Nehemiah 13:15-22
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NEHEMIAH�S second problem in the continuing life of Israel on his return from Babylon, after the completion of the building of the walls of Jerusalem, was the desecration of the Sabbath. It was another example of spiritual decline which had effected Israel.

The fourth commandment which God gave Israel at Sinai on their way to the promised land (Exodus 20) was that the Sabbath should be kept holy, and so that this may be accomplished the people had to cease from work on the Sabbath. Now Nehemiah found on his return from Babylon that this command had been neglected. All sorts of business was carried out on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. Traders from Tyre, who were not Jews, were doing business in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Because of this the people were neglecting their spiritual activity on this day.

Nehemiah rebuked the leaders for allowing this and carrying on with this desecration themselves, and pointed out that such practice in the past was one of the causes of all the calamities which Jerusalem suffered. It was one of the reasons that God eventual brought judgement on Israel and so Israel suffered exile in Babylon. Nehemiah pointed out (v.18) that this present desecration of the Sabbath was provoking God to withdraw his blessing again from Jerusalem.

Nehemiah set about correcting this evil. He made sure that the gates of Jerusalem were shut throughout the Sabbath so that traders were kept out. He even threatened traders with retribution if they camped outside the gates of the city on the Sabbath. Nehemiah also called the Levites to purify themselves, to guard the gates, and to do their duty to make the day holy.

The Sabbath was a Saturday, but since the resurrection of Christ the Christian church has always kept Sunday as the holy day, the 1st day of the week, because Jesus rose from the dead on this day, but the principle of the Sabbath remains the same for Sunday. Three things present themselves for our attention in the verses before us. Firstly, the importance of Sunday and the right use of the day. Secondly, the reason for keeping Sunday holy. Thirdly, how we promote Sunday as special in our culture today.

When Nehemiah saw how the Sabbath in his time had been desecrated, he was very concerned. Why should he have been so concerned? This is the big question. What is so special about keeping one day a week holy that makes it so important?

For Nehemiah it was sufficient that the Sabbath should be kept holy simply because God commanded it, and God had the right to be obeyed. This may not appeal to us today, but it is in fact true, and for Christians should be a prime concern. God�s command should be obeyed, firstly, because God created us and so we belong to him by right of ownership, but secondly and more importantly for the Christian, God has redeemed us by the precious blood of his Son, and love calls us to give him our love and devotion.

It seems to me that it is a contradiction for us as Christians if we do not desire to keep Sunday holy. We love him because he first loved us by giving his Son for our salvation. It is a contradiction against love if we do not long to be in the presence of God, and so welcome Sunday as an opportunity in a busy world to give time to meet with him, and worship him. Further, the very nature of our salvation is that we have received new life which opens the heavenly and spiritual realm to us. We now have life which lives in the heavenlies with Christ. Such life longs to be with the Lord and spend time with him. We have the Spirit of God, and not to want to keep Sunday as a day spent in the presence of God surely reveals a sickness in our spiritual life.

This is not the only reason for the importance of Sunday and keeping it holy. The commands of God are not simply negative, but have a positive side which is most important. All the ten commandments are given in the terms of a command - thou shalt and thou shalt not; but the positive is behind this commanding. With regard to the Sabbath, this means that in the command to keep the Sabbath holy is the positive reality that God deserves such devotion, and such devotion is a blessing to the human soul. God does not give command simply to exalt his ego. This may be motive behind earthly kings when they command devotion, but such an idea with regard to God is both dishonouring to God and ridiculous. The fact is that being God�s special creation, the purpose of our being is to worship and honour God. This is why we were created, and we only fulfil the purpose of our creation when God is the centre on our lives.

This is the reason Sunday should be kept different to other days, and our time should be given to God, and specially to worship him and hear him speaking to us. This is for the good of our souls.

This brings us to the reasons for keeping Sunday holy. The first reason is that not to do so is to dishonour God. To despise his command is to despise God. To despise God is to cause God to withdraw from us. Without God we are given over to sin and the will of Satan, and the lusts of the flesh. This is why the world is in such a mess, and society is so imperfect, and getting more so almost every day. God has given us over to a reprobate mind as Paul speaks so graphically in Romans 1:18ff. To be without God in the world is not then freedom that people suppose, but more and more bondage to the flesh and the sins of the flesh. Because the world has forsaken God, (and by this I mean the God who has revealed himself in the Bible, and not the gods worshipped through other religions whatever good there is in these religions,) God has forsaken us, and so we see all the terrible evils in the world today, which far from being solved are growing. They can�t be solved without God, because only God can curb, and change, the evil propensities of the human heart.

For the Christian the reason for keeping Sunday goes further. Firstly, it is our desire to please God, and keep his commandments. If we do not then we hurt our souls. Secondly, we do harm to our spiritual lives when we neglected Sundays. God has given us this day for a loving purpose. It is necessary and inevitable that for the six days we work, our minds have to be occupied with the business of earning a living, and looking after our temporal needs, and so we have no time to give for the nourishment of our souls. This is perfectly right and proper, but because of this our spirits are starved of the food and nourishment we need. God in his love has given us one day a week in order to refresh our souls. Although we should never neglect spiritual activity of seeking God in his Word and through prayer every day, God has given us this special day, Sunday, in which we can give all our time to the nourishment of our souls. It is a fact of the spiritual life, that if we neglect Sunday, and the use of Sunday, to seek the Lord, then our Christian lives will suffer, and spiritual decline will set in. We will then be more defenceless against the wiles and temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We need Sunday to feed our souls, and God in his love has given Sunday to us for this purpose.

But there is a further reason for keeping Sunday holy. If we are God�s people, the new life within us hungers after God, and there will be a delight in our soul at the prospect of meeting with the Lord on Sunday�s in church worship. I am not able to understand a Christian not wanting to keep Sunday holy, and spend a minimum of two services on this day to spend in worship, and prayer, and listening to his voice. I know there are times in the Christian�s life, when spiritually we are at a low ebb, and so spiritual things are not the delight they used to be, but at these times the very knowledge that our souls need this time with God, will keep us attending church even though at the time our heart is not in it, simply because we know how much we need this time with God. This is where the habit of going to church twice on Sunday is so helpful, for the discipline of the habit will keep us going.

I know that sometimes, if not more often than it should be, church services seem for us dull and spiritually lifeless, and we say in sorrow and need that we have received no blessing by going. We need to remember that blessing can not always be measured by feeling. Also we need to remember that there is a blessing simply in honouring God by our worship, even if we seem to be none the better for it. God sees our love, and he draws us more closely into the arms of his mercy and love.

How are we to promote the keeping of Sunday holy in our day. Nehemiah�s actions to honour the Sabbath sound far too dictatorial for us today, and ordering people in this way would most surely be counter productive. We live in a culture when Sunday worship is not the thing, and even for Christians often it is something we do when we feel like it, or occasionally, and we do not feel that we are worse off by missing a Sunday sometimes. How can Sunday worship be promoted today?

Firstly, it can be promoted by teaching. Teaching must include that God commands Sunday to be kept holy, but much more, teaching should show how good for us keeping Sunday holy is, and how blest we will be by keeping it holy. We need to be taught what Sunday worship can do for us, and how our Christian lives will be strengthened by it.

Secondly, we need to encourage each other in the practice of Sunday worship. It does not help to look down on other Christians if they do go to church every Sunday; nor does it achieve anything to criticise people for such neglect. This would be counter productive. Nor is it productive for ministers to always be creating guilt in peoples hearts by dwelling on the sin of not keeping Sunday holy. Rather we should seek to encourage people to worship. We encourage by finding out what the reason is why they do not attend, and seeking to solve this problem. People keep away from church for many reasons not connected to lack of desire. People are kept away because they feel they are not welcome. People keep away because they feel too tired after a busy week. People keep away because household duties get in the way. People keep away because they can�t find the means to come. People keep away simply because the church has never seemed interested in them. People keep away because of some hurt which they have received from the church or someone in church. These and more are reasons that can be tackled. Congregations can make a great difference by seeking to solve these problems, and above all show love and care.

One of the greatest reasons why people stay away from Sunday worship is that they do not identify with the worship and teaching that is provided. No faithful minister can water down or change the message of God in the Bible simply because people may not like it. This has been an error in the past. In desperation to make the services more relevant, some have more and more increasingly adopted the ways and thinking of the world, but this is not the answer. What we can do is to seek to make Sunday worship more alive, and the teaching presented in a more exciting way. It is always a further cause of decline in a church when the Gospel truth is compromised in some way. The reason is that all blessing comes from God, and God will not bless wilful denial of his truth.

We have today many aides to make teaching easier to understand and appreciate, specially in visual presentation. We must use them as we are able. It is also important to prevent our own cultural prejudices from keeping us from ways of worship that may be helpful to others. Today it is the way to involve all as much as possible in the activity of worship, and so we need to appreciate the talents people have and encourage the use of them in worship.

Above all worship which will attract is worship which is under the hand of God and spiritually alive. There is no greater power in worship than when everything that is done has the seal of God upon it, and when the whole act of worship has been prepared by prayer and communion with God, and where the whole of our dependence is on God.

Lastly, Sunday worship will be more and more honoured when God�s people show their enthusiasm for it by their attendance, and when each Christian is ever looking to God prayerfully how they can invite and encourage others to come to worship. This together with prayer for God to bless our worship and all who come, must always be our concern.