Nehemiah 3-4
Discussion Topics
1. Historical context
2. What God revealed to us about His plan
3. Key Observations about Leadership
4. Relevance of Nehemiah today
The Significance of The Wall…
Key Events at Mt. Moriah
Substitute
Sacrifice for Isaac
Solomon builds
1st Temple
King David
Builds an Altar
2nd Temple rebuilt
Destruction of
1st Temple
Wall
Rebuilt
Key Events at Mt. Moriah
Eschatology
Christ Enters
Temple at 12
2nd Temple
Destroyed
Christ Crucified & Resurrection
(New Covenant)
3rd Temple Built
(Prophecy)
Israel
Re-established
Christ’s Millennial
Reign
(Prophecy)
What does God reveal about Himself?
1. His sovereign plan played out over several
Millennia
2. Faithfulness to his promises
Sovereign plan played out over Millennia
a) Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four
hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a
country not their own and that they will be enslaved and
mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as
slaves, and afterward they will come out with great
possessions.”
Genesis 15:18-21 NIV
Sovereign plan played out over Millennia
b) On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and
said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of
Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates the land of the
Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites,
Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and
Jebusites.”
Genesis 15:18-21 NIV
Sovereign plan played out over Millennia
c) God said he would allow other nations to take Israel into
slavery if they broke His covenant
Jeremiah 2:14-25 NIV
d) This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and
these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jeremiah 25:11 NIV
e) “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy
city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for
wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up
vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Know
and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore
and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes,
there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be
rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the
sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will
have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy
the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will
continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
Daniel 9:24-26
What does God reveal about Himself?
2. Faithfulness to his promises (Ref Hebrews 7-10)
Faithfulness to his promises
a) “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new
covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will
not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them
by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my
covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This
is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,”
declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on
their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Faithfulness to his promises
(continued)…
No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know
the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the
greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and
will remember their sins no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34 NIV
Faithfulness to his promises
b) In the same way, after the supper he took the cup,
saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,
which is poured out for you.”
Luke 22:20 NIV
Faithfulness to his promises
c) The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he
says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that
time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and
I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins
and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where
these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer
necessary.
Hebrews 10:15-18 NIV
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
1.
Nehemiah sought God’s will through his word and
through prayer
“Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your
servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in
revering your name. Give your servant success today by
granting him favor in the presence of this man.”
Nehemiah 1:11 NIV
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
2.
Act according to your Convictions
“And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park,
so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the
citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the
residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of
my God was on me, the king granted my requests.”
Nehemiah 2:8 NIV
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
3.
Have a plan before you act
By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung
Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates,
which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and
the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I
went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered
through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was
doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or
officials or any others who would be doing the work.
Nehemiah 2:13-16 NIV
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
4.
Unswerving confidence in God
• “…And because the gracious hand of my God was on me,
the king granted my requests.”
Nehemiah 2:8 NIV
• I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told
anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for
Jerusalem.
•
Nehemiah 2:12 NIV
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
5.
Expect and address opposition – inside and outside
The Threat (Neh 4:1-3) When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the
wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and
in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What
are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer
sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life
from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” Tobiah the Ammonite,
who was at his side, said, “What they are building -- even a fox climbing up
on it would break down their wall of stones!”
The Solution (Neh 4:4) Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their
insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of
captivity.
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
5. Another Threat (Neh 4:7-8)
“But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and
the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s
walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed,
they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and
fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we
prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet
this threat.”
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
5. The Solution (Neh 4:14)
“After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles,
the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of
them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and
fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your
wives and your homes.”
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
6.
Those with the most often give the least
“The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but
their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under
their supervisors.”
Nehemiah 3:5 NIV
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
7.
Nehemiah’s enemies ultimately realized God’s role in
the rebuilding of the wall
“When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding
nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because
they realized that this work had been done with the help of
our God.”
Nehemiah 6:16 NIV
Key Observations – Nehemiah’s Leadership
8. Nehemiah was a Follower and a Servant
Relevance of Nehemiah today…
1.
God is faithful
2.
To accomplish God’s purpose, we need:
– A common vision
– Dedicated leaders
– Willing workers
A Universal Perspective of Leadership
Inspiring others to pursue
the “Right Agenda” rather than “Your
Agenda”
A Christian Perspective of Leadership
Inspiring others to pursue Christ and
to implement His will through the
transforming power of the Holy Spirit
True Leaders are Servants
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become
great among you must be your servant, and whoever
wants to be first must be your slave -- just as the Son
of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and
to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:26-28 NIV
"If you want to be great-wonderful. But recognize that he who
is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new
definition of greatness.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't
have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You
don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You
don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You
don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in
physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul
generated by love. And you can be that servant."
The Drum Major Instinct, February 4, 1968
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Atlanta Georgia