Ezra

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

And be here with you this morning. So we are going to continue our series on Hidden Figures. Last week, we talked about Zerubbabel and how he had a faith to build a foundation. And today, we're going to be talking about Ezra. So we found Zerubbabel in the book of Ezra, and now we're going to be talking about the man himself, Ezra, and his journey to Jerusalem about 80 years after Zerubbabel and how he had a faith to restore. We'll see how he had a faith to restore a covenant, a faith to restore the hearts of the people around him. So our main text today is going to be in Ezra chapter 9 verses 5 through 15 if you'd like to go ahead and turn there, but we'll get there in just a moment. So this week I was thinking about the idea of guilty pleasures. I don't know if If you guys have your guilty pleasures, I'm sure we all do. If you're not sure what I'm talking about,

these are things that you enjoy, but if others knew that you enjoyed them, that you might be a little bit embarrassed for them to know that, right? These are not sinful things, or they shouldn't be, but they're just things that would be a little embarrassing if people knew you liked them. These are typically movies, TV shows, maybe books, things that, again, if you admitted that you liked them, would be a little bit embarrassing. For me, one that comes off the top of my head is the show Gilmore Girls. I enjoy that show, it's a funny, witty show, but with the name Gilmore Girls as a man to admit I like that, can be a little embarrassing. I think that they should have named the show something different because it is not as girly as it sounds, but yeah, it's one of my guilty pleasures. Oh, I'm gonna out my wife this morning, I want her guilty, she gave me permission to talk about this.

One of her guilty pleasures is the Kardashians. She enjoyed the show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and now we're no longer keeping up with them anymore. If you didn't know, they are just, they have found themselves, I guess, and they are the Kardashians, and that's the name of their new show. And a couple weeks ago, I was at home, working from home, and my wife, she's a teacher, so she was off, and she was enjoying some TV in our bedroom. I was working out in the kitchen. I took a break to come back and spend some time with her, And I walk in and I see that the Kardashians are on the TV. And I roll my eyes and say, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're watching this garbage. No offense if you like the Kardashians. But I said, no, I just rolled my eyes. And again, of course, five minutes later, I am sucked in watching the show with her. That's how that works, right?

But what drew me into this particular episode was something that Kim Kardashian, the mogul herself, was getting involved in. If you don't know, if you're not wrapped up, and if you're not keeping up with the Kardashians, Kim has been pursuing a legal career, a legal license. She wants to be a lawyer in the state of California. No comment on that, but she's trying to follow in her father's footsteps. And in that process, she has gotten interested and involved in different cases, legal cases. And one that drew her attention was the case of a man named Julius Jones. And if you're not familiar with him, it's not the former Dallas Cowboys player. It is a man who has been on death row for the last 19 years. And he was convicted of murder in the state of Oklahoma. So he's been on death row for 19 years and his story caught Kim's attention. And for whatever reason, she believed that,

because their side of the story is that he's innocent. Right, that's his, what he's saying, that's what his sister's saying. And nobody is listening. And so it caught Kim's attention. And she got involved, used her influence, used her platform to advocate that there is evidence to support that he is innocent and that they're going to wrongly execute this man. And she gathered a huge following to do this, right? She, to advocate for him. Used on social media, you know, the storm going off about trying to save Julius Jones. She got her celebrity friends involved. They made one of those collaboration videos that they love to make, where they try to get you to come behind them as if they are on our side, right, if they're one of us. But she got a following. She got people to advocate for Julius Jones. On the day of his execution, thousands of people showed up to protest

and to try to get the government, to get the governor to change his mind on executing Julius Jones. And hours before the execution was supposed to take place, the governor ended up reversing his decision and Julius Jones is alive today. Now I'm not trying to make any sort of commentary on whether or not he was actually innocent. He still is in prison, right? So he's off death row, but he's still in prison. I'm not trying to make any commentary on the death penalty. All I'm doing is imagining what it would be like to be in the position of somebody whose life was on the line, who from hours from now would be scheduled to be executed, and because someone stood up and stood in my place, advocated for me, had a voice for me when I did not,

what gratitude I would feel if they saved my life. I can't even begin to imagine what Mr. Jones would be feeling, was feeling that day, that his life was saved, and that's what we're gonna be looking at today, story of a man who saw the sin of a people and seeing that they themselves are putting them as themselves in a position to once again either be exiled or maybe even just wiped off the face of the planet he stood in their place and advocated for them had a voice for them and had a faith to restore them and that's the man of Ezra. So just a little bit of context for Ezra I got mentioned earlier, his story takes place about 80 years after the events of Zerubbabel returning to Jerusalem. The book of Ezra is sort of placed in what we call the Second Temple period because they laid the foundation that we talked about last week, built the temple, and Ezra, when he comes into the story, we

find him still in Babylon. Babylon is now under the rule of the new Persian king is still under Persia rule and it's king Artaxerxes and Ezra has found favor with Artaxerxes because he is an expert in the law of Moses or the law of God and we see this written out in verse in chapter 7 verse 10 it tells us that Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the law of the Lord and teaching its decrees and laws in Israel I think that's an important last two words there in Israel. He's in Babylon. And so I think our desserties looking at him and going, hey you are an expert in this. You are well versed in this. The only problem is that doesn't apply here. You're in a different country. Why don't you go back to your homeland and use your expertise there. Your people probably need it. And they did because as soon as Ezra returned back, he, much like Zerubbabel, immediately encountered some trouble.

Zerubbabel, if you remember, he encountered the trouble of the people wanting to build their homes back instead of the temple, and once the temple was laid, the foundation was laid, they were complaining about it, he was meeting opposition and rebellion at a return. Well, when Ezra returned, he also encountered some open rebellion. Not towards him specifically, but just towards God. You see, what he came back and observed was that the people had began engaging in intermarriage, meaning that they were marrying people in the surrounding lands of Jerusalem of Israel, these pagan peoples. And so Zerubbabel's response to this is to, I'm sorry, Zerubbabel, Ezra's response to this is to fall to his knees, rip his cloak, tear out pieces of his beard, and cry out in anguish. And if that feels like an overreaction to you, to seeing people married, I don't think

you're alone. It's kind of a weird response, but if we dig into why he responded this way, that makes a little bit more sense. You see these marriages, they were forbidden according to the law. And just so we're all on the same page of what the law is, you know, the Torah, the books, the first four books of the Bible, five books of the Bible, typically Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, it makes up a good chunk of the law. Numbers and Genesis are also included in that phrasing. And so Ezra is well versed in this. And so when he gets back, he knows that these intermarriages are against the law, primarily laid out in Exodus and Deuteronomy. And so his response is just to mourn what the people are doing. Being an expert of the law in Babylon, he must have been well versed in their history and he must have been excited to return home back to their land, to be with his people,

to be worshiping their God in their country, and he gets back and they are living in open rebellion in his eyes. Guys, we just got out of exile 70 years, 80 years ago. What are we doing? So he just falls to his knees and mourns. And after making the scene, he was able to pick himself up, drag himself to the temple, and offers up a prayer at the evening sacrifice. And that's where we pick up in our main passage today, as we're nine, verses five through 15. So if you'd like to go ahead and turn there, it should be on the screens. We're gonna break this down in chunks. We're not gonna go through all of it in one breath, so stick with me. But let's start in verse five. It says, then at the evening sacrifice, I rose from myself a basement with my tunic and cloak torn and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord, my God, and prayed." See Ezra, he's distraught.

Again, he's in remorse, he's in mourning. It says the self abasement. I had to look up what that meant because, I mean, context clues kind of gives us an idea, but he was essentially harming himself. Again, he was ripping out his beard. Imagine if you were to witness a family member or a friend commit a crime. Maybe they rob a store, maybe they run a red light, and your response is to pull out your hair.

It shows us that Ezra had a deep sense of responsibility for what the people were engaging in, and he offers up this prayer which starts in verse six. And so let's read that together. It says, I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hands of foreign kings as it is today.

The thing that jumps out at me in these two verses is that Ezra is using inclusive language. He's saying our sin, our guilt. At this point, Ezra has not committed the sin. He's not married to a pagan, but he's including himself in the conviction. He sees himself as equally guilty. He's beginning to acknowledge that the people that have not been living up to their end of the covenant, and so he's including himself in the conviction. He's positioning himself to intercede on their behalf, to stand in their place, and begin this process of restoring the covenant. So we keep reading in verse 8 it says, But now for a brief moment the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary. And so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. Though we are slaves our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in

in the sight of the kings of Persia. He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins. And he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem. He's offering up a thanksgiving. He's starting off this prayer towards the beginning of it by giving thanksgiving to God for what he has done in the past, acknowledging that the people of Israel have made mistakes. They have messed up time and time again. and yet God has kept them as a remnant. He hasn't wiped them out. They've had an exile or two, but they're still here, and it's all because of God's kindness. And it's almost like he's, in my eyes, petitioning God to remember that kindness for what's about to happen. He's about to offer a confession. And we see that in verse 10. It says, But now our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands you gave through your servants the prophets when you said,

The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. Therefore do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at this time, at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance." He's quoting Deuteronomy there, the good scholar and expert of the law that he is. And he starts off by saying, we have, what can we say? We just violated this scripture that I just quoted. I think he's showing his faithfulness here. By confessing this and including himself in the conviction he is putting himself on the chopping block. This is Old Testament. God might smite him because of this confession, but that's not what happens.

He's putting himself in this place to restore the people. Remember that this is happening at the evening sacrifice. And last week I told you guys about how there are three emphasized roles in Hebrew society. The king, the priest, and and the prophet. Remember the priest is the representation of the people's ability to connect with God, to have that relationship. And what was happening at this time was not only were the people in general involved in these marriages, but the priests were as well. So they weren't living up to their responsibility. They weren't living doing their job. And so Ezra, it tells us he's a teacher, but he puts himself in that priestly position to stand and make this connection with God that the people had disregarded.

And he offers up this confession of iniquity and disobedience because the people had not been honoring their covenant, their end of the covenant. And in his faithfulness, Ezra is seeking to restore that. And so then in verse 13, we finish out the chapter by seeing how God has responded, at least in the past. It says, what has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt. And yet our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. Shall we then break your commands again and enter Mary with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor. Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous. We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it, no one of us can stand in your presence.

He finishes this prayer with an affirmation and adoration of God's kindness. Despite the people's sin, He's calling out back to what they've been through, what they've done to disobey God in the past, and that God has continued to be kind, to continue to be righteous. And remember, this prayer that he's offering, it's loud, it's public. He's probably behaving a little bit erratic. He's drawing a crowd. And so in chapter 10, we see that there are people who are standing around watching and observing this, And he draws people in because the Holy Spirit is moving. And through his faithfulness, he's convicting the Holy Spirit, he's convicting the people around him and they respond to this and they have their own confession. And they acknowledge how they have been wrong in being in these marriages. And that confession is responded to in chapter 11 with repentance, where they divorce their spouses.

And in fact, they even leave their spouses leave their children and that feels heavy in our context. But these marriages in and of themselves they were sinful. And so to leave them under the law of Moses, under the law of God, was an act of repentance. So we see how Ezra and his faithfulness restored, began the process of restoring the covenant and restoring the people's hearts around him. You see the people they had either forgotten, did not realize, or plain just did not care about their sin. They were living in open rebellion. They had broken the covenant and they would just were doing what they wanted to do. And once Ezra sees this, his first response is remorse, followed by confession and then he goes and petitions God to remember his kindness, to remember that he has left them as a remnant and this display that Ezra is putting on before the people before God, it

deeply affects them and their hearts are changed at least for a time because Ezra saw that he needed to step in, that they were heading towards destruction, and he had the faith to put himself on the chopping block and help restore the covenant and the hearts of those around him. So what we see Ezra do here is an act of kindness. I heard this week a conversation about what it means to be kind versus to be nice. There's a difference, right? Niceness doesn't require any action. You can just Say hello, smile, be pleasant, and people will say, oh, that's nice. You're nice. But you didn't do anything. Kindness, on the other hand, requires action. It's deeper than just a hello. It involves maybe serving somebody, meeting somebody's need, or an Ezra's case, or it's weird to say up here, Kim Kardashian's case, stepping in on someone's behalf and having a voice for them. Paul tells us about this, that kindness is supposed to lead us to repentance.

In Romans 2:4 he asks the question, do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness? Forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. And the kindness that Paul is talking about here is God sending his son to earth to live a life as a human that would eventually be beaten and tortured and crucified on your behalf. He would stand in your place. He would stand before God wearing your sin and saying, don't look at them, look at me, so that when he looks at you, you might have a relationship with him. That's what Christ has done for us. That's the kindness that God has bestowed upon us. Like Mr. Jones, we are on death row, or we have been. But when we become Christians, when we follow Christ, we are pardoned. At least from death row. But Mr. Jones, he's still in prison. And if we're not careful, we can find ourselves still in bondage and sin.

Too often, like the Israelites, we can take the grace that God offers us for granted. And so I'm thankful for Ezra's example, the reverence that he had for God and the weight of their sin. We should have the same reverence for what Christ has done for us. And when we realize what Christ has done, when we remember what Christ has done for us, As Christ's followers, we should be grieved by our sin when we're confronted by it. And that grief should lead us to repentance, because we remember the kindness that Christ has offered us. And when we repent, others take notice. Repentance is weird in our culture, in our society. It's easier to be prideful and to double down when you've been called out for doing something wrong. And I think our culture, our society has mastered that. Where sin and doing wrong almost becomes normal. But to repent means to do something different.

To not live like others are living. Not to continue doing wrong, but to in humility change what you've been doing. It causes people to pause and ask what have you got going on that you are doing something different, that you're not acting like everybody else. And it's up to the Holy Spirit to provide that conviction so that people will respond to that and you can point them back to Christ. When we have the faith to live differently, it leads others to restoration. And I love that Ezra did not rebuke anyone individually or personally. He didn't go up to anybody and grab them by the shoulders and shake him saying, what are you doing? Stop doing this. He just went to the Father and then he confessed and he included himself in the blame and it was then that others were drawn in to enable to find restoration. You see it's by his faithfulness not by his rebuke that people were changed and we can find this

in Jesus as well. When we allow Jesus to change us and remember that it's his effort not ours that that causes that change others are able to see it. As I've mentioned the Holy Spirit is able to come and provide conviction and those that are listening those that hear have the opportunity to respond and we can come alongside Christ and allow our faithfulness to help restore them. So I I want to ask you today, do you have a faith that restores?

See, it's easy to be distracted by the doom and gloom of our world. Reminds me of doom scrolling. I don't know if you've heard of that phrase before, but doom scrolling is essentially the idea where you get on social media, typically Facebook, Twitter, and you just scroll looking for stories and posts and articles that are negative. You're seeking it out. almost as a means of reinforcing in your mind that the world is going down, it's a sinking ship.

And so you just see doom all around you. And the problem with this is that it causes despair to become normal. And when despair becomes normal, sin becomes normal. And when we live in that, it's easy to forget our faith. Earlier this week, I was listening to a podcast and heard Tim Keller talk about the difference between living under grace and living by your gifts. He had the argument that you could be far from God, but still be operating under the gifts that he's given you and see that as evidence that God is still with you, that God is blessing what you're doing. And so it allows you to still live in sin. This was me in college, not going to church, definitely living in sin, had an act of addiction. And I was looking at what God was allowing me to do and going, oh, God must still be with me. And it allowed me to continue in the darkness that I was going down.

But that conviction hit, or that discussion hit hard for me this week that we can be far from God, much like the Israelites were, but still think, oh, God must be with me because I still have my gifts. And so I wanna challenge you today to make space in your life for restoration. I know this is going to be cliche. Every pastor tells, spend this week the intentional quiet time every day. But the intent to grow in your faith, and I would even say spend less time talking, spend less time reading, but just sit in his presence and rest with him. Too often I think we treat quiet times as a devotional time. I'm going to read my few versus a scripture, I might read a little blur by somebody, and then I close the book, and I go about my day, I checked off my time with God.

Not often enough are we just sitting in his presence. Something that I like to do is to get out in creation, and I know it's hot right now. That's not too feasible, too many hours a day, but there are some cool moments. In fact, right before this, coming here this morning, I went to a trail out in Oak Valley and just spent three, four minutes walking down the trail and just listening to creation around me to get in the mode for this morning. I encourage you to spend time in creation, spend time with God, away from distractions, allow his faithfulness to restore yours so that then you might allow your faith to restore others.

My final thought for this morning, thinking back on Julius Jones, and that he's still in prison, As I mentioned earlier, he's off death row, but he's still in bondage. And if we're not careful, we can find ourselves there as well. We can forget our faith, and we can allow sin to keep us tied down. If we forget who we are and whose we are, it's easy to allow sin to keep us in bondage. And that's why this time with the Lord is so important. And I wanna encourage you, church, it's also important to be in community. We need to be around the Ezra's of our day to allow their faith to restore us, but we should also be growing and allowing our faith to restore others. Remembering that none of it is by our power or by our night, but it's only through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. We must rely on him.

And so if you don't know Christ today or if you feel like you've been far and you need some restoration, I wanna encourage you today to, before you leave today, to find somebody you trust. Pastor Drew's gonna be up here as we continue in worship following the sermon. Have that conversation, reach out for that prayer, allow the faith of others to restore you so that you might have the faith to restore others. Let's pray.

God, thank you for going before us, for showing us people like Ezra and Zerubbabel that had faith to stand on your word to stand on what you've called them to do. You have done the work that we just have to follow. Thank you for reminding us of what your son called us for us on that cross. I ask that you just speak to us, that you don't leave us No matter how far we might be from you, no matter what sin we might be normalizing in our life, God, that we listen to the conviction that you are speaking to us. That we don't leave today still in bondage, but that we seek out freedom and restoration in you. Thank you, God. It's in your holy precious name, I pray. Amen. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But holy trust in Jesus' name. My hope is riddled to nothing less, Than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But holy trust in Jesus' name.

I stir, her stone is strong, In the séo's love stone. Darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high in stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil My anchor holds within the veil I stir up your stone strong With trumpet sound dressed in his rock less we stand before