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REVIVAL AT WATER GATE (Part 2) - by Darren Choo
Nehemiah 8:9-18
3 August 2008

Introduction
Today we continue from where we left off the previous week. If you recalled, this revival occurred soon after the challenging task of rebuilding Jerusalem was finally completed. The walls were now finished and the gates hung in its place (7:1). But yet, despite of this, something was still missing. Nehemiah had rightly recognized a huge spiritual vacuum within the city. You see, the Israelites had long fallen away from the Lord and were still very much living in their pagan and sinful ways for the past many years.

A remedy was thus needed. To correct this, Nehemiah simply introduced the reading of God’s Holy Word to the people. The purpose of this act was threefold. To help the people …
a) Understand the Word – Mind (V1-8)
b) Respond to the Word – Heart (V9-12)
c) Obey the Word – Will (V13-18)

Last week, I unpacked at great length on the first point, which will be helpful for us now to recap briefly. To assist the people in fully understand God’s Word, the prophet Ezra was assigned for this next big task. To achieve this, he had to perform 3 vital steps. As Ezra stood on the wooden platform that was build for the purpose (v4), he brought the Book out (v2), he opened it (v5) and he read from it (V8-9).

The application for us then is to do likewise. Have we fallen away like the Israelites of Nehemiah’s day because the Word of God was not part of our life? Do we bring out the Bible on Sundays and everyday or is it left on the shelf acting as an ornament? Do we open the Book to discover all the truth and riches that are found there? And further, do we read it daily, regularly to allow the Word to sink deep into our hearts to change and transform us? However, we will soon see that understanding alone is not enough. As the passage today tells us, we must proceed to responding to the Word as well as to obeying the Word.

Responding to the Word (V9-12)

In the year 1733, Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest and most profound of American theologians and revivalists preached his famous sermon, “Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God”. What followed was a tremendous stirring in the hearts and lives of the people in the city of Boston. As the Holy Spirit worked among the crowd, many poured forward in response. Some gave their lives to Jesus while others repented of their sins before the Almighty God. In other words, there was a powerful response to the Word of God. An understanding of the Word eventually leads to a responding to the Word.

As the people in Jerusalem heard the Word being read by Ezra and understood its implications, what was their respond? In the case of any revival, the sequence of responses to the Word is threefold. We see that the first reaction is one of …

a) Conviction and Grief (v9)

V9 records that “Al the people wept as they heard the Words of the Law.”
Why was there weeping? What was the reason for their weeping? The answer was quite simply because God’s Word was making a tremendous impact upon their hearts.

As they opened the Book and read its content, the people discovered that they were guilty. They recognized their own sinful nature. All these years they were living with no spiritual input. Though they were considered God’s people and belonged to Him yet the Almighty was absent in their lives. Moreover, through the reading of the Book, they lamented the rebellious nature of their forefathers that had caused them to fall into captivity. It is clear that when the Holy Spirit opens sinful minds, understanding comes and the natural reaction is one of guilt and weeping. Make no mistake, the root of any spiritual revival is and always will be the vivid reality of God’s holiness, goodness and mercy in contrast to the perversity, shamefulness and offensiveness in our personal sins.

b) Cleansing (v10)
From conviction, it leads to cleansing. The God who convicts sin is also the God of mercy who saves. God’s Word not only reveals the areas of sin in our lives that we grief over it. At the same time, God’s Word also brings forth forgiveness and the assurance of His love for us. That is why v10 records that Nehemiah, Ezra and the rest of the Levites told the Israelites to cease weeping. Not because they are innocent but rather to bring home the point that if they were sincere, true repentance will lead to God’s forgiveness.

Know for sure that a sincere confession over our sin is never far from God’s forgiveness and joy, for God is a God of mercy. As children of God, we can take courage from this truth that there is cleansing of our sins upon sincere repentance. As Scriptures in 1 John 1:9 remind us and as we so often recite in the confessional,

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

c) Celebration (v12)
Knowing that God’s Word brings about conviction and cleansing, there is now finally a time of celebration, a time of rejoicing! And there is so much that we can rejoice in. As Christians, we rejoice for what Jesus did on the cross for our sins, for our redemption, for our salvation (deeds). We rejoice in His providence and great love.

And certainly for the Jews there are great reasons for celebration. They celebrated this same reason as us in that their sins are forgiven and once again under the covenant of Yahweh. They were rejoicing and celebrating also for two other reasons: Firstly, in the fact that their source of strength lies with God alone. Nehemiah declares in V10 ”The joy of the Lord is your strength.” When the Lord gives us His joy, we have the strength to accomplish almost anything. Secondly, they also rejoiced because v12 tells us that they ”understood the Words that were declared to them”. As we will see, this understanding of Scriptures became even more evident as the people demonstrated the desire to live a life of obedience to God’s Word.

Obeying the Word (V13-18)
As the crowd gathered together once again on the second day (v13), we see once again as mentioned before last week of their desire and hunger to know more of God’s Word. As they study the Words of the Law (v13), they willing obeyed to what it said.

It is not enough to hear the Word of God, obedience to the Word must follow; they go hand in hand. There are some who delight in reading and studying the Word. There’s nothing wrong with that. But when the aim for studying God’s Word is merely for knowledge and not centered on a desire to do the Word and will of God, then it becomes academic. It is of no use knowing the content of God’s Word without application.

When we know the Word without obedience, we end up associating ourselves with the religious Jews whom Jesus condemns in John 5:39. Here we have an incident where our Lord commended on their keenness in searching the Scriptures to find eternal life. Yet as the Word bears witness in Him in regard to eternal life, these religious and studious Jews refuse to accept and come to Him! Simply put, they were studying Scriptures for knowledge without any application!

The same however, may be for us. We may be able to recite it, even memorized it (backwards) but if we don’t apply it, it is of no use in any way. One of the biggest problems why Christians are not growing as disciples is not because they are not reading the Word. It is rather they are reading the Word but not applying the truths in their lives. As James 1:22 rightly affirms, ”Be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself.”

Granted, this is not an easy thing to do. But allow me to let you in on a secret: We all at times struggle to do what the Word tells us but the point is we must ultimately obey. Corrie Ten Boom was one such person. After the devastation effect of world war II, she went all around war torn Europe sharing the love and forgiveness of God. In every place she went, she would bring about healing and mending broken lives.

On one particular meeting in 1947 in an old German church, after presenting the Good News and issuing an altar call, a man from the back came forth. To Corrie ten Boom, the man looked kind of familiar, like she’d seen his face somewhere before. Was it an old friend? Was it someone she ministered to? She just couldn’t help remembering where. But as the man spoke, the memories came flooding back. “You may not remember me” he said as he approached her face to face, “I was one of the Nazi soldiers that brutally tortured, raped and murdered your sister while in the prison in Auschwitz”. He continued, “I am here in responding to your message and to seek your forgiveness.”

What would you have done if you were in her position? Well at that point, Corrie’s mind was blank – the pain, the hurt all came rushing back like a whirlwind. How could she forgive this evil man who did such cruel things to her family as well as to many others? Yet at the same time she was conscious of the fact that she had brought the message of love and forgiveness and as a Christian and disciple of Christ she must apply what she know. But could she? Would she?

For a brief moment, though it seemed like eternity to her, she struggled over the choices to what she had to do. But as the Spirit kept prompting her to the message of forgiveness, she realized that no matter how difficult it may be, she had to obey God’ Word as found in the Bible. Right there and then, tears bean to flow down from her cheeks as she obediently reconciled with that particular man.

I myself had my struggles in obeying God’s Word. To uproot from my previous church in St Hilda’s where I grew up all my life and to be obedient to God’s Word to come here to COA was a big struggle for me and my family. I am sure that many of you older and faithful Ascensionaires would probably understand my sentiments. Growing up in the place of your formative years and to finally let go and move on is not an easy thing. Certainly, in the case of Rev Wong and his family, I believe it wasn’t easy for them uproot from Singapore and head for Bristol. But listen to this church, when God commands in His Word, we must obey… I must obey, to leave my family, my friends, my colleagues of over 40 years.

As the Israelites studied the Word, they found that God required them to keep the Feast of Booths as a harvest festival as well as a memorial trek to the Promised Land (V14). Now note the effort of collecting tree branches from all over (V15), erecting and living in these booths was certainly an inconvenient task (V16-17). But nevertheless as seen in V17, they obeyed what it was said and even did so with ”great rejoicing!” Why? Because nothing compares with knowing that you are doing and obeying God’s will! My brothers and sisters in Christ, this was spiritual reality!

This was a pattern of an authentic spiritual life in Christ which we are must follow where obeying God ceases to be a drudgery but a delight, and pleasing God becomes the chief joy of life. It is to this “single-minded obedience” to the Word of God as what Dietrich Bonhoeffer stresses that we as Christ’s disciples must strive for. When we eliminate this “single-minded obedience”, we end up perverting the costly grace of the call of Jesus into another term which Bonhoeffer terms as “cheap grace”.

A case in point is the incident of the rich young ruler. Thus far, he had faithfully obeyed the commandments (Luke 18 v21) as instructed by Jesus in v20. It seems that he knew what the Word said about being a disciple. But when Jesus challenged him that a disciple is following Him into accepting a life of voluntary poverty, Jesus exposed the one thing that the rich young ruler lacked - single-minded obedience.

Conclusion
Ezra brought the Book out so that the people could hear the contents of God’s Word. As they understood what was written, they responded and obeyed. May God in His grace help all of us to do so.


Reflective Questions
1. Nehemiah and the people had a meaningful experience with the Word of God. Why is understanding a key element to its effectiveness?

2. What did the Israelites realize the loss of at the reading of the Word?

3. Allow God to search our hearts and expose any subtle forms of sins that lurk and hide in our lives. What keeps us from repenting when we should?

4. Do we take time to study the Word of God to understand and learn of its contents? If not why (Share your struggles)? What steps can you take to do so?

5. How can we celebrate the impact of the Word on our lives?

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