When God Rebuilds...Ezra-Nehemiah Part 08 Ezra 3:7-13 Humble Beginnings

 February 25, 2024

From The Series: When God Rebuilds…

Part 08 Humble Beginnings

Ezra 3:7-13

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

                Good morning. We are continuing our series from the Book of Ezra. I hope that you are seeing, as I am, a parallel between the Israelites who were returning from a period of exile under the Babylonians and later the Persians, a return to their land and their methods of worshipping their God, the One True God, Yahweh and the parallel to our church here at Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church.

                I hope that you can sense the renewed sense of purpose and direction that is coming from the entire leadership team here at Mountain View. This is not just from the new guy in the pulpit. The Board Chairman is committed to a renewed hope for this church. The Board is unified in moving forward in very positive ways to reach our community and to be of service to the church members. In about 10 days at our AGM, you as a congregation will be able to show your support of the renewed vision and purpose that the leadership team is working towards.

                I hope that you can sense that the Lord is present in this work and that we are constantly looking to the Father for guidance through our prayer time and our Sunday Services. I hope that you see as I do, that we can find a blueprint, a pattern, a method if you will, of how one should do church in the pages of Scripture.

                It is true that there is some freedom in how the liturgy, or order of service, should occur, and that the Bible does not provide exact specifics on how every detail of a church service should occur, there are clear guidelines and boundaries that are set in the Bible.

                We are going to see a few of those examples today in this passage, but it is true that as a Christian church, as a body of Believers that are under the New Covenant with Christ, our superior examples are found in the New Testament. But, the Old Testament, for Believers, is constantly pointing forward to Jesus. From Genesis to Malachi, the Old Testament lays the foundational work for a proper relationship with God, and the supreme example of godly living is exemplified for us in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

                But first, let’s do a quick recap of what we have observed so far in the Book of Ezra:

u  Thus far, we have seen a theme of continuity:

u  In the first chapter, we saw the continuity of the faithfulness of Yahweh. The Bible tells us, that God first moved in the heart of Cyrus and then in the hearts of the people to stir up the desire to restore their relationship with the One-True God.

u  In the second chapter, we saw the continuity of the community and the return to their land. We saw how the people responded to that working of God in their lives. We saw how they stressed the continuity of the bloodlines of those returning so that there would be unity in the fledging new community. A sense of shared vision and purpose in their lives. An ability to come together, and work together for the good of a common goal. A goal that was not just shared among themselves, but a goal that was also shared with God. A goal that was blessed by God. A goal with a Godly purpose behind it. A goal with a unifying purpose behind it. A goal that brought the returning exiles back to their roots and back to a proper relationship with the Father.

u  This return of the proper relationship should put us in mind of the work that Jesus did on our behalf, on that Roman Cross nearly two thousand years ago. Jesus, a man, but more than a man, a fully human-fully divine being, stepped into His own Creation and walked among the pinnacle of that work of Creation, the ones that were created in His image, mankind. Jesus the Creator lived among and taught and ministered to His sheep as a way to bring His rebellious Creation back into a proper relationship with Himself and the Father. A being, who though divine in nature, did not consider His divinity more valuable than the need to redeem His people back to Himself. The God that was so loving, that He bore the consequences of our sins on His body, so that the penalty that was due to the Father by us, was paid in full by the actions of the Son. You parents should be able to identify with this. How many of you have had one or more of your children disregard your teaching to them? How many have children or nieces or nephews who have been disobedient and walked away from sound parenting only to go off and commit errors in their lives? Some of them have done major actions that have had severe consequences. Some have made multiple mistakes, often repeating the same ones no matter how many times we bail them out, yet we still continue to love them and want the best for them. That level of love, is the love that Jesus Christ has for us, only multiplied by an astronomical factor. A love that is so immense and so perfect, that it could only be divine love, a love from God for His children. A love so forgiving, that no matter how many mistakes we have made in the past, or are currently making, a love that is so pure and forgiving and accepting, that it becomes a perfect gift, a gift that we call Grace. A gift that is available for you, and all you have to do is ask the Father to reveal it to you, and accept Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, and put your faith in Him because of the finished work that Jesus accomplished on the Cross. A work that is so perfect and so complete, that we cannot add to it in an attempt to seek forgiveness from God based on our own merit or works.

u  So, in the second chapter, n a time before the redeeming work of Jesus had occurred, we see the return of a faithful remnant that would resume the relationship and the proper worship of their revealed God, Yahweh. The God that called these people into a special covenant with Himself.

u  In chapter three, these first two chapters move towards the continuity of worship and the restoration of the Temple.

 

                Turn with me in your Bibles to today’s passage, and let’s read together the scripture that we will be looking at today. Please turn in your Bibles or on your devices to the Book of Ezra, chapter 3, starting at verse 7.

READ EZRA 3:7-13

                The three main points that I am going to try and cover this morning, as I see them in this passage are:

1) Continuity-we are not free to be an unbiblical church.

2) Conflict -change will often bring conflict.

3) Comparison -our church versus the biblical example.

            Let’s dive into this passage a little deeper and see how we can apply these words to our lives today.

Verse seven says, “⁷ Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.” We are going to see in a minute that there is an intentional parallel between the telling of these events and the wording of the descriptions from the building of the first Temple by King Solomon. I don’t think that these parallels are simply a literary device. I am sure that the leaders of this project intentionally repeated the steps that Solomon took in their rebuilding process.

            This repetition leads to a sense of continuity. A connection is being mad, a reconnection, if you will to their glorious roots and relationship with Yahweh. The leadership would be doing these things in this intentional way to bring legitimacy to their actions.

            I am sure that there was discontentment among some of the returning families when their genealogies could not be verified. I am sure that there were grumblings about why are we doing these things this way. Why are we being so particular about these things? Can’t we compromise a little to be more inclusive or less offensive? Why must I prove that I am a Levite, why can’t you just let me serve in the capacity that I wish?

            There are good reasons for maintaining these standards. One reason is that we are called to live a holy life as followers of Jesus. For those with a Wesleyan background, that call to holy living goes deep, that is one of the core tenets of the faiths that are based on the teachings of John Wesley: a call to a holy life and exemplary living. A call to clear biblical living.

            Wesley taught that genuine faith produces inward and outward holiness. The regenerative process inwardly cannot help but find expression in an improved moral character outwardly. Evidence of this change in your life should be obvious to those who know you. Theis doctrine of holiness is grounded in the command to “be holy as God is holy” as found in Leviticus 19:2 and elsewhere in the Old Testament.

            Jesus commanded, “Be perfect therefore as your Father in heaven is perfect” as found in Matthew 5:48. Jesus also taught that true Christian discipleship requires loving God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving neighbor as self (Mt. 22:34-40). Wesley understood perfection in the theological sense as having to do with maturity of character and ever-increasing love for God. The New Testament word “perfection” translates from a Greek term that means maturity or completion: it does not mean flawlessness.

            Wesley referred to this as “Christian Perfection” but it did not carry with it the idea of excellence, but of maturity.

            In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul addressed this very thing about maturity in both the Believer and in the church. Paul said, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?”

            Paul is telling the church in Corinth that he is concerned for them for they are still acting in worldly manners. They were not exhibiting the signs of maturity that Paul was hoping they would have shown by then. Paul explains that when he was with them, he gave them the spiritual milk because they were babes, mere infants in Christ and they were not yet ready for solid food or for meatier teachings about God and Christ.

            But it is obvious from the tone of the passage that Paul did not expect them to remain infants in their faith. Paul desired, as Wesley later taught, that the Christians would grow in their maturity and leave worldly habits behind. Jealousy and quarreling were highlighted as being particularly immature.

            Paul is not saying that we will not have disagreements. Of course we will, but Scripture clearly outlines how we are to handle these disagreements. These instructions are directly from the mouth of Jesus.

            Turn with me to chapter 18 of the Gospel of Matthew. Many of you will be thinking of verse fifteen and following, but we are not going there. That passage has to do with unrepentant sin in the church and not necessarily the sins among those within the church. It can serve as an example of the steps one could use to reconcile. But I want us to look at verse 21 and following for a biblical example of forgiveness among followers of Jesus.

READ MATTHEW 18:21-35

            We see in this parable the example that Jesus lays out for us in dealing with a fellow Believer, a fellow servant in the Kingdom work, and when we have a disagreement with them. Do not lose the point here: this does not refer only to times when we borrow money or goods from one another. This account illustrates that when we hold something against someone, or when we know that they are hurt or upset with something that we have done, we should go to the Brother or Sister and talk with them directly.

            We are not to go to others in the church, or in our circles and talk about this hurt without first seeking to reconcile with the person directly. That is gossip. We can talk to someone else to seek genuine counsel from them. Perhaps we need the insights of another to verify if what we are feeling is truly accurate. But, we are to not just complain about the offending person, we are to seek them out and reconcile with them.

            Peter asked at the start of the pericope, how many times should we forgive someone, seven? Peter thought he was being magnanimous by offering to forgive someone seven times, but Jesus turns Peter’s generosity on its head by proclaiming not seven, but seventy times seven times. The account ends with a dire warning: “³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” If we are not willing to reconcile and forgive one another, the Father will deal with us as He dealt with the ungrateful servant in the account. The Father will fail to show us mercy as well.

            Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus these encouraging words to help them along in their maturing process, “¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

            Paul then goes on, “¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

            Paul not only tells us the proofs that we will see that we are maturing in Christ, “the speaking in love”, “the growing in Christ”, the failure to be tossed back and forth by the waves and blown about by false teaching and deceitful teachers”. Instead, we are to join the body and become an active part in the body, by listening to the God-ordained method of evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

            Paul is telling us that continuity to the biblical examples of the church will keep us maturing in Jesus, as Wesley said, working on our Christian Perfection, living and pursuing a life of holiness, as a method to grow closer to Jesus.

            Let’s go back to the Book of Ezra and look at verses 7 and 8 together.

READ EZRA 3:7-8

            We see some practical examples here of accomplishing sacred work. God chooses to accomplish His goals through the means of ordinary men and women. We see the paying of wages and the hiring of skilled workers to begin the restoration work on the temple. The ordering of supplies such as Cedar logs from the neighboring province of Lebanon that would have also been under the control of King Cyrus.

            The word “authorized” in the NIV has a better translation of it in the ESV where it is translated as “grant” and this brings to mind a more complete concept of the idea behind the word. The word grant here is similar to what we see today when used between levels of government. The grant was not just the approval or permission being granted by Cyrus, it also refers to the payment of the transaction. Just like the Federal government and the Provincial governments both give permission and money to the local government for infrastructure contracts, that is what Cyrus is doing here. Cyrus is not just permitting Lebanon to sell the Cedar to Judah, but Cyrus is also providing the funds with which to pay the Lebanese for their lumber.

            In verse 8, we see the mention of the timeframe for the start of this phase of the project, “the second month”. The mentioning of these facts, the month of the year, (which by the way would have been April-May of our calendar year) and the use of food to pay for the goods, even down to the mention of the port of Joppa where the logs would be floated down from, are all details that are paralleling the building of the first Temple by Solomon.

            We don’t have time to turn to them and read this morning, but the 2 passages listed in the bulletin from 2 Chronicles will show you the parallel. I don’t think that this was just a literary device. I am sure that in order to remain faithful to the Old Ways, the builders would have used the same materials and the same methods, only on a smaller scale as they had a smaller budget and timeframe to work with.

            Remember we saw two weeks ago how King David had begun accumulating the building supplies that Solomon would need, long before Yahweh permitted construction to begin. So there was continuity to the Old Ways, but look at a little further down in verse eight where it mentions the age of Levites that were given responsibility for the work. They are mentioned as being twenty years old and older to do the work, but this was an age that was younger than had be authorized before. In Leviticus, the priests were limited to 35 and older, and King David expanded the age range down to twenty-five in his day, but here we see a lowering to the age of twenty and this may have been due to purely practical reasons. There may have been a shortage of older men to work on the build.

            But look who is mentioned as working together, the laity, the lay people, the working class were present helping (the builders), the priests were also contributing, and finally the Levites were all working in tandem to achieve their goal.

            Look at verse ten to see what they did to celebrate this second important milestone in this journey; They sang and worshipped their God in the familiar ways. Listen, “When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel.” Stop there for a moment.

            Do you see how King David is referenced here in this passage? “David king of Israel”. This is a very unifying title to be given the leader. Not “King David” which can sound like classism, but David king of Israel, a king for the entire country, a king for all of His people.

            The priests adorned their vestments and with reverence, joy, praise, and thanksgiving, the priests came forward and led the worship of God’s people. Lead them singing from David’s Psalms, one of which Psalms we read together this morning at the start of the service.

            Look in verse 11 how the people responded, “And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD…” But there was not just rejoicing. Verse 12 tells us that, “Many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud…” Many of the older folks wept, they were not joyful, for they were making the comparison of this Temple to the glory of the previous Temple from the days of Solomon.

            There was the beginning of conflict among the group, but we will see in the coming days that there was also conflict coming from outside the community as well. In the coming weeks, we will see why unity within the community is vital for the continuing health of the church. We have enough enemies outside the church, we should strive for unity within the church.

            When a church is working for God and accomplishing things for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, Satan will try and derail the church through conflict. The enemy whispers in our ears sowing seeds of discontentment. He may try and cause trouble between members, he may try and attack family members and use them to derail us. Strife and conflict are the hallmarks of the devil’s work.

            The lack of conflict may be a sign that your church is no threat to Satan at all and he is perfectly willing to leave you as you are, simply bobbing in place and being ineffective.

            Sometimes we will hear things like, “That’s not how we do things around here”, or “We’ve never done it like that before” which are both deadly expressions for a church. Or, “Well, that’s so-and-so’s job, we just let them take care of it” without ever looking to see if the person is doing a good job or not, or if the person is being overwhelmed with the duties.

            What if that person who is doing the work leaves the church and no one else has ever been shown or allowed to do those duties, where does that leave the church? Suddenly we are left scrambling, or perhaps a successful ministry must come to a close. Neither of those options is desirable.

            Look at the final verse in today’s passage, “^No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.” We see Scripture telling us that from a distance, the sounds of pain and the sounds of joy are indistinguishable from each other. The sounds of joyful laughing and sorrowful crying are very similar. From a distance. But, if we are close, if we are familiar with each other, if we are a family, and truly act like one, where we are willing to be vulnerable and let people into our lives to help with the pain and celebrate the joys with us, then we will have people who will truly come alongside and walk with us.

            To be a family, we have to have trust. To have trust, we sometimes have to be willing to be vulnerable with each other. To be open and honest, to be authentic with each other. To be loving and respectful of each other.

            Families disagree from time to time. Family members hurt each other from time to time. Sometimes its unintentional, and sometimes it is sinful and intentional. The immature Christian wants everything to be done their way and in their manner. Like an infant, they desire for things to be done their way. The mature Christian looks to reconcile with those who are separated from them. The mature Christian is willing to put personal preferences aside to achieve common kingdom goals. The mature Christian seeks Scripture to be their guide, not other churches or other Christians.

            So this leads us to our final question. How do we compare biblically? How does our church stack up against the biblical example? Are we following the examples laid out in this passage? Are we doing the practical things like stewarding the money well and investing in the things that are required? Are we paying attention to the strict standards that we see in Scripture? Are we worshipful and grateful for the small milestones that we will accomplish along the way? Are we maturing or seeking to mature as Christians? Are we doing our best to pursue holy living as outlined by John Wesley? Are we meeting our obligations as members of this family? Whatever those obligations are? I don’t know what the Holy Spirit is calling you to do. I know the Spirit is calling you to do something! But I do not know, nor can I tell you what the Spirit is calling for you.

            Obedience is another sign of maturity. We have all seen young children throw a fit in the grocery store when they didn’t feel like listening to their parents. The mature child listens and does what is asked from a sense of love for the parent. How do you feel about your Father in Heaven?