Renew
Pastor Marq Toombs • May 16, 2021
Sermon Overview
EZRA 4:1–6
Israel was living in the fear of man and unwilling to rebuild the temple. They had abandoned the work that God had given them and the temple was still incomplete. Why were they afraid and how does God engage with his fearful people?
Sermon Transcript
Grace and peace be with you from the Lord, Jesus Christ.
It's wonderful to be with you this Lord's day.
This day got off to an odd start for me, to be honest. Here I was, sitting in my office, agonizing over the sermon that I was about to preach. And a brother walked in and said to me, "Where's the skinny one?"
I'd like to imagine that Zach and I are a dynamic duo. I think more along the lines of Batman and Robin, but apparently, we are Abbott and Costello.
What are you most afraid of right now? What keeps you up at night?
Everyone fears something. Everyone is afraid of someone or something.
For some of you, it is COVID-19 or perhaps the cancer diagnosis you just received.
For others, it is money, running out of money, not being able to pay your bills, not being able to take a nice vacation, not being prepared for a comfortable retirement.
For others, it's afraid of what's happening in politics. Afraid of who used to be in office, or perhaps afraid of who is in office now.
For others, you're afraid of losing control of people and situations within your grasp.
Some are just afraid of change and others are afraid of God knows what - they can't quite put their finger on it.
If you dig deep enough, you'll find that most of us in this room are afraid of other people. It's the fear of man. Afraid of what other people might say, or think, or do against us. The fear of man.
It is said that the only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys. And there is some truth in that. But what gets left out is also the size of their bullies. I have heard that some of our young folks in recent days have been threatened and bullied at school; cornered and put into tough positions in the hallway, the gym, or on the schoolyard. I've also heard that it happens to some of you big folks as you get bullied and threatened by your bosses at work. And experiences like that strike fear in our hearts. They strike fear in our hearts and stir us to anger. But quite frankly, it also demoralizes us and sucks the wind out of our sails. This is precisely the thing we see happening in Ezra 4. It's the same kind of thing.
We learn that adversaries confronted the people of God and bullied them into quiet submission. The situation in those days was not unlike the situations we see in the news today. Adversaries of returning exiles were just people who had been living in that area for a long time. And then, due to a decision made by a King in a land far, far away, these Jewish people come back to resettle their Homeland. And the people who were already living there are now being pushed aside and pushed off of their land to make room for these returning exiles.
To help you understand what that might look and feel like, imagine how it would look and feel if the "powers that be" suddenly gave all the land of your city, all the land of your town to the descendants of the indigenous peoples who once lived here. And you had to make way and move off and give them space to resettle. Perhaps that will help you understand why there was animosity and conflict between the Samaritans who were living in the land and the Jewish people coming back from Babylon.
The Samaritans in that land come to the Jewish people when they see that they are trying to rebuild the temple, and they say, "Hey, you should let us help you. After all, we seek the same God. We've been offering sacrifices to that God. So, hey, let's do this joint project." But the people of God say, "No way! You don't have anything to do with this. This is our project. God has sent us to do this, and we are going to do it alone and by ourselves."
Now, the reason for this is because the people remember that they went into exile in the first place 70 years ago because they mixed and mingled spiritually and religiously with the peoples around them. And so, now they're on high alert and they want nothing to do with that again. And so, they are trying to avoid accommodation and assimilation at all costs.
Well, this offends the people of the land for various reasons. And they decide that they are going to turn against the people of God even harder. And here's what they do: they fire up their whole propaganda machine against the people of God. They get advisors who come in and they speak words of poison and discouragement to all the people. They keep sending out false reports trying to dishearten the people. They get the propaganda machine rolling and they go around and they start canceling and doxxing as many people as they could put their hands on.
And so, they have these hired messengers going around trying to spread half-truths and lies to the people of God. This is a kind of psychological warfare that's being waged against the people of God. And the Hebrew language is very graphic in telling us what happened - it’s that as the people of God started to hear these reports and they started to see the news around them and watch social media - the Hebrew language says that these people were weakened and their arms and their hands dropped. And more graphically, it says that it 'destroyed their courage' and 'terrified' them.
To make matters even worse, these enemies politicized the situation. They took advantage of the fact that the king that sent the Jewish people there in the first place has now died and a new king has come to power. And that new king doesn't know or doesn't care about what the first king said. And so, the people of God find themselves in a moment of transition, much like we've experienced in recent years. Every time there's an election cycle and a change of presidency, people get nervous, don't they? There's a shift of power and a shift of emphasis. And the same thing we experienced in our nation, they were experiencing in their time. One party said one thing, another party said another. And you know what happens when the donkeys pull one way and elephants pull another way, it begins to tear at the fabric of society. It begins to cause division and disunity. People seem to forget the warning of Jesus, who said, "A house divided cannot stand." And this is exactly what the people of God are facing in their day.
Now, why are they in this situation? Remember a couple of weeks ago, we heard that when the people of God came back, their whole strategy was to establish worship as the ground center of their life and then move out from there and rebuild the walls, which is to say that right now, they have no walls of protection around their city. There's nowhere to hide from their enemies and adversaries. And so, here they are feeling exposed, and defenseless, and vulnerable. To put a finer point on it, they actually feel naked. They feel ashamed and afraid in their situation. And all the more so because these many enemies are making threats and taking steps to shut down this building project.
Now, in the midst of all of this, the prophets of God go about preaching. The prophets of God keep reminding the people that 'God's glory is in your midst' and 'God is a wall of fire around you' (Zech. 2:5). But unlike their forefathers, who were able to look out and see the pillar of fire and cloud leading them out of Egypt, these people look around and they don't see the wall of fire. They don't see the glory of God in their midst. And they find that day after day under the immense pressure of criticism coming from their enemies, it's harder and harder to believe that God is near.
Now, it would be easy for us to look at all this and say, "Well, that's a great history. Cool story. That was then; This is now. I've got my own life to live. So why do I care?" But it matters very much to us what's happening here. And the reason it matters for us is because our situation is not so unlike their situation.
I want you to think about something here - and remind you that in the world around us, there are many people who live as enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ. Worldly power despises godly weakness. It actually feels threatened by that kind of weakness. That's why the rulers of Jesus's day took him and crucified him. They were mystified by his meekness, by his lowliness, and his gentleness. It disturbed them. So what do you do when you're disturbed with someone? You get rid of them.
Many live as enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ in our day. And we don't have walls of protection around us that we can knock on and feel. God is a wall of fire around his people and his glory is in our midst, but it's hard for us to see and feel that all the time, isn't it? It's hard to believe it. And so, what do we do? We look around and we see what's happening, we see the world is changing, and we need to be aware.
We need to understand the times, and we need to know that it's just a matter of time before our adversaries and before enemies of the cross in our nation, our state, our community turn on us and treat us with hostility and take actions to make our life even harder. Why? Well, as we go about building the temple of God in their midst; and we go about praising Jesus and declaring that he is the one and only Savior of the world; as we hold fast to the inspired and infallible word of God as the only rule of faith in life; and as we try to live distinct and different lives devoted to God; and as we pursue sexual purity according to the scriptures, and as we insist that God created man and woman in the image and likeness of God; and as we proclaim that true marriage is between one man and one woman for one life — all of those messages piled up began to threaten the world around us. And so, we should not be surprised if at some point we become targets of enemies of the cross, even though our desire is to be friends and allies with our neighbors - and to do them no harm but to help them come to know Christ.
Those of us who've thought about this for a few minutes can feel the growing tension between faith and fear in our hearts and in our communities just as our forefathers did. How did they respond to this and what did they do? Well, their response to all of this pressure coming to them from the enemies around them was to circle the wagons. They laid down their toolkits, they shut their mouths, they went back, they played the quiet game, and they privatized their faith. They kept themselves to themselves, but they did not bring their faith out into the public. In other words, they put their light under a basket and they began to live like exiles in their own homes and in their own Homeland.
I wonder how many of us have ever done that or felt tempted to do that or felt the pressure was so great that we thought maybe that is actually a good strategy for life. The fear of man will tempt you to do many things in life, even things like this.
This went on for 15 years. It wasn't like it they did it for a few months or a year. No, it became a pattern of life. And so, for 15 years, the House of the Lord sat in ruins, and their enemies gloated, and God's people cowered in fear and in shame. They kept their heads down, their eyes lowered, and they went on with their life. They built their beautiful custom homes and they did all of this apart from the life and the law of God. Why? Because they claimed that the time had not yet come to build God's house. Why? Because they felt that the socio-political climate was not right or that the spiritual conditions were wrong.
Think about your own life and hearts. You either look for reasons to do something or you make excuses to get out of it. And they were making excuses to get out of it. So they prioritize the building of their own house and procrastinated on building God's house.
We've all been tempted to do that. And perhaps we have succumbed to the temptation at various times, for various reasons. I want to make it clear that there's nothing wrong at all with any of you building your own house. Thank God you have a house to live in. We all have to live somewhere, right? So that's all fine and good. You need to live somewhere. But what the prophets are getting at is that there is something inherently wrong with neglecting God's House for the sake of your own things.
And God was patient with His people and watched this for 15 years. But at the end of 15 years, how did the Lord respond? How did he react? I don't know if you heard it in the scripture reading, but somewhere tucked in there, it says that he flew into a fit of rage and he started yelling and screaming and threatening his people. Right? No, that's wrong. God is patient with his people. And I'm even tempted to say here that God is so freakin' patient with His people to emphasize the point. But then my wife will say, "You should let me read your notes before you say things like that." Why is God so patient? He's so patient because he does not desire for any one of you to perish, but for every one of us to come to our senses, to make changes in life, to turn back to him and do what is right (2 Pet. 2:9). And so, he waits and he watches, and he watches, and he waits, and he waits, and he waits, and he waits, and he waits, and he waits some more.
God is patient with you. He's not passive, just hoping and praying that somehow you will, all of your own, come to your senses and do the right thing. He doesn't sit back and wait like that. He waits, but he is assertive and active in his patience. He actually draws near to us to help us make changes and do the right things. And the way he draws near is he draws near by his Spirit and his Word. And that usually comes in the form of ministers who are preaching the gospel and administering sacraments to his people. And that's exactly what we see happening in this story.
The Lord responded to his people with all of their fears and all of their failures by sending poets to sing truth, beauty, and goodness into the chaos of their lives - prophets who spoke the word of God to the people of God, with the help of the Spirit of God.
Now, sometimes you think of prophets and you think of wild-looking men, right? John the Baptist style; sweaty-tooth, madmen coming to yell and scream at you. But that's not what these prophets are. Most prophets were just ordinary pastors who lived among God's people, who spoke the truth of the word of God in the love and the power of the Spirit. The prophet Zechariah tells us at one point that over this 15-year period, there were many anonymous prophets who were preaching the word of God to the people with no tangible results - unless you count resistance and rebellion as a tangible result (Zech. 8:9).
15 years. As is the case with most pastors there's very little to show for their work, but then all of a sudden, like lightning flashing on a clear blue sky, one day, after 15 years, in the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the message broke through and the light got in (Haggai 1:2).
It's interesting how the Holy Spirit records the exact day of that event. This is the day that the light got in, this is the day that renewal came and that revival was kick-started by the Spirit of God. How did this happen? It happened because two prophets were sent by the Lord.
Haggai, the messenger of the Lord spoke to the people with the Lord's message. And then two months later, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah. And then over the next four years, God used these prophets to stir the hearts of the people out of their fear, out of their failures, from the highest to the lowest, from the greatest to the least to get them to do the work of God.
You can summarize the books of Haggai and Zechariah in this way. "God has a wonderful plan for your life - and he promises to give you the power to help you fulfill that plan." Does that sound familiar? I hope it sounds familiar because that's what Zach and I try to preach every week. Maybe I'll check back in 15 years and see how we've done.
We're all called to build the temple of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and in this community. And so, I want us to hear the words of the prophets as if the Spirit of God were speaking to us even now, because he is speaking to us, even now. If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as some of our forefathers did. Here's what I want to do with the remaining time. I want to echo some of the words of the prophets of Haggai and Zechariah. And the reason I want to do it this way is because I want to pour the words of the Spirit into your hearts unmixed and undiluted.
The prophets do something for us that we need in our day. They shout poetry into the chaos of our life. And it is that poetic message that gets behind our defenses and re-frames our life. And so, here's what the prophets do. If you'll bear with me, I'll just echo Haggai and Zechariah. And if you want the references, I'll give them all to you later. But here's what the prophets do. They confront our problems and correct us with the purposes of God and the promises of God. Those two things, the purposes of God and the promises of God.
For example, Haggai the prophet says, "Consider your ways" (Haggai 1:5, 7). In the 21st century, he'd say something like, "Girl, what is you doing?" as he speaks to the people of God.
Consider your ways! Stop procrastinating and start prioritizing the worship and the mission of the Lord in your life. This is not a time for silence, it's a time for speaking. This is not a time for cowering in fear, but for calling on the Lord in faith. This is not a time to build your house and your life alone by yourself, but to build the house of the Lord for the life of the world. This is not a time for wavering, but for working. This is a time to establish the worship and the mission of God in desolate places, to build the temple of God in the places of ruin in the world - in the brokenness of your life, and your family's, and your friends' lives. But how can we do that?
Zechariah, the prophet says, "These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, Render judgments that are true and make for peace. Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. Love no false oath. Love truth, and Love peace" (Zech. 8:16-17). In other words, season the conversation of your life with grace. Use your words and use your actions to build up other people, not to tear them down. These are just some of the good works that God has created you to do. And if you do these things, you'll find yourself building God's temple in your heart and in your family, in your life, and in your community.
Now, that's God's purpose for us, but God's promise is also for us.
The prophets draw attention to several promises of God to encourage us. I just wanna highlight three for the sake of time. There is God's presence, God's power, and God's peace.
Haggai the prophet, the messenger of the Lord spoke with the Lord's message, "I am with you, declares the Lord." And again, he came back and said, "I am with you declares the Lord." And again, he said, "My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not, declares the Lord." (Hag. 1:13; 2:4-5). And then Zechariah the prophet jumps in with the same kind of message that God is with us (2:10-11).
What are the prophets reminding the people of God and reminding us? It's that after all of these years, in spite of everything that's happened and things that are happening right now, our God is with us. He is near us. People come and go. Moms and Dads will let you down. Children grow up and go away. Friends move on. Ministers change places. Death takes us all, but God will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus promises that he will be with us always, even to the very end of the world and beyond.
So you see, God doesn't simply send us to go out and build the temple all by ourselves. God draws near to be with us and to help us. And how does he help us? He helps us by giving us his power.
The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, "Speak now to all the people and say, now be strong, declares the Lord. Be strong, be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord" (2:4). And then Zechariah added, "Not by human strength, not by flesh power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord of hosts. "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Let your hands be strong that the temple might be built. Fear not, but let your hands be strong'" (8:9, 13). This is the antidote to all of the false messages trumped up by the propaganda machine. This is the antidote to all of the half-truths and the lies that we hear, the things that make our hands drop and our arms weak, and the things that destroy our courage. God draws near, gives us his strength, and says, "Let your hands be strong. I'm with you."
God doesn't just come near and help us and give us the power to do his work, but he also gives us rest after the work is done. And this is the promise of God's peace.
God says through the prophets in this place, "I will give peace declares the Lord" (Haggai 2:9). How does God accomplish this giving of peace? Well, we're looking at the story in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we know that God accomplishes this by shaking the world and by destroying our enemies at the cross of Jesus Christ, where he put them to public shame and exposed them all for the frauds they are (Col. 2:15). He accomplishes this peace by shedding his own blood at the cross and tearing down the walls of hostility between different kinds of people and bringing them together in the church of Jesus (Eph. 2:13-14). He gives us his peace by sending his Spirit to dwell among us (Gal. 5:22; Rom. 14:17). And his Spirit is the one who produces peace in us and sets up a sentinel around our hearts to guard and protect us (Phil. 4:7). He gives us the Spirit of peace so that we may rest after all of our labors.
These are the promises of God for us. In these promises we find comfort and we find courage once again.
So I want you to consider your ways. Consider your ways.
I imagine that it's very easy for you to feel discouraged and disheartened by all the conflicts and the controversies taking place, not only in our world but closer to home, perhaps even in your own families.
I realized that some of you might feel completely defeated or demoralized by the circumstances and the conditions of your life. And I'm not making light of those things at all. And I'm not pretending for a moment that they're not heavy, and difficult, or unimportant. I know that they are crushing at times. I know that sometimes man seems bigger than God, and God seems very small. I know that sometimes in your life as in mine, fear outweighs your faith. And sometimes all the junk you face every single day seems even more real than Jesus, and your problems seem so close, while God seems so far away. You might feel like your faith is a smoldering wick or a dying ember.
And it's for all of those reasons and more that like a poet singing into the chaos, I want to remind you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you and to remember that God has given us a Spirit, not a spirit of fear, but a Spirit of power, not a spirit of fear, but a Spirit of love, not a spirit of fear, but a Spirit of self-control (2 Tim. 1:6-7)
And since God has given us such a Spirit and his Spirit remains with us in our midst, even now - friends, we have no reason to fear any man. We have no reason to be ashamed of Jesus (2 Tim. 1:8). We have every reason to have confidence in Jesus, knowing that he will not snuff us out, he will not smother our coals, he will not stomp out our life. I want you to remember that God is with you and he gives you the power, and he promises you peace. And he will accomplish his purposes in you and through you according to his great pleasure.
The Father loves you. Jesus is on your side. The Spirit is for you. And God is relentless in his pursuit of you.
As the Lord stirred up the spirit of the leaders, and the ministers, and all the people in Ezra's day to work on the house of the Lord, so I pray that the Lord will do the same for you and me in our day starting even now.
May God make you worthy of His calling and fulfill every desire for good and every work of faith by His power so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (2 Thes. 1:11-12).
Let us pray.
