Ezra 5:3-6:16 - God's People

Well, church, as I said, we are in Ezra.

A couple weeks ago we covered Ezra 5, verse 1 and 2.

Ezra 5:1

And this week we're going to go all the way through chapter 5 and chapter 6.

So today is the first Sunday of Advent.

Advent is a season leading up to Christmas where we remember the first Advent, the first coming of Christ, knowing that there will be a second Advent when he does return.

And as we go through the next four or five weeks this week, this first Sunday in Advent, we're in Ezra.

And then the other four weeks leading up to, and then Christmas Day, as we gather, we will be in Romans chapter 8 for an Advent series.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And this is what we're going to be talking about King Jesus and what it means to belong to him.

Now that's what we talk about every Sunday, praise the Lord.

But we are going to dive into Romans chapter 8 about the citizenship of those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

So this language of kingdom, God's kingdom, Christ's kingdom, might be familiar to you.

Maybe you've heard that before.

You've heard people talking about that.

You've read that in the scriptures.

There's lots of verses about that.

Or it might be foreign to you.

You've never really heard about this other kingdom.

God's kingdom does not have borders.

It's not like other kingdoms or nations.

God's kingdom, his kingdom is made up of his people.

His people.

The church.

They belong to him.

It's sustained by him.

He has redeemed his kingdom.

And his kingdom will never cease.

And maybe you've heard the phrase, the already and the not yet.

This tension.

It's in reference to this kingdom that we live in.

We live in the already and the not yet.

God's kingdom has already begun.

We're already a part of it.

We're already a part of an eternal kingdom.

But it's not yet fully established.

It's not yet fully here.

So we feel this tension, not yet fully here, yet anticipating it.

First Chronicles 29, 15 says, For we are strangers in aliens, as all our fathers were.

Our days on earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.

Because we belong to a different kingdom.

And so as we get into Ezra and Nehemiah, you will see this theme.

It's his people.

So a few weeks ago we looked at chapter 5 and chapter 4 before that.

There's this idea of this tension, this opposition to those who are rebuilding the temple.

All through chapter 4, all this opposition.

And then in chapter 5, we kind of read the story through the prophets Haggai and Zachariah, that they just kind of chilled out.

They faced opposition, and so they stopped working, and they just were lazy in their obedience to God.

So these prophets rebuke them.

And so they get back to work.

And that's when we pick it up in verse 3.

Let's go back to chapter 5, verse 2.

Then Zerubbabel the son of Sheiltiel, and Jeshua the son of Jehosedak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

At that same time, Tatanai, the governor of the province beyond the river, and Shether Bozane and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus.

Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?

They also asked them, What are the names of the men who are building this building?

But the eye of the of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report should reach Darius, and then an answer should be returned by letter concerning them.

So right out the gate, they're seeking to be obedient, and there's more opposition.

I feel like we've it's been it's been weeks now.

We're just talking about opposition, opposition.

Again, they seek to obey, and then there's opposition.

Now, one of the themes we'll see in this book, and we'll see in our lives, and we'll see throughout Christian history, in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, is there is opposition to God's people, to his kingdom.

Opposition comes.

It's not always, it's not from everyone, but opposition does come.

The world opposes God's people.

So right upon their obedience, opposition comes.

But as believers in Jesus Christ, this should not strike us as an anomaly.

James chapter 1, verse 2 and 2 through 4 says, Count in all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

James 1:2

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

And steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So we live in a kingdom opposed.

But that doesn't surprise us because Christ prepared us for this.

James writing to the church saying, listen, don't be surprised when opposition comes.

But so often we want, we want to kind of map the opposition as well.

It's out there.

And it is, right?

The love of the world is opposed to Jesus Christ.

There's also opposition within our own hearts.

See, we live in a day and age, in a place, in a location where right now, in this season of life, there is not a whole lot of opposition from the world against us right now.

But there is great opposition from within.

Here in verses in Ezra, verses 11 and 12 in chapter 5.

These brothers know their history.

When they respond to this inquiry, why are you rebuilding this?

And they tell them, we've been ordered by the king, and they go on and say, This is why.

We, verses 11, we are the servants of the God of heaven and earth.

And we are building the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.

But because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldean who destroyed this house and carried away the people of Babylonia.

Carried them to Babylon.

So they're acknowledging in this.

This is what happened.

We were in this predicament because there was disobedience.

Because we didn't deal with the opposition in our own soul.

We were not seeking to be obedient.

Our fathers were not obedient.

And this is a good warning for us, church, this morning.

That yes, we need to be alert.

Yes, we need to have our head up and aware of what's going on around us and the opposition around us.

Because we do, we are a part of a kingdom that is opposed.

We need to know the opposition that is in us as well.

Desires, selfish desires.

Things we'd rather do than be obedient to Christ.

Again, like the first part of chapter five.

Lazy.

There's opposition.

We just want to kind of take it easy.

We don't want to obey all the commands.

We want to kind of obey.

There's opposition.

And then there is obedience.

These men were obedient to continue the work.

And then there's encouragement.

So this letter, another letter, I know, another letter gets sent back over to Babylon to Darius.

Darius reads the letter, he finds the archive, he says, Yep, this is what we're going to do.

And he writes back, and this is what he says, beginning in chapter 6, verse 1.

Then King Darius made a decree, and a search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives, where the documents were stored.

In the I can't even pronounce that city.

The citadel that was in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written.

A record in the first year of Cyrus the King.

Cyrus the King is uh issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem.

Let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained.

Its height shall be sixty cubits, and its breadth sixty cubits, and three layers of great stones, and one layer of timber, let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.

And also let the gold and silver and vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, and each to its place.

And you shall put them in the house of God.

So he sends this letter, let the work be continued, and whatever is needed.

They need rams, give it to them.

You need supplies, give it to them.

You need sheep, give it to them.

So he writes back and says, Whatever they need, give it to them.

Now, this doesn't always happen.

This kind of feels like it's beginning to be a theme in Ezra, right?

We know it happens again in chapter 7, we know it happens again in Nehemiah.

But the Lord does not always provide this through these means.

Sometimes the work does get shut down.

But they were encouraged to continue the work.

Encouragement comes upon obedience.

They did not say, well, we'll be obedient if the king writes back and says, you can continue the work.

Or we will be obedient if things kind of work out and we feel like we're just doing the right thing.

They were going to be obedient to what God had called them to.

And when they do that, man, God provides for his people.

It's amazing how God provides for his people.

We have such kind of linear, just basic, simple thinking when it comes to God and how he works.

We're so just simple.

To be clear, though, we're we're basic and simple people.

Right?

In order to build a house, you gotta know a couple things.

One, you gotta know things need to be square.

And we gotta start the foundation and work our way up, right?

And so that's kind of, we kind of take that logic and we begin to do life with that.

We think, well, I this is how the Lord works.

And the Lord is beyond those things.

He provides for his people, he accomplishes his plans and his purposes, he advances his kingdom in ways that are beyond our understanding, in ways we could never imagine or conceive.

He is so amazing.

Just a few weeks ago, Candace and I were we were just writing out ways that God has just financially provided for us in our five years of marriage.

Six years, five years of marriage.

We're working on the sixth.

How has the Lord provided for us?

Writing it out.

It was amazing.

Things you forget.

Money just came from places.

I don't even know where it's from.

People gave us money.

Like we just got like the Lord just provided.

And I don't know how, and I don't know why, but it just happens.

I couldn't go back and just plan for those things.

But you take steps of faith.

We were talking about this a couple weeks in our go in our CG, Connor was leading and talking about stewardship and what God, how we steward what God has given us, and how we're to steward well what He's given us.

And a great point that Wes and Andrew, they're just testifying to the truth of Acts 20, 35, which says it's more blessed to give than to receive.

We're just talking about how good it is.

Like you just give more to the Lord.

And this isn't like a get rich quick scheme.

Well, just slide in your retirement, and the Lord will bless that.

But as you're stewarding well what God has given you, just you give more.

And the Lord blesses that.

He honors that.

And so how encouraging it is that when you walk in obedience, God provides.

He provides.

He answers prayers.

Sometimes he gives you what you're praying for.

Sometimes he changes your heart about the thing you're praying for.

God provides for his people, he provides for his kingdom.

So Darius writes back.

Just give them whatever they need.

Give them whatever they need.

And this governor, like, he's just doing his job.

He's like, hey, you guys are rebuilding this thing.

Like, what's going on there?

I have some questions.

And he writes this letter, and the letter comes back and it tells him to give him whatever he wants.

And then comes a word of warning about this governor's obedience.

Look in verse 11 in chapter 6.

If I can find it here.

Also, this is Darius.

I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house.

He shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.

May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem.

I, Darius, make a decree.

Let it be done with all diligence.

Darius isn't a believer.

Like he's not following the God of Israel.

He doesn't love the God of Israel.

He probably believes he's a God, just like there's all these other gods out there.

He does not love the God of Israel.

Yet, God of the Bible, of Israel, is using him to advance his kingdom to fulfill his purposes.

He gives this command.

What's interesting is we see that command fulfilled in history.

So a commentator kind of mapped this out.

So then there's this guy named Antioch Epiphanes, who desecrated the temple in 167 BC.

He died insane three years later.

Herod the Great, who added extensively to the temple for his own glory, he had domestic troubles and he died of disease.

And the Romans came in in 70 AD and destroyed the temple.

And Rome was destroyed.

See, God is working even through unbelievers.

Someone who doesn't believe in the God of the Bible.

This is the goodness of the Lord.

This is how the Lord works.

Again, it's not linear or logical.

He just is faithful, he provides, and he works.

This is what God does for his people.

So there's a kingdom opposed, and then there's a decree that was made for this provision.

There's a completion and dedication of the temple.

So we see that they dedicate the temple.

And how is this done?

Look in verse 13 of chapter 6.

And then according to the words sent by Darius the King, Tadanai the governor of the province beyond the river, Shether, Bozane, their associates, did with all diligence what Darius the King had ordered.

And the elders and the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai and the prophet Zechariah, the son of Ido.

And they finished their building by decree of the God of Israel, and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

And this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of the Darius, of Darius the king.

So you see the Lord beginning to provide.

God's building his temple literally.

But he's using his word to build his people.

He's issuing this decree.

God's issuing his decree through his prophets, then God uses these foreign kings.

They're making decrees saying, this is what you need to do.

See, one of the things about Christians throughout all time and all places is we have been people of the word.

People who confess and profess the word.

We're never without it.

There isn't this like, well, the Bible, take it or leave it, you can find.

We are people of the book, people of God's decree.

And so he's building his people through King Jesus' decrees.

It's interesting.

In John, in the Gospel of John, it says in John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Colossians 3 16.

Listen to these last two verses I'm going to read.

Especially in a day and age where everything's passing away.

Matthew 24, 35 says, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

And then Isaiah 40, verse 8.

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God will stand forever.

Stand forever.

God's decree will stand forever.

The fads, the ideas, the politics, the nations, the borders, the people will all fade away.

Your hopes, your dreams, your life, your children's life fade away.

God's word will remain forever.

We are people of God's word.

This is a struggle for so many of us with our faith.

We don't spend enough time in God's word.

We open the word and we read it.

I don't really know what it says.

But we should open it, read it, pray through it, pray through it, talk about it with our family, with our friends.

Let's dig in on it, chew on it, soak in it, let it work on us.

There's a famous passage out of Deuteronomy that's just the instruction to the family in Deuteronomy 6.

Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 9 says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children.

Shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God's plan for his people to be people of the word, to be meditating on his word, to be hiding his word in our hearts, to be talking about, to be teaching our children as we're walking, as we're sitting, as we're going to bed, as we're waking up in the morning, we're people of the word, we're digging into the word, we're talking about the word, we're memorizing the word, we're in the word.

God, King Jesus, has given us a decree.

His holy word.

Church, this morning, you need to be honest with yourself.

What is your relationship with God's Word?

And I say this, I ask that from a place of humility.

There's times where I struggle, being in God's Word, to pray and to read and discuss, to meditate on it as I should.

Always falling short.

But how are you?

What's your relationship with God's word?

How are you doing with it?

As God's people, we're to be marked by his word.

We're to be obeying his word, filled up with his word, following his word for us.

God's word is to be obeyed.

It's to be obeyed.

Verse 18.

And they set the priests, and they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their divisions.

For the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

These brothers and sisters were not taking chances.

They were not slacking off.

They had the decree, they had been instructed by God, rebuked by Haggai, encouraged by Zechariah, provided for by King Cyrus and Darius and Xerxes and Artaxerxes.

They knew what God said and they wanted to obey it.

They do that.

And then they celebrate something.

They begin to celebrate Passover.

A kingdom that has been purchased by the Lamb of God.

They have not observed Passover in over 70 years, over 80 some years.

The way that they were instructed to in the law.

Now the temple is complete.

Now they begin to celebrate Passover.

But the first thing that happens is a lamb must be slaughtered, must be killed.

Verse 20.

For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves to get together.

All of them were clean.

So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the return to exiles, for their fellow priests and for themselves.

If you're not familiar with the Passover, this is instruction given to the nation of Israel when they left Egypt to remember God's provision for them when they had come out of Egypt.

Except for those who took an unblemished lamb, sacrificed it, slaughtered it, and wiped the blood over the doorposts.

And so every year at Passover there to do this and slaughter the lamb, to remember that God has provided a way out, a means of salvation for them.

It's no cheap cost their salvation from exile.

And this so clearly, so clearly points to Christ.

Exodus 12.

You're to keep it the Passover until the 14th day of the month.

And the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

John 1, 29 through 30.

This is John the Baptist speaking.

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Behold the sacrificial Passover lamb.

The blood that was to be spilt for God's people, for God's kingdom has come.

And so this nation back in Ezra, they're doing this ritual.

They don't know when the Messiah is coming.

They don't know when the first advent of Christ is coming.

But here we stand 2,000 years later, knowing Christ has come, he's paid the price, his blood has been spilt for us.

We remember the Passover.

We remember that his kingdom is purchased by his blood.

By his blood, his people redeemed.

And so they are to keep the Passover.

They celebrate the Passover with hope.

And so we celebrate Christmas, the coming of Christ.

And we remember that Christ will come again.

We celebrate with hope.

And then they keep the feast.

This is the feast of unleavened bread.

There's all kinds of feasts in the Old Testament.

This feast was to be a week long, it was after Passover, and they were to not eat bread with leaven in it.

For they were to remember when they left Israel that they didn't have time for the bread to rise, they just went.

In the New Testament, there's this correlation or symbolism of leavened and sinned or evil.

And so as in the Old Testament, they were to celebrate this feast without leaven, they're to do away with it.

So as Christians, citizens of God's kingdom, were to purge out the evil, the sin in our own hearts.

This is 1 Corinthians 5.

Your boasting is not good.

Speaking to the church in Corinth, they're dealing with sin in their midst, and they're not dealing with the sin.

It's a brother in sin, and they're just they're letting him just kind of continue in the sin.

And Paul writes to rebuke them.

He says to the church, Your boasting is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.

Get rid of the sin so that you may be a pure church.

For Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.

Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with old leaven, not by indulging in sin or letting sin remain or just kind of being blase about sin.

But to get rid of it and get rid of the malice and evil.

But let us celebrate the feast.

Let us celebrate Christ.

Let us be a church with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Israel was commanded to keep this feast.

We're commanded as citizens of God's kingdom to forsake sin.

To forsake sin.

And therein lies joy.

Look at this last part of this part of verse 22.

And they kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy.

For the Lord had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in their work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

They were joyful.

They were obedient.

God sustained them.

God gave them joy.

They made that they may be joyful people of God.

Listen to these last couple verses as we close.

John 15, 5, 15, 9.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commands, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

God renews and restores his people.

If you feel weary, turn to his word and pray.

If you feel callous and kind of numb, turn to his word and pray.

If you feel joyful, turn to his word and pray.

If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, turn to his word and pray.

We would love to talk with you about following King Jesus.

Let us pray.