Nehemiah 2 --God's Sovereign Hand of Supply

After Nehemiah prays that God will grant him "compassion from the king" he goes into the presence of the king with the king's wine. The king notices how sad and distressed Nehemiah looks. The king then asks "what's wrong?" This opens the door for Nehemiah to share with the king how and why he feels the way he does. The king asks Nehemiah what he wants to do. WOW!! God worked in such a way that Nehemiah did not even have to bring the subject up first. God opened the door. The king asked! The king also wants to know how long Nehemiah things it will take and how long he will be gone. (v. 6)

Following all of this - the king gives Nehemiah all that he needs to go to Jerusalem. The king evens sends horseman, guards, and captains in the king's army. He sent letters of blessing to all of the governors who were in the territories where Nehemiah was passing. Note: Nehemiah gives GOD all of the glory for HIS supply. (v. 8)

Sanballet and Tobias were the two thorns in the flesh for Nehemiah. They were residents of Jerusalem. They were very disturbed that someone was coming to help God's people. Verses 11-12 reveal that this was not just some "adventure" for Nehemiah but a true calling from the Lord. (verse 11 -- God put it in Nehemiah's heart.)

As Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and began to make inspections. He found total devastation. Some places were not even passable. There was much work to do and one who reads this can almost hear the gears begin to turn in Nehemiah's head.

Now Nehemiah begins to cast the vision in verse 17. He tells the people that they should arise and build so as to no longer be a REPROACH. He then assures the people that the hand of God is on him. He also has the support of the king. (v. 18) Then the people caught the vision and said, "let us rise up and build!" The followed through by beginning this work of God - the vision to rebuild the CITY OF GOD! ZION! Jerusalem!!

When the rose up to work - so did Sanballet and Tobias and their friend, Gesham. They hated the people, laughed at them and even falsely accused them of rebellion against the king. Nehemiah's response was to call on God! (v. 20)

• God will prosper us!


• We will arise and build!

Nehemiah then reminds Sanballet, Tobias, and Gesham that they have not place in the city, no heritage there in Jerusalem. It's almost as if Nehemiah is saying, "you are aliens who are here illegally. We are God's people doing what God has called us to do. He has empowered us and supplied our every need. You just watch - His hand is on this project -- we will be successful because God want us to be successful.

• God caused the king to approach Nehemiah. Nehemiah did not even have to mention the calling of God on his life - THE KING MADE IT POSSIBLE! (v. 2 and v. 4)


• Nehemiah prayed before he answered the king. (v. 4)


• Nehemiah had a God given plan to accomplish what God had called him to do. The plan even included a time line for how long it would take to accomplish the vision.


• When the king granted his requests - Nehemiah gave God the glory. (v.8)


• Nehemiah logically presented the vision/project to the people. (v. 17) NOTE: For further study -- v. 17, "no longer a reproach."


• The people caught the vision. (v. 18)


• Negative forces began to make their presence known! Whenever and wherever God is doing something great - there will always be those who are trying to tear it down.


• Nehemiah reminds Sanballet, Tobias and Gesham that they have no heritage. Heritage calls to mind the importance of a blood line! They have no place there because of who they are! They have not rights there.


• God will prosper the work of their hands (Nehemiah and the people) because of who they are and because of "whose" they are!!!

Nehemiah 1 -- God's Call to Nehemiah

Nehemiah learns of the plight of the chldren of God - the REMNANT that escaped captivity and went back to Jerusalem. They found the city in ruins and were in great distress. Nehemiah heard this and went into a time of depression/mourning and he began to cry out to God. I was during this time that Nehemiah began to fast and pray. During the time of fasting he became convicted of his sin and confessed before the Lord. He reminded God of God's promise to Moses -- unfaithfulness will bring distress and separation, but repentance will bring blessings. The blessing of "coming home" is a great blessing. RETURN TO ME - stands out to me. (v. 9)

Nehemiah now prays a key prayer. He asks God to grant the King compassion before Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the curpbearer to the king. Now he was about to ask for some time off -- too be relieved of his duties so he could go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city.

• Return to ME! (v. 9) -- it is always a good thing to confess our sins before the Lord. He has already forgiven them but it is for our benefit that we confess because the acts of sin have led us "away" from the blessing of God. God told Nehemiah - if we RETURN to God - we will walk in His blessings!



• Nehemiah's "mercy prayer." (v. 11) -- This verse has proven to be so helpful in my ministry as a pastor. Nehemiah approached the king with caution because any talk of leaving the service of the king could signal disloyalty and could be punished by death. Nehemiah could be sentenced to death just for asking time away to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. However, Nehemiah prayed that the king would be compassionat toward him. Chapter 2 is the account of what hapened afte Nehemiah prayed this prayer. It is amazing to see how God worked in this!!

Nehemiah 3 -- The Plan Comes Together

Nehemiah 3 is a detailed description of how individuals and groups of people came together and started the repairs and in some places the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem. They filled in the gaps. They repaired and re-hung the gate-doors. Nehemiah even records the repairs of the hardware on the gates. What I find amazing about this portion of scripture is that each group worked and tied each section of the wall together. It reminds me of the meeting of the two railroads across the U.S. When the time came to tie the tracks together – they met perfectly. When it came time to close the gaps and tie the wall together, it came together perfectly and supernaturally. God brought this to pass because the people were being obedient to Him. He blessed the work of their hands and the project was a success.

The scripture 2:18 reminds us that “set their hands to the work.” In other words their focus was to complete the work that God had called them to do. The huge task of rebuilding the wall was comprised of many smaller projects. The smaller projects were part of the larger project and calling of God – the rebuilding and refortifying of the city of Jerusalem.
• Our projects must always point to the larger focus and vision of God. Notice that they were all focused on different projects, but for the purpose completing what God had called them to do.
• None of the projects recorded by Nehemiah were a distraction from the vision given to Nehemiah – they all worked together. They all pointed to the greater vision/project--REBUILD THE WALLS!
• Everyone bought into the vision – the priests, the common laborer, the common citizen and women. Everyone had a place in the work.

Blogging AGAIN!

I have felt a need to start blogging again. I got away from ith when I discovered FaceBook and now I am feeling the need to blog. I am going to be sharing my thoughts from my early morning Bible studies. Currently I am studying 1 chapter of Nehemiah each morning. Now when I says that I am studying, actually it will be a "light" study with makers for me to go back and dig deeper at a later time. My plan is to read the chapter 5 times - then write it out in my own words, marking through bulleted points what God is showing me. I have been at this for 3 days and I am loving it.

At first I was writing everything in a journal but then I decided to start blogging it so I am taking the time over the next couple of days to re-write the material into the blog.

I hope this study will be a blessing to you - It has already taught me so much!

Fellowship by Chris Chow

Chris Chow was in my youth group at Emmanuel Baptist Church in the late eighties. He was a strong Christian young man who was a deep thinker. We keep in touch through email. Recently he sent a study he did on "fellowship" in the church. It is a wonderful study. I asked his permission to post on my blog. He graciously agreed. You will be glad he did!

FELLOWSHIP --

As busy person (2 small kids hanging all over me whenever I'm at home trying to accomplish a task, pages all night from the hospital, catching up on tons of paperwork at the office, catching up on and co-laboring with friends and members of the church universal, early morning meetings, evening prayer meetings, earlier morning devotions, self-development projects of reading lists, projects, lawn-care, Sunday School preparation, worship team preparation, listening to new songs, daily readings of secular and Bible readings to the children, trying to carve out time for my patient and understanding wife), I find myself cringing at the request for my presence at yet another "fellowship". At the inspiration of a friend this week, I decided to look into what God says about it. Here's what I found. I welcome your comments.

Fellowship:
More than just a gathering
Chris Chow
April 2, 2009

The word “fellowship” is listed in the Bible 17 times.

Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” The word for “fellowship” here is “koinonia” (Strong’s 2842) which means “participation”, “sharing in”, “fellowship with”, “communion”.

God uses this word to call us into fellowship of his Son (1 Cor. 1:9 “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”).

Paul uses this word to identify and share in Christ’s sufferings (Phil 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”)

It’s used in Philemon 1:6 “that the koinonia of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”

Even John uses this word in 1 John 1:3-7 “that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ…If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But is we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Paul uses this word to describe the plea of the churches of Macedonia to receive the support to the poor saints in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8:4 “imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.”)

Later, to end the same book, he uses this word to describe the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the koinonia of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”)(See also Phil 2:1)

He also uses this word to describe our fellowship with the blood and the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16 “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the koinonia of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the koinonia of the body of Christ?”).

[So, already, God describes the fellowship of Christ, of His sufferings, of our faith, with other believers, sharing in their ministry/gifts, of the Spirit, of the blood and body of Christ—it’s more than an identification, it’s a partaking/embracing/and perhaps incarnation of those things and what it means]

But in the same chapter, the Bible warns us not to fellowship with demons (1 Cor. 10:20 “Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.”) The word for fellowship here is “koinonos” (2844, sound familiar?), which means “partners”.

That word “partner” is the same word used in Luke 5:10 to describe Peter, James and John’s work relationship (Luke 9-10 “For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.’”) The Greek word here is koinonos (Similar to koinonia) that describes a business relationship, with mutual responsibilities and accountability, working together to bring in the net, taking turns during the night watch waiting for fish, rowing out into the water together, investing their resources to continue the business, sharing the load and the return, improving the trade. “Titus my partner/koinonos” (2 Cor. 8:23). “Koinonos with them in the blood of the prophets” (Matt. 23:30)

In Galatians 2:9 Paul uses koinonia to describe his and Barnabas’ partnership Peter, James, and John (“And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”)

In Philippians 1:3-5, Paul and Timothy addresses the saints serving in the church there: “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,”


So you see, Paul uses the word almost interchangeably! Because of this, we need to see the idea of fellowship in our church body as more than just hanging out and exchanging jokes and superficial pleasantries, having a good time over fried chicken and potato salad (dumplings and rice in our Chinese church), or sipping coffee while discussing the latest sports news. That may be the start of things, but I believe God wants us to see the idea of fellowship as a partnership, a working relationship with each other (especially as leaders of the church) where we meet to always improve one another, sharpen each other in our walk and glorification of God, speaking (rhema) the Word (logos), teaching each other, raising the worship in our hearts together, so that we start AND finish strong, and working hard together for Him strategically like Peter, James, and John fishing, this time to gather souls, that the reign of heaven may be at hand in many more of our lives!