Nehemiah 08 - Celebrating Restoration

Nehemiah: Restoring A Nation:

Nehemiah: Restoring A Nation:

“Celebrating Restoration”

INTRODUCTION

If you have your Bible and would like to follow along, please turn to .

REVIEW OF LAST LESSON

We have been focusing on the spiritual restoration of the people of God at the time of Nehemiah — around 445BC. We have seen them spend a lot of time in the law of God — the great restoration manual that shows them what God desires them to be as a nation. They have spent a lot of time confessing their sins and praying to the Lord. They have also committed themselves to obeying the Lord. But of course, their restoration was not without issues. Some of the people were not keeping their commitments to the Lord, and the nations were in some ways negatively impacting the people. But this does not mean that the goal of restoration was not being sought or that they had completely failed. It does seem like, in chapter 13, Nehemiah’s admonishment of the leaders and rebuking of those who were not keeping their commitments to the Lord did make an impact. His zeal for the things of God helped them to get back on course.

Restoration is a noble goal for God’s people, and even when there are times when they fall short of meeting the standard of returning to what God designed them to be as individuals and as a nation, when God’s people are open to admonishment and correction, progress can be made to God’s glory and by God’s mercy.

The mercy of God gives us hope, even today, as we seek to be the people God has called us to be. He has given us the goal to achieve — to be individuals that are seeking to be holy as He is holy — to be those who are being conformed to His image and to the image of His glorious Son, and to be congregations that work together according to His will in working to achieve this goal.

INTRO TO THIS LESSON

For our lesson this hour, I would like us to consider one last response of the people to all of the work of restoration that was being done in their nation.

I would like to talk about their worship. Their celebrating of the successes that the Lord gave them during this period of restoration.

One theme that runs throughout the books of Ezra and Nehemiah (which were originally written as one book) is how the hand of God was with them in all of the efforts of restoration. God was with them in their efforts of rebuilding the temple, the walls, and the city of Jerusalem. Nine times in these two books men like Nehemiah and Ezra talk about how the hand of the Lord was with them in their restoration efforts among the people. God’s faithfulness and mercy towards them is also a theme that runs through these books.

It is because of God’s presence among His people — His willingness to work among them giving them mercy and strength as they worked to restore the nation — that brought them success, even when their efforts were opposed by the enemy. So it is no surprise to see that the people celebrate what the Lord has done for them.

In , as they had the privilege to spend time in God’s word and to see His faithfulness to His people and even to see the things that they needed to change to be in a covenant relationship with the Lord, we are told in that they bowed before the Lord in worship.

In chapter 9 (9:3), as they were listening to the law of the Lord again, and as they were confessing their sins, we are told that during the quarter of the day that they were confessing their sins, that they were also worshipping the Lord their God.

They understood their need for the Lord. They understood that they could only be successful in restoration if God was with them, and they understood that they could only continue to be in a covenant relationship with the Lord as His restored nation if He was willing to show abundant mercy to them. The Lord was the reason for their success, and they made sure that they showed Him this in their worship of Him.

I would like us to consider for a few moments one instance that they celebrated their efforts of restoration. Please turn your Bibles to . In this chapter, they dedicate the walls of Jerusalem and celebrate the Lord’s help in bringing this work to completion.

, as a whole, focuses on the worship of the Lord.

Verses 1-26 introduce us to those who led the worship of God when the people came up from captivity and the time that followed.

In verses 12-26, we are introduced to the High Priest Joiakim and the priests and the levites who served with Him during the time that Ezra served as a priest and a scribe and during the time that Nehemiah served as the governor.

Now let’s look at verse 27 and following…

“And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from [these regions and villages around Jerusalem in verses 28 & 29 that I am not going to try to pronounce]… [30] And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.” ().

Thee emphasis in this section is celebrating the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem that the Lord helped them finish in record time. The priests and Levites purify themselves and the people, gates, and wall to prepare them for this time of celebration — they understood that those who would approach the Lord needed to be purified and cleansed and that the walls and gates that would protect the place where God’s name dwelt needed to be sanctified and dedicated to God. So they do this here.

THE WALLS - DIAGRAM

Then in verse 31, Nehemiah brought all of the leaders up onto the wall, near to the refuse gate, which may show the the wall was wide enough to be walked on (and it also shows that the taunts of the enemy that a fox could jump on the walls and knock them down was wrong). But Nehemiah brings them up and he appoints two great choirs of the levites to walk around the city, mostly on the walls, giving thanks to the Lord and praising Him.

THEY SEPARATE

It seems that they begin this time of celebration and praise together, and then the two choirs separate, one going clockwise around the city on the walls, and one going counter-clockwise around the city until they all met up again on the other side of the city, then they went to the temple.

“So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me…” (). Then you have those with the trumpets and the names of the singers who accompanied them into the temple in verses 41-42.

Then in verse 43:

“And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.” ().

This is such a great verse. There were great sacrifices… there was great joy. This was a great time of worship and praise foo all of the people. And the reason for their rejoicing is made clear in the passage. It was all about the great God who had given them success. It is all about the great God whose hand helped them and protected them as they did their work of restoring the nation.

APPLICATION 1

Let us not forget why it is we have had success and growth as we seek restoration. In all circumstances, God is the one who makes us rejoice with great joy. As we have seen in our study of 1 Peter, it is God who gave His people new life. It is God who restored us and gave us a relationship with Him through the sacrifice of Jesus. It is the Lord who has given us a living hope to look forward to —a hope that makes us look forward with great anticipation whether our physical circumstances are good or bad in this world. It is the Lord who has made us His holy nation and His royal priesthood. It is the Lord who gives us victory. It is the hand of the Lord at work among us that we rejoice in.

It is not our own goodness or greatness. It is not in our ability that we rejoice in. It is not what we do and do not do. It is not our heritage or our traditions. Paul learned this in his own life. In , Paul talks about so many things about his past life in Judaism that many of his time would have rejoiced in and pointed to in order to say that they were somebody. But it was not these things that brought Paul hope and made him rejoice. It was knowing Christ that led Him to rejoice. All of the other stuff was garbage to him in comparison. He rejoiced in the righteousness that God gave him by faith in Christ. He rejoiced in the hope that he had of achieving the resurrection to life on the last day. This is why Paul commands the Philippians twice, at the beginning of chapter three of Philippians and the beginning of chapter 4 of Philippians to “rejoice in the Lord” — Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”

Like Paul, and like Nehemiah and the remnant, it is the Lord who makes us rejoice with great joy.

APPLICATION 2

And because of the fact that God is the one who makes us rejoice, we have our second point of application: We need to give thanks to the Lord.

With all of the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ and with all of the reasons we have to have great hope, we never should forget to offer God thanksgiving for what He so graciously gives. The Hebrews writer says in ,

“15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” (, NASB95)

Christians, as priests of God, need to, as the priests do in , to give great sacrifices to God. This includes laying their lives on the altar, giving their bodies to God to live sacrificially for Him, but it also includes what the Hebrews writer says here. God is deserving of and worthy of great sacrifices of thanksgiving from His people for all that He has done. This is one of the most important things we can do in celebrating the hand of the Lord at work among us bringing restoration in our lives. A lack of thanksgiving in our lives may show who we really rejoice in and who we give the credit to for the blessings that we have physically and spiritually. A lack of giving thanks may also show that we are taking the blessings of God for granted — that we are not appreciating them as we should, or even that we think we are deserving of them — that God owes them to us. We need to put the emphasis in the right place — that God is the one who gives us what we have. God is the one who gives us hope, and we need to as the Hebrews writer says, CONTINUALLY offer up a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God so we can daily remind ourselves of God’s blessings and goodness.

APPLICATION 3

And now, our final point of application:

We need to proclaim the excellencies of God to others. This is what we see the priests and the leaders of the remnant do throughout this book in how they talk about the Lord, pray to the Lord, and when they praise the Lord. It should be a natural reaction to experiencing the goodness of God. If we see the success that He has brought in our lives in helping us to be restored to the image of Jesus and to grow in our faith, and if we are getting into God’s word and we are seeing how great and amazing God is, won’t we proclaim how great He is to others? Won’t we remind each other of God’s excellencies? Won’t we talk about Him even more than we do all of the worldly things that we enjoy and think are “great”?

Our three points of application, once again:

We need to remember who gives us success and growthWe need to offer God the great sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; andWe need to proclaim His greatness and goodness to others.

CONCLUSION

As we bring this lesson, and this series on restoration, to a close, I would like to offer you a challenge: Set your sights higher! God gives you the standard to live by: His holiness. He desires that you and I be conformed to the image of His Son, and there is not any justification we can give to lower or water down the standard. Feed upon His word with a heart that desires to listen respectfully and is willing to change. Seek to look outward. Don’t just focus on your own restoration to Christ’s image. As Nehemiah, and just like our LORD Jesus, show a concern for others to have restoration and reconciliation with God.

And even in the things that you do together as a local congregation, remember that God’s design of local congregations/groups is best and cannot be replaced with other standards. God reveals to us what he desires for us as we work together in His kingdom. He tells us what is good and right. The heart that desires restoration will accept nothing less than what God desires and shows is pleasing to Him in His word.

INVITATION

If there is anything we can do for you today to help bring restoration in your life today — whether that means helping you be become a Christian or to help you in overcoming the sins that you have been fighting in your life, why don’t you make your need known as together we stand and sing?