Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Context

We are going to continue our sermon series in Nehemiah where we are looking at how God’s people are invited to join God in his work to save sinners.

And as we continue in , we will see that God has always been in relationship with his people through covenants that he has made with them.

The Big Idea of today’s sermon is that we worship God by living according to the covenant that he has made with us.

So when you ask, How do I worship God, you are essentially asking how do I walk in, obey, live according to the covenant?

What is a Covenant?

Covenants are sometimes described as contractual agreements, but in reality, a covenant goes much deeper than that because a covenant implies a relationship.

In a Covenant, both parties are committed to seeing the covenant or agreement fulfilled not only for their own benefit, but also the benefit of the other person.

Think about the covenant of marriage.

When you get married, you make vows to the other person and commit yourself to seeing them through.

Rich or poor, sickness and in health.

That’s what a covenant is.

And before you ask, Well aren’t covenants an Old Testament thing?

We worship God by following Jesus not living in a covenant.

In other words, how we are able to have a relationship with God and what that relationship means for the life of the believer.

And what I want you to see today is if you are a Christian, you are called to worship God by walking in the New Covenant which God has given us through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

but before we jump into chapter 10, let me give you a little context for where we’ve been.

Since , there has been a religious revival going on in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah had led the people of Israel to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so that they could be a holy people and a light to the nations of God’s salvation.

And after completing the walls, Nehemiah moved from rebuilding the walls with bricks and stone to rebuilding the people of God themselves so that they could recapture their identity as God’s holy people as a testimony to God’s power to save sinners.

And rebuilding the people all started with Ezra the priest, reading the Bible and the people confessing and repenting of their sin.

Then the people move from this repentance sought to obey God’s Word fully by celebrating the Feast of Booths to obey God’s Word fully.

Then in , The Levites, who were the religious leaders of the Temple, recounted all of God’s faithfulness towards his people despite their sin and rejection of living according to his covenant with them.

The people are again reminded that the reason they were taken into exile and removed from the promised land, is because they had not walked in step with their covenantal relationship with God.

In the Old Testament there are multiple covenants that God makes with his people.

Even though covenants are sometimes described as contractual agreements, in reality, a covenant goes beyond a contract because it also implies a relationship between the two parties that is deeper than a business agreement.

It is a unifying relationship where both parties are committed to seeing it through not only for their own benefit, but also the benefit of the other person.

Some of the covenants in the OT are one-sided and unconditional like the Abrahamic covenant where God promised to make Abraham into a great nation and bless the nations through him.

God said I’m going to do this for you Abraham and it is all on me to make it happen.

However, some covenants were conditional such as the covenant God made with his people at Mount Sinai.

And this is important for us, because it is the Covenant at Mount Sinai that the people in Nehemiah are renewing in chapters 9 and 10.

The Covenant at Mount Sinai was made after God saved his people from slavery in Egypt and he gave the the Law.

And God gives them the Law and says you are my people, you are holy before me, Therefore you must live according to my Law.

And if you live according to my law I will take you into the Promise land and I will bless you and make you prosper.

But if you reject my Law, if you walk out of step with this covenant, I will remove you from the land and take you into exile.

The covenant at Sinai was made with Israel after God brought them out of Egypt where he gave them the OT Law.

This covenant was the one that a new generation of Jews renewed right before they entered into the Promised Land because the generation that was alive at Sinai had died during the 40 years in the wilderness because of their lack of faith that God would actually give them the land that he had promised them.

In this covenant God said, because you are my people (Again this was part of the unconditional covenant God had made with Abraham), Because you are my people, you must reflect my holiness by obeying my Law.

And if you obey, I will bless you and you will dwell in the Land I promised to your father, Abraham.

But if you disobey, I will remove you from the land and you will again be slaves to foreign nations because you have rejected my love and grace to be your only God.

And as we know from the OT and the history the Levites proclaim in , the people of God did reject this covenant and because of their disobedience they were taken out of Israel and into exile by the Assyrians and Babylonians.

But now, through Nehemiah and Ezra’s leadership God was restoring his people.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

And desiring to worship God and remain in the Promised Land and enjoy the blessings of being God’s holy people, the people of Nehemiah renew covenant that their fathers had broken saying Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

If God’s people were going to live as the light to the nations that God had called them to be, then they needed to walk in relationship with God by obeying the covenant he had given them.

So Nehemiah records all the names of those who ratified this covenant showing us that...

I. Israel Committed to Obey the Covenant

On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah, 2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, 3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, 4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, 7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these are the priests.

9 And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10 and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

9 And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10 and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, 15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, 18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, 19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, 22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, 24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, 25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26 Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, 27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, 15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, 18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, 19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, 22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, 24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, 25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26 Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, 27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

In the first 27 verses of , Nehemiah lists all the leaders who signed the covenant by placing their name on the seals.

A seal is basically a way of putting your name on the dotted line.

And these leaders were signing the covenant as representatives of all the people of Israel.

In effect, they were saying, “We are going to obey the covenant and lead our people to do the same.”

You had Nehemiah the governor signing, you have the priests and the Levites, and there are the chiefs of all the people.

And what I want you to see in these 27 verses of names are how the people of Israel were committing to live in obedience to the covenant and submission to God’s Word in every area of their life as a nation.

Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah, 2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, 3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, 4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, 7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these are the priests.

9 And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10 and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, 15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, 18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, 19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, 22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, 24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, 25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26 Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, 27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

You had Nehemiah the governor.

He was the political leader of Israel.

There are the priests and the levites.

These are the religious leaders of the people.

Then you have the chiefs of the people who were the cultural and family leaders of the nation of Israel.

So what is going on in this list of names is that all of these leaders were signing the covenant as representatives of all God’s people to commit to lead Israel to submit to the Lord in every sphere of life and be his holy people.

In other words, Israel was committing to worship God and follow his covenant with every area of their life.

It was a total commitment to the Lord.

Not a half measure of worship.

What this means for Christians is that while we do not live in a theocracy and therefore do not have the political or cultural clout in this world to bring all people in submission to God’s Word, we should strive to allow God’s Word and his kingdom to influence every area of our lives as Christians even as the culture calls us foolish for living according to our faith.

That means following Jesus should affect your political beliefs where you vote according to what the Bible says, not according to what is pragmatic or what seems best according to the culture.

Let me make it real.

That means if you are a Christian you cannot vote for a candidate or a party who affirms and advocates the murder of the unborn.

That is sin.

Now I’m not telling you that if you are a Christian you have to vote Republican.

There are some legitimate criticisms about their policies as well and how they line up with caring for the poor and oppressed.

However, how you must think as a Christian is in regards to conscience.

There is no debate that the abortion issue is one of the prevailing issues for the Democratic party.

If you don’t affirm abortion rights then you will not become a Democratic leader.

God’s word is clear that we cannot be party to the murder of the unborn in any capacity.

In regards to Republicans, you may have legitimate biblical reasons why you don’t want to vote for them, but these are debatable because the very platform of the Republican party is not based on an explicit policy of injustice towards the oppressed.

You might think their policies lead to that and, if so, you should not vote for them according to your conscience.

We should hold our political beliefs against the Word of God and bring those beliefs into submission to what God has said where it is explicit, and in areas where the Bible is less clear in how it works itself out in our modern day polictics, we must vote according to our conscience following God’s Word as best as we are able.

God’s Word should also be the standard by which we evaluate our religious beliefs and practices.

When Jesus said he is the way the truth and the life, that means that must reject cultural relativism that says anyone that worships any God is going to go to heaven.

In addition, when we look at how we will organize our weekly rhythms as God’s people we must consider how we can engage our lives in the local church so that we can grow in our discipleship.

God’s Word even speaks to the kind of churches that we should engages our lives in through church membership because a church that claims to be a Christian church doesn’t necessarily make it so.

We must commit only to churches that hold to orthodox Christian belief that is founded upon God’s Word and refuse to acquiesce to the culture.

Finally, we must organize our families according to God’s Word.

That means our families must seek to honor the Lord in how we speak and treat one another.

Our homes should be a place of grace and forgiveness.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.

Our families should be marked by the fruit of the Spirit.

Not bitterness, strife, chaos, division, and anger.

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .love,

joy peace patience kindness gentleness self controland forgiveness.