Intro: 1st Steps in Rebuilding People Script: Neh. 8
Type: Expos./Series Where: GNBC 3-1-15
Intro: Dr. Paul W. Brand, the noted leprosy expert who was chief of the rehabilitation branch of the Leprosarium in Carville, Lousiana, had a frightening experience one night when he thought he had contracted leprosy. Dr. Brand arrived in London one night after an exhausting transatlantic ocean trip and long train ride from the English coast. He was getting ready for bed, had taken off his shoes, and as he pulled off a sock, discovered there was no feeling in his heel. To most anyone else this discovery would have meant very little, a momentary numbness. But Dr. Brand was world famous for his restorative surgery on lepers in India. The numbness in his heel terrified him. "He rose mechanically, found a pin, sat down again, and pricked the small area below his ankle. He felt no pain. He thrust the pin deeper, until a speck of blood showed. Still he felt nothing...He supposed, like other workers with leprosy, he had always half expected it...In the beginning probably not a day had gone by without the automatic searching of his body for the telltale patch, the numbed area of skin." All that night the great orthopedic surgeon tried to imagine his new life as a leper, an outcast, his medical staff’s confidence in their immunity shattered by his disaster. And the forced separation from his family. As night receded, he yielded to hope and in the morning, with clinical objectivity, "with steady fingers he bared the skin below his ankle, jabbed in the point--and yelled." Blessed was the sensation of pain! He realized that during the long train ride, sitting immobile, he had numbed a nerve. From then on, whenever Dr. Brand cut his finger, turned an ankle, even when he suffered from "agonizing nausea as his whole body reacted in violent self-protection from mushroom poisoning, he was to respond with fervent gratitude, ’Thank God for pain!’" (Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Ten Fingers for God, pp. 142-145.) Often broken people so numb that first step to healing is to feel pain. Nehemiah dealing with a nation of people who needed to be rebuilt and encouraged.
Prop: Neh. 8 we’ll notice 3 steps taken to Spiritually Rebuild lives of people of Israel.
BG: 1. So far entire book has focused on attempts to repair wall & bring security to Jerusalem.
2.Now change of direction and focus…from surviving to thriving. In order to thrive in life, must know God and follow basic principles He has laid out for us in His Word.
3. Person who see more of now is Ezra, not Nehemiah. Was religious leader.
Prop: Today we’ll notice 3 steps that were taken to spiritually rebuild the people of Israel.
I. Spiritual Renewal Comes When People Take Time to Read and Listen to the WOG.
A. Ezra Encouraged the People to Listen to the Reading of the WOG.
1. Nehemiah’s attention turns from Rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem to rebuilding God’s people spiritually.
a. Ezra, the scribe and priest who had led the people back from exile 13 yrs. before Nehemiah’s return calls together a great assembly to address the people with the WOG. In v. 3 we read that early in the morning on the 1st day of the 7th month he begins reading to this large public gathering from early in the morning until midday. For 6 hours, each day, from 6 am until 12 pm, the WOG was read to the people with explanation. Do you know why? Most of the people had forgotten and lost ability to read and speak Hebrew! (Think about in own lives here. Where are your families from? Do you still speak language?)
b. The people who had returned from exile, along with those who had never been deported, needed to have their shattered lives rebuilt, just as badly as Jerusalem’s walls needed to be rebuilt. As a nation they had been traumatized. Felt abandoned. Feeling alone. Feeling helpless, hopeless, maybe angry and frustrated. Needed to know God and what God’s Word said to them.
2. The Jewish people needed to renew their commitment to the Lord.
a. Chapters 8-10 are the core issue of the book though because they deal with the people’s spiritual condition before God. Even though they were no longer exposed to robbers or armies behind the security of new gates and walls they were required to deal with another issue. They needed a deeper spiritual life. Spiritual life only comes from the Lord and comes through His Word, prayer, confession, humbling oneself before God and deliberately turning from our wicked ways (CIM). Here too, they needed leadership. This spiritual leadership also came from Nehemiah, though he was a governmental not a religious leader, he convened the people on the Feast of Trumpets (Num. 19:1-6) for a holy convocation. Nehemiah chapter eight records one of the most joyful and spectacular celebrations of the work of God in the O.T. [
b. v.2 tells us that this event takes place on the “first day of the seventh month”. This is Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year. Feast of Trumpets which would have started with the blowing of the shofar with 10 days of repentance leading up to Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement.
B. Christians today Need to Attentively Read the WOG if we are to Develop into Mature Disciples of Christ.
1. We need to make sure and systematically read the Word of God.
a. Illust: v. 5 – Notice, the people stand as one body for the reading of the WOG. They are giving honor to the WOG. Have you ever wondered why we stand for the reading of the WOG as our call to worship? Same principle. This patient “reading and explaining” of Scripture line by line, paragraph after paragraph, chapter after chapter was due to a hunger of the people for the Word of God (v. 8). May God once again grant us this kind of hunger for verse by verse reading and exposition of His Word. When He does, revival is not far away!
b. Illust: recently read some blog post on an FB page that was entitled: “8 Things Christians Need to Know About the Bible”. One of the items was, “God is bigger than the Bible.” Basically was saying that Christians are too focused on the Bible and God is bigger than what is simply recorded in the Bible. Now, I believe I know what the author meant, but I think still needs correction. I feel reasonably sure there will be more to God than is recorded in the Bible. However, I do not know that. I do KNOW that all I can know about God, in this life, is found IN THE BIBLE! You see, all too many of our emotional, emergent churches miss out on the fact that I can know absolutely nothing about God unless He reveals Himself to me, and He has, in His Word. I cannot go to Coralville Res., or Linder Point and gain new revelation about God. Anything I may assume about God, thru my experience or natural revelation can only be confirmed or rejected according to the Bible states about God.
2. We need to renew our commitment to the Lord?
a. Illust: A twelve year old boy became a Christian during a revival. The next week at school his friends questioned him about the experience. "Did you see a vision?" asked one friend. "Did you hear God speak?" asked another. The youngster answered no to all these questions. "Well, how did you know you were saved?" they asked. The boy searched for an answer and finally he said, "It’s like when you catch a fish, you cant see the fish, or hear the fish; you just feel him tugging on you line. I just felt God tugging on my heart." Is God tugging on your heart? Christian? Not?
b. What is revival? What is Revival? Revival is not a week worth of meetings. Revival is not started in one day. Revival is not controlled by man. Revival is a heart thing. Revival is always brought on by REPENTANCE. Revival is renewed zeal to obey God. Why were the Jews reading God’s Word? They wanted to relearn what it meant to obey Him. Can only know that thru the WOG.
C. Applic:
II. Spiritual Renewal Comes When People Worship the Lord Joyfully.
A. Ezra Encouraged the People to Worship the Lord Joyfully. Vv. 9-12
1. The nation’s weeping and mourning is turned to joy.
a. Word not only gives light, it also brings great joy, but the great preparer for joy is sorrowful repentance. On hearing the Word of God and understanding it because of its explanation, the people became deeply convicted of their sin. Verse 9 states that there was much “weeping and mourning.” Weeping is not always a sure sign of true repentance. Many weep out of embarrassment, pain, or over being caught. Here, however, the people wept openly because they felt the grief that their waywardness had caused the LORD. When they finally “understood” God’s holy standard and applied it to their lives, they wept. Without this repentance and turning from our sin there cannot be the joy and strength of revival.
b. Several years ago I made a study of the history of revivals. I looked at several different revivals in British Isles, America, and even India and Indonesia. Common occurrence…people always develop a sense of own sinfulness and God’s holiness. Deep conviction of sin results in weeping and mourning over condition.
2. True worship can only happen after we realize we are really guilty before God.
a. Notice what takes place…After listening to the reading of the WOG, the people realize they are guilty! Guilty before a Holy God. I hear a lot of nonsense today in marketing strategies for churches…new generation does not want to hear about “guilt” or made to feel “guilty” in church. Guilt is a good thing! We all need to know that we are guilty before God, it is our only hope. Now, as I said, guilt is good for us, but we don’t want to build our house there! That’s exactly what the Jewish leadership realizes for the people.
b. After the people had continued mourning for sometime Ezra, Nehemiah and the Levites urged the people to weep no longer, but rather be joyful and celebrate. The Word from the Lord in verse ten is, “Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The authentic declaration of God’s Word joined with genuine repentance is to produce unremitting joy. It is a holy satisfying joy that exceeds all limitations of what the unrepentant heart had previously experienced. It is not something that is divorced from reality but comes from the reality of our standing before God. Illust: A week ago I led a man to Christ in the office. I asked if he was to die tonight and face God and Do was to ask why should let into His heaven, what would say? “I would say I was a good person, I had a good heart, and I did a lot of good things for others.” Now, if your answers were wrong would like to know? Laughed, “Yes!”. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23), “Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.” (Jer. 17:9), “All our righteous acts are as filthy rags. (Is. 64:6). Looked at me: “Is there any hope?” “Now there is!”
B. Joyful Worship in the Lives of Christians Build Strength!
1. Usually, Christians Become Spiritually Weak through failing to Worship.
a. “The joy of the Lord is our strength!” (Repeat that with me.) Illust: Dwight L. Moody also says it well, “Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about. The Lord gives His people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to Him.” [SOURCE: Dwight Lyman Moody as quoted by Edythe Draper, Draper’s Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992). Entry 6529.]
b. One of the most important reasons joy is important is to win the lost to Jesus. You can't go around with a Bible under one arm and a tombstone under the other saying, "Don't you want to be like I am?" Our best advertisement is the joy of the Lord. You also need joy in order to have the strength to live the Christian life. God said to Nehemiah when he was building the walls around Jerusalem and the people were getting tired, "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). You can't live the Christian life without joy. Joy is also essential in order to bear life's burdens. We all have heartaches and difficulties, but joy is the lubricant of life. The joy of the Lord will remove the burdens from your heart.
2. Build strength in your life by developing a purposing to pursue joy.
a. Collossians 1:11 tells us: “We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy.
b. All too many Christians are pursuing things in life that will not bring us joy. We need to remember the warning of C. S. Lewis, “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C. Applic: The people of Nehemiah’s day needed to realize the awesome pleasure it is to worship the Lord joyfully. Maybe you and I need to today. Find joy in Jesus Christ.
III. Spiritual Renewal Comes when People Implement the Word of God into the Lives.
A. Ezra Encouraged the People to Implement the WOG into the Lives of
1. After reading the WOG the people realize they need to implement the WOG.
a. Spiritual renewal begins with a knowledge of the Word, which has its designed effect on our emotions, but it will have no lasting effect unless it affects our wills. Verses 13-18 are a concluding paragraph, demonstrating the people’s desire to know and do the will of the Lord. The clear teaching of God’s Word should wet our appetites for more teaching of the Word. So from the second day until the seventh day the people sought out Ezra to hear more and gain further insight (vv. 13-18). As a result of joyful interacting with the Word they received the strength to apply the Word to their situation in which they were living. A study of Scripture always calls for a response to these questions: What should I do with this knowledge? How should my life change? We must do something about what we have learned if it is to have real significance for our lives. Therefore on the fifteenth day they made temporary shelters to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Lev. 23:33-43) as Scripture had commanded them to do.
b. v.17 tells us something shocking about the people’s implementing the WOG into their lives. Notice what was shocking: (Read v.17). Joshua had lived 1,000 yrs. prior to this time! For 1,000 years the people of God, including during the Kingdoms of Saul, David, Solomon, etc., had not obeyed the WOG and implemented the Feast of Booths so as to reflect on God’s deliverance! Illust: You know, this passage to me at least, is a great encouragement! We see things in our society, all of the time, which lead us to think we, as a nation, are straying further and further from God and no hope for turning back. Nonsense! God is sovereign, all powerful and able! But we have to get to a place where we quit relying on ourselves and turn to and implement God’s Word in our lives!
2.
a. Therefore on the fifteenth day they made temporary shelters to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Lev. 23:33-43) as Scripture had asked them to do. This practice was instituted so that they might meditate annually on God’s great deliverance from Egypt. During these days they were to think about God’s protection and guidance during their years of wandering and the fact that God still protects and guides those who refuse to grumble but trust and obey Him.
b. It is helpful to remember on our journey also, to appreciate what God has brought us through as we trusted and obeyed. Think back on a time in your life when God worked in a great way. After you have done this, thank God for His continuing work to protect you and provide for your needs. [Application Bible. Zondervan. P. 810] Do you know that in our married lives God has on three specific occasions given us vehicles? A couple of those were what we would characterize as amazing answers to prayer! Yet, do you know that I still, on occasion, struggle with trusting God to provide for my family’s needs. This is why we need to meditate on God’s faithfulness and reflect on all that He has been faithful with in the past so can be encouraged for the present and future.
B. As Believers in Christ we Need to Implement the WOG in our own lives.
1. Where do you and I need to implement the WOG in our lives?. Illust: Christian, let me ask you, “Where do you need to live according to the WOG in your life that presently aren’t?” Does you wallet know that you got saved? Spouse? Children? Co-workers? Dating life? Scholarship? Employees? TV and Movie or music choices? Tax preparer? Church attendance? Service in God’s kingdom? Biblical Christianity means being joined to Jesus Christ through faith in what He did for us at the cross, then allowing Him to live His life through us, so that others might know Him and see His love. (That love may include sharing His warnings as well as His promises with those in need. In a world of religious alternatives that offer all God's blessings without accountability, His absolute truth simply doesn't fit. Biblical values become a source of reproof and offense to those who have chosen the wide, popular way. Yet, our God reigns -- and we are on the winning side!
2. Illust: Just last week…read story of ISIS Jihadist in Aleppo, Syria. Fight between ISIS and Syrian forces. Man shot multiple times and left for dead. After battle subsided, members of the Saint Dominican Catholic Presbytery of Ayyash retrieved the bodies of the dead to give Christian burial. Picked up what thought was dead man and carried 26 kilometers. Miraculously, the man came to senses and told the priests needed to ask how to become a Christian. Had a dream where instead of going to heaven, as Koran states, was taken to hell, where had to relive suffering caused. Horrified him. God told him he had failed life miserably as a human. Had one more chance to repent of sins. Upon gaining consciousness, asked how could become a follower of Jesus! He prays his conversion may held other jihadists find eternal life in Christ. There is hope for revival and renewal when place lives and into the hands of Jesus!
C. Applic:
