Introduction:

• Nehemiah was focused on the restoring of the community.
• Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall restored political integrity and muted the threats of intimidation by neighboring adversaries (chaps. 1–7).
• However, the book does not neglect the Jews’ religious status. The political and religious spheres are bound together.

Religion = thrēskeia; external worship, that which consists of ceremonies religious discipline, devotion.

James 1:26-27 ESV

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

• A healthy relationship with God requires BOTH a personal relationship with Him and discipline/devotion.

• For a community to thrive, both political and religious spheres are necessary.

Politics = relations between people living in society.

• Ezra and Nehemiah together regulated the exiles’ social and religious life on the basis of the law of Moses (chaps. 5; 8–13).

#1) BOLD REQUEST (2:1-8)

Nehemiah 2:1-8 ESV

1 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.

Colossians 3:23 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

• What is in you?

• Sometimes we worry more about what people say than what people see.

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.

• He makes a way! He makes it safe! He provides it all!

#2) BACK HOME (2:9-20)

Nehemiah 2:9-20 ESV

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?”

• What was Nehemiah’s response to the haters?

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.”

CONCLUSION

• God will make us prosper!

• It’s time to rebuild!

The church of God took a big hit spiritually during the pandemic. Our faith was shaken. Some crashed and burned. Some were strengthened. Some are doing ministry with broken walls and allowing anything and everything to enter that is not of the Lord.

• We are privileged to be servants— the remnant called to restore what the enemy has broken and destroyed.

• A remnant is separated for the good works.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

• We have been saved not for our personal happiness but rather for good works. You cannot take anything with you to eternity except the works you do for His Name’s sake… For His Kingdom.

• Will you be part of the remnant?