Preaching through Nehemiah

By Tim Raymond

Recently I finished preaching through the entire book of Nehemiah. I thought that while the experience was still fresh in my mind, I might chronicle some reflections that you might find helpful if you are ever preaching or teaching this book. Lord willing, in my next post I’ll point you to some of the resources I found most helpful for understanding the message of Nehemiah in its redemptive-historical context. In the event you’re interested in how I worked my way through the book, all the sermons from this series are available on our church website.

Some Random Reflections:

1. Preaching through Nehemiah was harder than I anticipated. I’m not entirely sure why, but I assumed that preaching through Nehemiah would be relatively easy. I had a class on Nehemiah in Bible College and have heard more sermons on Nehemiah than most Old Testament books. I’ve done a good bit of Old Testament preaching myself (including preaching through the entire book of Genesis) and assumed that Nehemiah would be rather straight forward. I was wrong. There are plenty of passages that caused me to scratch my head in bewilderment and wonder how on earth I’d turn them into sermons. I’ll say more about this below, but there are a number of long lists of names (similar to the genealogies in 1 Chronicles) that are very hard to preach. If you’re a pastor, I’d definitely encourage you to preach Nehemiah, but prepare yourself to work hard and put on your thinking cap.
2. The content of Nehemiah was better received by my congregation than I anticipated. Another thing that took me by surprise was how warmly and enthusiastically my congregation embraced the truths and lessons in Nehemiah. I know I shouldn’t but sometimes I secretly assume that people find the Old Testament less interesting and exciting than the New. Thankfully, this assumption was thoroughly disproven during this series. I don’t recall ever hearing more frequent encouraging comments after sermons than during this series. The lessons on prayer, spiritual renewal, and God’s grand drama of redemption were apparently very helpful. Realize, brother-pastors, the lessons in Nehemiah are lessons your people need to hear and, if preached accurately, will engage and excite your people.
3. When you preach/teach through Nehemiah, consider covering all the long lists of names in one or two sermons/lessons. Nehemiah chapters 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12 all include long lists of strange Hebrew names. These are the sort of chapters that cause the men on my Scripture reading team to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, having night terrors about trying to enunciate before our congregation names such as “Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Mal-luch…” (Nehemiah 10:3-4, ESV). Now each of these lists are inspired Scripture and are in God’s word for an important theological reason. I chose to preach each of them one sermon a piece (covering the entire book in 17 total sermons). In retrospect, I think it would have been wiser to combine some of these lists and to cover them all in one or two sermons. That is challenging to do, since most of them have their own theological significance, but it may be a good idea, depending on your congregation’s composition, experience with expositional preaching, and level of patience.
4. Understanding a bit of biblical theology is essential for rightly preaching Nehemiah. I grew up in a tradition where the only sermons I ever heard on Nehemiah were in conjunction with our church building programs. This church was constantly building bigger facilities so we frequently heard exhortations such as, “Just like God helped Nehemiah build the wall, so also God is going to help us build our new administration wing!” Since then I’ve learned enough hermeneutics to understand that such an approach to Scripture is deplorable, at best. However, having now preached through Nehemiah, I can sympathize as to why preachers so often fall into this sort of thing. You’re trying to preach God’s Word with contemporary relevance but what do you do with these long passages describing the reconstruction of the wall around Jerusalem? Say it’s already Thursday night, you’ve got a funeral all day on Friday, and you’ve got to preach Nehemiah 4 this Sunday. The temptation to moralize the passage and apply it to your church facility (or to some other program the flower committee has been opposing) is very strong. Brother-pastors, for the salvation of souls, for the sanctification of your people, and for the glory of God, aggressively fight this temptation. Do not succumb to moralizing God’s Word simply because you have to say something come Sunday. Doing so teaches people bad hermeneutics and will alienate discerning listeners. Instead, learn how to preach Nehemiah in its redemptive-historical context. By this what I mean is learn how Nehemiah fits into the overall storyline of the Bible, a coherent storyline that ultimately climaxes in Jesus’ death and resurrection (the discipline known as biblical theology). Then, once you understand the biblical theology of Nehemiah, move to contemporary application. This is not only the intelligent way to preach Old Testament narratives, but since the power of God to save and to sanctify is found in the God-intended meaning of the text, preaching this way will result in the salvation and sanctification of your hearers.

At this point, in conjunction with reflection #4, you might be saying, “I’d like to preach Nehemiah in its biblical-theological context. Can you direct me to any resources to help me do this?” Lord willing, next time I’ll point our readers to those resources I found most helpful for understanding and rightly preaching Nehemiah.

Tim Raymond has been the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Muncie, Indiana since April 2006. He received his MDiv from the Baptist Bible Seminary of Pennsylvania in 2004 and has pursued further education through the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Tim grew up outside Syracuse, NY and previously served at Berean Baptist Church, Nicholson, PA (member and teacher during college and seminary) and Calvary Baptist Church, Sandusky, Ohio (seminary internship location). Tim met his wife Bethany at college, and they were married in May 2001. Tim enjoys reading, camping, wrestling with his three sons, and attempting to sleep.