Sermon at FFMC 10/8/25. Lessons on Worship (Nehemiah 12:27-47)
Lessons on Worship (part of a Nehemiah Series: Building a People of God)
Nehemiah 12:27-47
27 And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. 28 And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites; 29 also from Beth-gilgal and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem. 30 And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.
31 Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. One went to the south on the wall to the Dung Gate. 32 And after them went Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah, 33 and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, 34 Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah, 35 and certain of the priests' sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph; 36 and his relatives, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them. 37 At the Fountain Gate they went up straight before them by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, to the Water Gate on the east.
38 The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north, and I followed them with half of the people, on the wall, above the Tower of the Ovens, to the Broad Wall, 39 and above the Gate of Ephraim, and by the Gate of Yeshanah,[a] and by the Fish Gate and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, to the Sheep Gate; and they came to a halt at the Gate of the Guard. 40 So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me; 41 and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; 42 and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader. 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.
44 On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, 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. 45 And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. 46 For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs[b] of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47 And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers; and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.
Introduction
Last week we heard in Nehemiah 6 how the walls of Jerusalem were completed despite great opposition and difficulty. Today we read of the great celebration that followed.
There are 3 great celebrations when the exiles of Judah return from Babylon to their homeland:
· when the foundation of the Temple is rebuilt in 539-536BC (Ez 3:10-13), under Zerubabbel and Jeshua
· when the rebuilding of the Temple is completed in 515BC (Ez 6:16), under Haggai and Zechariah
· and now, in today’s passage is the climax of the book of Nehemiah. The building of the wall of Jerusalem is complete after 52 days in chapter 6, the people rededicate themselves to the covenant in chapters 8-11, but now the walls of Jerusalem are dedicated, under Nehemiah and Ezra. It is 444BC.
20 years pass between the first 2 occasions, and now it is, about almost 100 years after the exiles began to return. In the interim, there would be times of discouragement and darkness, when it would seem that the work would never go forward. But God’s had was on the exiles. He had promised:
I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. (Jer 24:6)
God’s promises may take a long time to be fulfilled. But He is faithful – He will do what He has promised. Triumphant celebration and victory do not always come suddenly. Ps Bernard said last week that what was achieved in the building of the wall took perseverance in faith.
The passage today can be summarised in this way
• The Levites were mobilized for the celebration (12:27-30)
• Ezra led a choir going clockwise (12:31-37)
• Nehemiah led another choir going counter-clockwise (12:38-39)
• Both groups met at the Temple (12:40-42)
• There was great joy from God, and there were great sacrifices to God (12:43)
• There was organization of offerings for the Temple and those serving in it (12:44-47)
There is no higher or greater thing for us to do as God’s redeemed creatures than to worship Him. And so when we turn to His word to teach us, let’s hear with open hearts what He has to say to us through this passage.
2 principles, or lessons:
1. Worship needs God
2. Worship takes work
1. Worship looks to God
God is naturally the reason for Christian worship – the very purpose of all that we do in the broadest sense on our lives, as well as the narrow sense of worship as what we do as a church on Sundays.
But the passage teaches us about particularways in which God and His people are to relate when they worship. The first is that God’s people are to thank Him. Thanksgiving is one of the key ideas in the passage. mentioned in v.27 and 46. Thanksgiving such a strong idea in this passage that even the choirs which gave thanks (v. 31, 38, 40) translate the single Hebrew word tôda - ‘thanksgivings’ or ‘confessions’ – as if the people had become the concrete expression of gratitude to God.
We do not generally thank our employers for our monthly salaries, because we have worked for them. We deserve to be paid. We rightly expect a return for our effort. But we know God has dealt with us according to grace – His undeserved favour. When you didn’t work for and don’t deserve something, you can’t pay it back. That would be looking down on God’s generosity. So the right response to God’s grace in salvation and every spiritual and material blessing is gratitude. We remind ourselves of this every time we say grace before meals. All that we are and all that we have comes from Him, and so our hearts acknowledge this. Gratitude acknowledges that God is the one who is great and good. We are insufficient and sinful and dependent and weak in ourselves. We need God. All we have, all we are comes from Him. We He has freely given us everything in Christ out of grace. Gratitude keeps us from bitterness and anger when things don’t go our way. We know that God deals with us always for our good, and so we stay grateful.
Imagine Nehemiah’s feelings that day. Against all odds, from getting approval of the king to the organization and hard work and threats and opposition, the walls had been built in record time. There is one dominant emotion in his heart - he appointed 2 great ‘thanksgivings’. Our worship must occur with an attitue of heartfelt gratitude
Another point about gratitude: the people of God express their thanksgiving by offering sacrifices – 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 ” (v.43
To ‘sacrifice’ something is to give up something of value for a greater purpose. In the game of chess, we can sacrifice any piece just to capture the opponent’s king.
Under the Law of Moses, unblemished animal sacrifices were an expression of thanksgiving (Lev 22) But thanksgiving itself is called a sacrifice:
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and perform your vows to the Most High (Ps 50:13-14)
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me (Ps 50:23)
Gratitude costs us. It is not always easy to be grateful. But gratitude pleases God, and gratitude glorifies God.
The Bible makes it clear that a grateful heart comes with the sacrifice of all that we are. This is the attitude that underlies all of our worship
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom 12:1)
The second way God relates to us is that as God receives gratitude from us, He gives joy to us. “God had made them rejoice with great joy” (v.43) Our joy, Jesus says (Jn 15:11 and 16:21) is to be full. God makes His people rejoice and celebrate. The implication is that those who are not God’s people do not have this joy and therefore can never celebrate the way we can. As His people we have reasons to celebrate that the world knows nothing of: freedom from guilt, forgiveness of sin, the righteousness of Christ, the gift of the Spirit living within us, a new family in Christ, abundant life now and always, an eternity in God’s presence. God has given us these things, and He also gives us the ability to rejoice in them more than anything the world can offer in terms of health and wealth (“You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.” (Ps 4:7). The perspective comes from God.
Psalm 126 captures this joy as the exiles of Israel return to their homeland:
When the Lord restored the fortunes of
Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.
So God’s people have great joy in Him – joy that is clear to people “heard far away“(v. 43). There is nothing as attractive to unbelievers as genuine joy of Christians when times are tough. Joyless worship – a feeling of boredom or cynicism, is no true worship. Our hearts should be full when we come together on Sundays- full of gratitude and joy.
2. Worship takes work
All true worship is God-centred, but all worship also requires effort –a response from God’s people
There are 4 things the passage teaches us about response
1. Preparation (v. 30, 45)
2. Organization (v. 27-30)
3. Appreciation (v. 44-45, 47b)
4. Recollection (v. 36-37, 45-47a)
1) Preparation.
– And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and they purified the people and the gates and the wall (v.30)
– And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. (v.45)
The priests and Levites purified themselves, the people, the gates and the wall. They did this the way it had been done in the days of David and Solomon. They did not walk casually into worship. They made sure they were ritually clean, perhaps by washing their clothes. This was a symbol of the internal cleansing they needed to perform service to God and to come before presence. Ecclesiastes tells us to “guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To (Ecc 5:1). We are not to come casually, irreverently, thoughtlessly, noisily before a holy God. We are to come with prepared heart and mind, with prayer and anticipation. This takes discipline and focus. And discipline and focus takes work.
2) Organization.
– And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres. And the sons of the singers gathered together from the district surrounding Jerusalem and from the villages..
With the Levites and Levitical singers, with the organization of the choirs with leaders, there was effort to mobilize the celebration. This is true of the worship ministry in church. It takes effort to come to arrange flowers. It takes effort for the team, sound crew and video crew to rehearse for Sunday worship (generally 2 hours for 20 minutes of bandwork). It takes effort to prepare for lectionary reading. Each 5 minute choir performance takes many hours of practice. Ushers need to attend briefings and learn what to do in emergencies. There is effort in rostering and extra effort when there are special programmes. The Levites would be serving daily, with special duties with large celebrations like the dedication of the walls. It takes consistent effort, not just a one off preparation.
Even those of us who have no active role in worship can organise our lives around Sunday services – avoid consistent late Saturday nights; ensure we are on time for service.
3) Appreciation.
– On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, 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. (v.44)
– And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers; and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron (v.47)
Nehemiah took immediate steps (‘on that day’ v.44) to ensure that those who were involved in worship would be provided for according to the Law. It was when their efforts were most visible that Nehemiah stepped in to ensure that people would ensure that their service would continue. The great thing is that the people ‘rejoiced’ over those ministering to them. We, too should rejoice over those who make the Sunday worship service possible as a blessing to us. This is the outflow of the joy God gives us in worship.
I am at some risk of accusations of self-interest as a member of a worship team. I would say that we do feel appreciated. Just last week we were well fed at breakfast by the ladies there. As one team member said “I feel loved”. But I also think of our AV crew, who don’t get to eat breakfast like the rest of the team. They may not get food, but they deserve some thanks. There are many who labour quietly who never get thanked for what they do. Be encouraging to those involved every Sunday in what happens in church – they should be appreciated and encouraged.
4. Recollection (v. 36, 45-47a)
How do we recollect?
We recollect the goodness of God in the past to us. He does not change. He has
helped us previously; He will help us again. His promises will not fail. In
darkest times, remember that He is for us, not against us.
Secondly, we must not be narrow minded in our worship as if it is ‘me/us and now’ - fixated only on our experience of worship in the present time. The passage reminds us that what we do in worship looks to the work of God not only in the here and now, but in ‘long ago’ days. David and Solomon’s time was 1000BC, whereas Zerubabbel was a 100 years earlier.
We look around know that there are faces that were noi there 5, or 10 years ago. There are saints who have gone on to glory. We remember them and know that we are part of this living body of the local church that keeps on going though individual members pass on.
There were good precedents and traditions of how our forebears worshipped. We are not to despise their experiences, but instead, allow them to be models to encourage us and to remind us that we are united with God’s people in time and space. This is the ‘communion of saints’. God was faithful then to them, and he is faithful now to us.
Applied rightly, these lessons will enhance and enrich our worship experience. Sometimes it really is up to us.
Video here
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