Responding to God from Our Heart

Nehemiah 8-13

By Pastor Dan Kennedy

www.pastorkennedy.com

How Do You Know if Who You Are, and what You Are Doing, or Not Doing, is Pleasing or Displeasing To God?

When we come to God from our heart, we want to know and do what pleases Him.

When we have gone our own way and have done our own thing how do we come back to God and be fully accepted by Him?

Israel had experienced exile from God, because of their great sin, and God’s Temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed because of it. Ezra and Nehemiah were sent by God to bring the exiles back into their Promised Land.

Five Basic Spiritual Concepts in Responding from our Hearts to God

1. Hearing

2. Understanding

3. Changing

4. Choosing

5. Living

Later we will relate these five areas to Chapters 8-11 of Nehemiah, but before that, let’s look how these five areas relate to those seeking God today.

1. Hearing: Hearing instructions from God’s Word. (Knowing what God expects from us.)

Those seeking God from their heart must hear what God says in His Word… not just what a person thinks or perceives God might want. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the Word of Christ.” That is why God’s Word, the Bible is so important in the lives of those who want to please God.

Romans 10:13–17

13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

2. Understanding: Understanding where we stand in our Relationship to a Holy God… Contrary to the popular opinion which says we are basically “good”, the Bible teaches us that:

· No one is totally good (Ps. 53:3).

· Everyone down deep has a corrupt heart.

· All have sinned against God (Rom. 3:23-25).

· All sinners need a “Sacrifice of Atonement” before God.

· We need to be Justly forgiven by God – Jesus’ atoning blood.

Psalm 53:3

3 Everyone has turned away,

they have together become corrupt;

there is no one who does good,

not even one. (See also Ps. 14:3; Rom. 3:12)

Romans 3:23–25

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood….

3. Changing: Repentance and Seeking Forgiveness of Our sins.

Repentance is choosing to change our old ways – empowered by God’s Holy Spirit.

Matthew 26:27–28 (Jesus, at “the Last Supper”, reminds His disciples of the power of His Blood to atone for and forgive sins,)

27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the [new] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 24:46–47

46 He (Jesus, following His resurrection) told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Acts 2:36–38

36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 10:43

43 All the prophets testify about him (Jesus) that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Acts 17:30–31

30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

4. Choosing: Making a Choice to Follow God; Receiving His Gift of Salvation, Cleansing and Justification, by God’s Grace and Power

Joshua 24:14–15

14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Acts 16:29–31

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

John 3:14–18

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up (crucified on a cross), 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

5. Living: Wanting to live a Life pleasing to God, empowered by His Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:17

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Romans 6:1–4

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Ephesians 4:17–24

Living as Children of Light

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Old Testament Obedience to the Law: Before Jesus Christ the Messiah came and the Mystery of the Gospel was fully revealed (Col. 1:15-29), those given God’s Law through Moses, in the Old Testament, sought to follow the statutes provided in the Law, in order to be pleasing to God.

The Jewish nation – in the Old Testament, was chosen by God, but struggled with obedience to the Law and failed so miserably that God Himself destroyed their homeland and His own Temple, confirming that no one can adequately keep the whole Law (see Psalm 53:3)!

141 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, God sent Nehemiah to once again rebuild the city’s walls, giving it security and proper identity.

A major desire of Nehemiah, the governor, and Ezra, the scribe, was that the exiles, which had returned to Jerusalem, would respond to God from their heart.

The first priority Nehemiah had, when the wall was finished, was to have the people listen to God’s Word.

If the returning exiles knew what God expected from them, from His Word – that would renew their minds and begin turning their hearts back toward God! As time would go by, an inner commitment to God should be revealed through outward actions. This is true today. We shouldn’t come to church because our attendance might be expected and others would see us more favorably, but because of our desire is to know and love God better. The former attitude will become old and legalistic, even bringing with it cynicism and a judgmental attitude, but mutually fellowshipping with believers out of a true love for God and a desire to know Him and His Word more deeply will, in time, bear good and most likely everlasting fruit.

Basic Spiritual Concepts for seeking God from the heart, were consistent in Nehemiah’s day, some 2,500 years ago, just as they are today:

1. Hearing

2. Understanding

3. Changing

4. Choosing

5. Living

These principles were evident when Nehemiah and Ezra encouraged the Jewish exiles to follow their God while being restored back into their homeland.

Let’s turn in our Bibles to the last verse in Nehemiah chapter 7.

The context of this verse is after Jerusalem’s walls were completed, and beginning the seventh month when the Israelites settled back into their towns after working so hard to rebuild the city’s walls. The identification of the seventh month is critical because the people will discover from Ezra’s reading that the Feast of Booths is to be celebrated in the seventh month.

Nehemiah 7:73

“The priests, the levites, the gatekeepers, the singers and the temple servants, along wit certain of the people and the rest of the Israelites, settled in their own towns. When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns...”

Nehemiah 8 begins with all the people coming back to Jerusalem for a great assembly to hear Ezra the scribe read the Word of God from Moses’ writings (the first five books of the Bible, called the “Pentateuch”).

1. Hearing: Hearing instructions from God’s Word. (Knowing what God expected from them.)

Ezra Reads the Law from Daybreak until Noon

Nehemiah 8–13

8 1 All the people (potentially 42,360+ people – Neh. 7:66) assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate (see also Ezra 3:1). They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.

2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.

· 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

· 8:4 Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood…(other leaders of the people).

8:5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up.

· 8:6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

· 8:7 The Levites… (were also) standing there. 8 They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.

2. Understanding: The reading and interpretation of the Law gave the people understanding of where they stood in Relationship with God!

8:9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all,

“This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

3. Changing: They cried. Tears, in these situations, most often reveal grief over sin and a willingness to repent.

· 8:10 Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

· 8:11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.”

8:12 Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.

4. Choosing: The Feast of Booths Reinstated by the Leaders of the People

- Making Choices to Follow God individually and as families…choosing to live a life pleasing to Him.

8:13 On the second day of the (seventh – see Neh. 7:73) month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to the words of the Law. 14 They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the feast of the seventh month 15 and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem:

“Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make booths”—as it is written.

8:16 So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. 17 The whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.

Ezra Continued to Read from the Book of the Law

8:18 Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.

The Israelites Confess Their Sins

9 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers.

· 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.

· 4 Standing on the stairs were the Levites…who called with loud voices to the Lord their God. 5 And the Levites...said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”

Antiphonal Reading for our Congregation through this section of Scripture - with Everyone Standing.

Recounting the History of Israel:

Congregation (Nehemiah 9:6)

Praise to God, who created all things! Blessed be your glorious name and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Pastor (9:7-9)

You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promises because you are righteous.

Congregation (9:10-12)

You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. You sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.

Pastor (9:13-15)

You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.

Congregation (9:16-18)

But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listed and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, grackous and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

Pastor (9:19-21)

Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

Congregation (9:22-25)

You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over The country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. You made their sons as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their fathers to enter and possess. Their sons went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lives in the land; you handed the Canaanites over to them, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.

Pastor (9:26-27)

But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. You you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.

Congregation (9:28)

But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heart from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.

Pastor (9:29-31)

You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

Congregation (9:32-35)

Now therefore, O our God, the great, might and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes -- the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, upon our priests and prophets, upon our fathers and all your people from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong. Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.

Pastor (9:35-37)

But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our forefathers so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.

[Everyone] Pastor and Congregation (9:38)

9:38 In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.

(Congregation may be seated)

5. Living (in Nehemiah’s day): The Agreement of the Returning Jewish Exiles to Live their Lives Honorably toward God

Identification of those who signed and sealed the binding agreement, with the promises they intended to keep (Nehemiah 10)

10 Those who sealed it were:

· Nehemiah the governor – with the priests.

· 9 The Levites

· 14 The leaders of the people

“The rest of the people”... together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand...

Promises of the Agreement, which were Signed and Sealed by those in Jerusalem

-Promise to not intermarry with the heathen tribes (10:30)
-Promise to not violate the Sabbaths (10:31)
-Promise to give tithe, so priestly responsibilities and sacrifices could be carried out in the house of God (10:32-33)
-Promise to help with the work and supplies for the Temple (10:34)
-Promise to bring firstfruits for provisions in the Temple (10:35)
-Promise to follow instructions regarding the Firstborn (10:36)
-Promise to tithe crops to fill the storerooms for the Temple - for the priests and Levites...to not neglect the house of God (10:37)

“We will not neglect the house of our God.”

Here are some New Testament Practical Guidelines in the “Church Age” Today, for “Living” and Deepening our Relationship with God

5. Living (Today): Some commitments that Believers in Christ today could identify as that which would help them grow in their faith, under Christ’s New Covenant.

✦ Personal daily Scripture reading, meditation, study and prayer
✦ Regularly fellowshipping together with other Believers in Jesus Christ
✦ Participating in a healthy Bible Study
✦ Rejecting those things that would tear us down spiritually
✦ Encouraging those in our homes, community, and around the world, to live according to the Gospel of Christ
✦ Being ready to share the hope we have of Salvation in Jesus Christ
✦ Being daily led and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s will and purpose for our lives.

These “Church Age” practical guidelines are not what the Old Testament followers of the Law would be accustomed to because...

· The mystery of the Grace of Salvation through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, had not yet been revealed.

· The transforming work of the Holy Spirit had not yet been given.

· The New Covenant in Christ Jesus had not yet been enacted.

o The New Covenant: Jer. 31:31-34; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Hebrews 8:6-13; 9:11-10:18; 12:18-24.

Luke 22:20

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

2 Corinthians 3:6

6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

(Now back to Nehemiah… )

Nehemiah 11–13

1. The New Residents of Jerusalem were Chosen (Neh. 11)

(One out of every 10 who had been living on ancestral property away from the city would move into the formerly abandoned Jerusalem so the city would have adequate residents).

2. Celebration of the Dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem (Neh. 12:27-47)

a. Levites were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate with songs of thanksgiving and musical instruments (12:27).

b. Everyone participating was Ceremonially purified (12:30).

c. The Leaders of Judah stood on top of the wall (12:31).

d. Two large groups of choirs and instrumentalists, with leaders following them walked along the top of the wall in opposite directions, singing with great rejoicing and playing their instruments (12:31-43).

e. “The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away!” (12:43)

12:43 And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

Nehemiah’s Final Reforms – Dealing With Those Who Failed To Fulfill Their Promises to God

· Restricting Unbelievers from Temple Worship (Neh. 13:1-14)

· Rebuking those who did not regard the Sabbath (Neh. 13:15-22)

· Rebuking intermarriage with heathen tribes (Neh. 13:23-31).

Neh. 13:25b…I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. 27 Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”

Nehemiah’s final Prayer after fulfilling all the work that God had prompted him to do…the final statement in his book.

“Remember me with favor, O my God.” - Nehemiah 13:31c

Nehemiah sought to follow the Lord His God, with all his heart. He faced many a roadblock and tests in bringing the exiled Israeli’s back to their land and rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, but he endured knowing he was faithfully serving and following what his God had directed and empowered him to do.

Conclusion

The Jewish exiles found a renewed relationship with God from their hearts, just as we will today when we listen to God’s Word and respond to the work of His Holy Spirit in our lives.

1. Hearing

2. Understanding

3. Changing

4. Choosing

5. Living

✦ Hearing: Reading, meditating, and studying God’s Word, with prayer.

✦ Understanding: Regularly fellowshipping together with other Believers in Jesus Christ and participating in a healthy Bible Study.

✦ Changing: Rejecting those things that would tear us down spiritually.

✦ Choosing: Encouraging those in our homes, community, and around the world, to live according to the Gospel of Christ.

✦ Living: Being ready to share the hope we have of Salvation in Jesus Christ and seeking to be led and empowered every day, by God’s Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s will and purpose for our lives.