Preach it well.

All throughout this series in Nehemiah, we've been saying the same thing again and again.

Nehemiah points beyond himself.

He points to someone greater.

Someone better.

Who is that someone? Jesus!

We've seen it in different ways each week.

But let me ask you-do you know him? Have you met him?

Not just understood the idea...

Have you actually seen him for who he is?

Have you encountered him?

We can actually have a relationship with this person we keep talking about.

I don't want to just talk about him...

Or talk about him like he's a concept.

Or just a historical figure that we centre our lives around.

Some of that is true... but it's not enough.

He's alive.

And he can be known.

And he can be encountered.

And maybe you've been here long enough that you understand-Jesus is the main thing - It's who we talk about and sing about all the time - You know we should be talking about him.

But you haven't actually encountered him yourself. You go home and Jesus remains in your head as this really important person we talk about on Sundays.

But YOU can come to him. You can know him. You can meet him.

And that's what Christianity is all about-it's about having a real relationship with a real person.

And tonight as we wrap up the series on Nehemiah, we're going to see that Nehemiah is not the end of the story.

He's pointing us forward. As he has since chapter 1.

Now, it's been a few weeks since we were last in this book, so let me bring you back to where we left off.

Last time - in chapter 12 - we saw a people called by God.

A people made holy.

A people worshipping with great joy.

The wall was dedicated.

The city was filled with singing.

The joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

It was a beautiful ending.

Except it wasn't the ending.

I kind of wish it were the ending! But it's not.

Nehemiah 13 shows us what happened next.

And what happened next is not good.

Because after all the rebuilding...

They were brought back from exile...

after all the reform / worship / dedication / purification / promises...

the people start drifting... again. Ironically, this is the same behaviour that led to their exile years earlier.

Now - The chapter begins with obedience.

The Law is read and The people respond.

But as the chapter unfolds, you start to see that something has gone wrong.

The temple is compromised.

Worship is neglected.

The Sabbath is profaned.

God's people are intermarrying with the nations around them in a way that is pulling their hearts away from covenant faithfulness.

And the temple/priesthood is corrupted.

And by the end of the chapter, Nehemiah is still praying,

"Remember me, O my God, for good."

That's how the book ends.

Not with resolution or one big final victory.

Not with, "and they all lived faithfully ever after."

It doesn't end like we had hoped - with 2 choirs walking on the walls in complete worship.

It ends with tension and sin and neglect...

And as we've been saying all throughout this series, we need someone better than Nehemiah. We need someone who will take a bad ending to this story and turn it into something amazing -- this is what Jesus does... he takes what would have been a bad ending and turns it into something amazing!

The way this book ends shows us that even the best leader could not produce lasting faithfulness.

Even the best reform/change cannot change the heart.

They don't need new walls, or a new city, or really good leadership.

All of that is good, but they need something better.

They need Jesus.

And as we look at this final chapter together, I want us to see three things:

1. Reform can't change you.

2. Leaders can't change you.

3. Only Jesus can change you.

Let's begin at verse 1.

Verse 1 says:

"On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people..."

That sounds promising.

The Word of God is being read.

The people are listening.

And then they respond.

Anytime this happens, it's a good thing! I love it when the word of God is read in church and people respond.

By the way, we need more of this. I would encourage you to come to church with a verse or two that you would want to share. come to church prepared to give, prepared to share something from God's word when we worship. It's ok to read out a verse between songs as we're worshiping. The rest of us would be greatly encouraged.

So they read the Word and people are encouraged.

Verse 3 says:

"As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent."

This tells us that the people want to change, and that they actually start to change...

They realize they are starting to drift, and so they start to change.

And they remember that they were to be SET APART.

God's people were to be set apart for Him. They belonged to the Lord. They were His people, and they were to live differently because they were His.

God's people were kind of like the OT version of the church/christians today. They were to live differently because they belonged to Him. In the church today, we are God's people, and we're different; we're the called-out ones.

we belong to God and he's called us Saints, he's called us Holy, he's sanctified us.

We're set apart for him.

And at first glance, this moment of repentance looks strong.

The Word is read.

The people respond.

Action is taken.

But then verse 4 says, "Now before this..."

At this point, the chapter steps back and shows us what had been going on.

And what had been going on was not healthy; it was not good.

Listen, here in verse 4:

"...the priest Eliashib had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was a relative of Tobiah 5 and had prepared a large room for him where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, and the tenths of grain, new wine, and fresh oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests."

There was a priest named Eliashib, who was in charge of the rooms in the house of God, and he gave this guy named Tobiah a very large room.

This guy's name was Tobiah.

That name should sound familiar.

Tobiah is not a friend of God's work. He is one of the opponents all through this book-mocking, threatening, and trying to stop what God was doing (see Nehemiah 2, 4, and 6).

But the priest said, Tobiah, come on it.

Make yourself at home.

We'll move the grain offerings.

We'll shift the wine.

We'll move the oil.

We'll make space for you.

Things that had been set apart for the work of God... were pushed aside to make room for a man who opposed the work of God.

The book of Nehemiah is about building a wall, right? Well, the one person who opposed it all throughout the project, is now living in the house of God, and this is not a good thing -- this wasn't just an act of charity -- this was the enemy sneaking his way into the very place where he could do the most damage.

Something that was holy has been handed over to someone unholy.

That is the state of things when Nehemiah returns.

This kind of stuff happens slowly.

Sin often starts out as something very small.

Sin is like a snowball effect.

We have this thing in Canada called.... snow. And when you take some snow and roll it in more snow, the snowball gets larger and larger and larger... so large that you can't even carry it.

Sin is kind of like that. It starts out small. It might be something that you don't even notice at first... and then you justify it... you tolerate it. But soon, the thing that is now a huge snowball becomes completely normal.

It's the enemy living in the house of God.

And Nehemiah sees it... and he does something about it.

Verse 8-

"I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber."

He doesn't ask questions -- he doesn't need to. He throws it out.

Then verse 9-

"Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers..."

He cleans the space.

He restores it to what it was meant to be.

Listen - this is where we start to see that we need someone better than Nehemiah.

Nehemiah can clean the room...

But what about the heart of the person who let him in in the first place.

Nehemiah can't change the heart.

And that's the issue.

Because this wasn't just about one room in the temple.

This is about a people who can hear the Word...

respond in the moment...

and still make room for things that don't belong.

You can hear the Word...

you can respond...

you can even make changes...

and still have areas of your life that are untouched.

Still have things you've made space for...

It's that small snowball.

And over time... it settles in and over time it becomes something big.

We can't change the heart.

We can clean things up. We can look like we're put back together.

But we can't reach deep enough to deal with why it got there in the first place.

We need Jesus to deal with our heart, we need the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts.

vv.10-29

Verse 10 says:

"I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field."

So now we start to see how far things have gone.

The Levites-those responsible for leading worship-have left.

Why?

Because they're not being supported.

Somewhere along the way, they stopped getting paid, or they stopped getting provided for... They were forced to go back their farms and fields to provide for themselves.

So what happens?

When the worship leaders leave, the Worship stops.

Nehemiah says in verse 11:

"Why is the house of God forsaken?"

That's a strong question.

He doesn't say-

Why are things a little disorganized?

Why are people not doing their jobs?

He goes deeper.

Why is the house of God forsaken?

Why has the place of worship been forgotten?

Why have the things of God been pushed to the side?

The house of God was central.

This was where worship happened.

Where sacrifice happened.

In many ways, the most important part of life centred around the house of God.

So the real question is:

How did what was once so important become optional?

And that's still a question worth asking.

How does worship become optional?

How does gathering with God's people become optional?

How do the things of God slowly stop mattering to us?

The people in Nehemiah started drifting, and it usually starts quietly.

Little by little.

Prayer becomes forgotten.

Worship gets forgotten.

Gathering with God's people gets neglected.

And when that happens, it reveals something deeper.

Because every time God's people drift...

it's not a behavioural-issue.

It's belief-issue.

It's your heart saying -

I don't really believe that God is enough for me here.

So I need something else.

And when that happens...

what matters to the people of God begins to fade.

And Nehemiah steps in again.

He confronts the officials.

He gathers the Levites.

He restores what had been neglected.

But then it keeps going.

Verse 15-

"In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath..."

So now it's not just worship.

Now it's rest.

The Sabbath had been set apart. It was a holy day, a gift from God.

A day to stop and remember. And a day to trust that God provides.

And now it's just another day. It's a work day.

Business as usual.

Working.

Trading.

Buying and selling.

No distinction.

No consecration.

And Nehemiah responds again.

He warns them.

He shuts the gates.

He posts guards.

He puts structure back in place.

And then we come to verse 23.

"In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab."

And this goes even deeper.

Because now it's not just worship.

Not just Sabbath.

Now it's the next generation.

Verse 24-

"And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah..."

They don't even speak the language anymore.

They are growing up without being formed as the people of God.

And Nehemiah reacts strongly.

He rebukes them. He curses them.

Why was he so intense?

Because this was God's people and God had made them holy.

Yet they're not living out of who they are.

They're drifting from it.

They're forgetting it.

Their identity was that they were Holy / Set apart.

But they kept on forgetting... they kept on un-believing.

And by this point, you start to see the pattern clearly.

Nehemiah fixes one thing...

And something else is broken.

He restores worship...

But the Sabbath is neglected.

He restores the Sabbath...

But families are compromised.

And it just keeps going.

Fix.

Drift.

Fix.

Drift.

And underneath all of it...

is the same issue every time.

Unbelief.

God is not enough.

So they reach for something else.

And this is the weight of this chapter.

everything that was rebuilt... God building a people for himself....

is starting to come undone, little by little.

And Nehemiah keeps stepping in.

He keeps correcting.

He keeps restoring.

But nothing holds.

And that's the point.

Because even the strongest leader...

cannot keep God's people faithful.

Even the best reforms -- no amount of change...

do not last.

Because the problem is deeper.

It's not just what we do.

It's what we believe.

And if what we believe is off...

our lives will follow.

So what do we need?

We don't just need correction.

We need to see God rightly again.

We need to believe that he is enough.

vv.30-31

By the time we reach the end of the chapter...

there's no sense that everything has finally been fixed.

There's no moment where everything comes together.

There's no clean ending.

Instead, we get this.

Verse 30-

"So I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work."

Nehemiah does what he's been doing all along.

He cleans.

He restores.

He puts things back in order.

And then verse 31-

"Remember me, O my God, for good."

This is how this great book of Nehemiah ends -- not with much great confidence, but simply hope.

It doesn't end with Nehemiah shouting out "It is finished!"

Jesus is the one who said that.

Here's what Nehemiah says-

"Remember me."

This is a cry of a man who knows this isn't complete.

That's a man who has done everything he can...

and knows it still isn't enough.

And this is where the whole book has been leading.

Because Nehemiah has been faithful.

He confronted sin.

He rebuilt the wall.

He restored worship.

He called the people back to God.

But he cannot change their hearts.

He can deal with what's in front of him...

but he cannot deal with what's inside of them.

And so the book ends like this on purpose.

It leaves us here.

Wanting something more.

Wanting someone more.

And that's where Christ comes in.

Because everything Nehemiah does... Jesus does fully.

Nehemiah confronts sin.

Jesus forgives sin.

Nehemiah cleans a room.

Jesus cleanses the heart.

Nehemiah restores worship.

Jesus becomes our worship.

Nehemiah enforces the Sabbath.

Jesus gives us rest.

Nehemiah says, "Remember me."

Jesus says, "It's Finished."

Jesus is the better Nehemiah.

Jesus didn't come to try to fix things for a moment... only for things to fall apart again.

He's finished the work.

He holds his people together. He keeps us.

He completes what he started.

We don't have to worry about how well we can hold things together anymore.

The hope is in the one who holds us.

But seeing him again.

Trusting him again.

Believing that he is actually enough for you.

In your struggle.

In your temptation.

In the places you keep drifting.

I asked you at the start if you really know Jesus.

Once you do, everything else starts to fall into place.

Once you come to know him, he does what we can't do: he puts a new heart in you. He puts his Spirit in you. He calls you Holy, he's set us apart for good works.