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00:00 Oh, wow. That was good. Usually you say, "Good morning, church." And everybody just stares at you with a blank stare,
00:06 but I like it. Everybody is part of the worship service this morning. If you
00:11 have a Bible, I want you to go ahead and open it to Nehemiah 11. States to have a family Bible. Have
00:20 you ever seen these? These are usually very large Bibles. Your family might have used them for family devotions,
00:28 but they would sit on the living room table. Now, these big Bibles were more of an
00:36 heirloom than actually a Bible to be used. And so it was unsurprising in many of these
00:43 family Bibles for you to open up into the first few pages and there would
00:50 be written the names of the ancestors who had passed down the Bible. It would
00:57 often have their birth date, their date of marriage, their death date, and it
01:04 would list their number of children. Now, this was actually so common in the
01:11 Midwest in America that today genealogologists whenever they're looking to find out the history of a
01:18 family, they will use these Bibles for research. They may be the only record
01:24 of, for instance, a marriage date or a birth date that we have.
01:31 But this tradition from the Midwest in America and my grandmother's day
01:36 is not only something that Midwest Americans do. So for a number of years,
01:42 my family lived in Malaca. And if you were to speak to some of the old Babaona
01:48 families, they could tell you with precision every auntie and uncle in their line
01:55 going back to the days of the Malaka Sultanate. They could point out to you where each
02:02 of their family members were buried from those first generations on Bukit China.
02:09 They could tell you stories of ancestors whom they never met.
02:16 Why? Because those names and those people
02:21 influenced who they were. Names are so important. Even in our
02:28 day-to-day, think about whenever we want to name a child,
02:35 their surname is already given. We do not even get to choose what their
02:40 surname will be. For instance, in my American culture, my
02:46 surname is Esserie. I was given it by my father and his father and his father on
02:53 back to the days whenever our family came from Wales in the mid 18th century.
03:00 My wife in our culture took my surname on the day that we were married. Each of
03:06 our children have that surname as well. Here in Malaysia, it's typical for the
03:14 children to take the father's surname and they will keep that surname all of
03:19 the days of their life. If you come from a good lineage,
03:25 we might talk about being proud and living up to your name.
03:32 If you come from a shameful lineage, you may talk about having to redeem your
03:39 name. Yes, names are so important. And in our passage today, as you've already
03:47 heard, we get a lot of names. In fact, the entire chapter 11 is
03:54 basically a list of names. 51 of the 83 verses in chapters 11 and
04:04 12 are merely names of people. Whenever you add to that the fact that
04:10 about 15 more verses which are merely the names of locations,
04:18 you see that these are chapters fully about names. If I'm being honest with
04:24 you, aren't these the type of chapters that we like to skip over in our devotions?
04:30 Let's be honest. Aren't these the ones that we get to it and we'll read three or four verses of Shaum, son of
04:40 Mataniah, and we can't even think the pronunciation of these names. And so, we
04:45 just sort of skim down. Oh, look. Okay, here's a story, right? But what I hope
04:50 today is that you will see after this morning's message that there is so much
04:56 depth in these two chapters if we will only dig for it.
05:04 The first thing I want us to see this morning comes from chapter 11. The main
05:09 point that I would summarize for chapter 11 is this. God faithfully restored
05:16 Jerusalem. As you've looked at the book of Nehemiah, you have seen that the book
05:22 begins with Nehemiah being dismayed as he hears that the
05:28 great city of Jerusalem now some decades after the people could return. That the
05:34 great city of Jerusalem remains uninhabited. The people are not dwelling there. that
05:41 people are still attacked and pressed against by peoples who oppose them. And
05:48 so his heart is broken and he goes to the Persian king and he wants to go back and help restore the city.
05:56 And at this point in the book of Nehemiah, all the walls have been rebuilt.
06:02 But if you look at Nehemiah 7:4, we see there still remains a problem.
06:10 Nehemiah says that even though the city was spacious, nobody was living there. It was empty.
06:18 It was desolate. At this point though, the people have confessed their sins in that great
06:26 chapter nine as they recount the history of their people and how they were
06:31 unfaithful to God's covenant and how in response God sent them into exile.
06:39 But then at the end they repent and they say that
06:44 they are sorry for the sins of their ancestors. They turn to the Lord and they commit
06:51 they even sign a document saying that they will be committed to faithfully
06:56 live for the Lord. Oh, what a day this must have been.
07:03 But Jerusalem still remains empty. And so that brings us to chapter 11.
07:12 If you look at the passage in the first four verses, it says that they resolved that 10% of
07:19 the people who lived in the surrounding area would go to Jerusalem. They decided
07:24 that some of the leaders would go to Jerusalem as well. But if you look at
07:29 vers or verses 5 through to 9, you see a list of names.
07:36 But these names follow a specific order. First, it says that the names came from
07:42 the descendants of Judah. Particularly, these descendants came from Judah's son,
07:51 Perez. It's very important that Judah comes
07:56 first. On the one hand, it makes sense that all
08:01 of the names in verses 5 through9 would be from Judah and Benjamin. Now, you may
08:07 remember from biblical history that Judah and Benjamin were the children of
08:13 Rachel who was loved so much by their father Jacob.
08:19 And it was Judah and Benjamin, the tribes that were allotted the land that
08:25 surrounded Jerusalem. So, it's not surprising that the names here of the people who would populate Jerusalem
08:32 would come from the surrounding areas of Judah and Benjamin. But there's more to it. There's more to
08:39 it. Judah plays a most prominent role in the
08:46 history of Israel. their forefather, the man Judah himself, he had been the
08:53 one who Jacob sent first into Egypt to
08:58 meet with Joseph and lead the people of Israel down to Egypt. It was Judah who
09:07 had been the one who was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his
09:13 father and for the sake of his brother Benjamin as Joseph threatened their lives.
09:20 Yes, it was Judah who was the leader. It was Judah whom his father Jacob whenever
09:27 he spoke prophetically of him said the the lion of Judah called him the lion of
09:33 Judah and he said the scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruling staff
09:40 from between his feet until he receives the obedience of the peoples in Genesis
09:46 49. Yes, Judah was somebody important. And
09:52 so I wonder as they heard the list of the families who were returning to
09:58 Jerusalem, if they started to wonder in their mind,
10:04 is that great lion of Judah one of these who will return?
10:11 Which one of these families will be the family from which the
10:17 scepter, the great ruler, God's Messiah, King
10:23 will come. You see, despite the joy of returning to
10:28 Jerusalem, they still remain under Persian rule.
10:34 They are not independent. They are only living in Jerusalem because the Persian king has allowed them to live in
10:42 Jerusalem. They still have no Messiah king.
10:50 But if you think about verses like these where name after name after name is
10:55 mentioned, one thing that should stick out to us today is how individuals
11:00 matter in God's plan. Isn't it interesting? It didn't just say the people of Judah returned to Jerusalem.
11:07 It listed names. First Baptist, you are a church, but you
11:13 are a church made up of individuals. And as individuals, you matter to God.
11:23 Imagine this generation as they heard these names listed and they thought,
11:28 "Hey, I know that guy. That's my uncle.
11:33 That's my dad. These were people that they knew. These
11:40 were people with jobs, people with relationships and children. It wasn't
11:47 just the people of Judah who returned to Jerusalem. It was Athia, Mier, Saloo, and Joel.
11:58 Individuals known by others and known by God.
12:03 Do not forget, church, that you, an individual, matters to God and within
12:10 God's plan. But if you look back at your Bibles, look in chapter 11 at verses 10 through
12:17 to 19. We have more names. So many names. But
12:23 notice there are titles above each section of names. from the priests in
12:29 verse 10, from the Levites in verse 15, and the gatekeepers in verse 19.
12:40 Now, within this section, as it's mentioning names, it mentions other roles as well. So, within just these
12:47 verses, we see the types of people who return. priests, officials in charge of
12:52 the temple, associates of the priests, those who led in thanksgiving, those who
12:58 led in prayer, Levites who took care of the administrative and physical tasks in
13:04 the temple, and gatekeepers who would ask questions such as what we read in
13:09 Psalm 24. Who will ascend the hill of the Lord?
13:16 He who has clean hands and a pure heart.
13:21 The point of these verses isn't just to give the names, but if you think about
13:27 these roles, the point is to say everybody who is necessary to serve God
13:33 in the temple is here. All that we need to go back to the place
13:42 where we can worship together in the temple is here.
13:48 Never forget that in ancient Israel, the temple was central.
13:54 The temple was where the people met with God. This is where the priests would
13:59 intercede before God on behalf of the nation. This is where the holy ark of
14:06 God sat in the midst of the holy of holies.
14:12 Yes, it was at this temple where the sacrifices took place. In chapter nine,
14:18 the people had repented of their national sin. They'd confessed that they were now committed to the Lord.
14:27 It would have been at the temple where they could show that commitment through
14:32 the rituals and through the sacrifices that needed to be made.
14:40 It's hard for us to imagine the sight and the smell of such a temple. Maybe if
14:46 you go to the meat section of a wet market, that would have been the smell
14:54 as the animals were killed and were cut up and were drained of their blood and
15:02 were sacrificed on the altar. This was essential
15:08 and now we see that the people are in place for this to become the normative
15:14 means of worship again. You see, it had been almost 150 years at this point
15:20 since regular sacrifices had been made in the temple.
15:26 So what these verses are telling us with this list of names is signaling to us
15:31 that God is ready to restore worship. If
15:36 you remember in the time of Ezra the foundations of the temple had been laid
15:41 and now we see the people are in place. But I want you to also notice in verse
15:48 18 something that is said. It says the Levites in the holy city
15:57 totaled 284. Jerusalem was also referred to as a holy
16:02 city in verse one. What could this mean to call Jerusalem a holy city? I believe
16:10 that this is a statement made in hope.
16:15 They recognize that their ancestors had been sinners. They recognize that they
16:20 are sinners. They know that holiness refers to the purity to the set aart
16:27 nature of their God. And so they know that anything that is
16:34 holy is only holy to the degree that it is like God or to the degree that God
16:41 has made it and declared it holy.
16:47 And so Jerusalem at this point is not holy.
16:52 In those days, they would have had to have kept all of the rituals to make all
16:58 of the sacrifices without fail for it to be holy.
17:04 In fact, the six or seven other times in the Bible that Jerusalem is referred to
17:10 as the holy city all refer to the end times when God will reign over the new
17:17 Jerusalem as king. I believe that this is a statement of hope because Nehemiah
17:24 13 tells us very clearly that they did not live up to this hope.
17:32 As sinners do, they sinned and so the city did not remain holy.
17:40 Where should they place their hope? Should they place their hope in their ability
17:46 to keep the rituals? Should they place their hope in their ability
17:52 to do the daily sacrifices? Where should they place their hope?
17:59 Verses 20 to 36 give us mainly a list of location names. If you're tired of
18:06 people names, here you go. Here's some location names. All right. These verses remind us that whenever the
18:14 people returned, they didn't just come to Jerusalem, but they also went to the surrounding areas.
18:21 I want you to notice that a phrase is used where it says that they returned to
18:27 the lands of their ancestors. It's to remind us that these lands had
18:34 been given to their ancestors by God's promise. What's interesting is that the
18:42 places that are listed here, they're not all within the Persian
18:48 province of Judah. They're some of them are in other Persian provinces that historically were
18:57 part of Judah. It's almost saying that by faith they're dwelling in all of the
19:05 places that had been promised to their ancestors. Regardless of what the current government may say, God's people
19:12 have returned to God's place.
19:19 It's a statement of hope. God will restore his people to his place
19:27 in his time under his king.
19:34 If we turn to chapter 12, the passage continues and we actually
19:39 get a lot more names. If you were missing out on the names from the beginning of chapter 11, now we have
19:45 more names in the beginning of chapter 12 for 26 verses.
19:52 Now, if chapter 11 was about God faithfully repopulating Jerusalem,
19:59 chapter 12 is about God faithfully
20:05 restoring worship. Everything in chapter 12 builds to the
20:12 verses that were read earlier in verses 27 to 43.
20:19 We see through these first 26 verses with the list of the names of these
20:24 priests and their lineages and the Levites and their lineages. We see that
20:30 God preserved persons to lead worship in the temple.
20:36 Whereas the previous the previous chapter mentioned priests and Levites,
20:41 the focus then was on their structure. Here though the focus is on
20:47 their role. Notice here as the verses are mentioned it says that they had leaders. They had
20:56 assignments. It emphasizes that they are all from the proper lines needed to lead the people
21:04 in worship. If you remember in the time of Moses, God made a covenant, a national covenant
21:11 with Israel. And in that national covenant, he said, God said that only
21:20 the Levites could lead the people in worship, but only certain families of the
21:28 Levites, those from the line of Aaron, could serve as priests.
21:34 These verses, verses 1- 26, remind us that God has brought the proper people
21:42 into the proper place of worship.
21:49 And so we see in our key verses 27 to 43 that everything comes together. People
21:57 are living in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites necessary for this national
22:03 ceremony are in place. We know from the book that the work on the walls has been
22:10 finished. Everything is in place. And so notice in
22:17 verses 27 to 43 all of the specifics of
22:22 the worship service. Verse 27 says that people came from far away. Verses 27
22:30 to30 say that the Levites who played symbols, harps, and liars were brought
22:37 in to join the procession. Verse 31 says that the Judahites went up
22:44 first. Verse 31 also says that they preserved or that they um prepared two
22:51 large choirs. It specifies one large choir was led by
22:58 Ezra and then it gives the names of many of its leaders. The other choir we saw
23:06 included Nehemiah. And then verse 43 says it wasn't just
23:11 these men who made the procession, but it says that the women and the children
23:18 worshiped together with them. It specifies the route that they would
23:25 take, the gates that they would pass as they ended up at the temple for
23:32 worship. No details are left out as it recounts
23:38 this momentous event. You can imagine in your mind as the
23:45 leaders are walking along these massive gates and walls as they're heading
23:51 around the sides until they reach the temple with the women and the children
23:56 coming alongside cheering, shouting. Instruments are being played. The people
24:03 are joyously worshiping God. This must
24:08 have been an overwhelming event. Can you imagine their hope as you read
24:15 these verses? Their hope. It's it's almost tangible, right?
24:22 But I don't want us to miss verse 30.
24:27 Look at verse 30. It says, "When the priests and Levites
24:33 had purified themselves ceremonial ceremonially, they purified the people, the gates, and
24:41 the wall. All of the players in this ceremony
24:50 needed purification. The priests needed to purify themselves.
24:56 The people needed purification from the priests. The walls and the gates needed
25:02 purification. Why? Why did they need to be purified?
25:08 Well, first and foremost, because God is holy. God is absolutely pure. And for
25:14 any of us who are sinners, to bring our sin into the presence of a holy God is
25:21 dangerous. Do you realize that, church? that God could consume
25:29 any one of us because of our sin and he would be right and good to do so. That's
25:36 how holy the God whom we worship is.
25:43 But historically, on the one hand, for decades,
25:49 Gentiles and idoltors had been living in Jerusalem. And so these gates, these
25:55 walls, this city needed to be purified of these decades of idolatry.
26:04 But we can't forget that the reason that the Israelites were removed to begin
26:09 with was because of their sin and idolatry.
26:15 And so the people needed purification for their own unholiness.
26:23 You see, although the people have returned to Jerusalem, their sinful stains still remain. They need a perfect
26:33 sacrifice. They still need purification to come before the Lord.
26:40 I also want us to notice in these verses who receives the praise.
26:46 Now, if you and I were leading this project of building this big wall, we would have a celebration like this. And
26:53 we would probably give flowers to Nehemiah's wife. We would have Nehemiah
26:58 and Ezra come up on stage and we would all clap for them for the
27:04 great job they have done in leading the people. We would listen to them as they
27:10 said, "No, we want to give praise to the workers who worked on that wall and
27:16 defended it." But that's not what we see here. Ezra,
27:22 Nehemiah, and all the leaders are specified as being in the procession,
27:28 but none of them receive praise for their leadership and efforts.
27:35 They don't even rejoice and celebrate because the wall is complete. That is
27:41 not their focus. We see in verse 43 that their focus and their praise and their
27:47 thanksgiving is all pointed towards the Lord.
27:52 They realize that this momentous event in their day would not have happened if
28:01 the Lord had not sovereignly brought the right people at the right time to the
28:08 right place. Notice that it says they worship because God had given them joy. They realized
28:17 that the joy that they are experiencing is all the result of a good and holy
28:24 God. And so they praise the one who truly deserves praise,
28:30 God alone. In the final four verses of chapter 12,
28:39 Nehemiah points out to us that all of Israel provided
28:45 for the worship in the temple temple. They gave of their produce. They gave of
28:50 their blessing so that they could make sure that there were Levites and there were priests and there were gatekeepers
28:57 and there were officials who would maintain the worship in the temple.
29:04 It doesn't focus on their being commanded to do this. Although the law does command them to do this, these
29:11 verses focus on their obedience. Everything seems to be right. Everything seems to be in place. the people are
29:18 faithfully providing so that the worship of the Lord will continue.
29:26 Now, thinking about chapter 11 and 12, I think that even though we would admit
29:32 that these are typically the type of chapters that we skip over in our devotions,
29:38 we can see that there is a lot here. God never wastes a word.
29:45 Every word in scripture we confess is divinely inspired.
29:53 Every word as we as Baptists confess is totally true and trustworthy
30:00 and points us to Christ. Yes, the theme of these chapters is
30:07 God's faithfulness. In chapter 11, we see that God faithfully repopulated
30:12 Jerusalem. In chapter 12, we see that God faithfully restored his worship.
30:19 But as joyous as this moment would have been,
30:25 I don't want us to miss the fact that this is not the complete fulfillment of
30:31 God's promises. You see, God had promised Abraham that the people would return to the territory
30:39 of the promised land and they would enjoy the blessings of the land and they
30:44 would dwell in security. He even promised Abraham that kings
30:49 would come from him. Yet here they still remain under the
30:56 authority of Persia. We saw that Judah has been mentioned as
31:03 coming up first a number of times. We see that the line of Perez has been
31:08 mentioned, but they still await God's Messiah, King who would rule over them.
31:17 We see in the sacrifices that they still need a priest who will mediate between
31:23 them and God. We see in verse 43 that they still need
31:30 multitudes of sacrifices to cover their sin.
31:37 You see, from this perspective, this joyous ceremony and the and the
31:43 restoration of Jerusalem is only one step in God's great story of redemption.
31:51 Even in the midst of this story, we hear these echoes. Judah, Perez, but no
31:57 Messiah. The nation remains a kingdom with
32:03 priests instead of a kingdom of priests as they were commanded to be in Exodus.
32:11 The people call Jerusalem a holy city. Yet so much sin remains that they must
32:20 sacrifice the bloody sacrifices.
32:25 All of these aspects of the story would have made the people in that day say,
32:30 "Yes, Lord. We praise you for your faithfulness, but we look forward to a
32:36 future day with our king on the throne with a better sacrifice that has been
32:43 made where we are a kingdom of priests. Yes, Lord, you are faithful and continue
32:50 to be faithful and bring about your promises.
32:57 But you know what? God is faithful. And we as a church this morning, we know
33:04 that God faithfully fulfilled their hopes in Jesus Christ.
33:10 Jesus, the lion of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Perez,
33:17 came to earth to restore God's rule and show himself to be God's chosen Messiah,
33:25 King Jesus. Now, at this moment, church,
33:30 Jesus now rules over his people from heaven. And a day is coming. And I pray
33:37 that you are looking forward to that day when he will return with trumpet sound.
33:43 And he will reign over his people here on the earth.
33:50 Jesus, our perfect high priest.
33:55 He fulfilled all of the requirements of the law so that we his church can be
34:03 called a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
34:08 As Baptists, we believe in the priesthood of all believers.
34:14 We don't need a priest to come before God. But because of the work of our
34:19 great high priest, you and I now have unmediated direct access to God. All
34:28 because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Yes, Jesus provided purification
34:37 for his people. They still needed to be purified. But Jesus has purified a
34:44 people for his own sake. Our great Lord Jesus Christ willfully
34:51 gave himself for the sake of sinners like you and me. Whenever he died on the
34:59 cross to take away our sin, he was the
35:04 perfect sacrifice. His sacrifice was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. There's
35:13 no need for the bloody sacrifices in the temple anymore because the perfect high
35:19 priest and the perfect sacrifice have already
35:25 come. In the days of Nehemiah, the people longed for the restoration of regular
35:32 worship in Jerusalem. But they also looked beyond their day
35:39 and longed for the coming days of the Messiah. They looked forward to our day. We live
35:48 in a day when the Messiah has come. So let me ask you church, whether you are
35:55 an unbeliever or a believer this morning, do you trust in Jesus as your only hope?
36:04 Do you long for his return? Now, I'm no fool. Well, I kind of am at
36:12 times, but I know that some of you this morning
36:17 are sitting here and you are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ.
36:22 So, I just want to ask you this morning, what do you turn to for your hope?
36:31 Do you put your hope in jostics, ancestral traditions,
36:39 rituals of prayer, trips to foreign religious sites, your own personal
36:46 generosity or something else? Stop.
36:54 Those will not bring the hope that you long for.
36:60 Turn just like the Israelites did. Confess that even your ancestors have
37:06 rebelled against God. But you today realize that Jesus Christ is your only
37:13 hope. He is our only hope in life and death. He lived the perfect life
37:21 because you could not. He died on the cross for your sin so that you don't
37:27 receive the punishment for it. and he rose from the dead and offers you today
37:33 eternal life. Turn your life to Jesus today.
37:39 Stop delaying. But most of us here today are followers
37:45 of Jesus Christ. Then let us glory in the work of Jesus.
37:52 Whenever you read chapters like Nehemiah 11 and 12, rejoice in the faithful God
37:59 who restored Israel to Jerusalem and fulfilled his promises. Rejoice
38:06 all the more in the faithful God who fulfilled all of the hopes of Israel by
38:13 sending Jesus to be our Lord.
38:18 church. May our worship look like the worship of Israel in that
38:26 day whenever they quote rejoiced because God had given them great joy.
38:36 Yes, God has given us great joy. Let's pray.
38:46 Father God, your word is so true.
38:52 It's so clear in the things it says, how it how it teaches us about your
38:58 faithfulness time and time again. Father God, I just pray I pray fervently
39:06 right now that we will be people of praise. that we will be people who live
39:14 full of thanksgiving in response to your faithfulness.
39:19 That we will be people who rejoice that yes, you have sent the perfect
39:26 sacrifice. You have sent the perfect high priest. You have sent your Messiah,
39:32 King, Jesus, our Lord. Father God, if there is anyone here this
39:39 morning who doesn't yet trust in you, but is hearing this message, God, convict their
39:46 heart by your spirit that they may turn to you. Open their heart. Give them the
39:52 salvation that only you can give. Father, for the rest of us here, may we
39:58 be restored by your word. May we remember that individuals matter to you.
40:06 that even in the midst of reading these names, we are reminded that you are so
40:12 faithful and may we praise you as the faithful
40:17 God whom we love. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
