Please turn with me to Nehemiah, the first chapter. We'll be reading the entire chapter. Before we do so, let's pray as we open God's word. Almighty God, your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. It is a living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing even to the divisions of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. May the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable to you, O God. Please give your attention to the reading of God's word. We're reading from Nehemiah, the first chapter. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekeliah. Now it came, now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the 20th year as I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hannah and I, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, The remnant there in the providence who had survived the exiles in great trouble and shame, the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. 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. And I said, oh 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. And even I, 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 the 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. 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. Now I was cupbearer to the king." The book of Ezra has some of the same events and the same time period as Nehemiah. In fact, Ezra and Nehemiah at one time were probably one of the same book. and it's still a single book in the Jewish canon. Nehemiah the prophet is mentioned nowhere else in scripture except in this book, yet that fact in no way limits what we can learn about the prophet. When we think of Nehemiah, we often think about him in context of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. The wall along with the temple was destroyed in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar when he burned and sacked Jerusalem. Then starting with the exiles returning after the Babylonian captivity, the temple was eventually rebuilt, but the wall of Jerusalem was either not completed or it was destroyed in ensuing years. The period of time we're talking about here in Nehemiah is about 150 years after the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and about 90 years after the temple had finally been rebuilt by Zerubbabel's leadership. Reading through the book of Nehemiah, we can highlight some important events, at least up through chapter 6, which I'll be doing tonight. In chapter 2, we read how Nehemiah set out for Jerusalem and upon arriving rode around the perimeter of the wall, inspecting the damage by night, assessing the task in front of him. And then in Chapter 3, we read how he organized workers by families, each repairing the wall and its sections in the gates. In Chapter 4, we read how he continued to rebuild while at the same time organizing the defense of the wall or the work being done because those on the outside were trying to disrupt the rebuilding work and wanted to destroy it. And in Chapter 5, we see that there was also a threat from the inside that jeopardized the rebuilding. Morale was very low at one point because many of those involved and the rebuilding were living in extreme poverty. They could not pay for food. Their land was taken from them for taxes, and it's reported that they even had to put some of their sons and daughters into slavery just to get by. Nehemiah took up the cry of his countrymen, and scriptures record this in the fifth chapter. He says, and I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words, and I took counsel with myself and brought charges against the nobles and officials. And I said to them, you are exacting interest, each from his brother, and I held a great assembly against them. And in the middle part of that same chapter in chapter five, it describes the results of this great assembly. And it didn't go very well with the nobles and the rulers. And then finally in chapter 6 and verse 15, we read, so the wall was finished on the 25th day of Ilu in 52 days, 52 days. A remarkable feat of engineering when we consider that it was accomplished under extreme opposition and hardship. And we also know that Nehemiah was appointed governor of Jerusalem and ruled in that capacity for 12 years. So, not only was Nehemiah a leader who had engineering skills, he had administrative skills, and he demonstrated tremendous organizational skills, both in organizing the work and organizing the protection of those who were laboring in the wall. In our text here at the end of chapter one, we are first introduced to Nehemiah in a completely different role. He says, I was cupbearer to the king. The king, as we find out in the next verse, is the great Persian king, Artaxerxes I. We're not told how long Nehemiah had been in the king's service, but we do know that Artaxerxes has been in power about 20 years up to this point. Now, a cupbearer was not just a person who oversaw the food and drink given to the king for his consumption. he generally held position of considerable influence and had the king's confidence. And we see an example of this, the story in Genesis with Joseph where the butler, which is the same word for cupbearer here, fell from Pharaoh's favor but subsequently was restored to his position again. That position was so influential that Joseph asked the butler, when he is released, that he remembers Joseph de Pharaoh. So, all this is to say that as you read Nehemiah, you find a man with great leadership skills, as well as a man who held the very trusted position of cupbearer to the king, a position he likely held from the beginning of Artaxerxes' reign, although we're not told specifically. But as we consider Nehemiah, the man, will not be focusing on Nehemiah as an engineer, nor on his role as a great administrative leader, nor even his role as cupbearer servant to the king. No, I want to consider the man who had such a passion for God that he declares in verse four, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept. When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. As I read this, I couldn't help recall in the Gospel of Matthew the greater passion of the one who would consider the hardness of the Jews' heart in the same city five centuries later and would lament, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. The Book of Nehemiah is an historical narrative, and as such, it might help to set some more background before we go too much further. It's been approximately 90 years since the edict by Cyrus the Persian King allowing the Jews to return to Judah in their homeland to rebuild the temple. This signaled the end of the Babylonian captivity that the great prophet of the captivity, Jeremiah, had foretold. Now, not all the descendants of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob left, but those who did leave at that time were met with significant hardships. The first wave led by Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest at the time, met with immediate resistance from Jews who were already living in the area. Now these were part Jews, so to speak, who had not been part of the captivity and had been intermarrying with non-Jews for years. They had roots to the Jews from Samaria, who were transplanted to this area by the Assyrians two generations earlier. They also had roots to the Canaanites, even before the northern kingdom had been defeated by the Assyrians. This intermarrying, had so polluted and diluted their Jewish lineage that they could no longer even prove that they were ever of Israel. And you read something like that in Ezra, the second chapter. Ezra records what happened when these people asked to help the work with the building of the temple. We read in Ezra, chapter four, they came to Zerubbabel. and the heads of the fathers' houses, and said to them, Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do." That's kind of interesting. We seek your God. I didn't say we seek our God. I said we seek your God as you do. And we have sacrificed to him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here. But Zerubbabel and Joshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers' houses of Israel said to them, you may do nothing with us to build a house for our God, but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel. The returning exiles could not work hand in hand with people who worship Assyrian gods. while at the same time claiming to worship the God of Israel. Mixing and matching and blending religions to something that makes a person comfortable is idolatry. Syncretism has no place in the worship of God. It has no place now. It had no place then. These so-called Jews were unclean. So having been rebuffed, they effectively caused enough trouble to shut the rebuilding project down until the temple is finally resumed 20 years after Cyrus gave permission and four years after the Persian King Darius searches the archives and finds Cyrus' original decree. But the building of the temple was only part of the returning captives' responsibilities to rebuild. They also were to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls. This latter building project had not been completed, and when you read the rest of Nehemiah, you see that it had been woefully ignored. The wall still had breaches in it, and burned wooden gates were never repaired. Thieves could come and go through Jerusalem as easily as wild animals. Zion, the glory that was once the city of David, was a disgrace. and stood shamefully before the world. So with that very brief background, we return to our text. We read in verse one that Nehemiah is in Susa, the winter capital of Persia. Some men had just returned from Jerusalem. It's perhaps 1,500 miles journey by way of the Fertile Crescent. As you look at a map, you'll see the Fertile Crescent going across the top, skirts the eastern part of Turkey, it's about 1,500 miles if you went that direction and it would take probably two months under good conditions to travel this. We hear Nehemiah ask at the end of verse two, how are the Jews who left the captivity and what is the news of Jerusalem? He's concerned about the welfare of God's people and the work of the rebuilding. It was a simple inquiry, not so dissimilar to the questions that we might ask a visiting missionary, for example, home on a sabbatical, say, from China or Eritrea or the Ukraine. Tell us of the people of God and how the labor goes in China. Who are our brothers in Christ in the Ukraine? We want to know of your struggles. We want to know of your successes as well as the obstacles to your labor. In what way can we help? We wouldn't be asking out of mere curiosity, but out of a sincere desire for the oneness that we have in Christ. It should be no surprise that one of the distinguishing characteristics of God's people is that they are concerned for one another and for one another's labor in the kingdom. Whether that concern was expressed 2,500 years ago, expressed by the first century church, or expressed through prayer this morning. There may be no better way to non-verbally witness before a world than to love the brethren. By this, all will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another." Nehemiah's question is answered, and perhaps it's not the answer he was expecting. Verse 3, the remnant there in the providence who had survived the exiles in great trouble and shame The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. Obviously, this news is serious. It's something more than a misconstruction date or captive relocation issues. Had Nehemiah beginning, rumors and reports filtering back over the months and years were not told. There was no email, no text messaging, Evening news, no talk radio, no newspapers. Nothing but 1,500 miles of word of mouth. But the next verse does not have Nehemiah responding, oh, what a shame. I was so hoping for a better report. Far from it. His response is emotional and appears to be immediate. Verse four, so it was when I heard these words, I sat down and wept. and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven." Nehemiah was very upset by this news, so much so that he couldn't even remain standing. And that's not all. Nehemiah tells us that he mourned for many days with prayer, both day and night with fasting. And what was it that caused Nehemiah to have such a passionate, protracted response Here was a man in the lap of luxury, a personal confidant to the king. The problems of Jerusalem were 1,500 miles and two months' journey away. He had all the personal peace and affluence any man could want, save the king. From all outward appearances, Nehemiah was insulated from the people and events of Jerusalem. But we read, When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. What was it that did not allow, that could not allow, Nehemiah to assume the role of an insulated, unaffected bystander? As terrible as this news was, and in no way minimizing it, I suggest there is something additional that we discover by looking at Nehemiah's prayer that drives Nehemiah weeping to his knees. Before I go any further, I need to say that as we look at Nehemiah's prayer, I'm not suggesting that it be used as a formula for praying. Formulas have a way of becoming perfunctory. Nor am I suggesting that we should never approach prayer in the way Nehemiah did. Indeed, we can find examples of praying using some of these same preparations to prayer. What I am suggesting, is that we look at Nehemiah's prayer as if it were a window, a window through which we see Nehemiah's heart and passion for his Lord and his people. Nehemiah begins his prayer in verse 5, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God. For all of his position and standing in the court of the most powerful king in the entire world at that time, Nehemiah knew he was ultimately answerable to Almighty God, the maker of kings and kingdoms. If any man could expect to first lean on worldly resources at his disposal, it was Nehemiah. But it's to his great and awesome God that Nehemiah turns first. And this was not a five-second prayer. Oh, be with me, Lord, as I walk in to see the king. He mourned and fasted and prayed for many days. Again, this is not a four-step prayer program of weeping, mourning, fasting, and praying for many days, but we start to see that Nehemiah's humble spirit before God, a broken heart and contrite heart, these, oh God, you will not despise, the psalmist said. Nehemiah continues, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments, Nehemiah reflects on the fact that God is a covenant-keeping God. This is to be contrasted with the fact that God's people were not covenant-keeping people. Nehemiah says as much in verse six and seven. Matthew Henry in his commentary on this point said, if God were not more mindful of his promises than we are of his precepts, we should be undone. Another way of restating this is, If God ignored his promises to us the way we ignored his precepts, we would be without hope. But not only did the children of Israel sin, Nehemiah also confesses that his father's house sinned as did he. Verse six, he says, both my father's house and I have sinned, and we have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses." We peer deeper through this metaphorical window, so to speak, of Nehemiah's prayer and see a confession before God on behalf of the children of Israel and himself. Nehemiah is casting his lot, so to speak, with his people. He does not disassociate himself. The people of God have sinned and Nehemiah says, I am one of them. Not just one of them because of their sins, the same ancestral background, but one of them because he shares the same sins in his own heart that led them to the captivity. The same sins that led the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the first place. The sins of disobedience to the precepts and ordinances of God. Both my father's house and I have sinned." And he weeps. At this point, Nehemiah likely didn't even consider any course of action that he was about to embark on might jeopardize his position. In that regard, he may well have been able to identify with the passion of Moses recorded in Hebrews chapter 11, that great chapter of faith verses 24 and 26. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward. Unlike Moses, who had to deal with Pharaoh, a ruler whose heart was hardened by God. Nehemiah worked for Artaxerxes, a man who had his heart softened by God, at least at this point. But like Moses, however, Nehemiah knew he was one of the children of the promise, reproaches notwithstanding. We continue looking at through this window, prayer window, so to speak. Nehemiah has already said that God keeps his covenant and that he is a God of mercy to those who observe his commandments. Then in verse seven and eight, Nehemiah acknowledges to God what every prophet of God up to this point has told the people of God. If you disobey and do not observe my statutes, ordinances, commandments, a curse, but if you obey, and observe a blessing. Now Nehemiah didn't have to imagine what the curse was in verse 8. It was a matter of history. The northern kingdom of Israel had been carried away and otherwise assimilated and scattered into other cultures and regions, never to be heard of again. A permanent reminder to Israel of the punishment of unfaithfulness. Now consider verse 9. if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them. Though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of heaven, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name." This is acknowledgment by Nehemiah of the goodness and mercy of God. So why should this be a source of weeping? There's nothing but victory and encouragement and hope. But remember, that Moses utters these same words of warning before Israel went into the promised land, approximately a thousand years earlier, followed by generations of disobedience. Why did Nehemiah weep, you may well ask. Verse nine is a promise. It's a good thing. Exactly. And all it costs is the price of obedience. But as Nehemiah had already confessed, We have acted very corruptly against you. When we reflect on a passage like this in verse nine, we're driven to the same conclusion Nehemiah must have had. All it costs is the price of obedience. That's all. And you know what? We can't pay it. Wretched sinner that I am, who will deliver me? We confess with the Apostle Paul. We have been bought with a price. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of God, Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Why does Nehemiah weep? He certainly weeps for the exiles in distress, and he weeps for Jerusalem, for Jerusalem's desolation. But it's also clear that Nehemiah weeps because of the depth of his relationship to God. And he knows how far short he falls. He can cry out with the tax collector who would cry out in the temple 500 years later. And Jesus records this in the scriptures. It's recorded in the scriptures, Jesus' parables. But the tax gatherers stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, Have mercy on me, a sinner. So we close with these two things that Nehemiah knows. First, Nehemiah knows both he and his people, Israel, were called to obedience and that they failed miserably. History in his own heart tells him that. But secondly, Nehemiah also knows God will redeem his chosen people who do not deserve to be redeemed. God is faithful when we are not. There has always been a requirement for obedience. There was never a relaxation of that requirement. How that was accomplished is through Christ's perfect act of obedience imputed to us by his death and resurrection. Christ came to save sinners. That's the gospel.