May 19th, 2024
From The Series: When God Rebuilds…
Part 16 Look What God Can Do With a Few
Dedicated Disciples!
Ezra 6:1-22
Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church
Here
we are again in the series “When God Rebuilds…” learning what God’s Word has to
say to a church in a rebuilding stage in its life cycle. I think we can all
agree that this is the stage that our church is presently experiencing. We are
either rebuilding or we are dying, and I don’t think that Jesus is quite
finished with this church yet.
It
has been a few weeks since we have been back in the book of Ezra. Over the last
four messages together, we have added to our main investigation of the
teachings in Ezra by examining Psalm 137 which gave us some insight into the
emotional struggles of the dispersed Jewish people while they were under the
Babylonian rule and were still banished from their homeland.
Then
we took a couple of weeks to look at what Yahweh said to His faithful people in
Jerusalem through the prophet Haggai. We saw how the LORD reminded His people
that He was with them and how the LORD encouraged the remnant to join Him in
the work that He was accomplishing there in Jerusalem. Two weeks ago we saw how
Haggai reminded God’s people that the LORD keeps His covenants with His people
and sometimes Yahweh decides to replace an existing covenant with a new and
better covenant. But God never completely abandons His elect.
Last
week, we saw how the prophet Zechariah was used by God to tell His people to
return to Him. To return in their hearts and in their obedience and through
their worship of the One True God. By the way, if you missed any of these
messages, you can find the audio recordings on the church’s website as listed
in the bulletin and you can find the printed versions on the blog site, again,
listed in the bulletin.
With
that additional background information in mind, let’s open our Bibles together
to the 6th chapter of the Book of Ezra, and let’s see together what
the LORD has to say to us today.
READ EZRA 6:1-12
OK,
let’s stop there for a couple of moments and look a little deeper at what we
have just read. Now to understand where we are in this great narrative of the
temple being rebuilt, we need to back up a few verses to understand what we
just read. The context of the end of chapter five is; that so far in the book
of Ezra, we have seen that the faithful that had returned from Babylon, a total
of about 50,000 people had set up an altar on the site of the previous temple,
the one that Solomon built and the group had laid the foundation down according
to the dimensions that God had given them.
Then,
some of the Samaritan neighbors decided that they wanted to participate, and in
an effort to remain faithful to the proper worship of Yahweh, the Israelites
rejected their offer of help. This resulted in a stop to the work on the temple
for a period of about 16 years and a ruling governor for the area named Tattenai
asked for a ruling from the King for someone at court to investigate if these
people in Jerusalem had actually been given permission from the first king,
King Cyrus, to rebuild the temple.
Look
with me now at Ezra, chapter 5 and verse 17.
READ EZRA 5:17
So,
that was Tattenai requesting a search of the royal records to take place. We
often think of these ancient civilizations as quite primitive and
unsophisticated, but some of them were really quite efficient in their administration
and meticulous records were often kept by the most successful empires. Imagine
trying to rule over a vast amount of real estate inhabited by numerous people
groups with almost nothing culturally in common.
To
give you some perspective of these so-called primitive civilizations. The Gold
star on the left of the map is Jerusalem, the purple star in the middle of the
map is where Babylon was located and that was the capital of the Babylonian
Empire. The red star on the far right of the map is where Ecbatana was located
and it was the capital of the Persian Empire. Look at the vastness of this
empire. Now what were the records of this decree doing in this far-flung city,
one so far removed from the sight of the construction? Well, extra-biblical
historical records indicate that Cyrus spent the first summer of his reign in
this city, the capital of the Mede province.
We
will read in a couple of weeks how it took Ezra four months to travel from
Babylon to Jerusalem.
The
current king… Darius issues an order for the royal records to be searched for
any decree from the previous king regarding the rebuilding of the temple in
Jerusalem. They turn up in Ecbatana and the record received back from this
inquiry is duly noted here in chapter 6.
A
careful comparison of the edict from Chapter 1 and this edict will show that
they are not worded exactly the same. Skeptics will use this discrepancy to
instill doubt about the trustworthiness and accuracy of God’s Word. The
differences are easily explained. The wording from Chapter 1 may have been the script
from the official proclamation or from one of the posters that would have been
displayed in the region announcing the royal decree. The quote from chapter 6
may have been the wording extracted from the royal minute book of the original decree.
We
see from the record that the construction was indeed permitted by King Cyrus.
This brings us to our first point in the sermon: The LORD preserves His plans.
The LORD’s plans that I am referring to are not just the plans that were given
to Cyrus some 16 or 17 years earlier than where we are studying today.
I
am not just talking about the record from Ezra Chapter 1, verse 1 where it
says, “1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to
fulfill the word of the Lord
spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved
the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm
and also to put it in writing:” From Scripture, we can see that the LORD was the one
responsible for stirring the heart of Cyrus to allow God’s people to return to
Jerusalem, thus ending their punishment from the LORD. But these are not the
only plans of God that I am referring to.
If you remember from
the message in the first week of January, I showed that Cyrus, the king who
would facilitate the repopulation of the ruined city of Jerusalem was first
mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, some 200 years before Cyrus was even born!
Turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 44 of the Book of Isaiah and let us look together at what Yahweh had to
say about Cyrus. Let’s start at verse 24. You will find Isaiah 44:24 on page 592
of the Pew Bible. I know we have read these before, but a bit of review will be
good if it allows us to see the sovereignty of God in action. We throw that
phrase around, “God is Sovereign” but I think it sometimes doesn’t sink in for
us.
READ ISAIAH 44:24-45:6
Remember,
200 years before Cyrus was even born, these words from God to His people were
given through Isaiah as a way for God to keep His people faithful to Him and to
give them hope to sustain them through the coming days of exile. This prophecy
was a way for the LORD to preserve His people during this time. We will see a
little later another way that Yahweh preserved His people.
I
wonder if anyone in the court of King Cyrus had the courage to read to him the words
from Isaiah. I’m sure there must have been some Jewish scholars present there.
Cyrus seemed to have been a wise king open to learning from the many cultures
contained in his kingdom. He was wise enough to order the return of all the
sacred temple objects held in the Babylonian treasury. Items that would have
been needed to perform the duties prescribed in the Hebrew texts for the proper
worship of Yahweh and the proper offering of the atoning sacrifices.
Turn
back to today’s passage in Ezra, and look closer at the instructions in verse
4. “Three courses of large stones and one of timbers”. These
large stones were the primary reason for the delay. We will see next week how the
use of large stones will once again cause problems for the residents of
Jerusalem. Notice, that verse 4 also explains the source for the funding of
this project; the funds were to come from the royal treasury collected by the
governor of that region. Think of it as local tax dollars going back into the
community to fund local infrastructure. It wasn’t going to affect the capital
region much, so the King could afford to be somewhat generous.
In
verses 8 to 10, we see that the money was also to fund all the needs required
to carry out the proper worship of Yahweh and the support of the priests while
they were carrying out their duties. The catch? Well. The good King Darius was
looking for prayers of well-being for himself and his sons. I don’t think this
indicates that Darius was a believer in Yahweh, he was probably just playing
the odds and asked for the same thing from all the temples in the empire.
Keep
in mind that God’s people were surrounded by cultures that were polytheistic in
nature and some cultures worshipped multiple Gods. What Darius was doing here,
reminds me of what we see present-day politicians doing when they visit mosques
and temples. I’m not saying today’s politicians are seeking the blessings from
the many gods, but they are courting the votes of the devotees.
We
see that there was also a penalty for those who defied this royal edict. It is
not recorded if those Samaritans who caused trouble for the Israelites faced
any consequences for the delays that they caused. Some of them seemed to have
been skillful leaders who were wise enough to present the delay as a desire for
clarification rather than outright opposition to the project. This section is
wrapped up with the royal stamp of approval from the current King Darius.
Let’s
look at the next section from today’s text and read together what else God’s
Word has for us.
READ EZRA 6:13-18
We
see here in this section that the very same people from Chapter 5 who sent the
letter causing the disruption, were not the same ones who carried out the
decree from both the original King and the new decree from the present King.
Scripture says they “carried it out with diligence”.
What
an encouragement it must have been to the Jewish people to not only have their
project confirmed by the authorities but also heartily endorsed through the
provision of the funds to complete the project. Praise be to God for the
provision of His Work. Do you see how God will provide for those things that
are important to Him? The provision of these funds reminds me of how God
provides for each of us all that we need and He only asks that we willingly and
happily give a portion back to Him through our tithes and offerings. Just as
God did not drain the royal coffers to fund His house, God does not ask for
much to sustain His work today in this community through the work of this
church. This provision acts as an encouragement for those who are engaged in
God’s work.
Look
at verse 14. It wasn’t just the priestly class that was involved in the temple
project. Now the elders of the Jews, the leaders of the community, were getting
involved. Look at what God can do with a few dedicated disciples! These types
of projects require multiple efforts from numerous people to complete. Once
they begin, they will gain momentum as more people see the small successes
happening and they will join in.
One
example from this church is the men’s breakfast. It first started with just a
few men from this body, and now it has become a larger gathering of men from
throughout the community. Another example is the upcoming Women’s event. I know
it hasn’t happened yet, but Marilyn received a response from someone living in
the community who wanted to say that she could not attend because of a
scheduling conflict, but she appreciated being invited and was thankful that
someone from the church reached out.
Did
you know that all of you can be evangelists? There is no excuse for anyone not
to be an evangelist for Jesus Christ. The simplest way that you can evangelize
to your neighbors, friends, or lost family members is… to simply invite them to
church.
In
a study referenced in Dr. Thom Rainer’s 2008 book, The Unchurched Next Door,
“82% of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if
invited.” This means 8 of the 10 people you pass on the street, live next door
to, work in the cubicle beside, and email on a daily basis are likely to attend
church with you if you simply invited them. I know what you're thinking,
“that’s just one study from one book somewhere else”.
Nope.
This is not a one-off statistic to prove a point. Other studies asking similar
or the same question in their surveys consistently show 63%-85% of
respondents are likely to attend if only they were extended an invitation.
This
is great news... if we capitalize on the world’s willingness while it still
exists. The problem is we aren’t capitalizing. According to the same study
found in Rainer’s book, "only 2% of church members invite a single
unchurched person to church each year." That is how this church will
rebuild and grow again, through the invitations that you are willing to extend
to someone new each week.
The
guest we had last week, was here simply because one of us took a few minutes to
introduce himself to a new neighbor and invite her to join us here on Sunday.
Only
a couple of hundred years ago, Europe was the largest centre of Christianity in
the world where 70% of the population were Christians. Today, only 20% of the
continent self-identify as Christians. Today, Africa and Asia are the centers
accounting for the majority of the growth of Christianity in the world.
How
can we prevent Canada from becoming like Europe? I keep hearing people say, “We
need a revival to happen. We need the work of the Holy Spirit to come upon our
land once again.” I agree, we need God to be in this work. But God not only
decrees the events of the world, He also decrees the means of how it
will take place. God chooses to work through dedicated disciples! The church in
the West has become complacent, we think that evangelism is the work of
missionaries or trained professionals.
In
Acts Chapter 1 and Verse 8, Jesus said this to His followers, “8 But you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Notice the pattern
here, first, we start local, and then regional and national, and then
international. Notice the word “and” not “then” is used. We don’t just start
local, and then, move onto regional and national. We add national to our
continuing local efforts.
Security in our salvation
is fantastic, it is a gift from God. But security is no excuse for complacency.
Too many in the church today have developed Christian consumerism. Too many
people are only concerned with what they can get from church, rather
than thinking, what can I give to the church and her work? How can I
serve?
I read a quote this
week from the British missionary Hudson Taylor and it went like this, “...unable
to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people
rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of
knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony; there
the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this
service.” - J. Hudson Taylor, England April 1865.
Let me repeat that, “...unable
to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people
rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of
knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony; there
the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this
service.”
Praise God that the
Lord was able to use this man's restlessness to carry out missionary work in
China, but I think Taylor touched on something very profound, “The security of
the Christians at home” led to their complacency and they no longer saw the
work of evangelism as something that was required of them. Look at all the
empty churches and cathedrals in Europe today as the fruit of that mindset.
The instructions in
Acts Chapter 1 were given to a small number of disciples, who went out against
terrible odds and endured terrible hardships, all to spread the Good News of
the Gospel to a lost and hurting world. A few dedicated disciples grew the
church and spread the word to a point where almost everyone on the planet has
heard the name of Jesus.
These people spread
the good news of how God sent His only Son, to take on human form and add that
humanity to His perfect Divine form and to walk among us and live a perfect and
sinless life. Not just to be an example of how we are to live and treat each
other, but more importantly, Jesus became the perfect lamb of God and He became
the only acceptable sacrifice that could pay our sin-debt to the Father.
Aren’t you glad that
Jesus didn’t complain about being burnt out or overburdened with the work that
the Father had given Him? Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t quit before He got
to the cross? Thank God that He didn’t recant all that He had done after being
dragged before the Sanhedrin at midnight and beat and spit on. Thank God that Jesus
didn’t act like Peter and deny the work that He was sent to do.
I know you think
that it’s not easy to talk to someone about Jesus. But, let me tell you it is not hard.
How difficult is it to invite someone to come to church? During times like we
are going through right now, don’t tell me you don’t know anyone who could use
a little good news and a little hope in their lives right now.
Is this church guilty
of the habits that so upset Hudson Taylor in his day? For some time now I have
watched my wife live out her motto, “Once you are saved, it’s not about you
anymore”. In other words, “Once you are on Team Jesus, it’s your duty to scout
for the next player to join the team”.
The easiest way to do
this is to simply invite someone to church. Only 2% of Christians are willing
to do that this year, while 60 to 85% of people asked would be willing to
attend. Do you want to know what the mission of this church is? That right
there is the mission of the church, invite a friend!
Return with me, if you
will, to verse 14 of today’s chapter. “14 So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper
under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah,”. You will
notice an extra insert in the middle of the bulletin this morning. On that
insert is some of the teaching that Zechariah was sharing with the people of
Jerusalem.
We don’t have time to
go through the entire Book of Zechariah right now, so I put together a bit of a
teaching tool to help you understand the visions contained in the first 6
chapters of the book. Your homework this week is to read through to the middle
of the sixth chapter of Zechariah. These were eight visions that Zechariah received
from the LORD and then he shared them with the faithful remnant there in the
city.
Notice that the first
vision affirms that the building of the temple was from God, and it was His
plan for this to be completed. Look at the fourth vision. Zechariah confirms
that Joshua has been chosen by Yahweh to be the High Priest of the completed
temple. Joshua is the one who is to re-establish the proper worship of the LORD
among the Jewish people.
We see in verse 15 of
chapter 6 of Ezra that the Temple was indeed completed in the sixth year of the
reign of King Darius. This was four years after the work was halted by the
enemies in the region. This temple was completed in the year 516 BC which was
exactly 70 years after Solomon’s temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586
BC. The seventy years predicted in the Book of Daniel.
So the LORD preserved
His people through the exile, through the delays of the reconstruction and we
see how He even preserved His practices for His people. Then they dedicated the
temple and offered up sin offerings first for the priests and then for the
people of Israel. Notice in verse 17 that they took it upon themselves to offer
up sacrifices for the people of all twelve tribes of Israel. Even though, the
Kingdom of Judah was mainly comprised of the people from the tribe of Judah and
Benjamin as well as the priests from the Levites. Even though the southern
region of the divided kingdom only accounted for a small minority of the entire
nation, nonetheless, sacrifices were offered for them all.
Read with me the final
portion of today’s passage that we will look at this morning.
READ EZRA 6:19-22.
We see in this section
how the LORD preserved His practices as well, during the exile of His people.
Arguably, one of the most important feasts on the Jewish religious calendar is
the observance of the Passover. This was so important, that our Lord Jesus
Christ returned to Jerusalem to observe it with His disciples the week that He
was crucified.
We see here in verse
19, on the fourteenth day of the first month, that the exiles celebrated the
Passover. This would have been the first time in seventy years that they would
have been able to properly observe these rituals. The Passover required Temple
sacrifices in order to complete it properly. From the time of Moses until the
time of completion of Solomon’s Temple, these Passover sacrifices were carried
out at the site of the Tabernacle. Then they shifted to the newly built temple.
Now, they could resume at the freshly completed reconstruction of God’s House.
Look at verse 20, where
it says, “The Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for
all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for themselves.” Almost
600 years after this event, the people of Jerusalem would slaughter another
innocent for the sins of others. That is why Jesus is referred to as the
Passover Lamb. Jesus fulfilled this ritual once for all.
These were the very sacrifices that the author of Hebrews is talking
about in Chapter 10, when he wrote, “1 The law is
only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves.
For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year
after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” Then verse 4 makes it
completely clear, “4 It is impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Several times in the
Old Testament, God uses the observance of the Passover Feast to try and gain
the attention of His people.
The prophet Jeremiah
was sent to the people to warn Judah before the fall, and this even happened
after the fall of the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians. We read in the seventh
chapter of his book how Jeremiah warned the Judeans, “21 “ ‘This
is what the Lord Almighty, the God
of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices
and eat the meat yourselves! 22 For when I brought your
ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands
about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this
command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in
obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But
they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn
inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.”
We see from this
passage in Jeremiah why Yahweh did not just abandon His people when the temple was
destroyed in 70 AD. It is our obedience that the Lord desires most from
us. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands”. Our obedience to
the shedding of blood and the burning of animal flesh is not what God desires
from us. It is the obedience ot the new covenant, to the teachings of Christ.
CONCLUSION
Let
me conclude by asking these two questions from the bulletin, and I ask that you
meditate on them this week:
First,
What must we do, to be considered “His people”? To be considered Christian, we
must put our faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. We must
believe that He and He alone paid our complete sin-debt and that He was who He
said He was and proved it by rising from the grave three days after His burial.
He was God. Second, we show that we are His people by the way that we live our lives.
I don’t mean that we live perfect lives, but rather we live lives in obedience
to His teachings and commands. One of the greatest commands that He gave us is
known as the Great Commission, to spread the Gospel, and this morning I think I
showed you the easiest possible way to be in obedience to God, invite someone
to church! If one comes, then invite another, then another until we fill this
sanctuary for His Glory.
Now
I’ll ask the last questions on the bulletin. Based on how I live, would the
LORD consider me one of “His people”? I’ve mentioned Galatians chapter 5 and
the fruit of the Spirit several times. That is my go-to verse to judge whether
someone is following the Lord or not. We should be able to see evidence of God
at work in our lives.
Finally,
What would the world think? If the world can not see a difference in the way
that you live and the way your lost neighbor lives, then my friend, you need to
spend more time in the scriptures and in prayer and ask the Lord to search your
heart and your life and to show you what He is asking you to change.
Let
me send you off with these words:
From
Romans 11:36, “For from him and through him and to him
are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.”
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