Today, as we continue to look at Matthew 28:16–20, we get to focus on prayer. One of my favorite quotes on prayer comes from a man named J.I. Packer. Many of you know he passed away last month, which to me added more punch to an already heavy-hitting quote. Here is what he said: “I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is.” (1)

Now, I read that quote and think, “Blimey, I’ve got some work to do.” Most of us are quick to look at our prayer life and mourn how we are falling short. But we can’t stop there. When we feel that conviction, we need to repent, receive grace, and go forward. We can’t just wallow. We need to grow. For those of us who feel like we need to grow in prayer, there is good news! God has filled the pages of the Bible with lesson after lesson on prayer. And this teaching is going to focus on just one of those.

We will first look briefly at Matthew 28:16–20 to talk about the role of prayer in the Great Commission. Then, we are going to turn to Nehemiah to study one example of someone praying in light of God’s calling to spread his glory.

Let’s look first at Matthew 28:16–20:

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:16–20, ESV)

Now, this passage does not mention prayer directly, but I believe in this passage, along with examples in the book of Acts and Paul’s letters, we have some important background to the role of prayer in the Great Commission.

The key phrase that connects to prayer comes in verse 18—19:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples.” (Matthew 16:18–19 ESV)

We might be tempted to think that this “going” only included their actions of engaging non-believers, teaching new Christians, or preparing the next sermon. But when you look at Jesus’s followers fulfilling the Great Commission, we read over and over that they prayed. Part of the going and making disciples including stopping and praying. For example, the disciples are all praying before the day of Pentecost. Or you can think of Peter praying when he gets the call to go to Cornelius’s House. Or Paul and Silas praying while they are in prison.

Prayer has always been a part of “going.” And the authority that Jesus declares here in Matthew 28 informs how we pray. Here is what I mean. Imagine how we would pray if it wasn’t true that Jesus had all authority in heaven and on earth. What if he had said, “some authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Or what if he said, “It’s the luck of the draw.” My point is that this kind of authority spelled out in Matthew 28 absolutely informs how we pray. Christians can pray the way they do because we serve the God who has “all authority” in his hands.

This leads us to our second text in Nehemiah 1. We are going to look at an example of someone praying with an understanding of this kind of authority. He didn’t know Jesus, but he did know God and the authority God had. Nehemiah also sees prayer as a form of going.

Let me give just some brief background that might help us as we look at this text.

According to details in Nehemiah 1:1–2, we are somewhere around the year 445 B.C. God’s people have returned to their home, Jerusalem and have begun to rebuild it. But it is not going well. Here is verse 3:

“And they said to me, ‘The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.’” (Nehemiah 1:3 ESV)

This is heavy news. God was fulfilling his promise to bring the people back, but it is not going well. The people are suffering. The walls they had begun to rebuild are being torn down again. Everything is looking hopeless.

So how does Nehemiah react? He prays:

“As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 1:4 ESV)

I know for some of you that this may be your first time reading something in the book of Nehemiah. Don’t worry. We are going to try and just work through some of the high points of the prayer. Here is the prayer from Nehemiah 1:5–11:

“And I said, ‘O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.” They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.’” (Nehemiah 1:5–11)

I have broken my observation into three “C’s”:

Confidence in God
Confession to God
Calling Out to God with Promises

These are just a few ways that we can learn to pray from this prayer. That’s the main thing I want to do. I figure if a prayer is in the Bible, it would be a good thing to look at and learn what is in the prayer so that I can continue to grow in praying more biblically.

As we look at these, I just want to say, there is not one right way to pray. Nehemiah just gives an example of one faithful prayer. I think we can learn from this prayer to help us pray better.

Confidence in God

First look at verse 5: Confidence in God

“And I said, ‘O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.’” (Nehemiah 1:5 ESV)

Now if you didn’t know, Nehemiah is a cupbearer to the king. He’s close to the king. Notice that Nehemiah’s first reaction wasn’t to go beg King Artaxerxes for help, but rather to go to the King of the universe—God.

Nehemiah opens his prayer by acknowledging God to be the awesome and great God who keeps his word. Already in the first verse, we come across a good lesson—we might all do well to open our prayers this way, to acknowledge who God is as God. It would probably get our hearts in the right place.

We also learn some good prayer theology from this opening line. Nehemiah has no problem going to God in prayer because he knows who he is praying to and therefore he knows prayer will be effective. We find out later that before he did anything he prayed for four months. And Nehemiah didn’t think it was a waste of time.

Sometimes I have to just laugh at myself because of how fickle and ridiculous I can be. My mind can so often think that prayer is not meaningful. I can think that prayer is not changing things. I can slip into that mindset, and I just have to laugh at myself because it is so silly.

If we go back to our passage in Matthew 28 for a reminder, we see that Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” When I pray, that is who is listening. The God of the universe, who has all of it under his control, is who I’m corresponding with.

Somehow I underestimate that time. I get to thinking that it isn’t doing any good. Wow! Wake up, soul. Bringing my concerns to the God of the universe is extremely effective. But I have to have the Bible to remind me of that. I forget. So if you’re like me, let the Bible remind you today about prayer’s effectiveness.

Here is what I picture when we forget that. I picture a kid who’s dad is ripped. I mean, just mammoth of muscles. I picture this kid trying to move a really heavy box. Then the neighbor kid comes over: “Hey, whatcha doin’?” he asks. The kid responds, “Uh, I’m trying to move this heavy box.” The neighbor kid then asks the most natural follow-up question: “Why don’t you ask your dad for help? He is right there, and he is more than strong enough to move this box.” “No,” the kid responds. “I got this. Why would I need my big-strong dad to help me when I got these muscles.” On and on the kids tries, and the box doesn’t move an inch. Silly. Foolish.

We have a Father who is stronger than anything we could ever come across. In Nehemiah’s words, he is the great and awesome God. In Jesus’s words, he himself has all authority in his hands.

May the Lord convict us that prayer is not a waste of time. Prayer is a central part of “going.” Whether you‘re going out on the Great Commission from Matthew 28, or you’re in Nehemiah’s situations where his friends are suffering. In our case today, maybe it’s some suffering because of COVID. Maybe it’s cancer, maybe it's a loss of a relationship. Whatever it is, go to God in prayer. First, we see Nehemiah’s confidence in God even in the way he acknowledges who God is.

Confession to God

Next, Nehemiah moves to confession.

First, Look at verses 6–7:

“Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.” (Nehemiah 1:6–7 ESV)

After Nehemiah opens his prayer by acknowledging God’s faithfulness and steadfast love, he is quickly moved to confession. When he hears of the suffering of other believers, he is moved to confess his sins and the sins of others to a holy God.

Here are the key phrases from this part: confessing, sinned against you, we have acted corruptly, not kept the commandments. Nehemiah knows that all suffering is a result of sin. All of it. It may not be the direct result of sin, but sin entered the picture somewhere.

This presence of confession not only reminds us that we need to confess when sin has entered in, but it also stands as a reminder of who we are before this holy God he mentioned in verse 5.

The astonishing reality is not that we suffer, but that we don’t suffer sometimes. We deserve a world far worse than coronavirus shutdown. We deserve hell as our reward. Your sin means you deserve to be punished eternally in hell.

But the stunning reality of the gospel is that God himself sent the solution to that problem. God sent his Son to rescue us from our sin. If we confess our sins to him and trust him as our Lord, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Now we no longer have hell as our destination but eternity with God in heaven as our future. Then we also get this promise that he listens to our prayers like a loving father.

One of the reasons I think Nehemiah’s prayer is so helpful to us is that he is so clear that confession often plays a central role in our prayer life. Nehemiah is not just praying a “please let me win the lottery prayer.” No, he is confessing sin to a holy God, and then coming to this God for forgiveness.

Next, we see that Nehemiah comes to this God for help. That was number two: confession to God. Now we are going to see the final one: Calling out to God with Promises.

Calling Out to God with Promises

Notice how Nehemiah moves from confessing his sin to pleading with God to keep his promise. God’s promise was that if they would return to him—by doing things like confessing their sins and following him—then he would restore them.

Look at verses 8–11:

“Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (Nehemiah 1:8–11 ESV)

Nehemiah is not afraid to move from confession to reminding God of his promise. Nehemiah is also not discouraged by the suffering, thinking that God has abandoned his people forever.

The suffering does not stop the praying. They start praying with new information. Nehemiah prays with “new information” that God’s people are still suffering. He responds by holding up a promise to God and says in effect, “God, you said this and this, please do it. Honor your word.” God has promised, and we can hold him to his word. He doesn’t mind being reminded.

I know that when suffering surrounds, I can begin to lose heart. Here is what happens. I look at the suffering that is surrounding me, and I think, “God could have prevented this. Why didn’t he? I thought he said he was good and after my best. This is not for my best.” But when hard situations surround, we don’t need to doubt the character of God and his promises. These are the times to lean into them. That is what Nehemiah models. He knows where to go when trouble strikes. He goes to God.

This is a hard season (and even if it wasn’t for you, we all know someone who is suffering or at least are familiar with seasons of suffering). This is not a time for cute and cuddly views of God. It is a time for remembering that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to our God. And this God has invited us to pray to him—to bring all things to him.

Conclusion

Nehemiah gives us just one example of how to pray through suffering. In fact, he has other prayers in his book that are just as instructive. This is not the only way to pray during suffering, but it does have some helpful ways to pray.

I want to encourage you as the effects linger to not lose heart in praying. Find ways to pray like Nehemiah did so that he could pray this prayer day and night.

As we enter yet another month of lockdown because of COVID, may we not lose heart in praying—even if we feel like we have prayed for months and nothing has happened. There is a lot of suffering going on, even beyond COVID. Keep coming to God in prayer. Don’t lose heart.

Note:

(1) J. I. Packer in My Path of Prayer, ed. David Hanes (Worthing, West Sussex: Henry E. Walter, 1981), 56.

Matthew

Andrew Knight

Prayer

Order of Service

Opening Worship

Sermon Video

Closing Worship

Prayer: Learning from Nehemiah

Confidence in God

Confession to God

Calling Out to God with Promises

Conclusion

To The End of the Age

Spreading (God's People)

Table Rock Church 1522 S Longmont Ave. Boise, ID 83706 208-901-7779

Table Rock Church

1522 S Longmont Ave.
Boise, ID 83706

208-901-7779