supposed to labor, help me now to contribute from my heart. Help me to draw near with my heart.

Help me to really begin to care. Help me to take hold of the burden and lift with my heart. Now I want to spend myself, pour myself out for my brothers and sisters in a way I've never done before.

It's a matter really of attitude. You know, when the attitude begins to become one of real concern and real love for this messy, mixed-up bunch of people who happen to be the body of Christ, we begin to have a clear vision, much clearer than we had before, and that vision will always include our own place in the up-building of the body. What an awesome thing that God has included us in the edifying of his body on earth, the body of his Son on earth.

So that we're part of it. For the up-building of the body, the Lord is calling us to draw near with our prayers. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

They shall prosper that love thee. Making supplication for all the saints. Again, what an awesome thing that life is poured from heaven down into the body of Christ on earth when we pray.

There's a need for more of the Holy Spirit in the body. The only way this is going to be met is when brothers and sisters in the body pray. We often think about the need for the Holy Spirit and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on individual terms.

You know, if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And we think of this as a gift coming down on the individual, and certainly that's valid. But this is equally true for the body. And if the Holy Spirit is going to visit the body, the corporate, the assembly of believers, and pour out the life that it so desperately needs, this will only happen as saints pray.

Lord God, send your Spirit. We lament the need for laborers of every kind, laborers in the harvest. And we're taught by our Lord that the only way that need is going to be met is when we pray.

Pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into the harvest. We become conscious of a need for more praise, more worship, more mercy, more compassion. You know, and so we need to, you know, once we have an insight concerning a need, the only valid, helpful thing we can do as a beginning is to pray.

For the upbuilding of the body, the Lord is calling us to draw near with a simple commitment to serve our fellow servants. Now, we notice that when Nehemiah left Susa to go to Jerusalem, it was not to start a new career. Well, I made it in Susa, now I'm going to make it in Jerusalem.

To get some picture of how this was in this man's mind, he was up near the top. He wants somebody. And now he's going to go to this crummy place with these obnoxious fellow Jews that he's going to have to work with to serve.

You know, his career is in Susa and he leaves that back and he goes there to just be a servant. And Jesus called the disciples to him and said to them, you know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles, Lord it over them. And they're great men exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your slave. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the son of man also came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

When Jesus had washed their feet and taken his garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am. If I, then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

The body is edified. The body is built up as we wash each other's feet, as we serve each other. And only in this way, no other way, our effectiveness in the world out there.

And that's what we're here for. The validity, the authority and power of our message is directly tied to the way the servants of God are serving each other. By this, shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

And so into the open church comes the call of Nehemiah, the man who drew near to Jerusalem with his heart, loved it, wept for it, repented for it, prayed for it, served it, made himself responsible for rebuilding its broken wall. May the Lord help us to follow in his steps. Let's take some time in silence.