As we found last week as we looked at Nehemiah 7, the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt. The main task that Nehemiah had set out to accomplish was complete. The work as a whole though was not finished. The people now had to come together to revive their relationships with God, restore the city and it’s buildings, revitalize the hope and joy to one another, and repopulate the city as it was large and spacious but the people were few.
As we explored what these tasks meant for the people, we switched the words a little bit and discovered that the mission and calling that these people had on their lives, are the same that we have in our lives, if we have a relationship with Christ. That is to be living to grow, serve, worship, and share.
Starting in chapter 8 and going until the end of the book, Nehemiah has recorded this process of the people living to grow, serve, worship, and share. He records how they changed their lives and rebuilt Jerusalem, not only physically, but more importantly, spiritually. It is this process that I want to begin looking at together tonight.
Please open your Bibles to Nehemiah 8:1-18.
***Read Nehemiah 8:1-18***
There is a lot in this passage that we just read and it’s going to take us a couple of weeks to really do justice to everything that is mentioned here. Before we look at the first lesson from this text, I want to point out something that is going to be extremely important each and every week from here on out. That is the first half of chapter 8, verse 1. It reads in the New Living Translation (NLT), “All the people assembled with a unified purpose.” In the New International Version (NIV), it reads “All the people assembled as one man.”
As I mentioned last week, from here on out in the book of Nehemiah, it is no longer Nehemiah making all the decisions and calling all the shots. It is the people of Jerusalem working together to bring about change and revival in the city. I can not stress enough, how important unity is in bringing about spiritual change. As we look specifically at the things the people of Jerusalem did to revive their city, it is so important to remember that they did everything together. We too, must follow that same suit.
So, to help us with our first lesson, I have a movie clip to show you guys from Fever Pitch.
***Play Fever Pitch clip***
As little Ben makes his way up the stairs of Fenway Park you can see his face begin to change as he takes in everything he is seeing; the beautiful green grass, the perfectly smoothed infield, and the Green Monster looming over him. He sees the seats of the ballpark full of people and can feel the excitement in the air. He sets eyes on greats like Dennis Eckersley, Jim Rice, and Ted Williams. (I know Teddy Ballgame was never on the field with these other guys, but somehow they are all in this movie clip). He doesn’t even know who these players are or fully understand what he is seeing but his eyes light up and a giant smile comes over his face. He is excited, maybe a little nervous or overwhelmed, and in complete awe of what is before him.
Whether this specific situation resonates within you or not, we have all had situations in our lives where we have stood in awe of something before us. Whether it was admiring something in nature such as a sunset or mountain top view, whether it has been visiting somewhere great such as Fenway Park, the White House, or some great place in another country, or whether it is admiring a work of art or an amazing play in sports; we have all been in awe of something in our lives.
What I think is happening less and less though, is having this sense of awe for God, the Creator of all things. As we live our lives, we forget how involved He is in everything we do. We diminish His power, turn a blind eye to His miracles that happen every day, and we belittle his greatness. We have turned God into a personal buddy that we can go to when we are in trouble or upset but yet we ignore the other half of God as a fierce, judgmental, and jealous King. People who are Jewish won’t even mention God’s name of Yahweh but yet we throw God’s name around like it is nothing!
Think about the scene of awe and respect that we read just a few moments ago starting in verse 4. Ezra, who would be similar to a pastor, took a Bible and stood up on a “high wooden platform” or stage. This was so that everyone could hear and see the Word of God being read. It wasn’t just any ordinary platform either, as we read that it was made specifically “for the occasion.” The people went out of their way to provide a venue for reading God’s Word.
To Ezra’s left and right stood a group of Levites, who were the ones who were in charge of the temple and considered priests. These 13 men were probably the most important and well studied Levites, in other words, other spiritual leaders in the community. While these men and Ezra were on this platform, they opened the Bible and when this happened, all of the people, nearly 43,000 of them, rose to their feet in respect.
As Ezra prays and praises God, all the people raise their hands and yell, “Amen!” Then all the people fall to their knees and bowed before God as they humble themselves. Further, as Ezra read from the Word of God, the people heard it and began weeping as they heard it. They were so moved by stories of God’s power, provision, and love!
That is such an amazing show of respect and awe for God that I have only experienced in my life a handful of times, yet it should be a daily expression! Why is this the case? Well, if I may be bold and blunt, I think it is because we constantly forget three very important things:
We forget that we are nothing compared to God! God, who created the world and everything in it, who has been around from the beginning of time, is so great, mighty, and powerful compared to our minuscule 80 years of existence.
• Psalm 39:5 says, “My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath.”
• Psalm 62:9 says, “From the greatest to the lowliest, all are nothing in his sight. If you weigh them on the scales, they are lighter than a puff of air.”
• Isaiah 40:15 says, “No, for all the nations of the world are nothing in comparison with him. They are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all.”
We forget that the way we treat God is deserving of death. When we did the surveys about a month ago about understanding the definition of a Christian, the one that the most of us didn’t understand was that we deserve death for our sin. Well, how many people in this room would admit that they have done something to disobey what God teaches us in the Bible? Ok, that being said, if we define sin as disobeying God, how many people here would admit that they are a sinner? With that in mind, listen to these scriptures.
• Romans 6:23a says, “For the wages of sin is death”
• Galatians 6:8a says, “Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death.”
• Romans 8:12-13a says, “So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you keep on following it, you will perish.
The last thing we forget is that we owe our lives to God, because his grace and love is amazing. For us, his grace and love is displayed through his son’s death in our place on the cross. The story does not end with our sin and deserving death. Listen to the rest of these verses that we just looked at.
• Romans 6:23b says, “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
• Galatians 6:8b says, “but those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.”
• Romans 8:13b says, “but if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live.”
Then one more verse to nail the point home:
• John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
The reason that the people of Jerusalem were standing in awe, raising their hands in worship, and weeping and bowing before God is because they were remembering these three things as they read the Scriptures. They realized they were a small group of people in comparison to other nations and, even more so, they were arguably insignificant in the eyes of the eternal God. The realized that they had disobeyed God, had fallen far from Him, and deserved nothing but death because of disobeying Him. They realized that they owed God everything they had for not wiping them from the earth and having grace on them.
These same three things in our lives, should revoke awe and respect from us for every breath that is taken, ever need that is provided for, and every blessing that comes our way.
