Nehemiah 2

Intro

Hey Y’all! How is everyone? everyone good? That’s good, who all went to the Prayer breakfast at DQ this morning, i know i saw some of you there, that was good. Kalie from across the street did a good job this morning. She reminded us that prayer is essential which is what we talked about last week. Prayer is foundational in all that we do. So if you there, you know what I’m talking about, if you missed it, then well you missed it.

Also, we just started watching the Chosen last night, have any of y’all watched that? it’s really good. Like I’m usually pretty skeptical when it comes to “Christian Shows” if they’re going to actually be good and not hokey or cheesy or accurate, like, wow Jesus is as white as me, or they make Jesus out to not be God. Idk, but this is actually really good, if you haven’t watched it give it a watch, it’s worth a watch.

Anyways, Last week we talked about prayer and we looked at what does it mean for prayer to be the foundation of all that we do. Tonight we are going to look at prayer but we are going to look at some other things that go along with prayer in the this passage.

SO think about this, who plays football in here? How often do y’all practice? How often do y’all do play a game? Okay, so your preparation is more than you playing, you are practicing more than you play. But you do play, playing the game is the next logical step in preparing for the game? If you never play the game the you are just preparing really for no reason.

So that is what we are about to see here in this text. Nehemiah is preparing for action.

Context

So if you have your bible, go ahead and flip over to Nehemiah Chapter 2, I hope you marked it last week where Nehemiah was, it can be tricky to find sometime. If you need a bible go ahead and raise a hand and we will get you one. Who needs a bible? Throw a hand up if you need one. Okay, so we are going to do things a little different tonight, normally I like to try and go verse by verse for the most part and see what is going on but tonight we are going to be looking at different themes in the text. This chapter is setting up the rest of the story in this book, the scene is being set and the major players are introduced, the setting is shifting to jerusalem and we need to understand these themes if we are going to understand the rest of the book. So stick with me.

Okay so let’s read this passage, I’m gonna read the whole thing, it’s kinda long, but there is a story in here that I want you to see. But before we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word tonight.

pray

Okay cool let’s read this thing, all of chapter 2

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of 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. 2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” 6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

Nehemiah Inspects Jerusalem’s Walls

9 Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

11 So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. 13 I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. 15 Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.

17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”

Okay so what is going on here in this passage, let me give you a little bit of context as to what we just read.

So first off this passage starts in Susa, in the court fo the king. About 4 months have gone by since chapter 1, remember this is just Nehemiah’s memoirs. This is basically his diary. But this is written in story form, Nehemiah is telling is a story. The whole story that Nehemiah is telling through this whole book is the restoration of the people of God. Nehemiah is the prototype for living missionally. And we start to see this theme be brought about in this chapter. So let’s look at it.

Living Missionally is Living Intentionally

Look at the first half of this passage, it takes place in the court of the King. King Artaxerxes, We need to set up who that is for this to make sense.

This the King, but not just any King, this is the King of the Persian Empire, which stretched all the way from close to china, to Greece. His dad is the famous king who battle the 300 spartans at Thermopylae, he got beat back but eventually he killed all of them and marched on through, but in Persian Life these kings weren’t just Kings, these guys saw themselves as gods, and so did their people. The had titles like supreme ruler of the universe. His dad was addressed as god King, and so was Artaxerxes, god King Artaxerxes, King of the Universe. They were a little bit prideful. And they had absolute authority of all the people in the empire. These guys were ruthless and if they wanted you dead, you ere a dead man, they’d strike you dead right there.

So that is who’s court Nehemiah is in, the man who calls himself god King, who thinks he is god. And we see that about 4 months have passed before Nehemiah has this conversation that Nehemiah has been praying about having with the King. Nehemiah has been praying and this grief has been weighing on his heart, until it is noticed.

And we see that the King sees that Nehemiah is sad. He asks him why his face is sad?

and this makes Nehemiah scared. Nehemiah is starting to feel some real fear. When we read this, we think the king is talking like sad, like down, upset, sick. But in the original language, the King is saying, you look suspicious, you look like your up so something. Would you want that guy to be suspicious of you. The guy who can order your head removed from your body like you’re ordering a Spicy Chicken sandwich ith the cheese and the bacon at CFA. It’s nothing for the king to do that.

And who would be a better assassin than the cup bearer to the king, which is who Nehemiah is, the cup bearer. He could poison the king if he wanted too, he’d take himself out too, but hey he changed the king, not many people have that power.

So the king was suspicious, so Nehemiah was afraid, so Nehemiah addressed the king. King Live forever! trying to disarm the King. and Nehemiah tells the king what is wrong, “why should I not be sad about my hometown, my fathers graves are in ruin!” And the king, is taken back and sees that there is a request in there.

So what does Nehemiah do? First he prays, even in any situation prayer is the foundation, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to “17 pray without ceasing,” and here is a prime example of praying without ceasing. This was not a long drawn out prayer but probably a “Lord, be with me” Prayer, asking the lord to guide his steps. then what does he do? he asks the King to help him rebuild the city. He asks for his permissions to have materials to rebuild the city. And this was a bold request. This is the same city that the Kings Grandad or Great Grandad destroyed. Nehemiah showed boldness here, but not just any kind of boldness, he was intentionally bold. The Lord had guided him to pick his spot to be Bold.

Now boldness is another theme that is through out this book, Nehemiah is bold. It is set up here with this request to the king, but it is a certain kind of boldness, it is intentionally bold. Nehemiah is not the guy who is always bold for the sake of being bold, there is another name for that and it is called being brash, and that’s just annoying. That brings attention and glory to the person being brash and not to God. So for us, Nehemiah is setting the example of living intentionally, look at where he is in life, he is cup bearer to the king, a foreign conquered man, is cup bearer to the king. Nehemiah served faithfully where he was and lived intentionally where he was at.

This whole book is about God restoring his people and carrying out His mission for his people, through His people. If we are in Christ, we are being called to be bold with the Gospel. We are called to live intentionally, gearing everything we toward sharing the good news that Christ has come and taken our sins upon himself, restoring the relationship between us and God.

So how do we live missionally? If Nehemiah is setting the prototype for how to live missionally, we have to live intentionally, if you are writing things down, write that down, living missionally is living intentionally. We have to set our lives in such away that we will have maximum eternal impact, think about it now, who do you come in contact with on a daily basis? Who do you know that is lost, and is going to bust hell wide open when they die? How can you intentionally set your days up to reach those people with the gospel?

How many of you like routines? Or live your life by a schedule? Most of your hands should be up, cause if you think about it, school commands a large chunk of your schedule? I know Lauralee lives and dies by her schedule. Me I’m a little less regimented, but that is just how she is wired, she thrives on a schedule, she knows when she’s doing what a what time. Anyone like that? Honestly that is a way less stressed way to be. But think about it, how can we intentionally set up put lives to have gospel conversations, now I’m not saying that you are scheduling the Holy Spirit, but what you do is set goals, make things a priority, if you use a calendar think about someone in one of your classes who needs to hear the gospel, congrats, you are the one to tell that person. Write it on your calendar, in a month you are going to build a relationship with a person, and by this date they will have heard the gospel. Try it, see if it doesn’t affect how you carry yourself at school. I’m not saying they will receive Christ, leave that up to christ, but you know someone who needs to hear the gospel, out your self in a position for them to hear it. That is what we mean by living intentionally. Living in a way that opens you up to having gospel conversations.

Think about it. Let’s keep going, lets look at a couple ways this can happen.

Living Missionally is Seeing and Meeting Needs

What happens next in this passage? The king grants Nehemiah’s request to rebuild the city and gives him the materials and protection to do so. Then the scene changes, we see he is on his way to Jerusalem, and on his way the governors of the people around Jerusalem are mad that Jerusalem is being built. These guys, Sanballat and Tobiah, had been running that area, taking advantage of the people in Jerusalem. This was a threat to their power. Living Missionally is going to get resistance from the enemy. I think some of you have experienced that before or are experiencing that right now. Summer was awesome, now you are overwhelmed, You were walking with the Lord, now everything is a distraction from that.

That is spiritual warfare, this is why prayer is the foundation of everything we do, it keeps us anchored. That’s a sermon for a different day, but if you’re feeling that, come talk to me.

Okay, now we see Nehemiah is in Jerusalem. And what is the first thing that he does? he goes off by himself and surveys the city. He doesn’t tell the people what he thinks he should do first, he goes out and sees what the city needs. He doesn’t even take anyone with him, ehe wants to see for himself what needs to be done. And he sees the walls are in ruin and the city is destroyed. With out the walls, the city is useless, he sees that the people are barely surviving, they cannot worship properly, everything is in bad shape.

So he goes back to the people and then tells them, i see your destruction, I see what had happened, I see what needs to be fixed.

Remember this whole book is a story about God restoring His people. The first thing that has to happen is the people need to be physically restored. The task at hand is to restore the wall, give the people shelter.

So what does this tell us about living missionally? How do we gear our lives to share the Gospel in all that we do? Nehemiah gives us a great first step towards living missionally. a big part of living missionally is seeing and meeting needs. If you are writing things down, write that down. Living missionally is seeing and meeting needs.

Everyone you meet needs something, is lacking in some way, even the people who seem like they aren’t. But living Missionally is learning how to see needs and learning how to meet those needs. In Nehemiah’s case, he was seeing the need for a place to be, basic shelter and security.

If someone is hungry, like not they need a snack but they haven’t eaten in days, that person is not going to care how much tell them Jesus loves them if you are not going to first feed them. Now we may not run into that much in Gray, but the needs you might be seeing is friendship, a person if they need a friend is not going to listen to what you have to say about Jesus if you aren’t able to be their friend. Living Missionally is being able to see and meet needs that are barriers to having gospel conversations. We can’t take care of spiritual needs if we first can’t take care of physical needs.

This is why in James 1 the widows weren’t being cared for spiritually, because their physical needs were not being met first.

Nehemiah saw what was needed, he was in the city, in the community and saw for himself, what the people needed, and made a plan for that need to be met, paving the way not just for physical restoration but spiritual restoration in the second half of this book.

Living Missionally is What We are All Called to Be.

Okay, so what is the point of this, why talk about this? As followers of Christ, we are called to be missionaries, not just some of us, but all of us. We are called to go and come along side God in the building of HIs Kingdom. In studying this passage, i kept asking the question of how do we see Christ in this passage? And Christ is in this passage through the restoration of His people. Christ is working through his people who are intentionally living their lives to bring Glory to Christ and Christ alone. This passage is calling us to do the same. If you are a follower of Christ this passage is telling you to think about how can you set your life up in a way that brings people to know him? How can you prioritize your life in a way that allows you to live intentionally on mission? What are somethings that you need to lay down so you can gear your life to point people to Christ.

If you are not a follower of Christ or don’t know what you believe this text is calling you to examine your life, this is giving you an option as to who are you going to follow? Christ is calling you to Himself, Christ has made a way for you to know him. no matter what you have going on in your life, no matter how bad off you might think you are, Christ loves you and wants to restore you to Himself.

As we sing this last song, think about who you are following, is it yourself, trying to call all the shots, you can do that for a while but you can’t do it forever.Submit your life to Christ, let him be the one to guide you. Y’all pray with me.

pray