Revitalization
The Work of Revitalization • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Work of Revitalization
The Work of Revitalization
Good morning everyone and welcome to Burr Oak. I really appreciate Kerry stepping in last week as I while I was on vacation. It was really a blessed trip and if you would like to know more about it you will have to plan our upcoming Taste of Wyoming in December. I had mentioned that Ryan Ule was scheduled to preach this morning, but he has come down with a little cold and wasn’t sure his voice would hold up for the message. So let’s be praying for Ryan for a speedy recovery.
Well if you are new this morning either in person or online please take a moment to visit our website, burroak.org and fill out our connect card. There are some physical ones on the back of the pews in front of you if you are in person. We have spent much of this year working through the series The Work of Revitalization. The words revival and revitalization are some that have been mentioned in many parts of the church in the western culture. So through this series we have been studying the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to see what particular work it is that Yahweh does to revitalize his church.
What we have come to learn is that first and foremost revitalization is the transformation of the human heart. And this takes place when those who believe they know the gospel come to realize that they do not really or fully know it. Revitalization happens when we come to see, taste, and experience the beauty of God that is on display in his word. So let us work on our heart transformation with our focus verse.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Please pray we me.
PRAYER
Father you have again allowed us to come together today. Lord as we prepare to receive your word open our hearts and minds to understand it. Father may you present yourself to us today. For those that are sorrowful bring them comfort. For those that are fearful bring the courage. For those that harboring sin, bring them conviction that they might be able to walk in the freedom of the light of Christ. Father we ask your blessing on our message for today. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Our teaching for today will becoming from chapter eleven through the first half of chapter twelve. If you want to follow along in your Bible or on your device please turn there now. If you want to use to the blue pew Bible it starts at the bottom of page 447. Or you can follow along on the screen. Due to the length of this section we are going to read select portions of this passage.
PASSAGE
Let us hear the word of the Lord.
Nehemiah 11:1–12:26 (ESV)
1 Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. And the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine out of ten remained in the other towns.
2 And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.
3 These are the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem; but in the towns of Judah everyone lived on his property in their towns: Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the descendants of Solomon’s servants.
4 And in Jerusalem lived certain of the sons of Judah and of the sons of Benjamin. ...
6 All the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were 468 valiant men.
7 And these are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu the son of Meshullam, ...
8 and his brothers, men of valor, 928.
10 Of the priests: Jedaiah the son of Joiarib, ...
11 ... ruler of the house of God,
12 and their brothers who did the work of the house, 822; and Adaiah the son of Jeroham, ...
13 and his brothers, heads of fathers’ houses, 242; and Amashsai, the son of Azarel,...
14 and their brothers, mighty men of valor, 128;
15 And of the Levites: Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, ...
16 ... of the chiefs of the Levites, who were over the outside work of the house of God;
18 All the Levites in the holy city were 284.
19 The gatekeepers, Akkub, Talmon and their brothers, who kept watch at the gates, were 172.
20 And the rest of Israel, and of the priests and the Levites, were in all the towns of Judah, every one in his inheritance.
21 But the temple servants lived on Ophel; and Ziha and Gishpa were over the temple servants.
22 The overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, ... of the sons of Asaph, the singers, over the work of the house of God.
23 For there was a command from the king concerning them, and a fixed provision for the singers, as every day required.
24 And Pethahiah the son of Meshezabel, of the sons of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king’s side in all matters concerning the people.
25 And as for the villages, with their fields, ... 30 … they encamped from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom.
31 The people of Benjamin also lived from Geba onward, ...
35 ... and Ono, the valley of craftsmen.
36 And certain divisions of the Levites in Judah were assigned to Benjamin.
1 These are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: ...
7 ... These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.
8 And the Levites: Jeshua, ... who with his brothers was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving.
10 And Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, ...
12 And in the days of Joiakim were priests, heads of fathers’ houses:
22 In the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, the Levites were recorded as heads of fathers’ houses; so too were the priests in the reign of Darius the Persian.
23 As for the sons of Levi, their heads of fathers’ houses were written in the Book of the Chronicles until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.
24 And the chiefs of the Levites: ... with their brothers who stood opposite them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch by watch.
25 Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storehouses of the gates.
26 These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra, the priest and scribe.
May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
Our message today gets to the heart of the topic we have been studying, revitalization. The title of our message for today is “Revitalization: A Call to Christlikeness.” As we consider our passage for today, we are going to look three aspects of revitalization presented here in Nehemiah; Christlikeness, Valor, and Right & Orderly Worship
Christlikeness
Christlikeness
As Christians living in 2023 it is a given concept that we are to be growing in Christlikeness. Yet, often when we turn to the OT, it is a little more difficult for us to understand where to see this Christlikeness. It can be a little more difficult for us to understand how what we read from prior to Jesus birth points towards him. Yet, the NT is clear that the OT points us towards what we need to know.
Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke shares several parables, or stories to help understand truth. One such story includes a rich man, and poor man named Lazarus, and Abraham. At the ending of this story we are told. that the rich man who is in great torment in Hell, requests that his five brothers be warned. We then read,
But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
Moses and the prophets is another term for the OT. Luke indicates in this passage that there is enough truth within the OT that the Jews could find salvation in a future Messiah. Trying to help us understand how this is possible my Hebrew professor would often compare the Bible to a house. The OT is like walking around a house with the lights off. Everything is there and in its place just harder to see. The NT is like coming God coming into the house and turning on the lights.
Just because learning how to grow in Christlikeness might be a little more difficult to see within the OT, dose not mean that it is not there, we just need to look.
Coming back to our passage for today, we need to be reminded of the issue that the Jews are facing. Several chapters back we read that the walls had been completed but there was still an issue.
The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt.
This problem that is presented in chapter 7 we do not read of an answer to it until now in chapter 11. Nehemiah takes chapters 8, 9, and 10 to show us that when we are presented with a problem that we need to stop, pray, worship, check our own hearts, and realign ourselves with Yahweh. Or as Kerry perfectly stated last week, look up, look back, look ahead. Going back a few weeks to when we were talking specifically about discouragement we can see how this is the solution to dealing with discouragement. What we ultimately see from our passage today is that as we have stopped to worship, stopped to pray, this ought to lead to a recommitment of our hearts, or rather a revitalization of our hearts. And once we have been recommitted, it is time to step out in Christlikeness. We see what this looks like in our first two verses from today.
Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. And the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine out of ten remained in the other towns. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.
We have read several times that the returning people had settled into the land that according to their ancestry was theirs by inheritance. As it is in an agrarian culture, the amount of land you have equates to the likelihood of success and survival. What we read in these two verse is that the leaders already dwelled in Jerusalem, yet they were not enough man power to run and defend the holy city. To make up the difference we see the Jews use a method that was not uncommon within those days, they cast lots. Or rather they used a lottery system to determine who would stay in the city. What we need to understand, is that if you were the one that drew the short straw it meant that you were leaving your land and extended family behind to go and serve the city.
We then get this interesting verse 2. Most scholars believe that verse 2 is describing a different group of men from verse 1. Verse one is those that went because they had to, verse 2 is those who didn’t have to but chose to anyway. Commenting on this Daniel Akin states,
Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah (The People and the Priests and Levites (Nehemiah 11:1–12:26))
[T]hese people who willingly gave themselves to live in Jerusalem were putting God’s program over their individual desires. The move to Jerusalem would have been less advantageous for them, so I suspect that they did this because of what Jerusalem was about. Jerusalem was about the kingdom of God. Jerusalem was where God was at work in the world, as unimpressive and dangerous as it may have seemed.
There was no personal gain for them to move to Jerusalem, yet they determined to be about Yahweh’s business rather than their own. This is what Christlikeness looks likes. To be more concerned with the work of Yahweh, over your own work. The struggle we have is that we often conflate our work with the work of Yahweh. Maybe they line up maybe they do not. This is were constantly checking the idols of our hearts comes in. The other thing we need to realize is that often the individual causes that we invest in, as worthy as they may be, take away from the work that Yahweh is wanting us to do.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people ask where is the church in response to some issue or situation. The answer is that they are giving themselves over to other desires or causes, even ones that are extremely honorable and worthy. The issue is that embedded in that question is a misunderstanding. When some asks where is the church, they mean where is the pastor, where are the elders, where are the deacons, where is the leaders? Rarely do they mean where is the everyday person that shows up and fills pew space on Sunday morning. Our passage for today shows us that it takes more than the leaders. That in fact for Yahweh’s program to work and be completed it requires more of the everyday persons than it does of leaders.
And the reminder of this is the work that have seen Jesus done. He did not work for his own glory or will. Rather, he submitted to the will of his father. He humbled himself, being more concerned with the program of Yahweh, left the comforts and perfect fellowship of Heaven, and did the work that was required of him, willingly. This is what it means to be Christ like. To willingly leave your comforts, to willing leave your family, to willing leave your success, to willingly leave your survival for a greater cause, a greater purpose, for the glory of Yahweh alone.
For revitalization to happen, Christians need to be operating in Christlikeness. We ought to be asking ourselves, how Christ like am I really?
Valor
Valor
Coming back to our passage for today, we see three lists presented to us. The first is that of those who lived in the city. The second is that of those who lived int eh surrounding villages, and finally a list of the priest and Levites. As we work through the first list there is something we need to notice. We see three main groups that make up these lists. The sons of Judah, the sons of Benjamin, and the priests and Levites. The reason for this is that even though we are talking about he Israelites, the southern kingdom, whose capital was Jerusalem was made up of the tribes Judah and Benjamin. The Levites had no land of their own and therefore were mingled in with all the tribes serving them as priests.
In the first list, those who stayed in the city, we see something that each of these three groups is said to have in common, that being the character trait of valor.
Of the sons of Judah,
All the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were 468 valiant men.
Of the sons of Benjamin,
and his brothers, men of valor, 928.
Of the priests,
and their brothers, mighty men of valor, 128; their overseer was Zabdiel the son of Haggedolim.
Commenting on this Derek Kidner states,
Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary The Peopling of Jerusalem (11:1–24)
Valiant men could be translated ‘men of substance’ (NEB), or ‘outstanding men’ (GNB), as it can denote wealth, strength or ability, and is not as closely tied to physical prowess
Now valor is not a word that we used in every day conversation, so sometimes we can have a vague understanding o fits meaning. Merriam Webster defines it as follows.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) (Valor)
val•or \ˈva-lər\ noun
[Middle English valour worth, worthiness, bravery, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin valor, from Latin valēre to be of worth, be strong] 14th century: strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness: personal bravery
Merriam Webster points from valor towards the word wield, meaning to be able to handle. What we can understand from this then is valor is more than physical strength, but the ability to handle oneself physically, mentally, and emotionally. This does not mean that you become emotionless, but rather respond to a given moment with appropriate emotion. For men we tend to try and stuff our emotions not showing any when we should be heart broken. For women, there is a tendency to rely to much on emotion and to let those be your guide.
And for those who might want to push back and say that the shortest verse in the Bible shows that Jesus expressed emotion
Jesus wept.
I would say you are right, Jesus showed the appropriate emotion at the appropriate time. He wept over the disbelief of the people around him.
In Nehemiah’s day, the ability to handle oneself while living in the midst of their enemies, was something that was needed of everyone. This is why we see it listed for each group. Those living in the city of Jerusalem were going to need to be able to handle themselves, emotionally, mentally, and physically if they were going to be about the work of Yahweh.
This is no different for us. To be about the work of Yahweh means that we are going to face difficult times. The people of Yahweh face difficult times in this life, in this world, because we are not meant for this world. We are meant for another. Yet, while we are here we need to be valiant. We need to be people of strong minds and strong character. We need to be people who can handle ourselves so we can be about the work that we have been called to.
Right & Orderly Worship
Right & Orderly Worship
As we grow in Christlikeness, as we become people of valor, this impacts how we worship. That is what we see happening again in this chapter and a half. Much of what was not read today was the genealogies. Again, these genealogies provide historical evidence. What we see today is Yahweh’s people doing what Yahweh has called them to do. That is worship.
Our passage today deals primarily with the worship of Yahweh through song.
Nehemiah 11:17 (ESV)
and Mattaniah the son of Mica, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, who was the leader of the praise, who gave thanks, ...
The overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the singers, over the work of the house of God.
And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who with his brothers was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. And Bakbukiah and Unni and their brothers stood opposite them in the service.
And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers who stood opposite them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch by watch.
While I hold that our entire lives are to be a form of worship to Yahweh, we cannot overlook the very special aspect of worship through song. Through the entire course of the Bible we can see where musical worship has been an intricate part of the people of God. Yet, this seems to be one of the biggest areas of struggle and divide in many churches. We need faster and newer that will attract the younger generation. We need to keep to the old hymns, we need to hold to tradition. We need to have an organ. We need people who are formally trained leading us. You can easily see when we make musical worship about us rather than about Yahweh, churches split.
When we lift our voices to Yahweh, the first thing that should happen is ourselves become very low. It is not a point to exalt us and our ability. It is a point of exalting Yahweh alone. When we do this worship natural falls into being right and orderly. It does not become about the musicians on the stage. It does not become about the emotional experience that we have. It is no longer about our preferences, but is solely about Yahweh. There are so many American churches that attempt to put a concert on each Sunday and call it worship. They have lights and smoke machines and the whole purpose is to highlight the talent of a few people. They might be singing about God, but they are not singing to Yahweh. That is what we need to be striving to do. When we enter into our times of song it should never highlight anyone up here behind an instrument or a mic. It should only exalt God.
I have to tell you there are times I wonder if our hearts are right when it comes to the engagement with corporate singing here at Burr Oak. Often as I stand up here and watch out over the congregation while we are singing I see half heart engagement. I see going through the motions. I see doing it because it is the next we do before we are done and on to lunch. I don’t see just simply wanting to exalt God. I know we have been working through some aspects of worship to help us move along and I do believe some steps have been made, but I believe we still have room to grow.
For example each week when I preview the video from the previous week’s service, rarely can I here others singing on the video. Now I know you have to compete with amplified instruments and voices, but there are more of you. Do not be passive in our times of singing. The scriptures command us to lift a joyful noise and to sing a new song unto the Lord. The singing of our songs is to be a special type of spiritual warfare.
Our Creator has designed us in such a way that music impacts the way that we live. An article from the John Hopkins Medicine opens by stating,
“There are few things that stimulate the brain the way music does. If you want to keep your brain engaged throughout the aging process, listening to or playing music is a great tool. It provides a total brain workout.
Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.” - John Hopkins Medicine
When we sing theologically sound music we are increasing our mental health while instructing our souls with the truths of Yahweh’s word. All the more reason to literally sing Yahweh’s praises. Right and orderly worship, is worship that is lived out every moment of every day, and can be expressed through song. But this does not mean that it is emotionless. In fact music helps us to express emotions that we might otherwise not know what to do with.
Next week is our next 5th Sunday worship Sunday. We will engage in more songs next week than we do typically on a Sunday morning. I hope that you come next Sunday ready to not be passive during our songs even if they do not meet your preferences. And to help with preparing for next week in understanding how you can rightly and orderly express emotion during our times of music I have a short video to share with you.
TIM HAWKINS VIDEO
Closing
Closing
As we close this morning, consider how Christlike you are day in and day out. Consider what it means to be Christlike in the areas of your life that Yahweh has placed you. Grow as a person of valor. Learn to handle yourself so you can be about the work that Yahweh has commissioned you to do. And finally, worship Yahweh fully with every aspect of your life, and be prepared to express that through our corporate times of song, as my good friend Jim Brown always says.
“The good book doesn’t say it has to be in tune or on time, but just a joyful noise.” Are you ready to lift a joyful noise?
END IN PRAYER