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What is Biblical Leadership?
Nehemiah 1-2
Introduction:
Good morning once again.
It’s great to be back with you this morning.
Go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament.
What are the characteristics of a godly leader?
What does a godly leader do?
What are they like?
How does a godly leader restore, defend, and rebuild?
Today we launch into a new series walking through the book of Nehemiah.
Often this book is studied in combination with the book of Ezra.
This makes sense because this was originally the second half of the book of Ezra.
These two books cover one century of history from 539 to 433 B.C.
The Judeans had been exiled in Babylon.
The prophets had
Ezra tells of the first wave of exiles who return to Judah under King Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple.
This was 539 to 516 B.C.
The second wave returns with Ezra more than fifty years later around 458 B.C. Nehemiah then rebuilds the wall a little more than ten years later from 445 to 433 B.C.
The whole book of Nehemiah takes place over approximately 13 years.
Resettle, rebuild, and prepare to fight
The leaders in both of these books Ezra and Nehemiah are in the foreground of the story.
You have priests who work in the temple and teach God’s law.
And then you have Nehemiah, the governor.
The question that I came upon in my study was this: what kind of leadership does the Bible hold up or present to us as exemplary leadership?
I want you to think on this throughout our time in this book.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Let’s pray and ask God to help us understand and apply it to our lives.
PRAY
I.
A godly leader is concerned for the glory of God in God’s people.
How we get to some of the dates that I gave earlier.
In the month of Chislev, which corresponds with what we know as November/December.
Artaxerxes began his reign in 465 BC.
In keeping with that timing, the twentieth year would have been 445.
Susa was the winter residence of the king of Persia.
So Nehemiah is there and Hanani arrives from Judah.
Nehemiah asks how things are in Jerusalem and with the remnant of Jews who survive the exile
The news is not good.
Hananai speaks of great trouble and shame.
The walls were broken down and the gates had been burned with fire.
Now, I want you to see something in Nehemiah’s response.
Don’t let it slip by you how passionate he is for God’s kingdom.
He is broken hearted that the advance of God’s people is halted.
When we are loving God and seeking the advance of His kingdom and His glory, we will feel sorrow when it gets slowed or stopped like this.
He weeps and mourns for days.
He then moves forward with fasting and prayer.
He turns to discipline and diligence in continuing to seek the Lord.
This is a man who was already deeply in love with the Lord and seeking His glory.
So when this news came, he dove deeper into his devotion.
I wonder when the last time was that we were driven to weeping and mourning and prayer to see God’s glory advance in our community.
II.
A godly leader is prayerful.
We have here recorded Nehemiah’s prayer to the Lord.
The statements that he makes about God are informed by Scripture.
Nehemiah, knew God’s Word and his strength of character was built in his study of God’s Word.
He knew God’s Word and knew he could trust God to answer his prayers because he knew from God’s Word, what God had promised to do.
This prayer is based on Biblical teaching as we find in Deuteronomy 4:25-31.
Here was Nehemiah, in the midst of the exile, living through what had been prophesied.
He was hoping to experience what God had promised would come after the exile.
He prays and confesses sin.
He asks God to hear the confession of his sin.
He calls on God to remember the covenant He made with His people.
This is just praying scripture.
It’s not trying to hold God hostage or like trying to trick God into doing something that you feel He owes you.
This is not that.
This is praying the promises that God had made in His Word.
At the end of chapter 1 Nehemiah reveals the position that he held in Persia.
He was highly placed.
He was cupbearer to the king meaning that he likely took a taste of everything that went to the king before the king drank it.
One of the fears of kings in that day was being poisoned.
So they would have a cupbearer who would try it first so that the king didn’t die.
If it was poison you’d need a new cupbearer.
According to history, the cupbearers of the Persians and Meades would take the wine from the vessel into the cup, then pour some into their left hand and sup it up.
Then they would take the cup to the king with three fingers.
So Nehemiah had a position where he was before the king on a regular basis.
This is important for what comes next.
Let’s continue to read in chapter 2.
III.
A godly leader acts.
Nehemiah had an opportunity here and he acted upon it.
The king wanted to know why he was so sad.
But before he answers, true to his character, Nehemiah prays.
This wouldn’t have been a long, drawn out prayer like before.
It probably wasn’t out loud.
I saw this described as one of those arrow prayers where you just pray to the Lord for strength or courage or the words you need right in the moment that you have to act.
So this godly leader prays and answers.
The king grants him permission to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls.
I want you to see that he had thought this through.
This wasn’t a spot of the moment request.
He had thought through what he needed.
He asks for these letters so he can have safe passage and timber for the work.
Not only does a godly leader act but he plans his action.
It’s not a reaction but a strategy to see God’s glory advance in His people.
In the next section, verses 9-20, we will continue to see Nehemiah plan and act.
Let’s read the rest of it.
Nehemiah had a vision for what to do.
He had a plan.
He had a strategy.
He set to work enacting the plan.
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