Nehemiah 1

This is the outline of the sermon I shall, God willing, be preaching at St. James’, Poole on the Lord’s Day this week. Comments welcome. Nothing more can be added, unless something else is taken away, otherwise I shall be responsible for the burning of lunches across Poole.

Hymns: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation; O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Strangers and Exiles on the Earth (my new hymn); Hail to the Lord’s Anointed; Facing a Task Unfinished

Introduction

We live in a broken and divided world, as we’ve seen in the news this week, as perhaps we feel at home. Deep down, don’t we dream of something better? The message of the Bible is that in this broken and divided world, God is building his city, where all the nations of the world come together as one under his rule – Jerusalem, the city of peace. For Nehemiah, this was a physical city in the Middle East. It was a signpost to what was to come. Now it is in heaven, a city to which all Christians belong, and which is expressed in history in local congregations like St. James’. How is Jerusalem going to be built? Nehemiah wants to teach us something foundational: God’s people must turn to him in humble prayer. To move us, he first takes us to a time which illustrates the situation in which building so often takes place and then shows us the shape our response should take.

1 The plight of God’s city (vv. 1-3)

100 years previously, God’s people in the OT had been taken into exile and the capital destroyed as God judged them for their unfaithfulness. A later king allowed some survivors to return. Nehemiah receives some visitors and asks for news, but it is bleak. Though work had begun on the rebuilding, the people had been opposed and it had ceased, with no security or protection. They are in trouble and disgrace.

Northern Rock bank faced a crisis, but didn’t go the way of Barings in 1995. It was the oldest merchant bank in London and it was used by the British Monarchy, but through the fraud of Nick Leeson, it suffered huge losses and though the Bank of England tried to rescue it, they failed, it was declared insolvent, bought for £1 and was later split and sold on. Similarly Jerusalem had a great reputation as the city that bore God’s name. People and kings from all the nations of the earth used to come up to hear the wisdom of God’s king (Solomon) and the wealth of the nations came in. But it was destroyed, is now under foreign control and attempts to rebuilt it had failed. It is in trouble and disgrace.

There are parallels with the church today. England had a great Christian heritage – the Reformation, the Evangelical revival. But now, though the population increases, church attendance declines. The empty galleries here held people once. All we hear about in the news is division. The God Delusion is still in the Amazon top 10. At work or home, the only time God or Christ come up is when someone is swearing. When we try to share our faith, we meet scorn, hostility and indifference.

This easter, John Humphrys asked ++John Sentamu, “Will you acknowledge that the church is on its knees?” to which he replied, “What, you mean praying?” This is the what Nehemiah wants us to grasp must be our response if Jerusalem is to be rebuilt.

2 The prayer of God’s servants (vv. 4-11)

Nehemiah is one of many praying (v. 11). He is deeply moved – he weeps, mourns and fasts (so often associated with mourning). Alongside tears and prayer, fasting expresses grief to God and gives opportunity for concentrated prayer. Is that the extent to which the plight of God’s city affects us? If able, will we express our grief and dependence on God with fasting? The Lord Jesus had the expectation the practice would continue amongst his disciples and it would be entirely appropriate now.

Nehemiah bases his prayer on God’s character as the God who rules over all and who is faithful to his promises. This leads Nehemiah to express repentance, owning up to the way he, his family and the people have ignored God’s word, deserve nothing from him, and depend on him for mercy. Then he prays God would keep promises he made to his people in Deuteronomy, that if his people turn back to him in obedient faith, they will be gathered and brought back to Jerusalem. God declared to Moses this would be certain as in his grace he promises that he will change the hearts of his people so that they will return and be gathered. This is a promise that Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The prayer flows from God’s character. Because the is the God of heaven, he can gather his people from under the farthest heaven (what v. 9 literally says) and he can be trusted to fulfil his promises. God redeemed his people in the past so Nehemiah is confident to pray that he would restore his people (v. 10).This promises looks forward to fulfilment in Christ. Israel’s story of sin and judgment the story of all of us. We are all unfaithful to God. Since Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, all humanity has been in a state of exile from God, under his judgement, and they face exile forever. On the cross, Jesus took upon himself the punishment for sin in the place of his people. God in his love and mercy gathers people from throughout the whole world as he works in their hearts by his Spirit through tht preaching of his word, so that they return to him in the person of his Son the Lord Jesus, as they acknowledge him as their king and seek refuge in him for forgiveness. People are gathered into the place he has chosen to make his name dwell, the church founded on Christ. If you’re not a Christian, can I encourage you to trust v. 9 and return – trust in Christ, bow before him as your king, and so be forgiven, rescued from the exile of God’s judgment and be gathered into his city. The promise will be finally fulfilled when Christ returns – Revelation 21.2-4, 24-26. So it is that through God’s work in Christ, our broken and divided world is united in peace and enjoys prosperity as God’s city.

Nehemiah’s prayer is a Christian prayer – “Your kingdom come”. This is the shape our prayer must take. Will we remember that God is the God of heaven, the God of the covenant, humble ourselves, and as those redeemed at the cross, pray that God would remember his promise and bring people under the farthest heavens into his city through faith in Christ? Will we pray for that to happen in Poole, England and throughout the world?

Jonathan Edwards saw God do a remarkable work of restoring the church in the 18th c. He and other ministers prayed that God would by his Spirit work a reformation and revival, turn his people from their sins. They fasted, acknowledged their backslidings, humbled themselves, sought of God forgiveness.

Finally, Nehemiah’s last request is for one of the means he sees that God will use to keep his promise. He realises that in God’s sovereignty, the good of God’s people and the rebuilding of his city and therefore the hope of our broken world is in the hands of human authorities so his priority in prayer is that the king would be favourably disposed, so he and his peopel might be used by God to build Jerusalem. This is a priority in the NT, too – 1 Timothy 2. This has been a corrective in my prayer. As we ask God to build his city and gather his church, let us pray for our government, not take for granted the freedom we currently have, but thank God for it and pray for it to continue. Let us also pray for the church in parts of the world where the state opposes the church, that the hearts of those in power would be changed.

Conclusion