Nehemiah 2:19-20 Nehemiah s Naysayers February 18, 2019 www.newhopefwbc.com 1285 Ne w Hope R oad Joelton, TN 37080 6 1 5. 7 4 6. 6 4 0 3 READ Nehemiah 2:17-20 KIDS What three weapons did Nehemiah s naysayers use against him? Let us rise up and build! Nehemiah had put forth the charge of rallying together and rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem so that the people of God would be protected, so that they could rebuild a city and so they could stop dragging God s name through the mud, and THE PEOPLE LISTENED! They responded! It was unanimous! This would be an excellent place for the book of Nehemiah to end. Put a tagline of and they rebuilt the city of God and everything would be great! Its almost like it was too good to be true! Because it was. Where verses 18 ends with a triumphant They set their hands to this good work, verse 19 starts with a resounding But You can call it dramatic tension, spiritual warfare, fallen sin nature, case of the Mondays, or whatever you want. Whenever you triumphantly decide to do something great for God, your life s verse will start with a But Corey M. Minter Page 1 of 9
She made a decision to follow Christ on Sunday! But then she was ridiculed by her family He told God that he would serve Him WHEREVER! But then she walked into his life She decided to carve out time for daily Bible reading! But then the alarm clock came all too early the next morning You name it. It has happened. Every decision, every intention, every good and spiritual work has been and will be met with opposition. Eve met the serpent, Noah met his culture, Saul met his pride, Jesus met the Pharisees, Demas met This present world. Each of those stories hold that dramatic tension/that spiritual warfare. In some of them, the follower of God wins a victory in the face of adversity. In some of them, defeat. Do not fall into the trap of so many spiritual leaders today that tell you that when you give your life to Christ or decide to follow Him more intentionally that it will be easy. It. Will. Not. Be. Easy. It will be hard. People will look at you like you are different because you are different. People will threaten you because your lifestyle threatens theirs. People will call you names because you bear His name. If they crucified Jesus (the One Who we follow), we can expect nothing less for ourselves. It catches us off guard at times. We think that it is unwarranted, but there is a reason why the cross is often the symbol of Christianity. It is a tool of torture and shame. When you wear that cross around your neck, you wear nothing more than an electric chair or a syringe filled with capital punishment serum. The very picture of the cross Corey M. Minter Page 2 of 9
of someone hanging suspended between Heaven and earth was supposed to evoke the thought Earth does not want him, and Heaven will not accept him. If Jesus was despised and rejected of men, do not think that you will be loved and accepted when you follow in His steps. Let me give you a caveat before I get too far into today s sermon: You may face discouragements within the church among others who claim to be Christians(We will talk about that another week), but today, I am going to talk about outside threats. It may sound very Us vs. Them ish, and I always struggle with these kind of sermons because that s what we want. We want to be told how good we are and how bad they are. But they are people for whom Christ died, and they are people that Christ has called you to go to. The worst thing for you to do today is to leave unburdened for your community, with a chip on your shoulder against the whole world that are not Christians. However, in preaching the whole Bible, we have got to address certain discouragements that come at us from unbelievers. For Nehemiah trying to build this wall to protect the innocent and make God s name famous in the Persian kingdom, his opposition comes in the shape of three spiritual vandals: Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem. They are going to come up in the story OFTEN over the next eleven chapters. They graffiti the book of Nehemiah and the wall that he is trying to build for God s people with all kinds of threats and discouraging taunts to try to get him to stop doing what God has called him to do. We are going to take a look at some of the ways these three try to stop God s work and Nehemiah s efforts, and I think you will see that it is Corey M. Minter Page 3 of 9
not a history lesson. It will run pretty close to home for some of us. Sandballat, Tobiah and Geshem use three weapons against Nehemiah that historically have proven very effective in keeping the people of God in check by the world. Let s see if you can spot them: 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king? 1. Pressure The Majority 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it The first is an unspoken weapon that often times does a number on God s people. The first time we hear anything about two of these men was just a few verses earlier in verse 10, where Sanballat and Tobiah were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. What s the first thing they do? Well, they did not like their odds (two versus one); so they get another to join their ranks Geshem. Maybe if Nehemiah can see that he is pretty much surrounded by people who do not agree with him, he ll shut up about this nonsense about God s work, take his armed escort and go back to the comforts of Susa. By all accounts these three men were governors of regions in the Persian Empire, and they had received this honor through royal decree. Thus their names/introductions: Sanballat the Horonite most likely from Horonaim, Tobiah the Ammonite [governing a Corey M. Minter Page 4 of 9
region east of the Jordan River], and Geshem the Arab [governing the south of Judah]. So not only is Nehemiah outnumbered three to one, these men carry some weight. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that there used to be a time when it is was popular to follow God s leading. There has never been a Moral Majority. There has never been a time when it was accepted to obey God. That was why Jesus said (Matthew 7:14) narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. You have probably heard the old adage God + 1 = Majority. I understand what it is trying to do reaffirm that it does not matter how many people are against you, if you are serving God but the truth is that equation is flawed. It ought to be God = Majority. In fact, that is essentially how Nehemiah answers their first threat of pressure or majority. Nehemiah 2:20 So I answered them, and said to them, The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; There will be people who try to use their power, influence and even sheer number to stop you from sharing your faith, living for God, building the kingdom, but The God of Heaven will prosper you, and while that is not a promise of health/wealth/prosperity, it is a promise of God s favor. That is worth more than anything this world can afford. 2. Ridicule The Laugh 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us Corey M. Minter Page 5 of 9
Christians are the punchline. With only a few exceptions, if you see someone in a show or movie who lives by and espouses Biblical values, they will either be portrayed as the weirdo with the mega phone and sandwich board that reads The end is near, or someone who needs to be educated about love and acceptance. How do we respond to the cynicism? How do we react? Get angry and play right into the role that they have written out for us? I think a better question would be How did Jesus respond? They laughed at Him. They jeered and sneered and mocked. Matthew 27 gives the account leading up to the cross when Jesus was beaten within an inch of His life. The centurions wrapped a cloth around Him calling it his royal robe. They gave him a skinny, frail reed to act as His scepter. They twisted a crown of thorns and platted it on His head. How did Jesus respond? 1 Peter 2:23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. He remained faithful to the work that God had called Him to. He did not get distracted with their jokes and neither did Nehemiah. Nehemiah 2:20 So I answered them, and said to them, The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, Corey M. Minter Page 6 of 9
There are a lot of things that distract us from the mission that God has called us to. However noble you may feel by engaging the cynics, by lashing out to the ridicule, the enemy has succeeded. He has distracted you from building God s kingdom. 3. Intimidation The Hatred 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king? The third weapon that these men use against Nehemiah is that they try and intimidate him into not building the wall. We just read it they despised us will you rebel against the king? They know full well that Nehemiah is operating under the blessing of King Artaxerxes. They read the royal papers that were sent to give Nehemiah safe passage in verse ten. But that is not going to stop them from trying to spread rumors that Nehemiah has gone rogue that he is trying to outfit an army to overthrow Artaxerxes. They are feigning surprise here of his treachery. Essentially, What s Artaxerxes going to say when we tell him that you are going to rebel against him?! Scripture says it right there in verse 19. The reason they are doing this is because they despise Nehemiah, God s people and by extension (if not in the forefront of their minds), God Himself. Why do they hate Nehemiah? Why do they despise God s people and God? We are never truly told ALL of the details. There may be a backstory/ a history which we are not told, but at very least, Jerusalem s walls Corey M. Minter Page 7 of 9
being built meant no more Do whatever you want. So long as those walls were broken down, Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem had free range to do or take whatever they wanted to. They could pillage it at any time they chose. It was looting to a thousandth degree. So when Nehemiah comes on the scene and starts to rebuild, they know that those days are over. I said much earlier in the sermon, Do not be surprised when people threaten you because your lifestyle threatens them. I did not mean that we ought to threaten people with our faith or morality. What I meant was: by your living according to God s call on your life, you are reminding them that they are not. When we live by whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy like Philippians tells us we ought, we are threatening the lifestyle of that which is untrue, indignant, unjust, impure, distasteful, poor report, vice and dishonest. It is the very nature of sin and righteousness, dark and light. By living for God, we remind others that they are not. By Nehemiah s building a wall, these men are told that they can no longer live as they please. So to their hateful threats of spreading rumors about Nehemiah, Nehemiah responds perfectly: 20 So I answered them, and said to them, The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem. Corey M. Minter Page 8 of 9
You have no hold on me. Nehemiah s words are clear. These men have no legal, political or religious hold on Jerusalem, and it is the same for us. Our hearts are bound to Another. Whatever the backstory, whatever the past, they have no hold on you. We are God s, and we will do what He calls us to do. Corey M. Minter Page 9 of 9