Thus Saith the Lord (Nehemiah 8:1-8) - Kevin Hay, Redeemer Bible Church, Gilbert, AZ

The Vital Signs of a Healthy Church

The first couple of minutes of the recording were lost due to a tech issue. Pastor Kevin was telling the story of the birth of his daughter Maddie. Let's pick up in the story.

Because there were a few moments after Madison was born that Alicia and I were in a state of absolute panic. Sure that it wasn't completely quiet in those terrifying moments, but to me all I can really think of is the uneasy nervous silence that seemed to envelop the room.

You see when Madison was born she didn't appear to be breathing and her skin was this very light shade of blue. Alicia, sensing that something wasn't right, began asking the doctor and nurses what was wrong and why Madison wasn't crying.

And I'll never forget how quickly and how confidently the maternity nurse began to do exactly what she was trained to do. Without indicating any level of panic whatsoever, she swiftly yet ever so subtly carried our precious newborn baby girl over to the post birthing station in the room, cleaned out her nose, put an oxygen mask over her tiny face, and began doing small compressions on her chest.

I followed her across the room and began to silently pray to our sovereign God while feeling completely helpless, uttering the only words that I could muster in my mind, please God, please God. And within seconds, praise God, my baby girl began to breathe.

Her complexion started to rapidly improve and the nurse was able to see from the rest of her vital signs that she was okay. Now thankfully, the result of that experience was joy, right? We were able to let out this collective sigh of relief and then rejoice at the birth of our precious healthy baby girl.

But if she had not begun to breathe, our experience in that moment would not have been joy, but rather it would have been sheer and utter grief. We would have been devastated to say the least. And so for us to see Madison, our newborn child, demonstrating the vital signs of life and vitality, it made all the difference in the world.

And it still does today as we get to enjoy and experience her thriving energetic life that Madison Elizabeth displays every single day. And I share that with you this morning because we need to understand that the Bible provides us with the vital signs of what a healthy church looks like as well.

As we look to God's word, we are given descriptions of what distinguishes a church of health and vitality from a so-called church that is actually lifeless and ineffective. The difference between the two makes all the difference quite literally in the world.

And therefore, instead of taking our cues from the culture and looking to secular strategies for the standard of ministry success, we must look instead to the word of God. Rather than listening to the many ever-changing voices from the world, we should be listening to nothing other than, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord.

And so this morning, we're going to look at one of the major features that characterizes a healthy church. We could look at many others. It's really one of the most essential and foundational to everything a church is and does because it flows directly from what God has said.

As we're going to see this morning, God has spoken through his word and he has purposed and promised to use the proclamation of his word to gather and to grow his church. And therefore, in order for a church to be healthy, it must have, as part of its very DNA and lifeblood, biblical preaching.

Preaching that is expository in nature as it both exposes and expounds upon, not human opinions and philosophies, but upon the very word of God. And so with that in mind, I'll ask those who are able to stand with me for the reading of God's word from Nehemiah chapter 8.

We're going to read verses 1 through 8. And it is there that God's word reads. And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.

So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday.

And the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand in the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.

And beside him stood Matathiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Massiah on his right hand. And Paddaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashpadana, Zachariah, and Meshulam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people.

And as 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.

Also, Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbathai, Hudaiah, Messiah, Halitah, Azariah, Jehozabod, Anan, Eliah, the Levites helped the people to understand the law. While the people remained in their places, they read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.

And with that, you may be seated as we pray together. Oh, great God and Father, we come to you in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, the Lord. And Father, we come boldly as you've called us to, only because of who Christ is and what Christ has done for us.

Are we able to enter into your very throne room? You call us in our time of need to seek you for grace. And oh God, as we open your word today, we are in needy people, in need of your illumination. Help us, oh God, to understand your word.

May the values and the priorities and the truth that comes forth from your word shape and mold and influence us today. As the great potter, oh God, I pray that you will chip off the hard edges, that you will conform us evermore into the image and the likeness of your son, Jesus Christ.

As your word is exalted this morning, I pray that you will be adored, that our affections for you, oh God, will be increased, and that we will devote ourselves like never before to live as instruments for your glory in this dark and sinful world.

May we be challenged and convicted and encouraged and sanctified today through the preaching of your blessed word. And we pray this in the powerful name of our savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord, amen. Well, as we begin to think this morning about the book of Nehemiah, it's important to note that at one time, the book of Ezra and Nehemiah were actually together as one, appearing in that order.

And it makes sense when you realize what time period and events they describe from Israel's history. For Ezra, he was a scribe and a priest who was instrumental in being used of God to lead the second wave of Jews back to the promised land following their 70 years of captivity.

Captivity, keep in mind, that they incurred because of God's judgment for their sins. First, at the hands of the Babylonians, and then following that, the conquering Persians. But then for Nehemiah, who held a prominent position as the cupbearer for the king of Persia, he was used by God to lead a third wave of Jews back to the promised land.

And the event that God used to providentially prompt Nehemiah and his heart to return to Jerusalem is actually detailed for us in the opening chapter of Nehemiah. And so if you just want to flip back there very quickly to Nehemiah chapter one, you will see that as kind of a way of background information that it tells us, beginning in verse one, saying this, now it happened in the month of Kislev in the 20th year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile and concerning Jerusalem.

And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. So how was Nehemiah impacted and affected by this news he's just heard?

It continues in verse four of that opening chapter saying this, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, oh, Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.

Even I and my father's house have sinned. We've acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes and the rules that you commanded your servant, Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven from there, I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there.

They're your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your servants today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

So this news of Jerusalem's wall and gates being destroyed and demolished brought Nehemiah great sadness because he understood just how crucial the wall was to the protection of his people and to their success as a reestablished nation.

Without that wall, they were vulnerable to attack and robbery at every side. But I also want us to notice how Nehemiah responded to this reality because this is the heart that really prepares the ground for biblical preaching.

So first notice with me that Nehemiah in chapter one, he cries and he mourns, he laments before the Lord and we need to do that more as the people of God. Take time to lament and take our sadness and our despair to the Lord.

But I also want us to recognize that in the midst of his mourning, he begins to pray and to fast, to express his dependence in that way upon the Lord. And in doing so, he uses the words of God to remind God as if God needed reminding of the promises that he has made.

He's speaking God's word back to him, thus calling upon in the midst of their unfaithfulness, the steadfast faithfulness of an immutable, unchanging God. And then he intercedes on behalf of his people.

He confesses the sins of God's people on their behalf and he appeals to God's mercy and compassion toward them. See how important it is to understand the character and the nature of the God in whom we worship.

And of course, those prayers would proceed Nehemiah's request to the king to be released of his duties in order to travel to Jerusalem. And of course, as he prayed, that request was granted. And so with that as the context and the framework for the book of Nehemiah, there are really two overarching themes to the book.

First, we see in chapters one through six, the reconstruction of the wall. One through six, the reconstruction of the wall. So Nehemiah comes to the promised land and he leads the people, even against those who had come against them, to reconstruct the wall around Jerusalem along with its gates.

But then in chapters seven through 12, we find a re-instruction of the people. A re-instruction of the people. So in chapter seven, Nehemiah begins to bring greater organization to Judah according to the roles of the Jewish people, which it tells us that God actually put in his heart to do.

He appointed guards and brought clarity to the members of the Levitical priesthood according to the proof that is found in the genealogies. And then once all of the people had been organized and settled into their respective towns, the beautiful event described in our passage for this morning begins to unfold.

And all of a sudden, the redeemed, re-established, reorganized people of God began to seek obedience to the Lord through the reading and the preaching of his word. And so as we begin to walk through this morning's text, the first thing we're going to discover is that expository preaching proclaims the word of God.

Expository preaching proclaims the word of God. Look with me again at verses one through three. And no, I'm not speaking in tongues when I read these names in a little bit, but for now, we're going to read the first three verses and then we'll come back to those names.

It says, and all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord God had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month.

And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. In the ears, all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

So the question we should be asking ourselves from the text here is, why are the people gathering together in this way? What is it that prompted or what was the impetus by which or for which they are gathering?

Well, the Jews were commanded by God to publicly read the law or what we would know as the Pentateuch or the Torah, that is the first five books of scripture every seven years during the Feast of Tabernacles.

We see that described in the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy verses nine through 13, just before the Israelites entered the promised land.

Here's what it says.

Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them saying this at the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones and the sojourner within your towns that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and be careful to do all the words of this law and that their children who have not known it hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land that you are going over to the Jordan to possess.

And so in light of that, this event then in our passage is 70 years in the making. Throughout the seven decades of their exile due to being scattered among foreign nations, the people of God were simply unable to fulfill the command of public proclamation that was given to them directly by God.

And so here in this moment, it is the end of that 70-year drought of disobedience and dysfunction. So this is a monumental event. And if you're looking for the weightiness of the passage,.

That's it.

Upon the request of the people in light of that, Ezra opens the scroll of God's law before this entire congregation of those who could understand the word being proclaimed. And I love the way one commentator painted this picture.

He said this, it was a picturesque scene. The sun rising over the slopes of Olivet would fall on the gathered crowd if the water gate was as is probable on the east or southeast side of the city. Beneath the fresh fortifications, which would act as a sounding board for the reader, was set up a scaffold high above the crowd, large enough to hold Ezra and 13 men, seven on one side of him and six on the other representing solidarity.

And there in the morning light with the new walls for a background stood Ezra on his pulpit and amid reverent silence lifted high the sacred scroll. And brothers and sisters, this picture of Ezra standing before the people of God to proclaim the word of God for the glory of God points us to the essential importance of expository preaching.

Pastor Steve Lawson has said it like this, this is the true nature of preaching. It is the man of God opening the word of God and expounding its truth so that the voice of God may be heard, the glory of God seen and the will of God obeyed.

So like the physically redeemed Jews who were celebrating God's gracious provision and goodness, both in the past and the present, the spiritually redeemed body of believers in Jesus Christ share in the celebration of God's goodness and grace by declaring open the book, open the book.

We don't need to hear the futile ramblings of human philosophies, just give us the word of God. Away with TED Talks and the latest seeker sensitive trends, just give us the infallible words of scripture.

Let us hear the voice of our creator, let us hear from the heart of our savior. As we think about that echo throughout the pages of scripture in the New Testament, the word for preaching means to herald.

And so the role of preaching then is like the town crier from medieval England. In the midst of townspeople who often struggled to read and write, it was the job of the town crier to stand up among the town square, proclaiming the news given to him often directly from the lips of the king.

It was the job of the town crier to deliver the news of victorious military battles and royal ceremonies and the like. And yet the church of Jesus Christ has been called to delivered and herald the greatest news ever known to man.

It's the good news that the one and only God who is just and holy made us in his image to know him, but we have sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In spite of that and his great love and his plan of redemption, God became a man, Jesus, and he lived a perfect and sinless life.

He died upon a cross as a substitutionary atonement for his people, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all of those who would ever turn and trust him.

And then he victoriously rose again from the dead, showing and demonstrating that God has accepted Christ's sacrifice and that his wrath against us has been perfectly satisfied. And he now calls us to respond in repentance of our sins and in faith, trusting Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins and for our righteousness which comes from him.

And if we will repent of our sins and trust in Christ, and that means that we have been born again into a new life, a life that begins in here and now and stretches on for eternity, forever and forever.

Brothers and sisters, I ask you this morning, what better news could there be? What better news could there be? And what a privilege we have been given to be the instruments to proclaim it. And yet, instead of serving faithfully as the town crier, sadly, so many churches in America today often prefer to act as the court jester by entertaining the city guests and telling jokes and stories to the townspeople, rather than delivering the good news from their king.

The only news that can bring about eternal salvation as they have been called to do, many churches today have put down their megaphones and picked up their bag of magic tricks in hopes of gathering a crowd to keep them coming back for more, all the while neglecting to tell them about their lost condition and the only hope for eternal life.

But a healthy church, on the other hand, regardless of its size, is no fool. A healthy church faithfully proclaims the gospel and preaches the word of God. And so one aspect of expository preaching is simply exposing what God has actually said, not imposing upon God's word what we want it to say.

It's like pulling back the curtain in a dark room and letting the beauty of the light illuminate the space. It begins to expose things that you could not see previously. It's like putting a magnifying glass, if you will, on God's word and declaring exactly and only what God has declared.

So I ask you today, why is that important? Why should it matter?

Well, because throughout scripture,.

We discover that God has chosen, and we could say by his nature, he creates through his word. We see it at the very beginning of creation, in the midst of the void and the darkness of the earth, as the spirit of God moves both lovingly and honorably, he tells us that God speaks and says, let there be light.

And the existence of light came into being. This is the very point that Paul draws from in 2 Corinthians 4, beginning in verse two, when he says, we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.

But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And then down to verse five, he continues there saying this, for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

And what does God do through the creative power of his word? Well, Paul quotes Genesis saying this, for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In other words, in the same way that God said, let there be light and light came into existence, breaking forth into the darkness, God does that very thing through his spirit in the work of regeneration, when he says, let there be light and your darkened heart becomes new.

So God reveals himself through his word. He creates through his word. He convicts through his word. He corrects through his word and he saves and sanctifies his people through his word. So this word we preach isn't mere ink on a page.

This word is living and it is active as Hebrews 4, 12 and 13 says, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of morrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

My friends, not only are you reading the word of God, but the word of God is reading you. Therefore, in order for churches to be the healthy, spirit-empowered, eternal life-giving entities that they have been called to be, they must proclaim the word of God or they cannot be called a church.

And as we think back to our text in Nehemiah, we're going to see that it is the attitude and the posture towards God's word that makes all the difference. So look with me at verses four through six. As we do, we're next going to discover that expository preaching honors the word of God.

Expository preaching honors the word of God. Our text continues there. Once again, not speaking in tongues, it's actually in the Bible. Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hezekiah and Messiah.

On his right and Padiah, Mishael, Melchizedek, Hashem, Hashpadonah, Zechariah and Meshulam on his left. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was above all the people. And as 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. So first we see the honor of God's word found in the fact that Ezra is standing above all the people and he's standing above the people not as a demonstration of his own exaltation or the exaltation of the men standing alongside him, but rather as the lifting up and exalting of the word of God.

But next we see the honor shown for God's word in the fact that the people are standing. And if you ever get tired of standing, when the word of God is read before a sermon, I want you to look back at this text and be reminded that the people here stood from the early morning hours until the middle of the day.

Why did they do that? Because they wanted to demonstrate their honor for the words that proceed from the mouth of God. And so along with their standing, we could add their verbal affirmation as well. Amen, amen, or the lifting up of their hands or even their attentiveness, which we see in the text.

All of those are credible, valid expressions of honor for the word of God. But ultimately our text provides us with the culminating way in which we honor the word of God, which is through our worship.

You see, it is possible to stand for the reading of God's word. It's possible to lift your hands. It's possible for you to verbalize amen, amen, and yet not truly be worshiping. So like the people standing before Ezra, we need to make sure that we are actually honoring the word of God in our hearts by worshiping him.

And reciprocally, we worship God by honoring his word, which is at the heart of expository preaching. Rather than preaching sermons saturated with quaint stories and fluffy anecdotes, a healthy church honors God by proclaiming, thus saith the Lord.

This is what God says. Instead of bouncing around the Bible and picking out random passages to pontificate upon, a healthy church says, give me the whole counsel of God's word. And so when a church walks through the Bible together, book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, the agenda of preaching no longer revolves around the opinions of the preacher or the particular hobby horse theological truths that he may especially be fond of, but rather on the guidance of our God.

It's like the choosing of meals in my family. If it were up to me, we would eat pizza, boneless chicken wings, and burgers for every meal. But I praise God for a wife who helps our family to have a wide range of healthy meals.

Truly, I do.

And the same is true for the word of God. Expository preaching provides the body of Christ with a healthy, God-honoring diet of the robust theological wisdom that is found throughout the pages of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation.

And as the people of God honor the word of God, that leads us to the final two verses of our text, and to the third major feature of expository preaching. Expository preaching explains the word of God.

Expository preaching explains the word of God. Our passage goes on to say, with the other group of complicated names, also, Jeshua, Bani, Jerebiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbatai, Hodiah, Messiah, Helitah, Azariah, Jezebad, Hanan, Heliah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.

They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. And so notice that Ezra and the Levites here, in this moment of what can only be called spiritual revival we find unfolding in our text, are not content to simply read the word as if this is some sort of religious ritual or checking off a religious chore or a box, but instead, they were helping the people of God to know both what the word says and what the word means.

In a word, they were teaching God's people to understand the law and how it applies to our lives. You see, theology is practical. You take the book of Ephesians, for example, chapters one through three of Ephesians are very much theological, and chapters four, five, and six are very much practical.

Why?

Because our theology leads to our methodology or our orthodoxy leads to our orthopraxy. Theology is intended to be practical. That's precisely the purpose of expository preaching. It begins with God, by his grace, calling and giving the desire to humanity to study and know his word in order that we might teach others, first and foremost, the children in our own homes, and then to our neighbors and to the nations.

Like Ezra back in chapter seven, verse 10 of the book bearing his name, where it says, for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

And from that commitment to know and study and be obedient to God's word, not as some sort of academic endeavor or intellectual exercise, but as a means to obedience and to the teaching of others to do the same.

What is the great commission? Go unto all the world, making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded, Jesus said.

And my friends, this is why expositional preaching is so important. As we looked at earlier, God works through his word, just as Paul wrote to his beloved Timothy in the final letter he would ever write, 2 Timothy chapter three, verses 16 and 17, saying, all scripture, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable, profitable for what?

Teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And therefore, my friends, a healthy church seeks to handle this living and powerful word of God rightly.

And that is the aim of expository preaching, to make the main point of the text from God's word the main point of the sermon. As Pastor John MacArthur has said, the only logical response to inerrant scripture then is to preach it expositionally.

By expositionally, he says, I mean preaching in such a way that the meaning of the Bible passage is presented entirely and exactly as it was intended by God. Expository preaching is the proclamation of the truth of God as mediated through the preacher.

The job of the preacher is not to be that of the cook, but that of the server to deliver exactly what God has already prepared. And it is only through the proper understanding of that word that God's word changes his people.

We see a tangible illustration of that as we prepare to close this morning in verse 12 of our text. It says there, and all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing.

Why?

Because they had understood the words that were declared to them. So brothers and sisters, may this be true of us this morning as well. And not just today, but every day. May we rejoice from within our very heart of hearts because we've understood the word of God.

But even before that, may we commit ourselves to honor the word of God this much, that we would cry out for God's word if it was ever not provided for us.

Week after week after week after week.

As you strive to be a healthy church for years and years to come, may you rightly recognize the importance of expository preaching. And may the heartbeat of Redeemer Bible Fellowship always be, thus saith the Lord.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you today for the word which you have delivered to us.

God, we are unworthy.

To be the recipients of your grace and to be those who receive such a glorious gift. But you, oh God, in your abundant love and compassion and mercy and grace have delivered to us the words of life. Words by which we, according to your grace, can come to saving faith in your son.

Words by which we can be shaped and molded to become more like Jesus and we can teach our children that they might come to saving faith in Christ as well. So I pray, oh God, that you will truly do a glorious, miraculous work in our hearts today.

Give us a greater love for your word. Help us to honor it as you speak to us day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute through the word which you have given to us. Not just a word that you've given in the past, but a word, Lord God, that you illuminate for us by the power of your spirit every day.

Help us, Lord, to honor you in this way and to bring you much glory. We pray this in Christ's name.