Spiritual Revival in Israel

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI, take it with a grain of salt…

When I was at, uh, college, bible college, uh, the one subject which I groaned at more than anything else was church history. and I think a lot of it was the church history lecturers I had. It, it felt like watching paint dry. It’s quite possibly the most boring subjects ever. It wasn’t the worst subjects, because I told you about some horrible subjects this morning, but it was definitely boring.

Uh, when I finished college and started reading more for myself, I started picking up church history and reading it. A- and quickly I found a great joy, a great delight. And one of the things I love to read is biography, but especially times of great revivals, times when the Lord has moved in unusual ways in history, whether it be times like the Reformation, or times like George Whitefield, or the, the North Hampton revivals in the 1840s in America, all these different moments where you can see the hand of God in quite visible ways.

And, and one of the effects that that’s had on me is a deep yearning to see that today, to see God move again, to see him breathe with what some might call fresh wind and fresh fire, bringing a movement of his spirit. And today, we have the joy of considering one such moment in redemptive history, a great revival, one might say, that took place in Jerusalem that spans over chapter eight and nine and 10, as we see the Lord moving in the midst of his people.

And as we look at it, we have opportunity to learn from it, and what I’d like us to do today is just to consider this spiritual revival that takes place among the people of God in chapter 8, as I said, in a bit of an overview type way.

And the first thing we see is that spiritual revival comes as a result of a deep sense of need. You, you may have forgotten this from last night, last week, but chapter 8 is intimately connected to chapter 7, funnily enough. One chapter comes after another. particularly here, you remember in chapter 7 verse 5, we read those words, the L- “God put it on my hearts to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy.” Why? Verse 4, “The city was empty.” It’s wide, large, not many houses, not many people in it.

We remember, don’t we, that Nehemiah was looking around himself and he’s saying, effectively, “I’ve built a wonderful wall, but an empty city with an impressive wall is kind of pointless.” God’s plans, God cu- God’s covenantal promises for Israel are not a nice wall, but it’s a place filled with the people of God, a covenantal community thriving. And so as he sees the need, it drives him to do something about it.

And so then in chapter 8, whether it happened immediately afterwards or not, theologically we’re being painted a picture here, the next thing that takes place in chapter 8 is a great gathering of people. The people come back together. You see, chapter 8 is driven by a need to see God’s work among the people.

And, and there’s 2 things that are being echoed here that you may not be aware of. Have a look at the book of Ezra with me. It’s before Nehemiah. Ezra chapter 3. Ezra chapter 3 verse one, just put your finger in Ezra chapter 3 verse one for a second, and just, in Nehemiah 8, in verse 2, we’re told- the people assembled together on the first day of the 7th month, and it begins, chapter 8 begins with, “All the people gathered as one man together in the square.”

And then in Ezra 3:1, Rick, see these words, “In the 7th month” Notice that? Same month, 7th month, 7th month, “The children of Israel were in the towns. The people gathered as one man in Jerusalem.” And they gathered to do what? As you read further into the chapter, to put the altar of God in place. The temples been built, or the temple’s going to be built, and the first thing they do is set up an altar in order to offer sacrifices, in order to atone for their sin.

And so now, many years of y- later, about 90-odd years later, the people of God are gathered together again, and the people of God are gathered on the 7th month again, on the first day, which also was a very special day in the Israelite calendar. And so there’s 2 echoes, I said. The first one is Ezra 3. The second comes, we won’t turn to it, but from Leviticus 23. In Leviticus 23 you get the chapter explaining all the different feasts that were to happen, and there was a feast for pretty much every month. But one of the high and holy feasts was on the 7th month, and it was the Feast of Trumpets. This is in Leviticus 23, the Feast of Trumpets. The trumpets were to resound and the people were to gather in order to commemorate the goodness of the Lord.

And so it’s no coincidence that as there’s this great need, at the same time they’re celebrating the reality of the Lord re-establishing His altar and the sacrificial system, and at the same time commemorating the feasts of the Lord. And it’s almost like this culmination of need, and God displaying His faithfulness to the people comes together.

Now, why is this important as we think about a spiritual revival? Because it reminds us that civic building alone will never build the Kingdom of God. So, what I mean by that is, in the first 6 chapters of Nehemiah, primarily what have we been thinking about? Kingdom-building, but a particular type of kingdom-building, right? It’s been hard yakka work, building walls, laying concrete, putting foundations down, building the city, guarding yourself against enemies, and all of these are good and necessary and important works.

But, the civic building of kingdom-building, the civic side of kingdom-building, in and of itself, will never advance the kingdom. And this is really important, because one of the things we can be tricked into thinking is, “If I structurally organize the church or the kingdom in the right way, then I’m guaranteed success.” But even Nehemiah, with all of his wisdom, with all of his governance capabilities, he cannot fill Jerusalem, can he? He’s built a city. He’s done everything he can, and the city’s still empty. Why? Because the problem, the need, and this is what we’re being flagged to, the need is primarily a spiritual one.

Now, hear me. I’m not saying civic building doesn’t matter, because we’ve just spent 6 chapters talking about the importance of it. But civic building alone is not the answer. Structural programming alone is never the answer. We have a spiritual need that has a spiritual solution, and that’s a good reminder for us.

And so we see this spiritual need, and then the next thing we see is that the spiritual solution begins, in spiritual revival it almost does, from the bottom up. Spiritual revival almost always is a bottom-up movement. It’s, it’s very rare in church history that you ever find a revival taking place among the elites first. Almost never. It’s almost never among the rich, the powerful. It’s almost never among royal thrones. It’s almost always among the poor, the sick, the marginalized, and the lonely. It’s almost always among the nobodies. It is among the lowest of the low. It is among the bottom, and it begins at the bottom and moves up, and we see this exact same pattern here.

Notice in, in chapter 8 verse 1, who asks for the Law to be read? The people gathered as one man, and they told Ezra to bring out the Law of the Lord. That’s a striking picture, isn’t it? Ezra doesn’t stand up and say, “Everybody, come together. I’m going to read God’s Word.” No. The people do. The congregation say, “We’re all gathered together. Hey, Ezra, how about you read us the Law? That would be a great idea.” It starts from the bottom.

And then notice in verse 2 and 3, as they gather together, what happens? Who’s there? Men, women, all who can understand. And then further down in verse 3, men, woman, all who can understand. And what are they doing? Well, verse 4, we’re told they build a pulpit. It’s striking. Ezra and the scribe, Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden per- pul- perp- pulp- blah, platform- that they had made for the purpose. Now, who’s the they? We’re not actually told, but I have a sneaking suspicion, because we haven’t had the names of all the Levites mentioned, that it’s actually the people. The people gather together. The people ask for the Word to be read. The people build the pulpit, because the people know what the people want, and they’re hungry for it.

And then, notice in verse 3, they’re attentive. They’re there. They’re ready to listen. And what do they do? They sit there and stand there for 6 hours while the Word is read- from first light till morning, till midday, first light till noon. Now, maybe that’s 3 hours, maybe it’s 4 hours. But either way, it’s not a 5minute reading, is it? They’re passionate.

See, spiritual revival begins in the hunger of the hearts of the people of God for the things of the Lord. Now, now why? Why is that the case? Well, here’s the problem. If it’s the reverse, this is what takes place. When it’s top-down revival, generally speaking, it becomes cultural Christianity and legalism. Let me give you an example of this. Missionaries went to Tonga, and they went to the king, and the king eventually got converted. And do you know what happened? As soon as the king of Tonga got converted, the entire nation became Christian. Oh, that’s fabulous, isn’t it? They converted one man, and all of a sudden, the entire nation is Christian.

Now, let me ask you, were everyone in China believers? Well, of course not, but they’re all Christian now. Now, if you go to Tonga today, what do you see? Well, actually, let me give you a better example of this. We had Fetu in our care. He was half-Tongan. He came to us with a cross. I mean, have you ever heard something so, so, so filled with hypocrisy before? I mean, here is someone who is mistreating their child to the point where their child is taken off them, and they’re stapling a cross on them. Well, not stapling a cross, but you know what I mean. There’s a cross stapled on their cot in the hospital. It’s like, wha- hypocrisy. “We’re Christians.” Why? “Because our king became a Christian centuries ago.”

You see, when Christendom is advanced from the top down, it makes no difference if your heart has been changed, as long as you follow the company policy. But when the religion is advanced through revival of the inner workings of the soul of the congregation, through the hunger of the people, then whole peoples are changed.

And I guess it raises a question for us, doesn’t it? A- are we hungry? Are we hungry like If I stood up You know, I said to you this morning that we’re gonna work our way through Psalm 119 for the reading of the law. If I had stood up this morning and I had said, “We’re gonna read the whole of Psalm 119,” how many of us would’ve said, “Praise the Lord. Yeah, 162 verses or a 176 verses,” or however many it is. “Yeah, praise the Lord we’re getting a long law reading today. It’s about time, Logan. Logan, why aren’t you reading the whole book of Exodus? Can we have the whole Torah today, please?”

We don’t, do we? I- is it not true of us, that so often we get to the, get to the Word of God and we think, “Well, I think I can, I think I can justify stopping after 8 verses today. I’ve got things to do.” Why? Because I’m not very hungry. I don’t really have an appetite for the things of the Lord.

And, and here’s the thing, brothers and sisters. One of the wonders about the fact that revival starts bottom-up is that it’s actually hungry congregations that make powerful ministers. Did you realize that? Did you realize that the greatest impact that a congregation can have on a preacher is their hunger and thirst for the Word of God?

Uh, I remember reading of Northampton in the 1840s, revivals under Jonathan Edwards. And, and he speaks of preaching for an hour, stopping, and then the congregation saying, “Why are you stopping? Preach again, please.” He’s like, “Well, I haven’t really pre- prepared another sermon, but okay.” So, he preaches another sermon, and this is not a one-off. This is everywhere. The preacher comes to preach his regular thing and the congregation says, “Uh, get back in the pulpit. We’re hungry. A second helping, please, dad.” And the minister gets up and preaches again, and they say, “We want more. Feed us, feed us.”

This, this spiritual thirst and hunger draws the minister himself up. I remember reading of a, a man called David, Scottish man. I think his name was Morgan, David Morgan. He, he writes in his diary, “I went to bed one day a lamb in the pulpit. And I went to church and I walked into the pulpit a lion.” The reason being the people, the people drew it out of him.

Brothers and sisters, do you realize your hunger and thirst, or lack thereof, has a huge impact on the nature of your preachers? Those people were hungry, weren’t they? Willing to stand in honor of the voice of the Lord.

And so, we see this, this need and we see this bottom-up movement, and yet it’s not just a bottom-up movement, isn’t it- is it? Because every movement needs spiritual leaders. A spiritual revival needs spiritual leaders.

You know, the people are hungry, the people are thirsty, and God provides the man they need. God provides the man at the right moment. He provides them with Ezra the priest.

Now, maybe, maybe you don’t know who Ezra the scribe is. Have a look at the Book of Ezra. He’s described in Ezra 7. T- uh, in, in my mind, this is probably one of my favorite few verses about a minister in the Bible. If I could be described in this way, it would be a true honor.

Ezra 7 verse 6, “This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.” And then down in verse 10, “Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.”

Now, let me ask you a question. Did Ezra pop out of the ground somewhere? No, he had been preparing himself, hadn’t he? He’d been studying and been reading the Word and he’d been working, and God’s hand was upon him. He wasn’t anyone important. He was really just an scribe. Wasn’t anyone significant. No one really knew very much of him until the right moment came, and God raised him up, and God sent him back in the order to teach the Word of God and to prepare the people of God for the rebuilding of the temple, and for this moment right here in Nehemiah 8. To feed the people’s hunger.

And so, the people of God, they r- are raised up to cry out for food, and God has raised up Ezra at just the mom- right moment. And it’s striking, isn’t it? Because who, whose life and diary is this book? Nehemiah, right? It’s about Nehemiah. How many mentions did you get of Nehemiah in this chapter? Just one tiny little word. “Oh, by the way, Nehemiah was there too.”

And you know what? In the next 2 chapters, you’re almost not going to hear from Nehemiah at all. He’s basically gone. He’s drawn right back. The civic builder has done what? He’s taken a step back and he’s allowed the minister to take over. Structure has given away to ceremonial, you might say. Because this is a spiritual need that needs a spiritual response, and God has raised up a man of God.

And yet, it’s not Ezra alone, is it? Because no man can do all, everything by himself. I can’t, I can’t do everything by myself. That’s why we have Matthew. That’s why we have Rob. And that’s why we pray for more leaders. One man cannot do everything.

And so, here we find Ezra, and alongside him is 13 other men. We won’t read all their names again, but you see them. They’re in verse 4. You see them again in verse 7, other men. Uh, some are priests, Levites, faithful men. The other wonderful thing you see here is the way offices work, don’t you? That there are some to do the public ministry of the Word and there are others to do the private con- private ministry. There are others to wait on tables and manage the money. Different men with different callings and different gifts.

The Lord provides them all, and I think this is just a wonderful encouragement for us, that if you’re hungry, the Lord will feed you. And maybe you’re tempted to think to yourself, “Well, it’d be fantastic if we had Ezra instead of Logan. He sounds pretty cool.” And I wouldn’t blame you. I wouldn’t mind being Ezra if I could.

Now, you’ve got a wonderful encouragement here. When the people’s hunger intensifies, the Lord never fails to fill When the need is there, the Lord will provide the men that are needed. And hasn’t He done that for us? I mean, what a blessing. I’ve got friends who minister in churches. They’re m- good friend, Luke Sheldrake in Gisborne, been laboring there for years. They don’t have a single elder. They don’t have a single deacon. He’s just there by himself, week in and week out, month in and month out. He does everything without fail, him and his family.

And yet, here we are, just over 6 months old and we’ve got a minister, an elder, and a deacon. Praise the Lord. Let us give thanks for his provision, and let us trust him to raise up more as the need grows.

And so, we see this need, this bottom-up movement, the s- spiritual leaders being required, and then the other thing we see is that spiritual revival is always centered upon what? The Word of God. Spiritual revival is always centered upon the Word of God. Spiritual revival is never achieves- achieved by charismatic leadership. Ezra’s an amazing guy, but in and of himself, he will achieve nothing. It makes no difference how enigmatic, how persuasive your minister might be, whether he’s a really nice guy.

The measure of the power of God among the people of God is in direct contact with the Word of God. The means of God for the work He does in this world is through the Word, and it’s a striking picture in verse 1 to 8, isn’t it? Lord willing, we’ll look at it more. But the people gather together, they’re hungry, they say, “Feed us, feed us.” They’re like those little birds. You seen the little baby birds in nests? And he’s crying and crying and crying and crying until the mother feeds it. And lo and behold, 10 minutes later, what are they doing? Crying and crying, says, “Feed me, feed me, feed me.”

So the people are. And so, Ezra stands up with the people and he reads the Word, and he explains the Word, and then there’s elders, you might call them, or Levites, and they, they take the Word and what do they do? They apply it privately. They go house to house, and they take the Word and they feed it to this person, they explain it to that person, and they come along, little children, and they say, “Did you hear what he said? Did you understand the law? Did you know what it means?” Why? Because the people need to understand. It’s not enough just to hear the Word, we need to understand it.

And as the Word is received, it, it does what? It causes more hunger. You see, because the Word does 2 things, it’s both a cause and effect. The Word causes revival, and the effect of revival is a desire for more Word. I said to you before, this, this, this very common thing that happens when revivals break out is the people gain hunger. That’s the effect that’s brought about by spiritual revival. The hunger that drives the need is also the very result of the work of God in the heart, so that you, you don’t get satisfied, in one sense, because you just want more.

You know, George Whitefield talks about preaching in the fields. And as he preaches in the fields, they finish and the people won’t leave. I mean, they just stay there. They, and they just, uh, and they weep, and they cry out for salvation. They cry out for hope. And so, another minister stands up and preaches, but the people won’t go home because they’re desperate for the words of life.

You see, because the very centrality of the word both generates revival and causes more to take place, but, uh, it makes another effect, too. It not only creates more hunger, it creates greater obedience. H- have a look at verse 14 and 15. So, the next day, in verse 13, the people go, “Let’s do it all again. We’ll send our heads this time.” And so, all the people go home. You know, the children have to go, go back to Jewish school, I guess. The mums need to go back to homeschooling. And, and, uh, so all the dads go. They go back and gather again for a second helping of the law because they’re hungry.

And what takes place? Oh, they discover that it’s written in the law of God that they’re meant to celebrate the Feast of Booths. We talked about that this morning, didn’t we? And so, what do they do? They go out and do it. They’re like, “Well, guess what? The Bible says it. It’d be a smart idea to go and do it.” And so they do.

You see, because as the word takes root in their heart, they want to keep it, because spiritual revival always brings with it a transformation into the image of Christ, a godliness. It’s not just a going through the motions of revivalism. Maybe you’ve seen the, seen the revival services people do. You know, you see a sign on the front of the church, “We’re having a revival this weekend.” Uh, what? They’re gonna have a revival service. They’re gonna have a service and we’re gonna bring revival on. And you think to yourself, “Okay.” And so, everyone gathers together, and there’s lots of hype and lots of enthusiasm, and then everyone goes back to work on Monday and no one’s any different. Because it’s all exterior. There’s been no heart change.

You see, God’s word is the chief mechanism of change, isn’t it? That’s why everything is centered upon the word here. Don’t you love the picture? The, the, the, their minister, Ezra, stands up. It’s a lovely picture. He’s up on the big wooden pulpit. As he stands up there, high above the people so that all can see him, in honor he opens up the word. And what does everybody do? They stand up.

I hope you realize, this is why we stand up for the call to worship. This is the verse. This is what made me start doing it, many moons ago. We stand in reverence to he who speaks. God speaks, and we stand in honor of him. And so, we see this, this need and this bottom-up movement and the provision of God’s leaders at just the right time, and it being centered upon the word in every way together.

But then there’s one more thing you need to see here, is that this is, this is whole person stuff. Spiritual revival is, is whole person. whole person. Well, what do I mean by that? Well, yes, it’s the word, uh, word alone that does the work, but it involves our whole being.

And so, on one hand, this is a work that heavily engages the mind. And so, you’ll notice in verse 2 it says, “All who understand.” Listen, they needed to be able to understand, didn’t they? And we’re told in verse 3, “All who had ears to listen and who could understand.” And in verse 7 and 8, we’re told that these men went, and what did they do? They explained. They helped the people to understand. And in verse 8, they read clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood. Why? Because the mind is the window through which the word of God affects us. The w- mind is the word of God. We, we don’t believe in what we call emotionalism. It’s all about the heart, and we’ve gotta engage the heart. No. You are transformed by the renewal of your what, according to Paul? Mind. Not according to your emotional seat.

But notice, it’s not mind alone. We don’t believe in intellectualism, as in if I can provide you with a very persuasive mental argument, that’ll be enough. If I can only change your thinking, you’ll be a completely different person. No, notice the effect that this has on the people. In verse 9, Nehemiah and Ezra have to tell the people to stop weeping at the reading of the law. So overwhelmed are they in the presence of the word being read that it’s drastically impacting their heart, and the leaders have to stand up and say, “Today is not a day of weeping. Today is a day of rejoicing.” It was part of the Feast of the Trumpets. “Today is a day of joy. Today is a day of gladness. Do not weep.”

Notice what’s happening. As the word is entering the mind, it’s affecting the what? Heart, right? It’s not just mental, mental thinking. It’s heart transformation. But the way the heart is accessed is through the mind. This is why we, we separate ourselves from those who are purely intellectual and want to say, “It doesn’t matter how you feel. It doesn’t matter how you feel things.” And we also separate ourselves from those who say, “Create a hyping situation, and you’ll get results.” We re- we seek to renew the mind so that the heart is affected.

And this is what I mean by a whole person reality. You see, because God’s not only interested in your mind, and God’s not only interested in your heart. He’s interested in your whole person. And when spiritual revival breaks out, we always see both. Jonathan Edwards wrote a fantastic book dealing with what were called the excesses of revival, where people would be weeping and crying out in the middle of services. And he was trying to distinguish between true and false work, because at times they would do things. People would say, “Well, if we’ve” This is back in the 1800s. “You know, look, if, if we get a bunch of actors to come in and start crying out and weeping, it’ll generate it among other people.” Targeting what? This, right? Targeting the heart.

Pentecostalism and charismaticism is not new, by ‘Cause you bring the actors in, they make a lot of ruckus, and everyone else will get drawn into it. Do you know what? It worked. It didn’t bring true change, and so he begins to distinguish. And on one hand he doesn’t deny the reality that the weight of the Word of God and the heart of the sinner could bring great emotional upheaval, and he talks of legitimate conversions of people literally lying on the ground, cast down in anguish before a thrice holy God, before deliverance came in the power of the Gospel.

And on the other hand, he was probably one of the most boring preachers you would have ever experienced if a revival wasn’t happening. Do you know what, apparently, Jonathan Edwards preached like? He had a full set of notes, and he looked down at his notes like this, and he read them deadpan. But the Word of God, through the mind, affected the heart and brought about great transformation in the hearts of the people of God.

True revival brings about a total transformation of every heart and mind that hears. Well, not every mind that hears, I should say. Every mind that is affected by the Gospel.

Now, there’s a sense in which, brothers and sisters, we have to be careful, because this is a special one-time moment in redemptive history. And yet, if church history teaches us anything, it teaches us that God doesn’t change, and the same God that brought about the effect in Nehemiah 8 brought about the same effect in many other places. God has brought about revivals many times in history. He’s done it once, and he can do it again.

Now, why do I raise this? I raise it to challenge our thinking. Do we face a need in our land? Yes. Do we have a hunger for God’s Word? Are there any leaders raised up by God? Is the Word among us? the Word among us? Is transformation taking place? All of these things, all of these questions, all of these things we’ve seen should drive us to long for the very things we’re seeing in this passage, to plead with God to do it again.

Do it again, Lord. Do it again that we might see transformation here in our midst. Brothers and sisters, He’s done it before, and He can do it again, and may it be that He does. May it be for His glory that we see a great work again.

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