God Has Established the Way a Church Meeting Should Be Conducted!
Nehemiah 8,9
Nov 11, 2018 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
I. Main Scripture (Nehemiah 8:5) – STAND AND READ TOGETHER
II. Introduction (1Timothy 3:14,15; 1Peter 2:5)
A. God takes what we do here, together in this place, very seriously
B. I am looking out at “a CHURCH”
1. We ARE the church (1Peter 2:5)
2. An assembly of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:25)
3. A CHURCH where the Bible alone is clearly / firmly preached as true – as we shall see
C. So, Sunday is NOT about you or about me
1. It is not about fun, or entertainment or satisfaction
2. This is not a museum, a sports stadium, or bank, or a rally
3. The people here are not performing a concert, or a show
4. This is not a university, or a philosophical debate
5. This is a CHURCH, where the feelings of people are not worried about as much as much as their relationship with God being right before it is too late!
D. What we do with our church, and what each of us do TO our church matters to God FIRST, and matters to our future as a human race!
E. We need to seriously, soberly BEHAVE in our church, and not take it for granted
III. Background
A. In Nehemiah, we are learning a great comparison with the Christian’s life – about how to protect what God gave us as followers of Jesus.
B. The best way to protect our walk with God, our families, our freedoms as Christians is not leave everything alone and just let things fall apart more and more - but rebuild things that are broken
C. So, from chapters 2-6, up go the walls around Jerusalem. Brick by brick, metre by metre. Battle by battle with enemies, and tiredness and discouragement and setbacks – they finished rebuilding the wall (6:15)
D. And when they were finished, and had gone home to their villages, Nehemiah surprisingly called them all back together
1. Even though tired, and needing to work on the needs of their own home (7:4)
2. Nehemiah knew the people needed to do first things first – to honour God on HIS days
3. It was time for the Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:24)
a. A celebration of freedom and victory from Egypt, and slavery, and all enemies!
b. Trumpet blowing called them all together from wherever they were, no matter how far away, and no matter what they were doing – a picture of the coming RAPTURE
1) No matter how tired or grumpy, or backslidden you are…
2) The trump shall sound and we shall be caught up together in the air
3) And so shall we ever be with the Lord says the Apostle Paul in 1Thes 4
c. Along with the trumpets being blown there was great loud shouting of victory – like when Joshua and the army if Israel shouted down the very walls of Jericho!
4. Can you imagine hearing the trumpets blown from the newly rebuilt walls of Jerusalem and being heard miles and miles away – they people came running!!!
E. Nehemiah’s Rebuilding Efforts are a Good Pattern for US today in THIS Church
F. Then we left off last week just as Nehemiah focused on Rebuilding Worship in the lives of God’s people (7:70-73)
1. You will find that worship is supposed to be Anchored to the Bible alone – not to feel-good factors, or to dreams, or visions, or music and entertainment, but to the power of God’s truth alone!
2. Built also upon sacrificial giving – not being like babies and just taking, but steadily growing up and participating in giving along with everyone else
3. And finally it was rebuilt upon real, desperate repentance!
G. THAT was when they all enjoyed church time (Neh 12:43)
1. And, My what a meeting they had that day – the “assembling together” went on for 8 straight days – a real revival in the hearts of God’s people!
2. Neh 12:43 Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.
3. This morning I want to look at what to do with that Book that you are holding in your hands
4. Next week you will learn what THAT Book will do with YOU!
IV. Message – The Best Way to Have Church Part 1 (Nehemiah Chapter 8 and 9)
A. Nehemiah Called for Ezra to Speak (8:1)
1. 42,360 men, women and children were called together (7:66)
a. Nehemiah had the Trumpets blown as loud as possible
b. Called everyone to come together
c. To Assemble together as one man – one person, not many – but in unity
d. And all the people came – no one stayed away – that’s cool!
2. Assembled in the street leading up to the Water Gate and the Pool of Siloam
3. The entire crowd called for Ezra to bring the Bible
4. Who was this Ezra guy? (Ezra 7:10)
a. Ezra was a man of God – a very high and holy calling
b. He had returned with many of the people from captivity in Persia to help rebuild the Jewish people
c. Ezra was specially called by God to get people to live by the Bible
d. Ezra was a skilful writer, worked hardest as a copyist of Scripture
e. A historian – not caring about all the new fads and fashions and technological gadgets – he loved seeing God’s hand in history
f. He LIVED by the Book he preached. Ezr 7:10
g. And best of all, he was a great preacher of the word of God
5. God gives every church and Ezra – a pastor – a man of God (Ephesians 4:11,12)
a. That’s what a Pastor and a Teacher is
1) A man of God – a calling
2) Saved just like everyone else – not perfect
3) Specially called by God to get people to live by the Bible
4) A careful student of the Bible, a wordsmith, able to write
5) Living by the same Bible he preaches
6) A preacher – yes encourager, but more do, an exhorter – an urger!
b. 2Ti 3:16,17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. MEN OF GOD ARE NEEDED TODAY!
c. 1Ti 6:10,11 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
d. Do NOT demean the office or the work of a pastor – don’t think it is nothing
1) What the man of God does is more important than all the Nehemiah’s and the Pilate’s, and the Caesars and the Herod’s and the Nebuchadnezzer’s and the Taoiseach’s and the Tánaiste’s put together…
2) He speaks for God in this sin cursed generation!
3) You had better listen when he is speaking from this BOOK because he is not a nobody!
B. All Attention Was on a Book (8:1-16)
1. There was great hunger – and great expectation in the people of what was in that Book
2. What was this ‘Book’?
a. This was not
1) Some glossy magazine, with recipes and Hollywood gossip columns
2) It was not some old religious book full of quaint sayings, and man’s opinions and theological debates
3) And it was not some old religious relic
b. It was and still is the very words of God to man, inspired by the breath of God, and persevered by the very Spirit of God throughout history (1Thes 2:13)
c. It was written down on strips of young calf skins, tanned and stitched together into a long scroll of reach book of the Bible
d. It is priceless!
1) Given by God on Mt Sinai and throughout Israel’s history by persecuted prophets
2) Hand copied, and checked for errors like no other book ever has been
3) What you are holding in your hands is the very same Book that Ezra read from!
e. It is called ‘THE Book’ – the Bible
1) A huge set of FIVE scrolls from Genesis to Deuteronomy
2) Painstakingly copied from the days of Moses
3) And it was now before this massive crowd, and about to be read from
3. Everyone gathered in that open street for ONE reason alone – to HEAR that Book read out-loud! To hear what GOD said & what GOD thought & what GOD wanted of them!
C. Gathered At the Water Gate (8:3)
1. The 42,360 people (they took a head count) ASSEMBLED there just inside the city wall behind the great water gate – it was their CHURCH that day!
2. There were 13 gates/doors around the city of Jerusalem
3. And many streets criss-crossing throughout the city
4. But this huge Gate standing in front of them was significant…
a. We take washing for granted, but the Jews knew the value of washing and being clean on the outside – kept them healthy
b. They knew right outside that gate was a fresh water spring that people used to wash and bathe in
c. The people gathered there to be washed not on the outside but deep inside!
d. So they had come to that gate to be washed by just hearing the words of God!
5. We Christians have a need for washing as well, that only the words of Scripture can accomplish (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:25; Psalm 119:9)
D. The Use of a Pulpit (8:4,5)
1. A raised platform, purpose-built to hold up and elevate…
a. Not the religious leaders, or the powerful politicians, or even the workers
b. And NOT to elevate the singers and performers
c. But ‘the Book’
2. As Ezra took his place on that pulpit, it was not to honour HIM, nor the 13 godly men gathered behind him
3. But the Bible alone!
a. Isa 66:1,2 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
b. Psa 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
c. According to 1Timothy 3:15 a church is supposed to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” holding it high for all to hear and believe!
d. John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. No other BOOK can give you that!
E. When the Book was Opened… (8:5-8)
1. All the People Stood! (8:5)
a. Like electricity, everyone just stood to attention
b. In honour of the Book itself on that podium
c. YOUNG and old stood tall
d. We definitely need to teach and require our children to act right in church and take THIS place most seriously – over being at school, or an grandma’s house… when it is church time, we sit up, we straighten up, we pay attention, we rebuke disorder and we hang on every word
e. From now on, when I am ready to start preaching, we will ALL stand for the reading of a main Scripture that will be the focus of the message of the word of God
2. Ezra READ Out-Loud the Words of Scripture (8:3,7,8)
a. He read Slowly – it is not a race to finish reading
1) There was nothing more important that hearing the words of God
2) Rom 10:17 faith cometh by hearing, and hearing [ONLY] by the word of God.
3) So Ezra did not rush – like preaching has become today
b. Consistently - Read for at least 3 solid hours
c. Distinctly - Explaining the sense and meaning.
1) Stopping and explaining the words and the context
2) Many, many Levites/teachers went amongst the crowd could answer questions and give the meaning, and explain what God had said
3) That’s discipleship – personal, one on one almost
4) Jesus did this with the multitudes that followed Him, making sure they actually thought about what they were hearing, and understanding
a) Mat 15:17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
b) Mat 16:9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
c) Mat 16:11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
3. Everyone Listened Attentively (8:3,12)
a. They were listening for all the things they had missed growing up away from God
b. They knew the reason why Israel had gotten into so much trouble with God before: Because the people had gotten away from hearing and obeying God’s word!
c. Jesus called for attentive ears constantly
1) Mat 11:15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
2) Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
3) Act 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and EARS, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
d. By the way, Don’t tell me your children can’t understand the Bible
1) 2Tim 3:15-17 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2) The problem is NOT them – their brains are WIRED for new things – it is OUR brains that are stubborn and rebellious and hard and need to be trained to listen again!
e. Our attention to the words of this Book are related solely to how hungry we are to know its Author! These men, women and children wanted so much to know God again!
1) Don’t you hate it when someone it talking and distracting when you are watching a film?
2) Well, how much more important the hearing of this Bible?
4. The People Learned what it all Meant! Understanding, Grasping (8:2,7,8)
a. Their eyes were OPENED to what God said and meant! Marvellous!
b. It is massively important that you understand what you hear and read in this Bible
1) You won’t understand everything for sure
2) If you could, it would prove that you are as smart as its author – God!
3) But you had better understand why God had to become a man and suffer at our own religiously stained hands and die and then rise again three days later!
c. Act 8:27-35 …And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him… (Act 8:35) Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
d. Don’t live and die ignorant of the words of this BOOK (John 6:66-69)
e. Unless you get your hands on a Bible, and read it for yourself and check it out and learn who it is talking to and believe it, you will die in your sins and will spend eternity not in a grave, but in a christless, hopeless, burning hell!
5. They got back to Obeying and living by what they heard (8:13-16a)
6. And they Feared going against it! (8:9-12)
a. It became a big concern of everyone as they listened to what happened to their people when they tried living independently of God
b. They knew they could get in trouble with God again if they didn’t learn those lessons!
F. The People Respected GOD and It Showed!
1. They respected God enough to stay standing at the hearing of the words of God FROM START TO FINISH!
2. Ezra Started reading Genesis 1:1 – working his way through 50 chapters
3. Went on for FOUR HOURS
4. The crowd of 42,360 people remained standing for the reading of the entire Book of Genesis (8:7)! Unbelievable!
5. How you treat THAT Book in your hand shows how you view its Author!
G. On the next day, they all gathered again in the street and Ezra read more!
1. So Ezra read through Exodus – 40 chapters
2. And then into Leviticus – 27 chapters
3. That was when they learned that they needed to build booths/tents - The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:34)
a. A seven day holy-day, not holiday
b. A time that families built themselves a quick tent out in their garden to stay in and just have family time together camping
c. It was meant to remind them how they as a nation wandered in the wilderness living in tents for 40 years on their way to the promised land
d. Do you remember when Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a donkey? Well, Jesus went right into the Temple “In the last day, that great day of the feast [OF TABERNACLES], Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38-39).
e. The words “In the last day” means Jesus announced salvation on the last day of the same Feast of Tabernacles!
4. They assembled for seven more days during this second feast and continued reading for 4 hours a day each and every day! (9:3)
5. They loved what God was doing THROUGH just the READING and hearing of the word of God!
H. Look at how we have been ROBBED of almost all OUR free time…
1. How many hours a WEEK does the devil rob you?
a. Of YOUR time and growth just wasting in front of FaceBook and the TV?
b. How many hours of your life have been robbed simply because you were LAZY and wasted hundreds of hours each and every month on entertainment?
c. The average number of hours spent in front of just the TV of everyone in Ireland is more than 3 hours every day![1]
d. In the UK it is worse… “Almost four hours a day are spent watching TV according to Ofcom's survey of 2,800 UK adults and children."
e. And then there are the little electronic devices that we are addicted to… “Communications regulator Ofcom said UK adults spend an average of eight hours and 41 minutes a day on media devices, compared with the average night's sleep of eight hours and 21 minutes.”[2]
2. People are spending more time on their ipads, tablets, phones than sleeping!
a. And you think there is no devil?
b. And you think it doesn’t matter?
I. Let me give you some helpful statistics
1. To read through the entire 50 chapters of the Book of Genesis, from start to finish (without stopping), and read it slow enough to pay attention to the details, would take only 3 ˝ hours – does that surprise you?
2. 13 hours to read Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy
3. The entire Old Testament would only take 51 and ˝ hours to read through
4. The entire New Testament could be read in just 18 hours (3 days of 6 hours each day)
5. You say THAT is fanatical. I know. Is it?
6. I know, I know. No one has that amount of available time…
7. But when you think about it, THIS Book was meant to be READ
8. And adding it all up, you could read it from Cover to cover in just 3 days straight – 72 hours!
9. I have the Bible on Cassette to prove it!
10. I read of an older teenager who read through Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince while travelling on an airplane. It has 542 pages. She finished the entire Book in just 7 hours.
a. She read 168,000 words in 7 hours – that seems to be the norm with Harry Potter readers… why not BIBLE readers?
b. There are only 156,000 words in Gen-Deut
11. Now I know some of us are slower readers – so what!
a. Christian, you will NOT be given a pass in heaven for being ignorant of what’s in the Bible
b. You will however, be ashamed in heaven for being negligent!
12. We have no excuse that we don’t read it for at least 30 minutes every day, because if we actually DID, no interruptions, just reading and hearing what is written, we could read through our Bibles 3 times a year!
V. Conclusion and Invitation
A. There is a LOT to do with this Book!
1. To the devil, THIS Book is THE most dangerous book on the planet – and for good reason…
2. It changes people thoroughly – no other book or philosophy or programme can do this
3. It humbles people – cuts them to the heart
4. It brings down kings and queens better than any conquering army
5. It raises up the broken and the crushed and the ruined
6. It gives sanity and peace and comfort
7. And most of all, it shows how to have our relationship with God restored!
8. IF we will believe it and use it!
B. So, What Are We Going to Do with the Bible?
1. READ it like Ezra did – be a Bible reading Church!
a. Not worship it
b. Don’t just hold onto it like a good luck charm
c. Don’t just have around so you can point to it and act like you know what is in it!
d. No! It was written in WORDS to be READ
1) “Till I come, give attendance (almost addicted) to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1Tim 4:13)
2) Read it through from start to finish
3) Reading 30 minutes every day
2. Learn what it is all talking about – ponder, question, study - discipleship
3. Get back to Obeying and Living by what you read
a. Whatever you find the Bible saying do, do it (James 1:21) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
4. Fear going against it!
a. These are not just words on a page with no teeth
b. John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
C. That is when we actually start to worship God throughout every day, and especially on SUNDAY when we gather together!
1. Not with our music
2. Not with our giving
3. Not with our prayers
4. But with our LISTENING & HUNGERING for whatever God says in His Bible to do
D. And THAT is the kind of church I want to have!
1. I want to have the kind of Church Jesus DIED for!
2. One with true unity - As one person
3. One with Desire, and Hunger and Thirst for God alone
4. One with hearing ears, hanging on every word
5. One that puts out the effort to study and learn and understanding what God says do
6. One with people who respond, and get closer to God instead of farther away
7. One with people who just keep coming back for more (as you will see next week)
8. One that LIVES what they Learn in that Book!
E. So… Why are YOU here? What did you expect at church today?
1. The Israelites heard Nehemiah’s call to assemble
2. I hope you know that Jesus Christ has a greater invitation…
F. Jesus’ Invitation is Greater than Nehemiah’s (Matthew 11:28)
1. Jesus did NOT invite everyone to church today
2. He invites everyone to come unto HIM to find rest in your soul
3. To be forgiven and saved from the coming wrath of God on all sin
4. Accept His invitation dear friend – it is open – but not forever