NEHEMIAH THE MAN OF THE HOUR BECAUSE HE PRAYED ABOUT THE RUINS IN JERUSALEM
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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date November 9, 2025
Text Nehemiah 1:1-11 Nehemiah’s Intercession
Pastor Paul Lehmann
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE RECOGNIZE OUR RUIN.
We sometimes don’t recognize when things are in ruin. This may be true of our individual lives, our families, our lifestyle, our work or business, our school work, OUR CHURCH.
Or we recognize it, but ignore doing anything about it. I was reminded of this when I saw the documentary about coal miners in Kentucky and West VA, during the 1960s and 1970s. This was when they were trying to organize and receive union contracts. I know that today, people say that in many cases, the unions have caused many businesses to go under. But when unions were first formed, it was because owners didn’t treat their employees right. Do you remember, about 20 years ago, in Upshur, West Virginia, at the Sago Mine, there were 12 miners who were trapped in a collapsed mine shaft for 42 hours. Initially, they thought that all but one had survived, and they announced this to the families, but then they reversed the news, and the reality was that all died of carbon monoxide poisoning, except one, and he was critically injured. He was put in a medically induced coma to rest his brain so that they could try to get enormous amounts of oxygen to his brain. He did come out of the coma and talked about his experience. I never heard if he continued to work as a coal miner. But all of this was so sad, and what was outrageous to me was to find out the owner, who was in New York, knew about the reported safety infractions that were reported by the mine inspectors. He had only owned the mine for about 4 months, knowing of all of these infractions, and didn’t do anything about them. He claimed that his people reported that everything was okay, and they would continue to send men down there. (it was probably the stockholders who said it didn’t matter),. Here is a classic example of things being in ruins and refusing to recognize it.
Sometimes we see our families falling apart, and we refuse to recognize it, or we recognize it but do nothing. We may say, I am retired, or too old, what can I do. Or you may say I am too busy. Sometimes we don’t know what to say or do. If we have children or grandchildren, and they are going through a crisis and there seems to be no way out——YOU CAN PRAY FOR THEM.
The same is true of your own personal lives and our church. Usually, churches collapse or are closed down because people have either not obeyed God or have ceased to pray, if they ever did. Or there is a breakdown in Christian service.
This first chapter of Nehemiah gives us a look at how important the intercession of Nehemiah was. Chapter 2 shows Nehemiah’s expedition back to Jerusalem and his exhortation to the people. Chapter 3 shows the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem attempted. Chapters 4-6 show how this was obstructed, and they even try to kill him to stop him, but God helps them complete the task.
WE SEE THAT GIVING PERSONAL SERVICE TO GOD
BEGINS WITH PRAYER.
We see a tremendous regard by Nehemiah to follow through on what he recognizes as God’s will, and he knows that God has called him. We shouldn’t attempt any service for the Lord without knowing His will, or without understanding the real principles of Christian service. To do so is actually sinful. Why? Because we have “missed the mark,: (and I have said before that this is what sin means—–missing God’s mark or purpose), because we have missed what He wants for us, and we have put our own desires ahead of His, and have chosen our own task, our own sphere of service, our own life, and ignored the claims of the Savior, which should take first place in our lives.
As we study the book of Nehemiah, I pray that the Holy Spirit will burn into all our hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ has the supreme claim upon the life of each one of us. May you make this your prayer too.
May you pray: ” Lord, what do you want me to do, and how do you want me to do it.”
It’s only when every part of your life is adjusted to God in every detail that God can achieve his purpose through you, and your life will be successful in the truest sense of the word. We ought to pray, then, that many of us will be led into a clear knowledge of the will of God and that all of us will be brought to understand more fully the principles of all Christian work.
In order to catch the full significance of this Book of Nehemiah, we need to be clear as to the particular circumstances in which it was written and the period of history to which it refers.
Ezra the priest had gone back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The restored Jewish remnant had been back in Judea for over 90 years. The temple wasn’t anywhere near as magnificent as Solomon’s temple, of course, but although the actual building had only taken 4 years, 6 months, and 10 days (according to Haggai 1:15 and Ezra 6:15), the remnant had been back 21 years when it was completed!
Now, when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, another 12 years after Ezra, circumstances were far from good. The walls and gates of Jerusalem were still in ruins, a discouragement to everybody.
The historical events that were unfolding during this time were of great interest and of deep spiritual significance. The Jewish people had been taken into captivity for 70 years in Babylon, but in the year 530 B.C. power of the Babylonian Empire was broken by the power of Persia, and upon assuming supremacy, the King of Persia encouraged the Jewish remnant to return to their own country and to the city of Jerusalem.
This is Ironic to me. Old Persia is present-day Iran. Here in ancient times, the King of “Iran,” if you will, was behind the Jews in their effort to go back and restore Jerusalem, while the present-day Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds the highest office in Iran, threatens to obliterate Israel and drive them into the Mediterranean Sea. You might wonder why? It is because the jews at Mecca in the year 620 AD (now they are saying C.E.) when Mohamed came from Medina back to Mecca, the Jews refused to accept him as a prophet. From then on, Muslims have had an extreme hatred for the Jews.
Back in Ezra’s day some 50,000 Jews did return, and they set about the Immense task of rebuilding the temple, which was so vital to the life of the Jewish people in their worship of God. Discouraged by opposition from the people who had settled in that particular country during the years of their captivity, and also by the immensity of the task, the Jews soon abandoned the work, with only the foundation of the temple rebuilt. It wasn’t until Haggai and Zechariah challenged the people and pointed out their neglect of the things of God that the temple was completed, some 20 years after the first group had returned from captivity.
Sixty more years passed by, and Ezra had trouble finishing the task of rebuilding parts of the wall and the gates. The Persian king had no power to send them reinforcements, so the walls remained in ruins for more than 90 years.
It was at this time in the year 445 BC that Nehemiah became the “Man of the hour.” He was raised up by God to meet “the need of the hour.” God spoke to Nehemiah, prepared him for the task, and called him to serve the Lord in the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. The opening chapter of this book gives us the account of his preparation and
NEHEMIAH’S CALL AND HIS PRAYER, TO ACCOMPLISH GOD’S
PURPOSE
There is a wall to be built around the city of your soul, so to speak. A testimony to be erected around our church. There is a wall of witness and testimony to be built around the whole Kingdom of God in all the world.
Usually when we talk about walls, we say we need to “tear down the walls,” Like the Berlin wall, which was a wall of evil. We talk about tearing down walls that cut off communication with people and destroy relationships. We don’t want any walls or barriers between us. But here we see that the wall of Jerusalem is symbolic and full of meaning for the Jewish people. they are a foundation for obeying God. It is this sense that makes them important and what we want to talk about.
Whether you are mainly concerned with building the wall in your own soul, or with building the wall as a foundation for this church, figuratively speaking, or with building the Kingdom of God throughout the world, you will discover that “there is no winning without warfare”, as Allen Redpath used to say. There is no “There is no opportunity without opposition. There is no victory without vigilance.” For whenever the people of God say, “Let us arise and build,” Satan says, “Let me arise and oppose.”
When Hanani came back from Jerusalem with men of Judah, Nehemiah asked about the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and also about Jerusalem. He was told about their great distress and how they were opposed. Also, the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire, they said.
When Nehemiah heard about this, he was heartbroken. He sat down and wept. He mourned for many days, but during this time, HE FASTED AND PRAYED before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah was not the last to weep over Jerusalem; our Lord sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives and wept over the city, and mourned and prayed and sacrificed his life for it, as well as us. Thousands of people ever since, have found that their life’s work for god has only begun when they have wept, fasted, and prayed over the revelation of conditions as they really are.
Let’s learn this lesson from Nehemiah: you never lighten the load unless first you have felt the pressure in your own soul.
You are never used by God to bring blessing until God has opened your eyes and made you see things as they are. We must be concerned about the walls that I have mentioned. The wall of our own soul, or those in our family who have seen spiritual things in their life, crumble, and their life are in ruin. We need to make sure that the spiritual foundation or “wall” of our church is strong, and also the wall of missionary enterprise around the world. Not just across the street but across the ocean.
So in order to rebuild the walls, we must first see as Nehemiah did that they lie in ruin.
May we reflect on the attitude of the human heart that is without God. We must feel the burden, and it begins in our own hearts. When Jesus moved among the crowd, he was moved with compassion because he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Too often, we complain about the number of people making our space “crowded,” like in the supermarket. Waiting in line or making it harder to push a grocery cart. Let’s ask the Lord to give us a burden for all these people, and that the Holy Spirit will empower us to reflect Jesus Christ to everyone in our way.
When we read about the walls in ruins and the gates burned, we must realize that this was the custom to burn the gates when a city was taken. God’s purpose for Jerusalem was that its walls should be salvation and the gates should be praise. These emblems of salvation and praise are now lying in ruins. The symbol of salvation, the symbol of praise, the wall (spiritually speaking, as a “hedge of protection” against our enemy, Satan.
Does the wall of our souls, that should protect us from the sin of this world, lie in tragic ruin, as we continually compromise with the enemy of our souls? Satan rejoices and drags us further into ruin by going against everything that we know is right. Are there things in our lives that need to be rebuilt? When we have that hedge of protection and the Power of the Holy Spirit, we can go into the world and not be taken down by those living in sin. Instead of them making an impact on us, we can make an impact on people as they see Christ in our lives.
But there can be no blessing until we look deep down into ourselves and see our spiritual life as it really is. What about the wall of your prayer life? Prayer is just talking to God. Do you talk to him about everything? Not just when there is a crisis, but about the mundane things in life. Maybe you feel that you don’t need to “bother” the Lord about everything; that some things you can take care of yourself. The old adage “God helps those who help themselves” isn’t in the Bible. He wants to help you with everything.
Whatever the ruin in your life or mine may be, whatever may be the ruin of the impact of our church testimony, no matter how great the need may be overseas, if only we can go back to God’s past and ground our prayers upon a cross, upon the blood upon an empty tomb, and ascended Lord, then we will see in these things the mirror reflecting all God’s purposes for this world of ours. We don’t hear much of this kind of praying. Most of our prayers are just asking God to bless us or the work, or heal people who are ill, and to keep plugging along, to keep going. But prayer should also be WARFARE! Prayer engages in a battle. Real prayer is rooted in the promises of God and in the covenant of the blood. We have the reasons given to us by God in His Word why He should answer, and we can read them there.
THAT’S WHY NEHEMIAH’S PRAYER WAS ANSWERED; IT WAS BASED ON GOD’S PURPOSES AND GOD’S PROMISES.
The principles of Christian service are just the same today. We are prepared to serve the Lord only by sacrifice. We are fit for the work of god only when we have prayed about it, and then we are enabled by him to tackle the job that needs to be done.
May God give us hearts that are broken before the Lord, wills that are obedient, and a determination that is completely unflinching as we do what he asks us to do.