Sermon Tone Analysis

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*Intro*
We are starting the second half of the book of Nehemiah today.
The theme of the book is “Building God’s people for God’s work.”
Neh.
1-7 was about doing God’s work.
We gleaned principles as we learned about the people of God, under the leadership of God through Nehemiah and the enabling power of God, built the wall around the city of God, Jerusalem.
In this we learned about how God prepares us for the work (Neh.
1-2), how He prospers us in the work (Neh.
3) and then the problems in the work (Neh.
4-7).
Now in Neh.
8-13, we will be learning about building God’s people.
Did you know God wants to build us?
He wants to build us individually, but also as a community.
It is all over the New Testament.
Col. 2:6 says that once you receive Christ, we must be built up in him.
In Eph.
4:11-12, it says that the pastor’s job is to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry,” for “the building up the body of Christ.”
Peter says to drink the milk of God’s Word so that we may “grow up” (1 Pet.
2:2).
So when you come to the cross and receive the Lord, it is only the beginning.
God wants to build us up, so that we may build some things for God.
We are blessed to be a blessing!
So the first half of the book was about construction, but the second half will be about instruction.
The first half was about reconstructing the city’s main defense, but the second half will be revitalizing a city’s spiritual community.[1]
Reforming a community back to God is a lot more important than restoring its walls.
This brings up a very important point.
It is pointless to have a building, a program, a committee, or any structure, if there is little to no life on in the inside.[2] Who cares if we have changed our name if living hope is not really a living hope of all of us?
Who cares if we have a servant team or a great youth ministry or a wonderful worship band or a nice building, if the people inside are dead?
This is what Nehemiah realized.
The city is now /well defended/ and /well governed/.
We saw in Neh.
7 that Nehemiah helped the people become /well organized/.
But the real question is: Are the people /well pleasing/ to the Lord?
We already know some of the spiritual leadership was corrupt (remember Shemaiah and other prophets working for the enemy in Neh 6:10ff) and some of the rich people were also getting paid off from Tobiah (Neh.
6:17-19).
Nehemiah has been running around putting band-aids everywhere when the heart has stopped beating in the body.
So how can the people of God really be a called-out covenant community again?
The answer is revival.
There have been times in history when God shows up and shakes up an entire community and even a nation.
I think of the Protestant Reformation in 1500s, led by Martin Luther, where the Bible was translated for the people to understand for the first time and where the old, dead, works-based religiosity of the Roman Catholics gave way to vibrant, living, grace-filled, Bible-based faith.
300 years later, two brothers, John and Charles Wesley, led the “first great awakening” in England.
There are others I can name, but those are times people would call revival.
We have no control over that kind of a movement of God.
In addition, sometimes when people think of revival, they may think of long lines of people waiting for a turn at a microphone to confess sin, or a bunch of people falling over or laughing and barking or other circus acts of emotional extravaganza.
Here is what I mean by revival: a renewed interest and passion for God and the things of God after a period of indifference and apathy.
You came to the Lord and were following Him, but for whatever reason, you drifted off, wandered and now you get back on the track again and get fired up for God again (Ps 80:18; Ps. 85:6).
This is revival.
It is Jesus Christ experienced and enjoyed.
Revival is not for the unbeliever, because you can’t revive someone who is dead (Eph.
2:1).
Revival is for the believer, though often when God revives His people, He brings life to the unbelievers as well.
God wants this from us all the time.
He can’t use a dirty vessel.
He can’t use someone who is not usable.
Revival brings us to the place where we can be clean and usable vessels fit for the Master’s use (2 Tim.
2:21).
Today we are going to look at national revival for the Jews, but apply the principles for our own lives.
Where does revival start?
Revival starts with me! Let’s look at some of the ingredients for revival.
What does revival look like?
We are going to do this differently than we have in the past.
We’re going to study this section and afterwards draw the applications for us.
If we go back to Neh. 7:73, we see that the wall was finished in the sixth month and everyone went back to living their lives.
We are now in the seventh month.
The seventh month was a very important month in the Jewish calendar.
The first day was the Feast of Trumpets, later celebrated as the New Year.
Actual trumpets were blown, alerting people to gather together.
Other festivals were also celebrated that month like the Day of Atonement.[3]
What a great time to build God’s people!
A perfect time for revival!
See God’s providence behind this.
The wall was done.
Everyone is thinking about a new year and also preparing for the Day of Atonement.
The “people” dominate these verses.
The word “people” occurs thirteen times in 8:1–12.
So they gathered around the Water Gate.
This gate was on the east side of the city of David.[4]
The water gate was the gate used to bring water into the city.
An aqueduct brought some water into the city but not all of it.
The remainder was carried in through the water gate.[5]
Apparently, nearby there was a large square for people to gather.
Can you imagine this?
About 50,000 people gathering together, in the Middle Eastern Sun, with no seats and no sound system?
Here we see the first mention of Ezra.
This is the same Ezra whom the previous book of the Bible is named.
If you remember, there were three separate trips back from exile.
Ezra, came with the second group, 14 years before Nehemiah, primarily to teach God’s people His Word.
He is called a scribe here and a priest in Neh.
8:2.
In the book of Ezra, he is also called a teacher (Ez.
7:6).
Scribes were trained in reading various languages as well as copying literature and interpreting what it means to the people.
Many scribes were also priests and~/or community leaders, as Ezra was.
They were guardians of culture and tradition.[6]
When he first arrived, the spiritual condition of the people was deplorable.
People had intermarried with the neighboring countries and started worshipping other gods (Ez.
9:1-4; 10:2, 10).
Through his ministry, people started obeying God’s Word again.
The Temple was also rebuilt.
Look at how his ministry was described: He “had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel” (Ezra 7:10).
I pray that could be said of all of us! That’s a true minister right there.
The question that arises here is what happened to Ezra for the last seven chapters of Nehemiah?
As a result, there is a lot of Bible gymnastics from the Bible scholars, with each one with their own take on where Neh.
8-10 should be placed.
Some say after Ezra 7, some say after Neh. 12, etc.
I did not find any real solid case for any of them to be honest, so for our purposes, we will keep it as we have it.
We don’t know where Ezra was.
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