The Village Church
Word Up - Audio
And bounce around from church to church every time a pastor really needs someone to fill the pulpit. And it was in seminary that I saw this happening with a lot of guys and I saw one of my mentors at the church I was working at. And he had a plan for this. He decided that whenever he was going from church to church, he wanted to have one specific topic that he wanted to be able to preach on, to drill to the hearts of all the peoples he got to see. And for him it was the idea of revival. So I watched him do this from time to time and I wanted to have the same ability, the same chance to take one topic. So I started searching the scriptures looking for that great unique new topic that I'd blow away every church that I'd go to so that I could be that great new pastor. And the more I did that, the more I was humbled and realized that that's not what I needed to do. There was only one topic I needed to be able to preach on every single time I see a church. And that was the pure and simple gospel. And it was such a great challenge to be able to say I don't want to just preach the gospel. I want to find it on every page of the word and preach the gospel. And so I've taken up that chance to find that promise of salvation that he's given us. And it was about the same time that I learned that first lesson that I first met Alex when we were in seminary together. We had a professor there, Frank Kick, he rest in peace. He did not give us much peace in class. He loved the chance to drill brand new young students. And he got us into his first year preaching class. And he assigned us our first chance to get up in front of all of these seminary students and preach. And he assigned every single one of us in that class the exact same verse. One single verse from Mark 15. So we'd all prep to make sure we'd have our own take on Mark 15 and we'd sit there for weeks listening to student after student preach the exact same verse. Each of us wanting to be just a little better than last. Each of us holding that little bit of pride, wanting to be the student who found that unique thing. And then we were all done and Dr. Kick would get up and he would preach. And he would humble us. He'd humble us first by letting us realize that those of us who were sitting being calloused in the seats, listening, thinking that we didn't need to listen to every student because we'd already heard that verse preached. We'd preached it. We had a whole lot to learn before we were allowed to graduate because we could preach that same verse 30 times over in those three weeks and every one of us would find this unique message of joy in that same verse of the gospel. And that joy that he tried to teach us, that right there is the same joy and promise that God gives us in the passage here today. So it is that I want to turn to ironically a passage that Alex has spent quite a bit of time preaching through a book. And return again to that same passage that he has put before your eyes and remind us one more time that this promise of joy, this promise of the gospel is on every page and should be on our hearts every day anew. So if you'll turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 8, we'll read verse 1 through 12. And to all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Watergate. 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 it from it facing the square before the Watergate from the early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who would understand. And 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'd made for that purpose. And beside him stood Mattothiah, Shema, Anuniah, Uriah, Hilkiah, Masatiah, and to his right side Padaya, Mishayel, Malchagiah, Hashum, Hashparuna, Zechariah and Mashulam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the side 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 they worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And also Yeshua, Vanai, Sharabiah, Jaimin, Akhua, Shabbatiah, Haudiah, Mahasaya, Kalita, Azariah, Jazabad, Hanan, Peliah, and the Levites helped the people to understand the law. And while the people remained in their places. They read from the book from the law of God, clearly. And they gave the sin so that the people understood the reading. 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. And then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our Lord, 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 to send the portions and to make great joy. Will you bow your heads and pray with me for this word? Come, my father, we come before you and ask that our hearts be bowed before you and that they be lifted up only in your hand and only by your word. Oh, let your spirit be in this place, that my words be not from my heart, but be spoken from your spirit and from your truth, that that word may go out and may fulfill your promise to not come back to you, void. Lift up this word, lift up this promise and let us lift up our lives before you from this. All enjoy for your son Jesus and whose name we pray, amen. It was 1741 when a man named Charles Jennings sent a collection of Bible verses that he'd found to one of his friends, a composer. I was primarily focused on the person of work of God and was quite a bit of work to try to get through. Jennings thought that it might take him upwards of a year to try to even make his way through these passages before he could set them down to music. But one particular passage, copy I of this composer, it was from Isaiah 40, the promise comfort, comfort my people. Those words of promise set a flurry of inspiration and motion and over three weeks Handel finished his magnum opus, the Messiah. Just a few years later, that same work was being presented in concert before King George II and has been immortalized in history. When the king heard the introduction of the Hallelujah course, he stood. Now, no one really knows what prompted the king to stand. Some believe that maybe he was mistakenly thinking in his deafness that this was the national anthem and he wanted to be patriotic. Some people think that he was getting a little older and he had a bit of restless leg syndrome and he'd been sitting there for quite a while listening to Handel's music. He just wanted to get up and stretch his legs for once. Those who love the piece just want to believe the truth and the inspiration that he was so impressed by the words and by the music that it brought him to his feet. We'd like to think that it's a sign of respect and not some fluke, but either way, tradition dictates that we still stand and pay homage to the Hallelujah course. Now in the story before us in Nehemiah, we find a similar standing tradition initiated, but this time we have no doubt as to the reason. It was the word, the very word of God which has a presence and a power that speaks to the hearts of God's people and if we listen carefully, if we understand it rightly, we will still hear that still small voice whisper the promise of that word that caused the weeping of a nation to turn into a feast of delight. We can trace the emotional rollercoaster of the Israelites as they come before the presence of the word and the power of the word and the very promise of that word. The Israelites as we find them here in this passage have come a long way home. It's a people who had forgotten that word and turned from God only to be cast into exile and finally a remnant returns to the shambles of what once was. Only spirit tempered by God could give them the strength to look on the ruins of their former glory and still forge ahead, but it's what they did despite the outcry of the new inhabitants of the land, despite the cynicism of the cynics that surrounded them. They began to rebuild their lives, they didn't wait to have the safety of walls, they didn't wait to have the comfort of a temple, they didn't wait to start worshiping again. And when the time had come for them to celebrate one of their more traditional feasts, it was the people who came forth together as one and requested that the word be brought. And it was brought with all the expected pomp and circumstance and all of the people gathered, not simply the stereotypical men's club that you might expect of that day, but the women and the children of that crowd. Anyone deemed old enough to understand the truth of the word was mustered together at the Watergate and they waited, they waited in eager expectation, ears bent on catching the words as they poured from Ezra's tongue and Ezra mounted the platform just been built for just this occasion and you can almost sense the wonder as Ezra brought forth the scroll and slowly began to enroll it and before a word was even uttered at the sound of the unrolling of the parchment, the people watched the word brought forth and as one they stood. In the presence of the word the people stood awestruck, the anticipation was reaching its zenith and I don't know that we can quite understand which can quite fathom the joy that left to their hearts as they finally saw the word returned to its proper place. I think to begin to see the innocent wonder we have to harken ourselves back to the days of our youth, to the days of our innocence. When the greatest joy we had was to look forward to the day of our birth but more importantly the day people gathered around us praised our name and gave us presence. The whole reason that we as children grew up learning to count not in years but in years and a half just so we could be that much closer to the next time they brought us presence. Now I can remember one particular birthday that stands out and there was a lot that stood out but not necessarily for good reasons. I haven't always been a big fan of my birthday but one in particular when I was a child rises to the top. It was not necessarily the most joyous occasion but it was definitely very interesting. Our family had just returned from my dad serving overseas in West Germany and we had only been in the States for a short time and had not had time for me to meet any new kids or for our families to know anyone but it was time for my birthday and we were going to have a party whether I knew anyone there or not. So my parents gathered around me all of their extended family and their friends not a child in sight not a person probably under 30 which at the time I thought was ancient but in recent birthdays grew to love and think of his young still. These adults gathered around me and they knew that it was my day and they gave me whatever I want. I don't really remember what presence I got that my siblings stole as I unwrapped them. I don't remember which adult one pin the tail on sunshine bear that I made them all dress up and play. I do remember one thing just before the party started my mother and my aunt came and asked me what one thing do you want us to do before your birthday and I told them exactly what I wanted. And as I marched upstairs into the room filled with adults there for just me everyone stood and rose and in one voice claimed his royal highness king Justin the birthday boy. And it is a title they have never let me live down. I still get birthday greetings to his royal highness but I loved it. Such joy and elation left in my heart seeing those who loved me rise and speak of one voice. But the joy we have here in the people of Israel in Nehemiah as they saw the rebirth of the word the rebirth of their nation unfathomable they had waited so long to see the promise of God return. Now the best part is when the word was read the anticipation wasn't dulled it was fulfilled in perfect satisfaction it caused the people to worship. Now let's not mistake here that they were worshiping the word it's not that we are supposed to worship the word itself it's that the word is supposed to lead us to worship that the promise is supposed to lift us to that glory because of the great power that comes from it a power that points solely to Christ. And we see that power of the word as the people when they rise together they said amen amen. Now me being raised up a good Presbyterian boy sitting as quiet as can be in church I am a perfect example of the frozen chosen and it's a bit hard sometimes for me to understand the people of Israel getting up and crying out amen. I think maybe Nehemiah knew that it was going to be hard for Presbyterians to understand what it means to say amen so he wrote it twice just to make sure that we knew that the double iteration of the word was there just to stress the great importance the great joy they had in being able to see this they cried not once but continually in worship that this word is truth that it is truth guaranteed. Nehemiah wrote this for us for those people so that they wouldn't forget again this people who had so recently pushed the word aside and because of their forgetfulness had been thrown into exile they were not going to forget again so soon they were going to hold it fast to their hearts and they were going to teach it to their children they were going to have it written that they did this one right. A power certainly is felt just by the reading of the word but it should not be confined to just that and Ezra and the lead they saw that importance they understood that the truth that the power of this word had to be known to them the people didn't need to just hear they needed to understand they needed to understand what this word meant that this word meant that there was one God Almighty who was ever faithful never changing and always loving who despite the stray Israelites had never strayed himself that even at the moment that he sent them to exile he gave them a reminder of that same promise that he would bring them back that he would always preserve a remnant and that they would always be his people. Nehemiah and Ezra made sure that they understood who God was and they made well sure that the people knew just who they were to that where God was faithful they were fickle where God never forgets we forget him too often and where God runs to us we tend to run away and that word that understanding brought mourning because all of a sudden we see Nehemiah looking to these people and Ezra having taught them and instructed them and we hear that they have been mourning this whole time weeping openly because as soon as they saw the word they saw their own sin but Nehemiah knew that that was not a full understanding it wasn't just for them to see their sin and to mourn over it to think that they were left there oh to have a word that brings such power I love the stories C.S. Lewis writes I love the academic books but I can't get enough of his children's books and it's the Chronicles of Narnia that I will continually come back to and in his story the magicians nephew we see Lewis's example of what power one word could possibly have our main characters are lost into a world and they they release this woman who will ultimately become our white witch and she tells us her backstory of where she had come from and why she has to escape into Narnia because she had grown up in a world with a sister who was at odds with her and she wanted such power one one had such complete control and she saw her sister raising forces against her but she knew that if this ever happened she she had a greater power she had one word the deplorable word and at the mention of that word the whole world would be destroyed and she herself frozen in time now I was wondered what C.S. Lewis must have meant by the deplorable word what one word would bring us to destruction I find myself becoming just like the Israelites who in searching for that one word looked only at the first part of the promise who only looked at the first part of the word and understood only my own sin and my own trappings and did not continue and see that there's a greater word that there is one word that can bring us to our knees and that is when Christ looks down upon us and says forgiven the power of one word forgiven the joy of that one word where mourning is turned to repentance where the powerful exposition of the word of God can bring deep conviction of sin but repentance repentance must not degenerate into self-centered remorse it must issue into joy in God's forgiving goodness repentance that comes from that morning must lead to joy joy in the promise of God's unfailing love joy in the day of his faithfulness joy that leads to rejoicing we rejoice because of that promise because we have been told that we are not left in our sins they were not left in exile they were not left in shambles like their city we are not left in the darkness of our sin in the trappings of our forefathers in the sins of Adam they are all wiped away by that one word and we rejoice because of that promise we rejoice because God is our strength that the joy of the Lord is our strength literally the joy of the Lord is our fortress our stronghold I love the idea of watching my nephew's play and it doesn't matter where you put them they can build a fort and they will find some weapons and they will find some security if you leave them in my living room nothing will be existing anymore but couch cushions pushed into a corner and they will be hidden there because they found a fortress that is their solitude that is their comfort that is their strength and it doesn't matter if it's made out of cotton and fluff no one can penetrate their defenses it's as if the Lord has thrown us into our own three little pigs story where we are the pigs that believe we could build our own who built a straw and sticks who built upon our own foolishness and watched it blown away but have such joy in the fact that we can always run the Christ our fortress our house of bricks that no matter the howlings of the wolf outside cannot be blown down cannot be destroyed and cannot be moved it is joy of that fortress that strength that Christ gives us the joy of the Lord is our strength our stronghold we see why we rejoice but more important he wants the Israelites to know not just why they're rejoicing but how specifically they're supposed to do this here the people are told to celebrate with the eating of choice foods very literally fatty foods it's not as though he is following into the temptation of what we might want to read into this that this people coming off this terrible time of mourning are told by Nehemiah Israelites you have sinned you should be sad go home and put on your sweats get into the dark find your your greatest pint of Ben and Jerry's and sit there and weep and eat those fatty foods alone that's not the kind of fatty foods he's looking at the way he wants us to rejoice is more like looking to the fatty foods of the state fair I picture here my favorite from days of college when way too late at night we would experiment with far too many desserts and drop Oreos into deep fried pancake batter and douse them and powdered sugar is the reason I love following Westminster's football team to away games because you always go to those country schools that really know how to cook where everything has been fried twice they're getting to the point where they no longer just fry my favorite candy bars and Oreos but I've seen them fry cook and sticks of butter those are the festival fatty foods that Nehemiah would have rejoiced in those are the times that Nehemiah is trying to remind the Israelites to aim for foods so rich so delicious they echo the joy of your own heart where if the grease and the fat don't clog up your arteries and kill you the sugar rush certainly will Nehemiah knew exactly how to rejoice in the Lord but it wasn't just that they were to eat the fatty foods and to drink the fine wines it was that they were to share it with one another and to all of those around them who didn't have that same joy who didn't have that same preparation they're not commanded to take the leftovers of their feast to carry them out to the community and to see who still needed food they're commanded to let the overflow of their hearts the first fruits the same joy that they have be shared with everyone around them the purpose of joy in our life is to show the world God does give us what we need a strange and harsh command that he tells us to give him everything that we have just so he'll give us everything we need he's given us joy to overflow into upreach outreach and inreach the three key ways to serve God in the church upreach that that the joy and understanding of the word should be issued forth through us gathering together and worshiping him in reach that the strength of having the church body surrounding us like such a great cloud of witnesses can cause us to be brought together and fellowship in that same strength in the joy shared with one another and outreach where the overflow of his love in us spreads out to the whole of this world the Israelites had waited a long time to remember this lesson we live in a day and age where we are more likely to be known by the words of the book of judges that each American did what was right in the eyes of his self and not in the eyes of the Lord we fall into that category far more often than we fall into the categories of Nehemiah's people who understood the word and cried amen but what would it look like for this nation for this city for this people of God to hear that word and respond with such rejoicing to know and live the truth of his promise that the joy of the Lord is our strength that it matters not what stands in our way or what stands against us what has come before us or what dangers may be still ahead but that Christ alone is in us is for us and is with us every step of the way and so we find strength and so we find joy what would it look for this world to see that joy for then to start thinking of Christians as a people of love and grace rather than every chance poking into the media where people by the name of Christ have misused his word for their own gain or for worse darkness how do we come to this word how do we take this word it's a strength that was made not just for us to be able to know and to have joy after a long exile from God but after every long week after every long day how will we look at this word how will we take it and where will we take this word when we come before this word we'll greet it with joy and will we take that joy to the world will we write it on the hearts of our children and pour it from our own lips that's the challenge Nehemiah has left for his people to remember and that's a challenge Christ has left for us on this earth to remember always that the joy of the Lord is our strength and in his word alone do we stand and find our faith you pray with me God our Father you look down on us with such mercy because you see us with such love though when we look at our own hearts we see what a wretched sinner we are and yet you look upon them and you see the blood of Christ and you raise us up you raise us up in the power of your word in the promise of your son and in that salvation let that strength reign in us let your strength of your people under the headship of our Lord be made known in this world that Lord we don't take a day or we don't preach this gospel to ourselves and to our brothers Lord we are weak don't let us take for granted your joy to let us rejoice together always and again I say rejoice amen. the Lord. Thank you.