Nehemiah's Mission Begins

Well, I'm sure you've already taken your Bible and turned to Nehemiah chapter 2. Nehemiah chapter 2, I read earlier on verses 1 and 2, although we will cover more verses tonight, but we are in Nehemiah chapter 2. Now in taking a step back with where we have been in chapter 1, we had four messages out of the chapter and out of those four messages we learned a great deal about Nehemiah as a man. We learned a great deal about his heart who he was as a man of God. We learned that he had a great passion for kingdom work and this great passion was developed in his powerful and purposeful prayer life and it came out of a great brokenness.

Now I have used the word brokenness and grief interchangeably that obviously speaks about the same work. Now this was an inner work of God, a work that God was doing in him and this was unique to him and his day and his time and for his purposes, what I mean by his, God's purposes for him. Now I want to pause here, of course, this is the introductory part of the message, but I want to pause here to make a little application. And the application is this, we should at different times in our Christian journey be able to deal with a burden.

We should learn and understand that God will work in such a way that he will burden us and break us for certain circumstances. It could be a personal issue, could be a lost loved one. There are a whole host of reasons why we can be burdened. God does this, God allows this, a brokenness, grief to come in our life for a work and primarily it is a work that God wants to do in us. And so I want to pause here as we just take a peek back at Nehemiah in chapter 1, that man of God, that man of brokenness, a purposeful, powerful prayer and that inward work of God. I want to ask you, has God done that at different times in your life?

Many times it comes through trial. We don't like trial. Many times it comes through heartache and pain and we usually run from that when actually we should embrace that. In James we learn that all types of trials come our way and we should learn to receive those trials. Because God has a purpose. And I hope and pray that as you mature and grow, there'll be times when you can see God do this work in you. I ran across a description of how Nehemiah has been living. I ran across a Bible commentator that gave a good description of the way Nehemiah has been living. And he says this, Nehemiah is living out of the fulfillment of Scripture.

I like that because Nehemiah had a heart for kingdom work and the fact that God was going to bring his people back. God was bringing them back out of captivity and Nehemiah is living out of the fulfillment of Scripture. He goes on the list how he had been living. First, he was a student of Scripture. Did we not see that in his prayer? He is praying the Scriptures back over and over and over even when it's a loose reference to the Scriptures. Second, he passionately loved God. This speaks about his personal relationship with the Lord. And then third, he passionately loves God's kingdom.

He had a heart for kingdom work and he was passionately living for kingdom work. And then fourth, he prays for God's kingdom to come. What is he praying? "Lord, deliver your people. Lord, I want to be a part of restoring Israel in Jerusalem and I want to be a part of building the walls and the gates." So that is a good description of how he has been living. Living out the fulfillment of Scripture. Now this leads us to chapter two. And in this chapter, we will begin to see Nehemiah moving from praying for God's kingdom to come to participating in God's kingdom work. God has given him success.

Remember, at the end of chapter one, he prayed for success. And he is giving him success and he is moving from prayer to participation. Now, to be truthful, I wrestled with the title of the message. I really didn't come to title what we were looking at tonight till this afternoon because I just couldn't have, I just couldn't find what I felt like articulated the message. But we are looking at what I'm calling Nehemiah's mission begins. Nehemiah's mission, it begins. And I like that because he is moving from prayer to participation in God's kingdom.

Now, I said earlier we will divide verses one through eight and we are looking at four main truths. They are very simple. They follow the passages. Nehemiah's prayer out of verse one. Nehemiah's risk verses two through three. Nehemiah's request verses four and five. And then Nehemiah's success in verses six through eight. Nehemiah's prayer, his risk, his request and his success. I'm going to go back and read all of the scriptures. We only read verses one and two earlier in our scripture reading. So let's look at them together.

And it came about in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. He's doing his job. He's a cup bearer to the king. Now, I had not been sad in his presence. So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad though you are not sick?" This is nothing but sadness of heart. Then I was very much afraid. And I said to the king, "Let the king live forever.

Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?" Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to king, "If it please the king and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it." Then the king said to me, "The queen sitting beside him, how long will your journey be and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me and I gave him a definite time.

And I said to the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the river," that's talking about the land that he was going to, "that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah 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 which is by the temple for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go." And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me. So let's take the time to divide these passages.

Let's look at main truth number one that I want us to see, Nehemiah's prayer. Now this comes out of verse one and I think it can be easily easily overlooked. Nehemiah's prayer, "And it came about in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artax Erxes," and it goes on to talk about how he was fulfilling his job there in Susa. Now I want you to notice something out of verse one. Verse one gives a date. It gives the date of the month of Nisan. Now if you go back to chapter one in verse one, you will notice that all of this took place in another month, the month of Chislev.

Now I know those are strange words to you, but those months correspond to months that we are familiar with. The month of Chislev corresponds to our late November or December, early December, and the month of Nisan corresponds to our late March or early April. So this puts right at four months between the events in chapter one and the events in chapter two. Now this leads to speculation as to what had been going on during this four-month period. Some speculate that Nehemiah wasn't serving the king. Maybe he had some time off. Some speculate that the royal court was away from Susa and they were passing the winter months down in Babylon.

Some speculate that he was in the presence of the king, but he was not letting his sad heart be revealed. Now we really don't know, but what we do know is there was a time of about four months between what took place in chapter one and the beginning of chapter two. So what do we need to see here? Why do I take the time with just this small portion of verse one? We need to see that Nehemiah was involved in an extended time of prayer and brokenness. He had experienced all that went on in chapter one. Chapter one was very loaded. It is very loaded and now if I can use this language, he is nursing the news of this tragedy. Jerusalem is in ruins.

The gates are burned. The walls are down. He is nursing the news of this tragedy. He is living with this burden and he is somewhat on hold until God can enable him and call him to participate in the work. So what do I want you to see? This is Nehemiah's prayer, but it's different than it was in chapter one because it's like he is on hold. He is nursing the tragedy, the news of the tragedy. He is nursing the burden and the grief and he is holding on to this work that God has been doing.

Now I don't know if you've ever been in a particular situation like this before, but this is a reality for many that are caught up in God's work and they are caught up in a brokenness and a burden and a grief that is part of God's work. The only way I really know how to explain it to you is to give you an example in my own life. I've got one particular example and story that's going to run through all this message. So pardon me that I'm using myself as an example. I can remember in one of the churches that I served, I was beginning to see bad decisions made. So bad theology in the life of the church.

I saw men who were supposed to be men of God leading the church and things were not going according to the word of God. God began to really burden me and break me. God began to bring me to a place of grief. There was lots of prayer, lots of fasting, lots of unhappiness. And what I mean by unhappiness, spiritually speaking, I was unhappy because of the condition of the church. I'll never forget, and I didn't do this on purpose, but there was a man in the church one day and I don't remember if it was during the week or on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night.

He happened to walk with me down the hall of the church and he followed me to my church office and he sat down and he said, "Brother Chris, I want to talk to you." And I said, "Sure." And he looked at me and he said, "I don't understand and I have a question, but you always seem sad." I didn't know how to answer, but I was truthful. And what that was, it was the burden and the brokenness and the sadness that I was experiencing as the church was sick, as the church was not like it should be. And I didn't ask for that. I didn't wave a flag and say everybody look at me.

I was not in a position of leadership like I am today, but what I'm showing you is, is this burden. Now, here's where I'm relating it to verse one. I had to literally just sit there on hold nursing that burden. I could not leave and I could not do anything about the circumstances that I was in. I was sharing with one of the men of our church, even this weekend, that there were many times in my prayer closet, I would go to the Lord and say, "Lord, things are not good here. I would really love to leave. I would love to get out of this set of circumstances, but he would not let me leave.

I was powerless to do anything and all I could do was hold on to the burden that God had put on me and I could not get out of the circumstances I was in. And I couldn't do anything about it unless God enabled me." So sometimes in our lives, there will be times when God moves and breaks us and we just seem like we're all in a holding pattern, holding on to the burden and the brokenness that is before us. And you might just happen to, you just might have to hold on to it for four months or longer. Let's move on. Let's notice truth number two, Nehemiah's risk. Nehemiah's risk. Nehemiah's risk. What does it go on to say?

Let's read on down to verses three. "Now I had not been sad in his presence. He's doing his job before the king. So the king said to me, 'Why is your face sad though you are not sick?' This is nothing but sadness of heart. Then I was very much afraid." Verse three, "And I said to the king, 'Let the king live forever. Why should my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's tomb lies desolate and its gates have been consumed with fire?'" Now here we start to see the situation really change. Things really take off for Nehemiah, but we must see that there was a great danger in this situation.

Nehemiah took a great risk just in allowing his true self to be known to the king. He could have lied. He could have changed the story, but he was honest and he took a great risk. Now four observations out of these verses. First of all, he had not been sad before the king before. We saw that in the beginning at the end of verse one, "Now I had not been sad in his presence." All of the translations that we study read sad. This word sad is a very accurate word to the original. Now, questions. Was he controlling his feelings before the king until now? Had he not been before the king all along until now? We don't know.

That four-month period, we do not know. But what we do know is that this day and this time he had a sad heart, he had a sad countenance, and the king saw this. He knew it right away. So he had not been sad before the king before. Second, I want you to notice the king noticed his sad countenance. We see that at the beginning of verse two. Here we see that the king, if I can use this language, he read Nehemiah's mind. He read Nehemiah's heart. He read his countenance very accurately. What does he say? This is sadness of heart. The amplified reads sorrow of heart. Remember that Nehemiah and the king would have known each other very well.

In those days when a man was a cup bearer to the king, he would have been with the king morning, noon, and night. He would have been there at every meal. Now, no doubt they had other men who could have served in this capacity as well, but he would have known the family. Every time the king picked up a cup to drink, he would have tasted it for poison because he was there to protect the king's life. And in that day and culture, historians tell us and Bible commentators tell us that many times the cup bearer would become so close to the king that he would actually be an advisor.

So Nehemiah knew the king and the king knew Nehemiah and the king noticed his sad countenance. Third, he was afraid before the king. So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad? Though you are not sick, this is nothing but sadness of heart." Then I was very much afraid. Now, there are two real reasons why Nehemiah would have been afraid. First, the cup bearers and all who served the king would have been expected to serve the king in joy and happiness. They would not have put up with any negative news. And then second, the king could have perceived Nehemiah's requests as a threat.

Remember, Nehemiah represented a conquered people and he could have perceived anything that Nehemiah asked as a threat. So he was afraid before the king. Then fourth, he was honest before the king. We see this in verse 3, "And I said to the king, 'Let the king live forever.'" And he goes on to talk about the condition of the land and why he was sad. Now, notice how he first addressed the king. What does it say? "Let the king live forever." This was an honorable and a respectful way to greet the king. This was common to address kings in this manner. We see this in Daniel chapter 2 verse 4, a very similar address to the king.

"And after his address, he goes on to give the reason for his sadness of heart. He confesses that he is sad because of the condition of his homeland." Now, notice two things about this description of his homeland in verse 3. Notice he speaks about the tombs. What does he say? "Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies desolate." The tombs were a place of great respect for the Jews. This was a place where they paid their respects for the previous generation who had led them and led them before God.

"Their forefathers had been the ones who had followed the ways of God long before them." And then notice the gates. What does it say in the verses? "Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire." Now, the gates were a symbol of really the life and the strength of the city. We've learned that city government and spiritual decisions were made at the gates of the city. And the gates were in ruins and with the gates being in ruins, no true social life was going on in the life of the city. So what is he doing? He is being honest before the king.

So here we see Nehemiah's risk. "And allowing himself to be sad before the king, he risked his life and the future of the work." The king had previously stopped the progress of the work back in Ezra's time. And we learned that and we will reference that later in the message. So what do we see? Nehemiah's risk. Now again, I want to illustrate this in my own life and my own ministry. Now, I want to pause here before I get into my example. And I do not want to act like I have stood before a king who could take my own life.

But let me go back to my day and my time and that situation that I explained to you that I was in during that time where I was praying and I was fasting and I was really burdened for the condition of the church. I'll never forget that I began to really see specifics that were wrong in the life of the church. I respected leaders in the life of the church. I honored them because God had put them over me. I was very careful not to speak evil of them. And I was very careful how I spoke to them. But I'll never forget the Lord really burdened me for how men were doing the things of God the world's way.

The Lord really burdened me out of some passages of scripture in the book of Acts. But I began to pray and I began to say, "Lord, I cannot bring this news before these men because these men are my senior. These men are over me. And these particular individuals, I do not have the right to go before them in this manner." But as I prayed and I prayed and I prayed, lo and behold, one day one of those men came in my office and literally asked me what was on my heart concerning some of the situations in the life of our church. And what did I do? I took the risk. Not individual have the authority to terminate my position.

It could have made life very difficult. I was very respectful and I honored him. He was very much my senior and he was very much over me in the life of the church. But I opened up my scriptures and I said, "This is what's wrong." And as a matter of fact, there was a part two to that. And several weeks later, he came back to me and again, I took the risk and I opened the word and I purposely pointed out the things that were wrong in the life of the church. And I pointed to scripture chapter in verse and I took the risk. Now for you, I don't know how this might apply. We've learned that Nehemiah had this holding pattern of prayer.

But you know, maybe the Lord might bring you to the place where you must take risk in witnessing to a lost loved one. Maybe the Lord might bring you to a place where you would take great risk administering to a lost spouse or a lost child. Maybe the Lord might bring you to a place where you would take risk to witness to people in your workplace. If we're going to follow the Lord and walk with God, there will be times when we will have to take risks. Now we might not risk our life like Nehemiah, but one day we might have to. Some of our brothers and sisters in India do that. I've referenced Jeevan many times and Mukesh many times.

Those men in the state of Bihar in the north of India, how they keep orphans and in many ways they break the law and they take risks to take the gospel to those children. And when they are before the government officials, they do not shirk from explaining why they do what they do. So Nehemiah took a risk. Let's move on. Truth number three, let's notice that Nehemiah made a request. Nehemiah's request. This just is a natural flow. It's easy for you to see. Starting in verse four, then the king said to me, what would you request? Verse five or the end of verse four. So I prayed, prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said to the king, if it pleased the king and if your servant is found favored before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it. And then the king said to me, with the queen sitting beside him, how long will your journey be? So what do we see? Nehemiah's request. Now in these verses, we see the king's response to Nehemiah's problem. Because the king responds in a positive manner, Nehemiah is able to make his request before the king. Now three observations I want to make here. First of all, the king's question. What do we see in verse four? Then the king said, what would you request?

Here the king's question, it is obvious that he knows Nehemiah wants more. He knew that Nehemiah wanted to make a request. He knew him well. He knew his personality. He knew the sadness of his heart. And this is a major hint that the king would act favorably to Nehemiah's request. So the king's question. Second, notice Nehemiah's prayer. But notice this prayer is a very quick prayer. Then the king said to me, what would you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven and then I said to the king, very quick. So here Nehemiah offers a quick and I would call this spontaneous prayer just before he makes this great plea to the queen, to the king.

Now question. How does Nehemiah know what to do right here? Now think about this. The king asked a question. He still does not know how he's going to react. How does Nehemiah know what to do here? Nehemiah has sharp spiritual insight. One translator or one Bible commentator I read said that he had sharp instincts. Now a question. How can he have this spiritual insight, these spiritual instincts? It was because of his lengthy prayer life concerning the situation. It was because he would nurse the burden even for four months. The new American commentary that I use describes his spiritual ability here.

The writer of that commentator says quick prayers are possible and valid if one has prayer prayed sufficiently beforehand. So what do we see here? Nehemiah's prayer was accurate and it was right because he had insight and he had spiritual instincts. He knew just what to pray in a spontaneous manner in a quick way right behind the king's question. And then immediately we see Nehemiah's request. Look at verse 5.

"And I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it." So here Nehemiah moves from praying, a praying man to a planning man. You see that? All along he had been making plans in his mind and his heart but here he is making plans before the king. His request of the king is indicative of the plans that God has been forming in his heart. So here we see Nehemiah's request and I want you to see that this is the pinnacle of this situation between he and the king. He is at the precipice of the cliff and he is just about to dive off.

If the king responded negatively what would have happened? But the king, he responded positively and look what happened. You see? He is at the pinnacle. He is at the height of the situation. The king asks the question and he prays and he makes this request. In application I want you to see that in whatever trial will come your way, whatever difficulty that God would ordain for you, whether it is a set of church circumstances that brother Keith and I might face, a set of circumstances that you have in your job or a set of circumstances in your family, whatever trial, whatever difficulty that God has brought you in and he has brought about a work of brokenness and grief and you are carrying that burden, no matter what it is you must allow God to develop in you spiritual insight and sharp spiritual instincts, that wisdom that comes along by God and the work of God in you to enable you to make the right requests.

You see? Nehemiah had that and you can be in a situation where you are at the precipice. That means you are at the edge of the cliff and you can make the right decision at the right time. I don't know if you have ever been in a position where you have had to make a decision where you felt like you are either going to crash and burn or God is going to catch you. I have. Again, I go back to that situation but I go back further in time. I never forget I was serving a particular church. I was just as happy as can be. God was blessing the ministry, walking with God, loving where God had planted me.

But lo and behold, God came and God worked and God moved in my life and after a period of about three months of praying over an opportunity, God led me to move. I wasn't looking for a move. Praying, walking with God. God started working in me. God started changing me and I never forget as I was going in view of a call in this particular church. I literally came to the place where I said, "Lord, I feel like I am at the edge of a cliff. I have been walking with you and I look to him and I said, "Lord, I need your wisdom. I need your help.

I cannot make this decision unless you enable me." And I literally said, "Lord, I feel like I am jumping off a cliff and you will have to catch me." That is Nehemiah's request. The height of the situation. You might be praying for that lost loved one and you might get to the place where you say, "Lord, it is due or die. I am going to tell him about Jesus." You see? Nehemiah's request. Now, let's move on. Let's notice truth number four. Let's notice Nehemiah's success. Then the king, verse six, "The king said to me, 'The queen sitting beside him, how long will your journey be?

And when will you return?' So it pleased the king to send me and I gave him a definite time. And I said to the king, 'If it pleased the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the river, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make the beams through the gates of the fortress which is by the temple for the wall of the city and for the house to which I go.' And the king granted him, granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me." So now we're here and we see the success of the situation and this success begin to unfold.

We see the king with his queen and Nehemiah before the family. He was close and he is able to successfully make a plan to go back and rebuild the city. Four quick observations that I want to make out of these verses. First, Nehemiah gives the king a time frame. What does verse 6 say? "The king said to me, 'How long will your journey be? When will you return?' No doubt the king wanted Nehemiah back in his service. Now it would have been normal for the king to ask him for a time frame. He had all authority to do so.

Although the time frame is not listed in this verse or these verses, we know that Nehemiah gave them a time frame." Now later we see in chapter 5 verse 14 that Nehemiah was the governor of Jerusalem for 12 years. Now no doubt Nehemiah would have gone back and forth. He would have gone back to report the progress of the work to the king. So Nehemiah does give him a time frame although we do not know the time frame. Second, Nehemiah asks for official letters of permission. Verse 7, what does he say? "If it pleased the king, let letters be given to me for the governors." Those are the lands that he would travel through.

So he needed these official documents and he wanted them for several reasons. First, he was making a dangerous journey and legal documents would have given him favor. Second, artist Erxes had stopped the work before in Ezra chapter 4 starting in verse 17. So there would be government opposition to the work. So he wanted official letters or documentation. Third, Nehemiah asked for materials for the work. Look at verse 8. He asked for a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest. Now in that day the forest or the timber of the forest would have been very, very closely guarded. This was a very valuable resource.

Now interestingly, the name Asaph is a Hebrew name. So what do we see? A fellow Hebrew was appointed to guard the king's forest. So Nehemiah asked for materials for the work. And then fourth, Nehemiah, we see Nehemiah and his success. What do we see? It says, "And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was upon me." Here we see that God was working through the king and the king granted Nehemiah everything that he requested. The hand of God was on Nehemiah and the work of God was through this king. So here we see Nehemiah's success. Nehemiah was very prepared through his prayer and prayer life.

He knew the time that he needed for the project and he knew the materials that he needed for the project. God gave him success before the king and God gave him the ability to make the accurate request. So Nehemiah not only got permission, but he was very accurate and he was very successful in his request. Now I'm going to move an application to where we are today. As we are journeying in this thing called the life of the church, as Brother Keith and I are seeking and praying to make the right decisions as we grow, we, you and I, all of us need God's help to be, now let me use this phrase, successful.

Now you know that we want to build the church according to God's word. You know that we want to make decisions according to God's word, pertaining to leadership, governing the affairs of the church, church membership, evangelism, missions, you name it. We want to do it according to God's word. So as we're rebuilding the church, we want to be successful, but we need God's wisdom and you need God's wisdom. We need God's wisdom collectively to do this work. Now I referenced this morning talking to an old friend of ours who is serving a church in another state, someone that Keith and I had done some youth ministry with years ago.

Now he is pastoring, but I was a little humorous this week or humored this week when I began to talk to him because he began to tell me how he had been at this church for about two years and when he went they misrepresented the church and the situation and the condition of the church. He gets to the church and he begins to realize there are great problems. Bad theology, sin in the life of the church. He told me, he said, Chris, he said there were even people on staff who didn't even believe that Christ was the Son of God.

He said, "I had people in the life of the church come to me and ask me when Jesus became the Messiah, did he become the Messiah at the cross?" And I'm like, that's Christology 101. He had leaders in the life of the church who had committed adultery, taken other people's wives in the life of the church. He just inherited a very sick church. And as this young man began to implement reform in the life of the church, reform according to God's Word, I began to listen to him explain how God had given him wisdom to do the work. And over and over and over he was saying, God has been merciful to me. God has been merciful to me. What was he saying?

God had given him success. It wasn't easy. It was difficult. And I understood exactly what he was talking about. Now I'm thankful we don't have those problems here, but what am I trying to show you? As we grow, we need God's wisdom to be successful, to build and work and grow the church according to his will and his plan. And Nehemiah had that success. He had that ability. He had that wisdom. He knew just how much materials he needed. He knew just how long of a time frame that he needed. And he had the right answers for the king because God's hand was upon him. Now, as I close the message tonight, this is what I want to say to us.

Nehemiah is on his mission. His mission begins. He's moving from prayer. He's been planning in his mind and heart. And now all that comes to fruition. And now we're going to see that he's putting his hand to work. And we here in the life of Nola Baptist Church, we have begun our mission. And I want to say to you, I'm very happy and I'm very thankful for how we are progressing. A lot of things I would like to see come to fruition right away. But sometimes those things just take time. I'm thankful for the burden that you have for the ministries that are before us.

These last two Sunday morning messages, I really feel like you have been grasping them. I really feel like these messages have been formed in your heart. These two Sunday morning messages all along. And I'm happy for how we're progressing. But I'm really itchy to see many things come to fruition. And I'm really desirous to see our mission grow. Our church grow. Us reach people. Us reach more children. Reach more adults. Us grow in our maturity in Christ Jesus. See our families grow. See our young people come to know Christ. See, I'm excited about how our mission has been going. How our church has been progressing.

But I'm desiring more and more, if I can use that phrase, success. So, Nehemiah begins his mission. And I'm looking forward to how we get into these next verses, seeing the work begin to come on the scene. Let's pray and then we will dismiss. Lord, I thank you for these