The Church Renewed

   Ezra chapter one,

you can take your seat because I got to do a little introduction before we read our text this morning.

If you are wondering how everything fit together this morning in our liturgy or order of worship, the text that the bakers read from Isaiah chapter 44, and if you're really intuitive you probably picked up on the fact. it came time to do our confession, and I was still standing where I was, and Blake almost took care of me.

But I realized it just in a heartbeat there. So, if you wondered what that look was, it's Blake just shepherding his pastor. So, it's awesome. But I was thinking about it because it's so amazing. That, that is 150 years before what we read in Ezra. All right, and so I'm sitting there just thinking how many times does the Word of God prove itself true and we doubt it?

And this is an amazing, I mean, he calls the king by name. So we're going to read a portion of Ezra where the king makes this edict, this proclamation. He tells the people what to do, and I'm sure he's really proud of himself. Josephus said that he knew of the prophecy on Isaiah. And so, possibly he read the prophecy in Isaiah and said, Oh man, this is what I'm supposed to do.

But even if he read that prophecy in Isaiah, it points to the fact that God was doing all of these things way beforehand to set up Cyrus for this moment. A hundred and fifty years earlier, Isaiah said this. It was a way of encouragement to the people who had sold their hearts to idols. Who'd given up the living God, who brought them a country, a land, beautiful, perfect laws, and structure for life, and flourishing.

They'd abandoned Him, and they'd gone to worshipping the idols, and in the midst of all of that, our God says in 70 years, He tells this to Jeremiah, I'm gonna rescue you. I'm gonna bring you back. And you're gonna build this temple. And it is just a beautiful thing for us to know that. Brothers and sisters, as we read his word this morning, his word is to be trusted.

His word has power to do and to control all things. So when we had our confession from the Westminster Confession, that might have seemed a bit weird for you or awkward. It's a section that deals with the providence of God. Do we have a God who is controlling all things? Do we have a God that's controlling all things in the midst of suffering and wrestling amongst His people?

And that's what that portion is talking about. Our God at times will turn us over to our own devices for our good. He will allow us to taste some of that bitterness that our sins deserve. And indeed, that's what's happened to those remnant that have been scattered and taken into Babylon. Psalm 137. Isn't it sad?

It just says, by the rivers, by the river of Babylon, we sat and wept. And our captors said sing the songs of Zion. And they say, we can't sing the songs of Zion while we're in this place. That's where we are in Ezekiel. And one more thing I want to say in the text, Cyrus will say, go on up. Okay, so there's a couple of phrases to the Hebrew mind that would trigger them their thoughts.

And one is to go up, because, because a Hebrew would always go up to Jerusalem. The Psalms of Ascent, they're called the Psalms of Ascent because you were always going up. And it was on a hill for sure but even if you're coming from the north, south, east or the west to Jerusalem, you're always going up to Jerusalem.

And as I thought about that this week, I remember there was one place where our family would go up as kids. Our favorite thing to do when we lived on the West coast was to go to this rustic cabin in Lake Tahoe. When I say rustic, it was, it was very, very rustic. There were critters in there at times. There was no television.

It was bolted onto the side of this cliff with a big cable that went right through it. But it was amazing. You'd wake up in the morning and you could see the Echo Lakes, you could see Fallen Leaf Lake. If you got up early enough, you could see the fog come off Fallen Leaf Lake, and you could tell which way the wind was blowing, because there'd be an exact representation of Fallen Leaf Lake over here.

And then you'd see beautiful blue Lake Tahoe. It was specifically encouraging for me because we would go up the Highway 5, the Grapevine. One of the most amazing things to see, if you ever go to Los Angeles, forget the Hollywood sign, go look at the highway. Go look at Highway 5, or as they call it over there, the freeway.

Highway 5 goes up this mountain, but coming into Los Angeles, it is full of U Hauls and trailers. It is an amazing thing. I would sit there and watch and think all of these dreams are coming in to this vast city. To be fulfilled, and I was going to the mountains. I was going away from all the hustle, the bustle, all the requirements.

And I was going to sit on a patio and overlook these lakes with my bride. And behold the beauty and the glory of God. For the Jew, to go to Jerusalem was that. And they would say to one another, let's go up. Oh, let's go up.

And so that's where this comes in. The other thing I want you to notice is where it says survivor that word is the same word as used as remnant. And so there was always this promise in the midst of judgment that God would save for himself a remnant, a people for himself. He would not let the light of his covenant go out even by the sinfulness of his own people.

The year here. It is 538, 538 B. C. The text will tell us it's the first year of Cyrus. It's actually the first year of Cyrus's reign over Babylon, which Daniel served the king of Babylon, those various kings that Blake talked about last week. So that gives us kind of a, a time stamp Yeah, let's stand in for the reading of God's word.

Ezra chapter one. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdoms and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.

And he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all of his people, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted.

By the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, beside freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. The grass withers and the flower fades. The word of our God will stand forever. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. So, for 70 years, and even before that.

God's people had strayed. For 70 years they'd been under the captivity of various kings and kingdoms. And the question, probably, that was going through their heads was has God forgotten His promise? Will He ever really restore? And then along with that, there's the issue of who are His people anymore?

So, once we found out that college could be free if you're Cherokee, we tried to figure out if we could figure out my wife was Cherokee. Like how much Cherokee do you need so that we don't have to pay for college, right? I don't know what it is. We never did figure it out or find all the documentation or whatever, but, but there was that sense of what's it look like, right?

And then we moved to Grove, Oklahoma, and everyone's a Cherokee. I mean, it's crazy right? It's just like, it's on everybody's license plate, and you're like, you can't be, yes I am. You know, I've been traced back my lineage, and I got this, and I got this, and I don't have to pay for my car tags, and all of that.

But God's people had so intermingled even at that point, culturally, by marriage. Was there even a remnant really left? And who would go? No one. Exile, deportation, and the times were difficult. Think about what we read about during just Daniel's lifetime, or Esther's lifetime, right? A king could in a moment declare, oh, all the people of your religion or race you know what?

On this certain day, the rest of you people, you can take whatever you want from them. Oops, changed my mind. Let's set up a 74 foot gallow for Mordecai. Let's throw these people in the lion's den. Let's throw these people in fire, right? It was not an easy time to live and to flourish as God's people. And so we come to this beautiful text.

It's pivotal. Second Chronicles closes with the same text, so that's why you find it in your Bible this way. It's following forth in what happened at the end of Second Chronicles. Our God was going to keep His promise. Our God's Word was going to be trusted. They were going to go back up to Jerusalem. So I've titled this message this morning, Going Back Up to Jerusalem.

Going back up again. Ascent to Jerusalem. The people were called then to make that ascent to Jerusalem. If you have your Bibles, Psalms 120 to 134, even if you don't have your Bibles, Psalm 120 to 134, we're not going to read them, but those are the Psalms of ascent. Let me just tell you what they would do.

Psalm 120, God's present. God is present during our distress. They would sing that. Psalm 121, it's a Psalm of joyful praise to the Lord. Psalm 122, it's a prayer for Jerusalem. Psalm 122, it's a prayer for Jerusalem. Psalm 123, a prayer for patience as we wait on God's mercy. Psalm 124, our help comes from the Lord.

Psalm 125, will God bless his people? Psalm 126, indeed our Lord has done great things. Psalm 127, God will bless our efforts. Psalm 128, God will give joy to those who follow his ways. Psalm 129, a cry to the Lord for help. Psalm 130, a prayer of repentance. Psalm 131, may we surrender to God as a child does to his mother.

Psalm 132, God has a sovereign plan for his people. Psalm 133, there is a praise of the fellowship and the unity of God's people. And Psalm 134, a praise to God who is in his temple. All of these things they would have sung. The kids would have known it. These would have been psalms they memorized on an annual basis.

They would go up and they would work their way through these. And in our series on the beauty of the church, we've been going through the different hammer beams that are going to be in Trinity Hall. And in your bulletin, there's a picture of the side of one if you look at it on the front of it, you don't see, you see a little bit of it, there's a scroll in the front.

So when you go in and you'll look at it, you'll see a scroll, the word of God, and then the proclamation and that's what's on the side here. The walls would be rebuilt during Nehemiah's time and the temple would be rebuilt through Zerubbabel. and Ezra. And Haggai would, would push them towards that too.

The prophets would push them towards it, but that's the picture we get. And so I've been thinking about how wonderful is it going to be for us who have children and grandchildren to bring them into our new worship space and point out those beams and to be able to tell the stories. This beam represents God's faithfulness after 70 years.

To a letter he named the king before the king was born and said, I will rescue my people and I will renew my church. I will do it. And that's what we see in Ezra, the start of that. But it's beautiful picture because in order for the people of God to be renewed, worship has to be restored. I had a friend, he got into ministry a little bit before I did.

He was in a different denomination and where the congregation had a lot more control. And so on a whim you could get fired or you could get hired. One week, one good sermon, one bad sermon away from being on the welfare line, right? And so he called me, he was worried, he was concerned, he was a youth pastor.

And their church had been declining. And he called me, he's like, well, our pastor left. I don't know what's going to happen. Called me a couple weeks later, he goes, okay, they found a new pastor. He is a revitalizing specialist. I'm like, oh, okay. And he was worried. It's like, what are revitalizing specialists do?

I said, well, you know, they're going to probably going to assess what's going on in your church and try to figure out what's wrong. And a couple weeks later, he goes, well, so far, here's what we've done. We changed the name of the church. Um, we have changed the music in, in our, our church. We have redone the parking lot.

And we have a new logo. How's that working? How's that working out for you? Well, a few months later, he was looking for a job. It was sad. The desire was right. Pastor has a church that's declining in numbers and membership and influence. Wants to see it revitalized, wants to see it vital or renewed. It is the longing of all who serve, but not just all who serve, it's the longing of your heart as well.

Will my part in this church, this body of Christ, will it bring fuller, deeper, richer life to me? So I use illustrations all the time about that, and I think I've told you in Grove where we had our church building, there's a stump, and out of that stump a little sapling came out. A couple summers ago, I would go and water it and it, for me, it's this visual representation of what our God does.

Some of you might understand that the other reference I had was the junkyard as you come into Grove, full of rotting, rusting pickup trucks. And I think of that as, that's the field of harvest. And God will take those rotting, torn up, broken down, Nobody wants them and with the right person and a big checkbook will make them into these beautiful pickup trucks that anybody who likes cars will stop and turn and look and talk about it.

I had those images in my mind because that's what our God is doing to his church. He is about the business of not just renewing but reviving and growing. Us, but it starts with worship. So the sermon in the sentence this morning, you'll see in your bulletin is that renewal of the church starts with the word of God and it directs us to the worship of God with the people of God.

God. And we see that right in our text. It starts with the Word of God. In fact, when Ezra writes this, it's years later that he writes this, but he puts it right there in the very beginning, that the Word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. God's Word is what we take rest in. We don't worship God's Word, but we find comfort in it.

We find direction in it. We find peace in it. Amen. And so Ezra's like, you know why this happened? Because God said it would. That's why it happened. You're worrying about 70 years in exile. You're gonna go back up to Jerusalem in chapter 3 when it's all put together. It's an interesting scene in chapter 3, right?

The temple's restored, and there is great rejoicing from a younger generation. And there is great weeping from an older generation. And it's an interesting scene that he writes for us there the sound of rejoicing and the sound of weeping was so indistinct they kind of over each other that you couldn't tell which was which.

But our God is going to restore and renew His people because He said He would. Take comfort in that, O Christian. In our confession, chapter three. There's a chapter called God's Eternal Decree, and in chapter 3 it says God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.

Yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away. but rather established. That's absolutely what we see proved here. Cyrus, acting on his own, says, I'm going to do this. Ezra's saying, you are freely making these proclamations, but you're only doing it because God eternally decreed it would happen.

The mouth of 11. He talks about the 70 years and coming back. The mouth of Isaiah, chapter 44, that we read early. Our God's word is to be trusted. He makes a proclamation. Cyrus proclaims by his word and by his mouth, truths concerning our God. King had hoped that the God in Jerusalem would come. Now his, his theology is not correct, right?

And so again, if you read Josephus and you read the historians, Cyrus was doing what a lot of rulers did back then. They believed in these local deities. And so that's why he says in there, in his proclamation, he's the guy who lives in Jerusalem. He's the guy who lives in Jerusalem. I'm sending these people back.

And according to Josephus, they were sent back and they were told, hey, once the temple is done, Will you pray to your God and remind Him that I'm the one that did this? And will you have your God pray to the Babylonian gods that I might have long life, flourishing, and health? Right? So, even a polytheistic idolater, God controls his words.

God puts his purposes through someone such as him. And then it tells us that he put it in writing. It's another part of God's sovereignty. In chapter six, you'll find out that God made him put it in writing because after he was gone and dead, people needed to know, was this actually what was said? So God stirs up Cyrus.

He had stirred him up, the word says, but he had stirred him up and promised to 150 years beforehand. And he puts himself in under the word of God. And Christian, that's what we are to do. We are to put ourselves under the sovereign word of God. As you think about this text some of you might think about a 70 year exile.

And sometimes your life might just feel like that. I'm in the middle of something that I just wish would end. I know at this point in my life, I, I surrendered to Jesus Christ. I gave him my heart. And yet I'm waiting to get to the side of 70 years where I get to go back up to Jerusalem, and I'm in the midst of this.

Oh, friend, take heart from this text. Take heart from the resurrection of Jesus. Our God keeps his promises, and though it may appear and just think about how it appeared for those exiles. For years and years and years for those kids growing up in that had not seen anything other than these powerful kings doing whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted.

Our God's word will be fulfilled, but God's word then directs them to the worship of God. So in verse two, here's what Cyrus was stirred up to proclaim. God's given him this, and he's charged him to build him a house. Represented in our hammer beams by the walls there, the temple inside. He was told to restore this place of worship.

Now it's really important you get this. Nehemiah will come later. Nehemiah will, will put walls up. But what is our God saying about this? He's saying the most important thing for my people to be renewed is that they worship me. Nothing is going to get any better amongst my people by just a change of address.

They must worship me. And at this time that happened under God's regulative priesthood in a specific place. And they were to go there, and they were to confess their sins, they were to hear the Word of God, they were to reconcile one to another, and they were to be sent out into the world. And so when our God starts to restore or renew you, He does it through the same means.

The worship of God is to be primary in the life of a believer. For now where we stand, we are told that we And then we see that the Lord is saying, Go and rebuild this temple. And the renewing work of God starts in us through proper and right worship. Go and rebuild this temple. You see it in second Kings chapter 22 when Josiah his heart is turned towards the Lord as a young boy king.

And so what do they do? They go to the temple and they start cleaning up. It's so weird to think about it, isn't it? The temple had kind of become the junk room, right? Everything got just kind of stored in there. We don't need this space anymore. If you remember the story, what happens? They find the Word.

They send word to Josiah. Hey, we found the Word of God in the temple. What does he do? He tears his clothes when it's red. It says, Oh, great is our God's wrath against us, for we have not kept the word. See, the temple was to be center for the reign of Josiah and every single king. And when that failed to happen, the downfall was kind of an exponentially downward trend in all of their flourishing.

We see it in Hezekiah when it's 2 Chronicles 30. The Passover is celebrated, right? Worship is restored. Brothers and sisters, do you see that in your life? There's nothing good that's going to happen to you eternally when you do not worship the Lord, your God, in spirit and in truth. Do you allow the current events to calibrate your heart?

Or were you out of obedience and conviction? Okay Um, Uh, Um, Uh, Okay. hearts. The renewal of the church, it starts with the Word of God, it directs us to the worship of God, but it also directs us with the people of God. In verses 3 and 4, you have this, whoever is among you of all his people. In verse 4, let each survivor, each part of the remnant, in whatever place he sojourns be assisted.

By the men of the place, God is calling his people together. There are three things I wanna say about this. First he says, God's with you.

God is with you. People of God. He delights to dwell amongst his people. God has given them a job and he has given us a job. To rebuild, to restore his house. It is essential to the existence of God's people. In fact, all human destruction and pain starts with its improper worship, worshiping the wrong things, the wrong way, the wrong God for the wrong purposes, the people of God on mission together, and God will provide.

Now, this is similar to the Exodus, isn't it? That, that, that same charge was given to Israel as they left Egypt, wasn't it? When, when you leave Egypt, Moses told the people, when you leave Egypt, you will plunder them. You will take from them articles of gold and silver and precious stones and food. It's the same here.

People, God is calling you and God's going to provide.

He's with you, he's given you the rebuilding job to do, and he has promise to provide. Now here's the interesting thing. There was estimated about a half a million living in that empire. Half a million Jews living in that empire. Some people go all the way up to two million but somewhere around there, right?

Half a million. You know how many returned? Not quite 50, 000.

This was proclaimed throughout the empire. Heralds would have said it. There would have been notices written. Very similar what happened with Esther and the Jews in the Feast of the Purim, right? The, there were proclamations made throughout all the kingdom. People were invited and given the power of the king to go and plunder and take whatever they want.

The king is with you from his own royal treasury. You're called to this great and wonderful work, and only one in ten did it. I wonder why.

I think maybe after 70 years,

children and grandchildren. They probably didn't like the prospect of a long walk. At one point, Ezra gets loaded up with all the goods. And it's a beautiful picture of faith. I'm not saying it's, it's the way we have to practice all the time. It's a beautiful picture of faith where the king says, I'm gonna, I'll, I'll send you armed men.

And, and Ezra says, well, no, no, no. I, I've told the king that our God will protect us. All right. But, but there was that danger involved. So maybe that's it. We've got a lot of kids. And boy, that's a long trip.

Maybe in Babylon, they had become so culturally acclimated in the culture and the language that it just seemed inconvenient. Business was good in the largest cities and districts, and they were safe. They weren't always fighting with their Canaanite, pagan neighbors. Why would they go back? Well, they would go back because they believed in their God.

And they believed and they trusted for us to be blessed by the Lord God Almighty. We would gather with his people and we would worship our God. You know, Trinity, we're going to move into a beautiful spot. It's going to be a beautiful place for us to meet. Some of us are going to think we have arrived.

We've done you know, what we, what we set out to do. Some of you have been here before. 12, 13 years, and you may think, Hey, we have, we have arrived, but Oh, church, we will constantly need to have this restoring, regenerating, renewing going on in our heart. And our worship will have to be right and true, but take heart.

We are called as a people. It's a beautiful thing that it's not just Ezra, go do this, right? It's whoever will write a beautiful call of the gospel, whoever will. So Trinity we need a revitalizing pastor. We need a renewing pastor. We need a revitalizing and renewing worship leaders. deacons and elders and Sunday school teachers and nursery workers, because that's absolutely what our God intends to do.

He's going to take us up to Jerusalem. He's going to enter our hearts. And as he goes through that, it'll be just like Josiah, just like Hezekiah, just like Ezra. It'll be a time of renewing, constant renewing. The renewal of the church, it starts with the word of our God. It directs us to the worship of God, with the people of God.

Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you that your word can be trusted above any current situation, that you are a God whose longings are met in the restoration and renewal of your people. That you will not even let our hard hearts get in the way of your redeeming work. Father, we pray that as a people we would trust in your word.

We trust in the God who has kept all of these short term promises. That we might trust all of your promises for the long term. That you are making your church this beautiful bride who will come down from heaven, the heavenly glorious city, the new Jerusalem. That that is what you're doing for your people.

And we must submit ourselves to the right and true worship. Confession of your truth, the repentance of our sins, and the believing and trusting upon your work. The partaking and the sharing of sacraments together. The celebrating and singing of your gospel. Oh, Father, we pray that you would continue to renew, that we would never in this life feel like we have arrived, that you have done your work, that you are finished with us, but that you continue to renew, rebuild, restore, making us ready for a heavenly, eternal fellowship with you.

We ask that you do this, the power of your Holy Spirit, work of Christ, renewal of the gospel in our hearts. In Jesus name, amen.