Devoted to Him

Illustration on Devotion: Elizabeth Elliot tells this story of her first date with who would be her husband.

“The first date Jim asked me on was to a missionary meeting at Moody Church in Chicago, late in April. Not surprising that he would choose an event like this rather than a concert or dinner out. The speaker was one of the daughters of the famous missionary to Africa C.T. Studd. She told of her father's last hours. He lay on his cot, gazing around the little hut and at his few possessions. "I wish I had something to leave to each of you," he said to the handful of people present, "but I gave it all to Jesus long ago."

James Montgomery Boice wrote, “What is a dedication? The word comes from the Latin verb do, dare, dedi, datum, which means “to offer” or “to give.” When an object is dedicated—to the Lord, for example—it means it is given to him for his control and use. When a person dedicates herself or himself to God, it is for the same reason.”

There are many points of determination you must make in your life. Dedication to your spouse, your health, your children, and your Lord. Dedication is what takes the palace of a dream and is what cuts the path out of hardship to get there. In our life as Christians we must be people of devotion with our greatest dream being a life wholly given to Christ. A life wholly commited that may be utilized of the Lord to build His kingdom that others may receive from it. And this is what I pray we will see today.

Generational Devotion

Illustration: Defining moments.

Bridge: As you and I may have noted in your Old Testament reading, a King would often be used as a descriptive landmark for an time period. For instance, in Isaiah 6 he writes, “in the year that King Uzziah died...”

Well, as we look at this text in front of us, we may feel tempted to skip it believing that it may not be applicable to our lives, but if we skip this passage we will rob ourselves of great truth and encouragement. During the time period we are reading of there is no believing King. Israel is under rule of Artaxerxes and they most certainly wouldn’t use a pagan king to depict an age. So, what we find utilized here are the name of the High Priests, most clearly: Jeshua, who is accompanied by Zerubbabel the governor of Judah, in 12:1, Joiakim in v12, and Eliashib in v22. Now, what we may be tempted to do is to say, “okay, there’s some names, that’s nice, next!” But what you and I have just seen is generation, after generation, after generation just listed.

In verse 1 we take note of Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, descendant of David, and ancestor of Christ, joining Jeshua in leading the first generation of 42,360 Jews in the first return following their captivity. This is more deeply seen in Ezra 2.

Next, in verse 12, we read of Joiakim and the people of that generation who we might consider a bridging generation to the 3rd generation seen which would be the contemporaries of Nehemiah which seen in v22 with Eliashib as the High Priest

This, some commentators speculate, spans a time from 587 BC to 445 BC, which is quite a long time. And here is the gist. As we look at this passage there is one specific group being highlighted, the tribe of Levi. These are the people from whom God has appointed His Priests and His temple servants. And so, what we are seeing is a record of the importance of generational devotion in Temple Service to the glory of Yahweh. And here is where my heart simply explodes. As you and I consider who this tribe comes from we must examine no further than it’s name-Levi.

And now we ask, what is so special about the Tribe of Levi that God has chosen them for such a task? Certainly they must’ve been head and shoulders better than the rest! Well, let’s ask their Dad, Jacob on his deathbed.

Genesis 49:5-7 “Simeon and Levi are brothers; their knives are vicious weapons. May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For in their anger they kill men, and on a whim they hamstring oxen. Their anger is cursed, for it is strong, and their fury, for it is cruel! I will disperse them throughout Jacob and scatter them throughout Israel.”

Why would Jacob say this to his sons? Well, in Genesis 34 we meet Dinah, their sister and as she goes out to meet her friends she is rape by Schechem who then sends his father to request that Jacob gives them Dinah that Schechem can marry her and Jacob agrees on the condition that all of their men are circumcised. Well, as Simeon and Levi over hear this they know that this whole act of circumcision isn’t exactly a comfortable thing to quickly recover from and so, they decide their going to run up upon them and kill every single man in site. And this is the legacy of Levi. A man who’s uncontrolled rage led to the slaughter of a whole city of men.

Yet we find something unbelievable in Exodus 28. God takes Aaron, the brother of Moses, and appoints him as His priest. And where you might have seen a patriarchal curse from Jacob, God gives a blessing. Just as Jacob says they will be dispersed throughout Israel God surely brings it to pass as they receive no land - but they receive far better, they receive God Himself in Numbers 18:20 we read, “The LORD told Aaron, “You will not have an inheritance in their land; there will be no portion among them for you. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.”

And THIS is just how marvelous our God is. The One who’s ways are not our own. Where we would expect judgment, God has given grace and has reached into the depths of sin and made a people His own giving them no greater reward in existence than His very self!

And this is what have experienced on our own, for in Christ, the Great High Priest, of the order of Melchizedek, has come and in His total fulfillment of the moral, ceremonial, and civil Law, He has by His own blood given the perfect sacrifice and torn the veil that we, a sinful people full of hate and rage against our own Creator have been chosen to be as Peter puts it in 1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

We are not a priesthood offering bloody sacrifices, but living ones - Ourselves. Romans 12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”

Now, making full circle we now recall this generational devotion. And realizing two things.

First, God’s work is done by individuals. Our facebook banners, profile pics, and cool name may be CityLight, but this community is made up of individuals and each of you have responsibilities and are extremely important parts of this ministry. Have you ever looked around and where you’re at and thought, “How in the world did I get here?!” It may surprise you that seemingly overnight you popped up in a different state or a different ministry, but it didn’t shock God. He has placed you here and you have a ministry of gifts and devotion to use for His sake.

Second, we must ask, is this a generational work or a fad? In 2 Kings 20 we find King Hezekiah’s failure as he shows the enemy envoys the treasure house of Israel to which Isaiah prophecies, “The days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your predecessors have stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord, “Some of your descendents- who come from you, whom you father - will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” for he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?”

Church, I am not interested in being trendy, edgy, or cool. I am not interested in building an empire for my name or for a board of Elders. I’m interested in seeing Asheville revolutionized by the Gospel and that I may be a willing tool that God might use us to build something that there may be something for our children and their children to pour into! This matters, not necessarily CityLight, but the ministry of the Gospel in Asheville! That matters, you matter, and they matter. Is this something worth fighting for? If it is built upon the Word then from the depths of my soul I can say, “Yes.”

Each of us have a responsibility to stand upon the shoulders of those who have gone before us, learning, growing, reaching and penetrating the darkness of this world with the light of Christ. We cannot stand idle, we cannot forsake our ministries. We serve a God who the very rocks would sing praises if we were to hush and He is worthy of our devotion.

Worshipful Devotion (12:27-43)

ILLUSTRATION: At Waterloo one of the British lieutenants, in the early part of the day, had his left forearm broken by a shot. He could not, therefore, hold the reins in his hand, but he seized them with his mouth and fought on until another shot broke the upper part of the arm to splinters, and it had to be amputated. But within two days there he was, with his arm still bleeding and the wound all raw, riding at the head of his division.11 Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).

Emotion. (27-43. 43)

This next passage is not so much theological, as we saw in passages like the prayer of Nehemiah 9, as it is historical and emotional. However, there are wonderful things to note within this joyful account.

Kenyon’s excavation of this site found that Nehemiah’s wall would’ve been around 9 feet in width so this would’ve been able to fit two nicely sized choirs for sure. There are many who speculate what songs they may have sung, one I feel surely would’ve been fitting would’ve been Psalm 48 “The LORD is great and highly praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, rising splendidly, is the joy of the whole earth. Mount Zion—the summit of Zaphon— is the city of the great King. God is known as a stronghold in its citadels. Look! The kings assembled; they advanced together. They looked and froze with fear; they fled in terror. Trembling seized them there, agony like that of a woman in labor, as you wrecked the ships of Tarshish with the east wind. Just as we heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God; God will establish it forever. Selah God, within your temple, we contemplate your faithful love. Like your name, God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with justice. Mount Zion is glad. Judah’s villages rejoice because of your judgments. Go around Zion, encircle it; count its towers, note its ramparts; tour its citadels so that you can tell a future generation: “This God, our God forever and ever— he will always lead us.”

This event is the climax of the book, and there is great wisdom found as Nehemiah notes God’s worthy praise in the secular work of building this wall. And reflecting back on all of the trials, victories, and work that they have been involved in it was appropriate to rejoice in God’s goodness. This public worship would be a public proclamation that this work is not the work of man, but the work of God who deserves all of the praise! The theme here is not, “Wow, Nehemiah, you’re so great. Or wow, look what we did!” Instead it is centered not upon the accomplishment of men, but the work of God!

This emotion can be summed up no better than what we see in v43 “On that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy. The women and children also celebrated, and Jerusalem’s rejoicing was heard far away.” Now, this is a good time! Here words like, “rejoice, joy, and celebrate” Are popping off the page explosively and we must notice that this is not a self manufactured joy but the text says, “God had given them great joy.” Paul speaks to those who have tasted of the joy of the Lord as he wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

JG McConville speaks well here as he says, “If the joy of Nehemiah’s Jerusalem seems alien and Paul’s unnatural, it is simply a measure of the difficulty experienced by a rich western world in finding well-being in godliness itself. What Nehemiah and Paul knew—in direct contrast to the modern doctrine that he who acquires most and succeeds best is happiest—is that joy, like love, peace, self-control, etc. (cf. Gal. 5:22), is spiritual.1”

This is not merely the endorphins released after a job well done at the gym, rather, this is a supernatural exuberance found when we are in awe of who it is that blesses us!

Devotion. (30)

Before the people dedicated the work to God, they knew they must dedicate themselves. This purification would’ve included fasting, abstaining from sexual relations, offering sacrifices, and washing with water. The whole emphasis here is on holiness. And as you and I consider ourselves and this work we must examine our own condition. Under the New Covenant we are not bound by ceremonial cleansing. 1 John 1:9 ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

As we consider this implication for our work here we must ask, “How is our walk with God?” And, “Is this work that we are doing wholly God’s or is it made up of golden calves?” We must pursue total devotion of ourselves and total submission of this work to the guidance of the Word and the will of God!

Connection. (36)

Lastly, for this passage we notice the emphasis on continuity with what David had done. Mervin Breneman said it well when he said, “This emphasis reminds us that an understanding of our place in history and our solidarity with former generations of Christians are vital. We too must see ourselves as part of God’s continuing plan.”

Intentional Devotion

You know, if you’re going to do anything worthwhile you must be devoted to it. I’ve never randomly opened my eyes and magically been lifting weights, or eating clean, or effortlessly loving others sacrificially. There must be intentionality in our lives as a devoted means to accomplish what is before us.

And Lastly, as we look at v44-47 we notice intentional devotion. There are some who live the way they live so that they may feel as though they have earned the acceptance of God which turns their confidence of self to allowance of jubilant emotion. This is the feeling of “Oh, I can/can’t worship today because of what I did this week.”. Others feel as though an uncontrollable event of emotion is the peak of our labor and purpose. But Nehemiah doesn’t show this to be so. As Israel enjoys the joy and worship of God, they do not simply say, “Well that’s as good as it gets! Job accomplished!” No! This enjoyment of God only charges them to further devotion, personal devotion.

What we see here is how the people took responsibility for the multiple different aspects of the Temple worship from the time of Zerubbabel to Nehemiah. From providing for the Temple workers to collecting the provisions that the people gladly brought to support the Temple workers they all had a part. No gift is unimportant, no person is irrelevant, no job is unimportant. The work of God needs people in the public eye and others behind the scenes. Everyone has a gift to give whether it’s preaching, teaching, giving, encouraging, singing, and on and on we all have a responsibility to each other and ultimately, to our God!

Conclusion

Are you and I devoted to standing upon the shoulders of those who have sacrificed so much before us? Are we commited to raising our families to carry on the message that Christ has overcome the world?

Have we found ourselves in awe of the work of God in our lives and all that He’s done? Are we unashamed to simply live a life of total satisfcation in His grace?

Have we made up our minds that we are going to serve when, how, and where we can? Not for the fame of a name, but for the good of our Church family and to the glory of God?

As we consider the topic of devotion today we must find the joy of our devotion rooted solely in the supreme and whole devotion of Christ who was devoted wholly unto death and has been raised to life that He might be the firstborn among us and that He might be the cornerstone of His Church.

We must consider Christ who’s life was poured out as a worshipful offering unto the satisfaction of the Father living a life, as John 5:30 says, “I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.”

And we must consider Christ who was intentionally devoted as One slain before the foundation of the World for His people.

As we face the charge of the text this morning to be people wholly devoted to God we don’t have to look any further for the perfect example than Christ our Redeemer.

So, as we go forward as the Church let us be a people who have given all of us to the One who has given us all.