Exposition, Application, Celebration

God's Word is living and active.

It's powerful. And yet even solid biblical teaching can be ineffective if we're not listening expectantly. Today on Truth for Life we'll learn how we should gather for worship and we'll discover four things that can prevent us from benefiting from the preaching of God's Word. Alistair Begg is teaching from Nehemiah chapter 8 verses 13 through 18.

We've got three points this morning—exposition, application, celebration. Let's begin, then, by noticing that what took place on the second day of the month was largely what was taking place on the first day of the month. If you're wondering about where we get this from, you will notice in verse 2 of chapter 8, on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought out the law. When we come to verse 13, what has taken place between 2 and 12 has all taken place on the first day. They listen to the Word proclaimed, they start crying, they start laughing, and then they go home.

On the second day, when they come back, it's more of the same. Now, under the heading of exposition, I want to address three simple questions. First of all, who was there? Who was there? And the answer is, the men were there. The men were there.

Now, it is not at the denigration of ladies that I now make this emphasis. But there come times when the Scriptures emphasize things in a certain way and make points that are directly applicable in certain avenues, and here the emphasis is clearly upon the men. We're told that the heads of the families, the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra. It seems fairly obvious that if the Scriptures were going to have any impact upon the families, then the impact was going to come, first of all, to the leaders of those families, and then through the leadership of the families. Now, we understand that leadership within the family is teamship, that the role of a mother is so vitally significant.

I think you know me well enough to know how much I want to uphold that place. But the point of emphasis here, it seems to me, is that we need to take seriously what it means to be men in the climate of our days, and what it means to be those who are gathering up the instruction of the Word of God so that we may be able, in turn, to lead our families in the things of God. And there are unique responsibilities which attach to men in this regard. The leaders in the church, the leaders amongst the people of God, need to primarily be men who understand the Bible. They need to be men of the Book. They need to be men who read the Bible, who understand the Bible, who live by the Bible, who are able to answer questions on the Bible, and who are able to apply the Bible.

And that is true all the way through the pages of Scripture. So we're not at all surprised that when this second day of exposition took place, it was to the man that Ezra gave his time, and it was from the man that he received the greatest and clearest attention. Who was there? The men were there.

Second question, who was where? They were where they were, namely, gathered around Ezra. Well, what's so special about Ezra? Who does Ezra think he is? That everybody would gather around him.

Now, the answer to this is very, very important. Because the reason that they gathered around Ezra was not on account of his personality, but the reason that they gathered around Ezra was on account of his functionality. It was because of the fact that he had the Book, and he was reading the Book, and he was explaining the Book, and he was encouraging these people to apply the Book. And the attendance of the people bore out the significance of the role which God had entrusted to this individual Ezra. And a responsibility which God has entrusted to man throughout all of history, and the kings and the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the pastors and the teachers. Gifts that God has given to the church, which specific local churches enjoy or endure, as a result of God having said, Listen, you, what I want you to do with all of your life is to study this Book, understand this Book, and as best you're enabled, teach this Book and encourage the people to apply this Book. And if you're any good at it at all, a few people will come, and they'll listen.

And if you're no good, they probably won't, in which case that'll be alright, because your damage will be limited by the size of those under your influence. But the significance of Ezra is the significance of the role given to the servant of God. And the impact of Ezra on the lives of those who, when Ezra was dead and buried, would have occasioned to say, What did Ezra mean to you? The answer would presumably be, Ezra meant so much to me, because Ezra taught me the Word of God. Ezra taught me the important foundations of the faith.

Ezra taught me what really matters. That's why, you see, the Scriptures have so much to say about paying honor and respect to those who have the responsibilities in eldership of teaching and admonishing. Remember your leaders who taught the Word of God to you, says the writer to the Hebrews.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and emulate their faith. Now, in the providence and goodness of God, I think of John, who was my pastor when I was this height. I just met him again in Toronto, and I had my photograph taken with him, and it was a tremendous thrill to me.

It almost reduced me to tears to think that I was standing next to my pastor. He's walking with the Lord. He's preaching the Word. He's loving his wife. I'm considering the outcome of his way of life.

Okay? Go home in the afternoon and write down on a sheet of paper for yourself the men, the Ezras that God has used in your life to instill within you a hunger and a desire for God's Word, to place within your families a longing for your families to be centered on the Word of God. They gathered round Ezra, and Ezra was significant. And all this stuff about nobody matters, and he doesn't matter, and she doesn't matter, and he's this and that and the next thing, that is warped thinking. In all of the purposes of God, people matter directly in relation to the function they fulfill.

And their significance is directly tied to the fulfilling of that function. Whether you like them or don't like them, whether their personality fits or doesn't fit, whether you've spent a lot of time with them or no time with them, whether they were in your home or not in your home—all of that is secondary. If you can see past all of that, then you will be better served in attending upon the Word of God. Who came? The men came. Where did they come? To Ezra.

Why did they come there? The answer is made perfectly clear in verse 18. And in verse 13. They gathered around Ezra, verse 13, to give attention to the words of the law. The word which is used here for giving attention to suggests that they were not simply interested in becoming fatheads or filling their notebooks with lots of information. Not that it's bad to take notes—I'm so thankful for all the notes I've taken in the past—but it's possible for people who sit under the exposition of the Word of God to become very tadpole-like, with big fatheads full of information and tiny little tails. It's a strange picture if you draw a congregation like that, a big congregation of tadpoles, just with big heads like this, tiny little tails.

That's not what they were. These individuals were concerned to give attention to the thing. In other words, they were asking Ezra, Hey Ezra, what does this mean? How does it apply? How should it change us?

What should we be doing? They were on the right side of the equation in James 1.22, Do not merely be hearers of the word, but be ye doers also. They were asking for the Word of God to be broken down to them in such a way that they may be changed by it. I can guarantee you, loved ones, this morning that when you attend upon the instruction of the Word of God with that kind of heart attitude, then you will begin to see big changes in your life. If you listen carefully to the Word of God and are able to give your attention to it, then if you come with that kind of expectant heart, your life will be impacted in a way that is life-transforming. But if we gather upon the listening to the Word of God in such a way that our hearts are hardened or closed in any way, then it's just like a dripping tap on a piece of slate. Let me tell you four things that will prevent you from benefiting from the Word of God when it is preached.

And these come from James chapter 1. Number one, an angry heart. If you have an angry heart, if you're angry with your wife coming in, you should have stayed out, gone out, got yourself a coffee, and been reconciled to your wife. If you're fine with your brothers and sisters when you came in, you're wasting your time.

You should have stayed out, settled the affairs before you came in. If you're angry with your boss, you'd better make an appointment to see him tomorrow morning, first thing, and get it settled, because you're not going to benefit from the Bible until such times as you deal with anger. There is nothing will close down the impact of the Word of God upon a person's life quite the way that an angry heart will do. An angry heart. A dirty mind. A dirty mind. If you're fooling, or I am fooling, in my mind with that which is impure, it will have an immediate detrimental effect on my ability to listen to, assimilate, absorb, and apply the Word of God. General preoccupations with evil, the willingness to absorb evil, to include it in my thinking and the way I approach my life and the things that I do, that to the degree that I allow that to happen, it fails to see the Scriptures applied in a way that I desire. And also, to become a professional listener.

To become the person who is adept at answering all the questions, knowing all the answers, becoming very able to explain this and that, but there's not a bit of it applies to my life. Now, if you're looking for those things, you can find them in James chapter 1. They're all there. In verses 14 and 15, because they listened expectantly and attentively, they discovered that there was a festival that they'd been neglecting. They'd been neglecting this feast of tabernacles or booths, which is described in Leviticus chapter 23.

If you turn to it for just a moment so that you know that it's there, it will anchor it in your mind, and you'll be able to pay attention to it. Leviticus 23, verse 33, the Lord said to Moses, Say to the Israelites on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, The Lord's feast of tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. It goes on to give details of it, and we read in verse 39 of Leviticus 23, So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days. Then it goes on once again to describe the existence whereby they're going to be living in booths. The feast was to serve as a reminder of their pilgrim status and also as an indication of the blessings that they had experienced in the harvest. Now, since this was the second day of the month and it was to take place on the fifteenth day of the month, they had approximately a fortnight to get ready for it and to move from exposition to application. And that's exactly where we are.

In terms of application, you will notice that the instruction was clear. He found, written verse 14, in the words which the Lord had commanded through Moses, this was not an idea dreamt up by Ezra. This is not a scheme or a dream that had its roots in human ingenuity. We have enough of that. This was the very word which God had commanded, which Ezra had been reading from the book, reminding the people that the incumbency upon them was to listen to the book and to submit to the direction and guidance of their leaders only as they themselves were clearly in submission to the book.

Go out and live in booths and gather the necessary materials to put them together. So they're reading, and they discover that this is something that God says to do, and so they do it. It's as simple as that. God said, Do this. So they said to one another, We better do it. God says, Be honest. Therefore, we better be honest.

God says, Love those who hate you, so we better love those that hate us. God says that we should live in purity prior to marriage and in fidelity after marriage. Therefore, we better do it. God says that when we repent of our sins, we should get baptized. Therefore, we better get baptized.

Whatever God says, when the Spirit of God brings it to our hearts, we do. But a lot of that is costly. A lot of that is daunting.

A lot of that will change our plans and our programs. After all, presumably, these people had their days organized for the next thirteen days or so. This was the second day of the month, and they had their plans already made. They knew what they were supposed to be doing. If they started preparing for a feast on the fifteenth day, it was going to change everything, exactly.

And the degree to which we are prepared to reorder our lives and our existence and our plans and our finances and our hopes and our schemes because of the Bible says to the watching world that the Bible is important to us. Now, if you think about it, the enemies would have been intrigued at least and probably got a kick out of their approach to things here. They must have said to one another, I can't imagine what they're up to now. Somebody shouted across to one of them, What are you doing with a pile of sticks? Don't you like your house that you're building another one? I see you're building an extension. Strange little extension.

Doesn't look like much. People were obedient, despite the cost. Their obedience was obvious in three areas.

Verse 16. Their obedience was clear in their own backyard. They built themselves booths on their own roofs and in their courtyards. Their obedience was clear in the house of God, in the courts of the house of God. And their obedience was clear in the public square, where they also were erecting these little shanties in the water gate and in the gate of Ephraim.

You think that made an impact on the people? Can you imagine, you go home this afternoon after the morning worship? You go out and you gather up all the sticks out of your woods in some of the areas and parks around you. You bring it back in bags. You go out on your front porch, and you start building another little porch for yourself. Little shed with a little straw roof and everything. Put it right out front.

Or if you have any flat part in the roof of your house, go up there and start building it. You think you get some phone calls from the homeowners association? Hello, we noticed there's a strange thing appeared up just on the left-hand side there. I know it probably wasn't you.

Oh, it was you? Ah, could you explain what this is about? Oh yeah, I'd love to explain what it's about. It's about the fact that our people in the past, they lived in Egypt, and God redeemed them from Egypt, and he brought them through the wilderness, and he brought them into the Promised Land. And while they were in the wilderness, they lived in booths, and we're tempted to forget that. And so we build these little booths every year. We haven't been doing it for a while, but we remembered. And because we remembered and rediscovered, we decided to apply.

And so we've put it all together in this way. Our neighbors say, You're totally out of your gourd. You're totally crazy.

And that presumably is what they said to them. Let me ask you this question. How crazy are you prepared to be for Jesus Christ? How crazy are you prepared to get? Because right now, we don't look that crazy. I mean, by and large, the men are all sort of bourgeois, ladies, all very nice.

And that's okay. You know, it's Sunday. But what do we represent to our neighbors and our friends in our world? Where's the crazy element gonna come? Where does it come in our lives that our friends say, There is something about these people? There is something about these people. Because that's the challenge.

1 Peter 2 and 9, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The impact of these things upon their lives and upon their children must have been dramatic. I can imagine the children saying to their fathers, Hey, Dad, do we have to build it up on the roof? I mean, my friends at school, they think you're totally mad. Yeah, we've got to build it on the roof. Why?

Because God said build it on the roof. You think about the things that you do with your children that make them say, Could we not stop doing this? Because my friends think I'm crazy.

Things like worship on a Sunday, irrespective of clothing. My friends don't have to go. Why do I have to go?

Dad, I don't know one single other church within 10 square miles that has a Sunday evening service. Why do we have to do it twice? You're crazy. But here's the deal. If the dads hadn't gone to the instruction, and if the dads hadn't made the application, then the wives and the children would never have shared in the celebration. There is no celebration without exposition plus application.

And that's where it ends. The celebration was very great, we're told in verse 17. Very great.

It wasn't just great, it was fantastic. There were no dropouts. Verse 17, the whole company was there.

Nobody held out. They were all there for seven days. And the focus, verse 18, is on the reading of the book of the law. They had a Bible conference.

They were all there for seven days. And the focus, verse 18, was on the reading of the book of the law. They had a Bible conference. On day one there was teaching, day two there was training, then followed by seven days of reading the book. The people were exposed to the truths of the Bible. They became cognizant of the implications upon their lives and what it would mean to their families. And the world looked on and saw the difference.

The equation then is simple. Exposition plus application equals celebration. But the celebration is not an end in itself, because it leads to further proclamation. We gather to discover, we gather to apply, we gather to celebrate, and we go to tell. We go on a week like this where there will be all kinds of things in the newspaper, many opportunities to speak concerning Jesus, lots of bogus stuff about the resurrection.

You'll see the swoon theory and every theory that has ever been explained to explain why Jesus did never rise from the dead. You'll see it all in magazines and newspapers all over the place. Get ready for it. And be ready to use it as an opportunity to say to your friends and neighbors, you know what? If you would like to come and worship with us, you can come within a context in which I think you will discover that contrary to what you're reading in here, that Jesus really is alive.

Now, how would these people ever hear? Not as a result of me, as a result of you. Because I don't live in your street. I don't work in your office.

I don't go to school with your friends. But each one can reach one. How crazy are you prepared to be for Jesus Christ? It's a great question. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. As we just learned, God's plan for expanding the kingdom is for each one to reach one. We'd like to recommend a set of study guides that can help you be a part of that mission. It's a course called The Basics of the Christian Faith.

It's a series of 13 lessons designed for a one-on-one meeting. It's also an excellent resource to support pastors and church members with discipleship efforts. The study comes with a step-by-step leader's guide and a companion study guide for the person who is being discipled.

Each study guide is available at our cost of only $8. Look for The Basics of the Christian Faith at truthforlife.org. There's an excellent book we want to recommend that will supplement this discipleship course. It's called The Beauty of Divine Grace. It's a book that explores the complete sufficiency of the finished work of Jesus on the cross and our complete dependence on God's grace for salvation. Ask for your copy of The Beauty of Divine Grace today when you give a donation to support the teaching ministry of Truth for Life.

You can donate online at truthforlife.org slash donate. And Bob Lapine, it can be uncomfortable to be confronted by the reality of our own sin and how we respond to that kind of confrontation reveals what's in our heart. Tomorrow we'll hear how God's people responded after Ezra read God's law. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.