Christian Vision: From Inception To Implementation

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"Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.’ I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me." Nehemiah2:17-18

Main Readings: Hebrews 11 & Nehemiah 2

Supporting Readings: Ephesians 6 & Psalm 46

If you were with us last week in chapter 1, you’ll remember that we were introduced to Nehemiah - a man who cared deeply about God’s glory.

You’ll also recall that the report that reached him from Jerusalem was grim. Essentially because it read: ‘Jerusalem in tatters!’ The walls were broken down, the gates were burned, and the people were living in disgrace. Today, we’d probably call it a ruin and put a national trust car park outside it. It was that run down.

That news landed on Nehemiah and left him burdened – not only for God’s people, but supremely for God’s name.

So, what did he do? Well, he wept. He fasted. And then he prayed. And in the quiet of those long days, God was at work, shaping a vision in his heart.

And that’s where we take up the story this morning. The season of mourning, fasting, and prayer has now stretched on for four months. And we can know that simply because chapter 1 began in the month of Kislev and now, as chapter 2 opens, it’s the month of Nisan. Kislev falls around our November/December time, and Nisan, around March or April. 

Four months, then, have passed. Four months of wrestling with God. Four months of lifting his heart in prayer. Four months of waiting to see what God would do.

And so, notice with me how Nehemiah proceeds. He doesn’t rush headlong into action. He’s deliberate. He’s prayerful. And he makes room for the Lord to work on his heart. That doesn’t mean he’s idle. No – while he waits, he seeks God earnestly. He prays. He watches. He listens for the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Because, you know, one of the hardest things in the Christian life is knowing when to act and when to stand still. Ecclesiastes reminds us: ‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.’ 

If the Word of God speaks directly to the issue, there’s no uncertainty. But when it doesn’t, and a wisdom call has to be made, Nehemiah’s pattern is a safe one: prayerful waiting, not endless drifting. A deliberate time frame, not a knee-jerk reaction.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way: ‘Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.’ And then he says, ‘Be filled with the Spirit.’ In other words, pray, wait deliberately, and seek to be led by the Spirit of God.

So, after these months of prayer, what does Nehemiah do next? Well, by this point, the vision is clear in his mind. God has laid it on his heart, and he knows what he needs to see happen. But here’s the catch: he needs the king’s consent.

It's a bit like dealing with the local council on, well just about anything. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve had the privilege, like I have. If you want to get anything done, it’s not enough to have the vision and means, you need the consent of an impossibly slow moving and cumbersome governmental body. Nehemiah’s prospects were not dissimilar.

Now, we know that Nehemiah was troubled in his heart by the report from Jerusalem. But it seems that the king – whom Nehemiah served as cupbearer, you’ll remember – had not encountered Nehemiah like this before. Nehemiah himself says in verse 1 that he had ‘not been sad in his presence before.’

I guess it’s possible that Nehemiah managed to keep a lid on his emotions for those four months, and that’s why the king hadn’t seen him this way.

But I have to tell you, if my own heart is anything to go by, concealing that kind of despondency for any length of time is almost impossible.

It won’t surprise you, I’m sure, that I can be just as despondent as the next person. And nobody spots it quicker than Deb and the kids. Why? Because they’re around me all the time. You see, when you’re around people who know you best, the hardest thing in the world is to hide despondency.

And so, I doubt Nehemiah could hide his either. The more likely explanation, then, is that the king had been wintering away from Susa. And only now, with the springtime upon them, had he returned. 

So, in all probability, this is, only just now, the first time Nehemiah had served the king since that dreadful news about Jerusalem.

Now notice with me what happens. And this will be the first of ten things we’re going to note that served to advance Nehemiah’s vision from inception to action. The first thing we see is that the weakness of Nehemiah is on display as the king asks him about his sadness. Verse 2 tells us: “I was very much afraid.”

Why? Well, because it simply wasn’t acceptable for servants to bring their emotions before the king. 

Their role was to serve with cheerful devotion. To fail in that duty: was worthy of severe punishment. So, Nehemiah’s fear is understandable.

It’s like a courtroom before the verdict is read. The gallery is silent. Hearts are pounding. And then the judge lifts the gavel, strikes it down, and delivers the verdict. In that moment, someone’s life is changed forever. And Nehemiah knew this could be that moment for him.

Understandable or not, it was still weakness on Nehemiah’s part. Having prayed to the Lord for favour, it wasn’t right for him to now doubt God’s goodness. You see God’s favour may come in the form of exoneration. Or it may come in the form of execution. It wasn’t Nehemiah’s call to make.

Still, it’s hardly surprising that he felt fear coursing through his veins – I know I would have too. And that’s the point. Weakness reminds us that when vision is finally accomplished, there’s no way any of us can honestly say, ‘Oh, that was my strength.’ No – what’s most obvious to us, along the way, is our weakness and our fear are ever present.

So, whilst weakness is not the response God ultimately wants from us, it does serve as a reminder, in the end, that God did it all!

Paul himself knew this tension. He tells Timothy: ‘God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.’ And yet, he also says that the Lord told him: ‘My power is made perfect in weakness.’

Weakness, you see, is not the goal. Strength through Christ is the goal. But weakness – which will always be with us - reminds us that it’s God’s strength that makes the decisive difference.

And we’ll see that response in Nehemiah in just a moment. So yes – there’s weakness to contend with. But human weakness is no reason at all to imagine that God’s vision cannot come to completion. On the contrary, God’s uses human weakness to display his strength. ///

Now, what is it that turns weakness into strength? It’s this, isn’t it: dependence. Full-square dependence on the God who is never weak.

And prayer is what we see straightaway in Nehemiah. Verse 4: ‘Then I prayed to the God of heaven.’

Prayer at the beginning is necessary. Prayer in the middle is necessary. Prayer at the end is necessary. Prayer will always be necessary, not least because of our weakness.

And Nehemiah wastes no time. Do you see that?

Last week, I said prayer is often on the hoof. And here it is so. There’s no time for the long prayer framework of chapter 1 – praise, confession, promise, and so on. Not here. Not in front of the king. Here, there’s only time for: ‘Help me, Lord!’ ‘Help me’. ‘What do I say?’

But whether it’s long-form or short-form, whether it’s measured or urgent, there must be prayer. Because prayer is what places the pieces into God’s hands.

What does that do for our faith? When we see God answer prayer like that? Well, it deepens it. We realise in that moment that when God is at work on our behalf, there’s simply nothing that can stand in our way that is not, ultimately, for our good and his glory. It emboldens our hope in God.

So then, ongoing prayer is essential if the vision is going to take effect.

Let’s keep moving through then. Next, we see the need for boldness and courage.

Prayer is what God has ordained to transform cocky self-confidence into God-honouring courage. Having committed something to God in prayer, James reminds us: ‘don’t doubt’. In other words, be confident in the God to whom you’ve prayed.

And that’s exactly how Nehemiah proceeds. 

Verse 5, he says: “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favour in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried, so that I can rebuild it.”

Now, don’t lose sight of who Nehemiah is here! Don’t lose sight of the fact that he is not a Persian at all. He’s an exile! He’s not a courtly prince. He’s a cupbearer! He had no right to ask the king anything. Let alone to leave his service to go and rebuild a wall, a thousand miles away.

So, the king asks, ‘How long will it take?’ Easy at this point to second-guess yourself, right? ‘Would the king prefer shorter?’ ‘Should I adjust?’

But Nehemiah doesn’t trim back. He asks for exactly what he needs. And that’s right, isn’t it? Faithlessness second-guesses. But faith says: if God is working everything else out here, then why not this as well? And so, he boldly asks.

But he doesn’t stop there. Verse 7: ‘If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe conduct until I arrive in Judah?’

Oh – and while we’re at it – verse 8 – ‘may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so that he will give me timber for the beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple, for the city wall, and for the house I will occupy?’

It’s amazing stuff from Nehemiah! But notice it’s not cocky. His repeated preface is, ‘If it pleases the king.’

You see, despite his confidence, he won’t forget his manners. Even though he knows: if God is for him, the king cannot refuse him anything, yet he won’t forget honour.

And that’s a good principle, isn’t it? The New Testament reinforces the same thing. 

When the vision requires the provision of others, God calls his people to honour them.

Paul says, ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that do exist have been instituted by God.’

So yes, courage and boldness are necessary. But not without humility. Not without honour.

And that brings us neatly to the matter of people of peace. Because when you boil it down, Nehemiah is making an appeal to a pagan king. And for a city belonging to a foreign God. That’s the way Artaxerxes sees it at least.

And if you stop and think about that, it’s a big ask! From Nehemiah’s standpoint, he needs the king to be a person of peace.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, it’s the opposite of what we see down in verse 10. There we meet two officials – Sanballat and Tobiah. Nehemiah says they were ‘disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.’ And these two certainly prove to be an ongoing thorn in Nehemiah’s side. They are the opposite of people of peace.

But the king, he’s different. He is predisposed to Nehemiah and to his cause. That’s what I mean by a person of peace. It pleased the king to send him. And not only to send him, but to do so with army officers and cavalry at his side. And presumably, with the timber and supplies Nehemiah had requested, as well.

Now, here’s the point. As we look to push forward with the vision God has laid on our hearts – whatever that may be – who knows what favour we might need from the people of the world?

In fact, this very building we’re meeting in right now is controlled by such people. And yet God, in his mercy, has provided for us through their favour. They don’t necessarily share our vision. They don’t necessarily share our cause. And yet God has used them to bless us.

What amazing ways God devises to bring about the vision he lays on his people’s hearts!

And so, this encourages us to pray for these kinds of people. And to give thanks for them when we encounter them.

And that brings us naturally to God’s favour.

You know, when you get wrapped up in the execution of a vision like this, and you start to see things coming together, it’s quite exhilarating. I remember what it was like as Riverside started to get off the ground. 

And because you thought the thoughts. And because you strategised the details. And because you planned the outcomes, when they come to pass, you’re tempted to think: ‘Look what I did!’ ‘Look how I have succeeded!’

But for Nehemiah, it’s not the thoughts he thought. Or the plans he planned. It’s the grace God granted. He says, ‘Because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.’

God is his God. God is gracious. And it’s owing to His grace – like the very hand of God on his head – that the king made the decision that he made.

All the glory, then, belongs to God. In reality, without the favour of God, the vision is dead.

With the favour of God, the vision – carried by a mighty tidal wave of grace – engulfs all before it. It levels the hills, and it fills in the valleys. So that, at last, the way ahead is made clear. That’s how great our God is!

Now, clearly, the reality of God’s grace does not cancel Christian input. And that’s where planning comes in.

It’s already been seen that, before Nehemiah went in front of the king, he had worked out what he would need from the king – namely, safe passage and materials.

But now, as he arrives in Jerusalem in verse 11, we see further strategising on his part.

First, he spends three days in the city. Seemingly making contact with the priests, nobles, and officials.

Then he makes a conscious decision not to tell anybody about his vision until he has assessed the extent of the damage.

Next, he decides to make his assessment by night, when regional officials won’t see what he’s doing, and when he won’t get questions about his plans.

And finally, he makes his inspection carefully, logically, and comprehensively.

In other words, he was wise about how he proceeded - so as to maximise the prospects of his vision.

And that kind of strategising might sounds somewhat fatalistic. But it’s not fatalistic when it’s committed into the hands of God. And reliance is made on the Holy Spirit for wisdom to advance the vision. That’s been Nehemiah’s approach every step of the way so far. And there’s no reason to think he didn’t continue in that vein now also.

And now we see Nehemiah’s leadership coming to the fore.

To put it into context, let me give you an idea of the scale of the task facing Nehemiah.

The wall of the city measured around 4km in length. Of those 4km, scholars estimate around 80-90% of them were in ruins.

Cut a slice through the wall in any one place, and the dimensions were at least 9m tall and around 3 meters wide.In total then, it would have taken around 75,000 cubic meters of material to restore all the walls.

Clearly, Nehemiah never imagined he could rebuild the walls himself. Rather, he thought that he, with the help of his God, could rally the people of Judah who had returned, to accomplish this massive rebuilding task together. And to that end, Nehemiah addresses them in verse 17.

He alerts them first to the state of the city walls and gates. And then he calls on them to join him in the rebuilding project. He set the goal before them: that in so doing, they will no longer be in disgrace.

And what he probably has in mind by that is: no longer disgraced before God – whose name they bear.

And no longer disgraced before the surrounding nations – whose mockery is their shame. His aim here is to rally the people, who for so long have done nothing to address this issue.

A key feature of his appeal to them, is to recount the way God had graciously provided for him at every turn in the journey so far. His speech to them wasn’t so much ‘I have a dream’ – like the great Martin Luther King of old - as it was: ‘God has laid this vision on my heart. He has provided for this vision at every turn. And He will bring this vision to completion. So, come, join Him in His rebuilding vision!’

Godly leadership then, is not about convincing people to join your project. It’s about calling people to join God in His project.

And the answer Nehemiah gets back from the people is a collective ‘yes’. Not one or two only. But the whole community says, ‘Let us start rebuilding’.

Let me show you quickly, from chapter 3, what this collective approach looked like. The first thing to see is that rulers and officials are mentioned at the top of the chapter as getting involved in building.

And that included the priests. Even the high priest.

You see, the priests were usually excused from any tasks other than the work of the temple service.

But here, even they are engaged.

The second thing to see is the range of people involved. We’re not seeing only the gifted heavy labourers committed to the project.

No, we’re seeing fine craftsmen like goldsmiths at the work face with trowels.

We’re seeing perfumers with no particular experience in building materials, working together on the wall. We’re seeing merchants and businesspeople getting their hands dirty.

We’re seeing women as well as men laying stones.

And so, the picture is one of collective, community-based effort, for the sake of the Lord, and in pursuit of a common vision. Even families laboured together.

But it’s worth noting also, we encounter in chapter 3 a group who refuse to get involved. And this is revealing. Some of the Jewish nobles, Nehemiah says, ‘wouldn’t put their shoulders to the work’.

The fact that Nehemiah especially calls them out, points to the impact that their reluctance had on the wider group as they all laboured together.

So, there was a small amount of resistance from within. But the main resistance ultimately came from outside. And this serves to remind us that whenever a ‘good work’ is started, there’s always opposition from the enemy of souls – that is, from Satan, of course. 

And you can see, from verse 19, that the opposition had grown now to include Geshem the Arab. Mocking and ridiculing is one tactic they use. But the other is to misrepresent them as rebels against the king.

The aim is to try to make them feel afraid that the king might not be supportive of their project. And thereby to undermine their credibility, create doubt among the workers, and spread fear in the community.

And we just have to keep in mind that our enemy is not made of flesh and blood like they were, but is called ‘the ruler of the kingdom of the air’. In other words, he is spiritual as Ephesians 6 says. And his devices are designed to tear down faith, sow seeds of doubt in our hearts, and to create fear as we seek to do God’s will. And so, Paul calls on us to not be ignorant of those devices, but to put on the whole armour of God so that we can take our stand against him.

And that’s exactly what you can see Nehemiah do in the last verse. He makes God his hope – ‘The God of heaven will give us success’, he says.

He reminds his enemies that they have no share in God’s city. No claim on it. And no historic right to it. 

In a similar vein, James says to us, ‘resist the devil and he will flee from you’.

Satan has no share in Jesus. No claim on us. And no historic footing in the promises God has established in us through Jesus.

If we are going to have vision for Jesus and pursue it, we have to know this opposition is coming and be ready for it – fully dressed in the armour of God, sober, and in our right minds as Paul reminds us.

Now let me finish by showing you how this whole thing is wrapped up in faith. Because that’s vital. When Nehemiah went before the king and said,

‘let the king send me back to the city in Judah…so that I can rebuild it’, there was no prospect of that happening with his own two hands alone. How could there be?

Neither had Nehemiah had the luxury of being able to share his vision with anyone else.

In other words, his vision, his prayer, his planning, his risk in front of the king, his boldness and courage, his long journey, his night-time assessment were all based on nothing except this one thing alone: confidence in his God.

Faith, you see, is what fuelled everything he ventured on this vision. And God says in His Word, ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’.

Simply put, this vision could not prevail unless it was rooted in faith. Unless it was established in steadfast hope that God would work to overcome all the odds.

I wonder if Nehemiah ever thought to himself, ‘What if the people won’t believe in the vision? What if I get there and they count the cost of the work? What if the opposition is so great, they’ll be too afraid to get involved? What if the materials aren’t made available. What if…What if…’

Ultimately, it seems Nehemiah had faith in God. That whatever the outcomes of all those ‘what if’s’, God would do everything in accordance with His perfect will. And so, it was faith that spurred Nehemiah on to realise the vision God had given him in the first place.

The visions then, that God lays on our hearts - the burdens He gives us for His glory – they will never be realised by our own cleverness, our own willpower, or our own resolve.

They will only be realised because God is faithful to His promises. Because Christ has triumphed over the enemy. And because the Holy Spirit strengthens weak people like us to carry through with them in faith.