Nehemiah 8:1-3, Nehemiah 8:5-6, Nehemiah 8:8-10, Psalm 19:1-14, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Luke 4:14-21.
A). A PUBLIC BIBLE READING.
Nehemiah 8:1-3, Nehemiah 8:5-6, Nehemiah 8:8-10.
Nehemiah 8:1. Revival is a sovereign act of God, in which His Holy Spirit stirs up the hearts of the people of God to seek Him. This is illustrated in the spontaneity of the crowd gathered for festival at the Water Gate in Jerusalem, who “as one man” called for Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book. They longed to sit under the Word of God (Psalm 119:131), and panted after fellowship with God Himself (Psalm 42:1).
A gate was a place where judgement and deliberation took place. At the Water Gate, the Word could be read to both the ritually ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’. In times of revival there is also a renewed interest amongst those on the fringes of the church, and outside - and these must also be provided for.
Nehemiah 8:2. Ezra the priest brought out the Book. More than once we are told that his open-air congregation consisted of both men and women, and “all that could hear with understanding.” The Bible is the Book for everyone.
It was a very special day. Nehemiah’s work on the city wall was at last completed: but it is not the walls that make a city, but the moral fibre of its citizens. Similarly, a church is not a building, but a Spirit-filled people.
Nehemiah 8:3. Ezra read at length, from the morning until midday. There was a unanimity of desire as (literally) “the ears of all the people were to” the law of God. Attentive listening to God’s Word is also in evidence in times of Christian revival.
Nehemiah 8:5. Everyone was able to see and hear the reader, because he was elevated above them on a wooden platform. When Ezra opened the Book, all the people respectfully stood up. It shows something more than just a casual interest in hearing the reading of the Word.
Nehemiah 8:6. Like Solomon at the dedication of the Temple many years before, Ezra “blessed” the LORD. The people answered with their twofold “Amen.” They raised their hands in worship, and bowed their heads in humility.
Nehemiah 8:8. The Book was read distinctly, and the appointed ministers caused the people to understand what they had heard. Many of the people may have been unfamiliar with the Hebrew language, so the Levites would translate the Word into a language which they could understand. Some no doubt engaged in preaching, “giving the sense of it.”
It is necessary to have the Bible available in a language that people can understand, so I would encourage prayerful and practical support for those who are engaged in Bible translation work. Preaching is also a necessary supplement in order that God’s people may be able to comprehend what they are reading. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2).
Nehemiah 8:9. The people initially wept when they heard the law. They mourned because it revealed to them the type of people that they were. Nehemiah the governor joined “Ezra the priest the scribe” and the Levites in calling the people to cease from their mourning.
Nehemiah 8:10. This day was rather to be a holiday. They were to eat and drink, and enjoy the good of their labour - which is from the hand of God (Ecclesiastes 2:24). In keeping with the law, they were to send portions to those for whom nothing was prepared: “for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
In a few days time would come the annual Day of Atonement, when their sins would be borne away by the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:20-22; Leviticus 16:29-30; Leviticus 16:34). There was an end to mourning - until the next year. Apart from Jesus, there is no permanent remedy for sin - but the law has now fulfilled its purpose as a schoolmaster leading us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).
B). A HEART FOR GOD.
Psalm 19:1-14.
In July 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (formerly D/1993 F2) broke apart and collided with the far side of Jupiter. On that occasion I preached on “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1), and wondered at the perfection of God’s creation. God placed the earth in the ‘Goldilocks zone’, I taught, in the ‘just right’ place to sustain human life. He placed the gas-giant Jupiter exactly where it is in order to absorb the debris of deep space before it can damage our habitat.
Psalm 19 has been called the most majestic of David’s Psalms. It falls into two main sections dealing respectively with Creation (Psalm 19:1-6) and Covenant (Psalm 19:7-10), with an application to follow (Psalm 19:11-14). These seemingly distinct parts form one unified, progressive whole.
The first main section deals with Creation. This falls into two subsections, the first of which speaks of the ‘voice’ of Creation (Psalm 19:1-3): Creation’s witness to the existence of God. We are standing upon the earth admiring the results of God’s handiwork from Day 4 of Creation (Genesis 1:14-19). We share this pleasing view, this vista, with the whole of mankind: so there is no excuse for the ungodly (Romans 1:20).
Psalm 19:4-6 forms a second subsection, dealing with God’s sustenance of His Creation. We cannot live on sunshine alone, but we cannot live without it! We are not worshipping the sun or any other created object: but rather rejoicing in the hand that created all these things.
Yet Creation, general revelation, does not stand alone in its testimony to God. The LORD God has entered into a covenant relationship with mankind, and spoken to us Himself. This ‘special revelation’ is explored in the second main section of this Psalm, under at least six different synonyms for His Word to us (Psalm 19:7-10).
At this point we might recognize that God’s Word is not limited to Torah, to the Law alone. God’s Word is revealed in the unfolding of His special revelation throughout the Bible, from Genesis to the book of Revelation. This includes the historical books, the wisdom books (including the book of Psalms), and the prophetic books of the Old Testament; and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament. Ultimately, God’s Word is recognized in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:1-5; John 1:14; Hebrews 1:1-3).
‘Now these things are written,’ writes John, ‘that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name’ (John 20:31). Paul concurs: ‘Now all these things… are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come’ (1 Corinthians 10:11). “By them is thy servant warned,” acknowledges the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the man after God’s own heart (Psalm 19:11).
Thus the application (Psalm 19:11-14) begins with a recognition of the need to heed the warnings of Scripture, and to acknowledge the value of keeping God’s law (Psalm 19:11). The heart of man is desperately wicked, and deceitful with it (Jeremiah 17:9): so the Psalmist searches his own heart, and asks to be cleansed from secret sins – those which have been committed in ignorance, and which he has not yet discovered to be sins in his life (Psalm 19:12). A thoughtful reflection on God’s Word will lead us in the same direction, teaching us new things every day, but leaving us also with a deep impression of how poorly we know and apply that Word.
The Psalmist prays also to be kept from presumptuous sins (Psalm 19:13). It is a cry for the grace of God. ‘The temptation is strong Lord, and only you can keep me from the great transgression.’
The other side of that coin is our responsibility: having escaped the dominion of sin and death, how can we live any longer therein? (Romans 6:2). Without holiness shall no man see God (Hebrews 12:14). The imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ is that which makes us “upright” (Psalm 19:13) – but if we are thus righteous, we will also conduct ourselves in an upright manner.
I have called this Sermon ‘A Heart for God’, based on the last verse of the Psalm. As with other preachers, sometimes I use these words, or words very like them, to open my sermons. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).
Paul puts it this way: ‘If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved’ (Romans 10:9). This is not only head belief, but heart belief, even as the LORD has promised (Hebrews 10:16-17). In the end, after all, the witness of Creation and Providence, and the words of Law and Gospel, are of no value at all to us unless they are allowed to take residence in our hearts.
C). UNITY, INTERDEPENDENCE, AND GIFTS.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31.
1. The oneness of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
The bookends to these three verses emphasise the fact that there is one body and many members (1 Corinthians 12:12a), and that the body does not consist of one member but of many (1 Corinthians 12:14). Sandwiched between these two complementary propositions is the startling statement, “and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: SO ALSO IS CHRIST” (1 Corinthians 12:12b). As Paul explains later in the chapter, “Now you (all) are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:27).
In 1 Corinthians 12:13, the Apostle Paul provides us with two metaphors: “By one Spirit we all into one body were baptised… and all into one Spirit were made to drink.” The ‘who?’ of this experience is shown in the centre of the verse: “whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free” - i.e. the Church, which is the body of Christ, ‘all one in Christ Jesus’ (cf. Galatians 3:28).
Baptism is passive, something done to us. But drinking is active, indicating our need to go on infusing the Holy Spirit (so to speak) on a daily basis. We do this through reading and meditating upon the Scriptures, through prayer, and in the exercising of our gifts in a worship context.
2. The interdependence of the parts of the body (1 Corinthians 12:15-27).
Paul’s parable of the body is an interesting and entertaining illustration which humorously grants personality to various parts of the human body. We find the interpretation in certain verses within the parable itself, focusing our attention on what “God” has done. “God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him” (1 Corinthians 12:18; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:24; see also 1 Corinthians 12:28).
We see “many members” in the body, but “yet but one body” (1 Corinthians 12:20). God has so cared for us, each individually and as a part of the body of Christ “that there should be no schism in the body.” And “the members should have the same care one for another” (1 Corinthians 12:25).
So, as with our own bodies, so in the body of Christ. When one member suffers, all suffer. When one member rejoices, all rejoice (1 Corinthians 12:26). As Paul says elsewhere, ‘Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep’ (Romans 12:15).
“Now you (all) are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:27). We do not lose our individuality, but have it confirmed. Each has a role to play in the greater scheme of God.
3. God has appointed a variety of gifts (1 Corinthians 12:28-30).
Elsewhere Paul tells us that the church has been ‘built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone’ Ephesians 2:20). Here we have, “first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers” (1 Corinthians 12:28). One example of a New Testament prophet is Agabus (Acts 11:27-28).
“Teachers” built upon this foundation, as must all pastors and teachers today. ‘I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase’ says the Apostle (1 Corinthians 3:6). James the brother of our Lord counts himself along with those who teach (James 3:1).
1 Corinthians 12:28 may at first appear to be a list of offices within the Church, but after these first three the Apostle speaks of the functions performed rather than the persons performing them. The emphasis is upon the fact that all these are “gifts,” given for the furthering of the cause of Christ and for the edification of the church.
The rhetorical questions of 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 are all questions expecting the answer ‘No!’ By the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and from one situation to another, the distribution of gifts varies from one person to another according to the needs of the congregation at any given time.
4. Pursuing the gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31).
In what way is one gift “better” than another? Surely it is in its appropriateness to any given situation. The Holy Spirit is Sovereign in all these matters and gifts His people accordingly. But rather than have us vying with one another to have this gift or that gift, Paul presents to us an even higher “way" (1 Corinthians 12:31). The way of love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13; 1 Corinthians 14:1).
D). A MESSIANIC AGENDA.
Luke 4:14-21.
Always a methodical writer (Luke 1:3), Luke has grouped together reports of three manifestations of the Spirit’s work in Jesus’ life.
The first is the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus at His baptism, that wonderful moment of Trinitarian confirmation of His Messiahship (Luke 3:21-22).
The second speaks of Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit, and being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Luke 4:1-2).
The third is found in the passage before us, in which Jesus returns from that ordeal “in the power of the Spirit” to commence His ministry (Luke 4:14).
As Jesus commenced His teaching ministry in Galilee, “there went out a fame of Him round about” (Luke 4:14). Round about what, we might ask? Throughout Galilee, but only “round about” Nazareth. Jesus taught in the synagogues of Galilee and people honoured that ministry (Luke 4:15): but the real test would come when He ‘came unto His own’ with the inevitable result that ‘His own received Him not’ (John 1:11).
So Jesus “came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up” (Luke 4:16). Notice that Jesus was accustomed to attending worship on the Sabbath day: a good custom to nurture in our own lives.
Luke 4:16-21 is the oldest known record of a synagogue service.
It seems that any man might be asked to read.
On one occasion Paul and his companions were even invited to preach (Acts 13:15).
Someone with a message might also ask to read: perhaps this is what Jesus did on this occasion (Luke 4:16).
Jesus seems to have quite deliberately sought out the reading from the scroll of Isaiah (Luke 4:17).
It has been conjectured that this service took place in the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-10). Each fiftieth year was supposed to be a year of release, when indentured servants were restored to their inheritance, families were reunited, and an opportunity was given to start again.
Perhaps Isaiah 61:1-2 was the reading of the day, but Jesus deliberately chose where to end the reading. Luke 4:18-19 stops short of ‘the day of vengeance of our God’ (Isaiah 61:2). If such a thing happened in our churches today, we might see such an omission as political correctness: but in first century Nazareth it was the very epitome of political incorrectness!
‘Surely Jesus realizes that when Messiah comes the enemies of His people must be made to pay,’ reasoned the people. What they failed to recognize was that the Lord was not yet come to fulfil that part of the Messianic agenda.
This is a trait that Jesus also found amongst His own disciples. When some Samaritans refused to receive Jesus on one occasion, because His face was set to go to Jerusalem, James and John suggested that He command fire to come down from heaven upon them, even as Elijah did.
‘You know not what spirit you are of,’ warned Jesus. ‘The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’ (Luke 9:55-56).
According to Isaiah 61:1-2, the Spirit anointed the speaker “to announce glad tidings: to heal the broken in heart; to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and the recovery of sight to the blind; to send forth the crushed in deliverance; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).
As Jesus sat down to preach, all eyes were upon Him (Luke 4:20). Whatever was He going to say? His voice echoed forth as clear as any Jubilee trumpet: “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).
Was this, perhaps, the full extent of Jesus’ sermon? Or was it curtailed on account of the ensuing animosity? We have no way of knowing.
What we are left with is the keynote: that, as always, Scripture must needs be fulfilled. Not one word of the Lord will fall to the ground (Luke 21:33).
Finally, a word of application. Isaiah 58:6 teaches the liberated soul to seek relief and liberty for others. This is basic to the gospel, where deliverance is proclaimed to the captives (Luke 4:18).
