Text: Nehemiah 8:13-18, Title: Spiritual Headship, Date/Place: NRBC, 11/25/07, PM
A. Opening illustration: Some quote about the definition of headship from the RBM&W book, Abilene Christian University researchers, Dr. David Lewis and Dr. Carley Dodd have recently concluded a cross-generational study (six different tests) to measure fathers’ positive and negative influences upon teens’ spirituality. The found that "every time" dad’s role "as teacher came out be the most important predictor." Among other top predictors of adolescent spiritual maturity, as related to dad, were his: commitment to Christ, spiritual well-being, prayer life, boldness in discussing issues of faith, genuineness and emotional closeness. Of those teens whose fathers expressed their love well, 84% had a high spiritual maturity, but among teens whose fathers had difficulty doing so, only 39% had a high spiritual maturity.
B. Background to passage: After the offering for worship in chapter seven, and the big worship service in chapter eight, most of the crowd disperses. On the second day, all the heads of the families come back together with the Levites and Priests and Ezra. What we see here is the spiritual leadership of the families of the nation coming back together for more instruction.
C. Main thought: This text gives us insight in to the pattern of spiritual headship and leadership.
A. Strives for Theological Maturity (v. 13)
1. These men were the representative heads of all the families there in Jerusalem. They were returning to seek further instruction from Ezra about the law, because they were viewed as the instructors of their families. And instructors need to be instructed on a continuing basis. As the heads of the homes, they were responsible for the lifestyle and the spirituality of their households. It was their responsibility to ensure that their children were taught and lived out the faith of their fathers. And therefore their commitment to that task is demonstrated by their coming back for more depth in learning of the word.
2. 1 Cor 11:3, Deut 6:4-9,
3. Illustration: Dr. Patterson’s instructions to youth ministers was always to teach them what their parents don’t know and have never learned, but that should be a challenge to parents, This man wanted to study the scriptures, but he could not read. He prayed for God to help him learn to read. In time a teacher came to his village, and he asked the teacher to help him. He learned the alphabet. He studied sounds and learned to put the letters together to make words. Soon he was reading simple words. The more he practiced, the more he learned. He thanked the Lord for sending the teacher and for helping him learn to read. This man has increased his faith, humility, and knowledge to such a degree that he has served as a counselor with his church. Now, remember these are Christians. • 48% could not name the four Gospels.
• 52% cannot identify more than two or three of Jesus’ disciples.• 60% of American Christians can’t name even five of the 10 Commandments. • When asking graduating high school “born again Christians” over 50% of them thought Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.• 61% of American Christians think the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. • 71% of American Christians think “God helps those who help themselves” is a Bible verse. No wonder George Barna said, “Americans revere the Bible but, by and large they don’t know what it says. And because they don’t know it, they have become a nation of Biblical illiterates.”
4. Even the instructors of others need to be instructed. This goes not only for fathers, but for all those that are commissioned to teach biblical truth. Those commissioned to teach must be committed to going the extra mile in their study. Parents, fathers, it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that your children embrace the faith of Christ. Therefore you must deepen your commitment to learning the faith. We are much in need of godly men who will look past Lifeway, SS, and morning worship, and dig deeply into the faith. We need men who will seek out knowledge and those who will give them that knowledge. We need to buck the status quo when it comes to what we know about the bible.
B. Organizes Family Life Biblically (v. 14)
1. So what we see in this verse is during their study of the Word they found that God had told the children of Israel to dwell in booths as a remembrance of their time spent in the wilderness wandering around. And so each of these men felt compelled to go back and lead their families in preparing booths. We will get to the ceremony in a minute, but the point is that these men were committed to the authority of scripture, not only in a theological, theoretical way, but in a practical, everyday way.
2. Deut 6:5-9
3. Illustration: So, what is a disciple? Is a disciple a pupil? Is a disciple a student? Is he or she someone who learns all about the Bible so they will know a lot? So they can rattle off the five points of Calvinism or give a deep discussion on the differences between premillennialism, post millennialism and Amillennialism? But despite their deep theological knowledge, they do not live a life pleasing to God? Now of course theology is important, but not for its own sake. Theology is important, and knowledge of the Bible is important, so that we know how to follow Christ. It is important so we can know how to live in a way that pleases Him. Some years ago I used to work as a flight instructor. Now, can you imagine what we might do with someone who wants to learn to fly airplanes. We take him, and give him six months of full time theoretical training. We teach him everything there is to know about flying. We teach him the lift equation. We teach him what happens when one does certain things with the controls. We teach him all about flight planning. Then we give him a written test and he gets 100%. He has passed, so we give the keys to a plane and tell him to go and fly the plane by himself. What do you think will happen? I’m pretty sure there will be a hole in the end of the runway. What went wrong? Our student knew all about the theory of flight but had never put it into practice. You see, theory must be accompanied by practice. Practice without the right theoretical base is disastrous, but theory without practice is useless.
4. As individuals or as couples, we tend to do family like we have seen it done in the past. We tend to parent like we were parented with some variation, but basically the same. And these men had not been brought up this way, but when they read it, they put it into practice. As biblical Christians we should not be afraid to question authority or tradition. If it is biblical, then Spirit-led godly people will discern that, and keep tradition, but if not, they are not afraid to discard it. Men, you must step up to the plate and begin to lead your family biblically. Don Pirkle came to me after a talk that I did in the Brotherhood meeting, and he said that it’s “kinda like telling us to move a greased hippopotamus on a frozen pond, give us some handles.” So how do we do it? Glad you asked…
C. Participates in Faith-Building Events (v. 16)
1. Nehemiah answers that question for us. Notice that the text says that each booth was built on top of “his” house. So the fathers helped all the family build a booth for the celebration. This is the main way that fathers are instructed to lead in their homes. They are supposed to plan and lead the family in doing biblically based activities all designed to pass on spiritual truth. Exp the Feast of the Booths.
2. Joshua 4:5-7, Ex 12:24-27,
3. Illustration: British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once had a discussion with a man who firmly believed that children should not be given formal religious instruction, but should be free to choose their own religious faith when they reached maturity. Coleridge did not disagree, but later invited the man into his somewhat neglected garden. "Do you call this a garden?" the visitor exclaimed. "There are nothing but weeds here!" "Well, you see," Coleridge replied, "I did not wish to infringe upon the liberty of the garden in any way. I was just giving the garden a chance to express itself. If both your parents worshipped with you regularly while you were growing up, there’s an 80 percent likelihood that you’ll worship God regularly as an adult. If only your mother worshipped regularly with you, there’s only a 30 percent probability that you’ll worship regularly as an adult. If only your father worshipped regularly with you, the likelihood that you’ll worship regularly as an adult increases to 70 percent! conversation with Margaret about how many wives really want their husbands to step up and take the spiritual leadership in their homes, Voddie’s testimony about the men in his church and how the wives look at them when they lead the family in a devotional time, tell about the philosophy teacher who taught about abortion with an acorn,
4. The first step, (not necessarily most important) is to get consistent about your attendance to church. But that is basic. And I shouldn’t even have to mention that for it is a mark of being a genuine Christian. But that is how low the standard has been brought, remember that we don’t even require that of our members. Next, fathers you must begin leading in family worship. And we are going to help you in that, I realize that most of you have never seen it, let alone done it. But I am assuming that you would like to do it. Also, you must seize opportunities to teach biblical truth—holidays, family traditions, etc. And we must do our duty to make these faith-building experiences routine, or maybe regular is a better word.
D. Heaps the Blessing of God upon Family (v. 17)
1. There are other biblical records of this festival being celebrated. So evidently, the harvest emphasis had been focused on, but the booths and remembrance part was neglected. And when the true meaning of the celebration was restored, and the heads of the homes began to order their lives around scripture, God was glorified, and there was great gladness. The Hb word used meant exceeding joy, and Nehemiah added the superlative gadol, which means exceedingly great. So, literally it translates “exceedingly great exceeding joy.”
2. Ex 20:5-6, Deut 5:10, 7:9, Neh 1:5, Dan 9:4,
3. Illustration: the results of the Edwards household in succeeding generations, “Certainly,” the father replied with the confident air of an instructor. “And did he hear what you said about the bacon and the coffee?”
“Of course,” replied the father with a note of caution in his voice.” Then his daughter asked, “Dad, which did God believe?” tell about the letter that I started to write to our group of absentee fathers…
4. Men, there is an unfathomable reservoir of blessing that will be poured out upon your children, and your children’s children if you are faithful to walk in his ways and keep his commands and covenant. Our covenant is one sealed in Christ’s blood where He gave his life for us, and we surrender our lives to Him out of love and gratitude. And men, when you fail to lead your home, you not only sacrifice blessings, you sign the spiritual death certificate of your children and grandchildren barring the merciful intervention of God.
A. Closing illustration: maybe tell the story of that father of the bride with the sword at the wedding…
B. Plead for the lostness of families and the failure to pass on the faith to generations. Plead for the acknowledgment of failure, repentance, and transformation.
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
