Date:   09/28/08

Text:   Nehemiah 12:27-47; 13:1-3

Title:   Since God is the focus of worship, his children are to whole-heartedly participate in it.

Introduction:

  When I visited a family in Almaty last year, the husband was so happy to see me. He said, “We had a car accident recently and we just brought a new car. We need a priest to come to pray and bless this new car. If you are not here, I'd have to ask one of the Orthodox priests down the street to come and bless it.” Well, we may not go that route, but we do something similar to this, right? We want God to bless our marriage, our children, our house and business.

In contrast, I think of families holding thanksgiving service after moving into a new house or apartment, or beginning a new business, or with a new baby. What is the purpose? They want to dedicate their house, business, baby to God. They want God to use house, business and children to bring glory to His name. We dedicate ourselves to God so he can use us in whatever way he wants to. This is what this passage is all about. Nehemiah and the Israelites dedicated the newly built Jerusalem wall to God.

  Let's first take a look what happened so far. Nehemiah now is at the end of his first year as governor of Judah . During this time, he devised the plan to rebuild the city wall. He united a divided and dispirited people. Under his leadership, the people were mobilized, overcome various oppositions and completed the rebuilding of the Jerusalem city wall. Upon it's completion, with the help of Ezra, Nehemiah brought the people back to God. They saw their disobedience and vowed never to repeat that again. Nehemiah then reorganized the people and repopulated the city. This was quite a list of accomplishments within one year.

  With his goals accomplished, what is next? Nehemiah led his people to dedicate the wall of Jerusalem . To dedicate means to offer this to God and let him take control. To dedicate the wall means acknowledging that this a gift from God, and now they want to offer it to God and let God use this wall for his glory..

  So how did Nehemiah and his people dedicate the Jerusalem wall? He brought in the Levites and the singers living outside the city, in different villages. After preparation, he divided the singers, Levites and musicians into two groups. One group, led by Ezra went the counter clockwise route; while Nehemiah led another group, and went clockwise. The two groups converge at the Temple , the spiritual center of the nation's life. One commentator wrote: “when people march on the walls to the temple, they once again placed the temple at the center of their thoughts. You see, soon after the creation, men desired to be great just like God. Later when they built the tower of Babel , the purpose was that their names would be known among all nations. They wanted to be the center of the world. Now, having rebuilt the city wall, Nehemiah wanted his people to know that it is not a monument to the strength of Judah ; but God's gift for the protection and perpetuation of his name in the world. You see, God is the focus, not the wall. And because of this, it was a joyous procession; it was a grand worship service. From this narrative, I would like to point out to you several important truths about worship.

I •  We are to prepare ourselves properly when we worship God.

In 27-30 we are told that after gathering the Levites and the singers, they purified themselves. The people and then the wall were also purified. We are not given the details of this process. Most likely it involved taking bath, abstain from sexual activity, and sprinkling the gate and wall with blood and water. Prior to the dedication ceremony, they prepared themselves.

What does it mean to us? Before you go into a meeting at work, you would spend a few moments to prepare yourselves, thinking through some of the discussion items. Especially if you are to lead or do a presentation, you want some quiet time to collect your thoughts. Isn't this also true when we come to worship this almighty God, our creator and redeemer? To prepare ourselves before the worship could mean the following. First we need to come to service a little earlier, before it starts. This is to have time to quiet our hearts so we can concentrate in our worship.

Secondly, we need to start preparing ourselves physically on Saturday evening. I know churches that would not schedule any Saturday evening meetings; if they do, they want to make sure it would finish by 9pm so people can be home earlier and get adequate rest for Sunday worship. For those of us with little children, it is especially important not to stay out late on Saturday evenings. We should treat Saturday night just like any other school night, so we can all get rested for Sunday worship. during these past few years I have noticed that whenever there was some events lasted late into Saturday night, some individuals would miss church on Sunday mornings because couldn't get up on time. Preparation for Sunday worship begins on Saturday.

Thirdly, preparing ourselves spiritually. This means that we need to resolve conflicts with family members and brothers and sisters prior to worship. It is hard to worship God when we are still bitter or holding a grudge towards someone. Are there sins that we refuse to confess and ask forgiveness? I think of an individual who was a leader in another church. He was active in serving, and later it was discovered that all that time, he was having an affair. It is hard to worship the holy God when we refuse to repent. When we come to church on Sundays, we're to remind ourselves we are here to worship this holy God. It is a serious event.

II •  We are to worship God in an orderly manner

Besides purifying themselves prior to the worship, in vs.31 to 42, we also see the meticulous planning that go into the worship event. Those involved in the process were carefully divided into two groups. There was order in their worship. This is echoed in 1Corinth 14:40, “ 40 But all things should be done decently and in order.” Why such emphasis on order? Because our God is a God of order. Genesis 1 provides a clear picture of God's orderliness.

From time to time, we hear individuals commenting about this church: “I like the worship service, because everything is in such good order.” The worship leaders spend much time to make sure the songs are appropriate and to be sung at the right moment in the worship service. We do our best to coordinate music, sharing with the message.

III •  We are to worship God with great Joy. Participate

I want to make sure we notice this: vs 27, “ 27 ………to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres.” Vs.43, “ 43 And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.” What stands out here? I don't think anyone can miss it. It's Joy. The words joy, rejoice, gladness appeared 6 times. They worshipped with great joy, God made them rejoice, their joy was heard far away. It is unparallel in the scripture where there is such emphasis on joy.

They used different instruments in their worship. They had the singers, I guess in today's terms, this would be the worship team and choir. They were there to lead the people in this joyous worship.

We also notice that women and children also rejoiced. Meaning everyone was taking part in this joyous worship. They all participated.

What does this mean to us? Several years ago, I visited a Chinese church in the south. One of the deacons told me that the youth department just bought a set of drums. However, there is one condition; the drum set cannot be used during the Sunday morning worship.

We thank God that in this congregation we have many gifted musicians and singers, helping us to worship with joy. When we worship here, we use organ, piano, synthesizer, drums, timpani, and instruments I don't even know what they are. We have worship teams and choirs, adult, youth and children, helping us to worship. We use traditional and contemporary songs in our worship. It is not an issue of right or wrong, nor an issue of outdated or in trend. It is not one style is better than the other. It is just different songs that different age groups may prefer. In this church, we acknowledge that there is no one way, no one style to express this joy.

Gary Thomas in his book, “Sacred Pathways” writes about different individuals loving God in different manners. Some with senses, being more spontaneous, expressive and with much body movements, including prostrating themselves on the floor. Some are more thoughtful in their worship and not comfortable with too much movements. There are those who express their joy in worship by kneeling, other by standing. In other words, we are to express our joy in worship in ways that we feel most comfortable. Having said this, it is also important to keep to the principle that whatever form we use to express our joy in public worship, it is to be orderly and not becoming a distraction to others.

However, why sometime we seem to be lacking in congregation's participation in singing and singing with joy? May be we are not familiar with the music. May be some music are good for listening but not necessary for singing. Could there be a deeper problem than this? I wonder when we come to church on Sunday mornings, yes, our body is here, but how about our mind and heart? We are here, but we are thinking of something else. It could be about relationship with another person, or a test tomorrow, or how our stocks are holding up during this Wall Street crisis, or repair after Ike, or an unfinished quarrel with spouse and children at home. Or while our body is here, we are very busy critiquing? The music is too old fashion, too contemporary; it's the 7 th time we sing this phrase. I don't like this worship leader, I could hardly understand her. By the time we finish our critique, we've become a grumpy old man/woman. No wonder, there is no joy.

There are certain moments I treasured most when I was in china. One of such moments was the students' singing during their group morning devotion. There was no instruments, yet everyone sang. Or during their weekly chapel time. Since I was still coughing, I could only close my eye and enjoy their adoration of God. They had one simple synthesizer. For security reasons, they could not sing too loud, yet it was full of expression. In one classroom, the bang on their desks since there were no instruments. Their worship greatly touched and encouraged me. The same can be said about the Sunday services I attended in different house churches. Certainly we don't have to go overseas to experience this. But they will serve as a good reminder that we are to joyously express our adoration for our creator and redeemer. This is what Paul exhorts us to do: Colossians 3;16, “ 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

If we were there and wrote about the temple dedication, most likely we will conclude this section with vs.43. Not with Nehemiah, for there is something else in his mind. This brings us to the last point in this passage.

IV •  Our worship is to be manifested in Obedience.

In vs. 44, “ 44 On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the first fruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the Law for the priests and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered.” And then in 13:1, “ 1 On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,…” Have you ever experienced this? You went to a worship service, the music, the message were great. Everyone gives a thumb up. You felt great, but somehow there was an empty feeling, wondering is that all, what's next?

Nehemiah knew very well the importance of completing the wall project. He knew the importance of dedicating the wall to God, letting God control and uses it to protect the temple. He knew the importance of great joy in worship. Yet, Nehemiah also knew there is more to a joyous worship. In vs.44-47, he was writing about how people brought their tithing to the temple; Levites, the singers and those who worked in the temple were taken care of. He was saying that after that joyous worship, people was taking care of the temple.

In 13:1-3, Nehemiah wrote about reading the law of Moses and people obeyed. They did according to the Law, separating themselves from the foreigners among them.

So, what was happening on that day, after the joyous worship? Nehemiah recorded how the people kept their promise to God: 10:29, 39, “ 29 join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes…. We will not neglect the house of our God.” The Israelites were keeping their promise of being obedient to God. You see, to Nehemiah, this is important. Yes, joyous worship is great, but this worship must also be expressed in our obedience to God's command. Joyous worship is not an emotional catharsis, but also be followed by obeying God's word.

I treasure our weekly worship. Very often I have moments when my heart is warmed and greatly touched by the music. I and others pastors are encouraged when we have a great service. Yet, what is more important is our walk with the Lord after we are dismissed from here. Worship can certainly lift our souls to God. But this worship must be accomplished with obedience to God at home, at work and school.

Conclusion:

  Nehemiah knew that the city wall was not the end. This completion of this rebuilding process is a gift from God. He knew that unless the lord builds, the builders labor in vain. The city wall is a gift from God to protect and perpetual God's name in the world. Therefore, the focus is no longer on the gift, but the gift Giver. For this reason, he organized this magnificent and joyous worship to honor the gift Giver, their Creator and Redeemer God of Israel.

  From this particular worship over 2400 years ago, we also catch a glimpse of how we should worship God, who is also our gift Giver. We are to worship him with proper preparation and with great joy. However, equally important is that our worship must be followed up with acts of obedience.

We are so glad that we are here today and on other Sundays to worship God together. Yet, what is even more important is our obedience to him between the Sundays. You see, without obedience this Sunday worship is really meaningless.