Our sermon today plucks out some lessons from Nehemiah 8. Those lessons relate to God’s Word. My hope is that each of us enter the new year with a renewed commitment to God’s Word. Nehemiah 8 offers some great help with that.
#1: Renew Your Commitment To DEMAND GOD’S WORD (1)
Look again at verse 1, “all the people came together as one…They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses.” The Israelites who returned to the land of Israel after captivity returned with a renewed commitment to God’s Word. And that was reflected in their demand of the leadership to “bring out the book!” The new beginning before them was met with a demand for God’s word. The future they were facing was one they entered with a firm demand of God’s word.
The demand for God’s word comes from a deep dependence on it. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Job said in his trial, “I have treasured God’s words more than my daily bread.” Someone who demands God’s word demands it because they know their deep dependence on it. Perhaps Jesus had more in mind than just physical bread when he taught the disciples how to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
What a contrast to the false churches Paul told Timothy about – churches that had no interest in God’s Word and actually shoved it away. Turn to 2 Timothy 4:3-4 with me. “For the time will come, Timothy, when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths.” These groups are the antithesis of the Jews of Nehemiah’s day. They said, “bring out God’s word!” But these false churches said, “Kick out God’s word!”
Demanding God’s word will also mean that we reject those who ignore it, mishandle it and abuse it. “Command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer” Paul told Timothy. He also said, “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who as far as the faith is concerned are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”
APPLICATION: Demand God’s Word. Don’t put up with anything less. Demand God’s Word.
#2: Renew Your Commitment to BE TOGETHER (v1)
Notice what verse 1 says, “All the people came together as one….” All of them. Everyone was in attendance. Everyone had things to do. There was much work to be done. But they set it all aside to get together for the hearing of God’s word. Together.
This is the biblical pattern. Moses assembled all of Israel when he read the Law to them before entering the Promised Land (Dt 1:3; 5:1). The early Church ALL gathered together regularly to sit under the teaching of the Apostles (Act 2:42). And here we see all of Israel congregating before the leaders to hear the Word of God. Are we going to break that pattern?
Joining corporately with the Body of Christ is really not optional. The whole design God has is that unrelated people now are related to each other because of their shared faith in His Son Jesus Christ and they now group together regularly for fellowship, worship, service, and above all: the word of God. A body is comprised of numerous different parts that connect together to form a whole that is bigger and more than any one part alone. Read 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul describes it this way. A building is the construction of all the different parts to form a whole that bigger and more than any one of the individual parts. Believers are all parts of the whole and belong together. “You, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” 1 Peter 2:5 informs us.
EFC, in 2024 renew your commitment to be together. Renew your commitment to demand the word of God TOGETHER. Commit to sit together under the reading, reciting, preaching and teaching of God’s word. Loving and demanding God’s word together bonds us together. You better believe that those Israelites in Nehemiah’s day had a deep bond with each other. And a large part of that was their same attitude toward’s God’s word. Psalm 34:3 is one of my favorite verses as a pastor, “Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.” Many of us have heard of Hebrews 10:25 when it exhorts us, “Do not give up the habit of meeting together as some are in the habit of doing…” During the great revival and renewal episodes in Israel’s history and in the birth of the Church in the NT we see this joint devotion to God’s word. Acts 2 describes the first days of the Church when it says, “Every day they continued to meet together…” (v46).
APPLICATION: Gather Together EFC!
APPLICATION to the APPLICATION: Gather together to corporately demand the Word of God!
#3: Renew Your Commitment to the PUBLIC READING of GOD’S WORD (2-3).
Notice verses 2-3. Ezra “read it aloud.” The people stood there before Ezra and the Levites and listened to the reading of God’s Word. All morning long. It says again in verse 18, “Day after day, from the first day until the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God.” This was the practice of their ancestors:
- Turn with me to Deuteronomy 5:1-22…
- turn with me to Deuteronomy 31:9-13.
- Turn with me to Joshua 8:34-35
But it would be the practice in the future when the Church of Jesus Christ was born. Believers would be devoted to the public reading of the word of God too. “Until I come” Paul told Timothy, “devote yourself to the public reading of God’s Word.” (1 Tim. 4:13). Have you ever read the end of Colossians? Turn there with me, to 4:16…
APPLICATION: Read the Word publicly! Value the public reading of God’s Word
APPLICATION to the APPLICATION: Read the Word privately. If you want a good place to start be sure to check out Pastor Ray’s email with a one year reading plan.
#4: Renew Your Commitment to BE ATTENTIVE TO GOD’S WORD (v3)
So the people all gather as one, they all say together “Bring out the Book!” and the leadership reads it. And verse 3 says, “….and all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.” They listened attentively.
The idea here is not passive listening, but a ready-to-respond kind of listening. When the Bible says people were listening, or had ears to hear, or they heard what was spoken, it always has with it the idea of responding. Responding to what they hear. Responding the right way to what they hear. Responding in faith and obedience.
For instance, if you look down at verse 13 and notice what it says, [Read]. The leadership “gave their attention to the words of the Law.”
[FAST APPLICATION: Giving attention to the word of God is the most admirable and most necessary qualification of any Christian leadership.
APPLICATION to the APPLICATION: Do not pay attention to any pastor, teacher or leader who does not pay attention to God’s Word.
But notice that in the next verse, verse 14, that they heard what the word told them to do, “They found written in the Law…” and then verse 16 their response: “So the people went out…” and they did what God’s Word said. You may hear God’s word but you are only “listening” or “paying attention” when hearing it is combined with faith and obedience.
Another great exampleTurn to 2 Kings 23 with me. Josiah became king of Judah at 8 years old! At 26 years old the court secretary walked into his presence and said, “we found a book in the temple.” It was the book of the law!!! It had been lost – in the temple! God’s book was lost in God’s house. How lost were God’s people! Anyway, follow along in 2 Kings 23:1-3….[READ]…Notice the READING is followed by their RESPONSE. Their response of obedience.
God complained about Israel in Jeremiah 7:13, “While you were doing all these things I spoke to you again and again but you did not listen; I called but you did not answer.” Adam’s disobedience was an example of “not paying attention’ to God’s word.
APPLICATION: Listen to God’s Word AND LIVE OUT WHAT IT SAYS! When the people were terrified of God and told Moses to go up the mountain for them they said, “Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen adn obey.” (Dt 5:27). Listen and obey. This was the kind of “paying attention” that the Israelites were doing in Nehemiah’s day. Let us listen and obey. Let us prove we are paying attention by responding to God’s word rightly.
CONCLUSION: Take Aways
- Demand God’s Word
- Be Together
- Read God’s Word
- Pay attention to God’s Word
- Receive Jesus Christ as your Savior today.