The Joy of the Lord

This is the text of a sermon preached on Nehemiah 8:1-12.

A survey asked people how they felt about eight different aspects of modern life including their marriages and other family relationships, their children, their work, their health, their neighbourhood, their finances, and so on. In every category, those who felt pessimistic, worried or fearful for the future were in the majority.

It’s a sad fact that the more advanced and sophisticated our world seems to get, the less happy we seem to get. Joy is a pretty rare commodity in the modern world.

That’s not the way life is supposed to be. Our Bible reading tonight culminates in a great affirmation that the lives of God’s people are to be filled with a special kind of joy that strengthens and protects us as we make our way through life. One of the most distinctive things about the life of the Christian when compared to the lives of those who don’t know Christ and the good news of salvation, is that our lives should be full of joy, where theirs is so often filled with misery, guilt, dissatisfaction, pointlessness, worry and fear in between periodic spells of empty happiness.

So how do we receive this “joy of the Lord” that Nehemiah mentions in verse 10? How do we come to have it in our hearts? Well, the whole of this passage from verse 1 onwards describes a spiritual journey that any person has to make to find the joy of the Lord. There are three stages on this journey, described in this passage. They are:

Discovering the Word of the Lord
Leading to a period of spiritual grief
Finding the joy of the Lord

In one sense this is a journey that we only make once, when we first put our faith in Christ and accept him as our Saviour and Lord. And since that becoming a Christian can never be undone, the joy of the Lord in being saved can never totally be lost. But in another sense, the three stages of this spiritual journey are repeated over and over again in the Christian life as we discover or remember again that something we’ve been doing is wrong in God’s eyes, and then we feel bad inside that we’ve failed and haven’t lived in a way that pleases God, and then as we come back to God sorry for what we’ve done or not done, we receive fresh assurance of God’s love and forgiveness as a son or daughter, and the experience of joy returns again.

We’ll explore each of these stages in turn as we make our way through this passage. It would be useful for you to have the order of service open at the Bible reading so you can follow me as we go.

We begin with: Discovering the Word of the Lord

This passage in Nehemiah chapter 8 gives a remarkable picture of what happens when people take God’s Word seriously and gather to learn from it. It is no accident that having completed the rebuilding of the city’s infrastructure, the people are now led to the even more important work of spiritual renewal. Discovering or rediscovering God’s Word is usually the first step when God’s brings about a reformation or sends a revival to his people. The first step in our spiritual journey from sin to salvation, from death to life, from misery to joy, is to discover or rediscover the Word of God.

In the first seven verses of the passage we see the people in Jerusalem gathering to hear the Word of the Lord. And in these verses there are a number of aspects to their rediscovery of God’s Word that should resonate with us. In these verses, the people give us a number of useful lessons about how we can know God’s Word better as individuals and especially as a church.

The people were already in the city to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets, a festival that the people of Israel were commanded to keep on the first day of the seventh month of the year. But in verse 1 the people ask for something different from the normal festival observance to be done. They tell Ezra to read them the Book of the Law of Moses. The meeting was not held because the leaders demanded that the people listen to God’s Word; it was held because the people demanded that the leaders read them God’s Word. There’s no surer sign that God is at work to bring people to faith and salvation than when there is a spontaneous renewed interest in and demand for the Bible and sound biblical teaching. Many things the church does can be popular with people – things like social events, entertainment, all kinds of meetings and forums and so forth – and though all of these kinds of things have a place, it’s quite possible for people to want to come along to them for reasons that have nothing to do with an interest in God. But when people have a desire to hear the Bible preached, when people are crowding in to a Bible study or prayer meeting, that’s a much better indication that they are open to the things of God, because by nature, people would rather do anything other than gather round God’s Word to learn from it.

The next thing to notice about the people’s eagerness to discover God’s Word is that they are of one mind in this matter. The people of Israel were just as diverse, just as different from each other as people are in Scotland today. They would have been just as likely to be interested in different things in life, to be different kinds of characters, to be unable to agree about everything, but in at least one thing they are agreed: they all wanted to hear God’s Word. Verse 1 says that “all the people gathered as one man.” That’s very important for us today too. Are we single-minded in our desire to hear God’s Word and learn from it? Any kind of genuine Christian unity must draw its fuel from this common desire to know God, to learn his Word, and live as God’s Word commands. Otherwise it’s doomed to failure, because those who love God’s Word could never have unity with others calling themselves Christians who don’t care if God’s Word condemns what they believe or what they do in their churches.

The third aspect of the people’s rediscovery of God’s Word is to note who was in the gathered assembly. Verse 2 says the assembly included men, women and children. The phrase “all who could understand what they heard” refers to children old enough to grasp what was going on. Personally, I always been in favour of children over the age of about 12 staying in for the whole of our services. I think one reason why we lose so many young people in their teenage years is the fact that they are not used to being in church to hear a sermon during the whole of their childhood. They go out to Sunday school or the youth church, in theory right up to the age of 16. At which point we then expect them to suddenly stay in for the whole service, which they haven’t got used to doing. And by that point it’s too late. The good habit of listening to a sermon has not been formed.

The assembly in our passage does things better. If the children were old enough to understand what was going on, they were old enough to listen to God’s Word being read and expounded for three hours! From early morning to midday according to verse 3. Surely our children above the age of twelve can sit through a 20 or 30 minute sermon? They have no problem concentrating for that amount of time watching television or films, or listening to their favourite music!

The fourth thing to note is that the people wanted to be taught. Verse 3 says that the people were “attentive” during the reading of God’s Word. Verse 4 says that they made a wooden platform, or more literally, a tower, for Ezra to stand on as he read from the scrolls. It’s easy to overlook this aspect. But unless we as members of the congregation expect to hear God’s truth proclaimed and eager to receive it, it doesn’t really matter how good the quality of the preaching we “aren’t really listening to” is. If we as hearers don’t “have ears to hear” as Jesus liked to put it, God’s Word can never make a home in our hearts. We need to be enthusiastic and attentive hearers, listening actively and looking for God’s Word to affect us and change us as we listen. It’s a great mistake to think of listening to God’s Word being read and preached as something we passively listen to. We should be listening actively and feel as if we’re involved in the preaching, not just an audience.

The people in the crowd have the right attitudes and are examples to us all. Notice in verse 5, the reverence the people show to God’s Word – they stand as a mark of respect as Ezra opens the scrolls. In our church we stand as the Bible is brought in at the start of the service. We should remember we are not standing as a mark of respect to the minister or preacher, but out of reverence for God’s Word.

And in case anyone is thinking that showing reverence to God’s Word is a form of idolatry, verse 6 makes it clear the reverential attitude of the people wasn’t towards the sacred scrolls, as if they were relics due veneration. No, the reverence comes from knowing whose Word the Bible is. “Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen.”

They realised that hearing the Bible taught was not an add-on extra to the worship of God – it is at the heart of the worship of God! It is where God speaks to us most clearly in this gospel age. It is an indispensable part of the true worship of God. Our forefathers knew this. That’s why unadorned by gold and fancy works of art, Presbyterian churches tend to be kept simple and plain – because the focal point of worship is not on the building, or even on the communion table, but on the Word of God, heard and preached from the pulpit.

Finally we should briefly look at verse 8. It is a remarkably clear statement of what a Bible-based teaching ministry is all about. It’s in three distinct parts. The first thing is to make sure the we “read from the book…clearly.” Our services are not be built around the latest news headlines, or a few funny stories, or beautiful poems, but around the book, the Bible. In every service, God’s Word should be read, and it should be read loud and clear for everyone to hear. One aspect of this is that it should be read in a language that the people understand. Secondly, it is the preacher’s job to “give the sense” or in other words to explain the reading to his hearers. Whatever else a sermon is, at its most basic, it should explain and make it easier to understand God’s Word. If it fails in that, it’s failed as a sermon, no matter how good it is otherwise. Thirdly, it is the congregation’s job to understand the reading. It’s no good if the Bible is clearly read, and clearly explained, if the people refuse to pay heed to it, or don’t make any effort to understand and remember what they were taught. When these three things happen together then remarkable things can happen.

In our passage something remarkable does begin to happen, but the middle step is the most difficult to go through. Though it will not always be to the same degree for everyone, or be manifested in the same way in everyone, there is a process of going through spiritual grief. We see this in our passage in verse 9. “All the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.”

The grief and sadness that wells up in us as God’s Word is understood in a deep, personal way - expressed by the people in our passage as weeping, perhaps by us in ways we keep hidden inside - is the first reaction that people often have and it’s actually a good sign when people feel that way! It’s a sure sign that people’s consciences have been touched. Theologians tend to call it being “convicted of sin.”

By nature, the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:1, we are dead in sin. One aspect of that is that before we are Christians, when we sin, we are a bit like a patient under a deep anaesthetic on an operating table – we don’t feel the pain of what we’re doing. When we come to understand the Word of God in a deep personal way, it’s as if the anaesthetic wears off and we see ourselves and our actions as they really are, and it hurts. We become conscious of how different our lives are to how they should be. We see our failures and some people can find that deeply upsetting.

Looking in God’s Word is like looking in a mirror, the Letter to James tells us. Firstly we see the mirror itself dazzling with light and brilliance, then we see the world around us reflected in its light, then if we look closely, we see ourselves as we really are. When we read or hear God’s Word, we see what God is like, in all his glory, his love and mercy, his justice and holiness and we recoil because he is so different, so much better than us in every way. Then we see the world around us and how far removed it is from how God wants it to be. We see how bad it is. And finally, we see ourselves and see how far removed we are from how God wants us to be, and how sinful we are.

It is this revelation of human sin and failure that moved the people in Jerusalem to tears as they heard Law of God read out, revealing his character, his commandments and showing up their utter failure to live as God’s people should live.

But thanks be to God, for when he brings people to that dark place of realising our sinfulness, our guilt and our helplessness before a holy God, he then floods that place with light and love, peace and joy, for the same Word which condemns us as sinners also reveals to us the good news, the gospel, that sinners can be saved through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s Word diagnoses the heart disease at the core of the human condition, which is sin; but it then prescribes the remedy for that disease, which is to come to Jesus, and trust in him to save you. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me I will never cast him out.”

And when we come to Christ, and know that we have been forgiven by God, the darkness lifts and the weight of sin and shame falls away, and we begin a new life in the light, a life that is everlasting.

Our passage in Nehemiah takes place at a time before Jesus Christ came to the earth. But the same process occurs. When the Levites say to the people in verse 9 “This day is holy to the Lord your God, do not mourn or weep,” they’re saying far more than just that as it’s a special day the people should “put on a happy face” and forget the mournful feelings they had. Some commentators say that’s all the priests were doing, but that doesn’t ring true to me. No, what they are doing is reminding the people of who God is – he is the LORD – the covenant God who chose them and will always remain faithful to his people. They’re reminding them that he is not just God, he is their God.

And in verse 10, when they tell the people to go ahead and have a celebration feast – “eat the fat, and drink sweet wine…” – they are telling the people they can celebrate because God has forgiven them and they are still His covenant people.

Having come through the darkness of being convicted of our sins, and having trusted in God for deliverance, and found his forgiveness, we can then rejoice and celebrate. Surely one of the most beautiful verses in the Psalms is Psalm 30:5:

“For his anger is but for a moment, and his favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

And that brings us to the third step in our spiritual journey:

Finding the joy of the Lord

Verse 10 is one of my favourite verses in the Bible. I come back to it time and time again. “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Let me just say in passing that the grief being talked of here is the grief for sin that has been forgiven. It is not a blanket command that Christians should never grieve about anything. Most especially, this verse does not teach that Christians shouldn’t grieve for the death of their loved ones. The Bible is very clear that it is right and entirely understandable for Christians to grieve at certain times. Ecclesiastes 3:4 says there is “a time to weep.” In Romans 12:15, far from condemning those who mourn, Paul exhorts Christians to get alongside those who mourn – “weep with those who weep,” he says.

No, the “do not be grieved” in verse 10 is not a general command covering all situations. It is a particular command to those who have grieved for their sins but received God’s forgiveness. Do not grieve over sins that God has forgiven, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

This joy that is mentioned is a very special thing as we’ll see as we consider where it comes from, what it is and what it does in the life of the Christian believer.

Since it is the joy of the Lord, we know it is a joy that comes from God. It is not something that we can manufacture in our own lives. It is a gift. And it is not something that any other source can provide. It cannot be found in money, or possessions, or in sex, or in drink and drugs, or in success, or fame. It is the joy of the Lord, and is only given to those who know the Lord. In Jeremiah 31:13, the LORD says:

“Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul writes:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

The Spirit only produces such fruit in those who belong to Christ Jesus.

So what is the joy of the Lord? We know it comes from God, but what is it? Well, since this joy comes from God, it is to be distinguished from mere human happiness. Happiness comes from the same root as the word “happen.” Happiness is feeling good when good things happen. It disappears when bad or sad things happen to us. Joy is a different. It is a much deeper, stronger, more robust, more steady feeling of pleasure, gladness and contentment that nothing can take away from us. It persists within us even through times of pain, suffering, loss and mourning. It persists through all these things precisely because it is not only an emotion, a feeling generated solely within us, but because it comes from God, outside of us, as a divine blessing and gift. This is why God’s Word can command us to always be joyful:

Philippians 4:4 says: “Rejoice in the Lord, always; and again I say, rejoice!”

Other verses tells us that going through troubles, cannot affect our joy. Look at what the prophet says in Habakkuk 3:17:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

Or what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:4:

“In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.”

Even if it "all goes pear-shaped," we can still rejoice in God and know the joy of the Lord, is the promise of the Bible.

We may not feel as if the joy of the Lord is still there in hard times, but even in hard times it is there, like the faint glow of embers in a fire that looks as if it’s about to go out. And like embers it is always ready to be fanned into full flame again if we kindle it by keeping on trusting in the Lord and waiting for the wind of God’s spirit to blow through us again.

The second thing to remember is that the joy of the Lord not only comes from the Lord, it is a joy found in the Lord.

It is a joy that increases the more we come to know about who God is and what he has done. In other words, it is a joy that is increased as we learn about God from his Word. Psalm 119 is the longest in the Bible and its all about God’s Word. Verse 111 of that Psalm says this:

“Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.”

God’s Word is what gives the Psalmist joy in his heart. Why?

Joy wells up in us as we consider what God is like. As we think about his character – his love, his grace, his faithfulness, his truthfulness, his kindness, his compassion and all his other attributes.

It is a joy that wells up in us as we consider what God has done: when we think about the grandeur and beauty. Or maybe when we consider the intricate order and total control God holds over all things by his sovereign power. And yet he tells us that all of that power, all his sovereign will, works all things for our good.

Most of all, this joy wells up inside us when we consider God’s salvation. As Isaiah 12:3 promises us:

“With joy you will draw waters from the wells of salvation.”

If we know Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord, how can we think about the cross and the resurrection without joy flooding into our hearts? When we know that when we stand before God in heaven, he will look upon the righteousness of Christ, which is ours through faith, and we will hear the words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” how can we not rejoice in what he has done for us?

The third aspect of this verse is the realisation and experience that this joy that comes from God and is found in God “is our strength” as we go through life.

Partly that means that the joy of the Lord gives us strength to do what God calls us to do. In our passage as the people are filled with joy and begin to celebrate, they then begin to share the food and wine of their feast with others who don’t have these things. Verse 12: “All the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.”

But when you consider that the word translated “strength” in v.10 has its root meaning in the Hebrew word for a stronghold or fortress, I think the main point is that the joy of the Lord is our defence against the hard and painful things that life throws at us. The joy we carry around with us, deep inside, is like a shield that protects us and enables us to do things we otherwise couldn’t do.

I’m wondering if anyone is sitting here tonight and is saying to themselves, “What is he talking about? I don’t know this joy of the Lord.” Well the thing is this. You can’t know the joy of the Lord until you know the Lord himself. Jesus said in a prayer to his Father:

“This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

The question is, do you know Jesus Christ? Not as a figure in history, not as a great moral teacher, not even as the man that other people believe in. The question is, do you know Christ? Have you met him for yourself? Have you trusted in him as your Saviour and Lord? Can you truthfully say what the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8

“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

If not, God is calling you to himself tonight. He wants you to know Christ and know the joy of the Lord. Don’t miss out on it. Because as the chorus of our closing hymn puts it:

Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you,
There is no greater thing.
You’re my all, you’re the best,
You’re my joy, my righteousness,
And I love you Lord.

“The people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.”

May that be as true for us tonight, as it was for the crowd in Nehemiah’s day, for the joy of the Lord is our strength, this night and forever.

It's the thought that counts

The editorial from our Church's Magazine for December 2006

There's a saying you often hear around Christmas: "It's not the gift, it's the thought that counts." How very true that is. Let’s look at it in two ways to show it’s true! Firstly, we value the time and thought that someone put into a gift, we prize the love behind the gift far more than the gift itself. When I think back to Christmas as a child I received many lovely presents. I remember one year receiving a set of little plastic farm animals and farm equipment and the farmer with a shotgun tucked under his arm. That was what enthralled me then. Now thinking back, I appreciate even more the wooden farm with hills and little loch, the barn and farmhouse my father made himself from wood. It must have taken him a long time to make and paint it. On the other hand it was only plywood, papier-mâché, bits of sponge and paint. It was worth almost nothing. But that’s the gift that came to mind when I sat down to write this. Why should that be? Because the thought behind it revealed how much my father loved me in a very special way.

On the other hand, how do we feel if we know no real thought went into a gift, even if the gift itself is expensive? There’s a scene in the film Dead Poets Society where it’s the birthday of one of the schoolboys and he’s sitting up on the roof looking very depressed. Another boy sees the expensive desk-set his parents gave him as a present and asks what’s wrong. “They gave me exactly the same set last year,” he says. If no thought went into it – if someone gives us clothes in a size that’s obviously too big or small for us, or if someone gives us a box of chocolates and earlier in the year we told them we’re diabetic (I’m not by the way before you ask!), it inevitably creates disappointment in the giver’s lack of thought.

Another aspect of the thought behind the gift is where the person makes a big deal of the “thinking about you”, but the gift never comes through at all! All thought and no gift isn’t really much thought at all is it? I’m not talking about people who cannot afford a gift here. Please don’t think that. I’m talking about people who like to appear generous but in practice are pretty mean. James in his New Testament letter writes about people like that. He writes at one point (James 2:15-16): "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" There's something phoney about good wishes that aren't backed up by kind practical actions.

What’s all this got to do with the real meaning of Christmas? Well, the point I wanted to make is that Christmas shows not only God giving us the supremely valuable gift, but it also shows that he gave the gift out of the deepest love, and in doing that he was keeping his promises made in the Old Testament over more than a thousand years. Let’s look briefly at these now, in reverse order.

Unlike people who promise the earth but don’t deliver, God keeps his Word. In the Old Testament he promised to send the Messiah. And he didn’t just leave it as a wonderful idea, a set of fine promises, never followed through and delivered. God is not a politician! When he promises it, he does it. The Scriptures promised many things about him. They tell that he would destroy the devil when he came, that he would be conceived in a virgin, that he would be a descendant of Abraham and King David, that he would be born in Bethlehem, that he would be a Redeemer, a Saviour of his people, and possibly most astounding of all, that it would be through his death that his people will be saved, but that his death will somehow not be the end of his life. Look at Isaiah 53:5, 9-10: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed…And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”

The second thing to remember is that in sending us his Son, God sent us a priceless gift, the most valuable and precious thing he had, the thing he loved most. Probably the most famous verse in the Bible says it most clearly: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). God’s gift is no mere “stocking filler” if I can dare to put it that way. He gave us his beloved Son! From eternity, the holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit had existed in a perfect bond of unity and love, knowing and loving each other more deeply that we can ever imagine. And that first Christmas, God the Father sends God the Son down to such a world as this, to save us.

That leads us to consider the thought in the Father’s mind behind the gift of his Son Jesus Christ. The “thought that counts” most supremely of all at Christmas is the Father’s strongest and deepest saving love for his chosen people. A lot of people treat God’s election of his people as the dirty secret of Christian doctrine, something we should hide or be embarrassed about. Well we shouldn’t be and I’m not. I rejoice in it and I don’t care who knows it. From before the beginning of the world he knew and loved us. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1:9 that God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” Or as he put it in Ephesians 1:4 “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”

How can we begin to conceive of such a love as this? A love that has been working since before time, and all through human history, to order all things for our good (Romans 8:28) and to save us through Jesus Christ (Romans 8:30).

If John 3:16 is the best known verse in the Bible, it should be joined by Romans 5:8, where Paul writes: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While all the wonderful verses about predestination fill all who believe in Jesus Christ with joy, those who don’t yet know Christ may feel excluded, wondering if God didn’t choose them. But that’s where verses like this are so important. It was while we were sinners, Christ died for us. If you are not a Christian, you don’t need to worry about whether God chose. God is calling you to come to Christ and believe in him. It’s that choice, whether to accept God’s gift or not, that should concern you. There is no qualification required to come to Christ other than to accept you are a sinner in need of a Saviour, because it was for sinners like you and me that Christ died to save.

This Christmas may we all see that in Christ both the gift and the thought count. And may we never despise or reject either.