This past week at Authentic, we looked at Nehemiah 8:1-12, a passage showing the breaking out of a revival in Jerusalem. The book of Nehemiah tells the story of an effort by returned exiles to restore Jerusalem to its former glory as the City of God. By the time chapter 8 rolls around, the brick and mortar of the city (walls and temple) were rebuilt, but now the people are interested in restoring the inner-workings of the city.At the start of chapter 8, all the people of Jerusalem come to Ezra's door at about 6a.m. asking him to teach them the law. Ever have a time when someone stopped by to visit you at very early in the morning. You know, you are sound sleep, enjoying the solace of your bed, when you hear the doorbell ring. At first you might think you are dreaming, or you ignore it hoping this person goes away, but after a few rings you realize said person is not going to relent. So you
Now I love teaching the Bible, I feel that it is what God put me on this planet to do, but if I someone woke me up early in the morning to ask me to do this, I might say, "Sure, let's get together for lunch at noon, See you then." And then crawl back up our stairs and spill back into bed for a little bit longer, but here, presented with the same situation Ezra says, let's do it!
You see Ezra loves the law, and made it his life goal to learn about the law, and to teach the law to others (Ezra 7:10). Ezra knows the people coming to him asking him to teach on the law, probably have never heard it. They are completely oblivious to the law, and are living lives that do not line up with it. Ezra understood the law's importance, and so when asked to share on it, Ezra was more than compliant, Ezra probably said, "I thought you would never ask!"
My wife (shout-out to her blog Running the Race) is fascinated by September 11th. If there is a special on about September 11th, she has seen it. If there is a book about September 11th, she has read it. I sometimes wonder if I will see her on one of these shows as "9/11 Historian" Gina Wilson. In many ways her studies of 9/11 mirror Ezra's studies of the law. Both of them are passionate about their subject, both of them have devoted many hours to their subject, and both view their subject as something very important. I can tell you that when I bring up 9/11 with Gina, her eyes light up, and she will just talk as long as you want about 9/11. It is almost as if when you ask her something about 9/11 she says, "I thought you would never ask!" This is the way Ezra felt about the law. When the Israelites came and asked him to teach on it, it did not matter that it was 6 in the morning, or that he was tired, he was excited for the opportunity to talk about the Scriptures.
So Ezra tells the people to meet him by the Water Gate, assembles the elders, has a small stage built, and has the book of the law delivered to this stage. Ezra walks up to the podium, opens the book of the law, everyone stands, and he starts teaching them the law. And he does this until noon! So there is the entire assembly of returned exiles, men, women, and children old enough to understand, standing up in the heat of the day, listening to a sermon for about 6 hours! Maybe this much is not overly shocking, but what is amazing is the response of the people.
The scripture says in verse 3 that all the people are attentive, and then in verse 9 we see all the people weeping. So Ezra preaches on the O.T. law, which, let's be serious, in and of itself is not that interesting, for 6 hours, in the heat, in the sun, and all the people stand, are attentive, and are broken by his message.
You may be wondering, how this is even possible. I mean let's be honest, we have trouble with 45 minute sermons, sitting down, in air-conditioning. Remember though, this is the first time these people are hearing the law, and they are glued to the message, because the Spirit of God is moving. Because this is not just any sermon, this is the breaking out of revival.
Ezra gets done preaching, and there is a scene. People are crying all over the place, people are bowed to God, they are realizing their sin. They are realizing that their lives do not measure up to the standard placed before them. They realize that it was their sin, and the sin of their relatives, that caused their exile. It was their sin that caused Jerusalem to be only a shadow of what it once was. Their sin has defamed the name of God, the city of Jerusalem, and the people of Israel. After all God had done for them, taking them out of Egypt, and giving them a land of their own possession, loving them, blessing them and protecting them, all they repaid him with was rebellion.
But here is what is interesting: This group of people were not alive when they were taken into captivity. The law had not been read for about 150 years. It was the sin of their relatives that caused this mess, but rather than getting angry, they feel sorrow. They didn't think, "man our parents, our grandparents, our relatives really screwed this up." I mean if you think about it, the natural human inclination is to do exactly that. C'mon let's get real, we are bitter at Adam and Eve for messing it up, we are bitter at our parents for not being smarter with their money and thus hurting our inheritance, or bitter at our older siblings for messing up and causing stricter rules for us. We love blaming others when blame is due, and rather than associating ourselves with them, we separate ourselves. "If only they did this", we say or, "I can't believe they did that!"
This would have been really easy for the Israelites to do here. To listen to the law and say, "Well now I know how our relatives ruined it," or "If only they followed these rules we would not have to rebuild Jerusalem from scratch." Instead though, they weep, they mourn, they associate their own sin as the problem. They listen to the sermon and rather than thinking about someone else, they let the words sink into their own hearts, and realize their own sin. While it would have been easy to deflect, they take blame.
Associating oneself with the sin of others is in fact a pattern of the great people of faith in the Bible. Daniel, who as far as we read in Scripture, never really did anything wrong, in the midst of his prayer in Daniel 9 says, "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land." Nehemiah's prayer in Nehemiah 1 is eerily similar. The mature men of faith, are fully aware of their own sin, and the way it contributed to the downfall of Israel. In short these men were able to recognize their own sin, without focusing on the sin of others.
This however is a practice that is a bit lost in the church today. Let me paint a picture for you: Your pastor is standing up front delivering a message about the problem of sin (yay! you go to a church that talks about sin, you are already ahead of the game). You are sitting towards the back of the room, while Molly, a friend of yours from High School is sitting towards the front. Molly's life is a mess, and many people are fully aware. She is pregnant, with the child of a former boyfriend within her. Currently, she is living with another man, who helps fund her drinking and smoking, yes, while pregnant. Molly is a Christian, and not living the life she should, but still attends church on a weekly basis. As the pastor preaches on sin, you are excited, because you think, "This is exactly what Molly needs to hear!", maybe you even lean over to your neighbor and say exactly that. Every time the pastor makes a point, you shout "amen!" in agreement, hoping that your contribution to the message just further reinforces Molly's need for change. The problem is, the pastor is not just preaching to Molly, he is preaching to you. Yet you sit there and think the message is just for her! So what happens is you never confront your sin, you never personalize the message, because after all, there is always someone else the pastor is preaching to.
When the people of Israel in Nehemiah 8 were willing to personalize the message, they were changed. It would have been easy for them to blame their parents and their grandparents for the problems in Israel. It would have been easy to deflect this message onto the people that were still living in Babylon. It would have been easy to shout "Amen!" while this sermon was going on because they wanted to further reinforce that they agreed that sin was a problem in other people's lives. Instead, they allowed the Scripture to pierce their own heart. They allowed the message to be about themselves. They allowed the standard of Scripture to be aligned against their own lives, which we lacking.
As I write this, I just got back from my lunch break. My coworker and I were sitting at a table talking about football, when the guy next to us overheard our conversation and joined in. On his table was a New Testament, so I asked him what he was reading. He told me it was the Bible, that he loved the Bible, and that he loved to go around and tell people about the Bible. In the midst of the conversation, we got on the topic of church. He told me he did not go. I asked him why, to which he responded, "Well I just feel like church is for people that don't know about Jesus, but I read my Bible, and I already know it." Here was someone who was above the sermon. Sermons weren't for him, they were for the immature, baby believers. Don't be this guy! When sermons are preached, understand that the sermon is for you, not for your neighbor, not for the baby Christians, and not for Molly in the first row.
True growth happens when you allow the Scriptures to show you were you do not measure up. In Nehemiah 8, it was the beginning of revival, when people realized it was their sin that caused the exile. They realized that their sin did not line up with Scripture, and they realized that their sin was a problem. After this day, we see restoration, we see change, we see growth. If you want to grow, you need to recognize that you still have growth to do, and recognize that even if you think the sermon is for Molly, most likely it is for you.
You see, Molly's sins of sleeping around and drinking were nailed to a cross 2,000 years ago, the same way that your sin of judging her was. So stop thinking you are better, that the sermon is above you, and start listening, understanding that you are not perfect and there is sin that needs to be confronted in your life as well.
And yes, this message is for me as well.
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