Brick by Brick - A Study of Nehemiah 1

We are into a new series. We are kicking off today. So you've done well by being in church this Sunday because this is week one of our series in the book of Nehemiah. We're gonna be working through Nehemiah. It's gonna take us about eight weeks or so to get through the book from start to to finish.

If you missed the video, Simon, last week There was a 10 minute video of me sharing with you some context for this study. So if you've missed that, I'd encourage you jump online. You can view that on our website. It just gives kind of some of the historical context for where we find ourselves as we open our Bibles to Nehemiah, which might for some of us be a dusty part of the Old Testament. It might be a little while since we've been there in that part of the Old Testament scriptures.

But I want to start this morning with a question for you. I want to start by challenging you with this question up front. And the question is, how do you respond when you face challenges in life? How do you respond when you face challenges in life? Do you know those moments where maybe it seems like things are going pretty well?

Perhaps you've gone to the grocery store and you come out and you discover that someone has rammed their trolley into the side of your car and all of a sudden you're just distraught because your precious car is scratched. Our kids have done that for us. So I don't care about trolleys anymore. Maybe it is that you're running late for work and one of the kids drops their cereal full of milk all over the floor and it just spreads across the kitchen. That might just be our house, but I know that's like, that's a once a week event in our house.

Perhaps you're getting ready for bed and if you're like me and you made the mistake of putting your work emails onto your phone and you're getting into bed and then all of a sudden there's a ping and you look at your email and it's an angry email from maybe a client or a colleague or your boss. Boss or someone. And all of a sudden you are thrown. I was reading this week that a recent study found that 90% of professionals have reported receiving a disrespectful or passive aggressive email. 90%.

I would be shocked if it wasn't 100% and I would love if you have never received one. Please come and tell me after. Cause I don't know, it must be that you're really nice or something. I don't, but I'd love to get your hints, but 90% have received one of those emails that can unsettle your day. We know that when we're faced with challenges, when things suddenly come up, that our bodies are hardwired to respond.

We know that our brains flood our bodies with adrenaline, our heart rate increases, our breathing becomes quicker, because we're trained that that first response is crucial. Our first response to something is important. And research says that there's maybe three main ways that we respond. Some of us are fighters. We face a challenge, a threat, and we respond with aggression.

Now, don't nudge your spouse this morning. That's a bit risky, particularly if they're a fighter. They'll get after you in the car on the way home. But some of us are fighters, and those are the people who get that angry email. And you fire off an even angrier reply straight away.

Some of us are flighters. I might have made up that word. But we're flighters. We avoid confrontation. We, like, don't read the email.

We just mark it as red, and we just ignore it and hope that it goes away. Some of us are freezers. We just get stuck. We panic. We're paralyzed.

We're not sure what to do next. A recent study actually found that 70% of people who survived a event were freezers. So it seems like that is the most common response that we freeze in a crisis. What I want you to see today as we open up Nehemiah Chapter one is that Nehemiah actually shows us a different kind of response to bad news. When faced with something that is unexpected.

When devastating news hits him, his response is not to fight, not to run away, and not to freeze. He actually shows us something different, and we're gonna see that. And so if you turn your Bibles, the words will be up on the screen, but we're gonna be in Nehemiah chapter one. And as we turn in our Bibles, let me pray. God, we thank youk for your word.

Lord, we thank youk this morning for perhaps some of the unfamiliar parts of youf Word. And so we come to it now with fresh eyes and open hearts. And we pray that as we examine youe Word and study it together, Lord, that you would speak to us, Holy Spirit, that you would reveal more of who you are and the way that you're at work in our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

So Nehemiah 1, verse 1 says this. These are the memoirs of Nehemiah, son of Hakaliah in The late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes reign, I was at the fortress and of Susa Hanani. One of my brothers came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me, things are not going well for those who have returned to the province of Judah.

They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down and the gates have been destroyed by fire. It's really helpful that the book of Nehemiah starts with some context for us, and we have a number of those points there as we turn to this book. As a little aside, in the Hebrew manuscripts, Nehemiah and Ezra were actually one book. They were contained as part one and part two of the same book.

And so I'd encourage you, Part one is Ezra. You can go and read, read that this week. But we find that the opening components, the opening moments take place in the fortress in Susa in the south of modern day Iran. And Nehemiah tells us that it's during the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, which means that we're in about 445 BC. Now, you can probably work out, in verse 11, which we'll come to in a minute, Nehemiah is in the palace.

It says he's in the palace and he's a cupbearer. Now, you can probably work out what the role of a cupbearer is in that they bring the cup to the king. But it's more than that. The cupbearer actually had the job of drinking the king's wine, eating the king's food before the king got it, in case it was poisoned. Now, that sounds like a rubbish job.

Like if someone said to me, I've got a job for you, what is it? You're going to eat my food before me in case it's poisoned? Because then if it is, you'll die and I'll live. I don't reckon I would have said, yep, sign me up. Like, I'm totally in for that.

But history actually tells us that this was a really significant role. It was a powerful position. In fact, ancient historians suggest that apart from the queen, that the person who had the most significant position of trust and influence in the whole of the kingdom was the cupbearer. They had the ear of the king. Part of it was because every time the king ate or drank, they were there.

And so they developed a close relationship, they became a confidant, they became an advisor and a support for the king. And so this is where Nehemiah finds himself. He finds himself as a Jewish exile in a position of influence in the palace of a pagan king. And then if we go back to verse two, we find in verse two that it tells us that some of the Jews have returned from Judah back to Susa. And Nehemiah asked them, how are the Jews who have moved back to Jerusalem?

How are they going? And then he discovers that the city of Jerusalem is in a terrible condition. He's told it's in ruins, that the people are in great trouble, that they're in disgrace, and that the walls and the gates lie in ruins. Now, it's important to remember that by the time we get to Nehemiah, the first return of Jews to Jerusalem was about 100 years in the past. So the Jews have returned to Jerusalem.

That first remnant of about 50,000 Jews were. Went back several generations ago. But Ezra chapter four actually tells us why Jerusalem is still in ruins, why the gates and the walls are still broken down. Firstly, we see in Ezra 4 that a group of people who had moved into that area during the Jewish exile, they opposed the rebuilding. And so they bribe people.

They frightened the people, they discourage them, they. They tried to delay the work. And then years later, during Ezra's time, there's another wave of opposition. In fact, King Artaxerxes is appealed to by the people directly. They say to King Artaxerxes, if you allow the Jews to rebuild and they become strong again, don't you realise that they're going to stop paying you what you charge them?

They're not gonna stop paying you taxes and fees. And so King Artaxerxes, as you can understand, he says, nah, stop the work. I want my money like I want them to keep paying. And so by the time news reaches Nehemiah that Jerusalem is in ruins, he's not finding this out. For the first time, he knew Jerusalem had been in ruins.

He knew that Babylon had come in, that they had raised the city, that they had taken his ancestors off into exile. It's why he's in exile in the first place. But what he is discovering is, is that Jerusalem is still in ruins. He's discovering that 100 years after the first Jewish remnant returned, that the city is still in ruins, that the walls are broken, that its protection hadn't been rebuilt. And so we see in verses 4 to 11 Nehemiah's response when bad news comes.

He doesn't model flight, fight or freeze. Instead, I'd add another F word there. It's a bit tacky, but go with it. He models faith. So we have fight, flight, freeze.

But Nehemiah shows us faith, and he shows us that in three ways. And the three ways are up on the screen there for you. In verse 4, he shows us prayer over panic. In verses 5 to 10, he shows us worship over worry. And then in verse 11, he shows us faith over fear.

So let's turn to verse four. When he first hears the news, says this. When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted and prayed to the God of heaven. Nehemiah hears the news that the walls are still broken down, that the people are in trouble and disgrace.

And it's like his legs buckle underneath him. There's this sudden grief that comes in and it hits him and it says there that he sat down and he wept. Now, it's reasonable for us to kind of be like, why is it such a big deal? Like, the people have been there for 100 years. They seem to be okay.

Like, surely this is okay. But there's two main reasons why it is a big deal. Firstly, in the physical, a city that is without strong walls is a city without protection. It's a city that says to the enemies that these people are weak, that they're easy to be conquered. Whereas strong walls, strong gates say to the people that this is a powerful people.

But also, there's a spiritual element to it. And I want us to see this, because to Nehemiah, the broken walls represent a broken people. It's a people that are still vulnerable, a people that are still living under the shadow of disgrace. Because for them, Jerusalem wasn't just any other city. This was the place that God had given them.

This was the city where God had put his name. Its ruin spoke to the ruin of God's people. And so Nehemiah there, over like 1500 kilometers away in the palace of a pagan king, it would have been easy for him to forget about Jerusalem. Would have been easy for him to forget about a place that he had never lived. And yet his heart is so broken because of the state of the city.

Because he longs for the promises of God to be fulfilled. He longs for God's promises to be fulfilled. Made me wonder this week. I wonder when the last time was that I was moved to grief by the brokenness of this world. I wonder when the last time was that you were moved to grief by the brokenness of this world.

Now I wonder if 100 years after the Jews had first returned, 100 years of the people who resided there not managing to rebuild the walls, I wonder if they had become so familiar with the rubble and the ruin and the destruction that surrounded them that they stopped realizing what it represented. I wonder if they became so familiar with it that they kind of just went through their day without noticing that this rubble and this ruin represented the brokenness of their condition. It represented their sin before God. It represented the fact that God had called them time and time again to turn back to him, and they had refused.

I wonder if we too, can become really comfortable with the brokenness of the world around us. I wonder if we can become so familiar with it that we stop being grieved by the sin and the destruction and the brokenness of this world and the consequences of sin among people, the way that it brings death and decay and disease. Because Nehemiah was a challenge to me here as I looked at this, because he hears the news and he knows what it represents, and he is grieved by the brokenness of the world. But this is the key, that he doesn't wallow. It doesn't say, when I heard this, I sat down and wept and I wept and wept and wept and wept, and that was it.

And then I got back up and I was happy again. He doesn't just wallow in his grief. He doesn't think it's hopeless, that there's nothing I can do. Instead, what he does when news comes that he's unexpected, his response is to pray. And you see that in verse four, it says he spent days fasting and praying.

Is that your first response when encountering something that is unexpected, something that rocks you, something that brings you grief? Is your response to panic or. Or to pray? Cause Nehemiah prays. And then in verses 5 to 10, he shows the power of worship over worry.

It says this. Then I said, o Lord, God of Heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands. Listen to my prayer. Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you.

Yes, even my own family and I have sinned. We have sinned terribly by not obeying your commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses. Please remember what you told your servant Moses. If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and Obey my commands and live by them.

Then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honoured. The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. It's an incredible prayer, isn't it? And we could spend a long time pulling this apart. But what I want to do is just highlight a couple of things for you.

Because in verse 5, Nehemiah starts by declaring who God is above all else. Nehemiah knew that God was great and he was worthy of praise and honor. And Nehemiah feared that with Jerusalem lying in ruins, that God's honor might be diminished in the eyes of the people, that they might begin to doubt God's faithfulness and his greatness. And so he doesn't start with the problem, he starts with praise. He says, you are the covenant keeping God.

You are worthy of our praise and the obedience of your people. It's the same way that Jesus says to pray over in Matthew 9. We know it as the Lord's Prayer. How does it start? Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. He starts with praise. Second, in verses 6 to 7, Nehemiah's understanding of how great God is leads him to be real about the mess that people are in. He moves to this raw and honest confession. And I want us to notice this because it would have been easy for him like, and I wouldn't have criticized him if he prayed.

God, my ancestors really stuffed up like they've stuffed it up for the rest of us. God, I'm sorry for their sin. I'm sorry that they ruined it, that they sinned against you. But Nehemiah doesn't say this. He says, God, I have sinned against you.

Even I have sinned against you. Which is remarkable because as far as we know, Nehemiah had lived faithfully before God. Yet here he is identifying himself fully with the sins of the people because he understood that they were a covenant community, that the sin of one affected all, and that the sins of the past were still bearing consequences in the present. And this understanding comes from his knowing of knowing that God is great, that he is the covenant keeping God, that he is holy. And that in contrast, Nehemiah and the people of are deeply unclean.

There's something here for us, I reckon, because it's so easy to pray. Oh God, if only they would get their act together. If only they would, you know, improve the way that they're living, then maybe you'd answer our prayers, maybe you've prayed that about a loved one who's far from the Lord, or whatever it might be, if only God, they would stop sinning.

But Nehemiah says, God, I'm part of this story too. I need your mercy as much as anyone else. And then he stands on God's promises. Did you see that there? He knows that at this point they've run out of human options.

There was nothing in the natural world that would change the course of events. And so Nehemiah turns where every person of faith must turn. When the problem is beyond us, he turns to God and. And to God's promises. He says, God, remember your promises to us.

He's not implying that God's forgetful, that somehow God has forgotten. Instead, he's boldly declaring what God has already said. It's like he's praying, lord, you told us this would happen if we disobeyed, and it has. But you also said that if we returned to you, you would restore us. So I'm asking you to do what you've promised for your name's sake.

The great preacher Spurgeon says this prayer is nothing but taking God's promises to him and saying, do as thou hast said. Do as thou hast said. That's exactly what Nehemiah does here. And it's what you and me can do, too. God delights when his people know his word well enough to pray it, because it shows that we trust him to be faithful.

And then, lastly, Nehemiah demonstrates faith over fear. Let's look at verse 11. O Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honouring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favourable to me.

Put it in his heart to be kind to me. In those days, I was the king's cup bearer. Finally, Nehemiah makes a specific request to God. He prays, God, grant me success today. Make the king's heart favourable to me.

Now, that's a bold prayer to pray. It's a bold prayer because remember King Artaxerxes, the same king that Nehemiah serves is the king who declared that the work must stop. And so Nehemiah is about to ask the king, not only would you reverse your decision, but now would you support the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the walls? Humanly, that's impossible. But Nehemiah knows that the king is just any other man before the living God.

And so he asked for something huge. But he says, God Use me. He prays a prayer like the prophet Isaiah did. Lord, here I am. Send me notice.

Nehemiah doesn't say, send someone else to fix those walls. Like, I probably would have prayed that. It seems like a big job. It seems scary going to the king. God, would you send someone else to fix those walls?

Instead? Nehemiah can see that God has positioned him for this moment. It's why here in verse 11, he says, I was the cupbearer to the king. It meant that of all the people in the land that Nehemiah was the one who had daily access to King Artaxerxes, he was the one that God had placed there so that he would have influence for God's mission. Now I want us to see this, this morning that there comes time to move from prayer to to action.

Faith filled prayer prepares us for courageous steps. There's so many times we say, God, I want to see you do this. I want to see you move in this way. Like I've prayed that for this church. God, would you move in this way?

Would you give us a passion for prayer? Or maybe we say we should be doing more evangelism. God, give us a passion for evangelism. Or would you raise up more mentors for our teens and our youth? And then we expect God to do it through someone else.

We're like doing them a favor by praying on their behalf. God, would you use so and so? Would you use so and so? But Nehemiah doesn't pray that way. He says, God, I need your favour.

God, use me. Use me. It would have been natural for him to be crippled by fear. He had to go in front of the king. And these kings were not keen on changing their minds.

In fact, if you upset them, they killed you. It was really simple. And Nehemiah had a good thing going here. He wasn't dead, but he comes with this faith filled prayer. What a great model it is for us to follow.

And so, as we close this morning, I want to come back to this question that we started with. How do you respond when you face challenges in life? How do you respond when you face challenges in life? Because I think for many of us, our natural response is to be crippled by fear. It's to panic, it's to worry, it's to be afraid.

But Nehemiah shows us that there's a better way. When he encounters this news, that fills him with grief and it seems to him like God's promises have stalled, he doesn't panic. Instead, he goes to God in prayer. He worships God for his greatness. He declares God's promises and he asks that God would give him faith as he takes steps forward.

And so I'd encourage you this morning. Maybe you, too, feel like God's promises have stalled in your life. Maybe there are things that you've been praying about or maybe there's things you've been worrying about that you've been getting panicky as time goes on, that God hasn't seemed to fulfill his promises. My encouragement to you is this. Let's be like Nehemiah.

Let's go to God in prayer. Let's declare that God is great, that he is worthy of our praise, and let's declare God's promises as we go to him. Let's pray now and ask that God would help us do that. Our God, we thank youk for the challenge of youf word, Lord. We thank youk for Nehemiah.

We thank youk for his boldness, Lord, as he faces a situation that it just seemed like it was hopeless, but instead, God, he brings it to you. He demonstrates that he's got the right perspective of who you are. He's got the right perspective that the king is just any other man in sight of your greatness. And so, God help us that when we're faced with things in our life that are unexpected, when we're faced with challenges, God help us to come to you not in panic, but in prayer. Lord, help us to remember just how great you are.

Lord, help us to know and declare your promises, confident that you are a faithful God who hears our prayers and who answers them, and God, where it's needed. Would you give us courage that we would step forward in faith into those areas and those places and those things that, Lord, maybe we've been living in fear, but, Lord, that you would give us boldness, that you'd give us faith as we step forward, as you've called us to. And so we commit that to you now. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Sam.