diff --git a/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineBuilder.java b/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineBuilder.java
index 371b2d4e..0b70258b 100644
--- a/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineBuilder.java
+++ b/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineBuilder.java
@@ -37,7 +37,23 @@
 public interface ReactiveMessagePipelineBuilder<T> {
 
 	/**
-	 * Sets a handler function that processes messages one-by-one.
+	 * <p>
+	 * Sets a handler function that processes messages one-by-one. When the message
+	 * handler completes successfully, the message will be acknowledged. When the message
+	 * handler emits an error, the error logger will be used to log the error and the
+	 * message will be negatively acknowledged. If the error logger is not set, a default
+	 * error message will be logged at the error level.
+	 * </p>
+	 * <p>
+	 * NOTE: Be aware that negative acknowledgements on ordered subscription types such as
+	 * Exclusive, Failover and Key_Shared typically cause failed messages to be sent to
+	 * consumers out of their original order. Negative acknowledgements for Key_Shared
+	 * subscriptions may also cause message delivery to be blocked on broker versions
+	 * before Pulsar 4.0. To maintain ordered message processing, it is recommended to
+	 * wrap the message handler with Project Reactor's native retry logic using <a href=
+	 * "https://projectreactor.io/docs/core/release/api/reactor/core/publisher/Mono.html#retryWhen-reactor.util.retry.Retry-">Mono.retryWhen</a>
+	 * to retry processing of each message indefinitely with backoff.
+	 * </p>
 	 * @param messageHandler a function that takes a message as input and returns an empty
 	 * Publisher
 	 * @return a builder for the pipeline handling messages one-by-one
@@ -95,6 +111,7 @@ interface OneByOneMessagePipelineBuilder<T> extends ReactiveMessagePipelineBuild
 
 		/**
 		 * Sets a function which will be called when the message handler emits an error.
+		 * If not set, a default message will be logged at the error level.
 		 * @param errorLogger the error logger function
 		 * @return the pipeline builder instance
 		 */
diff --git a/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/internal/api/DefaultReactiveMessagePipeline.java b/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/internal/api/DefaultReactiveMessagePipeline.java
index 7dc1150d..cd94f19b 100644
--- a/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/internal/api/DefaultReactiveMessagePipeline.java
+++ b/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/internal/api/DefaultReactiveMessagePipeline.java
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ private Flux<MessageResult<Void>> createMessageConsumer(Flux<Message<T>> message
 	}
 
 	private Mono<MessageResult<Void>> handleMessage(Message<T> message) {
-		return Mono.from(this.messageHandler.apply(message))
+		return Mono.defer(() -> Mono.from(this.messageHandler.apply(message)))
 			.transform(this::decorateMessageHandler)
 			.thenReturn(MessageResult.acknowledge(message.getMessageId()))
 			.onErrorResume((throwable) -> {
diff --git a/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineTests.java b/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineTests.java
index 3e0ddb8d..34154819 100644
--- a/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineTests.java
+++ b/pulsar-client-reactive-api/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/reactive/client/api/ReactiveMessagePipelineTests.java
@@ -227,6 +227,28 @@ void handlingTimeout() throws Exception {
 		}
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	void negativeAcknowledgement() throws Exception {
+		int numMessages = 10;
+		TestConsumer testConsumer = new TestConsumer(numMessages);
+		CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
+		testConsumer.setFinishedCallback(latch::countDown);
+		Function<Message<String>, Publisher<Void>> messageHandler = (message) -> {
+			if (message.getValue().equals("5")) {
+				throw new RuntimeException("Handling message 5 failed");
+			}
+			return Mono.empty();
+		};
+		try (ReactiveMessagePipeline pipeline = testConsumer.messagePipeline().messageHandler(messageHandler).build()) {
+			pipeline.start();
+			assertThat(latch.await(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)).isTrue();
+			// 9 messages should have been acked
+			assertThat(testConsumer.getAcknowledgedMessages()).hasSize(9);
+			// 1 message should have been nacked
+			assertThat(testConsumer.getNackedMessages()).hasSize(1);
+		}
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	void errorLogger() throws Exception {
 		int numMessages = 10;