A Study in Nehemiah Week 1

A Study in Nehemiah Week 1 (Get your Bible and follow along as we study.)

Nehemiah OUTLINE:

I. REBUILDING the WALLS,

Chapters 1 — 7

A. Nehemiah’s prayer for remnant at Jerusalem, Chapter 1

B. Nehemiah’s request of the king, return to Jerusalem, and review of ruins of Jerusalem, Chapter 2:1-16

C. Nehemiah’s encouragement to rebuild the walls, Chapter 2:17-20

D. Rebuilding the walls and gates, Chapter 3

E. Nehemiah’s response to opposition, Chapters 4 — 6 
Wall completed, 6:15

F. Nehemiah’s register of people, Chapter 7 (Only 42,360 people, 7,337 servants, and 245 singers returned.  Compare this with the fact that Judah alone had 470,000 warriors [1 Chronicles 21:5].)

II. REVIVAL and REFORM,

Chapters 8 — 13

A. Great Bible reading led by Ezra, Chapter 8

B. Revival — the result, Chapters 9, 10

C. Reform — another result, Chapters 11 — 13

Chapter 1

Verses 1-4 – Nehemiah and Ezra were likely written by the same person. Nehemiah asks some visitors about Jerusalem and learned that the walls and gates are in shambles. He weeps, mourns and fasts and then prays a very simple prayer.

Verses 5-11 – This chapter records  the prayer. “Terrible God” is properly translated “Reverend God.” The word “Reverend” should never apply to a person, it should be applied only to God. Nehemiah confesses (6-7), reminds God of His promises (8-9) and casts himself on the mercy of God (10-11).

Chapter 2

Verses 1- 10 – The cup bearer was the one who tested the king’s drink to ensure that it was not poisoned and was of good quality. King Artaxerxes grants Nehemiah’s request for time off to build the wall and offers him whatever he needs to get the job done.

Verses 11-16 – Nehemiah estimates the size of the job he has undertaken and plans the job ahead. As we will see, he also coordinates and evaluates the job, both as it is being done and when it is finished.

Verses 17-18 – Nehemiah selects key leaders to whom he reveals his plan to rebuild the walls and gates of Jerusalem.

Verse 19 – Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem ridiculed the plans. No doubt they said things like, “Nehemiah, you are over organizing this thing. You should spend your time worshiping God, not doing this unspiritual thing. We’ve never done anything like this before and we shouldn’t be doing it now.” They probably said, “This job is too big and we’re too small in number. We’ll never get the job done.”

Verse 20 – Nehemiah’s answer is brief, but to the point. “The God of Heaven…,” the one who organized all of creation, “…will give us success.”

Many church leaders: pastors, deacons and others, hate the difficult business of carefully thinking through a plan before they implement it. They consider planning to be unspiritual. They feel the same about organization and structure. Somehow, they believe God works by magic or genie-ism (my brand new word).

Anyone who reads anything between Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 22:21 and does not see total organization as one of God’s characteristics needs to go back and take 3^rd grade reading over.

If we organize like God and follow His method of planning, He will enable us to accomplish what He wants done. We cannot skip steps, skimp on planning or coordinating or fail to evaluate as we go and expect Him to let us proceed. We must follow His ways and not our own.

The Church and Its Leaders

1 Corinthians 3

The Meat: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. We are not to adopt the standards of the world, for if the gospel of Christ does not attract people, neither will the trappings of the world. The world's ways are sneaky and lead us to imitate it.  The church must not place its eyes on its leaders, whether they are Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Joyce Myers, or Benny Hinn. They have all the reward they are ever going to get...the adulation of man. The role of the church is to follow Him in every circumstance. We must follow Him in worship, in fellowship, in Bible study, in training and in music. We must forsake the world and everything in it to follow Christ and Him alone.
The message of 1 Corinthians is that Christ is preeminent. He is to be the focus of our message, whether it is from the Old Testament or the New. It is not at all about us, it is all about Him. He is the First and the Last and Everything In between.
Note: Something odd happened to the format. I don't know what happened as I typed it in Blogger as I usually do, but somehow it came out strange.

3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

The milk: The leaders at Corinth were worldly and acted like babes in Christ. Saved, but not growing spiritually and not leading their flock to grow in Him. They had their eyes on different leaders.

The Meat: The leaders at Corinth were good at reading the words of scripture (the Old Testament) and giving superficial meaning to it, but they never presented the meat, the deep, deep meaning of the words. They never connected the teachings of the words to the meaning of the Word. They were not even so much as living by the Holy Spirit. They picked out favorites in the church and followed them. In other words, there was a form of politics going on at Corinth.

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

The Milk: The people of the church at Corinth were divided, some following Apollos and others following Paul. 

The Meat: Apollos and Paul were to be seen as a team, each with his own talents and leadership abilities and taking a different approach, but both aiming at the same thing: a thorough knowledge of and faith in, and only in, God through Christ. They were to be seen as working toward the same goal of growing the church through right doctrine and right focus. 

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

The Milk: Paul likened the church as a building being built and talked about how important it is to have a good foundation.

The Meat: The foundation of the church, everything it does and everything it teaches must be built on the truth of Jesus Christ. He is to be their rallying point, their focus. He is the in all, of all, through all, and by all of everything they do. If they don't get their teaching about Christ right, nothing they teach or do will be right. If they get that right, nothing they do will perish, whether by persecution, peril, or anything else the world can do to them.

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

The Milk: We are God's temple and God will destroy anyone who harms it.

The Meat: Under the Old Covenant, the temple was a physical building complex where animal sacrifices were made. Under the New Covenant, there is no longer a physical temple. The Holy Spirit now lives in the hearts of believers. We are made safe in Him. We are led by Him. The temple is the aggregate of the hearts of people as they move toward the goal of reaching souls for Christ.

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”[a]; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”[b] 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas[c] or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

The Milk: We fool ourselves if we think we are wise. We are not to boast about our leaders and we belong to Christ.

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Who Am I?

I have a real problem. I don’t know who to follow. In fact I don’t follow anybody!

I am not a Calvinist. I believe some of the same things John Calvin believed, but not all of them. I certainly don’t subscribe to all of the tenants of TULIP.

I cannot be considered an Armenian. I believe a few of the things he believed, but not all of them. I certainly don’t believe that I’m not currently a sinner, even though I AM saved. A man who farms is a farmer; a man who fishes is a fisherman and a man who sins is a sinner. I sin, therefore I am a sinner.

I love the Moody Bible Institute, but I am not a follower of D.L. Moody. I believe a few of the things he believed, but not all of them. I certainly am not as “legalistic” as Moody was.

I also like the preaching of John MacArthur. I believe some of the things he believed, but not all of them. I don’t subscribe to all of the tenants of “Lordship Salvation.”

My favorite preacher of all time is Dr. Adrian Rogers. I believe a most of the things he believed, but not all of them. I did love his illustrations, though.

Another of my favorites, maybe even tied with Dr. Rogers, is J. Vernon McGee. I believe many of the things he believed, but not all of them. I certainly am not as Calvinistic as he was.

So what, then? What am I? Who am I?

I very much prefer the Apostle Paul’s approach in I Corinthians 1:12-17:

¹² What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas^[b]”; still another, “I follow Christ.”¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

In other words, I am a follower of Christ, and the question is neither “What Am I?” nor “Who am I?”

The question is “Whose am I?”

And the answer is: I am Christ’s.