Prayer: This news is worth bringing up before prayer. A young atheist named Brian Guan started a vlog online to track his experience of “pretending God is real.” Not only did he eventually see signs of benevolent power reaching out to him, but also signs of unexplainable opposition. His girlfriend confessed that she had new unreasonable urges to be violent against him. Eventually, he confessed that it didn’t seem honest anymore to say he was pretending because he realized evil is real, and God is real too. I don’t know what’s really in his heart, but it got me thinking. What if we who know God is real treat Him as real? Let’s pray: Father, please bring Brian Guan to be complete in faith. May he grow by always reforming—not as in making new forms of religion, but in the original sense our reformation forefathers meant when they said always reforming. So let him and us return to conforming to Jesus Christ who has never changed His way for us to live. May we see how real you are and treat you as you deserve for you are worthy. May the words of my mouth as I preach and the meditations of my heart be accessible in your sight oh Lord my rock and my redeemer.
Sermon
1 Peter has been showing us a lot on the subject of Christians who suffer. Is that part of God’s wonderful plan? 1 Peter 4:19 says yes and that’s not automatically gonna sound appealing, I know. I really know.
I know some of you right now are in pain for various reasons. Maybe some are in the aftermath of having done wrong rather than serving. That’s painful. I’ve been there. But regardless, The Joy of the Lord is your strength! That statement will never sound the same way after you see it through God’s point of view this morning.
I have a personal story of this wonderfully planned suffering. Will it parallel the text in Nehemiah 100%? Not exactly. But the encouragement to those suffering in the passage was the same encouragement God gave to me in 2007. Different suffering, same encouragement. The Joy of the Lord is your strength.
Here’s my story. In 2007 I asked Baptist churches in Malaysia if they could use me during my summer break. One wanted to send me to a plantation near Serudung Laut. You won’t find that on the map. It was only accessible by long boats the width of a canoe and they had no seats or canopy. You really need to ask for these details ahead of time when you’re on mission. So no, I wasn’t prepared for a 4-hour trip under the sun. I had gotten food poisoning three days before, and when you get food poisoned, you can only keep so much on your mind between sprints to the bathroom. But I was determined to keep my promise no matter what. Christian brothers and sisters were looking forward to hearing my message, and God had just provided me with antibiotics, so I was on the mend.
Well, I sat on this box of cargo and the little motorboat set out. The sun got me good, and the cigarette smoke of the crew helped me remember how fragile my stomach still was.
As soon as we came to a house, I lay down flat on the floor and fell fast asleep. I was poked by my traveling companion, who informed me it was an hour-long hike to the place I was asked to speak at. One surprise after another.
Well, it was on the trail that, out of nowhere, a song from my childhood rang out inside me “The joy of the lord is my strength.” It’s like I never understood it until then. And like that, my mind was filled with encouragement. Comfort like you wouldn’t believe. I didn’t feel like I was suffering anymore. What I realized was God is a joyful God who was sharing His joy with me. He was already pleased with the future man He was making of me. That made me feel strong. And what did I want to do then? Anything to please God. Anything! You’ll know when it happens to you.
This past week I felt God drawing my attention back to the original scripture on the joy of the Lord.
That text is in Nehemiah 8. So we are spending our time this morning in the Old Testament. The text deals with a suffering that can be more painful than physical discomfort like food poisoning. It deals with a wounded conscience. Do you remember how that feels when you patch up your conscience with coping mechanisms and rationalization instead of facing God and it just gets worse. I do. I have a lot of stories like that too.
But when God’s glory was revealed in the reading of Scripture, these people reacted like Isaiah. You know, “AH! I’m undone! I have unclean lips.” But this conscience-stricken group is encouraged in the exact same way that I had been: By God saying, “My joy is your strength.” Who are they? The group in Nehemiah 8 is the people of Israel in Judah.
Now prepare your minds to picture history as it really happened. Here’s the context.
It’s 444BC. Israel, after their expulsion into exile for refusing to repent, after a long time of praising idols—praising things that were not their creator–finally were brought back to their homeland. In a huge gathering, when God’s book was opened they worshiped with their faces to the ground. They would soon be told the meaning of (GELND). It was read out loud before the feast of booths in the seventh month—Tishri. In childhood, their families hadn’t ever read God’s ways to them. Now when the Book was read they stood at attention together and faced a wake up call about their ancient roots. Roots from 900 years earlier. That’s how old the Pentateuch was in 444BC.
So they learned that the activities they didn’t used to be ashamed of… were terrible in God’s sight. Now they knew.
The one who was reading and explaining was a Levite, Ezra, standing on a raised platform. The reading crescendoed with the book that some call Jesus’ favorite book because it is the one He quoted to rebuke Satan. Do you know it? Deuteronomy.
After hearing Deuteronomy, the people wept. Revival from God woke up their hearts that day. And, side note, God’s idea of revival is people going back to His unchanging ways, not receiving or developing new upgrades for religion like spiritual DLCs.
Now someone just thought “did he tell us we need to go back to doing the Jewish feast of booths like in Nehemiah? Don’t hear something I’m not saying. Revival for Christians doesn’t mean following procedures made for Israel in the month of Tishri. Tishri isn’t in our calendar. External ritual changed once and for all when Jesus started His Church but God’s ways haven’t changed. Ritual changed once, God’s ways change never. What you need to be revived and inspired is glory seen only in the Bible not outside of it. Amen? Okay back to 444BC.
So we know the worship and revival in Israel on that day was mixed with grief. They felt the painful reality of having gone against God’s ways. That grief is a holy affection—no mistake about it. There is a time for grief over sin in every person whom God receives as a son and daughter (Hebrews 12). But the Israelites would soon be told that God didn’t want them to stay like that–overwhelmed with sorrow. They would be told that God’s joy pointed them to move past the godly grief and into strength! It pointed to encouragement!
But hold everything before we jump ahead to the encouragement. Please. We too easily blow past the accounts of what happened in history just like it’s a school lesson. You know through the Holy Spirit, the Bible does reenactments of events so we can see it in our hearts and feel the power of those moments. We ought to hear just a part of Deuteronomy, just like they did. Right here. Just a taste of what a powerful moment it was that day. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 32. It’s a song from the time of Moses and it topped off the prophecy of the Pentateuch. Just remember, songs are meant to be experienced–you know this. The singer is God himself! Would you be willing to forget me and hear God singing to the ears of the heart?! I don’t deserve to be higher than anyone. But to reenact Ezra’s reading and to exalt the Bible… the Bible is going to take the stage! Let center stage be for the Glory of God. I’m off to the side.
Select Readings in Deuteronomy 32
Please stand for the reading of God’s word
“1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.
9 The Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
12 So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They sacrificed unto demons, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
35 To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
43 Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.”
I hope for the sake of God’s moment you could remove me from the equation and just hear Him. I hope you didn’t think that was a stunt. Someone will react saying “that doesn’t sound like the God I know.” Could it be that you don’t know God very well yet? I didn’t until I experienced reading Deuteronomy. Getting to know the values of God’s heart behind the law changed me forever. That’s what Deuteronomy does for a Christian. Don’t let someone tell you that Moses didn’t understand theology as well as modern folks so he accidentally put words in God’s mouth. Absolutely not.
My job is to plead with you: please consider reading this chapter of Deuteronomy on your own and consider your ways. Your job is to see this as your history—the history of your own creator and your own faith. But for now…
Turn with me back to the scene in Jerusalem 900 years after Deuteronomy. Think of Israel listening to the same passage and weeping with the Word of God still ringing in their ears—the rebellion and punishment that the song predicted had come true, but also the mercy.
Now turn to Nehemiah 8:9-10 for the encouragement of all encouragements.
“And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The day is holy to the Lord so dry your tears, enjoy delicious things, share the love.
Let me tell you. The key to appreciating this encouragement is to ask: what is the Lord joyful about? Four things.
- God is pleased because this kind of kindness shows how glorious He is. The glory is that only He can give such kindness. We don’t understand when we just think in terms of human kindness. God is different. God has never wronged anyone, and yet He is wronged day in and day out by little creations of His acting like they can blow Him off. Think. Isn’t it different when He is kind to people like us? Everyone has had hostility towards God, and He is entitled to condemn us. It hits different when I get the kindness I need from God, who is both the one I betrayed and my judge. It’s glorious, and God is joyful about glory. Psalm 104:31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in His works.
- The second reason is very straightforward. God is pleased with remorseful hearts. “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17. God is pleased when you are contrite because that’s when you are ready to grow through repentance— which is not a temporary feeling.
- God is joyful because He knows that His kindness would eventually “lead to repentance”, which is reason to celebrate. This would fully come true in Christ. Jesus maximizes this in His teaching of the prodigal son. The one who strayed off and did all the worst things is brought back to the father, who celebrates and gives gifts instead of condemning the son. This changed the son’s heart toward his father forever. Wouldn’t it? Can you imagine? After that, the son didn’t celebrate his privilege or “getting away with sin.” But being humbled, he celebrated the Father’s joy in giving grace. He celebrated the glory it brought to the Father.
- God is joyful about getting you, His people, safely in His arms. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” Jesus looked at you as the treasure he would win by enduring the cross. His people are “the lot of his inheritance” and “a people for His own possession.” Jesus looked at the agony and said, “worth it,” looking forward to the joy of getting you for heaven. A lot of you get the weight of that. Please let me give a caution to anyone who hears that and considers it a mere metaphor for self-esteem. Don’t make that mistake. If you don’t see this and go “that means everything!” take more time on it!
So: God enjoys the glory of showing kindness to those He should condemn; kindness leads to their repentance, that contriteness is lovely to God, and reconciliation to God is the greatest joy worth any cost–and it cost the life of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
As we come to an end: If you can’t see yet how this strengthens you, give it time. Talk to me afterwards if you have time. For now, I’ll say this. Strengthening is through surrender to the strengthener. True strength is for living out the purpose of your design and that only comes with surrender to your creator.
Some of you are like I was—striving to serve and joylessly gutting it out to make a difference. Some of you are like the Israelites, indifferent to sin until your heart has started to pound over a wasted life and the shame it brings onto the name of God.
Regardless, don’t delude yourself any more if you thought your path to joy was in your Bible study efforts, or your memorization efforts, or your generosity efforts, or beating yourself up “long enough” in isolation or your efforts to introduce new ideas to Christianity. Knowing God’s overflowing joy personally is the only strength that enables you to take steps—his joyfulness in forgiving you every step of the way, his joyfulness in suffering with you and suffering the pain you can sometimes be, His joyfulness in seeing your baffled face as He tells you to enjoy His party when you know it should have been your court hearing.
But it’s my duty to say that the party is only for those who know there is no other hope and no other name but Jesus Christ through which every person on earth must be saved. Christ is the only open door to God’s kindness and joy.
The American cannot be saved except through trusting Jesus Christ and no other. Every republican and democrat has hope, but only through Jesus. Otherwise, they have hell to pay. Every modern descendant of those Israelites can only be saved through Jesus. Same situation. Every immigrant has hope and it’s only through knowing Jesus as God. Every atheist, Buddhist, and abortionist has hope… but only through changing their minds for Jesus. If they repent and believe, if they want Jesus just the way He is, they will not perish but have everlasting life. And it’s God’s pleasure to excessively give them eternal life.
Communion
Each week we celebrate communion together. This is an observance of
what Jesus has done for us. It is a time to reflect on how our commitment
and faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it’s a time of commitment, if
you feel that you are not personally at a place of commitment to Christ,
then please allow the elements of communion to pass you by as they
are distributed.
Let’s take a moment of personal reflection. Confess any known and
unconfessed sin to the Lord knowing that it is not your confession that
brings forgiveness, but his substitutionary death for you on the cross. And confession means telling it like it is– that your performance isn’t good enough and never could be. But that your forgiveness is already won and given in Christ.
Prayer of confession – Lord we have sinned against you by our thoughts, our words, and our misdeeds. It’s all before your eyes. We fail knowingly and unknowingly. Help us consider our ways and change our minds. Let us not think of another person needing a change of mind more than each of us do. We want you to be honored and we acknowledge our unworthiness before we
partake in the Lord’s supper.
Isaiah 53:5–6,10-11 (ESV)
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be
satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Luke 22:19–20 (ESV) 19 And he took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body,
which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Take and eat
20 And
likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is
poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Take and drink
Prayer: Thank you Jesus. Master. Thank you for taking my sin into your body on the cross. Thank you for covering the hidden person of my heart with your own worthiness. May all here pray this of themselves and see your glorious face in their hearts. In Christ alone, I pray. Amen.
