Actually, I started the new year with Nehemiah 8 to really impress on us 8 resolutions you could call them. They are 8 renewed commitments to the word of God. They come from Nehemia
I have wanted to draw out 8 points from Nehemiah 8 related to renewal. Renewal of our commitment. Commitment to God’s Word. Nehemiah 8 takes place in Jerusalem, a little over 400 years before Christ. Over the past two weeks we saw 7 points: 1) demand God’s word, 2) be together for God’s word, 3) publicly read God’s word, 4) be attentive to God’s word, 5) be reverent towards God’s word, 6) Understand God’s Word, and 7) Be convicted by God’s Word. Finally, this week, we will cover number eight (8): Be joyful through God’s Word. Renew Your Commitment to BE JOYFUL (10-12)
So today we will cover this point and make it into a whole sermon. Joy is the theme. Joy is a theme in Scripture. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit….as it relates to God’s Word.
Let me share 6 points related to their joy from the text.
#1: JOY INSTRUCTED (OBEDIENT JOY)
First, Joy was instructed. Look at how the leaders instruct the people NOT to grieve, and instead to celebrate joyfully. Look at verse 9, “…Do not mourn or weep.” Look at verse 10, “Go and enjoy….Do not grieve“Do not grieve” the leaders kept telling the people. “Go and enjoy yourselves and celebrate today. As a matter of fact, make sure others have food and drinks so that they can celebrate too if they don’t have anything.” The people needed to be guided to joy and see that joy was the appropriate response on that day.
APPLICATION: Sometimes we need to be shown the right response for the moment we are in. God told Moses to get up off the ground and quit grieving over
Now doesn’t it stand out that the leaders kept saying, “this day is holy” and “this is a holy day”? What are they talking about? Well in verse 2 we are told when this moment happened, “So on the first day of the seventh month…” Then in verse 13 it says, “On the second day…” Then in the last verse, verse 18 it says, “they celebrated the festival for seven days and on the eighth day …
What is happening is the renewal of the original festivals in the fall season that God prescribed: the Festival of Trumpets (1st day), then the Day of Atonement (10th day) and then the Feast of Tabernacles (15th thru the 21st). These are important festivals on the calendar. Apparently chapter 8 is spanning at least the first 21 days of the seventh month because the latter half of chapter 8 describes the Feast of Tabernacles, which occurs from the 15 to the 21st.
#2: JOY THAT IS SHARED
Second, Joy is shared. Isn’t it obvious that they all were getting together to celebrate? The idea of being together for joy was seen even in how they were to look around to their neighbors to make sure they were supplied for celebrating. I’m sure that many were invited over, “Hey, you don’t have anything? C’mon over to our place. We got others coming over too so join us!”
Joy is supposed to be shared. A great verse on this point is in 1 John 1. Look at verses 3 and 4 with me. John and others have fellowship with God and His Son Jesus Christ. He wants all his readers to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and enter into fellowship with God and God’s Son, Jesus. And it is precisely that, that they would enter into fellowship with the same God John has fellowship with, that would make John’s joy COMPLETE.
APPLICATION: See fellowship with each other as a great source of joy. If your spouse has passed away, or loved ones do not share your faith, or your workplace is hostile towards Christ, then be sure all the more to see the joy that God put in fellowshipping with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
APPLICATION: Enter into the joy of fellowship with God, His Son, and His people.
#3: JOY IN HOLINESS
Third, joy was associated with holiness. The leaders kept telling the people, “This day is holy” as a basis for their joy. What I wasn’t paying attention to until last week was what specific day it was. It was the first day of the seventh month. That day was important for two reasons: it was the feast of trumpets and it was the beginning of a civil new year. That is the first day of the new year from a civil standpoint. It was a “new year.” Think about how that all added to the atmosphere of “starting over” and doing it right. So you look into some things and the Jewish calendar has a lot going on in the seventh month. On the first day, as in Nehemiah, there is the new year.
The moment was holy and holiness in this moment called for joy. There is a relationship between holiness and joy. It is ignorance to have a view that to be more holy leads to less joy. A less joyful person is not a more holy person. Is not “joy” one fruit that comes from the HOLY Spirit?
#4: JOY’S STRENGTH
Nehemiah told the people in verse 10, “do not grieve, the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Joy was to characterize these feasts. Turn to Dt 16:13-15 with me. Here we are going to listen to God tell the Isrealites way back at the beginning of his relationship with them before entering the Promised Land, how they were supposed to celebrate this feast
Now hundreds and years later and much much history later, the same nation is celebrating the same feast with the same joy God commanded that it should be celebrated with. Actually, their joy wasn’t like God commanded – it was more. Follow along in verses 16-18 and watch what it says.
Joy and strength are tied together. This is not joy over human things like U of M winning for the first time in so many years, or the Lions being in the playoffs. Although cause for joy those are! This is not the joy of special life moments either, such as the birth of a child or the marriage of a young couple or the graduation from school or some success in academics or your career.
Instead, Nehemiah says specifically, the joy OF THE LORD. What is that? Well first notice that strength comes from having joy in the LORD. Keil & Delitszch say, it “is a joy founded on the feeling of communion with the LORD, on the consciousness that we have in the LORD a God who is patient and abundant in goodness and truth.” Delighting in the Lord produces spiritual strength. Joy in the Lord produces all the marks of spiritual strength
Its a strength that comes from faith but also bolsters faith. It makes the believer strong in the face of adversity and prevents them from drowning in anxiety and fear, “consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds” (James 1). Joy is a strength that bolsters obedience – but also delighting in obedience , delighting in walking in God’s ways. “I rejoice in following your commands, as one rejoices in great riches.” (Psalm 119:14). Verse 16 says, “Your statutes are the joy of my heart” Psalm 119:11 says. “I
Joy is a corporate strength that bonds believers together, and that joy among the whole group strengthens the individuals in the group.
It is a joy derived from what you know God. It is a joy that wells up from the things you come to know about God. God is the source of that joy. Isaiah 61:10 says, “I delight greatly IN the LORD; my soul rejoices IN my God.”
Jonathan Edwards described his sister Jerusha’s love for God like this, “her approach to reading the Bible and prayer were not looked upon as a prescribed task , but a longed for enjoyment…for her no society was so delightful as solitude with God.” They were spiritual twins in this respect, as that same powerful joy in God abided in Jonathan. He describes his own joy in God in his journals, “Sometimes only mentioning a single word caused my heart to burn within me…The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced, have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate, but in a direct view of the glorious things of the gospel.” That is joy in the LORD, the LORD is the source and cause of our joy.
But it comes not simply from head knowledge of God. That really isn’t it at all. It comes from the knowledge that only comes from experience – experience with God. Psalm 5:11 gives one example, “But let all who take refuge in you be glad, let them sing for joy.” The experience of God’s protection made the protected man glad – not merely for his safety, but glad in that he now knew God cared for him and would protect him. This new knowledge of God, born of experience, is one that birthed joy. And an experiential knowledge of God that produces joy You don’t get that from some mere propositional statement of joy or God’s protection. You have to experience it as a man who has been protected by God. This is a repeated theme throughout the Psalms.
Yet other times in Scripture it seems the other way around: God is our strength and that causes joy (Ps 21:1; 28:7-8). It seems Nehemiah is saying it backwards and instead he should say, “The strength of the LORD is your joy” or “God is strong for you and that will make you joyful.” But Nehemiah doesn’t say that. He reverses the equation and says “the joy of the LORD is the source of our strength.” So while we become joyful when we see God be strong for us, here we see that we are to be strong when we see the joy of the LORD.
So what does Nehemiah mean when he tells the people “The joy OF THE LORD is YOUR strength”? It means that
#5: JOY IN GOD’S MERCY
Fifth, Joy is from God’s mercy. It’s not stated explicitly but I believe it is implied here: that God’s mercy was the reason they were not to carry on weeping and grieving. In other words, their conviction they felt over their sin as the Law was read was the right response, but now they were being assured of God’s mercy. Now the right response to God’s mercy is joy! The very Law that was being read to them that convicted them, that pointed out all their obligations to God they had abandoned, that pointed out all the sins God would judge that they committed, was the same Law that assured them of God’s mercy. Deuteronomy 4:30-31 says….
Notice the progression: abandoning God led to judgment, which led to conviction, which led to weeping repentance, which led to mercy and to acceptance and to God’s reassurance, which led to joy!
APPLICATION: Step into the joy that comes from God’s mercy. No one finds joy in God like the person who knows God has forgiven them much. “He who has been forgiven much loves much” Jesus said. I would say too “He who has been forgiven much has joy much!”
APPLICATION to the APPLICATION: Don’t let your initial joy of being forgiven fade. Maybe we get used to being “forgiven” and take it for granted. Maybe we lose sight of how serious our sin was and how costly it was to our Savior to purchase our salvation. The way to continually keep that joy fresh is to keep coming to God for His mercy. Let me say that again: the way to keep that joy fresh is to keep coming to God for his mercy. Or do we think we have no need of mercy any more? Oh we haven’t done, thought or said anything that would cause us to need God’s mercy in yeeeeears! That’s all behind us now – we’ve arrived! Honestly: when was the last time you prayed for God to forgive you for something specific you said or did or thought? When? Here’s the thing: the less you confess the less you are able to see how much you need to confess. So as time goes on the layers of blindness and insensitivity just keep being added.
APPLICATION: Enough with saying, “I believe God has forgiven me but I just can’t forgive myself.” You know what that says? That person has no sense of how much they’ve offended God with their sins. Let me ask that person the question: “Why is it that you continue to ‘not forgive’ yourself while God is able to forgive you? If God can forgive you – if indeed He actually has – then what makes you so unwilling to forgive you? Do you do that with other people? If God has forgiven them do you continue on with an unforgiving heart towards them? “Oh, I know God has forgiven them, but I haven’t.” Watch out Christian.
#6: JOY IN UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WORD
Sixth, Joy is from God’s Word. They celebrated, verse 12 says, “with great joy, because they now UNDERSTOOD the words that had been spoken to them.” There can be respect, there can be appreciation, there can be satisfaction from hearing the Word of God being read. But there is a horizon of joy that can only be reached when understanding of God’s Word happens.
Think of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24 says Jesus opened the Scriptures to them. And what was the effect on them as he did so? “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Oh how the hearts of the Israelites burned within them as they came to understand God’s Word as it was taught to them. Oh how our hearts burn within us when we come to understand God’s Word. Do not miss the joy that comes with understanding God’s Word.
APPLICATION: Go further than church. Come to Bible Study at 10am on Sundays. Join the women’s bible study or the men’s discipleship group. If you want more then ask me about one on one. I do one on one with people. Arguably, one on one or small group studies consistently result in the deepest understanding of God’s Word. I’m filled up right now, but there are godly men and women in the church who would love to take on a disciple. Are there disciples who would love to take on a mentor? Press further into the word to understand it more.