THE MEN THAT WENT UP

 THE MEN THAT WENT UP

Ezra 2:1-2 (KJV)

Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;

Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

 

It has been a full year now since God put it in my soul to preach through the book of Ezra with the view of the subject of reviving.

 

The book of Ezra, together with a few passages in the Psalms, is where the whole concept of revival is found.

 

I think we see revivals in books like the Judges and the histories of Israel

·   1 and 2 Samuel

·   1 and 2 Kings 

·   1 and 2 Chronicles

 

But the burden for reviving is found in the prayers of Ezra and the Psalmists.

 

I plan to take my time through this little book, but I am going to bite off a very big piece tonight. I want to consider the whole of Ezra chapter two.

 

All seventy verses.

 

What we have in this chapter is an accounting of the people who first went with Zerubbabel to from Babylon to Jerusalem.

 

It’s a long list, and frankly, a bit painful to work through.

 

They’re just – names.

Ezra 2:3-5 (KJV)

The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two.

The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy and two.

The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy and five.

 

And so it goes.

 

The very fact that God would include such a long and detailed passage tells me that people are important to God.

 

-They were important to God.

-You are important to God.

 

Your participation, in whatever ways God calls you to participate is important to God.

 

We all have gifts differing, given to us according to the Holy Spirit.

 

That we exercise those gifts is important to God.

 

There is a peculiar phrase in verse one where the Bible says, 

“these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity.”

 

 I want to speak to you about the men that went up.

 

Notice first of all

I. THE NATURE OF THE MEN THAT WENT UP

Ezra 6:17 (KJV)

And offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 

 

They went up to Jerusalem not to plant something new but to return to something old.

 

They were conservatives.

 

Just as the children of Israel were taken captive from Jerusalem into Babylon in waves, even so they returned in about three waves.

 

The one described in Ezra 2 is the first wave.

These were the earliest to leave Babylon.

There were the first to return to Jerusalem with a heart to restore what God once gave them.

 

If you study much world history, it would not be difficult to describe it as a series of “movements.”

 

Movements follow the very same pattern every time.

·   They start out very strong

·   They cruise in the strength of that strong beginning, finally

·   They coast to a stop until they are over. Some other movement sweeps them up

 

Just how long they cruise has a lot to do with how strong they began.

 

Historians today, for instance, tend to “pick on” the founding fathers.

·   They’ll call George Washington a glory seeker

·   They’ll call John Adams a megalomaniac

·   Some of them will mock John Hancock’s famous large signature on the Declaration of Independence as being the sign of arrogance

 

Here’s the thing.

Those men were trailblazers.

You don’t do what they did without having a “larger than life” type of personality.

 

“Give me liberty or give me death” was not a theatrical play on the part of Patrick Henry. Every one of those men would have been drawn and quartered had they lost the War for Independence.

 

The leaders of movements are always strong personalities, misunderstood by those who follow after them.

 

Baptist history has its own movements.

In the 1940’s and 1950’s certain preachers saw that the movements they were a part of were no longer where they once were.

 

·   In the American Baptist Convention[1] was men like Robert Ketchum

·   In the Southern Baptist Convention was men like J Frank Norris

 

Both conventions developed about the same trouble at about the same time – they began to tolerate and then support modernist theology.

·   First in their colleges

·   Then in their missionaries

 

Up in the north, Ketchum a very strong personality with very conservative convictions, grew concerned about the modernism. There were other conservative men in the convention, T.T Shields, for instance.

 

Ketchum, and those like him, took the position that the convention was too far gone to be restored and left to found their own fellowship, the General Association of Regular Baptists. 

They would have said not on new ideas but the old ones.

 

Shields and the men like him, though equally concerned, felt like the convention was too important to abandon. They stayed in longer, hoping to see it restored to its former convictions. It did not work out so maybe a decade after Ketchum founded the GARBC, Shields and his friends left the American Baptist Convention.

 

Here’s the thing, when they did leave, they approached the GARBC about joining up with them. What they discovered is that the GARBC was too conservative for them.

 

They ended up starting their own organization, the Conservative Baptist Association.[2]

 

Both of those groups are compromised today – but the one founded by the second wave out of the American Baptists, compromised much sooner than did the first.

 

J Frank Norris left the Southern Baptist Convention over the same concerns – modernism in the colleges and in the missionaries.

 

He founded the World Baptist Fellowship.

From his followers, GB Vick and others founded the Baptist Bible Fellowship, in which our church has roots.

 

Those of us who were in the first wave out of the Baptist Bible Fellowship seem to me to have much stronger personalities and much more conservative convictions then those who came out later.

 

And frankly, I already have concerns that those who are rising to leadership in whatever movement we started have compromised the very convictions we left the BBFI over.

 

This first wave that went up were men of convictions.

Strong personalities with a desire to restore what God once gave them, rather than to start something new. 

 

I note secondly

II. THE NUMBER OF THE MEN THAT WENT UP

They were only a few.

 

Ezra chapter 2 lists every name that went up from Babylon to Jerusalem. 

 

Every one.

 

Something like 50,000.

 

You will find that the closer you get to God, the fewer people will be with you.

 

·   There are lots of people who would like God to feed them

·   There are less but still plenty who would like God to save them but

·   There are only a handful of people who long for God to lead them

 

I can’t say that I like being in the minority.

I would love to be surrounded by friends and followers and believers just like me.

 

But if the choice is God versus people, and I believe it is exactly that, I choose God.

 

There were just a few of them.

 

I remind you that this is a long chapter

So, viewed from a different angle, even these few appear to be many.

 

The difference was in the "blessing" that went with them.

 

Gideon only had a handful of mencompared to the Midianites.

By the time God got done Gideon had just 300 men against the Midianites like grasshoppers on the ground.[3]

 

But God made that handful look like a multitude in the eyes of the Midianites and they killed themselves trying to get away from Israel.

 

The difference was God’s blessing.

 

You see, we don’t need to be a large group.

We just need to be a blessed group.

 

· We shouldn’t ask God to increase our numbers.

· We should ask God to build our faith.

 

We don’t need more people.

We need to be closer to the Lord.

 

I see thirdly

III. THE NAMES OF THE MEN THAT WENT UP

Ezra 2:2 (KJV)

Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

 

I want to give to you just three names that come up in this chapter.

 

A. Jeshua

The name is a different rendering of Joshua, in the Greek, Jesus.

 

The name means, “he will save.”

 

This Jeshua was the son of the high priest.

Jesus is our great high priest

 

In the book of Zechariah, chapter 3 Jeshua is attacked by Satan. The answer to the attack is one known as the BRANCH – Jesus Christ.

 

In Zechariah chapter 6, the Bible speaks of placing a crown on the head of Joshua the High Priest.[4] And from there is a reference to the BRANCH.

 

Jesus is both our King of kings and our great High Priest.

 

B. Bethlehem

Ezra 2:21 (KJV)

The children of Bethlehem, an hundred twenty and three.

 

I shouldn’t have to make too much connection here, I don’t suppose.

 

Bethlehem is

·   The city of David and

·   The birthplace of Jesus

 

Micah 5:2 (KJV)

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

 

C. Zerubbabel

Ezra 2:2 (KJV)

Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

 

Zerubbabel was a member of the royal family.

It makes sense that they would want the leadership back to Jerusalem to be someone qualified to be a leader.

 

But more than that, Zerubbabel was a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ.

 

Matthew’s genealogy of Christ reads,

Matthew 1:12-13 (KJV)

And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;

And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;

 

· Jeshua, a type of Jesus

· Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and

· Zerubbabel, the family of Jesus

 

Can you not hear with me the sound of Jesus’ feet, as the people of God return to the home God gave to them?

 

And doesn’t that remind you, as it does me, that one day very soon, Jesus Christ will come for us.

·   Our Great High Priest

·   Our King of Kings and Lord of Lords

 

To fulfill His promise John 14:1-3 (KJV)

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

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[1] It was the Northern Baptist Convention at the time. I use the more modern name for clarity’s sake.

[2] It’s ironic that they named there, less conservative association, conservative.

[3] Judges 7:7 (KJV)

And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

[4] The same man as Jeshua