Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:08] Glad to be back. There was a powerful message last week that I, you know, gonna tag team off of a little bit. I mean, really the last few weeks. But God's been doing something so special in our community, and I think it's just the beginning. The Lord gave me this word for this weekend about a week ago or so. And I just, at first I was like, okay, this is going to be good. But I didn't know how connected it was. And now as just I was preparing the Lord's. The Lord's fingerprints are on what he's doing. God's writing a story, guys. In our community, it's been through the building, it's been through our gatherings, it's been through our young people, it's been here. But it's all culminating. And I believe God wants to do something more. I believe God wants to awaken and set us on fire.
[00:00:56] And it may be different than you imagine. And so today we want to unpack some of that. But we, we really are a church where we believe that every member is supposed to be activated on fire and on mission, in ministry.
[00:01:10] And so I just want to ask you, how many of you this week you got a chance to. To pray for someone, to love on someone, to heal someone, to, you know, lay hands on someone, give a prophetic word, encourage someone? Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go.
[00:01:24] So thankful for that. There is coming a day very quickly where 100% of kingdom movement. We're going to raise our hands because we are a church that doesn't believe in comfortable Christianity. I have bad news for you. If you came to observe, we're going to make you uncomfortable because we believe in an active church, Every member, a minister, every joint supplies. Everyone's got Jesus in them. Everyone can reach someone. Amen. So I got good news for you. If you're. You don't want to be a comfortable Christian, then you're going to be activated, you know, and so we're going to continue to ask, hey, let's be active. Let's be the body of Christ. Amen. This year, in 2026, God gave our team just a heart to really like to go deeper into spiritual formation and disciple our community.
[00:02:09] Paul says in, in Philippians 4, he says, I labor until Christ is formed in you. And so we want to see this Christ formation in us. It's a journey. I've been on that journey. Sometimes that journey of formation is not comfortable. It's not how we thought. We don't really like It. There's some pain and discomfort, but it's worth it. It's worth breaking up with the old and marrying the new. Amen. And so let's all go on a journey of formation today. I want to really kind of talk about that. My message today, I titled it, Love the Word Pursuing God through Scripture. Love the Word Pursuing God through Scripture. I want to hit two main passages, Luke 24 and Nehemiah, chapter eight. Nehemiah, chapter eight is incredible. There's a lot of gold to mine there. You can follow along in notes if you would like. I provide, you know, every time I preach, I preach like 10% of my notes, but there's more juice, there's more gold today. You know, it's only a small set of notes, only 16 pages.
[00:03:05] But if you can download those, you can tap the disc in front of you. You can go on the website, go to the media, and you can. Every time I preach, I provide notes because I want people to go deeper. I don't want you to believe me. I want you to see it in the Scripture. And so I always prepare way more than I will be able to release so that the hungry ones can go get more. Get a Bible study, do some Bible studying. Because. And I love it. I mean, this is just my passion. I just. If I could spend, you know, more and more hours in my week in study and in prayer, that would be my dream. And I've been actually doing that more and more in 2026. I've been doing less activity in the administrative things, and I've been doing more activity in scripture, in study. And so that's been really a joy. And you know, the elders in the Bible, they gave themselves to the Scripture and to prayer, and that's what we should do more of. So today I want to talk about pursuing God through Scripture. Cause I believe that Jesus is still walking with his disciples today to open their hearts, their minds, and the Scriptures to them. There's been kind of a thread in the last several weeks. I don't know if you've noticed, but Pastor Roman, for a couple of times in his last couple messages, has mentioned the road to Emmaus. A couple weeks ago, Pastor Deborah, so wonderfully articulated, hey, is an encounter enough? And she was saying how an encounter is not enough. An encounter is simply an invitation. It's not the destination. It's the invitation into relationship, into intimacy, into daily stewarding something. And that's what I want to talk about. And she talked about the road to Emmaus and how it wasn't about the destination. I mean, what. It wasn't about Emmaus or Jerusalem, which. Cause they were going there and then they came back. It was about the journey with Jesus. It was about him setting their hearts ablaze. And then last week, such a powerful message. Roman.
[00:04:48] Not Roman, Dylan. He talks about walking with Jesus. And again, it's not about the destination. It's about walking with him on the journey. And so, I don't know. I haven't been able to get Emmaus out of my mind. And so I was just like, okay. And then God gave me Nehemiah, chapter eight. So we're gonna combine these two things, but let's just go there to Luke chapter 24. And I believe that God wants to take believers that have maybe been discouraged, that have been dry, that have been longing to be awakened, and they didn't know how often we seek an awakening, a personal awakening in ways that, I don't know, the Bible doesn't show. But today there's. There's a way. I mean, it's not the only way, but there's a way that your heart can be awakened to God and you can have so much joy and life and peace and. And we're gonna unveil it today through pursuing God through Scripture.
[00:05:40] Just a little bit of context here about Luke chapter 24. In the story, particularly of two disciples on the road, Timaeus. One of them was named Cleopas, I believe the other is an unnamed disciple. Some scholars believe that. Unnamed because it was actually maybe his wife, maybe Mary, because there's a couple think correlations. Maybe a woman disciple. That's unnamed. Interesting, because, you know, women disciples often didn't get named at that time. But they're. They're. They had been awaiting like, you know, the Messiah. Then Jesus comes. They're like, wow, he's the one. They follow John the Baptist. John the Baptist is like, behold the Lamb of God who takes away this in the world. They become disciples of Jesus. They're following Jesus for three years. And it all culminates to. They think, you know, Rome is going to get overthrown. He's the new king. The kingdom's going to be set up. The kingdom's at hand. The king's at hand. He's preaching it. It's just around the corner, like, yes, it's at hand. He's going to come. He's going to wipe out Jerusalem. I mean, you know, he's going to wipe out the Roman Empire and, yeah, the kingdom of God on the earth. And then their king dies.
[00:06:39] And then he's buried and then he's resurrected. And they're all sad, they're like, dude, I'm leaving Jerusalem. I moved to Jerusalem. I thought the King was going to reign in his city, Zion, the Bible, Old Testament prophets, as about it, I'm out of here. I'm going to Emmaus. So these two disciples are on their way to Emmaus. They're discouraged, they're dejected. They, they, it's not what they thought. It's not the revival or awakening or the move of God that they thought. And so they're on their way. The eleven are still in, in Jerusalem, hiding.
[00:07:07] And the two disciples are like, we're out going to mass by the way. It's seven mile journey. So it's minimum two hours to three hours that they're on this journey. And then Jesus, he meets these discouraged disciples and they're like, you know, you guys know this story? We, we heard it the last few weeks, but at first, you know, he's, he's acts like he's going to go further. He's like, have you not heard? They're like, why are you so discouraged? This whole thing back and forth. But I want to show you a few things here because when the disciples recounted back, this is what they remember. It's, It's Luke chapter 24, verse 32. And they said, man, did our hearts, did not our hearts burn within us. When he talked to us on the road and he opened to us the Scriptures.
[00:07:54] When he opened the Scriptures, our heart burned.
[00:08:00] Can I tell you there is a connection between the Lord opening the Scriptures to you and your heart being set on fire?
[00:08:09] Oftentimes we open the scriptures but the Lord's not opening the Scriptures to us.
[00:08:16] And so we stay dull, we stay stagnant. Have you ever been to a place where you tried to be faithful with your Bible reading but you kind of got a little bored, distracted, and you quit? Has anyone ever quit a Bible reading plan? Just raise your hand and be honest, it's okay because then you're going to have to then confess your sin that you lied. And come on, it's just, we don't need, we don't need to restart that whole cycle again, you started a Bible plan, you got a little bored. You, you know why? Because you opened the Scriptures, but the Lord didn't open up the Scriptures.
[00:08:48] But here on the road to Emmaus, they knew the Scriptures, but the Lord opened them up. And can I tell you what, it wasn't a Bible that was open. They didn't even have Bibles. And he didn't bring a scroll with them.
[00:08:58] It wasn't about the Scripture being told them or recited to them or reminded to them. The word open. There is a key word here. Let's follow it through the thread because it appears three times specifically, but it's, it's. It's connected to five different verses right here in Luke chapter 24. So let's take a look at this. Let's start in verse 16, Jesus opened the Scriptures. Can I tell you? I believe God wants to open scriptures to his weary disciples that have been a little bored and a little dull.
[00:09:31] The Lord is into walking with weary, weary disciples that are discouraged to open the Scriptures. So we go to Luke 24:16. Notice this. We're going to talk about opening here. It says, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. So Jesus is walking with these two disciples, and their eyes are closed.
[00:09:54] They're kept from recognizing him. There's. There's something here that's really important. So Jesus closes their. Their physical eyes. And not in like, a physical sense, but he closes their eyes from recognizing because he wants to open their eyes to something greater than what they see. He's. Sometimes the Lord has to close your eyes to open the eyes of your heart.
[00:10:16] We often are like, lord, like, I'm just not seeing clearly. That's good. You know, with Saul on the road to Damascus, he closed his eyes for three days so he could open his eyes when, When Paul was. Was preaching. And then there was this sorcerer. Paul, like, declares blindness over the guy as a sign of mercy to close his eyes temporarily so that maybe his eyes could be opened.
[00:10:45] Sometimes we're looking with the wrong eyes, and that's why we're bored and we're not encountering God and our heart's not burning.
[00:10:53] Disciples of Jesus, when is the last time that maybe you walked on a journey and you were discouraged and the Lord opened your eyes and your hearts were burning? I believe Jesus is in the business of opening up eyes and creating burning hearts again.
[00:11:09] But in verse 16, he closed their eyes because they were sad about the physical Jesus dying, hoping that the physical Jesus would come back. And he's like, well, well, the physical Jesus is back, but this isn't the purpose anymore. It's interesting. I was thinking. I've been thinking about this ever since, like, Easter and stuff like that. But like, I was reading through the Easter story, you know, during the Easter time and all that stuff. And I was like, man, I could never understand that. I've heard many Explanations. I didn't like any of them of that. Why did he tell Mary? Because he appears. He resurrects. First person he sees is Mary in the garden. He's like. And then she's like, jesus, it's you. Because she recognizes first. She doesn't know it. Thinks it's the gardener. And he's like, mary, it's me.
[00:11:53] There was something veiled going on. Jesus intentionally appeared, but he was kind of veiled often because he was trying to make a point. And he says to Mary, don't cling to me. I haven't ascended yet. And why. Don't cling to me. I haven't ascended. I always connected like, well, he hasn't ascended his body. But no, because then he tells, you know, Thomas, hey, touch had nothing to do with physically touching him. Hey, don't. It wasn't about touching him. It wasn't that he was holy or something. Hadn't finished yet. He was saying, don't cling to me. I haven't ascended yet. But the other was. He allowed them to touch him. Nothing to do with physical contact, nothing to do with holiness. It had to do with. Something ended and something was being unveiled. And he wanted people to have eyes to see. He said, no longer am I gonna be walking the earth. No longer is gonna be one Jesus on the earth. Bringing.
[00:12:41] Bringing God to the earth. Now he said, I'm going to do something greater. I'm going to. I haven't ascended yet. Don't cling to me. Cling to me when I ascend.
[00:12:51] But you're not going to cling to the physical me. You're going to me. In you. I will be with you and in you. By the Holy Spirit. Don't cling to me. I haven't ascended. Hey, I want you to think about my ascension, because there's something greater that's coming. The Holy Spirit inside of you.
[00:13:07] And so Jesus is trying to veil his physical body. Cause people got used to that. Can I tell you the greatest thing that'll stop the breakthrough in the next season of what God wants to pour out in you is you clinging to the old thing. Mary thought Jesus on the Earth was the right thing. And she's like, we lost you once, I ain't letting you go again. Come back here. And he's like, woman, let me go.
[00:13:31] I'm going to heaven. But there's an upgrade. Open your eyes. Mary, my disciple, can I unveil your eyes a little bit? It's not about the physical body. Come on. There's Something greater.
[00:13:43] We sometimes think that man, if I could just get close to the man of God, if I could just touch his cloak, if he could just pray for me, if he could anoint me with oil.
[00:13:51] Oftentimes it's so interesting to me. I observe because we have many speakers on this stage, but I observe every time the person who. Who's done speaking from the stage. That's the line of people that want to touch that person because they're like, I want to get close to God. Maybe it's coming through the man. Can I tell you? Christ is in you.
[00:14:09] No man has to touch you.
[00:14:11] Don't cling to me, woman.
[00:14:15] I got to ascend back to my Washougal river, you know, touch him, cling to him.
[00:14:25] Sometimes we cling to a minister.
[00:14:27] And that. That's what's keeping you from your breakthrough. You're looking for a man instead of the man.
[00:14:38] That's what's keeping us from breakthrough.
[00:14:41] My Lord, help us.
[00:14:44] Let's go back to Luke, chapter 24. We talked about how Jesus closed their eyes. Now look at verse 27. And then he's on the road, Timas, with these two disciples. Seven miles. That's a pretty easy run for me. Just kidding. It's now, you know, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he, Jesus explained or interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself or the scriptures we would. The. The law, psalms, the prophets, all that he took the Old Testament and he showed his himself.
[00:15:18] They. They knew those verses, but seeing they couldn't see. Often the disciples come to Jesus. Jesus, like you, kind of like, explain to us things plainly. But why do you use parables? He's like, I'll tell you why I use parables because I don't want them to see.
[00:15:32] Seeing they don't see. Hearing, they don't hear. Their minds are closed. Wait, that's what you want?
[00:15:37] Yeah, because he's veiled to this world, it's foolishness.
[00:15:44] But to those whose hearts are burning, it's life.
[00:15:49] Can I tell you that religion or Christian information?
[00:15:53] The Christian religion, the Christian community, the Christian club called going to church is not going to help you because you can hear but not hear. See but not see. Your mind could be closed because it's not about what you observe. It's about. It's about your heart being open to him.
[00:16:14] So many times we're so offended, and especially in our community, man, I'm just offended, like it's too loud. I'm offended that it's too loud, too Actually, but I get offended by that. But I'm not offended by the other stuff. You know, they were offended by the flags. Like, why do they have to just such a distraction. Stop looking with your eyes.
[00:16:33] You know, sometimes they're offended by the people that scream back. You know, they're like, you know, Shay, Like, I don't know. Like, why does that girl have to scream? That, like, Southern one? Like, why is she always screaming? And they're offended.
[00:16:45] Why does she have to talk in sentences back to the preacher? Why can't she just say Amen?
[00:16:50] And they're offended because they're looking with their eyes, but their hearts aren't open to the hunger that's burning inside of someone, that maybe they could catch fire if they just got around them.
[00:17:03] We're offended because we're looking at the wrong thing. And Jesus said, blessed are those who aren't offended by me because he reveals himself, and all of a sudden it's unveiled, right? First Corinthians. Paul says it so clearly. He says that to this day, when the law is read, there's a veil that remains over eyes.
[00:17:23] Scriptures can be read to you. You can listen to the podcast, you can read the books about the book, you can listen to the podcasts about the book, you can listen to episodes about the book. And your eyes be veiled, and you're learning Christian religion, and it's all cute, but your heart's not burning. The difference is seeing. You don't see. Hearing you don't hear. You miss God, you're offended. You want it to be comfortable. You want to be a little bit quieter. Amen to that.
[00:17:47] Sorry.
[00:17:51] Help us, Lord.
[00:17:54] But sometimes we're veiled to him.
[00:17:59] So it says, he interpreted the scriptures concerning him, and that's the original word. And it means to interpret thoroughly. It means to reveal the meaning and to explain deeply. That's verse 27. Let's skip down to verse 32. We're going through the progression of how it happened. And then. So he's walking with them, he interprets, and it opens it all up. Now, seeing, they see, hearing, they hear because Jesus is opening it to them. Verse 32. They said to each other, oh, my word. Did our hearts not burn within us when he talked to us and he opened to us the Scripture. What does that word, open mean? It's used three times in the exact. That exact root word is used three times here in this passage, verse 32. To open means to fully open thoroughly and fully. To cause, to understand, to remove what prevents comprehension. Jesus Took away every obstacle that prevented comprehension. He wanted them to thoroughly and fully see and know. He wanted it to be unveiled, to cause, to understand.
[00:18:58] It was so powerful.
[00:19:00] And then, and then verse, we see this word appearing again. Let's look at verse 31. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. When did that happen? That's after they got to Emmaus. Jesus was acting like he was going further. They're like, no, no, dude, you're a good dude. Come have dinner with us. You know, it's the sunset's happening, they have dinner late in that culture. They're eating dinner, he's breaking the bread. Their eyes are opened. So the scriptures are opened and then their eyes are opened.
[00:19:31] Wow, it sounds like what happened to Paul. Like the word reveals himself, makes him physically blind. But then he's awakened, the scriptures are opened. It's all reinterpreted to him during those three days. He's done in fast. And then his eyes are opened.
[00:19:48] And then their eyes are open, they recognize him and he's like, hey, the point is. And then guess as soon as his eyes open, what does he do? Disappears. Because he's like, it's not about the physical me here. Hey, this is Jesus. But now I'm gonna reveal stuff to you through scripture.
[00:20:04] The resurrected Jesus, out of everything he could have said and done, he pointed to the scriptures and he wanted to reveal himself through the scriptures. He wanted to unveil the scriptures. Because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh.
[00:20:34] And he made his dwelling among them, among, among men, because he wanted to be with you. But sometimes we get so distracted by what we see. We want Jesus physical body that we actually miss him seeing. We don't see.
[00:20:50] Verse 31, their eyes were opened. They recognized him. He vanished from their sight. And then verse 45. Now, now the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they're like, whoa, that was Jesus.
[00:20:59] Were our hearts not burning? He opened the scriptures, he opened our eyes. We saw him. We better go back to Jerusalem. They take the 7 mile trek back now. If they were me, they would do it a lot faster. But it had to take them about three hours or so because they weren't well trained yet. They need to be my disciples. I'm just kidding.
[00:21:17] I'm just joking.
[00:21:22] I've actually abandoned competitive running to do joyful running now because the Lord has unveiled himself to me and it's like, what is this? 40 year old Got to prove to anyone, bro? Just, just Love your life, love your wife. You don't have to win everything. Your name means Victor. You're already a winner. You don't have to get first at every single marathon you run. It's fine. So I was like, okay, fine, Lord, thank you. I'll take my medal and moving on anyway. So sorry, guys.
[00:21:52] Sorry for the distraction. Second service, verse 45. So the disciples, they go back to Jerusalem and they find the 11.
[00:22:02] And then as soon as they find 11, they're like, you will not believe. We're walking. He opened the Scriptures, he opened our eyes. And then they're talking about him, and he appears to them, and what does he do there to the 11 now? And these other two, verse 45. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
[00:22:21] So you have the three openings in Luke, chapter 24, the Scriptures, their eyes, their minds. To understand, God is into unveiling things that have been veiled. But you won't see it in the natural. You have to have the eyes of the spirit. You have to have Christ now. He's the one that reveals it was God that opened the word to them. That's why David In Psalm 119, this is a prayer. I pray almost every time I touch the Bible, I try to remember. And I've been doing this since, I don't know, I was maybe 18 years old. Psalm 119. And it says, open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things in your law. Because when I read Leviticus, it doesn't seem wonderful here, but when I read Leviticus on my sabbatical, and I'm like, three months in one, in one book, I'm like, wow, open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things.
[00:23:12] You ever get bored of your reading plan? Maybe you got the wrong eyes open.
[00:23:16] Maybe you gotta close your eyes so that he can open your eyes.
[00:23:23] So if your hearts aren't burning, maybe that's why. And Paul prays this. It's one of my favorite prayers. I always prayed as well, for years. Ephesians 1:17, he says, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you will know that word. Know is the word, ginosko. That means the intimate knowing that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened. So you may know and experience me. Because your physical eyes could be enlightened. You could listen to my messages or download them, but whatever is my revelation is your information Whatever God reveals to you and opens your eyes is your revelation. No one can take that from you. Can I tell you, we got way too much secondhand revelation, which automatically becomes information.
[00:24:14] And we're feeding ourselves here, but we're dull and dry here. And Paul says, man, I want. I pray for you.
[00:24:24] Paul had wisdom and revelation. He wasn't praying for them to hear more messages of his. He had wisdom and revelation. He wrote more of the Bible than anyone.
[00:24:34] He says, I pray for you to have wisdom and revelation that the eyes of your heart may be open. Because Jesus doesn't have grandkids or kids that have kids that are connected to him. He only has kids. He wants to reveal himself to every one of his kids and disciples that the eyes would be opened.
[00:24:55] And then we're gonna move here, because on Emmaus, Jesus opens the Scriptures and their hearts started burning.
[00:25:03] And I'm gonna go to Nehemiah chapter 8, where Ezra opens the book and their hearts start to burn.
[00:25:13] Both Jesus and Ezra opened something and it caused an awakening. Can I tell you that sometimes we think of a move of God differently than God thinks of a move of God. Sometimes we think that if we could just experience some of the goosebumps and the shaking and all that stuff. But can I tell you one of the clearest ones, ways that the Lord wants to move is by revealing himself in the Scriptures to you. God wants us to pursue him in the Scriptures because on the day he resurrected, what does he do? He opens the Scriptures to them.
[00:25:46] The living word is in the greatest day of victory of human history, is revealing the living written word.
[00:25:56] Wow.
[00:26:00] Come on.
[00:26:01] I love Nehemiah chapter eight. It's one of the best pictures in scripture of what happens when people genuinely encounter the word of God. We're gonna dive into Nehemiah chapter eight here. Oh, my word. Time is running. And I also have, like, ways that, like, if you're not hearing God, like, what are some of the obstacles and ways you can hear God? We probably won't get to that. You can download those and check those out. But I want to get to Nehemiah chapter 8, because this is so powerful. And there's some historical background and context here in Nehemiah that's so profound because this chapter was written, like in the five hundreds. This happened in the. About the five hundreds before Christ. So now if there's 4,000 years before Christ, 3,500 years of history from Adam. So you have a lot. The law was given. So much of Israel's history happened. This is Kind of towards the tail end of, of history. And Israel has not been doing good. They, they were in a place that were broken. They were humbled, they were in judgment from, from God really. And they were trying, they were trying to recover their identity. And so Israel, they were called to be God's covenant people. And God gives them this law. And it's meant to be this covenant, this special relationship with God and man. God didn't give the law as a set of rules. He gave it as a way to connect to people. He says, I want you, I want to be with you. I want to dwell among you. I'll even move into a box to be close to you. Right now I'm with you, but one day I'll be in you. I'm going to give you a new heart and I'm going to live inside of you, right? So God makes this law so he can be close to his people. And over hundreds of years, couple thousand years, what is Israel doing? Drifting, rebelling. Idols, cheating. And God's warning. Many prophets come. Jeremiah comes, Isaiah comes, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Micah, all of them are prophesying, repent, repent. You don't seek God. You love your idols. Under every green tree, you're committing adultery. And they're saying, repent. God's going to judge you. And they're not repenting. And so guess what happens? God's word comes true. Jerusalem is destroyed. So the Babylonians take the Jewish people captive, they destroy their temple, they burn, burn it to the ground. They take down all the walls in Jerusalem and they take the, the Jews captive. And for 70 years they're in captivity. It's one of the darkest, most catastrophic, catastrophic moments in the history of the Old Testament. Israel is humiliated. They lose their home, they lose their identity, they lose the place of worship, they even lose their language. Because now for generations, there's two, three generations that are living in Babylon. And the Babylonians are speaking Aramaic, but the Jews were speaking, you know, Hebrew. And now all of a sudden we have some of the texts in the Bible in Aramaic. Why? Because they start to lose even their language. Because they started taking on the culture and the language of Babylon. And they are far from the Lord and God in his mercy, because of his servants that repent. He's bringing them back to the land that he promised them. So they're taken into Babylon. Now they're coming back and Zerubbabel is the first one. And there's three kind of returns of the Israelites back to, to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel leads the first return in 538 BC to rebuild the temple. So it's about, almost 50 years later, Zerubbabel comes and rebuilds the temple. Then Ezra, the priest, he loves the scriptures, he wants to teach it to the people.
[00:29:20] He returns later, about 20 years later, and it's the second major return. And it's, it's, it's the majority of them start to return and he focuses on like awakening them spiritually by the teaching of the scriptures because that gone so far away from it. And then years later, nehemiah leads the third return in 445.
[00:29:41] I think that's 5:45. Actually. I, I don't know, I might have the date on here wrong. You have to confirm that. But it doesn't match up. But it's, but later on, Nehemiah leads a third return to, and he rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem. And he has this, he, he sees the destruction of Jerusalem. He's like God, this is your city, this is your Zion, this is your home. It's in shambles. Let me do something. Because the Babylonian empire was destroyed and now you have the Persian empire taking over. And now Nehemiah is a cup bearer under the king of the Persian empire. And the Persian empire is like, hey, I don't need these Jews. Like you guys can go back to your land. So he lets some of them go back. Zerubbabel takes some, Ezra takes some, some stay because they're more comfortable there. And then Nehemiah's like, man, I want to help God's people. So he weeps, he fasts, he prays, and God's like, let's go. So God sends him, he goes, he goes back to Jerusalem, he starts rebuilding the walls that were destroyed. 70 plus years later, he does it in a miraculous 52 days, rebuilds the temple and, and now we get to Nehemiah, chapter 8.
[00:30:43] The walls had just been restored, the temples rebuilt, they get their identity back, their home back, all this stuff back, and they want God. And now look at what starts to happen here. Nehemiah, chapter 8, verse 1. And then it says all the people assembled with a unified person, which another transition, say as one man. I'm reading that nlt and it says, and they were at the square, just inside the Watergate. That's significant because water in the scripture, this wasn't the political gate, this wasn't the leadership gate, the elder gate, decision making gate. This was the water gate. Because. And it's not, it's not the modern Watergate. Thing that we're thinking about, water in the Bible speaks of refreshing, of revival. It speaks of the washing of water by the word of God.
[00:31:25] The water speaks of the Word. And they gather symbolically at the Watergate. And they say, bring us the book.
[00:31:34] Bring us the book.
[00:31:37] Bring us the book. We've been in captivity. We're hungry for God. We got our temple back. We got our Jerusalem back. We're home, but we're missing something. We're dry. We're dead. Bring us the book. It says they gathered in unified purpose inside the Watergate. They asked Ezra, the people asked Ezra, bring out the book of the law of Moses, which Lord has given us to obey. Can I tell you the sign of spiritual awakening? One of the clearest signs is not emotional hype.
[00:32:06] Encounters or experiences, those are just an invitation, as Deborah said.
[00:32:10] But it's when Jesus starts to reveal himself through the Word, just like on the road to Emmaus.
[00:32:16] Because what do hungry people crave for? Well, in Nehemiah. Bring the book.
[00:32:22] What do people that want an awakening crave for? What do people that are spiritually alive crave for?
[00:32:28] Not entertainment, not media.
[00:32:31] Give me the book.
[00:32:33] Bring back the book.
[00:32:35] Bring the book.
[00:32:37] I believe that's the cry of a hungry people. It's not a cry for God. Just touch me so that I can shake and scream and go into heaven. God, open to me your scriptures like you did the day you resurrected. You spent your time opening a different way. You opened yourself through the scriptures.
[00:32:56] Guys, today we have such a great gift, and we don't encounter God through the scriptures. We'd rather sometimes do the worship in the. And the soaking thing, I'm all for it. It's awesome.
[00:33:08] But he wants to reveal himself in his word.
[00:33:14] Verse two, it says on October 8th. Now, in other transitions, that the seventh month. Now this is the Jewish seventh month. It correlates to our calendar October. So there's a particular day. These events happen in two days, October 8th and 9th, there was the. The first and second day of the seventh month. This is significant later on in the chapter, but on that first day of the month, which is our October 8th, the priest brought the book of the Law before the assembly, which included. The assembly included men and women and all the children that were old enough to understand.
[00:33:45] Everyone that could understand was gathered. Watch this. This is how hungry they are.
[00:33:51] Ezra faces the square just inside the Watergate. From early morning, that's usually when the sun was up, probably around 6am Maybe earlier, scholars say until noon.
[00:34:03] And he read aloud to Everyone who could understand and all the people listened closely to the book of the law.
[00:34:11] This is at least five to six hours.
[00:34:15] Everyone who understands is like, bring the book, Ezra. So he does. He brings the book in this gathering, and he washes them with the water here, just inside the square. And the people listen closely. Can I tell you, they weren't distracted, because distracted people can't receive the word of God. Distraction is your enemy of encounter. And then verse four. Look at what it says. Ezra, the scribe, stood on a high wooden platform that had been made for that occasion. If you guys haven't watched the movie the Great Awakening, please watch it. You know, George Whitfield, he builds this wooden platform so he could project his voice, and it's a miracle how far his voice can be heard. And. And Benjamin Franklin is like, recording all of it. It's the story of Benjamin Franklin, George Whitfield, please watch the movie. But he got it from Ezra.
[00:35:00] He builds this high wooden platform, and he. And then his boys are there. There's a lot of them. They're like 12. I'm not going to read the names. Verse 5.
[00:35:08] Ezra stood on the platform in full view of all the people. And when they saw him open the box book, they all rose to their feet from early morning. Men, women, and all the children who could understand.
[00:35:24] As soon as they saw him open the book, they all stood to their feet.
[00:35:32] They physically positioned themselves to say, I honor the word of God. This is not a text. This isn't ancient. This isn't to Moses 2000 years years ago. God is speaking to us right now. Open the word to us. Bring the book. We want to know God.
[00:35:48] Let God speak.
[00:35:52] So Ezra was like, wow. So he says, verse 6. It says, Ezra praised the Lord, the great God. And all the people chanted Amen, Amen.
[00:36:04] As they lifted their hands.
[00:36:07] They're standing, they're chanting Amen. It says, they lifted their hands, they bowed down, they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
[00:36:19] Notice the word is read, and the people are responding physically, and worship starts to erupt.
[00:36:25] And the Levites, and there's a whole list of them named there, 12 or 13 of them, it says. Then the Levites, they instructed the people in the law, while everyone remained in their place. They said, listen. It's not enough that you just hear it. You need to understand.
[00:36:38] And so they go through and they start to unveil and open because it's like, these are not just words. Look, this is. This is God. He wants you the job of the Preacher is not to unveil the text. It's to unveil the heart of God, the voice of God, the cry of God, God for his people.
[00:37:01] And so the Levites here are like, listen, please. It's not about the words, it's not about the laws.
[00:37:08] God wants you.
[00:37:10] Verse 8. They read from the book of the law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what's being read, helping the people to understand each passage.
[00:37:20] They read it and they clearly explained the meaning so that people could have understanding.
[00:37:28] Can I tell you, we're not lacking knowledge, we're lacking revelation and understanding and unveiling. Maybe our hearts aren't burning, not because we haven't been in the presence, because God's presence is here. Sometimes our bodies react and do awesome stuff. That's not the point. But what if the whole time your mind is veiled and seeing, you can't see? But the leaders help them understand.
[00:37:56] And it's like Jesus in Luke 24, he opened their minds to understand.
[00:38:02] Verse 9. Then Nehemiah, the governor, so Nehemiah is the governor that came from Babylon. Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people, they said to the people, don't mourn, don't weep. Why did they have to say that? Because the people were standing for five, six hours, listening intently, shouting, lifting their hands, bowing at the reading of the words of God. And they were weeping because they were cut to the heart and they said, we've drifted so far from what he's showed us.
[00:38:35] They were repenting, they were grieving, they were weeping. And the leaders were like the whole senior leadership was there. Ezra and Nehemiah and the Levites are like listening, guys, today is holy. Not because it was the first day of the seventh month, October 8th. That's not what was holy. He said, it's holy because the people have honored the word of God again.
[00:38:55] They came and they listened and they and they repented. And they're being weeping. He said, this is good. Don't mourn and weep on such a day as this. Today is a sacred day before the Lord. For the people have been weeping as they listen to the words of the law.
[00:39:11] The Word produced conviction. There wasn't an atmosphere, there wasn't background music, a worship team, amplification of voice, an air conditioned building.
[00:39:26] It's the middle of the day, noon, it's hot and there's children intently listening and, and people are weeping.
[00:39:37] This is their attitude toward the Word being read.
[00:39:46] And the Word produces deep conviction in them.
[00:39:52] And verse 10 says, Nehemiah continued, go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks. I love it, Marge. That's your word right there.
[00:40:02] Sweet drinks and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. So go and celebrate. Make a feast of this. This is awesome. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Can I tell you, we often don't understand the context of the joy of the Lord is your strength.
[00:40:22] They had repented and come under the Word of God. And he says, now rejoice.
[00:40:28] There's life coming back to you. Their hearts were alive. They were burning again. There was a revival taking place. He said, go and celebrate in Nehemiah 8. I love it because it holds this tension of them trembling at the Word and then them rejoicing at the Word. They trembled and grieved and mourned. They were convicted. They responded, and then they rejoiced. There's this tension that we have to hold, and both are so important.
[00:40:54] And then verse 11, the Levites, too, quieted all the people, and they told him, hush, don't weep. This is a sacred day. So what did the people do? They obeyed. It says they went away to eat and drink at a festive meal and to share gifts of food to celebrate with great joy. Because they heard God's words and understood them.
[00:41:11] Their proper response to revelation was immediate obedience. It was repentance. It was surrendering. It was obedience. And then, look, last few verses here. October 9th. This is the second day. What did the leaders do? The leaders came together, together with the priests and the Levites. They met with Ezra, the scribe, to go over the law in greater detail. And guess what they discovered? Whoa. The seventh month. God wants us to do this whole seven days festival of booths. So they hear about it, they read it. They're like, this is what God wants in this month. Let's go do it. So all the Israelites go and build little booths on top of their roofs, and they live in them for seven days. And they're. And. And. And they're celebrating and rejoicing. And it says the people went out, they were great joys, with great joy. And for seven days they're having this festival. And it says, ezra read verse 18 from the book of the Law on each of the seven days of the festival. And on the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly together. These people were lit up. They wanted to obey Scripture.
[00:42:11] Can we stand to our feet? I just. I Feel like God wants to awaken our community and it's not going to be maybe just the way we think. Can I tell you, the sign of revival is not just the goosebumps and encountering God or visions and revelations. It's when you come back to the precious Word of God and you tremble at His Word.
[00:42:36] You know, last year at the Holy Spirit Conference, one of the guest speakers, he pulled me aside and he had a word for me. And I was like, oh, man, I love prophetic words. So I'm like, recording. And then he's like, hey, Vic, the. Like, I was talking, I was praying, and the Lord, like, early in the morning, he got me up. I was just praying. All of a sudden, I'm supposed to be praying for you. And the Lord starts telling me this stuff. I don't know what it means, but he says, like, he said this. I'm going to try to remember it in detail. But that message struck me so hard. The heart of it. He said, you're not basically, don't do what you are doing with the Word of God. You're not handling the Word of God like God wants. And he doesn't like what you're doing with the Scriptures. He's like, I know that's heavy. That might be hard to hear, but, like, there's something about. He's like, I don't know what this means.
[00:43:21] There's something about how you're handling the Word, that God's like, don't do that with my Word. And I was like, that was so heavy for me. I, like, I think I listened to that word, like, multiple times in the next few days because I was like, lord, I feel like this is from you, but I have no idea what it means. Like, since age 12, I've given myself to the study of Scriptures. Like, I want to reveal your truth. I want to accurately handle it. Like, I've done Bible study my whole life. I taught Bible study classes. Like, man, I think I'm not breaking any rules. Like, God, help me. I didn't have any understanding. But every week, this was. This was this. It was a weighty word this year, since last May, in my heart. And I just felt this, like, lord, please show me how I can accurately handle your Word. And it was only maybe, I don't know, two, three months ago, where I was like, again, I was like, lord, like, I remember what yout told me, give me understanding.
[00:44:13] I heard your words.
[00:44:15] Give me understanding.
[00:44:18] Because you can hear the words, but they don't change you till you have Understanding. And the Lord basically showed me. I mean, it was a few things, but the basic Lord showed me. He's like, vic, you approach my Word, and you have such great honor for the words. Like, you consult everyone. You consult people and commentaries and studies and tools and ancients and church fathers. But he said, but do you consult me because it's my word. Did you consult me before? You said, like, this is what the Lord is saying.
[00:44:46] And he's saying, you've done a great job using your mind, and you've analyzed and you've studied and you've looked on the Word. But he said, what I want you to do is I. I don't want you to look at it and analyze it and criticize it and just study it with your mind. I. I want you to get under it.
[00:45:05] I. I don't want you to look down on it like modern Bible scholars and criticize and say, well, I don't know. There's so many contradictions, and I can't explain this. And let me convince you that this is true. And. And this doctrine and this. And it's like we have so many debates because what we're doing is we have pride and we're looking at the Word to make a conclusion or a judgment whether we should receive it. And he says, I want you to change your attitude, and I want you to get under the Word. And he said, I'm the author of it. Can you talk to me? I'll tell you what it means. I'll talk to you about the Scriptures.
[00:45:39] You love the Word, but did you forget about the author of the Word?
[00:45:43] That's what he was trying to tell me. He said, vic, I love how intense you are with the scriptures, but you can miss me.
[00:45:53] It was an invitation into intimacy.
[00:45:56] Can I tell you? Sometimes he has Christians. We. We're obsessed with the Christian religion, but we miss the invitation into intimacy.
[00:46:03] And God wants our hearts to burn again.
[00:46:07] I remember he gave me that word. I'm.
[00:46:10] I'm gonna end with this, I promise. It's Isaiah 66, verse 2.
[00:46:16] This minister said, hey, you need to go back, and you need to tremble at his Word. And I was like, yeah. He's like, it's in Isaiah. Go find that. You need to tremble at his Word. And I said, okay. So I went to the Scripture and it says this.
[00:46:31] Isaiah 66, verse 2.
[00:46:36] This is the one whom I will look, to whom I will look. This is the one to whom I will look. This is the one I'm going to look upon. This is the one that I'm going to favor. This is the one I'm going to deal with.
[00:46:48] The one who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word, to be humble. Because you know what humble means. It means, I don't know. I'm not. I'm not eloquent, I'm not well studied. God, I just don't know. Here I am. God, I need you.
[00:47:05] God, I need you. I've read the Scriptures, but I know nothing. Paul said, I've chosen to know nothing but him.
[00:47:13] Not theology and teaching and all that stuff. I've chosen to know nothing but him. And he said, vic, I want you to approach it with be humble. And then contrite. I'm like, what does contrite mean? I never use that word in English. What is contrite? And I looked up the word and it means to be wounded, to be broken.
[00:47:33] To be contrite means like it's so heavy, it's broken you.
[00:47:38] I want you to be broken and wounded and humble. And I want you to tremble at my word, not analyze it with your human understanding and logic and reasoning and explanation, explaining it and trying to get every single explanation available on the earth of people's thoughts and articulations.
[00:47:58] Tremble at my word. And my attitude began to change and God began to just reveal himself. And I believe God's inviting us into this because Jesus is on the road with some discouraged disciples again today. Maybe you're here and you just been discouraged, like the Scriptures aren't life to you. You, but you have been pursuing the Scriptures, maybe like me instead of the God of the Scriptures, like John chapter 5 reveals. Jesus says you study the Scriptures, but you miss me.
[00:48:27] So I think God is inviting us to see him, to pursue God through his Scripture. Amen. So, church, I just want us to allow this, the weight of this to just hit our hearts and the Lord to convict us.
[00:48:43] I want to invite you to go into Luke 24 on your own into Nehemiah, chapter 8 and just see how people responded and how their hearts were set ablaze.
[00:48:53] So, Lord, right now we ask that you would set our hearts ablaze again, like on the road to Emmaus. God, God, would you set our hearts ablaze again?
[00:49:03] We want to burn.
[00:49:05] We want to burn for you. I'm just going to invite the worship team to just come and going to worship.
[00:49:11] I want to just invite you to respond. But I believe Jesus wants to touch your hearts, your minds again.
[00:49:19] He wants to unveil the Scriptures to you. He wants to unveil himself, really to you.
[00:49:27] So I just want to invite you to just come hungry, come humble, come broken, come wounded.
[00:49:42] Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
