May 26, 2024
From The Series: When God Rebuilds…
Part 17 The Trouble With Weak Leaders
Ezra 4:6-23
Mountain View Evangelical Missionary
Church
Introduction:
The Bible is a most fascinating book to me. It’s not really
one book you know. It is more of a library for life contained in one volume.
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by just over 40 different authors
that were written over more than 1500 years. It is not just a history book,
although it contains historical records. It has many genres of books. It
contains poetry, prophecy, biographies, theology, self-help advice, prayers, leadership
training, career advice, organizational advice, relationship advice, marital
advice, child-rearing help, multi-generational wealth planning, songs of praise
and songs of sorrow, advice on how to live together in community, and how to be
a church together. While it contains stories and narratives, it is not a
storybook, nor is it a book of myths gleaned from surrounding ancient civilizations
as some critics claim. It is a fount of information; if you were to study it
every day carefully for a lifetime, you would still find something new each day
that God is speaking to you. It has one over-arching theme of the redemption of
God’s chosen people being returned to the one true God through the sacrifice of
the Son of God.
It is called the Living Word of God because the advice and
wisdom that you find in it seems to always apply to the exact stage of life
that you find yourself in. It has this wisdom because the entire Bible was
coauthored by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God protects it from corruption
through the years.
The reason for asking all these questions will become evident
when we look at today’s passage in the Bible. We are continuing through our
series, “When God Rebuilds…” and we are examining God at work through His
people when they returned to Jerusalem after 70 years in exile under Babylonian
rule. I hope that we have been finding parallels between the situation of the
faithful remnant in Jerusalem at that time and this faithful remnant here at
Mountain View Church. I hope you have been finding inspiration and application
for our lives today, in the messages we have gone through together since the
start of the year.
I mentioned the Bible is historical, but it is not just a
history book. It is not arranged as a history textbook is. The information that
we read is not always in chronological order. We see this in both the Old and
New Testaments. Sometimes, the pericopes are arranged according to themes or
lessons that we are to learn, and this arrangement makes it easier to
understand the similarities, or more often by reading contrasting lessons
side-by-side.
I have said what I said, and asked all those questions this
morning as an introduction to the fact, that if you were paying attention, and
you should have been, I hope, you should have noticed that as we were progressing
through the Book of Ezra, several weeks ago, between the first and second
Sunday in March we skipped over a huge piece of text in our verse-by-verse
examination of this Book.
On March 3rd we covered Ezra 4:1-5, and then the
following week we jumped down to Ezra 4:24-5:10. The reason was because this
passage that we are studying today is out of chronological order. We see
suddenly in the middle of chapter 4, the author, who was probably Ezra himself,
inserts a pericope involving two kings and opposition from these kings that
does not happen for another 49 years after the account in the first part of
Chapter 4.
If you just read Chapter 4 from start to finish without any
aides it can be very confusing. Look at verse 5 of Ezra 4, it mentions “Cyrus king
of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia”. Then in verse 6, it
mentions a king named Xerxes or Ahasuerus (a-has-ser-aurus). These
are the Greek and Hebrew names respectively for a king whose Persian name was
Khashyar Shah. Then in verse 7, we come across another king named Artaxerxes whose Persian name was
Artaxsaca, which means “one who rules through truth”. In your quiet time with
your Bible, if you came across this verse without any aids, you would probably
think, “Who the heck are these guys” and then simply skip over this section
without understanding the full picture of what the passage is trying to say to
you.
A little more information before we read today’s passage.
Verse 6 references events that occur about 486 BC which is about 29 years after
the completion of the building of the temple. The section we examined together
last week, and then verse 7 occurs 22 years later than verse 6, in the year 464
BC. Now, this is information that is relevant to the understanding of this
portion of God’s Word, and it is not something that you are going to
glean for yourself from the plain reading of the Bible. Hence, my mentioning
the use of aids like commentaries.
READ EZRA
4:6-23
You may have noticed that I gave today’s sermon the title:
“The Trouble With Weak Leaders”. This descriptor of leaders is really
subjective. From a secular/historical point of view, the kings that we are
examining in the Book of Ezra are listed as some of the most powerful kings of
the Achaemenian dynasty.
You can see by the map here, that they ruled over one of the most
vast empires covering most of the Middle East and stretching from as far east
as parts of modern-day Libya and it included Egypt and parts of Sudan. The
empire went to the southwest as far as Afghanistan, including parts of
modern-day Pakistan, and up to the Indian border and the Hindu Kush Mountains.
This Persian empire stretched north through Turkey, Macedonia, and parts of
Greece and modern-day Russia.
You can tell by the different colors on the map how each
successive king worked to expand the empire and rule over ever larger areas of
land and people. But, it wasn’t a steady progression of expansion. There were
rebellions in conquered areas such as Egypt, and those pesky Greeks with their
independent city nations were a source of battle losses to these Persian kings.
This constant state of war that this empire was in will help to give some
additional historical/cultural context needed for us to fully grasp what is
recorded here in the Bible.
Keep your finger here in this spot of your Bible and turn a
couple of pages to the right to Chapter Six, verse 22 of the Book of Ezra. This
is where we left off last week and we were still under the rule of King Darius.
Notice Chapter 7, verse 1 says, “After these things, during the reign of
Artaxerxes” well, during that gap in time between the end of Chapter Six and
the beginning of Chapter 7 represents about 70 years and a lot has happened in
the world. But Ezra is not interested in those events, he is telling the history
of his people and their return to Jerusalem. As I said earlier, the Bible is
historical, it contains historical records, but it is not a history textbook.
Look at 6:22 where it says, “22 For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival
of Unleavened Bread, because the Lord
had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria so
that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.” The Temple was completed in 516 BC, so we can assume that the events
described in this verse were happening at that time.
Now, flip back to where your finger is in your Bible to today’s passage,
as I said earlier, verse 6 of chapter 4 occurs in 486 BC. So there was a
relative period of peace for the people of Jerusalem for about 30 years. That
didn’t stop their enemies from continuing to sow seeds of discontent with the
ruling class. Verse 6 tells us that “they lodged an accusation”. “They” were
the Samaritans the the other administrators in the surrounding area who were
accountable to the Persian King.
The way the Achaemenian Kings ruled was that once a region was captured,
they would establish provinces within the region and appoint administrators
called satraps who would collect taxes, pay tribute to the treasury of the
empire, and ensure peace in the region. They would also ensure that the decrees
of the king were carried out.
To recap, we have read about King Cyrus in Chapter 1, verse 1 and Cyrus
dies in battle while expanding the Empire in the Northern Frontier. A son named
Cambyses II inherits the throne but he is not mentioned in the Bible. Cambyses
is the unnamed king who called for the halt of the building of the Temple. He
ruled for about eight years and his most significant accomplishment was that he
conquered the kingdom of Egypt but was seriously wounded in the campaign.
Cambyses died from gangrene in 522 BC. Cambyses had two weak sons who were not
worthy of the throne, so Darius, who was a General in the Persian Army,
ascended from General to King.
Darius is the king who permitted the reconstruction of the Temple to
resume. Darius dies while in preparation for another battle with the
city-states of Greece to the North. Darius had an older son, but he was born to
a wife with a more common ancestry and Xerxes was born to a daughter of Cyrus
the Great. So Xerxes inherits the throne in 486 BC.
If you remember the 2006 movie 300 starring Gerard Butler, Xerxes is the
Persian King in the movie who was portrayed by the actor Rodrigo Santoro.
Please don’t get your history from Hollywood movies, especially movies based on
a graphic novel of historical events. They both are loosely based on actual
events.
Xerxes was defeated in Greece, but he also maintained a presence in the
area and had several provinces governed by local satraps placed by him. You may
also know the name Xerxes from the Bible in the Book of Esther, as he was the
king who eventually married Esther and issued a decree saving the death of the
Jews from the plot of Haman who was a member of the Persian royal court.
These were some of the worldly events which were behind the delays in the
rebuilding of the Temple. As Xerxes takes the throne, there is a revolt brewing in Egypt over
unfair taxation. This revolt was aided by military support from Greek cities
who were also upset with ill-treatment from foreign-imposed leaders appointed
by the Kings of the Achaemenian Dynasty. So Greece attacks the Persian Empire
indirectly through military support of the Egyptian revolt.
This brings us to the first point of the sermon: Weak Leaders
Cause Bad Policy. The Achaemenian Kings were so obsessed with empire expansion
that it led to bad policy. The royal treasury needed to be constantly refilled
to pay the armies. This resulted in unfair taxation policies, which in turn
caused people to revolt, which caused internal problems within conquered
territories, which hampered expansion efforts as battles once won, now needed
to be refought.
Weak leaders cause bad policy. Take this for example. This
week in my inbox, I came across an article that was examining some of the aid
that Canada has sent to the Ukraine. According to an article in the Epoch
Times, some of Canada’s donations to Ukraine fall under its “Feminist
International Assistance Policy”. This “Feminist International Assistance
Policy” was to fund a “Gender-Inclusive” demining effort in the Ukraine. What
that means in plain English is that Canada is sending money to Ukraine to make
sure that the Ukraine Army hires women to clear minefields that are left behind
by retreating Russian forces. Even though Ukraine’s women are better educated
and are not being conscripted into battle where they could be maimed or killed.
The total aid package announced by our current government to
Ukraine is 3 Billion Dollars of which 4 million dollars is to be used for this
inclusive mine-clearing operation. It's not bad enough that we send our sons
off to be injured or die in war, this government has a policy to send our
daughters off as well, all in the name of equality.
The Bible has several things to say
about bad leaders. Proverb 29:2 says, “2 When
the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people
groan.” A little further in the same Proverb it has
this to say to us, “12 If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.”
These are warnings against and identifiers of bad leaders. According to
the Bible, one metric that we can use to determine if a leader is wicked is that
people groan. Are we hearing any groaning in Canada today? Have we had our
leaders listening to lies? Perhaps lies from pharmaceutical companies? Do we
have media in this country that is covering for the leaders by lying as well? Or
by ignoring the lies? Perhaps in an effort to repay, in some way, the monies
that are covering the salaries of the reporters and news editors?
What about our justice system? Have bad policy decisions eroded
confidence in the justice system? Has bail reform brought in through the years,
resulted in more of a catch-and-release system than a real justice system? I’m
not blaming the current government for all of these policies, I’m just noticing
the rapid change, and dare I say, decline of Canada in the past 8 or nine
years.
Now, I’m not getting political here. I’m not trying to influence in any
way who you should vote for. We live in a free country, for now, and you have
the right to place your vote for whichever candidate you feel comfortable with.
I am just pointing out that policy decisions have real-world consequences. Oftentimes,
our leaders are influenced by the voices of a minority who have maneuvered
their way into positions of influence over our leaders. Then the views and
opinions of the minority affect how everyone lives.
On the whole, have progressive policies made life in Canada better? Are
we a more moral country now that we have removed prayer from schools or public
events? I was sharing with a friend the other night that I like watching
motorsports. NASCAR is one of the sports that I follow and one of the reasons
is that before each race they usually have a pastor offer up a prayer to God
for a safe event. Public prayer at a redneck event. I’m sure not everyone in
NASCAR is a Christian, but they almost all bow their heads in respect while the
prayer is being offered. Fox Sports usually broadcasts the prayer as well
during the telecast.
That’s just one small example of how far away from God we have drifted
as a nation. Do we even consider the faith of the politicians that we elect? If
we want a moral country with moral laws, it starts by electing moral leaders.
Once a politician is caught lying to us, or found to violate some ethics
ruling, they should be recalled and replaced with someone new. Or, at the very
least, not allowed to run again in the next election.
Proverbs 16 is a great piece of wisdom for leaders and citizens alike.
The Kings referred to in the Proverb are assumed to be righteous and
God-fearing. The type of leaders that we should expect to rule over us. Turn
with me to Proverbs 16 and let’s look at that together. Proverbs 16 is found on
page 524 of the Pew Bible.
READ PROVERBS 16
So this brings us
to our second point of the sermon, leaders are still answerable to God.
Proverbs 16:5 made it clear that the LORD detests the proud of heart, they will
not go unpunished. How many times have we seen leaders ignore the cries of the
electorate and still push through policies that benefit the few rather than
society as a whole? The most recent example I can think of was a relatively
local one. The City of Calgary introduced a blanket rezoning bylaw that would
allow all kinds of high-density housing to take place in every neighborhood
across the city to take place. Despite several days of public consultation and
over 7,000 submissions from the public, the majority of who were against this
blanket rezoning, the city council passed the bylaw. I’m not going to say
whether it was a good policy or not, but what I am asking is, if they are
willing to listen to the public when there is a major mobilization by the
public, then who are they listening to?
I know some of you
come from a faith background that teaches the church and the world should
remain separate. I’m not sure our culture can afford to think that way for much
longer. The pendulum has swung almost too far to the progressive left. The
church has remained silent on too many issues. We have not let our influence be
felt enough with our lawmakers. A lot of this silence was a result of mistaken
policies that determined we had to be meek in order to be winsome for the
Gospel. This was a man-centered approach to evangelism. It ignored the words
that we just read from Proverbs 16 how the LORD works out everything to its
proper end. There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads
to death. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the
LORD. I could go on and on with the verses that speak to God’s sovereignty. We
must never forget that very comforting thought. When we share the Gospel, God
has gone before us and has either opened that person’s eyes and ears to the
message, or He has hardened their hearts for a time to reject the Gospel.
Either way, we are not responsible for the results, we are only to go forth and
obey by sharing the message of Jesus Christ
Now, we have seen
this before in history. The very conservative Victorian era was a direct
response to the loose morals and injustices of the Georgian era that preceded
it in England. The Georgian era was marked by strict class distinctions and unfair
labor practices against women and children in an effort to grow the industrial
revolution. Unequal justice was dispensed between the aristocrats and the
working class. Oftentimes, rights were ignored in favor of individuals with status.
The African slave trade operated at its height at this time.
The result? There
was mass migration to Canada and the American colonies. People found hope in
the new evangelical movements such as the Presbyterians, Congregationalists,
Baptists, Methodists, and Quakers. Revivalism was a big thing and many came to
Christ through revival meetings and traveling itinerant preachers.
I feel we are on
the cusp of something similar today in the West. There is revival going on now
primarily in Africa and Asia, but I am hearing whispers of discontent from
younger people who are waking up to the insanity of the woke crowd. This is a
time of boldness for the church. We should be speaking the truth
unapologetically into peoples’ lives without being rude, judgmental, or quarrelsome.
We can be passionate about Jesus without getting caught up in emotional
arguments. Simply present the truth of the Gospel and show what the Bible says
about these matters. Show how you follow what the Bible teaches, not just what
you think life should be like.
Let’s return to
today’s passage and we are going to jump down to verse 20. “20 Jerusalem has had
powerful kings ruling over the whole of Trans-Euphrates, and taxes, tribute and
duty were paid to them.” In preparation for this message, I did a quick review
of all the Jewish Kings that the Israelites had ruling over them from Saul to Zedekiah.
Of the 42 Kings and 1 Queen who ruled over the Jewish Kingdoms established by
Yahweh, only 9 could be considered good or better than good. 3 were neutral in
their ruling, they were either good but not better, non-compliant, or wayward.
The rest varied from bad or rebellious, to wicked, evil, or idolatrous. Only
21% of the Kings were considered good which means that 8 out of 10 rulers were
neutral or worse. No wonder the people continuously walked away from God. So
this begs the question: do the people or the leaders cause the degradation of
the culture? In a democracy, we have a bit more control and influence over the
direction, provided we do not withdraw but remain engaged with the issues and
the politicians.
When we refuse to hold our leaders to account for the ills that they do,
they will just continue on the same path unchecked. Even church leaders are to
be held to account. This brings us to the final point of today’s sermon: The church is not
immune to weak leaders.
The Bible is clear
on how church leaders are to function. Jeremiah 23:1 and 2 can apply to both
secular and church leadership, but I think it carries a more ominous warning
for those who “tend to God’s people”, “1Woe to the shepherds who are
destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore
this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my
people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not
bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have
done,” declares the LORD.” It is a warning to church leaders to not be too
contentious or too arrogant in you actions and decisions that could cause
divisions in the church.
Church splits are
all too common today, and people are quick to be offended while only
concentrating on what affects them personally rather than what is beneficial to
the church as a whole.
1 Timothy chapter
three has some very convicting words. Let me tell you, I am just as convicted
by these words as I hope you are. They cause me to examine my life and look to
clean up the areas where I am not maintaining the standard that God set here.
We don’t have time to go over the whole section, but verses 1 to 12 of Chapter
3 are very convicting. Let’s zero in on what verses 4 and 5 say to us, “4 He must manage his own family well and see that his
children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 (If
anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of
God’s church?).” Paul is referring to those who are the
shepherds, the primary leaders of the church, the elders, and pastors. Or what
we call board members here at Mountain View Church. God calls us to be good stewards
of all that He places us in charge of.
Jesus gives us further insight as to the attitude and approach we are to
take when we are in leadership roles within the church. Mark 10: 42-45 says, “42 Jesus called
them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over
them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become
great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to
be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many.”
It is from these verses that the term “servant-leadership” originated.
We, who are in church leadership can be bold, but we must also be humble. We
are not to “lord it over” those who we lead. Respect must be earned not
demanded. Obedience to God’s Word is taught by first modeling it in our lives.
We have the best example of all, in the life of Jesus Christ. A member
of the Trinity, a being and a person who was God but also stepped down from
Heaven and entered into His creation through time and history. This God also
became a man and added human flesh to His perfect Being. He lived a perfect and
sinless life as an example for us. But, more than just an example, He lived a
perfect life so that he would become the suitable substitutionary sacrifice for
our sins.
Jesus lived a perfect life so that He could satisfy our sin-debt to the
Father, thus allowing us to once again be in a right relationship with God,
based solely on the Righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, who bestows that
righteousness on us as a gift we call Grace. The Bible describes our good deeds
as filthy rags. These are removed from us and we wear the Royal Robe of
Righteousness when we accept the Gift of Grace.
While Shepherds are to be kind and gentle most of the time. There are
occasions when the shepherd must defend and protect the flock. The words from
Acts 20:28-29 offer us guidance in these instances “28 Keep
watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, y which he bought
with his own blood. a 29 I know that after I
leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.”
The Book of Acts goes on to warn that these wolves will try to draw away
disciples after them. They will distort the teachings of Jesus, to gain
followers or fame for themselves. Perhaps money is their main motivation. This
is why I believe in congregational-led churches. Elders and pastors are
important for the care of the flock, but the congregation is to care for the
theology of the church. They are to be the ones who act like the Bereans and
check to make sure that what is being preached is correct, and they are to
guard the doctrine of the church against cultural drift by the denomination as
well.
CONCLUSION
What about you? The average guy and gal sitting in the
chairs. I’m going to start with the wider picture. What is your obligation
towards God? I have been emphasizing obedience and what the Bible says about believers
being obedient to God’s teaching, but what other ways are we to be obedient?
Malachi
3:8-10 challenges us with these instructions, “8 “Will a
mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole
nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe
into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” We are to make sure that we are giving to God all that He deserves. When
we hit hard times, is when He challenges us to test Him and see if He will
remain faithful or not. Giving our tithes and offerings is a form of worship to
God and a way that we demonstrate belief in His faithfulness.
The author of Hebrews gives us further counsel
in chapter thirteen. We don’t have time to go through the entire chapter 13 of
Hebrews but let’s zero in on verse 17, “17 Have
confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep
watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work
will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.” Be
willing to submit to the decisions of the board and the entire leadership team.
Be open to the counsel of your pastor and board members. If they are following
God, then they should be listened to.
This next
bit is where I will open myself to the most criticism. Because of this possibility,
most pastors fail to teach these areas of the Bible because it can be
uncomfortable and it opens them to accusations of twisting Scripture for
personal gain.
1 Timothy 5:17-18
says, “17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well
are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and
teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it
is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves
his wages.” As a way of explanation, I am going to quote a passage from John
Piper’s website “Desiring God”.
So I would
say 1 Timothy 5:17 — “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of
double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” — probably
means, “Be doubly sure that the elders are honored and are paid enough to meet
their needs, like the widows.” And the fact that he says, “especially those who
labor in preaching and teaching” probably implies with the word labor that this
is their job. They are giving themselves to the flock, and the flock should
take care of them financially with a double sense of duty that they feel for
the widows. Not that the elders are more valuable as human beings than the
widows, but that, along with the value of the person, there’s the huge value of
the ministry of the word — labor in preaching and teaching — on which the whole
life of the community rests.
Pastor John
goes on, “So, my counsel to churches would be that the basic principle for
pastoral remuneration would be something like this: Let it be a reflection of
the honor you put on the ministry of the word of God. And let it be a
commitment to lift financial burdens from the pastor so that he can give
himself totally to prayer and to the word and to the flock.
And if it
comes to mind that we need to safeguard against a pastor’s greed, the answer to
that concern is that it should have been taken care of when the church assessed
the elder’s or the pastor’s fitness for the office at the very beginning.
Because 1 Timothy 3:3 says an overseer must not be “a lover of money.” You
don’t even hire somebody who looks like he might be in it for the money. So,
the summary, then, is this: don’t call a pastor who’s trying to get rich, and
don’t be a church that’s trying to keep him poor.”[i]
If you wish
to think about this further, I encourage you to find the Sermon on my blog, the
address is on the bulletin and there is a link from the church’s website.
Pastor
Paul’s Points:
1) Weak leaders cause bad policy.
2) Leaders are still answerable to God.
3) The Church is not immune to
weak leaders.
Questions
to meditate on this week:
1. How far should Christians get
involved in politics?
2. What standards should we hold our
leaders to?
3. How can we help our church leaders be
the best that they can be?
[i]
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-much-should-pastors-make#:~:text=And%20here's%20what%20it%20says,7%2C%20calling%20them%20both%20Scripture.
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