So like I said in the episode before this, revolutionary fires are sparked by local revivals.
So local revivals are in a locale. They often happen in a church or they happen in a particular
situation where God's moving, but then it spreads out into revolutionary fires.
And I gave some examples in the last episode, but today I want to talk about
Nehemiah and Ezra and this revival and I believe national revolution that occurred
through Nehemiah and Ezra. Just to give you a little background, Nehemiah is a cupbearer of
the king. So he's actually in kind of a servant leadership role under the king of Persia,
Artaxerxes I. And his job was actually to drink the wine or the juice, whatever the king was
going to drink, he had to drink it first. So if it was poison, which was the assassination
mode of choice at that time was to put something in a drink or put something in the food that would
poison the king. So pretty trusted position, you think about it. And it also a pretty risky
position for Nehemiah at least, because if Nehemiah drops over dead and they certainly know
that there was something in the food, but that was his job. So very trusted to the king.
And I won't go into all the details except that there was a vision given to
Nehemiah about the state of Israel, which he's Jewish in background. He's actually in
captivity in Persia of the wall being destroyed and the wall crumbling in the city of Jerusalem.
So he gets a burden for the wall being rebuilt in Jerusalem and he weeps before the Lord and
he repents before the Lord and he cries out to God for the restoration of the wall. And God's calling
him to be the agent, to be the leader that he's called out to do this. So he goes before Artaxerxes,
shares his vision and Artaxerxes is actually moved by the Lord also and allows Nehemiah
to go back to Jerusalem. So Nehemiah goes back to Jerusalem and he becomes the governor
of that area. So he has a political position of governor and he has with him also Ezra,
who becomes a priest, is a priest in that area. So it's Ezra and Nehemiah together.
And Nehemiah is really interesting. Lots of messages have been given about leadership
using Nehemiah as a great text for that. I've done it myself. I've spoken on leadership before
and oftentimes I've used Joshua and I've used Nehemiah. So this guy's a great leader,
but that's not really the point here because it was one thing to rebuild the wall. And that's
actually the first part of the book of Nehemiah is the rebuilding of the wall. And it is amazing.
Seriously, it is just amazing. The talent, the gifting and the anointing that's on Nehemiah.
He works to complete the wall. He finishes the wall in an incredible amount of time,
phenomenal amount of time. And now Ezra, we pick it up actually in Nehemiah 8,
Ezra, let me quote this, opened the book in the sight of all the people.
He read distinctly from the book in the law of God, and he helped the people understand the
reading. And that's Nehemiah 8, 1 through 8. And I've used this passage on countless times
to support expositional teaching of the word, because there's no place in all the scripture
that's more clear about how and the importance in our local churches, how to read and study God's
word. He reads it, he gives the distinct meaning of it, and then he applies it to the people's
lives. So that's Nehemiah 8, 1 through 8. But in this case, something really phenomenal happens.
And that is that through the reading of the word, again, same as Josiah in the last episode,
the people have not been hearing the word. They've not been reading the word.
And remember, there was no Bibles. There's no little pocket laws of the 10 commandments that
people carry around. There is the little box.
And the phylacteries and some things like that that they have but not the the whole book
It's just it was just too expensive for that to be out to the regular people
So they haven't heard it in years and then Ezra reads it
And there is just this it just breaks the hearts of people again. Same as Josiah
There's a there's a move of the spirit that leads into repentance
So in Nehemiah 8 9 we read all the people wept when they heard the words of the law
So that's revival man. That's that's how revival begins and I talked about that in the last episode here again
Just like with Josiah all the people are weeping and they're repenting before the Lord
Because of the Word of God so men and women when the Word of God is read regularly in your life
God uses that to convict your heart of sin. It's like a two-edged sword is what it says in Hebrews
You know, it's a two-edged sword
that
pierces
Soul and spirit bone and marrow the idea being like someone taking a two-edged
Blade and driving it into your heart. So on the one blade on the one side
It's conviction of sin and then on the other blade. It's compassion
For our sins that we would grow up before we grow old and following the Lord and so
This is what this is the nature of the Word of God is it convicts us of sin?
And that's why any great revival that
Is a true revival genuine revival sincere revival. There's a conviction of sin through the reading of the word
so
even with instruction from Ezra Nehemiah and the Levites to not
Mourn or weep they tell him quit mourning quit weeping
This is you need to have the joy of the Lord is your strength the people continue to repent and mourn before the Lord
So with each passing day the people continue to repent in sackcloth fasting dust on their heads
the people literally in Nehemiah 9
Cannot be deterred as they stand and worship for hours at a time. So it's a fascinating study
Pull out your Bibles sometime and read Nehemiah 8 and 9
especially
because
They're standing for five to six hours where Ezra
reads the word then they go into they go into fasting and prayer and mourning and
Repentance like in a massive way and that goes on for days and days
So now we move into what I think is a revolution so that's the revival part of it like with Josiah now
It's a revolution and this revolutionary fire
Begins to affect all of the remnant of Israel. That's in Jerusalem
And the result is another covenant. Remember Josiah
Drew up a covenant between the people and the Lord. Well
Nehemiah does the same thing and maybe who knows maybe they were looking back and
Seeing what Josiah done as an example
But Nehemiah and Ezra draw up a covenant for all of the nation of Israel to sign and seal
So this is what's interesting about this particular
Revolution is it involves the priest and
The political leader the governor Nehemiah, so it's Nehemiah and
It's Ezra
So this is mass repentance that comes by the leaders and the people
Resulting in the joining. I mean just quote Nehemiah 1029
Joining of the people and the nobles into a curse and oath
To walk in God's law and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and
His ordinances and his statutes in quote
So as the law is continually studied there among the people
there is this massive reformation that comes in and I was I was reading it last night and
It's pretty intense
pretty intense
Revolution because what had happened is even among the priesthood
There's there's a regular people, but there's also in the priesthood among the Levites
These guys had married foreign wives
so
So this move of God
Nehemiah leads the charge in telling the priests the nobles look you have to you have to have no more foreign
Wives you need to turn from that you need to reject that all over the nation and even uses in the last chapter
Nehemiah he's a Solomon and
example where he says, Hey, Solomon was the greatest king we've ever had.
He was the wisest man, wisest king we've ever had.
And yet, even he, his heart was turned by his foreign wives.
So he commands them to turn in Nehemiah 10 through 13.
It just turned from these foreign wives.
So pretty huge.
I mean, if you can imagine you married to someone and this move of God occurs
and you're so reprimanded, I mean, it's just it's incredible.
But it's definitely a reformation.
So here's the patterns again.
I read these before.
I want to just say them again.
The patterns of revival and revolution.
Number one, revival was sparked by the reading of God's word.
As with Josiah, same with Ezra and Nehemiah.
There's a reading of God's word.
Number two, revival is a result of repentance from sin.
So Josiah tears his clothes.
And Nehemiah and the people cannot stop grieving,
mourning and repenting of their sin, even with Nehemiah and Ezra
telling people the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Don't grieve.
We've completed the wall.
This is a time of rejoicing.
Even with that, the people continue to grieve over their sin.
Number three, revival is marked by a fear of God.
As with Josiah, the people in Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah
can't stop the worship.
So worship just explodes there in Jerusalem.
And then fourthly, revival sparks a national revolution of transformation.
Governor Nehemiah from a secular political side
and then Ezra from a spiritual side
institute reforms that impact the entire nation
of the remnant of Israel and Jerusalem at that time.
So again, it's another beautiful example of some of these four key areas
that are true with revival and revolution.
Number one, revolution was sparked by the reading of God's word.
Number two, revival is a result of repentance from sin.
Number three, revival is marked by a fear of God.
And then lastly, revival sparks a national revolution of transformation.
So in our next segment, I want to look at the book of Acts in the early church.
My thesis is going to be that revival
sparked revolution that sparked
what we now call the Christian church all over the world.
So tune in, check that out.
And God bless you until we listen to each other again.