Nehemiah Part 2: Preparing For Favor (Nehemiah 2:1-8)

The news of Christ truly is the best news in the world! It's something to get excited about. The gospel frees us and leads our hearts towards honoring Christ, into fruitful living, and stirs eagerness to know Him more. From this flows more eagerness to move forward together in Christ, trusting our good and sovereign God. There is so much to be joyful about in Him!

Difficult things happen: in Genesis we see Joseph being sold into slavery, and in Philippians Paul is writing as a prisoner for the gospel. In God's great plan, their hard circumstances served great purpose in furthering His salvation plan. Paul says in his letter, "I want you to know..." He wants us to know that the gospel is being advanced, and that we are partners in His great purpose. The more we understand this, the more we can rejoice and celebrate what God is going to accomplish.

Partnership is a beautiful thing! The partnership between Paul and the church in Philippi was a healthy one. Good partnership looks like generous care that fuels praise and thanksgiving. Genuine partnership in the Gospel will also fuel joy and devotion, and we'll find ourselves taking joy in one another as Jesus takes joy in His people. Finally, the growing love for one another that we find in healthy partnership fuels grace-filled fruitfulness in our lives. How can we cultivate this partnership? It begins with learning to give thanks.

Paul and Timothy are both apostolic men, but how does Paul address the church in Philippi? As a servant of Christ. The Philippians too will find their primary identity in Christ. All their other characteristics and titles in the world would flavor their distinct expressions of humanity, but Christ is the foundation. As the people of God, first and foremost, our identity is in Christ, rooted in the grace and peace of God. Together then, we can become one holy people, free to serve Jesus and one another.

In Acts 16 we find Paul trying to travel to the region of Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus tells him no. Paul listens to the Spirit and is led instead to the Macedonian city of Philippi, where what we know as the Philippian church is founded. There he meets a woman named Lydia, and God opens her heart to the gospel. She is baptized and becomes an avenue of great blessing and hospitality to the church that begins meeting in her home. If we listen to God, He may change our plans, but His place and timing is perfect, and His work in us will be completed by Him. When God says yes, nothing can stop that! He wins.

In the final Chapter of Nehemiah,  we find that though the people of Jerusalem may live in a different era and culture than us today, in some ways they're really not all that different from us. They can engage in a holy moment with God and then return to their old ways once the moment has passed. The too are tempted to neglect God and His ways. Just as the people of Jerusalem we too need a savior. The good news is that we have one! Jesus has done the work, "It is finished," and we are redeemed through Him, our greater Nehemiah. The culture Nehemiah worked so hard to establish, only Jesus is truly able to do, changing not just our outward culture and behaviors, but our hearts.

In Nehemiah 12 we find God's people planning a celebration together ofwhat God has accomplished. They are also creating a strategic community of worship on purpose. Intentionality in thanking and praising God included consecration that would set them up well for celebration. The extravagant, joyful, all-inclusive worship event was exciting - and took a lot of coordination - but this would be more than a one-time event. They were setting up a pattern of worship that could continue. While the event amplified their sound across the region, the stewardship they were planning would help shift the culture, not just make a lot of noise.  The joy they found would become fuel for their stewardship, and our gratefulness in the gospel will fuel a culture of worship and stewardship in our day as well.

In Nehemiah 11 the leaders of God's people choose to stay in Jerusalem not because it was a nice city with clean neighborhoods or great amenities. It actually wasn't. They stayed because they believed in what God was building there, and their choice to stay was a choice to build. The rest of the people of God came together for a key shift that also needed to happen. A literal tithe of the people, 10 %, were chosen to relocate to the city, and others above and beyond that volunteered. Everyone had a role to play in building the Holy City. As the people of God today, there is a challenge for us to take up the call to partner in what God is building. It's not just leaders with official titles, not only a select few, but all of us. Let's take our place in building and becoming the City of God, the radiant church of Jesus Christ.

Building a culture that honors God and His Word takes time, but it's not an unrealistic, mysterious, or illusive dream. There are tangible shifts we can make in our lives, both individually and together as God's people, that help us align our real-life, day-to-day culture with God's word, character, and way of building.  In Nehemiah 10, we see three specific shifts we are called to make as a people of faith:  Giving faith precedence over our feelings, over our schedules and calendars, and over our finances. The declaration of God's people together, "We will not neglect the house of our God," is rightly heard as a challenge to us today, a call to renew our commitment to God's presence, God's people, and God's work through us.

Herod wants him dead, so Joseph and Mary must flee with Jesus to Egypt. After his birth and subsequent dedication at the temple in Jerusalem, the first story we hear of Jesus' early life is one of an outsider. God is working a wonderful plan that will lead Jesus back into Israel and into the town of Nazareth. God is still preserving people who are outside the "system," preparing them in places like "Egypt" and "Nazareth." Can anything good come out of a place like Nazareth? That's what one of Jesus' own disciples said later when he found out where Jesus was from. God is using places like Nazareth to welcome His plan and purpose.