Nehemiah: Joy-filled Obedience

Well, we are in the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament.

The people in Nehemiah, they're in Jerusalem at this point.

They have rebuilt the temple.

They've restored worship.

They've rebuilt the walls around the city of Jerusalem.

In Nehemiah chapter 7, we get a list of people.

Nehemiah 7 · chapter mention

It's just a count of people.

It's almost like a censer of sorts.

It's an inventory of people.

And then today we're going to jump into Nehemiah chapter 8, where all the people are gathered at the water gate.

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

And Ezra begins to read to them from the book of Law.

So the first five books of our Bibles, the book of Law.

That's the scripture they had at the time.

So let's read again Nehemiah 8, 5 and 6.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people.

And he opened it all.

The people stood.

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.

Point number one is this God's wisdom meets us in our most needy places.

God's wisdom meets us in our most needy places.

So the people understood that they needed a wisdom beyond their own thinking.

And then where they gathered to hear this word is actually what's interesting.

Because the reading was not in the temple, the reading was at the water gate, and the water gate was the center of daily life.

So this would be like us not hearing the word of God in the Redeemer Sanctuary, but hearing it at Costco or your high school or Publix or Health Place or wherever you work out.

Right?

Hearing it in the most daily practical.

They are saying we want to begin to be people of the book.

People that have scripture apart, not just of Sunday, but part of our daily practical lives.

Many years ago, our entire 18-person extended family had a beach week.

And our girls were little at the time.

So we're sleep deprived, deathly concerned, these other people are going to wake up our babies.

And my brother-in-law, my sweet, amazing brother-in-law and sister-in-law, they love to wake up early.

Like it's dark out and we're on vacation early.

And so they would wake up around 5 a.m.

And we begin to hear them in the kitchen fixing their coffee.

Wake us up.

And we become deathly afraid that they're going to wake up our girls and that we're going to have to begin to parent at 5 a.m.

And that they're going to be fussy all day.

And if they're fussy, I'm fussy.

And so I don't know, day three, I'm not sure what morning I lose it.

I walked into the kitchen and I let my brother-in-law have it.

And he doesn't like it because he's an alpha and I'm an alpha and he doesn't like how I'm talking to him, and then I don't like how he's talking to me.

And then he actually sort of stayed calm through it all, which I didn't like that.

So then I got even more, you know, angry about that.

And I just let him have it.

I let loose.

Now later in the day we reconciled, but I sort of felt a wedge develop.

I mean, we reconciled, I apologized, he apologized, we hugged it out.

I love you.

But I just sort of felt like some wedge showed up.

It didn't used to be there.

It felt like that way for months.

Fast forward to the next summer, again, 18 people, beach trip.

I don't know if he felt the wedge or not, but I did.

I knew something was off.

And so one morning I go for a walk and I tell the Lord, I'm not going back to that house until I know what to do.

Like it's bothering me too much.

I'm not going back to that house until I have a word from you about that.

And I'm remembering that passage, the verse about being reconciled to your brother before you worship.

Like that's how important this stuff is.

And then I remember the verse, Ephesians 4.32, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.

And I realized we had forgiven each other, he forgave me and I forgave him.

But I had not been kind or tender toward him.

I realized I needed to tell my brother-in-law how much he meant to me.

So I'm like, all right, good time to go back to the house.

So I go back to the house and I pull him to the side and I apologize again.

I said, I don't know if you felt the wedge, but I felt the wedge.

And then I just told him how much he has meant to me since I was 14 years old.

And the wedge went away.

See, in my very place of need, when I was unsure how to take the next step.

Psalm 119, 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

That's what the Bible gives us.

The scripture gives us the next step.

How do I handle this relationship?

What do I do here?

We look to the scriptures.

The word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path.

I can take the next step.

Nehemiah 8:8.

Nehemiah 8:8

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

After Ezra read, the Levites come up.

The Levites are assistant priests.

And so these assistant priests help the people understand the thing that Ezra read.

Because the Bible's not always easy to understand.

Point number two is this the Bible can be difficult to understand.

Sometimes we need help.

Now the Bible's not always difficult, but it can be.

It's written over thousands of years.

It's written from different cultures, written by different people, written in different languages.

There's narrative, there's poetry, there's letters, there's histories, there's parables, there's teaching, there's figurative language, and there's literal language.

Sometimes we read it and we understand.

Amazing, amazing.

And sometimes we read it and we need some help.

So here are a few resources I use all the time, pretty much every single week.

The first is a commentary series.

Don't be intimidated by that.

This is an incredibly accessible commentary series.

It makes it easy to understand.

The Bible Speaks Today commentary series.

We use this series pretty much with every series that we go through.

Ligoneer Ministries is RC Spruell's ministry, ligoneer.org.

Pretty much any question you have, you could Google that.

And Ligoneer is going to pop up an answer for you: an article, a sermon.

Same thing with gospel in life.

That's Tim Keller's ministry.

You're having a question about a passage of scripture, you can Google that.

You can Google the passage, get to gospel in life, some sermon, some article to help you understand the thing that you don't understand.

There are people way smarter than me, way smarter than you, that have given their lives, given their entire lives devoted to study some niche of a niche within the Bible.

And when you hit it, all of a sudden, don't think that you should all of a sudden be able to understand.

Why don't we rely on somebody who's given their whole life to it?

Nehemiah 8, 9 through 12.

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra, the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God.

Do not mourn or weep.

For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law.

Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, amen.

And send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord.

And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy.

Do not be grieved.

And all the people went their way to eat and drink and send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Point number three is this hearing God's word empowers joy, obeying God's word increases joy.

They hear the word, they're convicted of sin.

They've realized they've screwed up.

God's asked them to do something, live a certain way, they haven't done it, and they feel sorrow for that sin.

They've caused destruction of the world, they've caused problems in relationships, they're mourning, they're weeping.

But verse 10, we do not stay in the sorrow of our sin.

The passage actually reveals a process to us that we hear the word, we understand what is true and good, and as soon as that happens, you realize you don't always live up to it.

So you grow an awareness of your sin, your faults, your imperfections, and you're going to be sorrowful for that.

There's going to be a certain amount of sorrow.

But we don't live there.

We don't sit there.

We experience that, but then we move into the freedom and the joy we have in Christ's finished work.

That we have the full forgiveness, all the forgiveness we ever need for any of our mess ups and horrible mistakes, the tapes you replay of what you said and what you did, it's all forgiven in Jesus.

A colleague of mine's a pastor at St.

George's Episcopal Church in New York City.

All over their church, they have these little signs.

Here's a picture of the sign.

Enjoy your forgiveness.

All over the church, outside the church, inside the church, and all over.

They want the people to hear the word of the full forgiveness they have in Jesus.

But they want them to actually enjoy it.

Not to abuse it, but to find joy in the fact that you are already forgiven from a work outside of yourself.

And that it's given to you.

So you don't just hear that you're forgiven and stay in your sorrow.

You actually enjoy your forgiveness.

You actually find joy in Jesus' gift of forgiveness to you.

Nehemiah 8:13 through eighteen.

Nehemiah 8:13

On the second day, the heads of the fathers' houses of all the people, with the priest and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the law.

And they found it written in the law of the Lord that commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns in Jerusalem.

So they were reading the Bible, they're reading the scriptures, scriptures at the time, they're reading the scriptures, and they read, Oh, there's this feast thing we're supposed to do, and we're not doing it.

And they go, Oh, we're supposed to do it, we're not doing it.

We should begin to do it.

So they go out to the towns in Jerusalem, go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.

So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the water gate, and in the square at the gate of Ephraim.

And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in booths, kind of like a tent, like a hut.

For from the days of Jeshua the son of nun to the day of the people of Israel had not done so.

And there was very great rejoicing.

And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the book of the law of God.

They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the rule.

Point number four is this healthy obedience is joyful response to whatever God calls us.

Did you see it at the end of verse 17?

They obey, and there was very great rejoicing.

Healthy obedience is joyful response to whatever God calls us.

Three years ago, I caught my first really good cutthroat trout on a dry fly.

I know that means nothing to most of you.

To me, it means everything.

So a cutthroat trout is, you see that little red marking under his jaw?

It almost looks like maybe I hooked him and cost some blood or something.

No, that's actually a marking on the fish itself.

That's why it's called a cutthroat trout.

And so my fishing group, we're in the Bridger Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

We're on this creek called Crystal Creek.

We're working our way up the creek.

I see this bend in the river.

I see a seam.

I see a little tree hanging over it.

I'm like, oh, that looks fishy.

That is the spot.

That is perfect.

So I drop my caddis fly in there once.

I wasn't close enough to the shore second time, no.

And then the third time, I'm like, oh, that's a good one.

Boom.

He comes up.

I see him come up.

He comes over the water, comes down on the fly.

I set it.

I get him in.

Now, for the sake of an illustration, let's call this fish Fred.

Okay?

Kids, you like this part?

Fred the fish.

Okay?

We're gonna call him Fred.

Now, Fred summers in Crystal Creek and he winters in the Snake River.

This is actually what he does.

All the cutthroat trout do this.

This is his life.

He was created for water.

But imagine when Fred came up on that caddis fly.

Imagine when he came out of the water, imagine he looked up.

Imagine he saw a bird flying overhead, a free bird just flying through the sky.

Imagine that he thought to himself, that's what I want.

I want to be free from this water.

And so he decides he's gonna free himself.

And so he goes over to the shoreline, Fred the Fish, and he flops himself out of the water onto the shore.

And he thinks he freed himself onto dry ground.

But he's actually killing himself.

Right?

You're probably ahead of me on this one.

The point, of course, is you were made for God.

Flopping around somewhere else will never free you, and it won't bring lasting joy.

Deuteronomy 10, 12 through 13.

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good.

Don't you love how that ended?

Is that how that ends?

For your good?

Obey, keep the commandments, love God for your good.

Somebody asked Pastor John Piper, how is my joy connected to my obedience?

Here's what he said.

If we treat obedience as something we do first, and then all joy in Jesus follows, we will have turned obedience into a work of the law or a legal external performance that has in it no Christ-exalting worth, and therefore will not result in true enjoyment of Jesus.

We can pause there.

Some of us know that story, that way of Christianity.

Obey enough and then God will really accept me.

Obey enough, and then God will really, really like me or love me.

All the affection, acceptance, forgiveness, love, all of it is given through Jesus fully because of Jesus' word, nothing to do with you.

Piper goes on.

The battle is to look to Jesus.

Look to all that God is for you in him and pray for eyes to see his all-satisfying beauty and worth, so that you rest in him and are so satisfied that your soul can be so satisfied in Jesus that the root of sin is severed and you walk in obedience.

Piper is saying, we obey as we rest all the more in the all-satisfying worth and beauty of Jesus.

So that's joy.

And then as we obey, we experience increased joy.

Psalm 19:8.

Psalms 19:8

The precepts of the Lord all right, rejoicing the heart.

There's nothing wrong with the law or the precepts or what we're called to do.

They actually increase the joy of our heart.

What's wrong is us, our inability to live up to it.

So we need Jesus.

And so that out of a heart, a godly desire could develop.

That we actually want to follow this Jesus and his ways.

All the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Now back to Nehemiah.

They're reading the word.

They had to read through Leviticus 23 to learn about this feast of booths.

We learned about the feast of booths back in Leviticus 23 when we study through Leviticus.

It teaches us that God reminds.

God is reminding them of something in this feast.

Everyone moves into these temporary shelters, they build them, they live in them for like a week.

It's like a wholesome burning man, just they're just living out there in the hut.

The purpose was to remind the people of the hardship of the past and to remember that God is faithful to provide in the present and in the future.

And Nehemiah and the people, these people, they've just forgotten it.

They've forgotten it.

They stop doing it.

They let it go.

And then they hear.

And then they respond and they obey.

Boy, doesn't that sound simple?

I mean, doesn't that what I just laid out for you just sound amazing?

You are going to be disobedient and not do something that God is asking you.

You are going to hear what you should do, and then you're going to respond and obey.

The problem, of course, is you don't always do that.

Sometimes you do.

And hopefully you'll do it more.

But not always.

And this is why we need a righteousness outside of ourselves, a record outside of ourselves.

And so that full forgiveness we get in Jesus, we also get his full obedience.

That is the imputation of the cross to us.

Full forgiveness.

The imputation of Christ's life for us, all of his obedience put on us.

That is the grace of God to us.

That's how Nehemiah points to Jesus.

Here's how Jesus relates to the Feast of Booths into this Nehemiah story.

Last point, point number five.

Jesus is our ultimate acceptance and our forever home.

This side of Jesus, our obedience is never for love, it's because of love.

We could say it this way: our obedience is out of, empowered by our secure love and acceptance in Jesus.

The Feast of Booths is going on in John chapter 7, when Jesus stands and he tells the people something.

John 7 · chapter mention

And I close with this passage what Jesus says to these people living in these temporary huts.

John 7, 37 and 38.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Any prayer for something?

We would love to pray for you.

There'll be a pastor down front afterwards to pray with you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we're so grateful that you call us to an obedient life, which would increase our joy even though we struggle with it.

And thank you that you see us as righteous and lovely as Jesus Himself because of Christ's word for us.

Help us to enjoy your forgiveness, help us to enjoy your righteousness, would our hearts all the more find a satisfaction, a wholeness in your love to us in Jesus.

And out of such a place of all satisfying in you, would our hearts flow with worship, love, and obedience.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.