Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[Transcript of Martin’s Midweek Message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], 29/Jul/2025]

Well, hello. I wanted to kind of do a bit of a series wrap-up. We have just been looking at Nehemiah rebuilding more than walls. And I hope you’ve enjoyed. If you’ve missed it, you can catch up on our YouTube channel.

There’s four parts to it where we look at the story of Nehemiah who with the help of God and the people of Jerusalem rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. And it’s been a really good story picking up on various different points. But I really just wanted to, as I said, wrap the series up because when I trained at Spurgeons, we were told everything points to Jesus. Sometimes it’s difficult to see how that fits with Old Testament stories like Nehemiah, but actually it really does point towards Jesus. So, we’re going to be looking at that just briefly in this video over the next few minutes.

Now, I don’t know if you’re aware, but the book of Nehemiah is actually only part of a larger book. Well, obviously the Bible, but actually there was Ezra, which is a separate book, and Nehemiah. They’re probably the same book originally. It picks up the story of three people, three individuals who rebuilt Jerusalem in three different ways.

First of all, there was Zerubbabel. I think that’s how you pronounce his name. He led back the first wave of exiles from Babylon back to Jerusalem. He oversaw, and this is really important, he oversaw the rebuilding of the temple. Now, I always thought that was Ezra, but actually it was a Zerubbabel who rebuilt uh the temple. What’s key when you read it is that unlike when King Solomon built the first temple, you might recall that before the temple, God’s presence was in the ark of the covenant, it was taken around in a tent. Solomon then built an actual proper solid temple rather than a tent that could be moved around. And we can read in the book of 1 Kings how God’s presence just filled the temple. It’s like a cloud descending and people were just struck with the awe of God’s presence being there in the temple. But interestingly when you hear about when they dedicated the temple that Zerubbabel rebuilt is that God’s presence doesn’t seem to be there. At least not in that same way. That’s a kind of a bit disappointing really.

And then there’s Ezra. Now Ezra arrived a few years later. He was a priest and a scribe. And what he do he does really is restores a love for scripture, for God’s law. He preaches it and the people of Jerusalem recommit their lives to Jesus. But what we see towards the end of his time is is his reforms as great as they were, as much as they pointed towards God, they became incredibly exclusive. So much so that when you had Jewish men who had married foreign wives and had children, Ezra forced them to send those foreign wives and their children away. They had to leave Jerusalem, which obviously didn’t go down particularly well.

And then we get to Nehemiah, who we’ve been looking at in the past four sermons. He brought structure, protection. He was a bold leader. But that wall became a separation both symbolic and in reality between Jews and non-Jews, keeping people out. And a key verse that points that out is Nehemiah 13:3. It says this, “When the people heard the law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.”

So what we kind of have here is a pattern of incomplete restoration. Yes, Zerubbabel brought restored a place of worship, but we didn’t really see God’s presence there like it was before. Ezra restored a dedication to the word of God, but it became incredibly exclusive and pushed people away. And Nehemiah, yes, he rebuilt those walls, but those walls became a physical barrier that kept non-Jews out. None of them restored the presence of God or the inclusive vision that the prophets of God had. For example, Isaiah 56:7 says this, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

So really, when you get to the end of Ezra and Nehemiah, like I said, it was probably just one book originally, you kind of feel a bit flat. It it promised so much. We see a partial restoration, but really it just kind of ends a little bit. It’s not as great as we thought it would be.

Just to say these books are located chronologically towards the end of the Old Testament, right at the towards the very end and then we have this period of 500 years of of God being silent really. And then we have Jesus coming in the New Testament. And in Jesus, we see full restoration. We’re told in John 2:19-21 that Jesus became the temple. We’re told in Matthew 5:17 that Jesus fulfilled the law. And we’re told in Ephesians 2:14 that Jesus broke down walls of hostility. And then we have this picture in Revelation, the final book of the Bible in chapter 21 verses 2 to 3. It says this, “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, and I heard a loud voice saying, God’s dwelling place is now among the people.”

So, we’re kind of pointing towards because of Jesus, this time when that that vision will be fully fulfilled and Jerusalem will be fully restored. But there’s something just key to take away this as we come towards the end of this short video that, through Jesus, God no longer dwells in buildings but in us his followers. The followers of Jesus have become temples of the Holy Spirit. A key verse for that is 1 Corinthians 6:19. And it says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” That we, if you’re a Jesus follower like me, then we we carry God’s presence into the world. Everywhere we go becomes an inclusive place of worship and witness.

So, the final challenge really is we come to Nehemiah. Hopefully, like I said, you found it useful. You picked up some bits from it. But the final challenge is this. Let’s not settle for building walls that exclude because Jesus built bridges. And the story doesn’t end with Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah. It points to Jesus. And through Jesus, God is still rebuilding lives. He’s rebuilding churches. He’s rebuilding communities with with his presence at the centre. not exclusive, not partial, but fully restored God’s in the midst of us.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. I hope maybe that’s helped. And like I said, you can uh catch up on the rest of the series by going on our YouTube channel. God bless.

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[1] YouTube link: Rebuilding More Than Walls
 
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