Worship Part 5 - The Reading and Preaching of God's word as worship
Worship • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsTHe Public reading and preaching of the word as worship
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OPENING Prayer–
Father we come to you this morning worshiping you in Song for who you are with all of who we are. Turn our hearts to you. Turn our worship to you. Move us by the power of your spirit to be true worshipers in both spirit and in truth. Bring a repentant heart to us for making worship all about us and not about you. Bring a repentant heart for not prioritizing worship as individuals and corporate worship.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight today Father. I pray all of this In the mighty and holy and abundant Name of Jesus. - and all God’s children said?
If I have not had a chance to meet you;
My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
If you have a copy of the Bible in either electronic version or the actual book kind -
Open it to Nehemiah 8 today as we continue in our series on WORSHIP! Our prayer over this series had been that through the Word of God and looking at what the people of God did thorough this historical narrative would bring us all into a deeper life of worship. Not just in song on Sunday morning but a life style of worshiping God for who he is. Understanding the worth of God and ascribing Him that worship in and through our life.
SPEAK and WELCOME UNBELIEVERS – NON FOLLOWERS And THOSE who struggle in their faith –
You may have never been to a worship gathering or you haven’t been in a really long time either because your not sure you believe that same thing as everyone else does who goes to Church. The reality is we may not all believe the same thing but we all have fears and insecurities and doubts and big questions. We all have more in common that you can imagine and we are so glad we are connecting today.
ENGAGEMENT –
One of the big questions I get asked in my journey as a foster parent is the question Why? Here is the funny thing, its not from other people and adults that ask that question. As some of you know the biggest and most interesting thing about hanging out with a 4 year old is they ask the question “why” alot. This usually starts at about 7:30 in the morning.
Daddy where is mommy? Mommy went to work! Why? Cu z mommies a nurse! Why? Cus she helps people feel better when they are sick! Why? Cuz that is what God has formed her to do! Why? and on and on and on. I finally run out answers and just say “I don't know why!
I think this is a young persons way of trying to discover the purpose of something or some action and then it begins to abve meaning for them and it becomes understandable and important to them.
I think this is a very natural question that all of us as adults ask over and over again about things in General
Why is the Sky blue? Why do i have the struggles i have? why do things happen the way they happen? EWHy do my children make the choices they do? Why do I mane the choices I do? Why do others make the choices they make that are different than mine?
Why is a big question. And Understanding your whys can have a huge impact on the How you do or participate in something. The WHY’s actually might drive the HOW’s if ya know what I mean.
You see when you understand the WHYs then you understand your purpose. When you understand your purpose then you understand your meaning in life. When you understand the meaning the drive, intensity, passion and desire for it becomes greater.
You see without understanding the WHY’s behind what you so the purpose gets cloudy and when the purpose gets cloudy, then the meaning gets lost in the fog and when the Meaning that is energized by your purpose that is originated in your whys then the energy for doing what you do goes Away.
TENSION
There are many many things in our spiritual life that we need to understand the “whys” - This series has been all about understanding the “Whys” through the word and God people and letting the Whys and the biblical hows move us to purpose in worship and increase our passion, intensity and drive in our life of worship.
This morning it becomes important to understand he Biblical Why’s behind something that we need to do in our daily life of worship and some thing that we do every time the church gathers whether in our house churches or in the collective of our Sunday Morning Worship gathering.
As a SIDE note let me say that we have also made a great mistake in definitions as people who gather for worship - We have diminished the singing of praises to God as “preliminaries” to the sermon or to the “teaching and let me say that that is a HUGE mistake. The Singing of praise to God out weighs the preaching of the word 10 to one in the Bible.
You see there is in the western church culture a loss of meaning that is creeping into our definition of what does the church Do. The Church defined as being a people that God has saved for Himself, has certain things that we Do as those people. Because we have diminished singing praises to God we are also diminishing the worship gathering altogether.
One of those things that we see biblically and historically is the church gathers together to worship God - This series we have already covered the Art and Heart issues of the WHYs in our worship. There is another thing that happens on Sunday mornings when the church gathers and it is what we are doing right now.
Someone, stands up, opens the text of the Bible, reads the Word of God and then seeks the wisdom of God in giving contextual background, unwrapping it in revealing the theological meaning and then giving suggestions on How one might apply it to the living out in life through application.
We all know this as preaching. The questions is WHY do we do preaching as part of what we do when the church gathers.
Some people consider it “preaching” ad it is somewhat preaching - Others consider it “teaching” and it is a from of teaching. In either case it falls very short of being transformative in the life of the average church goer.
So if what happens from the “pulpit” in the form of preaching and teaching false short of being transformative in the life of the average church goer then WHY do we do it?
Lets look at our text this morning
TRUTH
1 And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel.
2 Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.
3 He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
4 Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam on his left hand.
5 Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
6 Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place.
8 They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.
BACKGROUND
So a little Background on this passage of Text. Back then the way the Jewish People worshiped was they would follow the sacrificial system laid out for them in the first five books of our bible.
This was one of the ways they worshipped God for who he was. They brought Sin offerings and grain offerings and guilt offerings and so on.
In the History of God’s people living in the promised land that was part of the Covenant of God that He had made with Abraham. The Land or Kingdom had been divided into the northern kingdom of israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
about 700 years before Jesus shows up the northern kingdom of God people is defeated by the Assyrians and they are exiled from the land. About 500 years before Jesus the Southern Kingdom of Judah is defeated and taken into captivity by the Babylonians who were considered the worlds super power at that time.
When the Babylonians took Judah Captive they prevented the Jewish people from assembling together to worship.
Kinda sounds familiar dosen’t it?
We will not get into this subject but God allowed the worship of Him by His own people to be stopped by outside governmental forces because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people - Different Sermon but that is what happened!
So the People are in captivity in the babalonian empire and the worls powers change. Te persians defeat the babalonians and the Persians agree to let the jewish people back into the land of Judah and rebuild the temple.
Before this Story happens there are three returned of people. the First led by Zerubbable to rebuild the temple - The Second led by Ezra. and the Third Led by Nehemiah to rebuild the city walls and gates.
NEhemia is a food taster for the Persian King and He gets word that the wals of his home city, the city where the worshp of GOd was happening and He was heart broken. He asked permission from the king to go back to his home and see the wals and then to rebuild them.
Nehemias faithfulness to His duties while under captivity allowed himn to find favor with the King and the King allowed Him to return and to rebuild the walls.
At this time of the Story, What you and I would know as the Bible only consisted of the first Five Books of our modern Bible. In these first five books would be the Book of the Law.
God had set out that the Book of the Law Be read on many different occasions but in this story line at a particular kind of feast called the feast of booths. The book of the Law, containing the very words, revealing his characture and nature, and the instructions of God himself to His own people had not been opened or read in in public to the masses in nearly 100 years.
EZRA had studied it and knew the ins and outs and this is where the Story pics up
UNPACKING
VS 1 - ALl of the People gathered it says “As ONE MAN” - There were 42,360 Jewish people in Jerusalem at that time, workings to rebuild the Wall and they all came together in one big assembly. A mega church if you will. But 42,360 all coming together in a central location by the water gate, they came for together for One purpose, To worship God but not in the sense of worship that you and I have with music. no thay came to worship differently. So they asked Ezra the priest to bring the Book of the Law. We also need to remember that is wasnt in Book form back then it was a scrool.
VS2- Eszra brings the Book of the Law before the people, the text says before all who could hear it and understand it.
VS3 - Here is what Ezra did - Ezra Read form the Book of the Law from Early Morning until MID day. That is about 6 hours.
Sometimes I get a little long winded and I go for just short of an hour and Here we have 42000 people gathered together to hear one guy read the text and He does so for 6 hours.
Sometimes I wonder what is was like to be in that crowd? Vs 3 says All the People were attentive.
The Other servants building the wall Had made a wooden podum for Exra to Speak from- There was preperation for this event to happen at a certain location.
VS 5 Ezra is standing on this podem and all he does is simply open the Book or in this case Unroll the scroll and the Bible Says that ALL the people Stood up.
Ezra Opened the Book of the Law - Red from it for 6 hours - All the people were standing and attentive and here is what happened -
2 things happened - VS 6 Ezra Blesseed God and the Peole said AMen and Amen and they worshipped.
You see the public reading of the Words of God brought about worship among Gods people.
ASlo as Ezra was reading vs * the other priests were unpacking and giving application - Translating to “Give Sense to the people so they understood the reading - They were using their gifts of teaching.
and it resulted in worship.
The other result was - Broken and contrite conviction of Sin. If you keep reading you will read about the people weeping in brokenness before God and ultimately confessing Sin.
Here in Nehemiah Chapter 8 we find that the Reading, and unpacking and declaration of Gods word among God people is part for worship.
This is why we consider what we are doing right now part of worship - You hear me pray “As we continue to worship by the declaration of your word let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight.
This is continued in the New Testament as Jesus in Luke 4 opens the scrolls and reads them in the Assembly of Gods people.
16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.
17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
Jesus Read the Prophet Isiah and then Taught the people what it meant and how it would be applied to them!
When Paul was writing the Letters to the Church that the Holy Spirit would later confirm as Scripture - The Words of God. He Would instruct those whom he was sending it to to read it publically.
16 When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea.
Paul Tells timothy in His letter to Him as to How to pastor the Church in Ephesus. In 1st timothy chapter 4 verse 13
13 Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
In His second letter to timothy as to How to lead an assembly of God's people called a church. Specifically the Church in Ephesus. Paul Instructs.
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,
Worship is ascribing to God His worth - His value - Declaring to ourselves, to each other and to the world around us the value and worth of God by declaring his attributes and his characters and nature as revealed in the scriptures and in the person of Jesus Christ.
The ONLY way we know these things in specific ways is through the revealing of God through Bible.
This Has been the mode of worship from the Beginning of the Assembly of God’s people from Times of Antiquity until today that the public reading of God’s word and the Declaration for its meaning are worshiping God.
I want you to imagine with me.
The Shift in our worship, the shift in our thinking, the shift in our life when we place the reading of God’s word and the teaching or preaching in its proper place as worship On Sundays mornings.
It has been said that 52 sermons a year do not make a follower of Jesus. I said earlier in the message that the preaching and teaching of the Words accomplishes little transformative work in the life of anyone. When we were considering it purpose and meaning.
Reading Gods word, unpacking and unwrapping its meaning so we can understand Him deeper is worship.
Imagine with me the shift in worship. Imagine with me the shift in meaning purpose and passion when we look at what happens on Sunday morning as ONE act of worship not pieces put together. Imagine with me what corporate worship would do when Prayer, Singing, The reading of God's word and the Preaching are all considered Parts of ONE act of worship all with Equal importance. All with Equal passions. All with Equal purpose to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Sunday morning is a celebration. Through Prayer, the Singing of Praises, the physical manifestations of worship, The reading and preaching of His word It all is a Celebration of God.
So let us Celebrate with the passion Due Him. Let us celebrate Him that will cause us to pursue Him, Let us celebrate Him that will drive us closer in fellowship with each other. Let is Celebrate Him in Unity that Jesus prayed for in his High Priestly prayer. Let us celebrate Him with our whole being and our whole life. Let us celebrate Him with a passion that develops in us a desire to see his purposes carried out through us - Let us Celebrate God!
The Gospel -