A Greater Restoration | Nehemiah 13 | July 12, 2026 | Aaron T. Colyer

In Nehemiah 13, Israel's renewed rebellion exposes the need for a greater restoration than Nehemiah could bring. This message points us to Jesus, the better King who fulfills God's promises, cleanses His people, and offers grace for deliberate disobedience.

Transcript

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Good morning, church. I did not know. Can you hear me? Yeah, you got me? I did not know that we were gonna read that Hebrews 3 passage. That passage when I was a freshman in college was extremely meaningful to me. It was the first time that I ever entered into a formal and pretty aggressive accountability relationship with young man that ended up being the best man in our wedding. And every week we'd come together, we'd pray, we'd have all these accountability questions, and we just felt like we were failing every single time. And so we decided, because of that verse, that we needed to speak or text to each other every day. It says, Exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today. And that season of my life produced more growth than maybe any other season in my whole life that I had a brother encouraging me every day. If you ever want to hear more about that, I'm an open book. That's not what the sermon is about today. It's Nehemiah chapter 13. So open your scriptures to Nehemiah chapter 13, and we are going to pray for a pastor, a friend of mine. We've prayed for him before. He's preached in this pulpit. His name is Ryan Ross, and he preaches in Melissa, Texas. It's City Church. Melissa, they have three services in an old wedding venue, and they're currently building so they can go back down to two services because three services is very exhausting. So let's pray for him. They are in Romans chapter 8 today, and what a good passage to be in, such victory in Jesus. Let's pray for the saints that are gathering at City Church. Melissa, and we'll be in Nehemiah 13. Lord, we thank you for everything you've already done in this time, in this space. And I know that you're wanting to do more. You're wanting to do more in me. You're wanting to do more in us. You're wanting to do more in individuals as your word speaks and as the Holy Spirit leads, leads us into conviction. And what a sweet thing to be convicted by the Holy Spirit that we might run to the cross and lay down our sin. That repentance would be such a sweet thing, not something that we feel weighty or shameful or guilty, but would be a reminder of your grace and mercy and love over us. And so would you use the scriptures this morning? Would you use me? Would I step out of the way, not my notes or my opinions or my preparations, just a proclamation? These are the things God was doing in history that we might live differently for you. And we pray for Pastor Ryan too. And we thank you for our brothers and sisters at City Church, Melissa. Would they experience you face to face this morning? Would they be encouraged to know the hope that they have, to be glorified one day with a new body in the new heavens, in the new earth, would that motivate the life that they live on this earth in this short time? God bless Pastor Ryan as he preaches, give him energy and sustenance. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Nehemiah chapter 13 recounts everything that Nehemiah did to discipline God's people. Because they had seen great things, and just in a very short amount of time, they were getting stuck in their old ways. I don't know if you have been disciplining children, if you're in that season of life, especially disciplining littles. It can be very discouraging. And you say, Man, I'm just, I say it all the time, and I say it and I say it and I say it and they don't get it, and they don't get it, and they don't get it. And I'm just trying to tell them that I love them and it's my job to point them to the things that are right and good in life. When you have to discipline for deliberate disobedience, that seems to be even worse. I think everybody knows what I'm talking about. Whether you've had littles or you've got little grandkids right now, and you say don't touch, and the kid turns around and says, I'm gonna put my finger in the socket. I don't know why. We're just trying to protect them. We're just trying to help them out, right? Deliberate disobedience for us, and it's been a while since this has happened, but I won't embarrass my kids. We had a rule: no candy in bed. And again, I don't want to embarrass any of my kids, but the amount of times that we would go to pray for our kids and tuck them in and wrap our arms around them, and all lo and behold, underneath the pillow is this candy wrapper. We say, What are you doing? We're gonna read parts of Nehemiah chapter 13, and I think Nehemiah felt that way. And I think the Lord has felt that way. And the question you should ask, even on the front of this, is God, is there anything in my life that is making you feel that way? If the Holy Spirit reveals something to you, run to the cross. Amen. Nehemiah 13. I want to read the first few verses and then I'll skip along to the end of the chapter, verse 1 through 9 here, and then we're gonna read verse 14, 22, and the end. On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. For they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. Did our God turn the curse into a blessing? As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent. Now, before this, Eliashib, the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, the tithes of the grain, wine and oil, which were given by commandments to the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, the contributions for the priest. While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerces, king of Babylon, I went to the king, and after some time I asked leave of the king, and came to Jerusalem, and then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God, and I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God with the grain offerings and the frankincense. And it goes on and on in various ways where the Israelites were not obeying the Lord. Verse 14. Nehemiah, remember me, O God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for those in the house of my God and for his service. Verse 22. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love. And then skipping on to the end, verse 30. Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests, the Levites, each in his work, and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the first fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. Does anyone else find it odd the repetition of Nehemiah saying, Look what I can do? Now I've addressed this before in Nehemiah because some of the prayers, and I mean ardent, passionate prayers of God, remember me, and I just want to seek your face. And before we do anything, I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna ask, and you're gonna lead God. We want you to be all over this. And I think that was good and right, but something changes here in chapter 13 where Nehemiah says it over and over. I've done all this great stuff, and then it's odd to me that the very last words in this historical book of all that God has done is Nehemiah was great. God, remember my greatness. I wonder if you find that odd. And if you do, write this down if you're taking notes. Nehemiah 13 should leave us longing for something more. I think before Nehemiah was just crying out for God's presence, but now I think it shows something about his pride or arrogance. Certain commentators agree. Listen to what one scholar says. How can anyone be arrogant or self-justified when he looks back over the last two or three decades and sees what God has done to transform this city and to anticipate the coming of the promised Redeemer? Reminds me of the Pharisees in Jesus' day saying, Remember everything that we've done. And when you realize that this is repeated three times in one chapter, you can't look past that repetition. The end of the book of Nehemiah should be all about what the Lord has done. It's true. Nehemiah is a hero of the faith. God used him in magnificent ways to bring people back, to fortify the city, to make sure that the temple was safe and secure, to repopulate Jerusalem. He's a hero of the faith. And other scholars have pointed out that he could even be pictured as a type of Christ. That's a pre-figure. Jesus is better, but he points us forward to Jesus. In the way that he's faithful, in the way that he depends on the Lord, in the way that we see him used as an instrument of God to redeem a people out of exile and to restore a people back to God. Isn't that what Jesus does for us? In chapter 13, verse 8 and 9, he even cleanses the temple. Get all of this pagan dude's storehouse stuff out of here and bring back the articles that are supposed to be in here. The instruments of God for God's house. Isn't it interesting? Jesus cleanses the temple in his lifetime. Nehemiah should be pointing us forward to a greater redeemer. The reason that we long for something more is Nehemiah fails to show the humility of Jesus. Don't you remember Jesus in the garden praying to the Father? Dripping sweat drops of blood, saying, God, if you could take this cross from me, please. But not my will. Your will be done. Or what we see in this great Christocentric passage in Philippians 2, which our junior high students just got back from learning, though he was in very nature God, he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he humbled himself to the point of death. Jesus, our great Redeemer, shows that humility. Nehemiah fails to show that. So we're back to the Christmas advent. Waiting, waiting, longing. We need a better hero. Because Nehemiah 13 ends abruptly saying, I'm so great, God, please remember all my greatness. I hope that you can see, as a New Testament believer in Jesus, the importance of saying, Well, Nehemiah, he wasn't enough. Someone else needs to come. Nehemiah doesn't cut it. Yes, he's a hero in the faith, but someone greater than Nehemiah must come. And if you've read the rest of the story, you know someone greater did come. Amen? That Jesus has come. But even still, as we walk through chapter 13, we can learn from Israel's rebellion. And we need to learn from Israel's rebellion. I think there are squandered promises here in this passage. Look at all that God had done. God used a man to restore a city. The walls are fortified. People are restored. They're formed around God's word. We learned that in chapters 8 and chapter 9. They repented. What a beautiful example of repentance. They re-established a covenant with God. That's chapter 10. They re-established the temple. They're reading the law. They're making the sacrifices. God proved his faithfulness to a people. And the people worshiped God. Don't you remember yesterday, or last week, rather, in chapter 12, too. Huge choirs praising God. One pastor says, there was one brief moment, a shining moment in Jerusalem that let us think that God's people were going to worship wholeheartedly and be faithful. But then we have chapter 13. And Nehemiah must cleanse the temple. It's rebellion on three fronts. They went against their word. Chapter 10. God, we're gonna keep the covenant. We're gonna re-establish the covenant, we're gonna do what you command us to do. They cut off their commitment to God, and they squandered away all the promises of God. Why? Why does Nehemiah end with such a downer? I mean, y'all, y'all watch movies? How often do these great stories just end with, and then everyone rebelled and they got corrected, and Nehemiah was awesome. That doesn't seem to make sense. Except for if we're supposed to read Nehemiah 13 with that very disappointment and say, Well, what's next? What's next? There must there's gotta be a sequel. I mean, this can't be it. We can't end the story like this. I hope you know where I'm going. There indeed is a sequel. But before we jump ahead, let's look specifically. Maybe there's something we can learn about our need to obey the things that God has called us to obey. There's three specific areas of rebellion in chapter 13. Here's the first God's house. And don't you remember they re-established the commitment in chapter 10? Nehemiah says in verse 11 in this chapter that God's house had been forsaken. So I confronted the officials, I said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. Then all Judah brought the tithe and the grain and the wine and the oil into the storehouses. Does that name Tobiah sound familiar, by the way? Earlier in chapter 4, Tobiah was the one sneering and mocking and talking trash to Nehemiah. Say, why are you fortifying this wall? I'll read it. Chapter 4, verse 3. Tobiah the Amorite was beside him and said, Yes! What they are building, if a fox goes up, it will break down their stone wall. It is unbelievably sad that the one that's supposed to be over the house of God, Eliashib, says, Hey, I know that you mocked God. I know that you mocked what we were doing to fortify the city. I know that you were against us. Why don't you go ahead and use the temple as a storage house? Go ahead, all your extra furniture that you don't want, we'll keep it for you over here. We'll put it in the temple. Do you see an irony there? Or the blatant rebellion? Why in the world is this enemy of God allowed to use the temple as a storage unit? This should this should get our hearts like questioning. What was going on with the people of God? And maybe, just maybe, it gets us longing for something more. A second area of disobedience was a Sabbath rest. I want to read part of this here, all the way verse 15 through this section. They were supposed to be keeping and honoring the Sabbath, and they were not. Verse 15, in those days I saw in Judah people treading the wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain, and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, and I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah and Jerusalem itself. Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, What is this evil thing that you are doing? Profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way? And did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath. It goes on. He gives warning. He says, Purify yourselves, honor the Sabbath, keep it holy. And then the section ends with him saying, God, remember how great I am. Nehemiah is passionate about the Sabbath because God had told them, This is a day of rest. This is supposed to make you focus on me. This is supposed to be a day set apart. This is supposed to be kept holy. The fact that they had made commitments in chapter 10. We're gonna honor God. Let us go back to the covenants. We're gonna honor the Sabbath. It's gonna be great. You can read there in chapter 10, verse 31. This is exactly what they said. Chapter 10, verse 31. And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day, and we will forgo the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of all debt. Just a few years go by, and they're going back on their word. They made promises to keep the Sabbath holy. I don't know if you've ever had someone go back on their word. I was trying to remember one that might be relatable. I was not a very good basketball player in junior high. I was long, I was lanky, I was awkward. My shot was pretty good, but I could not dribble the ball. I would oftentimes dribble it right off of my foot. And the coaches saw the effort and they said, This guy, maybe he's gonna develop, maybe he's gonna grow. And they said, We're gonna put you on the C team for seventh grade basketball. But maybe because of the effort or showing up earlier or staying late, maybe because I could shoot the ball, the coach came to me and said, Don't worry, Aaron. If someone doesn't make their grades or someone gets sick, or someone someone gets hurt, we're gonna call you up. Would you please be the team manager and keep the books? I said, sure. Because I want to play basketball in seventh grade. Until I realized there were the kids that got hurt and the kids that didn't make the grade, and the coach would call people up and call people up and call people up. And it was never me. And the sting of disappointment. But you said you said that I'd get a shot. Now I know that God does not sit around being sad about disappointment from our sin. But if you can imagine an 11-year-old boy in the disappointment that a coach made a promise and didn't keep it, you can also imagine how wrong it is for these people to say, we're gonna do this! We commit, we promise. And years later they're just buying and selling, they're working hard, they're not keeping the Sabbath holy. Can you just imagine the disappointment? Nehemiah's pretty passionate. If you've ever been disappointed because someone didn't keep their word to you, just imagine what the Lord is thinking when you don't keep your word to him. And again, I don't think he's crying tears. I don't think he's wading around saying, why can't you just get it together? I actually think he has a plan to discipline you and put a hook in your nose and draw you back into right relationship with him. That's how we see God treat Israel in the Old Testament. But I just wonder if you can imagine for a moment broken promises, squandered obedience, blatant rebellion. This should leave us longing for something more. What about God writing his law on our heart? What about God giving us, taking out a heart of stone and putting in a beating heart of flesh where we can actually obey him? And even when we fail, we can run to the cross and say, please forgive me, and we're washed clean, and then we walk out in full joy again and say, Lord, I just want to honor you and I want to obey you with my life. Man, we should be longing for something more. This last area that Nehemiah addresses is pure marriage. And when I addressed this earlier, I said, look, it's not about the fact that you can't have interrational marriages in our day and age. In fact, I think uh there's some beautiful couples and beautiful babies that are born. It was the fact that if the Israelites married idol worshippers, they were going to turn into idol worshipers. And they made a commitment we are gonna not marry fore men foreign women anymore, we're not gonna give our daughters to foreign men anymore. And years later they're going back on that commitment. Verse 23. In those days I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashad, Ammon, and Moab, and half of their children spoke the language of Ashad, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. Wow, Nehemiah. I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon, the king of Israel, sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God. And God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women? Nehemiah is literally beating people up for their disobedience. I've pleaded with them, would you please give your heart back to the Lord? But for whatever reason, Nehemiah feels so passionate about this that he he brings a curse down on these people and say, You've disobeyed! Again, chapter 10, where they make a promise, we will not marry foreign women anymore. We will not give our daughters to foreign men. But they fail. And this disobedience at the end of Nehemiah 13 with such a downer ending should leave us longing for something more. By the way, Solomon is mentioned here. He was the human author, the lowercase A author. God's the big case A author of Proverbs and Song of Solomon. He built the first temple. He was the wisest man in the land. He impressed the Queen of Sheba, and even Solomon didn't get it right. You know what that should make us do as we read that? Said, golly Solomon, you weren't enough. There's gotta be someone coming that's better than you, Solomon. And we're longing to see the someone better. After the prophets were done, there were four hundred years of silence in Israel. Four hundred years of silence. Jesus breaks onto the scene. Now we have the four gospel accounts, and it's no accident that God and his wisdom and putting the canon together takes the end of the Old Testament, silence, and begins with Matthew 1, verse 1. I'll read it for you. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. It's no accident that this genealogy starts with that reminder: Jesus has come to sit on David's throne. David wasn't enough, Solomon wasn't enough. Even Nehemiah showed great promise. He might be a hero for Israel, but Nehemiah is not enough. But praise be to God. Jesus is enough. Praise be to God. There's someone greater. And so for us as New Testament Christians ending this book of Nehemiah, would we long to see Jesus even more? Would we long to press into his presence? Would we long to appreciate the beauties of the gospel that all of our sin is washed away. To appreciate the beauty of forgiveness and mercy and love and grace. And then ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and say, God, if there is any rebellion blatant or subtle in our lives, would you refine it? Would you burn it away? Because I want my life to honor you. Jesus is greater. Hebrews chapter 1 reminds us of this. Long ago, and many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Nehemiah being one of them. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus is better. Amen. Jesus is greater. And we close Nehemiah with kind of a downer of arrogance or pride or look at all I've done, or Israel in their rebellion, and we say, gosh, these people, they saw these signs and wonders. Shouldn't they have stayed faithful? And we're reminded, no, we're just pointed forward. Pointed forward to a better Savior, a better hero, a better redeemer, one that can actually give us new lives with new creation and the ability to obey because we're washed clean and we're sealed with the Holy Spirit. I want to tell you, if you have never trusted Jesus, today would be a great day for you to trust Jesus. I was not perfect. I am not perfect. God asked me to be holy as he is holy, and I failed. God asked me to put him above everything and love him first because he deserves that love and I have failed. God has said specifically, don't do these things. Don't lie, don't lust, don't be prideful, and I've done them all. But Jesus is perfect. Though tempted, never sinned. Holy. Jesus was the perfect, spotless Lamb, and he went to the cross, and his blood is worthy enough to pay for your sin. My sin. He went to the tomb, he went to the grave, and he didn't stay there. He had victory over death. And he offers it to everyone that follows him. And if you've never trusted Jesus, I'm just telling you, there's no better life apart from trusting Christ. There's still ups and downs and circumstances and hardships, and I've had my fair share, but Jesus has carried me through every single one of them. There's joy in his presence. He has said, I came that you might have abundant life. If you need to trust Jesus today, don't walk out of this place without trusting him and asking him for forgiveness and starting this journey of faith. That would be a beautiful response to a sermon like this. But I'm also aware that just like Israel, there may be people in the room that need to repent from deliberate disobedience. And it may not look like being unequally yoked in your marriage. It may not look like not resting in the Lord or not keeping the Sabbath holy. It may not look like the commands in the temple. But if the Holy Spirit's convicting you right now, would you repent? Would you cry out to the Lord and say, God, please forgive me? You might have sweaty palms even in this moment because you think Pastor Aaron's gonna say the very thing that I'm thinking. I have good news for you. I'm not gonna say anything more. I will say that if the Holy Spirit bring conviction on your life, that's a gift. Don't run from it. And maybe it's not deliberate, maybe it's it's subtle. I was so grateful to join our students last week on Wednesday night, came to the worship service. The preacher did a wonderful job. He preached through 1 Samuel 15 and looked at King Saul's rebellion and said, if there's anything in your life that you need to repent from, you come up and you repent. And he called students and adults to come to the front, have open hands like this, and just say, Lord, take this, please forgive me. And I knew in that moment immediately something, even subtle, some subtle root of sin that was taking root in my heart, and I said, God, I can't hold on to this anymore. I said, Lord, please forgive me. This doesn't honor you. This isn't good. This doesn't help my joy. This doesn't help me to be a vessel that you want to use. Lord, please take this. Can I tell you the weight lifted off of me in that moment? I was burdened and heavy laden, and Jesus said, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I have been walking in that rest since Wednesday night, and I praise God. Could that be you today? Will you just come and say, Lord, take my burden, forgive me? Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Help me to walk in new life. Let's pray. Lord, I appreciate everything we have to learn from Nehemiah 13. I just ask God. I ask that it would echo in the minds and hearts of those that have come to worship you in this place today. This sense of longing for our Messiah who has come. We don't have to wait, he's come. But would we understand and appreciate and have a depth in our minds and hearts of what it means that we don't have to wait anymore. We can approach you. The veil has been torn, there's no separation between God and man. Jesus, our intercessor, is available. God, I don't know exactly how you want to do business in this place today, but I do pray that people would respond, people would get up, they'd move, they come pray with a pastor, they'd come lay a burden down right here at these steps, just in in uh quiet moment, private moment with you. They'd stand up, they'd pray with a friend or a spouse, say, Would you just pray over me? I need that kind of Hebrews 3 daily exhortation. God, I know that you are not done in my life. Us as a church, help us to move, respond, honor you, glorify you. We pray in Jesus' name.

unknown 32:49

Amen.