Make God Real…Because He is
Notes
Transcript
Lord’s Supper
Lord’s Supper
Ask the men to come and have a seat at the front.
Reminder: when the men bring the plate around, if you wish to participate, you’ll need to take from the plate.
Pray and thank the Lord for giving His body and shedding His blood for us.
Serve the bread
Read Luke 22:19.
Partake
Serve the grape juice
Read Luke 22:20.
Partake
Pray
Review
Review
Turn to Nehemiah 12
Chapter eleven tells us what happened in Jerusalem after the walls were rebuilt and the people were spiritually restored. Nehemiah was ready to lead the resettlement of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was the Holy City because God said that it was His city. God designated Jerusalem as the place for His temple, so it was only reasonable that Nehemiah wanted a holy people to live therein. It would mean facing more hardship, but the advantage was having close access to God. That was something you could have no other way. We saw that throughout human history, you must always come to God on His terms, not yours.
Introduction
Introduction
Read Nehemiah 12:1
On Tuesday, August 24th, 1717, three ships arrived at the docks of Philadelphia. They carried 363 Mennonite immigrants, including my ancestors. The first known Brubakers to set foot in the new world were Hans Brubaker, and his two cousins, Jacob and John Brubaker, and their families.
Within weeks of landing in Philadelphia, Hans, along with Christian Hershey, bought 1000 acres of land from William Penn’s agents just west of what is now Lancaster City. The land was purchased at roughly 49 cents per acre.
Jacob and John Brubaker would settle in adjoining properties, each having several hundred acres of land to farm.
In the months and years that followed, they lead productive lives. Besides farming the land, Hans built the first mill in the area for grinding grain and sawing wood. By 1724, he was appointed as constable, and again in 1729 over the newly formed Hempfield Township.
Today, you don’t have to travel very far in Lancaster county to see the Brubaker name and that’s true of many other surnames as well. Generations have lived in this region for more than 300 years.
Tracing one’s family tree is not as important in our culture as it once was. There’s different reasons why that’s the case, but I believe we should get back into it. Knowing one’s family tree - even in its imperfections - encourages us to take responsibility for ourselves and for the country that our ancestors helped build.
It may not be important in our culture, but it was supremely important in Jewish culture. What we have before in our text is not strictly a genealogy, but it is similar.
Nehemiah 12:1-26 begins with a…
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List of the Priests and Levites - Nehemiah 12:1-26
I’m going to skip reading all of these names this morning, but if you were to read it, you would find that it is a list of all the priests and Levites who were the first to return from Babylon with Zerubbabel almost 100 years earlier in 538 BC.
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After Babylon conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC, the Jewish people returned to their land in three successive waves.
Nehemiah 12 gives us a list of the priests and Levites from the very beginning that returned to Israel.
The priests were the descendants of Aaron who were designated by God as the leaders of the temple worship and particularly the sacrificing of animals.
The Levites were the members of the tribe of Levi who assisted the priests in the temple worship, in teaching the people, and in other religious duties.
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Now let’s call a timeout for a minute. Probably the question on everyone’s mind is: why is this section here? We just went from chapter 11 telling us about the resettlement of Jerusalem, to chapter 12, a list of priests and Levites.
Before I answer the question, here’s a principle that will help your study of the Old Testament.
Remember that the Old Testament had a Divine Author, but was written by Jewish penmen for a Jewish audience. We tend to think chronologically and to assemble information according to place in time. But the Old Testament often arranges information thematically. The Jewish penmen sometimes assemble information according to themes and ideas. That’s why we learn about the resettlement of Jerusalem in chapter eleven and then we are greeted by this seemingly random list of priests and Levites.
The list is actually not random at all. It is appropriate here for two reasons:
Nehemiah 11:36 tells us that Levites settled across the region around Jerusalem. The list authenticates who the Levites and their ancestors were.
In Nehemiah 12:27-43, an event takes place where the priests and the Levites are the leading figures. Again, the list authenticates the legitimacy of the priests and levites who are central to the story that follows.
What happens next in Nehemiah 12 is this:
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Dedication of the wall - Nehemiah 12:27-43
Remember the wall of Jerusalem all the way back in Nehemiah chapter 6 that they finished building in 52 days? Now that the wall was complete, the houses were rebuilt, and the city was resettled, Nehemiah decides its time to have a grand celebration and dedication of the wall.
Read Nehemiah 12:27-31, 38.
If there’s one thing that we Americans associate with celebration, it’s food. Doesn’t matter if its Independence Day or Labor Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas: if we’re celebrating, we’re celebrating with a spread that’s appropriate for the season.
Amazingly, food isn’t mentioned at all in this celebration. Probably it followed, but it wasn’t the main point. So what did they do?
In verses 27-29, they stopped working and gathered everyone, particularly the Levites, to Jerusalem.
In verse 30, they prepared themselves to worship the Lord by purifying themselves as the law required. Probably they sprinkled themselves with the blood of sacrificed animals.
In verses 31-42, Nehemiah assembled two great choirs to sing and to play instruments. Ezra lead one. Nehemiah lead the other. One walked clockwise on top of the wall. The other walked counterclockwise on the wall. Eventually they both joined together at the temple.
In verse 43, they offered “great sacrifices” unto the Lord and rejoiced.
The sound and choreography of this event would have been fascinating to witness! As these two choirs marched on top of the wall, it proved to everyone that it was strong.
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.
It was a visual to everyone, including their enemies, that said, “look at what our God has done!”
Verse 27 gives us the keyword of this entire text.
Read Nehemiah 12:27a
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Dedication: to inaugurate something. In the OT, it refers to when a community comes together to celebrate the first use of a building or object.
You might be thinking by now, “Pastor Tim, are you about to tell us that next week the choir’s gonna be out front marching up and down the sidewalk singing, blowing trumpets and banging cymbals together?”
No, probably our neighbors wouldn’t like that a whole lot. But other church’s have done stranger things.
Only a faulty hermeneutic would lead you to that conclusion.
I want you to put this celebration in context of the bigger picture. I don’t know how much time had passed since the wall was finished. Probably a few months, maybe up to a year. But the point is this: they had just built a wall. The project was done in record time, but still, they’re celebrating a wall. They had rebuilt their houses. They had just gotten settled into the city. They could have stepped back and said, “look at what we did!” They could have patted each other on the back and then moved on with their lives, but instead, they stopped everything, stepped back and said to each other and to the world, “look at all that God did!”
This dedication was a memorial to the goodness of God.
This dedication was to look back and publicly acknowledge what had been true all along: that God was there!
He was there when the king of Persia gave Nehemiah permission to go to Jerusalem!
He was there when Nehemiah did that nighttime survey of the walls!
He was there when Sanballat and Tobiah mocked their efforts rebuild!
God was there when Nehemiah told those enemies in Nehemiah 2:20, “The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we will arise and build”
He was there when the nobles refused to build and when the work seemed impossible!
He was there when their enemies surrounded the Jews and prepared to fight against Jerusalem!
He was there when Nehemiah was physically exhausted but endured sleepless nights!
He was there when they feared for their lives and families!
He was there when Nehemiah confronted the Jewish nobles in chapter five!
He was there when Sanballat and Geshem tried to assassinate Nehemiah.
God was there all along.
The purpose of this dedication was to acknowledge what had always been true: that God was there.
God had blessed in so many ways. He had proven Himself faithful. Now it was time to acknowledge that reality.
Application: Christian, how often do you acknowledge God’s working in your life?
These Jewish people dropped everything to dedicate the building of this wall unto the Lord. The mundane labor of setting stone upon stone was not just a human work. They saw God’s role in the entire process.
Dedication is seeing God’s role in everything that we do that is good or successful.
Dedication is making a big deal out of God’s provision even of small things.
Dedication is actively acknowledging God’s faithfulness.
That’s what I want you to see in this text this morning. All throughout the harrowing stories that we have read in this book, God was there!
Christian, the same is true for you! God is there working in your life - both in the mundane, daily routine and in the extraordinary events, God is there! So start acknowledging reality for what it is! Open your eyes to the reality that God is always present in your life - moment by moment, day by day. Be God-conscious.
These Jews acknowledged that God’s hand was behind everything good that had happened in their lives. They saw God through it all! That is faith!
The benefits?
God was glorified
God gave them joy - v. 43. When you start thinking Biblically it will affect your heart
God was became real to the next generation
Conclusion
Conclusion
Christian, don’t live your faith in a closet. Don’t hide it. Make it real. Pay attention to God’s blessings as you go about your day. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, James 1:17 tells us. As you see those blessings, whether you complete the building of a wall or you move into a city like Jerusalem, celebrate those blessings! Because God is behind it all!
Make God Real…Because He is.
