Welcome

Good Morning! I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.

Jesus said in Luke 9:26,

Luke 9:26 ESV

26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Why do we gather? We gather to worship and exalt the name of the one who has become our salvation. The right hand of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ! Worship is about adoration. If we truly adore Jesus, we will not be ashamed of Him! Worship matters!

If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to who we are here at Ephesus...

We are all one family of faith: “giving our all to love God, love people, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.”

That is our mission, our purpose, why we exist as a church.

We have a connect card in the pew in front of you. I invite you to take one and fill it out! If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.

I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon. You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.

Who’s Your One?

Recognition of our Veterans

Scripture Memory

Romans 8:36–37 ESV

36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Opening Scripture Reading

Ephesians 5:20–33 ESV

20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Prayer of Invocation

Revival of Worship

If you have a copy of God’s Word, we are going to be back in the book of Nehemiah today. Find your way to Chapter 8 and join me in standing in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

Nehemiah 8:1–8 ESV

1 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Prayer for Illumination

Sermon Introduction

Please allow me to begin this morning by asking a very pointed question:

Have our churches sacrificed true worship at the altar of becoming more user-friendly?

Or to put it differently,

Have we, in America, grown too comfortable in our approach before our Holy and Almighty God?

An anonymous writer observed a paradox found in the way our generation lives. This writer wrote:

We spend more but have less.

We buy more but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families.

We have more conveniences but less time.

We have more medicine but less well-being.

We read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values.

We have tall men and short character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

We have two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses but broken homes.

We have added years to life, not life to years.

We have cleaned up the air but polluted the soul.

We have learned how to make a living but not a life.1

To that list, I’d like to add:

We have religious lives but not lives filled with worship.

Recently, I stumbled across an article on the Christian website, Crosswalk. The author was addressing the issue of weak preaching in our modern day churches.

He mentioned something he stumbled across in an advertisement for an unrevealed church ministry. It said,

“[Our Pastor’s] answer is God– but he slips Him in at the end, and even then doesn't get heavy. No ranting, no raving. No fire, no brimstone. He doesn't even use the H-word. Call it Light Gospel. It has the same salvation as the Old Time Religion, but with a third less guilt.”2

Another advertisement read:

“[Our] sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin and damnation, and hell fire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urbane, and friendly talk. It breaks all the stereotypes.”3

According to these churches, the new rules of how to worship God may be summed up like this:

Be clever, informal, positive, light-hearted, brief, friendly, relevant, upbeat, and never, never use the dreaded H-word.

My heart grieves for those pastors and congregations who believe that this watered down, soft, low expectation form of Christian worship is what our world needs.

Does it draw large crowds of people? Sometimes.

Does it develop people into fully matured Christ followers who are conformed to the image of Christ? Never!

At the very moment in history when the Church should be stepping up to the microphone and loudly announcing to the world that she has the answer to all our problems in a personal Redeemer named Jesus Christ, she has, instead, lost her voice.

While it is true that churches which hold to the inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word of God have the answer to our world’s dilemma—in the form of the Gospel of Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

It is also true that many churches in our day have compromised that Gospel and grown comfortable following worldly methods and measures for success.

We should communicate that Gospel to our world as if we were giving healing vaccinations to dying people. We don’t need to give them drugs to make them more comfortable, nor should we offer lessons on how to cope with their pain as they manage life on their way to death. God forbid it!

We must warn them that they are going to die eternally if they do not come to the Savior, if they don’t take the healing vaccine. Many churches have lost the fortitude to communicate this life-saving message because it makes people uncomfortable.

At the very time when our world needs the answer, I’m afraid the Church has lost the answer. The people of God today are in desperate need of revival. We are in desperate need of revival.

So were the people of Jerusalem. They had finished the walls and were secure behind their gates and gatekeepers. But there was a spiritual void in Jerusalem. They had everything they needed except a right relationship with the God Almighty.

Today, we are going to look at three attributes that God placed in the hearts of His people to stoke the fires of personal and corporate revival in the people of God!

These are three attributes that should be true of God’s people regardless of the time or place they find themselves. These attributes transcend time and place.

This morning we are going to find an answer in these three attributes to the question,

What happens when God’s people worship through God’s Word?

1. God’s people share a common hunger. (8:1-3)

The first thing that God placed in the hearts of His people to stoke the fires of revival was a common hunger for His Word!

God’s word formed creation! God’s word called Israel to be His Holy Nation, and now the word of God will renew His covenant people.

All that follows happened in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar year, the month of Tishri (our Sept/Oct).

Tishri was a very significant month in Judaism. It begins with the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah - The Jewish New Year), on the tenth day comes the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), then on the 15th day the thanksgiving celebration known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths is held.

Nehemiah 8:1 ESV

1 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.

At this time of celebration, Nehemiah tells us that “all the people gathered as one man.”

The people are the primary focus of this section of Scripture. The phrase “all the people” occurs nine times in the first twelve verses. The word “people” itself is used thirteen times in the same span.

So these people have gathered as one man, representing Israel, at the square before the Water Gate, not at the Temple. The people here include every man, woman, and child old enough to listen and understand.

Don’t miss this... this event was not a spontaneous event. It was pre-planned by Nehemiah and the people. Later we will see that they had already built a stage and a pulpit. Based on this, I’d wager they must have also created a temporary nursery for all the babies and children too young to listen and understand God’s word.

As the people gathered, there was shared expectation, excitement, and impatience. The crowd was eager to get started. Their desire to learn God’s Law was conscious, pervasive, and strong. The sense that this was going to be a wonderful day ran through the whole gathering.

God’s people shared a common hunger for God’s Word.

Next, the people started shouting for Ezra to bring the Word of God out and get this party started. They weren’t there for entertainment. No, they were there because they knew that God was doing great things for Israel and they wanted to see and hear more from Him.

Do we approach our corporate worship gatherings with the same sense of hunger and excitement to hear from God’s word?

So what had happened here?

The Holy Spirit had been working on these people. He gave them an interest in God and a concern for the things of God, including God’s word. He generated an active desire for God and placed in their hearts the purpose of seeking after Him.

J.I. Packer commenting on this passage once said,

In God’s sovereign strategy for world history there are times when the Spirit works with particular power to stir up....motivation, not just in some few individuals but in entire communities....4

Nehemiah 8:2 ESV

2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.

So Ezra brought the word of God out before all the people who had gathered, all who could understand it. What did Ezra do after he brought the Law of God before them?

Did he read a verse or two and tell a bunch of stories? Did he point his finger down his nose at the people and lay a guilt trip on them?

No, he read it to them, every word of it!

Nehemiah 8:3 ESV

3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

He did this for 5-8 hours straight. No coffee breaks! No intermission! From early morning until midday, Ezra read the Law of God before the people.

How did the people respond?

Were they falling asleep during the preaching of God’s Word? Did they complain about the sermon being too long? Were they constantly looking at the position of the sun trying to determine how much time had already passed? Of course not! They were worshiping!

Everyone of them listened attentively the entire time. They were laser focused. They fought off the temptation to dose off! They resisted the urge to let their minds wonder. They closed their ears to the churning of their hungry stomachs knowing that their souls were in much more need of feeding than their bodies at that moment.

The way these people longed for the Scriptures is astounding, and they exemplified a reverence for God’s word that so desperately needs to be recovered in the church of our day.

Consider how those of us who listen to preaching should respond when God’s voice is magnified in the sermon.

Do we hunger for God’s Word like the people of Nehemiah’s day? Do you long to taste the very thing that is sweeter to your soul than honey? Do you use your free time to drink the living water of the Word?

God’s people shared a common hunger for God’s Word. God’s people love God’s Word!

The second thing that God placed in the hearts of His people to stoke the fires of revival was the practice of a common exercise in His Word!

2. God’s people practice a common exercise. (8:4-5, 7-8)

What we had in verses 1-3 was a summary statement of what occurred during this time. The details of the story are given to us in verses 4-12. We will only look at 4-8 today and will examine 9-12 next week.

What is the common practice the people are exercising? Let’s see if we can find the answer in the text.

Nehemiah 8:4 ESV

4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand.

Ezra was a priest and a scribe. He was the chief teacher in Israel. He was a man who was devoted to God and His Word.

In the book named after him we read.

Ezra 7:10 ESV

10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Three things were important to Ezra when it came to serving God as the preacher to the people.

He wanted to know the Law

He wanted to obey the Law

He wanted to teach others to know and obey the Law.

Why the wooden platform?

I believe we ought to make the Bible visible in our preaching and worship, and so did Ezra!

All of Israel were gathered ‘as one man’ in the market-place of Jerusalem, once scattered by the judgment of exile, but now gathered under the word of grace as Ezra brings the Word of God before them.

Nehemiah 8:5 ESV

5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood.

So the wooden platform was built so that all the people could clearly see God’s men as they read and preached from God’s word.

Notice that there was a plurality of men standing beside Ezra; 6 on his right hand side and 7 on his left hand side. These men were trained levitical scribes and priests who assisted Ezra in reading and teaching from the Law. Every man of God needs other men to stand beside them and assist them in ministry.

Notice the response of the people. When he opened the Bible, all the people spontaneously stood up in respect and reverence for God’s Holy Word! This was a great act of worship.

Does God’s Word hold that kind of respect in our hearts today?

Nehemiah 8:7 ESV

7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places.

In addition to the men on the platform, there were other trained men out in the crowd who met the people where they were and helped them understand what the law was teaching.

What does that mean except they were explaining what the text said to the people? This is made even more clear in verse 8.

Nehemiah 8:8 ESV

8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Not only did they clearly read the word of God before the people, they also gave the sense of the reading to help everyone understand what they were hearing.

This is the fourth time the word understand/understood has been used in our passage. Understanding God’s word is obviously very important.

So Ezra and the Levites had to give the sense of the reading in order to help the people understand what they were hearing. “To give the sense,” means to explain the original meaning to the people.

Modern listeners are no different, we do not need a new word from God. We need to understand the Word He has already given to us!

Ezra had to explain the Law because many of the people had lived their lives under foreign captivity, they had lost their ability to understand the Hebrew of the Old Testament. They only knew a derivative of Hebrew known as Aramaic.

The lesson here is that like the people of Nehemiah’s day, we have to work hard to understand the message of God written in a foreign language in a distant time and place under a culture very different from our own.

That is why God has gifted the church with not only His Son and His Word, but he has also given shepherd-teachers like Ezra to help God’s people understand God’s word through the exercise of teaching and preaching. Sermons are gifts to God’s people!

Warren Wiersbe has said,

“A sermon isn’t a picture on the wall, hanging there for folks to admire....The sermon is a door that opens onto a path that leads the pilgrim into new steps of growth and service to the glory of God.”5

God’s people practice a common exercise. Preaching is worship!

The third thing that God placed in the hearts of His people to stoke the fires of revival was the experience of a common response to His Word!

3. God’s people experience a common response. (8:6)

People’s understanding of the Bible is critical in their worship relationship with God. Reading the Scriptures and attentively listening to the Sermon must become our choice, rather than our chore or we will fail to truly worship God.

God gave us His Word so that we could know Him and in knowing Him, worship Him!

Look back at

Nehemiah 8:6 ESV

6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

When Ezra prayed and prepared to read the Scriptures, “all the people stood up.… All the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands.… They bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground” (Neh. 8:5–6).

When was the last time you or people around you responded that way when the pastor got up to preach a sermon?

But here is what’s most interesting. Did you notice that these responses are all ones that we normally associate with musical worship?

Yet they weren’t offered in response to music but rather in anticipation of hearing a word from the Lord!

In our day, it appears that the pendulum may have swung, even to the point of restricting our understanding of “worship” to the musical presence in our services.

In this text, it’s clearly not music but the Word of God that inspires, expresses, and defines the revival of worship happening in the lives of God’s people.

When we praise His Word, we are praising Him. So when His voice is magnified in the sermon, God draws people to Himself.

Oh, how we need to reclaim the role of Scripture reading and preaching in our corporate worship.

Conclusion:

What happens when God’s people worship through God’s Word?

Revival of Worship begins to break out! True worship will lead us to a Revival of Repentance filled with the Joy of the Lord which leads us to a Revival of Thanksgiving and Obedience.

When we learn to fall in love with the Word of God, our adoration of God grows. The better we know Jesus, the more we will love Him. The more we love Him, the more we will obey Him and serve Him.

Are you okay with simply having the good stuff this world offers? Or, do you long for the God stuff that you soul desperately needs?

Just as Nehemiah recognized a void in the lives of the people of Israel when he first came to Jerusalem, I believe there’s a void in every one of us that can only be filled by the divine logos, Jesus Christ, as it cries out for a Word from Him.

We ought to be hungry to hear a Word from God, to know what the Bible says.

Cotton Mather once said,

“The great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher [is] to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.”6

Preaching seeks to revive our worship of God through His revealed Word!

As your pastor I’m not interested in coming to church to preach good stuff. I want to strive to bring you God’s stuff week in and week out!

But for that to happen,

We need to be people who share a common hunger for the things of God, who practice a common exercise in the preaching event as we all come to hear and respond in obedience to the word we receive from God, and a people who experience a common response of worship through God’s Word as we humbly submit ourselves to God’s authority!

May we be who Christ has called us to be!

Hymn of Invitation

Are you washed in the blood?

Hymn No. 136

Operation Bandanas!

Bibliography

Davey, Stephen. Nehemiah. Edited by Lalanne Barber. Wisdom Commentary Series. Apex, NC: Charity House Publishers, 2012. p. 139

https://www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/whats-wrong-with-user-friendly-churches-11552060.html.

Ibid,

Packer, J. I. A Passion for Faithfulness: Wisdom from the Book of Nehemiah. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1995. p. 151.

Warren Wiersbe, “Preaching and Teaching with Imagination”, p. 218.

Quoted in John Piper, “The Supremacy of God in Preaching,” p. 22.