The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekeliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the 20th year, as I was in Susa, the capital, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Jerusalem. 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 province who have survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is 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. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, as we open this series and this sermon, may we find here, as in all the scripture, the guide to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Thank you that he is the author and finisher of our faith. that every jot and tittle of scripture is to bring us to Him. And we pray that we would enjoy Him in the Word and in the series, and even tonight. For we pray this all in Christ's name, Amen. Well, there's, as many of you know, I don't like to spend a whole lot of time on introductory matters. It's interesting that just a few weeks ago in the morning series, we started a new book, which we're enjoying. That's called First Corinthians. And now tonight we have started a new one in Nehemiah, having finished up Ephesians. But some informational prologue is necessary and mandatory. So let's talk a little bit about the book of Nehemiah in general before we get into it in particular. First of all, this book may have been organically linked to the book that we call Ezra. In other words, the original Old Testament canon had Ezra and Nehemiah as not two books, but actually one tome, one complete story. It was in the 3rd century A.D. during the time of what I call the checkered patristic, the man Origen. Origen is an important figure in 3rd century A.D. New Covenant Christianity, but not an exemplary one. He was responsible probably for finally separating the books of Nehemiah from Ezra. So it's a very late date that these two books were actually parted from one another. So in order to understand Nehemiah, it's probably good for us to have some comprehension as well of Ezra. and we will bring him up even in these introductory comments tonight. First of all, I'd like to note, and I'll be giving you some dates, and I don't expect you to have to try to remember all these dates, but it will at least give you some perspective, okay, so as to when all these events are taking place. Let's start in 538 BC. In that year, Cyrus, the king of Persia, who in response to and in fulfillment of Isaiah's amazing prophecy that the Cyrus would come on the scene, does indeed come on the scene, and he issues that wonderful, great decree that the Jews who were in captivity may go back to the Promised Land, go back to Jerusalem, for the express purpose of rebuilding the Temple. And you know that that happened. The original temple had been torn down by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC. And so here, Osiris issues this remarkable decree, and that only could happen at the hand of God. And then Haggai, Zechariah, Zerubbabel, and Joshua, the high priest, all go to Jerusalem in that year to begin effecting this most significant event of rebuilding Solomon's Temple, which had been totally destroyed. Now keep in mind the new temple was not at all as glorious as the old, but it still was a temple. It was on the site and it was completed. Get this now. It's amazing. In biblical history we have some very specific dates. Get this one. On March 12, 515 BC, the second temple was completed. Ezra actually shows up much later in 458 BC, which in, if I'm doing the math in my mind, that's 42, that's 50, 57 years later, Ezra shows up, and still later yet, Nehemiah comes on the scene. Because in March or April of 445 BC, which was another 13 years after Ezra shows up in Jerusalem, The man Nehemiah asked his king of Persia, and recall that we just finished that great series in Esther in the morning, where King Ahasuerus was on the throne. At this time, the king of Persia was Artaxerxes. And as you know from the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah asks his human king if he also may return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city. And the king agrees. Now we'll read about that later on in chapter 1. We didn't get to that in the first four verses. So, in August or September of 445 BC, the wall gets finished according to Nehemiah 6.15. And the whole project took only 52 days. Now what's interesting about the book of Nehemiah, and I want to say this up front, is how many chapters are there? Like 12? Let me take a quick look here. 13, there's 13 chapters. And usually when people think of the book of Nehemiah, they think of the wall building. Well, the wall gets completed less than halfway through the book, or about halfway through. So there's a lot more to the book of Nehemiah than just the wall building. So just keep that in mind. A lot of times people think that's all that Nehemiah, the book, is about. No, not really. Because by the grace of God, it all gets finished in just 52 days. So the book of Nehemiah, like the book of Ezra, is characterized by lots of official letters of civil servants, usually kings of various countries and that kind of thing, lists of people, people that could serve in the temple, people that were legitimate Jerusalem dwellers, Israelites, and that kind of thing, and also documents which beautifully complement God's specific words that are chronicled in the book, and also the words that God's servants spoke, which are inspired as well because they're in the book as far as that goes. So the purpose of the book of Nehemiah, and I am again quoting from an old study Bible. And here's how the New Geneva Study Bible characterizes the book of Nehemiah. Quote, it affirms that God works through responsible human agents in order to accomplish his redemptive objectives. And I accord with that. I hope you do too. So in light of all that introductory information, Let's make it our goal this evening to develop Nehemiah-like grace traits through faith in Christ. Looking at Nehemiah 1, 1-4, it's an exciting start. The doctrine. Nehemiah's heart concern was for God and his church. At the end of the day, in the conclusion of his life, Nehemiah was not about his own things, but rather those of his heavenly king. In fact, he wasn't so much about his earthly king, Artaxerxes of Persia, as much as he was Yahweh, the triune heavenly king. Nehemiah's heart concern was for God and his church. First, everything he will do in this book is driven by this passion. So, once Nehemiah hears the bad news, the very troubling report about the conditions of the church and the people of God in Jerusalem, everything subsequently that he does in this whole book will be centered on blessing, strengthening, and establishing not only the glory of God, but a blessing upon the community of faith in Jerusalem. So keep that in mind, that he hears the bad news and then everything else is a floodgate of his effort driven by God, his spirit, his passion, to see the Church of the Old Covenant blessed. So he becomes for us an outstanding example. He's a good lesson, and it's a good starting point for us. Even on this Lord's Day evening, we dedicate and rededicate ourselves, our souls, our families, our loved ones, our energies, to what really matters, Christ, his church, his gospel, and the world that needs to hear it. And that's what Nehemiah did, and we're following that pattern. Nehemiah's going to meet, now this is what to me personally and pastorally makes this book so really helpful, Because in my 30 years of ministry, and I'm sure you could relate to this, there have been lots of challenges and demonic attacks upon the church and the ministry. And Nehemiah faced it too. And that's one of the reasons I find this book so helpful. And you will as well, I think. He's going to see lots of stubborn resistance. Some from within, just by virtue of being a fallen creature in Adam. Our natural tendency to fear and not be courageous and those kinds of things. Some from false confessors in the old covenant church. People that were officially in covenant but were far from God and had no love for him. And some of the threats And many of them were from complete pagan outsiders who just were upset that somebody had come to Jerusalem to help the city and rebuild the walls and see the temple worship re-established. But the good news is that not one of those efforts, demonic as they were and powerful and scary in many ways, not one of them succeeded to stop Nehemiah from his goal. and achieving it, going for the gold. And neither should opposition to the truth of Jesus deter any of us, God's true churchmen, from our venture in Christ as well. Everything Nehemiah will do in this book is driven by this passion of a heart concerned for God and his church, and nothing in this world would prevent him from achieving that goal. I've already said that, but it's worth repeating. See, Nehemiah was a determined believer, but his determination was not just in himself, it was in Christ to come, it was in God. And he was definitely a very, very passionate man. He wouldn't allow anything to block him, no matter what it was. and he was going to go for it. He was a consummate type A personality. I think in some ways, Nehemiah reminds me a little bit of Paul in the New Testament. They were just the type that couldn't be stopped. But that same drive, grit, perseverance, and determination should attend us too, dear beloved saints of God tonight, who are in covenant with God through Jesus Christ as his church. Let us have that same attitude. In other words, as we study the book of Nehemiah, let's ingest this grace trait that we're talking about in our aim tonight. Well, we're not going to be perfect at that. In fact, really, if you read between the lines, Nehemiah wasn't really perfect at it either. But, we must be victorious in Jesus. There's no letting up, there's no giving in. We must press the fight to the end. The battle has been won, and we are following in the tracks of our glorious hero, King Jesus, as we grow in Christ's likeness. So let's look at the first four verses and observe how God moves his people to action. Have you ever wondered how God moves his people to action, his church? his people in his church to do something? Well, we're going to find out tonight in a pretty graphic way. These opening verses really do reveal a general principle of how the Lord often, perhaps most of the time, works in his redeemed church. So, how God moves his people to action, verses 1 and 2, through our inquiring after the church's situation. I-N-Q-U-I-R-I-N-G. Children, inquiring means asking about. Okay, so it's through our inquiring or asking about the church's situation. Verses 1 and 2. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hakaliah. 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. So again, this Inquiring had to do with all that history I'd shared with you before. Cyrus telling the Jews they can go back. Ezra showing up. And so Hannah and I and some other brothers show up in Susa, the citadel of Persia. I don't know why they were there. But they look up Nehemiah, and the first thing Nehemiah does is ask them, how are the people of God doing in Jerusalem? And it's intriguing to me, I couldn't help but make this comment, when you think about what did we do last Sunday night, we finished the book of Ephesians. And what was that last couple of verses about? It was about Paul sharing his heart and his concern with the Ephesian church through Tychicus, who was the emissary from Paul to go there. So, Paul sends Tychicus back to Ephesus, to the church there, to share how things are going. And here, as we open Nehemiah, folks come to Nehemiah and Susa, and Nehemiah asks them, how are things going in the Old Covenant church, which was centered in Jerusalem, as you know. So, this book was written hundreds of years before the book of Ephesians in the New Testament, but the same dynamic is at work. So, let me give you another date. So, here, in verses 1 and 2, we're in November or December of 446 BC. So, four months later, this is interesting, four months after Nehemiah asked Hanani and his brothers, how are things going in Jerusalem? Nehemiah then makes his request of the Persian king Artaxerxes asking him if he, Nehemiah, may also go to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. That's interesting because that's a little bit of time and we're going to talk about that and we're going to see some principles here that I think will be helpful. But one of the applicable principles here that we should see and emulate from verses 1 and 2 is that as per Matthew 6.21 Where our heart is, not only will we find there our treasure, but we'll also find our interest, what really drives us. That's that text where Jesus says, where your heart is, there your treasure will be, as well. But also our interests. Now, think about this, dear. Now, of course, obviously, you know that when we read a text like this, the whole conversation isn't included, but the important things are. Let's record it here. We don't read of Nehemiah asking Hanani and his brothers, hey, what's the weather like in Jerusalem? How's the sports scene? Who's winning the politics or whatever? We don't see any of that. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But we do see a higher thing. Nehemiah asking those brothers about the state of the people of God or the church of God of that time in Jerusalem. Now, Nehemiah's name, you know, usually these prophets and lots of people in the Old Covenant, their names meant something, had a specific meaning. Nehemiah's name means, the Lord has comforted. And it's very likely that just upon hearing his query of them, Hananiah and his brothers were probably comforted by the fact that this really powerful man Nehemiah was because to be the cupbearer to a king is a high position. Now even this morning we saw, we're in the Church of Corinth, there were some who were of noble birth and of high place in society, but most of the congregation wasn't. Nehemiah is another example of, as I mentioned this morning, of a Moses or a Paul who was born into a higher social human structure, if you will. And that's fine, as long as it's used for the glory of God. So, they probably were quite comforted to hear that. So, let's consider, how does God move his people to action? How is he going to move us? Well, one of them is just by asking about the church's situation. That's a good starting point. And then verse 3, through our hearing of the church's hardship. And they said to me, that's Hannah and I and his brothers, they said, quoting, 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. Those words are going to govern everything that happens in the book. When Nehemiah heard those phrases, he was cut to the heart. It absolutely undid him. Because where was his value? Where was his treasure? Where was what mattered to him? In living a cushy life in Susa, holding a cup of wine and drinking it before the king did so it was sure not to be poisoned? No, his heart and mind and passion was with the Church of God. And ironically, had Hanani's report been something like this, i.e., Everything's fine in Jerusalem. The temple and the priests are functioning according to the Word of God and the Law of Moses and offering the sacrifices and the people are living in harmony and the walls are being repaired there in good order. Had that been the report, maybe Nehemiah would have stayed in Susa. After all, there's nothing wrong with or bad about a job like being a cupbearer to a king. And it would have been just fine for him to be content to finish out his working days in that way. But sometimes there's bad news becomes the impetus for us Christian churchmen to act. I'm looking out on this congregation, I see folks who are involved in ministries because there's a great crying need in a culture. And we're bringing the gospel that we hear in the church to our culture in various ways. Bad news can have a good result. One of the reasons for us to be all the more diligent in our faith and our covenant life in church today is analogous to Nehemiah's situation. And I want to be a little bit careful with the way I say this because There is a very real sense, as per verse 3, that the church in our day and in our country, to some extent, is, quote, in great distress and reproach. And if you will, the walls of the New Jerusalem are largely also broken down. Now, the reason I caveat that is because there are churches like this one and many others that are faithful to God and Jesus Christ by the grace of God. And so there's much reason to be thankful. But on the whole, I think any objective observer would have to agree that the state of the Christian church in the West is not in a very good position in many ways. And so in light of that, it's a good reason for us to study the book of Nehemiah because it's relevant. in every possible way. So let's ask ourselves, what kind of responses do we have when we hear about the sufferings of the body of Christ? Are we moved to faithful and holy duties born out of faith and love? I trust indeed that indeed we are. So how God moves his people to action through our inquiring after church's situation, hearing of the church's hardship, verse 4, through our bearing, b-e-a-r-i-n-g, bearing the church's burden. 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." I suppose, I just thought of this, but I suppose in some ways, if you had to choose one key verse for the entire book of Nehemiah, Verse 4 would certainly be a good candidate for that, because really, that's where all the energy is emanating, by the grace of God. Think about that. I mean, look at what it says there. He hears those words, he sits down, he weeps and mourns, not for hours, but for days. He continues fasting and praying before the God of Heaven. And, of course, it's going to get really interesting from here on, because we're going to take two sermons, Lord willing, to investigate the prayer he offers in verses 5 and following. And it's a beautiful one. But here's something that's really interesting to me. Verse 4, this is a thoughtful, well-considered time of reflection, repentance, prayer, and self-examination by Nehemiah. Now, notice what Nehemiah doesn't do that a lot of religious people do do. Nehemiah does not act precipitously or too quickly. Instead, he spends plenty of time so as to discern exactly what God would have him do. In fact, if you remember earlier in the sermon, I told you that from the time he hears this bad report, he takes four months before he even asks King Artaxerxes if he could go to Jerusalem. He doesn't go in the next day and just, in a flutter of emotion, and flustered and flabbergasted, come before the king and ask. He takes plenty of time. You know, every good minister and every faithful parishioner does that. When a call comes on someone to an office, there's no rush into it. Patience, submission is the order of the day. And we see that here with Nehemiah. There's no need to rush. The first thing to be done is to pray. And notice, this is really interesting. What do most people do when something is really bad and they want to fix it? They resort to some powerful human person. In his case, he could have gone straight to the most powerful fallen king on earth at that time, the king of Persia. and said, hey King, you know I'm a faithful servant of yours, you like me a lot? And actually, Artaxerxes really liked Nehemiah. It was clear that he had a tremendous amount of respect for him. Nehemiah is an example of a believer in Yahweh, today we call a faithful Christian churchman, who was so dignified and so honorable in his bearing that even every pagan couldn't help but have tremendous respect for him. And Artaxerxes did too. But, the point is, Nehemiah doesn't go off to Artaxerxes and ask for help, he goes rather to the King of Heaven! and asks for help. He goes first to God himself, the ultimate king. And what I'm gonna share now I think is really key and probably one of the biggest parts of this whole book. And I've told you this principle before, but here it comes. I would submit that Nehemiah's victory that he achieves in the book of bearing his name, in building the wall, getting the people established, being a really good leader, And all of you are good leaders. And don't you love to follow good leaders? Isn't it terrible to follow bad, incompetent leaders? Does anybody like that? Don't we really hate that? We don't like it. Here we have a very competent leader who succeeds in Israel. And let me say this, I think his victory really is accomplished here in this four-month period where he sought the Lord. Everything else is just the outflow of it. Okay, so he takes four months to weep and fast and pray and seek God, and everything else that happens, from his asking the king to go to Jerusalem, to his going there, to leading the people, to getting the wall built in 52 days, to getting the worship established, to being a good leader and example, all the victory was here. Remember I often tell you that the victory in life is won before we engage it, remember? It's not like once we're in the fight that we're trying to figure it out, when the bullets are flying. The victory is won first from our worship of God, our devotion to Him in the Sabbath temple of the Holy Church, but also in our daily devotions, in our seeking God. That's where the victory is won. The essence of Nehemiah's mind and prayer will be exposed, as I mentioned, in next Sunday's and the week after, Lord willing, text. But suffice it for us to say here that his heart was broken over the very same things that breaks, if you will, God's heart, namely the state of his church. And so, dears, let me share this, another really key thought for you. No lover of Christ. Nobody who loves Jesus. No one who loves Jesus Christ. can ever be in this world completely comfortable and contented in this life, so long as the object of God's love and affection, the apple of his eye, i.e. his church, his people, are not being served well and led well and brought to Jesus, the fount of life and the bread of life. If that isn't happening, A person who loves God will never be completely content or happy with the situation in their life as long as they can do anything about that. And of course, the place we start is in prayer and submitting ourselves to God. So, there's your doctrine and some initial exegesis. Let's, as we always do, do a little more application. and learn together the mindset we're to gain through our study of Nehemiah. So given such an outstanding and persevering leader as the main human subject of this book of the Bible, just what is the mindset we're to gain through our study of Nehemiah? Well first, focus on what is most important. And again, there are a lot of things in life that are important. You know, it's the tyranny of the urgent that often overwhelms people. It's a matter of prioritizing to know that Jesus' church and his gospel and his day and his worship is more important than any of this other stuff that we have to deal with that we'll go into the world tomorrow and have to face. Nehemiah was willing to give up his cushy life as the king's cupbearer in order to serve and further the welfare of God's church because he knew that was a whole lot more important than holding the cup for the king. Anybody could do that. I shouldn't say that, but lots of people could do that. You wouldn't even have to be a worshipper of Yahweh to be able to fill that position. It was a high and exalted and prominent position, but There's a better thing for Nehemiah to do, much better, to serve the church. Now, here's another great biblical example. How about Moses? You know, if you read, even not just between the lines, but the specific speeches about Moses in the Bible, it's clear that he He chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the ease of Egypt. That's in Hebrews 11, by the way. I can't give you the verse, but I remember it's there. So he makes a conscious decision to rather suffer with the people of God than to just sit back and, you know, float down the Nile River and drink Kool-Aid and whatever going down the river. Right? I'm exaggerating a little bit. He could have had a really cushy life. But no, he says, no, there's something better than that. But ultimately, dears, let's cut right to the quick. No one is a better example than Jesus himself. For the second person of the Holy Trinity, leaves the glories of heaven to be embodied in an incarnate state as a human being and live in a very lowly situation for 30 years in this world, and suffer and die for us as Church, only to be glorified in His resurrection and ascension. So Christ is obviously the great example. And I speak this not only to our young people, but to all of us. The key to a well-lived life is to be found in knowing how to discern what really matters. So for all of us, especially our young people, I would say this, discern what really matters. Figure out what really counts. Figure out where your own heart is in this regard. And if it's not exactly right, then accord it with Christ. And here's the other thing, and I always like to say this because sometimes religious people get a little kooky on that. Young people, older people, we have a responsibility to enjoy life and all the good things in it. To enjoy and love God first in Christ Jesus, but also the people in this church, other human beings, animals, the creation, things. The proper Christian life is not ascetic. It's not beating oneself up. A proper Christian life is ordered as far as loves go. So if you're a young person and you're thinking about serving God, don't be afraid that he's going to take your joys away. Because if you do it right, you're only going to be filled with the greatest levels and measures of joy. rather than being deprived of them. So Nehemiah throws his lot in with God and let us, as his faithful church, do the same thing. So focus on what is most important. and act in faith, not stopping until the task is finished. A lot of people really do start down the path of even the true religion, but they're not able to persevere and they fall off. They just can't do it because they're not really regenerate. And again, I've told you this numerous times, if you're in a faithful church, it's impossible to stay there if you're not regenerate. You will find a reason to leave. Because you can't take it. It's not possible to stay in a faithful gospel church if you're not born again. If you are born again, yes, you can, because you're going to be fed and built up and nourished and edified, Lord stay the Lord stay, and you will stay. But a lot of people can't. But Nehemiah is an example of somebody who did. by grace through faith in the Christ who would come, and did come just a few hundred years later. Let us also, dear saints, be numbered among those who get the job done, and who don't leave a mess behind, but leave a blessing behind, so that when we're gone and in heaven, the church that we served, or the church we lived in, or the church we worshipped in, is lots better off than it was when we came. And that's definitely what happened with Nehemiah. I mean, the state of Jerusalem from the example and the influence of one man under the influence of God was dramatically transformed. from a miserable state of leaderless mire and malaise to a well-ordered, well-disciplined, spirit-filled life, the glorified God. So Nehemiah gets the wall built, but better than that, he got the church of his days established and strength. We are those people today, dears. You are those people today. You are. If it's not you, who is it going to be? I ask you. You are those people today, as we follow in the footsteps of our great King Jesus, who gave his blood for us, and who lives and reigns in heaven and on earth with us, his Holy Church. So, dear saints, Introduction to Nehemiah is something of a church maturity course 501, if I may use some academic language and number enumeration. It's not going to be easy, okay? It's not going to be easy, but it is certainly worth completing. And as we go through it, if God gives us the weeks and Lord stays to do it, I think we'll really be blessed. So let's consider our introduction to Nehemiah and close it with prayer. Father, thank you for this amazing book and just a really good example of Nehemiah. We're grateful for so many great gospel principles to emulate and follow and we pray that we would be that. There's a group here of leaders that you've called to bless your church and through her ministry to bless the world around them. Bless them, Fathers, they do the same kinds of things that Nehemiah did, and fill them with wisdom and joy and the Holy Spirit, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.