Introducing Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1)

Introduction

A. Preliminaries

Welcome to the start of our sermon series on the Book of Nehemiah. We wrapped up our sermon series on the book of Ezra recently. And you might be wondering why we are now moving to Nehemiah, since it is usually my preference to move back and forth between the Old and New Testaments.

And the answer is that in the Hebrew Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah are a single book. They were not separated until centuries later. So since they were likely originally meant as one book, I intend to preach it as one book.

B. Sermon Text

So with that, let’s continue to our text.

Nehemiah 1:1–11 ESV

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, 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 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.” 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, “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.” Now I was cupbearer to the king.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God!

C. Transition to Sermon

This is our introduction to Nehemiah. He probably grew up in Babylon, and he apparently did not return with Ezra (perhaps because he was too young). Between the close of Ezra and the start of Nehemiah there is something like a 12 year jump. But it’s still the same story.

So he’s in Susa, which is about 225 miles east of Babylon. It was the winter resort of the Persian Kings, on the Western edge of Iran.

And Nehemiah (we are told in the last verse of our text this morning) was the cupbearer to the king. This was a very important position: he would check the King’s cup for poison. His job was to taste the wine in the presence of the king, and then they’d wait and see if he died. It is interesting that a foreigner held this position--which perhaps speaks to his trustworthiness.

So we read at the start about his sorrow over the fallen walls of Jerusalem. A fellow named Hanani comes back with other men from Judah with news. He asks how things are going,

Nehemiah 1:3–4 ESV

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.” 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.

So this reference to the wall coming down would have likely been a reference to efforts to rebuild the wall under recent leadership that failed.

But here’s what you should notice about Nehemiah: Prayer came first.

Nehemiah 1:4 ESV

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.

When I was a student in grad school, my thesis supervisor was a retired missionary to Morocco in North Africa. And he said in the Arab culture in Morocco, no one ever asks you if you are religious or if you believe in God. That’s how Westerners start a conversation about religion. But in his North African context, if someone wants to start a conversation about religion, they ask “Do you pray?”

And in the same spirit, J.C. Ryle once observed,

I ask … whether you pray, because a habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian. All the children of God on earth are alike in this respect. From the moment there is any life and reality about their religion, they pray. Just as the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world is the act of breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born again is praying.

I think we too should think about the work of prayer this way—it is how we breathe.

Nehemiah’s Prayer can serve as a model for us, and it calls us to a pattern of imitation.

First, the Prayer is Repeated

Second, the Prayer has Content

Third, the Prayer Keeps Going

And it seems only right that before we go any further, why don’t we pray?

Our Father, We need help in prayer. In our flesh we are prone to long babblings, to vain repetitions, and to foolish superstitions. Oh Lord, in your mercy, help us today to enter in to the joy of prayer, with the help of your servant Nehemiah. This we ask for Jesus’s sake. And Amen.

I. The Prayer is Repeated

So Nehemiah says that in the midst of his grief over Jerusalem, prayer became his habit.

Nehemiah 1:4 ESV

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.

Now Nehemiah is no lazy slouch. He is a man of action and a “get things done” sort of guy, as we will see. But his first reaction to bad news is to start praying. In fact, the text says he waited days, but the date alignment of when this happened vs. when he eventually secures permission to go back to Jerusalem seems to suggest it was more like several months.

But what you also can’t miss from the text is that the prayer had content that most likely became repeated content.

The text says

Nehemiah 1:4–5 ESV

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, “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,

Underline “For days”

Underline “And I said.”

He prayed for days. And he said these words. Now, I am not saying that every single day he prayed the exact same words. But what is likely is that by the time he got into a rhythm of praying this every day, it probably did take on definite form and structure where he was praying more or less the same thing every day. That requires patience in prayer. And a genuine trust that God is listening.

And I would offer to you that some of our prayer would be greatly helped by some form and discipline. Jesus, when his disciples asked him to pray gave them a form of prayer, which we repeat every Sunday, and I urge you to use in prayer every day.

And let me happily, joyfully, and enthusiastically give the game away, and tell you about my Pastoral Master Plan here: This is the entire reason that we pray liturgical printed prayers every Sunday. So that together, we learn how to pray by using the same words.

And if using printed words is not part of your prayer life, I would commend to you a few books. No need to buy all of them at once, start with one and see how it helps you.

The Valley of Vision

Grace From Heaven

Be Thou My Vision

Take Words With You

I am not saying you shouldn’t pray from the heart as words come. You should do that. But I think most of us already do that.

In broader American Evangelicalism, we do not need to be told to pray from the heart as words come, that’s usually where we start. And I would offer it’s why some of us have a hard time learning to pray if we struggle to find words.

So what can we learn from this prayer?

That is my next point:

II. The Prayer Has Content

I trust many of you have heard of the ACTS model for prayer. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a great little acronym to use in private prayer. It goes like this

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

And Nehemiah’s Prayer is very Similar. The outline of Nehemiah’s prayer would be something like

Adoration

Confession of Sin

Praise for God’s Faithfulness

Trust in God’s Mercy

So, ACPT (as an acronym) wouldn’t really help anybody, but I think this would also be a helpful pattern for our prayers. So let’s study it a bit this morning.

A. Adoration

Nehemiah 1:5 ESV

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,

Adoration is telling God about God’s own goodness. So why would we do that in prayer? Why start there?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s the same place that our worship services begin. The first song we sing is called a Song of Adoration.

And there’s a reason for this. Because at first, this might seem an odd thing. To tell God about God. Why? God didn’t forget.

Many of you are familiar with the preaching ministry of a Scotsman living near Cleveland, Ohio by the name of Alistair Begg. And I trust many of you have heard a story he tells where he goes to visit a church when he was on vacation...

And then the person who was to lead the praise, Begg said his opening gambit was, "Hey! How do y'all feel this morning?"

How do y'all feel this morning?

Why do we star there? Why do we go straight to repetitive choruses about ourselves! Even spiritual sounding things about myself like “I just want to praise you, lift my hands and say I love you, you are everything to me.”

Are you serious? At nine in the morning? I'm barely ambulatory. And you want me to say that all that about myself? Before I left the house, I think I kicked the dog, and I don’t even have a dog. I got in an argument with someone because they took the shaded parking space I wanted. I spilled my coffee on my way down the driveway. I woke up too late to read my Bible, and you’ve got me here and the best you can do is “How do I feel?” I feel rotten, that's how I feel! What do you got for me? The answer, nothing.

That's why, Begg says, you have to get yourself under the control of the Scriptures. That's why it is what we know—the verities of the Scriptures which fuel our hearts and our emotions, and lead us on. Hence we have been given hymns of the faith like

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the King of Creation Oh, my soul, Praise Him! For he is thy health and salvation! All ye who hear Now to His Temple draw near Join me in glad adoration.

Well now we have something to sing about don’t we? The Lord, the Almighty, my health, my salvation. Draw near, my soul. Draw near.

What has happened? We have been reminded of truth. And now, you’re not thinking about yourself. You're looking away from yourself now, and you're looking out and to Christ. And Begg says it is in this that we have something that fuels our praise.

That is why we open with a song of Adoration. Because we need it. We tell God about God and we sing about God and we adore God not because God has forgotten who he is, but because we do. And when God is restored to his rightful place in our hearts and minds--on the throne--our problems are put in their right perspective.

As my old mentor and friend Mike Sharrett is always fond of saying:

Small Jesus, bigger problems

Big Jesus, smaller problems

We need the reminder that God remains the same.

Second Part,

B. Confession of Sins

Nehemiah 1:6–7 ESV

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.

Notice that he weeps for the glory and security of Jerusalem that has been lost. The beauty that has been destroyed. It is biblical to look back on years past, and recognize that something good and true and beautiful has been lost. And should be restored. Do you pray that for your city? For your country? I do. I pray God would bless us such that we look back on the good old days and laugh, wondering why we didn’t have the faith that God would give us something even better.

But note also that Nehemiah openly pleads with words of repentance in his prayer, and he speaks of himself and his own people. I and We. He says the problem is right here. With me and with us.

In the early 20th Century, The Times of London invited several authors and philosophers to respond to the question “What is Wrong with the World?” And famed author G.K. Chesterton’s contribution took the form of a letter:

Dear Sirs,

What is wrong with the world?

I am.

Yours Sincerely,

G. K. Chesterton

This is why in our mission and vision statement, we said that one of the ways we will accomplish the mission of God’s Kingdom is by opposing the world, the flesh, and the devil, and beginning with the sin in our own hearts and households.

But notice that Nehemiah doesn’t stay there, on the topic of repentance. He moves from sin to...

C. Praise for God’s Faithfulness

Nehemiah reminds God of his own promises. But just as Adoration telling God about God because you need it, the same thing is in play here

God has not forgotten his promises, but we do forget them. So we should pray them back to God and plead with God to show himself faithful.

Nehemiah prays.

Nehemiah 1:8–9 ESV

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.’

Part of biblical prayer is the repetition of biblical realities, biblical promises, and biblical history. Not because God forget is, but because we do.

This is actually a really remarkable aspect of biblical prayer that is absent from a lot of our praying, and that is repeating back to God stories of his own faithfulness. Because we forget that our God is a Covenant Keeping God who does not lie.

And honestly, I had never really heard people do this a lot until I spent time in prayer alongside Bob Vincent. Bob does this all the time. He will be asking God for something and then he’ll just say “And oh Lord, I remember, five years ago, when you healed sister Betty of her cancer, so God we are coming to you again to ask the same for sister Martha.” Recounting of God’s faithfulness in history—biblical history and your history—is part of biblical prayer. Because it moves the heart from wondering if God is good to being reminded that He’s always been good.

Nehemiah goes on

Nehemiah 1:10 ESV

They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

What’s he saying? He’s saying these are your people. Redeemed by your hand. Your covenant promises. You are our God! You cannot turn your back on us without going back on your word and denying yourself. And THEREFORE, grant mercy, that’s verse 11.

Nehemiah 1:11 ESV

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.”

This is the last sub-point

D. Trust in God’s Mercy

Trust in God is how our prayers should end. It’s how so many of the Psalms end. How Long Oh Lord, How Long? Yet I will trust in your unfailing mercy. My heart rejoices in your salvation.

Even if 100% of our heart is not in it, that’s ok. Often your heart has to catch up to your words and actions. God still calls you to trust him. But as a general rule, the note of mercy should be the resolving harmony in the song of our prayers. Having adored God, having confessed my sins, having offered praise for his faithfulness, and an earnest plea for my needs, I will trust him.

So for the sake of time, I will wrap up the survey of the prayer here. And close with my third point. We have talked about how the Prayer is Repeated, and the Prayer has Content. Finally,

III. The Prayer Keeps Going

I want to end this sermon where I started it, and that is, with the reality that Nehemiah prayed while patiently waiting.

You see, prayer is challenging for a number of reasons. It does not come natural to our flesh. It’s hard to talk to someone we can’t see. Just as en-fleshed sinners, that can be a challenge for us. Sort of like when John says

1 John 4:20 ESV

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

The principle is that visible people are easier to love than an invisible God. And I think there’s a parallel there with prayer. Talking to visible people is, in a real sense, easier than talking to an invisible God. But another reason is that we are impatient in prayer. We are almost always praying with a timetable in mind. It’s just one of the reality of being time-bound creatures.

So what can take shape is that we start to think we have to learn gimmicks or magic tricks to make God answer faster.

Oh, you weren’t specific enough in your prayers. That’s why God hasn’t answered them.”

Have you heard this one? This is real thing—there are books written about it. Saying, you have to be hyper-specific in your prayers and give God a location and a date and a time for the answer to the prayer, and you have to include predicted weather conditions relative to the dew point and the barometric pressure, otherwise that’s not a prayer of faith.

Just nonsense.

I reference the Lord’s Prayer once more. Jesus taught us to pray, using a prayer that by all appearances is pretty broad and general in its content.

I think one of the biggest struggles in prayer is that we get impatient. And we accuse God when he’s not fast. And since we are creatures who live inside time, that’s always our temptation.

This is why I always encourage you, Grace Presbyterian Church—pray for patience.

I know. You’ve probably heard that adage “Never pray for patience.”

Really? Its part of the fruit of the Spirit. That’s like saying never pray for love. Never pray for joy. Never pray for self-control (are you kidding me?)

“But Pastor Bryan! If I pray for patience, God’s going to give me situations where I’m going to have to use it! Yeah, if I pray for patience, God is going to put me in a terrible traffic jam this week, and I’ll be miserable!”

You know what, that might be. But hear me out for a second. What if God was going to have you go through that anyway, whether you prayed for patience or not?

What if you were going to be in that traffic jam anyway, it’s just that in this case, since you prayed for patience, this time you’re going to make it through the traffic jam without sinning? Have you considered that?

What if this was going to happen anyway, but now it might happen without sin?

Conclusion

Nehemiah’s prayer is repeated. Nehemiah’s prayer has content that follows a biblical pattern. It moves from adoration to confession to praise for God’s faithfulness to trust in God’s mercy.

And we have this great hope that Nehemiah could only have imagined—the sure certainty that God hears us when we pray.

Because we have this great hope—that because of what Jesus has done for us, the ear of God is turned toward us when we pray.

Richard Chenevix Trench, a 19th‑century Irish Anglican once put it this way. He said:

Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.

He is able, He is able, He is willing, Doubt no more.

Therefore, we pray.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.