Nehemiah: 1

These are my sermon notes from last night (Wednesday September 14th) shared with the community at Conversations. We’d had some difficult news in the preceding week relating to the future of the church and its leadership which makes our series on Nehemiah feel helpful and timely. You can read a bit more about that in my other post from today.

Let’s start with a bit of context:

The events of Nehemiah 1 take place 1,000 years after Moses and 400 years before Jesus.

Israel is in a desperate state – the Babylonians have conquered Jerusalem.

When they did that they deported almost everyone from the city – for 70 years Jerusalem was a ghost town. Potentially set to be forgotten to history.

The Jews began to make homes for themselves in Babylon. They settled and although they continued to follow God, they didn’t hold onto the idea of a Promised Land.

Some of them ended up in prominent places – Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego leaders in Babylon; Esther a Queen in the courts of a Persian king.

After those 70 years they had the opportunity to return home, to the Promised Land. Only 50,000 out of 2 or 3m returned. And that’s what the book of Ezra is about: rebuilding the temple and laying a spiritual foundation for Israel.

So, Nehemiah starts 15 years after the Book of Ezra ends, about 100 years after the first exiles return to the Promised Land and about 150 years after Jerusalem was destroyed. 

The walls are still ruined. 

They’d tried to rebuild them in Ezra 4:6-23 but had been stopped by their enemies. No-one thought this could be overcome so the walls lay in ruin and the people exposed to the danger of an unfortified city.

The book of Nehemiah is about a man who left a place of safety to put it all on the line to defend his city. To go to a place he was called to love, and to love it back into full strength and rude health. It cost him, but it glorified God and it transformed that city.

Nehemiah hears about Jerusalem.

We find out he lives in the citadel – that means he’s important.

Nehemiah’s heart is in Jerusalem. He wants to know how the city and his people were doing. His heart was not on himself, but on others. Jerusalem was special to God, so it was special to Nehemiah too.

The report is not encouraging – the wall is broken down, its gates are burned with fire. The people are called survivors: that’s not a hopeful title. They are in distress. The bad state of the people and the city walls are intimately connected. A city without walls was a city completely open and vulnerable to its enemies. They had no defence.

An unwalled city was always somewhere without value – if there was anything of value it would be removed by those who could invade without any kind of barrier.

As a result life lived in constant fear and tension. Things could never be beautiful because it would all be taken away very easily.

No wonder people lived in constant distress. God wants us to be more than just survivors. He wants us to more than conquerors through Christ (Romans 8:37).

He sat down and wept: an immediate extreme reaction. He didn’t just feel bad for Jerusalem and its people – there was something physical about his response to the news.

He sat down, he stopped, he paused.

Then he wept.

Emotions are not something to hide from. Hurt and pain are things that need to be dealt with. He did not paint a false picture or hide his feelings. He was real and vulnerable.

He did so for many days. Nehemiah doesn’t immediately rush out and respond to things. He takes stock. He hurts. He mourns. He dwells and reflects.

He fasts and prays before God. This is more than an immediate emotion. It’s not a passing phase. This is true of things God puts on our hearts. At Conversations we are passionate about taking back this city. About being a community that serves people, that loves people, that sees people released into their potential. That’s not been a passing phase but something which sits deep in the core of who we are. 

But it took him some time to be ready to move on.

Tonight we’ve heard from Dave and Ben about some of the things that are on the horizon for Conversations. At this moment there are no decisions. But a lot of us will be feeling like Nehemiah.

We’ll be feeling upset. And we’ll feel a need to mourn and we’ll not really know what to do about it. Next Thursday we’ll hopefully be able to explore a bit more of what’s next but if you do have any immediate questions or things you need clarifying please talk to us today or over the coming week.

Nehemiah’s reaction can be helpful to us. Let’s look at how he prays. 

Prayer is essential. If we have a vision that is so big only God can accomplish it we need him to intervene. So we need to ask him to do so.

If we don’t need to pray about things to see them happen then our goal is too small. 

Nehemiah prays for 4 months. We’ll see later that it only takes 52 days to finish his job. The foundation of prayer is crucial.

Nehemiah took his pain and his stress to God – and was able to leave it there. He looked to the restoration and hope; he didn’t cling onto the pain of the abuse. We’re called to seek God and to glorify him. Some things we can influence, some things we can change. The rest we have to trust God about.

Nehemiah comes in humility. This is a prayer that recognises God for who He is, and our position in that dynamic. Nehemiah asks for God to listen, and to see – he is entirely dependent on God.

His humility extends beyond himself. He confesses his sin. But he also confesses the sins of others. No excuses, just simply: this has happened, we’ve messed up. 

And often we can wear the mistakes of others as badges of our own: someone has wronged somebody else and we take the injustice and call it our own. Turn that to God.

We get nowhere by wearing the pain of others.

But he looks to God’s promises. The Bible speaks of God’s covenant with us as his church but also as his children. Those promises, those guarantees, those truths inform how we respond and behave towards one another. They speak of the restoration of relationships and the salvation of the world.

He’s saying ‘REMEMBER’ – you promised something, now make good on it.

But he also quotes a conditional promise – he doesn’t know whether people in general keep his commandments but he knows that he does and so says that – we’ve met the conditions.

Now act.

Nehemiah prays ready to do something – give your servant success and grant him favour in the presence of this man.

He’s getting ready to make a pitch and ask for an outcome.

And he does so looking to a positive outcome that he’s involved with.

It’s not ‘God fix this’; it’s not ‘God make someone else get rid of this’.

It’s God, just use me to make it better.

So, for us as we look to Nehemiah as a man who was broken by his love for a place. And as we respond to the events of the last few weeks. What can we learn?

Hurt is OK but anger can be destructive.

During our series on Ephesians we looked at certain things. I spoke about how to live lives that glorify God. Ephesians 4:31-2 is key:

If we have pain, let’s be open about it but not destructive. That’s why we’re keeping the lines of communication open. This has happened very quickly and we are a family and we’re hurting. We’re trying to seek God and we’re looking to restoration and healing rather than division and exile. 

The events of the last week may mean we have to reconsider our vision for Conversations. The Steering Team met last night, it will be meeting again and we are having the meeting next week.

We don’t know what this means for independence. We don’t know what this means about the building. We don’t know what this means for Dave.

So let’s copy Nehemiah. Let’s come to God. Let’s pray. Prayer is essential. Keep coming back to God. On your own, as groups, as the whole family. 

So, round your tables let’s pray. Get into groups with people you’re comfortable with. Go and find some space on your own. Come and talk to me.

Let’s pray about the following things:

For Dave and Joanne. This is horrible for them both.

For our relationship with St Mike’s. Decisions made by those who aren’t part of our community are hard to understand. They are seeking the best for Dave, and for us. We need to honour them, and to submit to them.

For our leadership. We are committed to a peaceful and loving response to what’s happening. We are committed to a member of our family who is going through the mill. We’re committed to you all. We need wisdom to know what to do. Please feel you can say anything to us.

For York. Conversations exists for this city. It lives to serve our friends, family, colleagues and neighbours. Bad news shouldn’t jeopardise that.

For each other. Lots of us have bad experiences of church and church politics. Nobody wants this situation to damage your relationship with God or with church.

And if there’s anything else you want to pray for. Do it.