Craving a Necessity
How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea,
sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding:
therefore I hate every false way. (Psalm 119:103-4)
There is no shame in
admitting that water isn’t the most-glamorous beverage in town.
Plain old water lacks the sweetness of
a soft drink or of Mississippi sweet tea. It lacks the boldness and kick of
coffee. It lacks the pizzazz of sparkling juice.
But when you’re exhausted from a day
of work outside or from your exercise routine, or if you’ve gone a period of
time without water, the stuff absolutely tastes like honey and is worth pounds
and pounds of gold.
The fact is, your body is comprised in
large part of water. Water might not be your favorite drink, but you won’t
thrive – or even survive! – long without it. To be human is to need water.
A church without the Word of God is
about as illogical (and doomed) as a human without water. Unlike water, the
Word of God is engaging, challenging and more desirable than honey – yet
so many churches (even evangelical ones) and believers think the Word is
optional. Oh, they attend to the programs and activities of churchianity, they
build Habitat homes and run soup kitchens, they do this and that; but when it
comes to Bible study, they suddenly become silent.
There is nothing wrong with biblically
based, Christ-centered ministries. But when activities push the Word to the
sidelines, well, the church is about as healthy as a marathoner who passes up
water during and after the race. Neither will be around very long.
As we have learned from our study of
Nehemiah, the Lord had brought revival to His people during Nehemiah’s service
– so much so that they repented of their previous indifference to the crumbled
wall of Jerusalem and rebuilt that wall to the glory of God. Their laziness
actually was a spiritual sickness, and the Lord used Nehemiah to lead His
people in repentance and in revival that issued forth in the reconstruction of
the defenses of Jerusalem.
Remember, though, that we’re talking
about the people of God, the Old Testament church. And the church isn’t a
do-good society; first and foremost, she is the family of believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ: believers who are a people of the Word of God.
This morning as we examine Ezra’s
reading of the law to the people, we note first that you and I need the Word of
God, and therefore, we must approach and handle the Word of God properly if we
are to thrive.
We have been praying for revival in
this church for some time now. As Nehemiah 8 makes clear, however, revival
comes only when you and I are open and hungry for the Word of Truth.
We first learn from chapter 8 that you
and I, as God’s people, need the Word of God for our very survival.
Note that Scripture is foundational
for our existence as the Body of Christ. You might have heard me in the past
take issue with an oft-quoted statement attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:
“Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” Well, Francis
is correct in one sense: your life should reveal the purity and love and
graciousness of God in Christ. Yet the transmission of the Gospel involves more
than mere actions. The Gospel is about Jesus and about what he accomplished for
you and me in his life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. It’s living
truth. And it’s truth that must be taught by word!
The Lord commanded His people in
Deuteronomy 6 to know and to confess the truth about Him to their children –
that’s just how foundational revealed truth is to the church. Likewise in the
Great Commission, Jesus told his servants to go and make disciples of all
nations, teaching them his truth. Our God is a God of revelation and of
self-disclosure, and being His people involves knowing, believing and
communicating His truth.
That’s why, after they completed the
wall of Jerusalem and entered their own homes, the people of God in Nehemiah
8:1 came into the plaza and asked Ezra to read the Scriptures to them. The
revived people of God understood they were not a “project-oriented” people:
primarily, they are a people of the Word.
God’s people need the Word not only
because it is foundational but also because it is enlightening. For one, the
Scriptures enlighten you and me to the nature of the triune God. Observe in
Nehemiah 8:1 that Ezra read from the law that the Lord had given Moses. Those
readings weren’t derived from man’s ruminations about God; they came from God
Himself! While it is true you may learn something of God from the creation
(read Psalm 19:1-6, for instance), only the special revelation of God in
Scripture offers you a fuller, saving knowledge of the Lord.
The Scriptures also enlighten you and
me to ourselves and to our basic sickness, sin. In verse 9, the author records
that the people wept upon hearing the words of the law. Perhaps they heard
God’s command not to worship idols, or to hallow His Sabbath, or not to covet,
and the Spirit struck them with their rebelliousness to these laws. Perhaps the
Spirit convicted them of their longstanding coldness to the things of God.
Regardless of the specific areas of conviction – and they surely ran the gamut
of sins – the point is that the Word of God confronts you and me with who we
really are.
This past week I came down with a cold, which blissfully is rare for
me. I denied it was a cold, claiming I only had allergies. I tried to convince
myself I wasn’t miserable. But when Jennifer issued an ultimatum to go to the
doctor … or else, I knew I was sick and needed healing! In the same vein, it’s
humbling and arresting to see yourself as a sinner justly deserving God’s
displeasure. But God’s Word brings light to your situation and to your sin – so
that healing through the blood of Christ may begin.
You and I need the Word because it also enlightens us to God’s grace in
Christ. Read in verses 9-12 how Ezra, Nehemiah and the Levites encouraged the
people not to weep on that festival day, because the day was holy to the Lord
and therefore an occasion for joyous celebration. Conviction for sin was an
essential part of the ministry of the Word, certainly – but it wasn’t the sum
total of God’s message for His people. Grace must ever follow the convicting
law of God.
Ezra sent the people home to enjoy a fellowship meal replete with sweet
drinks and choice food, because they – through confession, repentance and grace
– had fellowship with the one, true God and with one another. In verses 13
through 18, the lay leaders encouraged the people of God to celebrate
(according to the Scripture) the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorated God’s
faithful deliverance and protection of His people from exile in Egypt and
through the wilderness en route to the Promised Land. This festival celebrated
God’s redeeming and delivering grace toward His people, and its renewed
celebration in Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah elevated the people of God to
new joy.
In the same manner, you and I need to hear the chafing, unsettling
message of Good Friday every Lord’s Day. You need to hear God’s holy standard
read and preached so you will be led to repent of your sin.
Yet you also need to hear every single week of Easter Sunday, and of
the Ascension, and of the joy of Jesus’ victory over sin. While we don’t
commune every week, you always need to bear in mind the meaning of the Lord’s
Supper: we who deserved hell have been given heaven by the merits of Jesus, and
God’s grace includes not only conviction for sin but also comfort in
forgiveness.
You and I need the Word, because it is our foundation and our light in
Christ.
Your need for the Word of God means, secondly, that you must approach
and handle the Word properly. In Nehemiah 8, you and I have possibly the finest
example in Scripture of how mere humans are to minister the Word.
The people of God – that is, the laity – stand out in this passage for their
exemplary posture toward the Scriptures. They were unified in their hunger for
the Word, coming “as one man” into an assembly in the plaza by the Water Gate.
Take note of the comprehensiveness of this hunger among the people: the author
mentions the women as well as the men, and indeed “all who had understanding”
asked for the Word.
What’s more, the people were earnest in their desire to hear the Word.
They had crafted a pulpit for the occasion, reflecting their planning for the
day, and gave their attention to the Scriptures for an entire half-day! They
were reverent, standing for the reading of Scripture (as traditional Protestant
Episcopalians still do at the reading of the Holy Gospel), and responsive to
the Word as they wept, rejoiced, praised the Lord for His gift of Scripture and
took to heart His commandments about keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.
Compare their attitude to ours: you and I sit through the Scripture
lessons, let our minds wander during preaching, treat sermon-listening and
Bible study as completely optional and hardly take the Word to heart – if we’re
honest about it.
If you and I know how essential the Word is to our life in Christ, why
do we treat it with such evident disdain?
Observe also the priests’ diligence in ministering the Word. Ezra and
his helpers (they probably assisted him in reading portions aloud and in
explaining them to the laity) were dutiful in preaching to and in teaching the
people. They meticulously expounded the meaning of individual sections of
Scripture, and they were dedicated to training lay leaders to teach the people
(verse 13) the Word.
It seems some ministers while away their time in the hospitals, in
parishioners’ homes, in meetings and in every other place except their studies.
Admittedly, pastoral ministry in homes and in hospitals and in the community is
vital. No question about it. But if I am deficient in preparing sermons and in
delivering them to you, then I have failed in this most-critical obligation.
And just as a leaky vessel won’t deliver the water you need, a shoddy minister
cannot deliver the Word of Truth to you.
The ministry of the Word deserves my, and your, very best.
We in the PCA talk a great deal about the Bible. We champion its
infallibility and authority, over against the liberal and less-structured
denominations of our present day.
What you and I often lack, though, is a hunger for the Word of
God.
We attend every service and (outwardly) hear every lesson read. We put
in due time every week preparing a sermon or two that seemingly fits all the
right homiletic molds. But when it comes right down to it, you and I emerge
each Sunday unmoved by the Word, unconvinced of its power and authority.
It must have been a breathtaking sight to witness Nehemiah and the
people of God hanging those last doors on the wall of Jerusalem. It must have
been a proud and notable occasion.
Great as it was, the sight of that completed wall paled in comparison
to the beauty of men, women and children moved to tears – and to exuberance –
by the message of God’s grace in Christ.
Will you pray for a heart to really receive the Word of Truth?
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