Ezra 7:1-6 (KJV)
Now after these things,
in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of
Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
The son of Shallum, the
son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
The son of Amariah, the
son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
The son of Zerahiah, the
son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
The son of Abishua, the
son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest:
This Ezra went up from
Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of
Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the
hand of the LORD his God upon him.
As I have approached the
end of this series of messages on those who are spiritual, I chose specifically
to give an illustration of those who lived:
· Just previous to the Babylonian captivity
· In the Babylonian captivity and final
· Just after that Babylonian captivity
Just as Daniel served as
a transitional character, moving from Jerusalem to Babylon, the character I
want to present to you this morning served to transition Israel back from
Babylon to Jerusalem.
Post-captivity Israel was, in some respects, similar to the
age in which we live.
It’s going to turn into
a long waiting period – for Israel, 400 years, of spiritual quietness.
No inspiration is given
after Malachi
No prophets seem to
appear (not writing ones anyway)
Israel is in their
homeland, experiencing ups and mostly downs (Grecian and then Roman conquest)
waiting for God to do something.
What God did was to send
His Son.
Our age is called, by theologians, the interregnum[1],
We know that God is
working because He promises that He is working. He never slumbers nor sleeps.
But things are different now.
· We receive no new revelation from God. Rather, we study the
Word of God
· We have no major miracles – no walking on water or parting
Red Seas
· We experience life – marriages, raising children, wars and
rumors of wars
We are waiting for God
to do something – and we know that something to be the return of Jesus Christ.
Acts 1:8 (KJV)
But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth.
Because of these similarities between post-captivity Israel
and our modern day,
there is a great deal we can learn by learning from these post-captivity Jews.
One of the most telling
things, in my mind, is that Israel came to such a low spiritual state during
those days that, when God did send His Son – most of Israel missed Him!
· They were still Jews
· They were still religious
· They had spent hundreds of years refining their doctrines
and arguing their points so that they had divided into several sects of Jewish
thinking: Conservatives[2], Liberals and Separatists
Not one of these
theological groups, as a whole, recognized Jesus as the Son of God.
Jesus said, Luke 18:8
(KJV)
…. when the Son of man cometh, shall he find
faith on the earth?
It is very likely that
we have so categorized ourselves, so defined ourselves, so aligned and refined
and contained ourselves, that when Jesus comes He won’t even know us.[3]
I want to use Ezra, a
man in the midst of post captivity Israel, s our example of one who is
spiritual.
The first think I notice
is
I. EZRA’S NAME
ISN’T MENTIONED FOR HALF THE BOOK
Ezra 7:1-6 (KJV)
Now after these things,
in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, …
Mind you – almost all
Christian scholars are convinced Ezra wrote this book.
Further, his work is a
significant factor in the book.
But he doesn’t bring up
his own name for more than half of the book.
The book records two
waves of Jews returning to Israel.
· The first under Zerubbabel[4]
· The second under Ezra
Zerubbabel, of the
royal the family of David, is tasked with rebuilding the altar and the foundation of the Temple
Ezra, from the priestly
family of Aaron, focuses on a return
to the Word of God
Six out of the ten
chapters of this book have to do with:
The work of God in the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia
Chapters 1-2
The restoration of worship in the feast of tabernacles and
of Passover
Chapters 3, 5-6
The opposition they experienced and the success of their
adversaries
Chapter 4
Their adversaries first
said, “Let us build with you.” They
tried to compromise the work with half hearted and artificial faith.
4:2
When that didn’t work, they weakened their hands by troubling them
(pestering them, small attacks – picking on the work)
4:4
Then they hired counselors against them
4:5
This was a legal tactic
to frustrate their efforts by turning the heart of the king against them once
again.
They didn’t stop this process for years, through the reigns of
Cyrus, Artaxerxes and Darius.
In fact, they didn’t
stop until they thought they won.
They didn’t win, but
they thought they did.
The devil isn’t going to
stop attacking the faith until he thinks he has won over the faith.
· He’ll offer to join with us in a kind of Christianity that
isn’t Christian.
· He’ll pick on us with pestering little attacks that weaken
us in our true mission
· He’ll turn the government against us with counselors and
officials who challenge our right to worship according to our faith
And he will keep at it
until the Great Tribulation, when he thinks he will have won.
Don’t ever forget – he
doesn’t win!
The Jews got
discouraged, and, for a while, stopped working on the temple, and allowed the
city to remain in shambles.
God used prophets like
Haggai and Nehemiah to stir them back up and get them busy about the work
again.
I want to summarize my
first point then by saying that a spiritual person doesn’t focus on himself.
I am not suggesting that
we ought to ignore our own efforts or put ourselves down as useless – Ezra will
write about his own work for four of the ten chapters.
It is as wrong to poor
mouth ourselves as it is to brag about ourselves.
· The guy who says, “Woe is me. I can’t do anything.” and
doesn’t. Is
just as bad as
· The guy who says, “Look at me, I am God’s gift to
Christianity.”
I am just saying
spiritual people understand that this isn’t about them.
God is at work!
· He is at work in good times and bad
· He is at work when things are going our way and when they
are not
· He is using people all over the world, with all sorts of
stories in all sorts of ways
And one of the most
encouraging things that can happen to you is to acknowledge it.
· You are not the only one who stands for right
· You are not the only one who serves the Lord and
· You are not the only one who has taken some hits because of
it
The second thing I note
is that
II. EZRA PREPARED
HIS HEART
Ezra 7:6-10 (KJV)
This Ezra went up from
Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of
Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the
hand of the LORD his God upon him.
And there went up some
of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the
singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh
year of Artaxerxes the king.
And he came to Jerusalem
in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
For upon the first day
of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the
fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon
him.
For Ezra had prepared
his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel
statutes and judgments.
Ezra was from the
priestly line of Aaron, but times had changed.
There had been no need
for priestly service in Babylon:
· There was no Temple
· There were no sacrifices
What do you do?
· Do you give up on God?
· Do you quit serving the Lord because you don’t get to do
what you have always done?
Not Ezra.
He was a scribe, which
means he was a student and an expert the Word of God.
· He had studied it
· He had likely written out copies of it
· He had been instructed in it so that
· He was qualified to be a teacher of it
More than that
He had prepared His
heart to seek the law of the Lord…
Vs 10
In my mind I am thinking
about the Bible college student.
· He studies the Bible
· He memorizes major portions of the Bible
· He is instructed in the Bible so that
· He could probably teach others the Bible
But not every Bible
college graduate should teach and preach the Bible because they have never
prepared their hearts to seek the Lord.
I think we see it in some preachers and teachers.
They know the Bible and
they can technically tell you what the Bible says, but their heart is too drawn
to the things of the world.
· They minister for money
· They frequently disobey the Bible in their own lives and
· They will compromise truth for the sake of success
Anyone who has done any
door knocking has probably run into the guy who claims that he went to seminary
and knows the Bible as well (or better) than we do.
And there is the issue,
knowing the Bible is only part of the equation.
We ought to be well studied in the Word of God, in our
doctrine and in our practice of faith.
People who go out to
serve the Lord but are unprepared in their knowledge of the Bible do great
damage.
On the other hand
We must have a heart that seeks after the LORD of the Law as
much as the Law of the Lord.
The Bible is a spiritual
book. Those who are not spiritual will miss the very reason for the book.
I notice finally
III. EZRA’S
BURDEN WAS REVIVAL
Ezra 9:5-9 (KJV)
And at the evening
sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my
mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God,
And said, O my God, I am
ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are
increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
Since the days of our
fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities
have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings
of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of
face, as it is this day.
And now for a little
space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to
escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our
eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
For we were bondmen; yet
our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in
the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of
our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah
and in Jerusalem.
October 31st
is Halloween to most people in the world.
But to the Protestant it
has another significance.
It was 500 years ago,
October 31, 2017, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the
college at Wittenberg and began what is known as the Reformation.
To Protestants, the
Reformation is the greatest act of God in Christian history, outside of the
birth of Jesus Christ.
I consider the
Reformation to be more damaging to true spirituality than Halloween is.
Baptists are not
Protestants because true Baptists were never part of the Catholic Church.
The people who are
Baptists have existed since the days of John the Baptist.
Our forefathers
· Refused to come under the catholic church of Constantine
· Suffered under the cruelty of both Catholics and later Protestants and
· Steadfastly insist that the gates of hell have never
prevailed against the church Jesus built
· We do not need protestations
· We do not need reformations
We do, however, desperately need reviving.
Revival – the stirring of the
souls of the children of God to dedicate to Christ
Revival – the awakening of
the children of God to work at the Great Commission
Revival – the confession
among the saints of God of their sins
Revival – the humbling of
God’s people concerning their need for Him
Revival – the refreshing of
the Christian for prayer and the ministry of the Word
Revival – the turning of the
believer from the things of this world to the things of heaven
Ezra looked at the
people of Israel and saw them in their land with a form of godliness.
But:
· They were compromised
· They were corrupted
· They were spiritually calloused
And he prayed.
He preached to them – he
gave them the Word of God and caused them to understand the meaning.
Then he prayed.
And the burden of his
prayer was, “…that our
God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage…”
· A spiritual person sees God at work in others
· A spiritual person prepares his heart with the Word of God
and
· A spiritual person prays that God would give revival
[1] It means, the
interruption, the hiatus, the pause, the wait.
[2] Pharisees, Sadducees
and Essenes
[3] Matthew 7:22-23 (KJV)
Many will say to me in
that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have
cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
[4] Chapters 1-6
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