Nehemiah 8: Revival Leads to Holy Living

We are going to be looking at the book of Nehemiah again today

And you can be turning to chapter 8

And while you are turning there, since it’s been a while since we have looked at this book, I just want to recap a bit

We are focusing on the themes of renewal and revival

And we have seen how God is taking His people through a process of renewal and revival

Leading them out of captivity

Equipping them to rebuild the city wall

And then leading them into a time of spiritual revival

And we saw how the people gathered in front of the Water Gate and the book of the law was brought out

And there was this time of listening to the Law being read, receiving God’s message to them

And we saw their response to the Word of God being read

As it was read and explained to them, and as they understood it, they worshipped

And it’s wonderful to see the Spirit of God moving and the people coming back to Him

In our church culture today there is a lot of emphasis put on

WORSHIP

The part of church service that is focused on singing and praise

Where are emotions and and excitement is are elevated

And we feel closer to God because of what is going on with our emotions

And, you know, that is part of the way that God has created us.

God has created us with feelings, with emotions. And this is part of the way that we connect with God

A walk with Jesus that is totally devoid of feelings of love and adoration would be a pretty dull relationship, wouldn’t it?

But our church culture tends to put a lot of empahsis on worship that elevates that emotional part of us

But I fear that perhaps not enough is said about worship that results in holy living

And I’m talking about the kind of living in which we seek to immerse ourselves into Scripture

We seek to understand what it is saying by the power of the Holy Spirit

And we seek to live out the instructions and the commands that we have been given by the power of the Holy Spirit

Holy living

See, when we talk about holiness you could almost say that there are two types of holiness

But really, you can’t have one with out the other

You are holy because of the work of Jesus. Through faith in what He has done, He has made you right with God.

He has sanctified you and made you holy

And because of that, there is practical, every day holiness. The kind of holiness that is lived out moment by moment, day by day

It is holy living that comes from a changed heart and a deep commitment to obedience to His Word

And I think that too many times it’s a temptation for us to think,

“praise the Lord, I’ve been made right with God! My sins are taken care of and i’m free!”

And then go our way, sort of living in that emotion and not being students of Scripture, and not asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to us and not committed to having our lives be molded to the character of Christ as revealed to us in Scripture

There are many people praying for revival today, me included

But it’s probable that many people think revival will be an outpouring of signs and wonders and feeling close to God, which there may be some of that

But the question is, do we desire the Holy Spirit to bring us back to learning God’s Word, and living holy lives that express what God has revealed to us in His word

I believe that this country, even this community, needs these kind of Believers

Believers whose hearts have truly been transformed by the Holy Spirit and whose daily walk is a testimony to that transformation.

And that kind of response is what we see happening in our passage today from Nehemiah chapter 8, starting at verse 9

Nehemiah 8:9–18 “9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” 11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. 13 On the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. 14 And they found it written in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” 16 So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17 And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. 18 And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.

Folks, God is moving among His people, and this is awesome to see! I love this passage

Did you pay attention to what is happening here?

In the first part of the chapter, the people have the Law of God “re-introduced to them”

And now, after a time of worship,there is a response of obedience to what the Law of God says

In verse 9 we see that the reading of the Law of God touched something very deep within the people

Because they wept as they heard the words of the Law

And I imagine that their emotions were very deep and perhaps a bit conflicted

But, in the context of what happens next, I believe that one of the main reasons that they wept was because they realized how far they had fallen away from the commands of God

And that is one significant piece of revival

First It’s when the Holy Spirit reveals to us the things that have crept into our lives that come between us and God

Things that we have put in place of God

Because even has Believers, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and desiring to keep in step with the Spirit

Even for us, there are things that can creep in and before we know it, those things are more important than God

and most of the time, they are just “small” things…things that we don’t even think are that significant

We may start waking up a little later and we don’t have quite as much time to just sit and talk with God for a while before our day starts

Or, as we talked about on Easter Sunday, perhaps you have felt a bit disappointed with God

you still believe in Him, but there is that piece of disappointment or hurt that has crept in and you haven’t been able to resolve it

Or maybe you have become preoccupied with what other people think about you…the list could go on

They are “small” things that start to become significant things

You think about our human relationships

Husbands and wives

We may at some point in our lives, find ourselves feeling distant from each other

Was there something huge that happened? Probably not, at least not that you can put your finger on

But there were some small things

Relationships within church can be the same way. How did we get here? Well maybe there were just a lot of small things that just sort of were allowed to drag on

The same can be true for our relationship with Jesus

And it seems like more than ever, there are all kind of things that creep in and at first, perhaps, we think about it, and then we just become numb to it

Ad’s and shows on TV…entertainment

this guy sleeps with that girl. That person kills that person, this guy lies to get what he wants

And we think, oh it’s just entertainment

But I wonder, what is being done to our sense of sin and righteousness

Our sense of what comes between us and God

It’s the small things many times that just sort of crowd Him out and before we know it, he seems distant

and if that is true of us, then are we willing to come back before the Lord, listen to what He is saying, and allow Him to point out those things that have taken His rightful place in our lives

And if He does that for us, what is our response?

For the people in this passage, they wept

And I imagine that it was more than just silent tears

because the word that is used here is בכה bkh

this word is an onomatopoeia. Does anybody know what that is?

It is a word that sounds like what it is describing

The people bkh. They wailed, they sobbed, they convulsed,

Because of how far away from God their sin had taken them

And folks, have you or I ever felt and expressed that level of emotion over what sin does to us and others?

I would imagine that if I did, that would be a sign that God is really doing something in my heart

the people grieved

second thing God’s tender mercy for those who are broken

But Ezra and the Levites went among the people and comforted them

such a tender scene here. It was as if God was sending the message to His people,

“I have seen your tears, I accept your repentance. Now, celebrate and rejoice in the holiness of this day.”

I know that you lack strength, but be strengthened in the joy of the Lord

The Bible says that God comforts the brokenhearted

The Bible says Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Where there is sorrow for sin, there is comfort from God

And so the people dried their tears, the picked themselves up and they celebrated what God was doing in their lives

This shows us the heart of God

His desire for us is joy. But that joy may come at a cost. It may only come after a time of weeping

Psalm 30:4–5 “4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

After weeping comes joy

And thirdly comes a commitment to holy living

After the people pick themselves up and celebrate

It says that on the second day, the heads of the houses, the men get together (vs 13)

And they take a closer look at the Scripture

And men there is something powerful happening here

I know that we lead busy lives and we all have a lot of responsibility.

But there have been many invitations for men to get together to pray, to study God’s Word together, to support each other, to encourage each other, to talk about things that matter deeply to us

How much do you guys think that this could change your life,

and how much do you think that it could change your family’s life, even if you aren’t married

How much could it change our lives here at Fairview

If this became a top priority for us

Saturday morning men’s meeting—heard about a group of men that committed to meeting together regularly for 20 years

But it says here in verse 13 that the men got together to study the book of the Law

And they made an incredible discovery

What that discovery was is that since the death of Joshua the son of Nun, the people had not practiced the Feast of Tabernacles

And we could think, well, what’s the big deal? The Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) doesn’t sound like a very important feast, at least not as important as the Passover feast

But is a very big deal

3 major feasts:

Passover

Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)

The Feast of Tabernacles

There were other celebrations as well, but these feasts were called “Holy Convocations”—a sacred assembly

They were of utmost importance to God

The Feast of Booths was important for this reason: Lev. 23:43 ...that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

You might think, well that doesn’t sound so great. We are supposed to celebrate this Feast to remember how our ancestors went camping in the desert?

Doesn’t sound so appealing if you have ever tried to sleep in a tent in the hot sun

Game survey—sleeping in the hot tent

But that’s missing the point

The point is not that they were living in tents, but that God delivered them out of slavery

And He provided for them when they were in the wilderness—gave them a place to stay, fed them, gave them water, protected them

God said, this is very important that you call this to mind and remember what I have done for you

But look what happened as soon as Joshua died

Joshua had led them into the Promised Land and led in the conquering of it

But as soon as he died and the people who knew Joshua died, the book of Judges says this: And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.

One of the saddest statements in the Bible

They didn’t remember Joshua, they didn’t know the Lord, and they stopped recalling to mind what God had done for them

They stopped celebrating the feast of booths

They become complacent and comfortable. They stopped remembering what God had done for them

And FOR 930 YEARS this feast had not been celebrated.

Generation after generation of priests had either missed, or overlooked what God had commanded

But look what is happening now in Nehemiah

The Scripture is being read to them and their spiritual eyes are being opened

“Hey, look what it says in here!” We haven’t done this for generations!

We’ve never heard of this before!

And what they do next, I think is a testimony to what God is doing in their hearts

Because they don’t make excuses

They don’t say, “wow, what a strange thing to do”

They simply jump into action

They go out in the hills and gather leafy branches of olive, myrtle, palm trees and they bring those things into the city and they make booths

and in every open space that they can find, they make booths and for 7 days, they, their wives, and their children live in these little dwellings

and there was great rejoicing!

They simply get back to doing something that they should have been doing all this time

They get back to tradition if you want to call it that

They simply get back to holy living..being faithful to what God had commanded them to do

You know, as we think about revival, and the work of God in our lives,

sometimes it’s easy to picture what God is doing, it’s all going to be brand new

We are going to get rid of everything that is old

We want to get rid of sin

We want to get rid of ways of living and thinking that are not pleasing to Him

We want to get rid of traditions

It’s all going to be new!

And sometimes God does that. I mean, He always does that if He is ridding us of sinful actions and thoughts and things that are not glorifying to Him

But sometimes we want to throw out the baby with the bathwater

But you know what, sometimes it is just getting back to doing what we did at first

Doing what Jesus challenged the Church at Ephesus to do in Rev. 2. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first!”

Sometimes it means, remembering how you used to live when you first came to know Jesus

Sometimes it means

You know what, I didn’t used to watch this kind of show. But I am now. I need to go back and do what I used to do

You know what, I used to be pretty generous with my tithes and my giving. Now I’m just giving the bare minimum

Or, you know what, I used to be here at the church whenever the doors were open, now I’m just lucky to make it to Sunday morning

Sometimes it means simply going back to living your life in such a way that your unbelieving friends and acquaintances say

What in the world is up with her, or him

As I think about these Jews going out into the hills and gathering all these branches,

Can you imagine what the people around them are thinking?

What is up with these crazy people? Hey, stop cutting all the branches off our trees!

And maybe they popped into the city and saw all these people sleeping in these little booths.

What are they crazy? How weird. What are they doing anyway?

They’re going back to living holy lives! That’s what they’re doing!

And if people stopped them and asked them what they were up to, they could tell them about how God had delivered them from slavery centuries before

And they could tell them what God was doing among them now!

And they found great joy in getting back to doing what God had told them to do. Living holy lives

You see, there is nothing wrong with traditions. There’s nothing wrong with some of the outward expressions that we have had as Mennonites

But where it goes wrong is when…well, it’s all it is. Just a tradition. Or the church says I have to

and I think it’s possible that many times we missed an opportunity to say, “Yeah, I know this seems kind of old fashioned and it’s a little strange

It’s not what everyone else is doing.

But I do it because it reminds me of what God has done in my life and what He continues to do

And BTW, it give me an opportunity to tell YOU about Jesus.

and this is what God wants to do through revival

He wants to bring us back to living lives that are holy and set apart for him

So that others will know about what He has done and what He continues to do in our lives