Nehemiah 2-3

Click below for the recording of the sermon I preached at Morning Prayer at St. James’s, Poole, on Sunday 22nd June.

Nehemiah 2-3 (27:03, 6.19MB)

(Apologies for the poor recording quality.)

Sermon Outline: Nehemiah 2-3

For Morning Prayer, St. James’ Poole, Sunday 22nd June 2008.

Introduction

The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build. - Nehemiah 2.20

A recent report has found that the Government has shown a lack of understanding of, or interest in the contribution of the Church of England, and has consciously decidd to focus almost exclusively on minority religions. This, the Communities Secretary said, was common sense. ‘We live in a secular democracy.’ One bishop replied, “That comes as news to me - we have an established Church, but the Government can’t deal with Christianity.” This comes on the heels of the Bishop of Rochester’s article about the steep decline of Christian values and influence in society. What part does the church have to play in the public life of our nation? It’s an important question, as the present situation could lead us to despair, withdraw or give up, or make us think it’s not worth bothering with as there’s no future. Nehemiah 2-3 forces us to consider the question: it’s a drama about kings, queens, governors, armies, high office, accusations of political subversion, and the servance of God. It first shows us the right perspective on the church and the society in which it exists:

1. God’s power extends over earthly rulers (Nehemiah 2.1-8 )

The plight of God’s people and city (Jerusalem) moved Nehemiah to tears, fasting and prayer. God’s city is at the heart of his purposes for healing our broken and divided world: it’s a community, a society where his transforming rule is known and flows to the end of the earth. To Nehemiah that looked as though it was in tatters. As he discharges his duties, his grief shows through, the king notices it, doesn’t appear to have much time for it, and leaves Nehemiah very afraid (v. 2). This is understandable: he’s being rebuked by the king of one of the greatest empires the world had yet seen. Nehemiah gives his reason (v. 3), the king realises something’s up and asks him what he wants, Nehemiah realises this is his opportunity, and prays (v. 4), the culmination of a time of extended prayer in chapter 1. He had prayed for favour in the sight of the king, which seems to be going through his mind as he replies (v. 5). They discuss details and timings, and then it pleases the king to send him. If that’s not extraordinary enough, he asks for a passport (v. 7) and building materials (v. 8 ) and gets them all, as well as an army (v. 9). It’s like the PM giving the doorman at No. 10 permission to rebuild Pompeii, and giving him a blank cheque from the Treasury and an armed escort. It’s inconceivable. Nehemiah tells us why it happened. God did it. He answered his prayers. He overrules the decisions of one of the most powerful kings the world had yet seen, in order that through one of his people he might build his city. See Proverbs 21.1. This matters profoundly for Poole in June 2008. From those who returned to the rebuilt city came Christ, and living this side of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, God’s city is no longer limited to one physical place in the Middle East, but is a heavenly city, the community of those who through faith in Christ, because he bore God’s right judgement on sin when he died on the cross, have been brought into fellowship with God the Holy Trinity. That city is visible in local congregations like St. James, into which we’re admitted in baptism. See Hebrews 12.22-24. It’s in the church that people know Chrit and his rule and are transformed by his word by the Holy Spirit to live how God intended us to live, rightly relating to him and to one another. So this section of Nehemiah 2 has much to say to us here, today, as we think about the part the church has to play in the public life of our nation and how we relate to our society: God rules even over the most powerful earthly authorities, and exercises his rule to establish and build his city, the church founded on Jesus Christ in this world, through which the world finds rescue and restoration. Nehemiah 2 is a part of that work and in a small way foreshadows it. That has implications.

2. God’s people can serve with courage and boldness (Nehemiah 2.8-20)

Nehemiah sets out and gets through passport control (v. 9) and building takes place in the context of opposition from those who do not want the promotion of the security and prosperity of God’s people (v. 10). Nevertheless he is conscious that God is over and above it all, achieving his purposes - it was God who moved Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem in the first place (v. 12) - so undeterred in the face of opposition, he embarks on a commando operation to survey the ruins in order to being the building work, which is top-secret, happens in the dead of night, with the minimum of equipment, and is not easy (vv. 12-14). Despite the shadow of opposition, he goes public, reminding the people of the problem and the derison they suffer (v. 17), and when he tells them how God is at work behind it all, and even the king is within his power and has allowed and resourced the project, the people say, “Let us rise up and build,” and they strengthened their hands for the good work. Trouble intensifies - they are laughed at and threatened, yet Nehemiah doesn’t back down. He doesn’t argue that what he’s doing is legitimate (although he could have). The point is that he knows God is ruler of all, his power extends over all, he has promised to restore his city, and so he and his people are confident to do the work of rebuilding, because God will make it prosper (v. 20). These kinds of opposition are modern - it’s a source of displeasure to people if the church prospers as it’s uncomfortable to hear the gospel message and it’s uncomfortable when Christians by their lives show up the self-centredness of the world and its morals which fall short of God’s standards. The church is a source of laughter - in the light of science, we are thought of as primitive, and in our weakness, divisions and lack of influence, we are thought to have no future and to be wasting our time. The accusation of rebellion against the king is very contemporary, e.g. the experience of the two preachers in Birmingham recently. The challenge to us is to allow what we have seen of God’s power over the rulers of the earth to penetrate our hearts and minds, allow it to move us to defy those who don’t like what we stand for, who write us off, who oppose us in the name of a tolerance which tolerates everything except Biblical Christianity, and so be stirred up to be involved in that work to build God’s city, that his kingdom would come and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. No matter what temporary blips there are along the way, God will make the work prosper. Those who oppose the building of God’s city will not have a share in its future. When God rescued the people, he gave them the Promised Land as their inheritance and each family had a portion of the land as their possession for ever, and the abundance of the land and rest in the land was God’s blessing and gift for them to enjoy, their spiritual inheritance. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem, because of their opposition to the building of Jerusalem, will not have an inheritance or place in it, and will not enjoy God’s blessing. It may be that there are some for whom that is a warning: like them you’re not on board with God’s plan of building his church, whether it offends you, you find it laughable, or whether your priorities are to follow the priorities of society. God will make his plan prosper. One day Christ will return and bring it to completion, God will ‘wipe away every tear’, ‘death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more’. If you have not supported the building of God’s city, then you will be shut out from the experience and enjoyment of those things in eternity. See Matthew 12.30. You need to turn back to Christ, seek refuge in him as your saviour, and become one of his servants, and you’ll be forgiven, included in his people, and given a share of that great inheritance when God’s city is built.

What does this courageous and bold service look like in practice?

3. God’s city is built by his varied servants (Nehemiah 3)

Nehemiah takes us on a circular tour of the walls. All kinds of people are involved in the building - priests (v. 1), goldsmiths and perfumers (v. 8), rulers (v. 9), temple servants (v. 26), merchants (v. 32). In the building of God’s city, there is something for everyone to do, whatever your status or occupation. There is no one for whom the work of building God’s church is above them or beneath them. The city is built as people serve in their immediate contexts. People build opposite their own house (vv. 23, 28-30). It’s built as you and I in our own little spheres of influence speak about Christ and live in obedience to him. It’s looking for that opportunity to just say something about our faith to a colleague at work or a neighbour down the shop, or inviting a friend to a course explaining the Christian message. It’s living distinctively at work, not engaging in the gossip, and showing love for and serving our colleagues in a practical way. It’s growing in personal holiness, battling against that particular sin, whether in our thoughts or acted out, as God answers the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” All these are ways in which the community, the society is build where Christ and his transforming rule are known and experienced. This is not just about us as individuals (v. 12). Whole families are involved in the work. This is a perspective that we perhaps need to regain that runs through the whole Bible, OT and NT. God promises to be God to us and to our children (which is why we baptise our children). The expectation is for us to bring up our children to know and trust him from their earliest days, telling them about him and what he has done and how we should respond to him, praying to God that he would be at work in them. Our homes are to be places where Christ is known, and trusted, and obeyed, established as little communities over which Christ is king. Just like termites we see on nature programmes, small but diverse, each fulfilling their own particular function, creating huge colonies and building complex nests, so in all our different walks of life, with all our different skills and abilities, as we witness to Christ by our words and actions in our own lives, as we bring up our families to know and trust Christ, mundane though our lives may appear to be, small though our efforts may seem, those are efforts that take place alongside many other people, and God’s city will be built.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Nehemiah 1

Click below for the sermon I preached on Nehemiah 1 at St. James’, Poole this morning (Morning Prayer, 11am):

Nehemiah 1 (25:13, 5.77MB)

Nehemiah 1

This is the outline of the sermon I shall, God willing, be preaching at St. James’, Poole on the Lord’s Day this week. Comments welcome. Nothing more can be added, unless something else is taken away, otherwise I shall be responsible for the burning of lunches across Poole.

Hymns: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation; O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Strangers and Exiles on the Earth (my new hymn); Hail to the Lord’s Anointed; Facing a Task Unfinished

Introduction

We live in a broken and divided world, as we’ve seen in the news this week, as perhaps we feel at home. Deep down, don’t we dream of something better? The message of the Bible is that in this broken and divided world, God is building his city, where all the nations of the world come together as one under his rule - Jerusalem, the city of peace. For Nehemiah, this was a physical city in the Middle East. It was a signpost to what was to come. Now it is in heaven, a city to which all Christians belong, and which is expressed in history in local congregations like St. James’. How is Jerusalem going to be built? Nehemiah wants to teach us something foundational: God’s people must turn to him in humble prayer. To move us, he first takes us to a time which illustrates the situation in which building so often takes place and then shows us the shape our response should take.

1 The plight of God’s city (vv. 1-3)

100 years previously, God’s people in the OT had been taken into exile and the capital destroyed as God judged them for their unfaithfulness. A later king allowed some survivors to return. Nehemiah receives some visitors and asks for news, but it is bleak. Though work had begun on the rebuilding, the people had been opposed and it had ceased, with no security or protection. They are in trouble and disgrace.

Northern Rock bank faced a crisis, but didn’t go the way of Barings in 1995. It was the oldest merchant bank in London and it was used by the British Monarchy, but through the fraud of Nick Leeson, it suffered huge losses and though the Bank of England tried to rescue it, they failed, it was declared insolvent, bought for £1 and was later split and sold on. Similarly Jerusalem had a great reputation as the city that bore God’s name. People and kings from all the nations of the earth used to come up to hear the wisdom of God’s king (Solomon) and the wealth of the nations came in. But it was destroyed, is now under foreign control and attempts to rebuilt it had failed. It is in trouble and disgrace.

There are parallels with the church today. England had a great Christian heritage - the Reformation, the Evangelical revival. But now, though the population increases, church attendance declines. The empty galleries here held people once. All we hear about in the news is division. The God Delusion is still in the Amazon top 10. At work or home, the only time God or Christ come up is when someone is swearing. When we try to share our faith, we meet scorn, hostility and indifference.

This easter, John Humphrys asked ++John Sentamu, “Will you acknowledge that the church is on its knees?” to which he replied, “What, you mean praying?” This is the what Nehemiah wants us to grasp must be our response if Jerusalem is to be rebuilt.

2 The prayer of God’s servants (vv. 4-11)

Nehemiah is one of many praying (v. 11). He is deeply moved - he weeps, mourns and fasts (so often associated with mourning). Alongside tears and prayer, fasting expresses grief to God and gives opportunity for concentrated prayer. Is that the extent to which the plight of God’s city affects us? If able, will we express our grief and dependence on God with fasting? The Lord Jesus had the expectation the practice would continue amongst his disciples and it would be entirely appropriate now.

Nehemiah bases his prayer on God’s character as the God who rules over all and who is faithful to his promises. This leads Nehemiah to express repentance, owning up to the way he, his family and the people have ignored God’s word, deserve nothing from him, and depend on him for mercy. Then he prays God would keep promises he made to his people in Deuteronomy, that if his people turn back to him in obedient faith, they will be gathered and brought back to Jerusalem. God declared to Moses this would be certain as in his grace he promises that he will change the hearts of his people so that they will return and be gathered. This is a promise that Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The prayer flows from God’s character. Because the is the God of heaven, he can gather his people from under the farthest heaven (what v. 9 literally says) and he can be trusted to fulfil his promises. God redeemed his people in the past so Nehemiah is confident to pray that he would restore his people (v. 10).This promises looks forward to fulfilment in Christ. Israel’s story of sin and judgment the story of all of us. We are all unfaithful to God. Since Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, all humanity has been in a state of exile from God, under his judgement, and they face exile forever. On the cross, Jesus took upon himself the punishment for sin in the place of his people. God in his love and mercy gathers people from throughout the whole world as he works in their hearts by his Spirit through tht preaching of his word, so that they return to him in the person of his Son the Lord Jesus, as they acknowledge him as their king and seek refuge in him for forgiveness. People are gathered into the place he has chosen to make his name dwell, the church founded on Christ. If you’re not a Christian, can I encourage you to trust v. 9 and return - trust in Christ, bow before him as your king, and so be forgiven, rescued from the exile of God’s judgment and be gathered into his city. The promise will be finally fulfilled when Christ returns - Revelation 21.2-4, 24-26. So it is that through God’s work in Christ, our broken and divided world is united in peace and enjoys prosperity as God’s city.

Nehemiah’s prayer is a Christian prayer - “Your kingdom come”. This is the shape our prayer must take. Will we remember that God is the God of heaven, the God of the covenant, humble ourselves, and as those redeemed at the cross, pray that God would remember his promise and bring people under the farthest heavens into his city through faith in Christ? Will we pray for that to happen in Poole, England and throughout the world?

Jonathan Edwards saw God do a remarkable work of restoring the church in the 18th c. He and other ministers prayed that God would by his Spirit work a reformation and revival, turn his people from their sins. They fasted, acknowledged their backslidings, humbled themselves, sought of God forgiveness.

Finally, Nehemiah’s last request is for one of the means he sees that God will use to keep his promise. He realises that in God’s sovereignty, the good of God’s people and the rebuilding of his city and therefore the hope of our broken world is in the hands of human authorities so his priority in prayer is that the king would be favourably disposed, so he and his peopel might be used by God to build Jerusalem. This is a priority in the NT, too - 1 Timothy 2. This has been a corrective in my prayer. As we ask God to build his city and gather his church, let us pray for our government, not take for granted the freedom we currently have, but thank God for it and pray for it to continue. Let us also pray for the church in parts of the world where the state opposes the church, that the hearts of those in power would be changed.

Conclusion

Kings and all who are in high positions

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” - 1 Timothy 2.1-4 (ESV)

I’m not quite sure whence this idea originated. As I was trying to get to sleep last night, I think. Nehemiah concludes his prayer in chapter 1 by praying:

“Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” - Nehemiah 1.11

He then discloses the identity of “this man”: “Now I was cupbearer to the king.”

It seems to me that very similar things are going on in both places. Both start from the premise that the good of the church is in the hands of the civil magistrate, and so prayer is to be made for the civil magistrate so that the church may get on with its business. So Nehemiah prays for mercy in the sight of king Artaxerxes, that Jerusalem may be rebuilt, and this means salvation for the world, because Jerusalem is God’s city where the nations find blessing. Likewise, Paul urges Christians to pray for kings and all who are in authority, so the church can get on with its life, including evangelism, so people are saved.

Calvin writes of Paul in 1 Timothy 2:

“In these words, he recommends the condition of the Church to their protection and guardianship” - Institutes iv.xx.5

He goes on to write of the duties of magistrates:

“This office is specially assigned them by God, and indeed it is right that they exert themseles in asserting and defending the honour of him whose vicegerents they are, and by whose favour they rule.” - Institutes iv.xx.9

Structure of Nehemiah 1.1-2.8

I’ve come to the conclusion that Nehemiah 1.1-2.8 is a suitable preaching unit. The passage has a common geography. Its events take place in Susa. It is only in 2.9 that Nehemiah leaves Susa for Jerusalem. The passage divides neatly into two sections, which will give me my two points. The first section, if you like, takes place before the king of heaven. The second takes place before the king of Persia.

1.1-1.11	2.1-2.8
The necessity of prayer	The sovereignty of God
Month of Chislev in the 20th year (1.1)	Month of Nisan in the 20th year (2.1)
Nehemiah hears that Jerusalem is broken down and its gates destroyed by fire, so he is sad (1.3-4)	Nehemiah explains that he is sad because the city is lies in ruins and its gates are destroyed by fire (2.1-3)
Nehemiah makes requests of God (1.5-11)	Nehemiah makes requests of Artaxerxes (2.5-
Nehemiah prays to God that he would be successful and that God would grant him mercy in the sight of the king (1.11)	The king grants what Nehemiah asks because God’s good hand is upon him

The Eschatology of Nehemiah’s Prayer

“Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and so them, though your dispersed are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’” - Nehemiah 1.8-9

Nehemiah prays with his Bible open. The promises of God in Deuteronomy 4. 25-31 and Deuteronomy 30.1-5 echo strongly in Nehemiah’s petition. You can preach that! How should we pray? We should allow Scripture to shape our prayers. Take your quiet time reading and turn it into prayer. I have heard lots of sermons on texts like this preached in that way. It is all true and good and wholesome.

But it’s not the point of the passage (sorry, someone from the Proclamation Trust hijacked my keyboard for a moment there) and it misses the Biblical-theological themes which are at the heart of that for which Nehemiah is praying. He is claiming God’s covenant promise for the latter days (when translated into Greek, we get the word whose root also gives us the word “eschatology”) that he would gather his people who turn to him in repentance and faith, and that they would know unprecedented prosperity and security. That promise begins to be fulfilled from the time of Cyrus, when some Jews return to the land. But the promise hasn’t been completely fulfilled, as v. 3 clearly illustrates: “And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates destroyed by fire.” And so Nehemiah prays to God that he would hear the prayer of his servants who have returned to him (he trusts in God’s steadfast love (v. 5), confesses his sins and the sins of the people (vv. 6-7) and there are other servants who delight to fear his name (v. 11)) and would do what he promised when he said that he would gather his people.

But to see that promise filled full, we have to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” - 2 Corinthians 1.20. It is through his death on the cross that the gathering of God’s people following their exile is possible because it is there that he faces the curse of the covenant in the place of his people so that they might receive the blessing. And so when he has ascended into heaven after his death and resurrection, he pours out that which he received from the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jews ‘from every nation under heaven’, Acts 2.5 (cf. ‘dispersed under the farthest skies, Nehemiah 1. 9) hear the disciples proclaiming the mighty works of God in many different human languages. Peter proclaims the gospel and thousands repent and are baptised ‘into the name’. The scattered people of God are gathered together in the place where he has chosen to make his name dwell, namely the church founded on Jesus Christ. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.” - Matthew 18.20. This is Jerusalem.

Of course, the dispersion of God’s people in judgment is a picture of all people, not just the Jewish nation. We’re all by nature objects of God’s wrath. We are all far off (Ephesians 2.1, 13). But if we turn to Christ in repentance and faith, we are gathered into his city. That promise to gather continues to be fulfilled now as that process carries on.

But like Nehemiah, we haven’t seen that promise completely fulfilled. In many ways, Jerusalem “is in great trouble and shame, its wall is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire”. England had a great Christian heritage. But not now. Churches have left the gospel and are emptying. In many places where the gospel is preached faithfully, the pews are empty. Christians are an object of scorn. The intellectual powers poison people’s minds against Christian faith. In many ways it’s hard to sing Psalm 48 - “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever.” Instead Psalm 79 fits more comfortably on our lips: “O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.”

Richard Pratt, in his book on preaching Old Testament Narrative He Gave Us Stories, writes that Ezra-Nehemiah is designed to defend the legitimacy of the Ezra-Nehemiah programme for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple and the need to continue, as we read of the Divine authorisation of Nehemiah’s mission, the human opposition he faces, the continuing struggle for restoration and the need to repopulate and fortify Judah. In the Christian theocracy, we are the remnant of the people of God and this book highlights for us the importance of devotion to building the kingdom of God, and I take it therefore that Nehemiah’s behaviour - his mourning over the state of Jerusalem, his fasting - and his prayer are meant to direct us in our task, just as it would have directed its first readers.

We, too then, having seen the inauguration of the fulfilment of God’s promise in Nehemiah 1.8-9, as God’s redeemed servants and people in Christ through the cross which is the power of God (cf. Nehemiah 1 1.10) are to pray for God to gather people into his city, to pray for gospel to go out and for people to turn to Christ in repentance and faith. That is how God’s city will begin to be rebuilt. It is God’s work. He will build Jerusalem.

And one day his work will be complete. Christ will return and the holy city, new Jerusalem, of which the local church is a real anticipation in history, will come down out of heaven from God and, unlike the situation in Nehemiah 1.4, “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” - Revelation 21.4.

(I think I could probably preach a good ol’ Puritan sermon on these two verses. One could probably do a whole series on Nehemiah 1. As it is though, I’m probably going to go all the way from Nehemiah 1.1 to 2.8.)