Stirred up to go where God leads

The title of my sermon this morning on Ezra 1 is Stirred Up to Go Where God Leads, and

I want to have our focus on that climax in that text that Jono read to us so well.

Verse 5, Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests

and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of

the Lord that is in Jerusalem, Ezra 1.5.

I invite you to pray with me before we turn to God's word.

Dear Father, we ask that you would tune our hearts to hear your word this morning, that

you would give us a renewed sense of delight in your word, of delight in being with your

people in your house.

We ask that our thoughts and all of our doings today as we go forth from here will also be

pleasing to you in your sight.

We ask that you would strengthen us for the tasks we face ahead.

This we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

It's quite something preaching from up here, having seen the particular play that happened

here some nights ago, Stella and I come.

And so it's a little bit of cultural whiplash, I guess you could say, knowing what action took

place here, having Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.

It's great.

But that's why our prayer book, it's a prayer book, as J.I.

Packer says, a prayer book for real people in real places and real situations.

So as I think of the gospel coming into this scene here, I think it's great.

What motivates someone to dedicate himself or herself to a major task or life work?

No doubt there's something of a mystery there because I suppose any number of things could

come together to lead us in one direction as opposed to another.

But my guess is that if you go up and ask someone who has stayed with something for the long haul,

as we say, if you ask them what led you to do that, they'll probably say that they had a strong sense

that there was nothing else that they should be doing or that they would rather do.

Well, in our text in Ezra this morning, that's what happened to a whole group of exiled Jews

as God himself gave them a strong determination to leave what they knew behind and to go to Jerusalem

to rebuild Solomon's temple that lay in ruins.

It's that stirring that I want us to reflect on this morning, specifically,

how it came about, what it teaches us about God and his ways, and what it might mean for us today.

As many of you know, our rector has now arrived in Rwanda to attend the Global Anglican Future Conference,

otherwise known as GAFCON, which begins tomorrow.

And as we face something of a real regathering and restructuring in the Global Anglican Movement,

I think there's a sense that God has been, and is now even, stirring many hearts toward a new beginning,

a reformation even, where faithfulness to God's word is paramount.

I certainly feel that stirring myself, particularly as I think of the moment of great upheaval God is allowing us to go through.

And that is reflected in the life that we see reflected in the life of the church throughout the world.

Now, good historical sense, I think, teaches us to be careful in drawing conclusions about the present moment we're going through

that are too precise or overly precise.

However, I think it's safe to say that the dividing line between two churches, effectively,

is becoming more and more apparent every day.

It happens to cut right through Christian denominations and not between them.

One is a church that is positively comfortable in Babylon,

and as such is determined formally to bless behaviors in the area of sexual ethics.

We've heard about a lot.

I won't spell out details, but in the area of sexual ethics that God forbids,

as if Scripture and the Spirit who inspired them could be kind of set against each other.

The other is a church that believes that all things that pertain to our salvation in this life and the next

are abundantly clear in Scripture,

and so is prepared to leave behind certain church structures that have been so familiar

and have given us so much,

and yet move in a direction that may not be clear in every way.

Now, I'm not here to suggest that once we've embarked, by God's grace,

on the road to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple,

that the dividing line between believers and non-believers is neat and tidy,

because it isn't.

But what I do hope we'll see this morning is how gracious God is in bringing his people,

that remnant that he keeps for himself,

to a place where we can begin afresh,

where we can say that he's been faithful to his promise,

and that he will show us the way ahead as we trust in him.

So in the weeks ahead, we'll be studying Ezra and Nehemiah.

Really, it's one book,

and it's my privilege while George has gone to get this study launched.

So before we look into Ezra 1,

let me just remind you of the situation that God's people found themselves in at the time.

Ever since Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king,

had carried many Judeans into Babylon,

and then sometime later,

in 586 B.C.,

destroyed Jerusalem and the temple there,

God's people found themselves in captivity.

For centuries, they had experienced gradual decline.

If they were thinking of their glory days,

with David and Solomon,

when they enjoyed,

well, they enjoyed a clear national identity,

they would have to be thinking about 400 years back.

To recall their entry into the land of Canaan,

they had to go back another 400 years.

And now in exile,

where most of them had been born,

prophets like Ezekiel reminded them of their homeland.

And so did Psalm 137,

which gave them these words.

By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept

when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there we hung up our lyres,

for there our captors required of us songs,

and our tormentors mirth,

saying,

Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

And then is the reply,

How, though,

shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

Now according to Daniel,

himself an exiled prophet,

God is a God who removes kings

and sets up kings.

Daniel 2.11.

I beg your pardon, 2.21.

So it comes to pass in 538 B.C.

that Nebuchadnezzar's grandson,

King Belshazzar,

is overthrown by the Persians and the Medes.

And Cyrus comes to power.

What we need to know about Cyrus

is that about 160 years earlier,

Isaiah had prophesied that God would call

and use him for his own purposes.

Here's what the Lord had said to him

through Isaiah in chapter 45,

and verses 4 and 5.

For the sake of my servant Jacob

and Israel my chosen,

I call you by your name.

I name you,

though you do not know me.

I am the Lord,

and there is no other.

Besides me, there is no God.

I equip you,

though you do not know me.

And then, jumping ahead,

another about 110 years

before the fulfillment of that prophecy,

God says through Jeremiah,

when 70 years are completed for Babylon,

I will visit you,

and I will fulfill to you

my promise and bring you back to this place.

So that brings us to Ezra.

So if you have that handy,

whatever format,

it would be great if you could

just have an eye there

on the first four verses that Jono read,

verses 1 to 4 of Ezra 1.

Because I want to highlight four things

that we wouldn't want to miss

in this passage,

in that decree of Cyrus.

If we are ultimately trying to understand

how God moved a people

in the direction of Jerusalem,

we need to know that God

had first stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.

And how did that come about?

Well, we can't be sure

what motivated Cyrus,

humanly speaking.

Maybe he was impressed

with Isaiah's prophecy

and wanted to show some regard for it.

Maybe he just wanted to show

a more tolerant and enlightened

view of things

compared to his predecessors.

The point here is this.

Whatever his personal motives,

the text tells us

that it was God actually

at work,

moving him.

And the second detail

to notice is that Cyrus,

by speaking of Yahweh

as the God of heaven,

was apparently ready

to acknowledge

that there is one supreme God

by whose authority

he, Cyrus,

now reigned over all

the kingdoms of the earth.

Now, the new king

wasn't necessarily boasting here.

He had taken over

the kingdoms

that had belonged

to Nebuchadnezzar.

And according to Daniel,

Nebuchadnezzar's reign

reached to the ends

of the earth.

So he was just

repeating that,

if you like.

But the third thing

to notice

is that Cyrus

did not know

the living God

in the way

that the living God

knew him,

as Isaiah

had prophesied.

On the one hand,

he acknowledged

that it was

his task

to see

that the house,

that a house

was built

in Jerusalem.

And so he proclaimed

that the Jews

were free

to go do

just that.

In fact,

he put it in writing

so that it could be

disseminated

throughout the land.

At the same time,

Cyrus took their God

to be a territorial God.

The God

who is in Jerusalem,

as written

in the decree.

That's why

one commentary

sets this proclamation

within the context

of Cyrus'

wider agenda

that we can call

his plan

for the resettlement

of foreign gods,

PRFG.

With that policy,

he allowed

the gods

of earlier conquerors

to be taken back

to their original lands.

And in doing that,

Cyrus

had just one request.

He said,

please,

when you

pray to your gods,

ask them

to ask

my gods

to give me

long life.

The fourth detail

to notice

is that while

Cyrus remains

a pagan,

God still

chooses to work

through his policy,

his enlightened policy

on religious affairs,

to speed the exiles

on their way

to Jerusalem.

He decrees

that friends

and neighbors,

presumably,

not just Jewish neighbors,

but others,

are to gather up

treasures

and provisions

that the Jews

will need

for their journey.

then we come

to verse 5,

what I'm calling here

the climax

of the passage.

I'll just read it again.

Then rose up

the heads

of the fathers

houses of Judah

and Benjamin

and the priests

and Levites,

everyone

whose spirit

God had stirred

to go up

to rebuild

the house

of the Lord

that is in Jerusalem.

I think I've chosen

it as the

theme verse.

Well,

let me explain.

We're considering

how God

has been at work.

He's prepared

a way

for a new order

in the land

with Cyrus

now in charge.

He's made use

of a particular

political agenda

so that it favors

his people,

God's people.

And through means

of his choosing,

he has stirred up

Cyrus' spirit

to issue

this proclamation

of glad tidings

and to see to it

that it's enforced.

Now,

he brings all this

together with his

chosen people's

longing for their

homeland,

which he has also

kept alive

in them,

incidentally,

through means

of his choosing.

Always means.

And consider

God's method

in verse 5.

First,

he sets the face

of some,

the senior

members of the

houses of Judah

and Benjamin

towards Jerusalem.

Then he takes

the priests

and the Levites

and he sets them

behind them,

as it were.

And then he,

finally,

he,

to that group,

he adds many,

many more,

working in their

hearts,

a determination

to follow

where their

political

and religious

leaders

are taking them

to go out

like Abraham

did so long

ago.

Well,

the remaining

verses tell us

how God's promise

did not lack

his provision

because the

provisions were

more than abundant

and even Cyrus

came forward

at that point,

didn't he?

Having done

his own

gathering

about 50

years earlier,

as I mentioned

with Nebuchadnezzar,

he didn't just

take away

the Judeans,

he took away

the precious

things from

the temple,

all the temple

vessels,

gold and silver

basins and

bowls and so

forth,

and installed

those in

his own

temple where

they would

have been

used in

the worship

of idols.

And now

Cyrus is saying,

here,

take them

back,

take them

with you

and may

your God

go with you.

Let's

think about

working our

way towards

applying this

passage to

our own

lives.

You might

be asking,

well,

okay,

so all the

Jews packed

up and left,

didn't they?

Well,

if my

sources are

correct,

only about

one in

six did.

And they

did that

in three

waves of

emigration.

The first

led by

Zerubbabel

or Zerubbabel

would see

to the

rebuilding

of the

temple first.

And then

the second

wave would

get to see

the law

established

with Ezra,

the priest.

And then

the third

wave led

by Nehemiah

the governor

would see

the city

rebuilt

and the

walls.

So why

did so

few,

relatively

speaking,

leave?

Well,

from a

human side,

we can

assume

several

reasons.

Group A

would have

been physically

unable to

make the

journey.

Someone in

group B

would have

said,

well,

this is the

world I

know.

I've made

my home

here and I

have people

to care

for.

A member

of group

C might

have said,

if I

leave,

it's going

to break

up my

family.

And in

any case,

I can

pray to

God right

here.

And we

can imagine

a group

D,

too.

Members of

this group

would have

been discouraged

about the

prospect of

going to

Jerusalem

itself.

The city

was in

ruins and

held by

enemies in

any case.

and the

journey

ahead

would be

rough.

And so

if we

ask,

well,

so was

it wrong

for them

to stay

behind?

And here

I think

something

that J.C.

Ryle had

to say

can be

helpful.

In his

sermon,

A Call

to Prayer,

he wrote

this,

it is not

absolutely

needful to

salvation

that a

person should

read the

Bible.

A person

may have

no learning

or be

blind and

yet have

Christ in

their heart.

It is not

absolutely

needful that

a person

should hear

public

preaching of

the gospel.

They may

live where

the gospel

is not

preached,

or they

may be

bedridden

or deaf.

But the

same thing

cannot be

said about

prayer.

It is

absolutely

needful to

salvation

that a

person

should

pray.

Now,

applied to

Ezra and

Nehemiah's

day,

what I

think

Ryle

would say

here is

that the

exiles who

remained in

Babylon could

still call

out to the

living God

and be

saved.

The logic

is the

same.

It

wasn't

absolutely

essential

for them

to get

to Jerusalem.

So the

natural

question would

be,

well,

why go

up to

Jerusalem

in that

case?

Well,

hold that

thought as

I try to

sum up

what I

think we've

learned in

the passage

about God

and his

way of

working.

Now,

the bullet

point version

would simply

be this.

God

speaks,

God

moves in

human

hearts,

God

directs,

God

provides and

preserves

what is

his.

God

speaks,

God

moves human

hearts,

God

directs,

God

provides and

preserves

what is

his.

The first

two of

these remind

us that

God works

through his

word and

spirit

together.

From one

side,

God

speaks.

Notice how

the passage

gives priority

to his

word,

that the

word of

the Lord

might be

fulfilled.

And what

he has

spoken,

among other

things,

is a

promise

that he

keeps.

From the

other side,

the underside

if you like,

the side of

the human

heart,

God moves

within

those hearts,

stirring

them up,

stirring up

even a

pagan

ruler to

do his

bidding.

And other

hearts to

receive the

promise and

to take

hold of

it.

And the

second two

also form a

kind of

pair.

they express

what we

might call

a doctrine

of direction

and provision.

That is,

God directs,

pointing his

people to

Jerusalem,

and he

says,

go,

and I'll

go with

you.

And then

from the

other side,

God provides

what is

needed for

the journey

and preserves

what we'll

need for

the task

that faces

us.

Now,

if we ask

what holds

all that

together,

well,

we can say

it's God's

providence.

I like

Burkopf's

definition,

brief,

succinct.

He says

that divine

providence

is that

work of

God by

which he

preserves

all his

creatures,

is active

in all

that transpires

in the

world,

and directs

all things

to their

appointed

end.

In other

words,

we can say

that what

moves the

world along

is not

some

impersonal

principle

force,

but a

personal,

wise,

and good

God.

What's

remarkable

is that

the doctrine

comes to

focus in

Jesus.

That's

because the

writer to

the Hebrews

says that

Christ

upholds the

universe

by the

word,

by his

word of

power,

Hebrews 1

and verse

3.

Now,

that's a

glorious

doctrine that

we can

truly delight

in.

The reason

is that

it reminds

us that

God is

working out

his purposes

right in

the middle

of human

history.

He takes

the real

stuff of

history,

political

movements,

social

realities,

quirky

motives that

we bring,

sadness by

the waters

of Babylon,

all of it.

He takes

all of it

and he

bends it

towards the

fulfillment of

his plan.

To do

what?

Well,

to sum

up all

things in

Christ and

to bring

all things

under his

authority.

Now,

in the midst

of that,

he knows

who belongs

to him

because both

the call

that stirs

up spirits

and the

reason why

some spirits

are stirred

while others

aren't are

in his

hands.

The timing

of all of it

remains with

him and

not us.

Our duty

is simply

spelled out

there in

Psalm 97.

Today,

if you

hear his

voice,

harden not

your heart.

Today,

if you

hear his

voice,

harden not

your heart.

So,

with that,

I think we

can come

back to that

question.

Why the

need to

get to

Jerusalem

if God's

people can

call on

him anywhere?

dogma.

Well,

in our

own day

of stirring

towards that

new beginning

in the

global church,

why the

need to

leave behind

structures

where we've

been baptized,

catechized,

nurtured,

if it's still

possible to

call on God

from within

them?

Here I'm

reminded how

even John

Calvin,

the great

reformer,

wrote that

the Babylon

of his

day,

the papacy,

insofar as it

stood in

opposition to

God's word contain God's people still, if in a hidden way. And the flip side is surely true.

What I mean is that at some point or another, some Jews would have just gone along for the ride,

so to speak. And even once in Jerusalem, and this is probably even more to the point,

we'll see in the weeks ahead that the leaders were going to face challenges not only from outside

God's household, but from within it, as some would show with their lifestyles and with their

actions, how much their hearts were still in exile.

By the same token, it's very likely in our day that some will publicly identify with the new

beginning in the global Christian movement, coming out of churches that have undermined central truths

of the gospel, as we believe, or attaching themselves to these new emerging movements,

while their hearts and minds won't be tuned to God's word and promise. And yet, and yet, I think

we need to say this. The one fundamental reason why you or I should come out of a structure in which

grave error has entered the citadel, as Calvin put it, is that God has stirred our heart to do it.

That's the basic reason. The passage itself gives us tools for discernment of that reason, but that's

the fundamental reason. So how to, and what, the rest of what I want to share with you, I want to share

orientation principles that I think are in our text to help us discern just that.

I call them orientation principles because they relate to how we look to the future,

how we look to the past, and how we think about our present. In the first place, Ezra 1 teaches us

how to look ahead, how to fix our eyes on God's promise. In the light of the New Testament,

the new Jerusalem we long for, the city of the great king is there. It's there, and it's coming.

The beauty and glory of that truth was something I desperately needed to hear and to be reminded of

one day when I was wandering in a kind of spiritual fog as a graduate student, a few years back, I won't

tell you how many. I happened to wander into the recording section of the library at the University

of British Columbia where I was studying, and I picked out a record at random from the gospel collection.

You remember those recording sections used to have those old vinyl records.

And I played that song, somehow I came to play the song, We're Marching to Zion.

You probably know the words. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. Maybe it was something about the beauty that

captured me, I don't know. But I can really say that the words, those simple words, stirred my heart.

So I actually walked out of that library somehow with new hope.

And if that stirring was from God, and I trust that it was, it was because it came purely

from his mercy. It represented the start of a new beginning as I could stop looking within to my own

resources for direction and for confidence about my own sense of direction, but rather with Abraham

to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God, as Hebrews 11.10 puts it.

And it represented the birth of a new longing for truth in me, together with holiness.

A passion that I believe God increases in our hearts. He works in our hearts as we remain

by his grace on that road to Zion.

A second thing that our passage teaches us is how to look to the past with the same grateful hearts.

I just want to share, speaking for myself again, that I'm not the greatest example here on looking

to the past. Because by temperament, I think I might have spoken about my dad here from this pulpit

before. Well, anyway, he is the kind of fellow who, well, I'm not at all like him.

And he, because he's the kind of fellow who's always, as long as I can remember, always pressing

toward the finish line, which is an apt metaphor for him because, well, he was an expert half mile

runner when he was a student at Mississippi State University. I thought he probably could have gone

to the Olympics. I don't know. And I'm one, by contrast, who tends to dwell in the past. I don't

know. Maybe you're like me. I don't know. If given a chance, I'm really one of those who tries to find

a way to relive past moments that I think are worth reliving. That's just the way I seem to be wired.

But by vocation, as a presbyter, of course, I'm supposed to be out in front, right? I'm supposed to

be out in front leading the way to Jerusalem. But by temperament, I'm more comfortable sticking

around in Babylon. And I know this because growing up, I was part of a group called Operation

Mobilization. How many of you have heard of it? Okay. Several of you have heard of it. Well,

the leader of that organization, just as a footnote, he died two days ago. And he and my father were

roommates back in their time in Bible college. And so all to say Operation Mobilization, which has

this kind of militaristic sound and also the mobilized part. Well, for the life of me, I could

not figure out or come to terms with the mobilized part. My relatives in Mississippi or Arkansas would

have said, with the cotton pickin' mobilized part. I wondered, why is the Christian life all about going

somewhere? And we did seem to always be pulling up stakes. Maybe that trained me for scouting.

As a partial cure to my nostalgic temperament, I found something C.S. Lewis wrote very helpful.

I don't remember the exact words, but the idea was basically this. If we find ourselves longing for

the past, what we're actually longing for was a particular future that we were looking forward to

in that moment. A particular future we were leaning into, if you like, in that moment. So what that means,

I think, is that it's not the naked moment itself that would satisfy us, even if we could have it.

The rest of the cure, if you like, comes from the reminder of God's providence, as we see here in

Ezra 1. God has brought us where we are, rescuing us from enslavement to sin, giving us a new start.

And since he transcends all our moments, even while holding them all in his hand, we can leave it to him to

gather up, gather them all up, and make and give them meaning. Maybe it's a little bit like this. As long as we

look ahead, fixing our eyes on Jesus, our past can be truly meaningful, because it's only in light of the

future that we see something of how God was working in past moments to draw us to himself, like that

moment in the library, maybe. Well, in the third place, we can take from Ezra 1 an orientation principle

that helps us to think about the present moment. And under this third heading, if you'll forgive me,

I have three very brief points in conclusion. It's always having third point, three points, but it's

not that complicated. This is my last point, and it has three brief sub-points. In the first place,

it's only because past and future are real that the present makes any sense at all.

Now, the Buddha was alive when, roughly, when the time we're talking about was happening, and

there is, in kind of a Buddhist-inspired popular thought, the idea that we should just learn to

live in the present moment. After all, the future and the past are to be thought of as illusions.

What matters is that we live in the eternal now, where we learn to make our roads as we walk them.

As we think of that poem from Antonio Machado, the road is made as you walk it. But in the light

of Ezra 1, we can be confident that the journey between here and the new Jerusalem isn't one that

we have to make up as we go along. And why is that? Well, it's precisely because Jesus himself

has already made that road. We have a real road to walk on, and it leads to where he is.

And in the second place, we can think about that journey as a real means of grace.

As a real means of grace. Sometimes we're inclined to think of that first journey that the Judeans made

to Jerusalem as a mere type and shadow of what was to come. Well, and in light of its fulfillment,

of course, it was a type and shadow of the journey to the city that is yet to come. But for those who

were moved by God's Spirit to go, it was nothing less than a means of grace, the instrument God had chosen

to keep us, to keep them in his care, as he does with us today as we remain in prayer, as we hear God's word,

as we celebrate the sacraments in the life of the church.

So I think it's the same with us today, and I think I will try to be bold saying this, as we work towards

a regathered and restored Anglican communion, where we can be confident that the pure word of God is proclaimed,

and where with David we can learn to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple.

And finally, as we follow where God leads, we can trust that he'll provide and preserve what's his.

We can trust that the decisions and actions of our political leaders are not out of his control.

We can be thankful, too, for our elders in the faith and pray that they, too, will stick to their main task.

And along with the provision of leaders, we can also trust that God will provide for our physical needs.

But he also preserves what's his, as he did with those temple vessels.

What is that precisely?

Well, what belongs to him are his statutes, his ordinances, his testimonies, his word, in short.

And he promises that his word will accomplish what he has purposed for it, Isaiah 55, 11.

So even after periods of neglect or even abuse, which is not beyond even a reformation movement,

we constantly, this need to be ongoing reformation.

So even after periods of neglect and abuse of God's word, as it happens naturally in Babylon,

there comes a day when God stirs up hearts afresh, causing us to pray that he'll send his word with power once again.

Now, in light of that, I can't think of a more fitting closing prayer than what we find in Psalm 43 and verse 3.

So I'm going to pray that as a concluding prayer.

Amen.

Send out your light and your truth.

Let them lead me.

Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.