Sermon Tone Analysis

Do you appreciate your capacity to remember?

Memory is a gift of God many don’t appreciate until it diminishes.

Memory is a blessing to see the good God has done.

It aids us in our worship of Him.

Memory leads to oral tradition to writing so that history continues to tell the story of God work in this world.

Review: As the Jews interact with the law of God, it leads them to spiritual awakening.

Verse 8-9 record for us a great movement of God whereby the Spirit of God moves among the people, leading them to see their sin exposed, mourn over it, and recommit themselves to their relationship with God through covenant.

This work of the Spirit cannot be manufactured although people are trying desperately these days.

Dimming the lights, cranking on the smoke machine, playing repetitive soft chords on the keyboard does absolutely nothing to prompt the Holy Spirit to do a work among God’s people.

Those theatrical measures are simply that…theatrical.

People have tried to reproduce revival through the ages and if history shows us anything, its simply this…God gathered people around God’s word are the components for God to work and bring great revival.

You don’t need lights…you need the light of life- a focus on the Lord, Jesus Christ and all of God’s words that point to him.

You can go to the junk yard, find a rusty old car, tow it to the paint shop, put a fresh coat of paint, new tires, clean the inside, but if the engine is shot, its a waste of your money and time.

Modern worship is seeking to do this…leave out the word of God and yet somehow generate this supernatural work of God by their own means.

It won’t work if the Holy Spirit, the engine of change, in conjunction with God’s Holy Word, isn’t the center of that work!

Nehemiah 9 is a good example of the Spirit of work bringing change.

The people have heard the law of God read to them.

They have spent their time for celebrating and worshipping God through the feast of trumpets and the feast of the tabernacles.

Now they are concluding that time and the focus on the Lord again in their lives had brought about great spiritual transformation…we see in them a renewed love for God’s word and a focus confession of sin.

This is a great example of how a people can truly gather and worship.

As I have said, it starts with a proper priority of worship-with Christ and his word at center.

The Jews have once again discovered the law of God in their lives.

We saw it in the days of Josiah, and it appears, these exiles have once again found a new love for the law of God after returning from their time in exile.

Notice again the time the spend learning from the law…a quarter of the day.

That would be 3 hours of studying God’s word.

The word is having its effect because it is described to us their position of humlity in worship.

The custom was to wear sackcloth, made of goat hair, and cover their heads with dirt in order to reflect a solemn state of mourning.

Why are they mourning?

V 3 tells us it is both personal and national unfaithfulness to God.

They recognize and confess to God that not only have their ancestors been consistently unfaithful but they also have been disobedient to what God commands in his law for HIs people.

What follows from this spiritual awakening is a public confession of sin that reflects upon the faithfulness of God throughout history, the continual unfaithfulness of his people, and the great need that they have for a relationship with Him.

For the church today, we should read this prayer and reflect upon the faithfulness of God in our own lives.

Let their history of unfaithfulness towards God’s commands also be a reminder of how God has been faithful to each one of us even as we fail him day by day.

In response to this revelation, we put our faith in the the Lord Jesus Christ who says, “come to me you who are heavy laden, I will give you rest.”

I.

A Declaration of God’s Greatness above all

Tell of HIs Greatness!

This prayer of confession is one given on a corporate level, most likely with Ezra praying for before the people.

The prayer is overflowing with theological truth about God’s nature and character.

It shows us that as we pray, we should always have in mind the characteristics of God.

It is an honoring thing when we acknowledge his attributes that we recognize in his work in the world.

At the start the prayer Ezra praises God of his absoluteness.

He is the one true God which deserves all our worship and praise.

No praise should be subverted to anything else besides God alone.

The reasons for our sole worship of YHWH follow in v 6-16.

Let’s look at the reasons for our worship!

God’s great creation v6b

Immediately, the prayer begins with God omnipotence on display in creation.

God’s power is displayed in his creation as He creates something from nothing.

His wisdom is shown in his unimaginable beauty and design.

His love is shown as he places that special love on his created humanity, making them in his own image.

As He creates, he does not abandon.

Instead he also governs and preserves all that exists in this world.

From the smallest molecule to the greatest mountain, God preserves life and all that exists in this time (and the time before and the time to come.)

God’s great election v7-8

The prayer continues as God is worshipped for his faithfulness in choosing Abram as the father of his people.

He chose him from all others on the earth to become the Father of Israel, not because Abraham had any special merit in him to qualify him for being chosen.

What God did see is Abraham respond in faithfulness in believing by faith that God would fulfill his promises in giving him a son in his old age.

God likewise chose us, all those who believe in Jesus, to be his people, to be reconciled through the work of His Son.

Not of works of our own, so no man would boast.

If you struggle with the idea of election, I hope you can see that it is not just a New Testament idea.

Its not just from Paul or Peter.

It’s described by Moses.

God chose Abraham, not another Chaldean.

He chose Isaac, not Ishmael to continue the lineage.

He chose Jacob not Esau.

All these things Paul summarizes in Romans 9:10-12

God’s great deliverance v9-11

Thirdly, they recount God’s deliverance of his people from slavery whereby He demonstrated his power over false deities and over arrogant human rulers to display this glory.

He rescued his people from their bondage and revealed the power of YHWH to the Egyptians as well.

He delivered them miraculously by the parting of the Red Sea, which defies nature and used such a deliverance as judgment on the Egyptian armies.

God is the faithful deliverer who comes to the aid of his people and provides a way of escape.

Throughout the history of this earth, God’s people has much to remember about God’s deliverance from flood waters, dens of lions, overwhelming armies, blasphemous giants, evil rulers.

The only deliverance that was not granted was deliverance of his Son upon the cross.

There was no rescue but instead a forsaking so that reconciliation with God could be made.

The atonement with his blood was necessary so that freedom could be granted.

God’s great provision v12-15, 22-25

They continued by focusing on his faithful leadership and provision of their Shepherd.

God faithfully led them in the wilderness from Egypt to the land He promised they would inherit.

Every step of the way, he protected and provided for them, so much so that in their 40 years of wandering, Ezra recounts,

In providing for them, God gave them his rules and laws for their soul and food for their body.

The laws for their spiritual good while the food was for the physical good.

They survived as a people because God never left them nor forsook them.

The prayer continues to tell the story that God’s people were given what they were promised by their faithful God.

They walked into the land God had given them, defeating the armies that inhabited the lands, acquiring the fertile land for their own possession.

Now if you stop and think about your life as you hear and read these words, you can do nothing but worship God for his same works of mercy and grace in your lives.

He created you and cast his love upon you without measure and condition.

He crafted you in his image and he calls you to follow him.

As a follower of Jesus, you can find comfort in knowing that you were chosen before the foundation of the world.

God knew you intimately and personally before you knew Him because he predestined you by his grace.

Just like Israel, God has delivered you from the greatest evil ruler and taskmaster that will ever exist, sin and death.

This is where you and I need our liberation and that liberation is foreshadowed in the exodus of the Jews.

Finally, along the way in this journey of life, we can recount all that God faithful gifts of life, provision and guidance prove that He is good and we are grateful for Him.

This leads us to worship!

How can it not lead us to praise the Lord for all that he has done in all of history and in our particular stories?

When we sing songs and gather each week, we come to give God praise for all this faithfulness.

Its what we were created to do as mankind.... to give him glory enjoy him forever.

II.

The Confession of Man’s Struggle with Sin 16-17, 26-31

Ezra changes the tone of the narrative in v 16 with the word BUT...