As you're being seated, good evening and open your Bible,
please. The Old Testament Book of
Nehemiah, chapter 8 tonight. We've been teaching through the
Book of Nehemiah since the tail end of last year, took a break
over Christmas and we'll be finishing it this year.
Obviously. We find ourselves in Chapter 8
tonight. The title of the message is
People of the Word. I have a question for you.
Are you a good listener? We can hear things, but
sometimes we have selective hearing.
I think we often will listen to what we value the most and
things that we don't see as important we're a little more
flippant or disregarding of. There's a comic strip called
Calvin and Hobes and we find in the 1st frame Calvin is running
around the house chasing Hobes. As we move to the 2nd frame we
observe Calvin's mother shouting.
Calvin quit charging around the house.
And then of course in the 3rd frame the inevitable happens.
We read, we see crash, bash, Biff, bam, all of that.
The cloud of chaos. And then as we come to the 4th
frame, there in the middle of the mess of the disaster, the
broken lamps, the dishevelled furniture, we find Kelvin and
his mum yelling. What did I tell you?
Kelvin responds. Beats me, weren't you listening
either? I think that we've all been
there, tuning out the things that we we don't really value.
It always amazed me how in tune my wife was to the cries of our
children when they were younger, you know, and I'd wake up in the
morning and I'd say, how did you sleep?
So did you not? Not here.
I was up 3-4 times through the night with so and so and and
such and such. But she was in tune because she
valued, you know, the health and welfare of our children.
Not to say that I didn't, but somehow, conveniently, I slept
through selective hearing. But in Nehemiah chapter 8, my
point is this, that after the walls are rebuilt and it's been
somewhat of a physical miracle, you know, 50 days it took for
Nehemiah and, and the citizens of Jerusalem to be about this
task. But there's a spiritual vacuum.
And the second part of the book now is really about rebuilding
the people. And that's what's most important
because you can have all the structures in place, but unless
the people have a heart after God, they won't stand firm.
And ignorance of God's word had left them very vulnerable.
It had LED them to the predicament that they found
themselves in some 100 odd years earlier with the captivity into
Babylon. And now having returned,
Nehemiah sees it as as vastly important that they not repeat
the problems of past generations, that this current
generation prioritised the things of the Lord.
And Nehemiah records here for us that actually the people of
Jerusalem, the Hebrews, they actually want to hear God's
word. And there's almost like this
week long Bible conference that we read of here and a fellow
called Ezra who we've kind of had mention of and maybe some of
you are familiar with him. He had come before, but he's a
priest and a lawyer, knows the Bible.
Well, we could, we could say he stands up before the
congregation of some estimates have about 50,000 people and
preachers and teachers God's word to them.
And they want more and they desire it and they discover some
things that they've not heard before and effects them and they
realise we need to change and they want to repent before God.
And there's this wonderful revival that breaks out in the
people of Jerusalem. And the main idea that we'll see
in this passage is that true revival comes from God's people
and their hunger for God's Word, a desire to understand it deeply
and to obey it joyfully. That's where transformation
comes in hearts and in communities more broadly.
And again, as I've been saying all through the book of
Nehemiah, the temptation is to look at it as as ancient history
as as things that happened. But the Bible tells us things
that always happen. And so we can learn from it
tonight about if we were to prioritise in our hearts God and
his Word and, and what truth is revealed in there and obey it
when we hear it, when, when we receive it, then watch what
revival breaks out. And there's a wonderful result
of this at the end of this chapter in verse 17.
And I'll get you to jump ahead there and we'll kind of find
that the answer to it. There's this wonderful thing
that happens in the very last sentence that says, and there
was also very great gladness. There was this vibrancy of life
that returned to the city of Jerusalem and the people of God
because their hearts had been turned towards God.
And now there was this injection of just life and living for the
Lord. It was as a consequence of
hearing God's word, of understanding God's Word and
obeying God's word. And I don't know about you, but
man, that is one of my, my heart's desires is to not just
live life surviving, eking out in existence day after day after
day and the next minute while there's another year that's gone
by, but rather have my life be 1 of thriving in the Lord, of
experiencing the wonder and the joy and the presence of God at
work in my life and in my family's life.
Not to say that there will be bad times, that there won't be
bad times rather than that there won't be difficult times because
there will be. But to know that despite those
that the joy of the Lord is my strength and this is the people
of Israel here where we catch them in the story and we're
going to as we read through Nehemiah exposition verse by
verse. See 3 movements broken for us in
verse one to six, the hunger for hearing the word.
Secondly, the help for understanding the word in verses
7 to 12. And then thirdly, the heart for
obeying the word verses 13 to 18.
Let's consider the first. The chapter opens with revival
spark. It's the people's hunger for
hearing God's word. Verse one I'm reading out of the
new King James Version, Nehemiah 8 says now all the people
gathered together. So there's this massive crowd
and they've gathered in this place, it's called the
Watergate, as one man in the open square that was in front of
the Watergate. And they told Ezra the scribe to
bring the book of the Law of Moses.
That's what we call the Pentateuch, the first five books
of our Old Testament, and then other aspects of what we call
the Torah, which the Lord had commanded Israel.
So there's this assembly, there's gathering this this vast
body of people, some 50,000 like I said before.
And their unified cry here reflects what we read of the
psalmist and the psalmist in Psalm 42 verse as the deer pants
for streams of water. So my soul pants for you, my
God, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
And in this post exile context of the building, yes of the
walls, there's a stirring up in the hearts of the people.
There's got to be more to life than what we've experienced and
to what got us here as a people in this first instant that we
can affect change and and be the generation.
That is the stopgap. And they realise we need to hear
God's word. And so they call, well, where do
we hear God's word from? Let's call the preacher Ezra.
Bring the skulls, bring God's Word and let us hear Ezra.
You preach and teach us what is in God's Word.
And interestingly, they gathered in a place called the Watergate.
And the Watergate was a place of refreshment near a spring, which
physically, yes, was the case, but now indicates what
spiritually will happen in the hearts of the people.
This refreshing of God's Word upon them as they now come
across foundational covenant instructions, long neglected,
but now revived in their midst to be obeyed.
Verse 2. So Ezra, the priest brought the
law before the assembly of men and noticed women and then look
and all who could hear with understanding.
That means that there were children present as well.
So this is families gathered, anyone that was of an age to
understand what was being declared by Ezra here and then
later we'll see explained by the Levites and the priests as they
would assist Ezra in this capacity.
What a wonderful thing it says on the first day of the month of
the 7th month that Ezra brought the law, the assembly of men and
women and all who could understand the timing aligns
with a festival that they celebrated called the Feast of
Trumpets, which was interestingly a call to
repentance and new beginnings. We were associated with our new
year. When you start to think about a
New Year's resolutions and go, OK, there's the year that's gone
by and now looking ahead, how are we going to make the most of
what lies in front of us? And and that's kind of the
sentiment of the people gathered at this point in time.
Notice again the inclusive gathering, everyone capable of
comprehension. That is why we promote so much
that when parents, your children are an age where you feel like
they can join with you as a family in our midst and hear and
understand God's word as it's declared man make it happen.
Have them sit here and understand God's word.
But that's also why we recognise that sometimes it needs to be at
their level in the children's church and the kids ministry to
break it down and help them understand a little further.
It's one of the the sort of text that we use for what's called
expositional preaching here in Nehemiah chapter 8, and also the
differentiation of the ministry of God's word appropriate to
understanding levels. Verse 3 we read and it says then
he read from it in the open square that was in the front of
the Watergate. And look at this from morning
until midday. Do you know how long that is?
6 hours, I get it, Like, you know, Sunday night is the end of
a long day and you're thinking about the week ahead and we go
for an hour and, and it sometimes feels like 600 hours,
doesn't it? But for them, six hours felt
like and seemed like nothing. There was such a hunger for
God's word in this gathering, this group of people six hours
of sustained focus. The Hebrew word for attentively.
I haven't read it yet, but let me do that says before the men
and women and those who could understand and the ears of the
people were listen to this attentive to the book of the law
for six hours that the Hebrew word attentive means this that
their ears were strained forward hanging on every word as Ezra
was reading out of the law as later on we'll see that the the
priests were describing and unpacking it for them.
They they go, what was that? Oh, let me hear it more.
I was like hang on a minute. Let me hear more and they were
just dialled in to what was being declared on this occasion
and consider in an era without amplification that their
attentiveness here underscores such a deep spiritual famine and
a thirst within themselves for God's way.
Could you imagine the equivalent up the stadium with some 50,000
people? I don't know if you've ever been
with a sporting event or so on and the noise of just people
present, but 50,000 people that that many embody and and an
individual in the middle of the Oval speaking without
amplification and the crowd gathered so hushed and hanging
attentively on every word. That's like there's no way
that's going to happen. But that's that's the miracle of
what we're reading here that they're so desperate to hear
God's word declared unto them that they're hanging on every
word for six hours in tune. Amazing what we're reading here
and verse 4. So Ezra the scribe stood on a
platform of wood which they had made for the purpose.
So beforehand it shows some deliberate intent on their part
with this occasion ahead of them and beside him at his right hand
were these other individuals which names I won't read, but it
describes Ezra on what we might consider a stage and a pulpit.
So these more visible and there's a little amplification
maybe and greater projection of his voice.
But again, the platform crafted specifically for this moment
reflects an intentional preparation on behalf of of
Nehemiah and the other leadership indicated by those
names that I didn't read as if they were setting aside time
deliberately to study God's Word.
It had priority and importance and value to it.
Verse 5 and Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people,
for he was standing above all the people.
And when he opened it, all the people stood up.
That's why we start our services the way that we do when we open
with God's Word. Let's stand, let's give
reverence to God's word as we read it and declare it together,
but captures this moment here, verse 5 as Ezra opens the book,
people standing the significance of the reverence physical
posture now mirroring what's going on inside their hearts as
they're hungry and thirsty. And and this act see a bit more
like a maybe like a a royal procession.
If you're familiar with any of those types of scenarios where
people with with deference and a desire to show almost like how
we stand for dignitaries respect.
This is what's going on in this occasion, sense of all, a
reminder that the Scriptures are God's word and this isn't just
like a casual reading, but a divine encounter.
And Ezra verse 6, bless the Lord, the great God.
And then all the people answered Amen, Amen.
In the Scriptures, Amen is a declaration of so be it.
We're in agreement. When Ezra starts to praise God,
they're going, yes, that's right.
This is what we're about. This is what we want to do.
And there's this progression here from hearing to worship.
And they bowed their heads and worship the Lord with their
faces to the ground. Do you see the occasion?
You sense the awe, the reverence that the miracle that is taking
place? All of this that we've just read
in these first 6 verses is, is like a pastor's dream come true.
Open your Bible and everybody's always opening the Bible and
they're reading and they're hanging on every word.
If I could show sometimes the faces that are coming back from
me on a Sunday night on the big screen.
I love that you hear and I love that you're you're attentive to
God's Word and that you see it as important that that you value
it. Let me tell you something a
great Bible commentator, Warren Wisby said, if you can ever get
your hands on any of his common treats, particularly his B
series thoroughly recommended to you.
He said this when God's people get away from loving, reading
and obeying the word of God, they lose the blessing of God
upon their lives. And this is really now what
we're seeing in, in the lives and the hearts of the people of
Jerusalem and, and of the Hebrews as a whole, there is a
return to valuing God's word and a desire to hear it and hunger
and a thirst for it. Now, as a, as a pastor, I've,
I've taught the Bible a lot of Sundays.
And my desire is that when you come to church that you hear the
word of the Lord, not, you know, pithy, cute sayings, and not
just the philosophies of men, and not just story after story,
but that the Bible is opened. The Bible is read from,
expounded upon and applied to your lives.
And again, that's that's why we do what we do here and why we
value the preaching and teaching of God's Word.
But you know, that's not enough either.
You need to take your Bible home.
You need to read it and be in it every day.
If we want to be like what the psalmist declared in Psalm One,
verse 2, that we need to delight in the law of the Lord and in
his Lord. Does he meditate day and night
and be like the fruitful trees that the psalmist writes of?
Then, then we've got to be people of the Word, hungry and
thirsty for the Word. Incidentally, I heard someone
speaking about this at the beginning of the service.
The word in Psalm 1-2 that's used here for meditate, you
know, is the same word used for a cow when when chewing its cud
and just through that three stomach system that they've got
of regurgitating and just getting every ounce of nutrition
out of that that they're chewing on.
And, and when we meditate on God's word, the purpose of
reading it is to go. What is it that God has for me
in the Scripture that I need to know that is going to provide
spiritual nutrition for the most important part of me, my
spiritual man? Feeding upon the word of God and
letting it be absorbed into your life is so important.
And it's important to note here that Ezra and Nehemiah put the
word of God first in the lives of the city and what happened.
As we'll read the future chapters in this pivotal moment
in Jerusalem and the life of the people there is a byproduct of
their response to the Scriptures.
Another Bible commentator, preacher Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones,
said this, that the primary task of the church and of the
Christian minister is the preaching of the word of God.
And then making a comment on history, he said that the
decadent periods and eras in the history of the church have
always been those periods when preaching had declined.
So in our personal lives, you know, you're gathered here
tonight and you're going, OK, what?
What do I need to learn out of this to apply to me
specifically, you and I? We need to, and I hope you're
seeing it, we need to have the same hearts cry and desire and
yearning of the people of Nehemiah's day here.
Oh, give me God's word. Oh God, I need your word that
that's in essence what they're about here.
And we need to bring back the book into our homes, the book of
the Bible and God's Word to have devotions be a priority to go to
God's word in our decision making with our problems when
when seeking wisdom for things that we don't know what to do.
God, what does your word say? Help me instruct me in that.
Help me to know how to live. You know, as husbands, the
Bible's very clear for us on on how we're and what our
responsibility is to our wives. And as wives, the Bible is very
clear about how we're to live and what our responsibility is
to husbands. How do we relate to one another
in a marriage relationship? You know what the Bible tells us
that as a parent, the Bible tells us how to raise our
children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, tells us
how to love them, how to disciple them, how to discipline
them, how to train them, how to bring them up.
And if we're, we're single, if we're, we're working in in all
phases and stages of life, you can go to God's word and find
relevance to what you need. The Bible tells us what is right
and what is wrong. The Scripture is up for you to
see. But in second Timothy chapter 3,
verse 16 and 17, it says all Scripture.
That's all of the Bible. It's given by inspiration that
that it comes from God. It's profitable.
That means beneficial for doctrine.
That is what is right. I mean what, what do I do?
How do I, I, I need to know the Bible has it for reproof.
What, what do I, I not do? What?
What do I avoid? What is wrong for correction?
How to get right? OK, I know what's right and I've
been doing wrong. How do I head towards what is
right? God help me in that the Bible
has the answers for instruction in righteousness.
How do I make that doing this right, not a one off so that I'm
always living right before God and here's the goal of it that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. The Bible tells us what we need
for life and godliness. Second, Peter one verse 3
indicates that I don't know if you've ever taken a trip
somewhere as you've been driving and you didn't know how to get
there. So if you use some kind of AGPS
navigation in the old days, you pulled out the map or the street
directory. I remember when first getting my
licence of, you know, pouring over that and having my piece of
paper with the lefts and the rights at this street and so on.
And that was the path that I was going and didn't matter what was
happening because that was how it was written down.
But then, you know, people who refuse to look at any kind of
GPS or map, don't they? I'll just, I'll just find my way
and, and, and you know, we'll get there eventually.
I just think that's so dumb. And yet how many people live
their lives like that? You know you get married, have
children, don't know what you're doing, go to work, don't know
how to relate to your boss, don't know how to live lives
when all the while the instruction manual, the Bible is
there collecting dust on the shelf or on the coffee table and
the whole life is falling apart as a consequence, taking a
massive detour and the instruction manual for all of
life is neglected. God's word.
And so this week in considering all of that and what we've read
in these first 6 verses and the importance of God's Word, I
encourage you to live it, You know, cultivate a hunger for
God's Word this week by preparing intentionally.
And we saw that they had prepared intentionally.
They built the platforms. Ezra, this is where you're going
to preach. And we know that there's going
to be thousands of people gathered and we need in advance
some some thought to it. And you know, we can do that.
We can be deliberate about going.
You know what, I'm going to tomorrow read God's Word.
I'm going to open up to what I read tonight.
I'm going to set a little place aside and, and have that be
intentional, a sacred space, maybe even read aloud God's
word, stand up like they did and, and show the reverence.
I don't know what whatever it takes for you to prioritise a
hunger and a thirst for God's word.
You know, if distraction creeps over and you know you're tired
in the morning and you're tired in the evening when you read the
the Word and your eyes start to fog over, you know, as that
brain cloud settles in Psalm 119, verse 18, maybe even pray
this, open my eyes, O Lord, that I may behold wondrous things out
of your law. You know, hunger isn't
accidental. It's pursued and it starts
revival in your heart today. Well, they've got that hunger,
but there's something that needs to be done with that hunger.
And so there's a help for them now in understanding the Word.
We see that in verses 7 to 12, Verse 7, I'm going to try and
read these names also, Jeshua, Bani, Sharabaya, Jamin, Akubh,
Shebathai, Hodaja, Messiah. Now I'm going to stop.
But I do want to read this. And the Levites says help the
people to understand the law and the people stood in their place.
Ancient times when God's word would be read out, the people
would stand. We kind of have it in reverse
that we sit and, you know, the preaching happens with the one
person standing. There's a listing of these
Levites, some 13 named and they help to circulate and break down
what Ezra is reading and declaring into smaller groups
for those gathered and present. And this collaborative effort
has this idea of ensuring that no one is left behind, that
maybe, you know, in the the 50 odd thousand that are gathered,
that they've been short of hearing something that that
relay effect has gone on. But there's more to it in this
this sense that there's this modelling of a communal
corporate gathering experience like what we're participating in
tonight and doing verse 8. This is one of my favourite
verses that says this. So they read distinctly from the
book in the law of God and they gave the sense and help them to
understand the reading explains they read from the book.
So the Pentateuch, the Torah made it clear, OK, did you catch
all of those words? This is what I meant.
What? What does that word mean?
OK. And now made the meaning so that
they understood what was in the law.
And this is going beyond recitation that they're doing
here. This is what we call exposition,
dividing sections, translating maybe the the post exile, the
more Aramaic in understanding and language.
The Hebrew is now becoming a priority, interpreting the
context of the passages of what was read, applying principles.
The Hebrew in the phrase that we have in English where it says
gave the sense suggests a careful passing like dissecting
a complex text. So it's quite high level
analysis of the Scripture that is taking place here in this
gathering, in this group. Sometimes there's been
criticisms of of church in, in our teaching here of oh man,
they just break it down and belabour the text and analyse it
too deep. No, This is why we do what we do
here because it's biblical comes out of this verse and it's
important for us to understand the text.
Just as these 50 odd thousand people were having broken down
the text of Scripture back then for them some thousands of years
ago, and this time of spiritual ignorance is now making way for
them hearing and understanding God's word.
And they were what Second Timothy 215 calls us to do
rightly now dividing the truth, being diligent to present
themselves approved to God, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
So verse 9 records that Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites
say this day is holy to the Lord your God.
Do not mourn or weep. Because as the people were
hearing God's word, many for the first time, you know what was
happening. They were realising, oh man,
I've blown it here, I've blown it there, I've blown it there.
I've blown it in this and God is going to judge me.
I'm freaking out. I'm crying out.
God, God saved me, God help me. They're mourning and repenting
for what they out of their ignorance of God's word hadn't
heard. And now they're hearing and
it's, it's hitting and impacting them like the two edged sword
that God's word is penetrating deep to the soul asunder.
You see, the law exposes sin, stirs conviction in our hearts
like a mirror revealing flaws and the people rightly react in
this way. But you know what Nehemiah and
Ezra and the other leaders, they redirect the holiness and the
response of the people to the day and to the occasion that the
trumpet feast, which was to be a celebration of joy.
And so in verse 10 we read. Then he said to them, go your
way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to
those for whom nothing is prepared.
For this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength near
my commands of celebration. I get that you're broken, that
you're you're now hearing God's word and it's doing what it
needs to do. But let's now turn that
repentance to the joy that can be found in God as our Saviour.
That's really what's what's underneath all of this in verse
10. The joy of the Lord is strength.
This count as the despair as the Lord is convicting, but God's
joy, his delight in them and his delight in US.
Zephaniah 317 empowers them and this strength can only flow out
from rejoicing in the fact that God ultimately forgives sinners
who seek repentance because of Jesus finished work on the cross
and that's you and I tonight as believers.
Verse 11 and so the Levites quieted all the people saying be
still for the day as holy do not be grieved.
Verse 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to
send portions and rejoice greatly because they, as a
result, understood the words that were declared to them.
So this is a model, these verses for any who would teach and
preach the Bible. Again, this is what we call
expository preaching. Read OK, read it, explain it,
understand it, now apply it, live it out.
So as a pastor, it's always my job to read the Bible, to
explain the Bible, and to help apply the Bible for you.
Again, it's why we do what we do.
In verses 237 and eight, you find the word.
I've got it highlighted in my Bible understanding.
We all need to understand the Bible.
It's not just for the pastor. Well, you know, he's the one
that that needs to understand it.
We all need you need to understand the Bible.
It's for every believer to know the Bible, and the Bible should
be read for all and sundry. There's this wonderful story, I
love it, about a guy called William Tyndale, who's a priest
in the Catholic Church who believed that the Bible should
be read by all people and understood by all people.
It was actually against the law back then for the church, the
Catholic Church, to print the Bible.
And so he left England and printed Bibles in Germany and
then smuggled them back into England.
And his goal in life was that the average farmer, the average
worker, not just the the educated elite few, would be
able to know the Bible as well as the priest in the local
church. And through William Tyndale's
efforts in ministry, the Word of God saved England from civil war
that was about to erupt, even though it cost him his life.
That's how dedicated and devoted he was to this ministry.
It's up on the screen. Woodrow Crowell.
In his book, Back to the Bible, he lists three things that you
and I need to stop the spread of biblical illiteracy in its
tracks. You need #1A book.
You need a Bible. Seems so obvious for us as
Christians, but make it your best friend.
Spend time with it, he says. Secondly, you need a nook.
It's kind of old antiquated language for us, but a place
where you can actually get alone with God and spend quality time
in His Word. Do you have a space in your
house somewhere where that is where you go when, when you need
to press in to God? You know, that's that's where I
read the Bible. That's that's just a special
sacred space for me. Not that other spaces aren't,
but it's a particularly set aside place where now this is my
my nook where I take the book, the Bible, and I can now look
and spend time thirdly, looking into the word of God.
So live that out this week. You're hungry, you're thirsty
for God's Word. Great.
Secondly, seek understanding. OK, I need to know your word
more. I need to be a person that has
devoted a student of the word. So may I state the obvious, Read
the Bible. Read the Bible.
And if I had a dollar for every time I asked somebody, have you
been reading your Bible this week and they said no, I would
be a wealthy man. But read the Bible.
Read the Bible now. We've got so many aids in our
modern day and age at our fingertips to be in God's word.
Well, I'm not a reader. Hey, guess what, there's audio
versions of the Bible. Well, I just don't like pages.
Hey, guess what? The digital versions of the
Bible can have it on your device and you can have great Bible
teaching available to help you understand.
And there's podcasts and you know YouTube is filled with many
great teachers and preachers of God's Word.
If you're not sure who to listen to, hey, come and ask and I'll
point you in the direction of some that would be valuable to
help you understand God's Word. And then when you read the Word
and something out of the word comes and it will happen and you
begin to like the people start to mourn and and break for the
things that are that are being revealed to you about the the
contrast in your life to what you know you should be living as
God's word reveals it. Then stop, pivot, repent, go.
God, help me now to live and obey your truth.
How do you do this? And so if God is speaking to you
through his word and and you listen and you repent and you
confess your sin, Oh God, that's me.
That's, that's what I'm doing. And or God, that's not what I'm
doing and I should be doing. I confess that to you.
You know, for example, you find yourself not loving, loving your
wife as God wants you to be. Then ask God forgive and then
help me now to put into practise what I need to be living.
Ask God to forgive and then to start by being obedient.
Do what the Bible says. And when you do that, you know
what happens is the joy of the Lord is your strength to do
that. There's this wonderful thing
that comes over you of, of going, yeah, it is right, it is
good. It is it is proper and
appropriate for me to now be doing this.
And there's this energising that takes place.
It's the joy of the Lord that is now your strength.
Warren Weersby said again, it is wrong to mourn when God has
forgiven us, just as it is wrong to rejoice when sin has
conquered us. But you know, Psalm 30, verse 5
puts it this way. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy comes in the morning. Trust that God will do the
transformation in your life when you surrender and submit to Him
and say, God now enable me and empower me and strengthen me to
be obedient to what Your Word says.
So May God help us to understand.
May God help us to obey His work this week.
And then lastly, this point here, from verses 13 to 18,
we'll move through quite quickly the heart for obeying the word.
There's this spark now in the people as they come across
things that well, we'll read it as understanding ignites a heart
within them for obeying the word.
Verse 13 now on the second day, the heads of the Father's house.
So now all of the elders, all of the leaders, anybody who's a
who's who in society realises, man, we need to get things
right. And so they gather and they see
how important it is. And it says that they come with
the priests and the Levites. They were gathered to Ezra the
scribe. In order to understand the words
of the law man, we need to know this.
Ezra, help us in verse 14, they found written in the law which
the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel
should dwell in booths during the feast of the 7th month.
So there's something that they ought to have been doing now in
their 7th month that they weren't doing and then we'll
read later that they had not done since the time of Joshua.
So think about this. All of the time of the judges,
all of the time of King Saul, King David, King Solomon, all of
the kings in Israel in the north, and kings in Judah up
through into the captivity. Up until now, the people of
Israel had never observed this feast of Booths.
Now that we're going to read of that, they're realising we ought
to have been doing in this the 7th month.
Because it's written in God's Word we need to obey it.
So this feast of booths feast of Tabernacles.
It's also called was a time to remember God having delivered
them out of Egypt as they were travelling through and
Tabernacles speak of a temporary living and existence and and
these booths here, but it had been neglected for generations.
And so it sparks this immediate action on their part going well,
we need to effect some change. And so they proclaim at verse 15
that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and
in Jerusalem saying go out to the mountain, bring olive
branches, branches of oil trees, Myrtle branches, palm branches,
branches of leafy trees to make booths as it is written.
And then the people went out, verse 16 and obeyed basically
and made all of these in their rooftops, the courtyards, the
courts of the House of God, the open square of the Watergate,
the open square. So you can see it just permeates
everywhere in society. Everybody is obeying.
There's revival sparks in the midst of the people.
So the whole assembly, verse 17 of those who've returned from
the captivity made booths and sat under the booths for since
the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, until the day the children
of Israel had not done so. And again, there was very great
gladness. And then look verse 18 and also
and it's almost like Nehemiah adds and a little by the by.
While this is happening, let me tell you what also was going on.
And he says, and then day by day from the first day.
So when Ezra was invited to read at the beginning until the last
day, he read from the book of the law of God.
So all the while that this is happening, Ezra's up there on
the platform reading and preaching and teaching God's
Word. A A7 day, week long Bible
conference taking place in their midst and they kept the feast 7
days and on the 8th day there was a sacred assembly according
to the prescribed manner. Wow, you feel?
Do you see the transformation here in the people from
ignorance to tense, from rediscovery to rejoicing?
I've got to admit, in studying this through this week, it was
pretty convicting in many respects and reading this
chapter it caused me to ask the question, do I obey God's word
as promptly as I'm reading they do here or do I rationalise
delay some? Sometimes, you know, I'll get
round to it or yeah, I can. I can kind of see the truth to
it, but you know, I'm not convinced yet.
I need more convincing, but it's also inspiring too.
In reading, man, I was looking at it and going.
I was trying to picture myself in in that setting and in my
family in that moment and of me being in the crowd as Ezra is
preaching, as the Levites are making the understanding, the
explanation known. And where would I be in that
picture and finding myself asking the questions and, and
how would I react and seeing my neighbours hungry and thirsty
for the things of God, of seeing my children hungry and thirsty
for the things of God of my brothers and sisters and, and
all of the people that I live with, just this hunger and
thirst. And you know what?
You got me excited of going. Why not here?
Why not now in our midst, in our day?
And, and I'm so thankful for what I'm seeing tonight of
people gathered, hungry and thirsty for God's word, of what
I'm seeing God do in our church when we're we're gathering on a
Sunday morning of when we're gathered in a Wednesday evening,
of what God's doing in the hearts of the youth on Friday
when they gather and when the ladies gather on Tuesdays.
And you know what? I want more?
You know what? God wants more.
And God desires for us to be people who are hungry and
thirsty for His Word, to understand it and to be obedient
to it. Why?
Because there's such a blessing to be found for us in it.
I love talking to some of the more seasoned Saints in our
midst who've lived long lives serving the Lord and who can
tell you story after story of God's faithfulness, of how God
has loved them, how God has been with them, of how God has
nurtured them, and of how God's Word has come alive in times of
difficulty in their in their lives and experiences they've
gone through. What a wonderful testimony to a
life lived that is hungry and thirsty for God's Word, that
desires to understand it and is obedient to it.
So Nehemiah chapter 8 ignites a revival in the hearts and lives
of the people through hunger for hearing the Word, the help that
came for understanding the Word, and then the heart for obeying
it. You know, all of this, as I do
each week, needs to come back to Jesus.
And this isn't just a a token thing at the end of our messages
through Nehemiah that I want us to see, but I want us to
understand that our focus, that our priority is Jesus.
Here's the living word. The Bible tells us that, you
know that the Bible tells us that Jesus also hungered for
Scripture. We read in in Matthew chapter 4
when he was tempted 40 days in the wilderness and the enemy
came right when when Jesus was at his weakest physically and
and most vulnerable. And what did Jesus say each time
that Satan came? Jesus counted with the
scripture. It looks like he was probably
meditating on Deuteronomy at that time because he quotes
Deuteronomy each occasion. But he says this man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word proceeds in the mouth
of God. And Jesus explained it deeply.
There's this wonderful story after Jesus resurrection on the
road to Emmaus when two downtrodden, disheartened
disciples who are thinking man, that following Jesus guy was
such a waste of time. And Jesus encounters them as
they're on that road to Emmaus. And we have this wonderful verse
there where it says that Jesus opened the scriptures to them
and explained everything that pointed to him.
My paraphrase out of the Scriptures.
He explained it deeply. He obeyed perfectly.
Hebrews chapter 5, verse 8 and 9 says though he was a son, yet he
learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal
salvation to all who obey him. You know Jesus, obedience to the
Word of God brought about our salvation.
And I'm so thankful for Christ's obedience to God's Word.
And then he washes us with the word, Ephesians 526, which helps
empower our obedience to God's word when we read it.
So practically before we pray, let me leave you with this
tonight. If your word hungry, commit now,
maybe even come for prayer afterwards.
So man, I, I want, I want to know God's word more.
Will you pray for me? And I'll do exactly that.
Maybe this week. Read Nehemiah 8 again.
Go over it, discuss it with someone.
Obey it. Whatever scripture you come
across, read, understand, obey, read, understand, obey.
OK God, you've said it in your word.
I understand it. Help me now.
Obey it and live it and then I guarantee it because God's word
says it verse 17 that the result will be such joy that springs
forth in your life because the joy of the Lord is your
strength. See what revival is sparked in
your heart for the things of God and and a Group, A body of
believers all doing the same. And I can't wait for the future
of what God's going to do in our hearts and lives if we would
grab a hold of that as a group. Let's pray.
Lord, I thank you for your word tonight.
Such a wonderful, convicting, yes passage, but inspiring also.
So please stir up a hunger in our hearts for Your Word, grant
understanding to us as we read. Holy Spirit, enable us and help
us in that. And then, Lord God, fuel our
obedience and strengthen us in that.
I pray now your blessing over your people gathered here
tonight, every household. I thank you for them.
In whatever we find ourselves doing this week, wherever we
find ourselves, may Lord God you go before us, may your presence
be evident. Grant unto us your wisdom to
live lives that honour you and bless your great name.
These things we pray in Jesus name and God's people said Amen,
Amen.