Title: People of the Book
Text: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6 and 8-10 (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 119; James 1:22)
Transition: And the thesis statement is:
Thesis: If we would be People of the Book we must weave God’s Word into the very fabric of our daily lives.
Introduction
Following a time when Israel had refused to live in obedience to God, God allowed them to be overpowered by the Babylonian Empire. They were forced from their homeland and lived in exile in Babylon. Over time they learned to live as Babylonians. They learned their culture and lived as Babylonians… Temple worship and Torah life were foregone. Fifty years or so later they were allowed to return to their homeland – the land of Israel. After everyone had gotten settled in their towns they all assembled in Jerusalem for the purpose of being reintroduced to the Word of God.
Keep in mind; they had not heard the Word of God read publically for over fifty years. Many if not most of them did not know what was in God’s Word and had no clue as to what it meant to heard from and obey the living God. So In Nehemiah 8 we witness an historic moment.
The people stood for hours listening to Ezra read the Word of God. They were hungry to hear what they had not heard for generations. They were hushed with reverence as the Scripture was read. The people wept because they realized how far they had gotten from living in obedience to God. They wept because they were reminded that they were the People of God and People of the Book.
We find ourselves today in a position quite unlike that of those ancient Israelites who had not read the Book for over fifty years… we, on the other hand, are people of plenty. Bibles are a dime a dozen in every imaginable format, binding and translation. We are blessed to have an abundance of churches… so much so that churches have to appeal to consumers for a market share. Despite the abundance of spiritual influences and opportunities, I suspect we also are in need of being reminded that we too are the People of God and People of the Book.
The Word of God exists and is readily available to us… but that does not make us People of the Book. We have to carve out space in our lives for God’s Word.
I. Create space for the Book, Deuteronomy 6:4-7
“You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving to you today.” Deuteronomy 6:4-6
There are those in Christendom who are legitimately referred to as bibliolaters. Just as Romans speaks of those who loved, worshipped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, bibliolaters essentially worship the Bible. In such cases a person is more devoted to the Word of God than to the God of the Word. True spiritual development always begins with God.
So our text today correctly instructs us to begin with loving God and then moves to living God’s Word. So we begin by carving out space in our lives for God.
A. Create space for Loving God
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all of your strength.” 6:5
When I left the house on Thursday morning my neighbor was just coming in from having walked her dog. Earlier she had gotten up at 4:30 to go to the gym. She had then gotten ready for work and was just returning from walking her dog. I know she is loves to ride her Harley and in good weather she often hits the road. She also owns a horse and had ridden her horse over near Standley Lake on Sunday. The stirrup had broken and she had fallen and was all achy from that. And now she was off to work.
Tweet has tons of energy. She lives life large. She has varied interests. And Tweet carves out time in her life for the things that are important to her.
In my devotional reading this week I read a statement that made me stop and think… I’m still thinking about it. Here it is: “Sooner or later you will have to put God first in your life, that is to say, your own spiritual development must become the only thing that really matters. It need not, perhaps had better not be, the only thing that matters, but it must be the first thing.” (Emmet Fox, Power Through Constructive Thinking, A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God)
Emmet Fox says placing the highest value our own spiritual development, i.e., our relationship with God and living in obedience to God, is how we put God first in our lives.
Of all the ways God makes himself known to us… certainly the Living Word, i.e., Jesus and the written Word, i.e., the Bible, are the best starting places in our spiritual development.
That is why it is imperative that we carve out space in our lives for reading and reflecting on God’s Word.
B. Create space for God’s Word
“You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you this day.” 6:6
We understand what it means to carve out space for relationships and other things in our lives. Next Sunday I will carve out space to watch the Super Bowl. Meanwhile I will carve out space for my personal needs, for eating and sleeping. For work, for reading, for checking my email, for Bonnie and so on.
We carve out space for reading and reflecting on God’s Word and for prayer just like we carve out space for everything else. The pressing question then becomes, how important is or how high a priority is carving our that space to me?
In a Christian home the carving out of space for God and God’s Word is not exclusively personal and private.
C. Create space for God’s Word in family life
“You must repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them at home, on the road and when you are going to bed and getting up.” 6:7
Passing the Baton. In the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, the American women’s 4X100 relay race team was favored to win the gold medal. The team featured Marion Jones, a sprinter who had won four gold medals in the previous games held in Sydney, Australia. The American team was off to a fast start when Jones took the baton for the second leg of the race. She raced ahead gaining ground to hand off the baton to Lauryn Williams, a young speedster who was to run the third leg of the race.
As Jones drew near, Williams began running and reached back to receive the baton but they could not complete the handoff. Three times Jones thrust the baton forward, but each time it missed William’s hand. On the fourth try they made the connection but by then they had crossed the 20-yard exchange zone and were disqualified. They were the fastest team on the track but when they could not complete the handoff, their race was over.
It is not a perfect analogy but it does speak to the importance of previous generations setting the pace and making effective handoffs of faith to the next generation.
Our children should not think receiving our faith is like taking a big dose of cod liver oil. Our love for God and reverence for God’s Word is not a baton we use to beat them over the head… it is a baton we pass on to them. And a faith that is woven into the very fabric of everyday living… from the moment we roll out of bed in the morning until we lay our heads on the pillow at night.
When parents live out their faith in the home as examples of Christ-likeness, pray for their children, talk about spiritual things, read the Bible and Bible Story Books to their children, make Sunday School (in our case Friends and Followers) a priority, see that their children are in Confirmation, in worship, and engaged in youth group… they are passing the baton of faith that will lead to their children embracing Christ as their Savior and committing their own lives to being followers of Christ as well.
The Word of God is not just something for in home use.
II. Take the Book with you, Deuteronomy 6:7-9
“Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road… Tie them to your hands and wear them on your foreheads as reminders.”
In time Jewish people began to actually wear what they called “phylacteries.” Phylacteries were little boxes or cylinders that contained snippets of Scripture. Phylacteries would then be strapped to one’s forehead or tied to one’s wrists. And some would literally write Scripture on their doorjambs and on their gates.
While the intent of the text is to instruct people to pursue God and the knowledge of God through the reading of God’s Word and by weaving our faith into the very fabric of our lives, the danger was in thinking that public displays of faith and simply carrying God’s Word around like fashion statements made one spiritual
The fact that you have God’s Word displayed prominently in your home and carry it around with you either in a pocket-Sized print edition or downloaded as an app on your smart phone, e-reader, pad or laptop does not mean you are a Person of the Word. We actually have to ingest or eat the Word for spiritual nourishment.
III. Eat the Book, Psalm 119:103
“How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey. Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:103-105
There are many other Bible references that speak of reading and reflecting on God’s Word as eating God’s Word as a necessary part of spiritual development.
“I had to feed you with milk, not solid food, because you were not ready for anything stronger.” I Corinthians 3:2
“For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” Hebrews 5:11-14
“Like newborn babes, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation, Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.” Hebrews 2:2-3
When the Psalmist read God’s Word he said, “How sweet your words taste to me…”
When I was a kid, when I got a new baseball glove I would spend hours oiling it and slamming the ball into the pocket. When I wasn’t working the glove into shape I would place a baseball in the pocket and then tie the glove around the ball to further shape it. In addition to making the glove more useful for catching and fielding baseballs… all that made it look like it was a well-used ball glove. Having a new glove was cool but you wanted it to look like it had been used by a pro. (It’s kind of like the phenomenon I see with blue jeans… you want a new pair of jeans but you also want them to look like they’ve been washed and worn a lot.)
Hopefully we do not do the same thing with our Bibles… sit around thumbing the pages and bending the binding to make our Bibles look like they’ve been well-used. However a well-worn Bible that has come by its well-wornness legitimately is a great indicator of spiritual life.
They say, “A Bible that is falling apart probably belongs to someone who isn’t.” (Christian Johnson, Men of Integrity, Vol. 1. No. 1)
God wants us to eat this Book.
But being in love with the Bible and talking about the Bible and reading the Bible is not the end-all of spiritual life. Reading and reflecting and knowing of necessity must translate into doing.
IV. Do the Book, James 1:22
“Don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise you are only fooling yourselves.” James 1:22 (1:19-27)
Last fall three Coloradans went Elk hunting together… a lawyer, a doctor and a minister. I think they were hunting up around Craig. Anyway on their first morning out a big bull elk wandered into a clearing and all three shot at the elk at the same time. The elk dropped immediately and the three ran up to see how big it was. Then they began to argue amongst themselves as to who actually bagged the big bull elk.
As they were arguing a Colorado State Game official approached them to check their tags and asked what they were arguing about. So they told him.
The game official inspected the carcass and said, “The preacher shot it.” The lawyer and the doctor immediately asked how he could make that determination so quickly. The officer responded immediately, “Easy! The bullet went in one ear and out the other.”
Unfortunately the Word of God often goes in one ear and out the other. And when that happens we are hearing it but not thinking about it and certainly not acting on it. (P. J. Alindogan, the Potter’s Jar blog, “Hearing,” 3/4/12)
Jesus said, “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you… you are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:9-17
Conclusion:
In James 1:19-27, the entire passage is devoted to making the point that reading and knowing God’s Word means nothing if it does not result in changing your life.
I am a big fan of mirrors. My morning routine begins in front of the mirror. I look at my reflection in the glass and I say, “Good morning you handsome rascal.” Then I use some dental floss, brush my teeth and gargle… all while watching myself in the mirror. I wet my face and apply shaving cream and then look carefully into the mirror to see that I don’t do too much damage with the razor. After showering I’m back in front of the mirror applying deodorant, a spray of Old Spice and some hairspray after which I run the brush over my head. Then I take a mirror from a vanity drawer, turn my back to the mirror and use it to check out the back of my head. Not only to check to see if my bald spot is growing but to make sure there is no remaining evidence of bed-head. And if there is I get a different kind of brush out of the vanity and wet it and comb the back of my hair. Then I lean forward and check for nose hairs and ear hairs that need trimming. All this is not to say that I spend an inordinate amount of time primping… it is simply to say I need all the help I can get and the mirror reflects who and what I am and shows me what needs to be touched up a bit.
“Don’t just listen to the Word. Do it. Otherwise you are just fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the Word and do not do it, it is like glancing in the mirror. You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” James 1:19-25
We are People of the Book when we weave it into the very fabric of our daily lives… knowing it and doing it. And we know it and do it because, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” II Timothy 3:17-21
