February 11, 2024
From The Series: When
God Rebuilds…
Part 07 First Steps
Ezra 3:1-6
Mountain View
Evangelical Missionary Church
Here we are working our way through the Book of Ezra once
more and we are now on chapter three of the book.
INTRODUCTION
So far
in this series, we have seen how God is laying out a pattern for the rebuilding
process. A pattern that we can follow today as we approach the rebuilding of
our church! This same pattern can be a useful pattern for church planting as
well.
First,
we saw God moving in the hearts of people. Yahweh started with King Cyrus and
He moved the King’s heart to allow God’s people to return to their land and
capital city of Jerusalem and begin the rebuilding of the Temple. God further
moved Cyrus to release the Temple articles such as the gold utensils and silver
pans that were used in the worship of the One True God.
Next,
God moved the hearts of His people to finance this project, but Yahweh also
moved the hearts of about 50,000 people to return to their homeland and begin
the restoration process. During this process, we saw how there was a
confirmation that was done to ensure that those who were returning were
entitled to return. Those who were going to serve were entitled to serve. There
was unity in their work that was confirmed in their community and the actions
that they were taking as a community.
So, we
saw God was at work, and the people joined God In this work through their efforts
and giving, and now this week we will see that they were ready to re-establish
their relationship with God the Father and they were going to begin with
worship.
Turn
with me in your Bibles to Ezra chapter three and starting at verse 1, we will read
and study the first six verses together. If you did not bring your Bible with
you this morning, you should find one underneath one of the seats in the row in
front of you. We lovingly refer to those as the Pew Bibles and you will find
chapter 3 of Ezra on page 375 of the Pew Bible.
READ EZRA 3:1-6
Let’s
take a deeper dive into what these passages are saying to us today.
Let me
start with a couple of questions. Do you also see that there is a
pattern being established by God for His people to follow in these Bible verses?
The Book of Ezra certainly seems to be laying out an obvious pattern for the
actions of His people in this adventure.
We can
see from Scripture that the God of the Bible is a God of order. We can see that
this is self-evident when we read the first two chapters of the very first book
in our Bible, the Book of Genesis. We don’t have time to read it all today, so
that will be your homework for this week. Go back and read the first two
chapters of Genesis. It is simple to deduce from the Creation account found
there that Father God is a God of order.
I will
paraphrase here and give a short rundown of what those chapters say. On day one
of Creation, we see light coming from the darkness, a separation of light and
darkness. Then on day two, we see a separation of two types of water with a vault
between the two waters. The vault was called “Sky” and the water above the sky
we would call water vapor in the clouds and the water below the sky would later
be separated and gathered in one place so that we had the sea and the land.
On the third
day, Yahweh also created plants that produced seeds and fruit which produced
plants of the same kind. This seems like an insignificant statement but think
about this for a minute. What if you planted wheat… and corn grew up instead?
What if you planted an apple tree and plums or grapefruit grew on it instead?
How chaotic would our food supply be? A God of order arranged for each of the
trees and seed-bearing plants to reproduce after its kind.
On the
fourth day, God separated the light even further into a great light for the daytime
and a lesser night for the nighttime and arranged them in such regular paths to
serve as signs to mark sacred times and to differentiate hours, from days, from
months and years. Imagine how useless a calendar would be if the Earth’s orbit
were unpredictable and inconsistent. Only a God of order would call it good.
On the
fifth day, we have birds in the sky and fish in the sea being created. Once
again, these creatures recreated after their own kind. On the sixth day, we see
the creation of the creatures that live on the land. The high point of all
creation was the man and woman that God created in their own image. The man was
given dominion over the whole earth, and it was good.
All of
creation speaks to a God of order. Each eco-system was created in perfect
balance and things only get really messed up when mankind in his arrogance
thinks that he can balance things better than God the Creator can and man
begins to meddle with the system.
The
Old Testament speaks of God’s sense of order in other places as well. Job 25:2
says the following, “2 “Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order
in the heights of heaven.” It is God who establishes the order in the heights
of heaven and God also establishes the order on Earth as well. We indeed live
in a fallen world, a sinful world, and the One True God of the Bible still maintains
order in this world. It seems chaotic to us sometimes, but according to Romans
8:28, “28 … we know that in all things God works for the good
of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Do you remember back in the account
at the end of Genesis, when the sons of Jacob came to tell their brother Joseph
that their father was dead, do you remember how the brothers were afraid that
Joseph would take the opportunity to seek revenge on his brothers for the wrong
that they had done to him when they kidnapped and sold Joseph into slavery?
Do you remember what Joseph said to
them in Genesis 50, verse 20? “20 You intended to harm me, but
God intended it for good…”
We can see that there is order
within the Godhead as well. Each of the three persons of the Trinity has their
specific roles, and there is no competition between them, only perfect love and
obedience.
In the New Testament, the Apostle
Paul also instructs us that God is a God of order.
1
Corinthians 14 verse 33 says the following, “33 For God is not a God of
disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.”
According
to Paul, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are also to have order in our worship
services. We see it hinted at here in verse 33 and then in verse 40 of the same
chapter after Paul has given specific instructions regarding prophecies and
speaking in tongues we read the following statement summing up how worship
should be conducted:
“40 But
everything should be done in a fitting and orderly
way.” Our Lord Jesus Christ desires that we worship Him in an orderly and
fitting way. What does that mean exactly? I think that there is some room for
cultural interpretation here. Some cultures and communities find it acceptable
for people to be vocal in their enjoyment of the preaching or singing. Some people
groups lift their hands, wave their arms, or sway near their seats without
being a distraction for their neighbors.
I’m
not sure bright lights, loud music, and fog machines are needed for orderly
worship of our Lord. Some of these mega-churches seem to have crossed over into
the realm of entertainment and performance rather than genuine, repentant
worship of a merciful God. Even smaller churches with more modest budgets, like
our church, are still required by the Lord to conduct our services in a
“fitting and orderly way”. We shouldn’t do these things in a legalistic or
Pharisaical manner, but rather from a respectful and appreciative standpoint
for who Jesus was and what He accomplished on our behalf.
Even
the arrest, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ were finely orchestrated by
Jesus and the Father. Next month on Easter weekend, we will be able to go into
more detail about those events, but I will remind us this morning that not one
of the events that happened during Holy Week, those last seven days that Jesus
spent in Jerusalem before He was placed in a tomb, were a coincidence or a
mistake.
The
Bible tells us that before the foundations of the world were laid, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit conceived of a plan to reconcile us back to a right
relationship with them. Before the events that occurred in the first two
chapters of Genesis, the Trinity formed a plan that would bring their Creation
back into a loving relationship with them. A wonderful, marvelous plan that
would make a way for a sinful, rebellious creature, made in their own image, to
be brought back into a loving relationship with the perfect loving Trinity.
A
relationship so perfect, so loving, and so complete that it didn’t need
to create mankind. You know what? I can’t say it any better than Scripture says
it. Let’s turn together to Romans chapter 1, starting at verse 16, and let me
explain why I preach what I preach, in the manner that I preach it. Romans 1:16
will be found on page 911 of the Pew Bible
READ ROMANS 1:16-32
Paul
said back in verse 20 that God’s eternal power and divine nature have been
clearly seen from all of Creation. All of this world screams out that there is
a God who has a divine nature and is so powerful, yet… “although they knew God,
they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking
became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
It
is because we are more attracted to darkness than light. Our sinful
nature is more apt to rebel against God than be attracted to God. Yahweh gave
us the Law, not so that we could redeem ourselves, but to show us that we cannot
earn our own righteousness. We need to be clothed in the righteousness of
Jesus Christ to stand before a Holy and Just God free from condemnation.
Do
you think that it was a coincidence that Jesus happened to be in Jerusalem at the
time that the priests were offering up the sacrifices that were being held to
commemorate the Passover?
The
original event occurred while the Israelites were trapped under slavery by the Egyptians.
Do you remember how the Israelites were instructed to take a lamb, a lamb that
was spotless and without blemish, and sacrifice it? They were to take the
lamb’s blood and mark the sides and the tops of the doorframes so that the
angel of death would pass over them. Only the Egyptians would lose their
first-born sons that night. Then the Israelites would be freed from their
slavery and delivered by Moses into God’s hands and eventually into the
promised land.
All
of that was a foreshadowing of how Jesus would have His perfect blood, spilled
during the Passover sacrifices, and He took on the wrath that was due to us,
from the Father. Jesus was our perfect and spotless lamb that was sacrificed on
our behalf so that we would be freed from the slavery of our sins, and we will
eventually be led to the eternal promised land when we pass from this life to
the next. That is why, we as Believers should have no fear of death.
If we believe in our hearts and
confess with our mouths that Jesus died on that Roman Cross nearly two thousand
years ago for your sins and mine, that He was buried in a borrowed tomb, and
then three days later He rose from the grave and ascended into heaven, if we
believe and confess these things, then we can quote the prophet, Hosea and say,
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
So friend, if you do not yet have
this relationship with Jesus if you do not have this assurance about your
death, if you have not yet accepted this free gift called Grace that allows you
to become an adopted child of God through Jesus Christ, then please make this
confession today.
All of this was ordered and
orchestrated by God to bring God the Glory. We serve a God of order and peace
not a God of chaos.
We
see in other writings of Paul that order was important to Paul. In his
instructional letter to one of his young pastors-in-training named Titus, Paul
wrote the following instructions…
“5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you
might put in order what was left unfinished
and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.” As you can see from the
slide, this instruction is from Titus chapter 1, verse 5. These instructions
apply every bit to us today as they did to Titus almost two thousand years ago.
Paul
wasn’t some wild-eyed church planter running around the Middle East evangelizing
and starting churches and then abandoning the new group of Believers, just to
go on to the next town and start the chaos all over again.
Paul
was working hard to build something in an orderly fashion. A structured
organization of churches. A family of Believers belonging to a larger regional
family of like-minded individuals. Many of the books that we have in our New
Testament were letters written to a specific church initially, and then they
were meant to be circulated and copied at other churches in the region as a way
to multiply the teachings of the authors to a wider audience.
So,
I think I have shown that the One True God of the Bible is a god of order.
Since He is a God of order, it makes perfect sense that God would have an
ordered plan for the return of His people and the rebuilding of His Temple.
Let’s
get back to our passage from today and move on to the second point in today’s
bulletin. Turn with me back to the Book of Ezra, chapter three and verse 1. We
are back on page 375 in the Pew Bible.
READ EZRA 3:1
We
see from Scripture that the time is described as the seventh month. This would
be the seventh month of the Ecclesiastical Hebrew calendar known as Tishri and
that corresponds with our calendar for the months of September to October. I
say September to October because the Israelites used a lunar calendar and their
months had either 29 or 30 days, so depending on the year, it would line up
with our Gregorian calendar either in September or October. The Hebrew calendar
is a little confusing because the months are numbered differently depending on
whether you are observing the Ecclesiastical calendar in which all the
religious festivals are ordered, or if you are following the civil Hebrew calendar.
For
example, in the middle of the next month, the month of Nissan is the first
month of the Ecclesiastical year, but it is the seventh month of the civic
calendar. The Bible lists the months in the Ecclesiastical order, so the
seventh month would be Tishri.
For
some trivia knowledge, according to the Hebrew calendar, today is 2 Adar1 in
the year of AM 5784. AM stands for Anno Mundi which is Latin for “Year of the
World”. The Hebrew calendar does its best to trace itself back to the days of
Creation, so according to the Hebrew calendar, the Creation event happened
5,784 years ago. Sorry for that rabbit trail.
So,
we see from verse one that some time had passed and after the first wave of
returnees had settled in their towns, word went out for them to gather in
Jerusalem during the seventh month, the month of Tishri for re-establishing
some of the sacrifices and observing some of the traditional feasts.
There
is some debate among scholars as to whether we can pin down exactly if this
happened in the first year of the return or not. This account closely parallels
the account in Nehemiah chapter 7 when Ezra arrives in Jerusalem and the events
happen during the seventh month of that year as well. Because of that debate,
we will put the exact year that this happened here aside for now and we will
instead concentrate on the significance of the events rather than the precise
time of the events. We have to keep in mind the literary methods with which
the Bible was originally written and extract that information properly and not
impose methods that are an unfair treatment of the text. What I mean is, that
this passage is not written as a literal historical textbook, so it would be
unfair to treat the text like it was written like that.
In
Verse 2 we see the name Joshua, son of Jozadak mentioned. This man is
identified as a priest here in this passage and in the Books of Haggai and Zachariah
Joshua, son of Jozadak is identified as the High Priest. Here in verse 2 Joshua
is identified as a priest and we see Zerubbabel also mentioned here. If you remember,
when I was going through the genealogies a few weeks back I mentioned that Zerubbabel
was a governor and a descendant of King David. We see these two men mentioned
here to give legitimacy to their actions in the reconstruction of the altar.
We
have a priest, who would go on to become a high priest in the Temple and a
descendant of King David presiding over the reconstruction of the altar. Pay
close attention to the wording of the second half of verse 2, how did they
reconstruct the altar?
“In
accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.” These men
consulted the Scriptures on how they were to construct the altar and prepare
the sacrifices that were to be offered up to God. This is critical here for a
couple of reasons. I will ask you a question here to help you put it in
context, do we have
the freedom to worship God in whatever manner we deem appropriate?
It seems to be that Scripture is clear
that we do not have that freedom. This passage tells us that these men
consulted the Law of Moses what we would call the Pentateuch or the first five
books of the Old Testament.
King Solomon, the son of King David,
is a prime example that we are not to worship God in any manner that we see
fit. 1 Kings 11, verse 4 contains this condemning statement, “4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his
heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his
father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the
Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So
Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord;
he did not follow the Lord
completely, as David his father had done.”
Later
in verses nine to eleven of the same chapter, we read how God removed His favor
from Solomon’s life, and chaos would come to the kingdom after Solomon’s death.
Second Kings and Second Chronicles tell us exactly how that judgment would play
out and lead us to where we are studying today in Ezra.
2
Kings and 2 Chronicles give account after account of how the kings after David
and Solomon continually turned away from Yahweh and turned to the worship of
other Gods. Kings Ahaz, Shishak, Joash, and Amaziah are just a few among those
listed who turned from the One True God of the Bible and worshipped false gods
like Ashtoreth and Molek.
God
is specific and particular on how we are to worship and how we are to come
before Him. He alone is worthy of worship. I am not permitted to interpret
God’s Word how I want or desire.
I
take the words from James chapter 3 very seriously when I come before you on
Sunday mornings, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers,
because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” God desires
that we stay true to His teaching and worship Him fittingly and appropriately.
In an orderly fashion, not chaotically, and not in some random manner that is
not befitting a King. How we come before God for worship is a direct indicator
of the level of respect, we have for Him as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
We
see this level of respect in these passages in Ezra. They consulted Scripture
and they desired to do their best to observe the Law of Moses. Too many
churches today use the presence of Grace to excuse their laziness and
undisciplined free-for-alls on Sunday mornings. Are we doing our best on the
Lord’s Day for the Lord? Are we showing the proper level of respect and honor
that is due the Creator of the Universe?
Look
at verse 3 of Ezra 3. “Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they
built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord,
both morning and evening sacrifices.” Scripture is clear here that these men
faithfully placed the altar where it belonged on the temple grounds. They located
the placement of the previous altar in Solomon’s Temple and placed this newly
rebuilt altar in the same spot.
This
required bravery and there may have been an easier way before them. “Despite
their fear of the people around them”, this indicates that some push-back or
potential push-back was happening from their neighbors. They could have taken
the safe route and hidden the altar away or perhaps moved it to another
location where who they were worshipping could have been obscured and accepted.
The
same applies to us. If we need to expand in the future because of the massive
growth that the Lord may bring our way, if it is His will, then we shouldn’t
fear what our neighbors will say or what the county may have to say about it.
If it is God’s will for these things to happen, then He will clear the way for
us.
The
same applies to my preaching. I can’t skip over passages because they are
“icky” as in the words from the young pastor I quoted last week. I cannot ignore
preaching on a subject that may upset some people or government officials
if that is what a plain reading of the text requires for me to teach. I have to
constantly check my personal biases against what the text says each time I
prepare a message.
The
last time our young adult Bible study met in our home, we spent the entire two
hours looking for and discussing the personal biases that each of us have
before we are about to dive into the end-times teachings of Jesus in Mark
chapter 13. I wanted all of us in that group to examine what thinking we are
bringing to the text as we read it and to be aware of how that mindset that we
bring to the Bible can interfere with us receiving what the Bible is trying to
teach us.
The
same thought process can be applied to our order of worship. Just because we
have a laid-back attitude towards what the Bible teaches, does not give us the
freedom to worship God in a disrespectful manner. Or, for that matter, to
ignore worshipping God altogether.
Hebrews 10:24 to 25 offer us words
of encouragement. These words should be taken even more to heart for us today,
as the author of Hebrews was using them in the context of the return of Jesus. “24 And let us consider how
we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not
giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging
one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
We are certainly
closer to His return than they were when this passage was written. Notice what
the author of Hebrews is saying here, we gather not just for ourselves so that
we may take something from the worship, we are called to gather together so
that we may spur each other on toward love and good deeds. We gather as a body
to lift each other up, to share meals as we will be doing after the service. We
meet as a body, to give and draw strength and encouragement from each other.
The gathering of the body is important in the maintenance of our walk with
Christ.
That is why genuineness and
authenticity is important when we come together as a body. We have been seeing
time and time again in our study of the Bible over the last few months how
important our heart attitude is to the Lord. That is why He encourages us to
treat each other with gentleness and respect so that we can be vulnerable
enough, and genuine enough to be useful to each other in our gatherings and in
our daily walk with Christ.
This is why when we hurt someone, we
should go to them and reconcile ourselves with them. We should make amends to
them where possible. When someone hurts us, we should gently talk with them and
let them know, so that we can stay involved and be supportive of each other.
Isolating ourselves or withdrawing from the body is not how a mature Christian
acts. We have enough enemies outside the church we do not need to attack or
cause division within the church. That is why the Lord hates lying and gossip.
If you have a problem with a brother or sister, go to them directly and address
the problem. Do not go to someone else and complain about them, that is gossip
and it is not godly behavior.
When someone comes to you with an
issue, listen to them with love and gentleness and address their concerns in a
brotherly or sisterly fashion. Do not become defensive and dismiss their
concerns, it may just be a simple misunderstanding that can be straightened out
over a cup of coffee. Harbouring ill thoughts towards another in Christ is not
healthy and it is not good for the body. Let me challenge you with this, what
are you doing to ensure unity within this body of Believers?
Let’s turn back to today’s passage
and look more closely at verse 4. As usual, we are running out of time, so we
will have to wait until we get to Nehemiah for us to go into detail about the
various festivals and sacrifices that they were observing, but the point that I
want you to take away from this passage was how they were observing what was
written so that they could ensure that they were establishing proper worship of
Yahweh.
Verse 4 says, “4 Then in accordance with what is written, they
celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt
offerings prescribed for each day.” Notice that is says, “the required number
of burnt offerings”. It doesn’t say, “what our committee determined was the
best number of offerings”, nor does it say, “what our budget says we can afford
to offer”. It doesn’t say that “according to the Chaldeans, we should only do
the offerings in the morning and not at any other time of day”. No, these men
turned to the Law of Moses that was handed down to Moses directly from Yahweh
as to how they were to worship and offer up sacrifices to Yahweh.
Now,
you may ask, then why aren’t we doing our worship in the manner that they were
re-establishing here in the time of Ezra? We no longer worship this way for a
few reasons. First, there is no longer a temple, nor is there an altar on the
site of the previous temples. Second, and more importantly, because of the
once-for-all sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, we no longer are required
to offer up burnt sacrifices to appease our God or to atone for our sins.
Jesus
paid it all, all to Him I owe.
CONCLUSION
In
all the feasts and festivals, the nation of Israel remembered its past and
renewed its faith in the Lord who created and sustained His people.
The
feasts and festivals of Israel were community observances. The poor, the widow,
the orphan, the Levite, and the foreigner were invited to most of the feasts.
The accounts of these feasts suggest a potluck type of meal, with some parts of
the meal reserved for the priests and the rest given to those who gathered at
the Temple or the altar for worship. One of the feasts, Passover, originated in
the home and later was transferred to the Temple. The rest were observed at
specific times during the year and in designated places.
The thing that most interests me is
that they searched the Scriptures and they found what was written in the Law of
Moses. When they found what was written, there was no controversy or difference
of opinion. They not only returned to the land, but they also returned to the
Law of Moses. The Bible was their authority; therefore, neither the ideas nor
the opinions of individuals entered into their decisions. Things were not done
for the sake of expediency.
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