Well, good morning, church.
Our text today is Ezra chapter 4.
That starts on page 363 of the Pew Bible, I believe.
Go ahead and turn there with me.
That's Ezra chapter 4.
As we come to God's word together, let me pray for us.
Our Father, as we have just sung, why should we gain from his reward?
Father, indeed, we cannot give an answer.
Lord, if it were simply our own works or our own merits that brought your favor and love upon us,
Lord, we would still be waiting.
But God, you loved us even when we were unlovely.
You cared for us and you set your mercy and your favor upon us even when we were far away.
And you came out into the far country to rescue us and redeem us and to bring us home.
And Father, you've given us your word.
The word of the prophets and the apostles preserved for us down through the ages through your spirit.
And you continue to speak to us and guide us and direct us because you're a good God and you're a loving father.
So as we come together before your word this morning, we ask God that you would speak and that we would listen.
That you would direct and we would follow.
That you would cast a vision before our eyes and our hearts would be set alive again by your glory and your fame.
We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Ezra chapter 4.
Let me read this for us.
Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,
they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the father's houses and said to them,
Let us build with you.
For we worship your God as you do.
And we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.
But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the father's houses and Israel said to them,
You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God,
but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel,
as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build
and bribe counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia,
even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign,
they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and Mithradath and Tabiel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia.
The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.
Rahim the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes, the king, as follows.
Rahim the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates,
the judges, the governors, the officials, the Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa,
that is the Elamites, and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnapar deported and settled in the cities of Samaria
and in the rest of the province beyond the river.
This is a copy of the letter that they sent.
To Artaxerxes the king,
Your servants, the men of the province beyond the river, send greeting.
And now, be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to Jerusalem.
They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.
They are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.
Now, be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished,
they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired.
Now, because we eat the salt of the palace,
and it's not fitting for us to witness the king's dishonor,
therefore we send and inform the king,
in order that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers,
you will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city,
hurtful to kings and provinces,
and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old.
That was why this city was laid waste.
We make known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls finished,
you will then have no possession in the province beyond the river.
The king sent an answer to Raham the commander,
and Shimshai the scribe,
and the rest of their associates who live in Samaria,
and in the rest of the province beyond the river, greeting.
And now the letter that you sent to us has been plainly read before me,
and I made a decree, search has been made,
and it has been found that this city from of old has risen against kings,
and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it.
And mighty kings have been over Jerusalem,
who ruled over the whole province beyond the river,
to whom tribute, custom, and toll were paid.
Therefore make a decree that these men be made to cease,
and that this city be not rebuilt until a decree is made by me.
And take care not to be slack in this matter.
Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?
Then when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Raham and Shimshai the scribe
and their associates, they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem,
and by force and power made them cease.
Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped,
and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
When the work of God's kingdom is on the move,
opposition will arise.
Sometimes it will be hard to spot at first, subtle, covert.
Other times it will be blatant and obvious.
But make no mistake, there will be opposition when the kingdom of God is advancing.
Think of an organ transplant.
When a new heart transplant is received,
doctors have to be constantly monitoring to see whether the body will do what?
Whether it will accept or reject the new organ.
It's deeply ironic, isn't it?
That a dying body will attack the new life being planted right into the middle of it.
And so doctors have to be vigilant to monitor and work against this opposition to the new organ.
The kingdom of God is like that.
When the word of God's grace gives rise to a whole new people in the midst of the old,
when there's a new creation that comes to birth in the midst of the old,
then all too often the old creation, the old system, the world,
can often war against the very thing that has arrived as a beacon of new life and hope.
That's what we actually see beginning here in Ezra chapter 4.
In fact, from this point forward, all the way to the end of Ezra and Nehemiah,
this book that we're studying this summer,
there's going to be ongoing conflict and opposition.
The first five verses here in chapter 4 tell us about the opposition that arose
for the first generation that returned from exile.
Remember, in Ezra chapter 1, the return to the land from exile is presented as a new exodus.
And then in Ezra chapter 2, the people are numbered for their march back to the land,
just like the book of Numbers in the Torah.
And in Ezra chapter 3, that we looked at last week,
they celebrate the festival of booze, worshiping God for his faithfulness.
But here, in Ezra chapter 4, opposition comes.
And it happens directly after the foundation of the temple is laid, around 537 BC.
And so the advance of God's kingdom, this new exodus, this new creation,
this renewed people is met almost right away with adversity, with opposition.
Then something really interesting happens in this chapter.
In verses 6 through 23, Ezra inserts into his narrative at this point,
two more examples of opposition that arose over the course of the next 80 to 90 years into the future.
You know, if you wanted to, you could jump directly from verse 5 all the way down to verse 24
and just kind of pick up the story from there.
But if we did that, we'd miss some of what Ezra wants us to see at this point.
He inserts this digression, as it were, to make a spiritual point.
So in verse 6, he takes us to the reign of Ahasuerus, also known in history as Xerxes I,
whose reign began in 486 BC, about 50 years after the events of verses 1 through 5.
Opposition arose then, he said.
And then in verse 7, we jump ahead another 40 years after that to the middle of the reign of Artaxerxes,
probably around 450 BC or so.
There, in that moment in time, the people had begun rebuilding, not the temple at that point,
but the city walls, and opposition has arisen against them.
And only then, after having drawn our attention to these further instances of opposition,
does the narrative then return in verse 24, back to the days of that first generation who returned from exile.
And there we're told that the work on the temple ceased until the second year of Darius, king of Persia,
which was about 520 BC.
In other words, for about 15 years, the work comes to a halt.
So Ezra 4 is like this panoramic view covering nearly 100 years of adversity that the people of God faced
as God advanced his kingdom through them.
So what are we meant to learn from Ezra 4 today?
First, the first thing we learned from Ezra 4 is that we have to remember to expect opposition as God's people in the world.
Many of us this weekend are completing a milestone in our education,
graduating and launching out to whatever is next.
For many of us, it's just another weekend.
That's it.
But for all of us, we have to remember that the Christian life isn't going to be a smooth road.
At the very beginning of his earthly ministry in the Sermon on the Mount that we read from earlier,
Jesus reminds his followers that there's going to be persecution ahead.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said.
And then it's the only beatitude he sort of doubles down on and drills down on.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And then at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, not just the beginning,
but at the very end as Jesus is preparing his apostles for his departure,
he tells them in John chapter 15 in his farewell discourse,
Jesus says,
And you know, these words of Jesus don't just apply to the first generation of apostles.
Because the apostles went on and taught the same thing to the churches.
In Acts 14, Paul tells the churches that he has just planted,
that it's through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God.
And in Peter's first epistle, the apostle Peter writes in chapter 4,
Beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you
as though something strange were happening to you.
And the apostle James in the first chapter of his letter says,
Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial.
For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life.
And the apostle John in the last book of the New Testament
writes a whole book about the church remaining steadfast under trial and opposition
while God brings his sovereign purposes to pass.
So every major voice in the New Testament,
Jesus above all tells us to expect opposition as God's kingdom goes forward.
Now, of course, that doesn't mean we go looking for opposition, right?
Think about Ezra chapter 4.
The people weren't trying to pick a fight with the surrounding people
when they showed up to rebuild the temple.
Just the opposite.
God had sent them there to be a blessing to the nations.
And it's the same with the church.
Jesus says that we're meant to be salt and light.
Facing opposition because of our own foolishness or our own sinfulness
isn't the same thing as facing opposition for the name of Christ.
Jesus said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
not blessed are those who are persecuted
because they post snarky, insensitive social commentary on their Twitter account.
Right?
So we aren't meant to go looking for opposition and stirring up trouble.
However, I think we have to admit
that our generation of Christianity,
especially us young American Christians,
we have to confess that we like being liked.
We often view our missional effectiveness
by how accepted we think we are by the culture.
And again, if we are living in line with the truth of the gospel,
there will be things that our cultural time and place
will respect or admire in us.
Our devotion to mercy and justice,
our compassion toward the weak and vulnerable,
our care for the stewardship of God's creation.
If we're living in line with the truth of the gospel,
there are going to be things that are admirable culturally,
but at the same time,
in any culture, in any time, in any place,
there are going to be things that deeply offend.
For example, our adherence to the utter uniqueness of Jesus in the gospel
and the necessity of faith in Jesus for eternal life,
the reality and eternality of God's judgment,
the authority of Scripture for all of life,
there are going to be things that go against the grain.
If we look at Ezra 4,
we actually see that there are at least two kinds of opposition that we can expect.
On the one hand, we can expect what we might call subtle opposition.
This is in verses 1 through 5, if you take a look back there.
The people of the surrounding districts come to this construction project
happening at the temple site,
and they say,
Hey, let us build with you.
We worship your God just like you do.
Now, some historical background here.
In the 7th century BC, about 100 years prior to these events,
the Assyrian Empire repopulated the conquered northern territories of Israel
with people from other parts of their empire.
It was basically a way of just subjecting a whole region.
Take one people, put them over here, put another people over there.
They're all mixed up and confused.
You can rule them very easily that way.
It was pretty pragmatic.
And we see in 2 Kings chapter 17
that while some of the resettled people began worshiping Israel's God,
they also still went right on worshiping their other gods as well.
So the result wasn't really the worship of the Lord,
but a kind of syncretistic religion, a mix of this and that,
which at the end of the day was really an exchange of the true God for idols.
So when in Ezra chapter 4, the people of the land come and say,
Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do,
that's not actually true.
But you have to imagine how tempting it must have been
for those returned Jewish exiles to want to accept the offer.
Think about it.
These returned exiles were a small, beleaguered people.
They were politically and economically vulnerable.
They needed all the help they could get, right?
Why not join forces and we'll build the temple faster?
Done.
We can overlook some of those differences.
Not that big of a deal.
But that's not how they respond.
The returned exiles stand firm against this subtle opposition,
this temptation to compromise on the uniqueness of the Lord God.
But note how the returned exiles do respond.
They don't simply say,
You have nothing to do with us.
Full stop.
That wouldn't have been quite right had they just said that.
Because we are still called to love our neighbor, right?
To serve and minister to them.
There were lots of ways that the returned exiles had to work
and cooperate and negotiate with the people of the land,
politically, economically, socially.
This was the generation, after all,
that God himself had told, while they were still in exile,
to settle down and seek the good of the pagan city of Babylon,
the very one that had carried them off in the first place.
No.
What the returned exiles here in Ezra chapter 4
tell the people of the land is,
not just you have nothing to do with us,
but you have nothing to do with us
in building a house to our God.
When it comes to the spiritual work of worship,
to the work of ministry God had given them to do,
ultimately, when it came to proclaiming and upholding
and glorifying the uniqueness of the God of Israel,
that there's none like him,
none compare,
all other gods are simply false, empty idols compared to him.
When it came to that,
they could not budge.
I think we face the same sort of subtle opposition today.
It's easy to want to say that Christianity
is just one good option among many.
We're all seeking for truth, after all,
and your truth is your truth,
and mine is mine,
and aren't all the spiritual options
just as good as any other at the end of the day?
But friends, the good news about Jesus
is not actually just one more option among many.
The good news about Jesus
isn't just one more metal dish
above the steaming water of the buffet line
that you just sort of pull out and push in
like they do at Nika's every Sunday afternoon
when I get lunch there.
The gospel is something else altogether.
Every religion, every worldview,
every life philosophy
is going to give you a set of standards to meet
so that you can be blessed and accepted,
I guarantee you.
But only Christianity says
that God has stooped down,
took your place,
met the standards on your behalf,
bore the crushing weight of your failure
so you don't have to,
and now offers you that acceptance
and blessing wholly by grace as a gift.
And anyone can receive it
if we admit that on our own we're lost
and only in Christ we're found.
You know, the people of the land
in Ezra chapter 4,
they actually could have joined
the returned exiles
had they forsaken their gods
and truly accepted the Lord alone as God.
So we have to endure
through this subtle opposition,
not just for our own sake,
but for our neighbor's sake.
They have to see the uniqueness of Christ
so that they can experience
his unparalleled grace as well.
So Ezra 4 tells us to expect
some subtle opposition,
but it also tells us to expect
just outright blatant opposition.
We see this in the big sort of middle chunk
of this chapter.
In verses 7 through 16,
the letter that's written
against the returned exiles
in the days of Artaxerxes
is just full of outright slander
and accusation.
They are rebuilding
that rebellious and wicked city,
verse 12 says.
The gloves have sort of come off now.
It's no longer,
hey, let us build with you.
It's just like,
nope, they're bad.
Stop them.
In other words,
what they're saying is
these Jews have a history
of rebellion,
oh king,
and if you let them rebuild that city,
they're not just going to stop
paying their taxes
and dishonor you
as bad as that would be,
but they're going to take
all of the surrounding province
with them as well
and take the whole thing
into rebellion.
You're going to have
a situation on your hands.
You know,
this is often how
the church is opposed.
Christianity is presented
as just plain bad
for society,
as a social ill.
You see that throughout
the book of Acts.
Do you remember that moment
in the book of Acts
when the apostles arrive
in the city
and they say,
and you know,
they go to the sort of
authorities,
to the magistrates,
their opponents go to the magistrates
and say,
these are the people
who are everywhere
turning the world upside down.
And we often think of that
as sort of like a compliment.
Yeah,
we're turning the world upside down.
That's not how they meant it.
They meant that these people
are overturning the social order
and creating a lot of bad news.
This is really,
really bad.
All those people
who are turning the world
upside down,
they're here
and they're causing
the same trouble
and you've got to stop them.
And you know,
Luke writes the book of Acts
in part
to defend the church
against this kind of slander.
In the fifth century,
Augustine defended the church
in his day
against the same charge.
People in his day
were sort of asking,
why did Rome fall
to the barbarians?
And they looked around
and a lot of the cultural elites
said,
you know what,
I think it's the Christians' fault.
They've ruined our society.
They told us to stop
worshiping the old Roman gods,
so we stopped
worshiping the old Roman gods
and then we got defeated.
You do the math.
The Christians are the bad guys.
So Augustine,
as only Augustine could do,
writes a giant book
that takes him decades to finish
called The City of God
and in a masterful way
defends Christianity
against these charges.
And you know,
I think the same basic charge
is still being made today.
Christianity is portrayed
as just plain bad
for society.
We see that today
in a few ways, I think.
On the one hand,
Christianity is sometimes portrayed
as sort of anti-reason
or anti-science.
It's portrayed as a belief system
that just sticks its head
in the ground
when it comes to reason
and science and progress.
You know,
the funny thing is
is that
that couldn't be further
from the truth.
In fact,
one could argue
that it's the biblical worldview
better than any other
that undergirds
and actually makes sense
of modern science.
I mean,
think about it.
That the world
is a place of regularity
and order
and that we humans
have rational minds
that can perceive
and understand that order
and make sense of it.
all of that
makes a whole lot of sense
if there's a God
who created the world
and who created us
in his image.
It doesn't make as much sense
if the world
is just sort of a
random chaotic
accident of time
and chance
and energy
and luck.
So the claim
that Christianity
is anti-science
couldn't be farther
from the truth,
but you know,
maybe more prevalent today
is the idea
that Christianity
is anti-morality.
In other words,
Christians are portrayed
at times
as people
who hate those
who are different
or who disagree with them.
Christians are portrayed
as closed-minded,
even at times bigoted.
Now look,
I'm sure there are plenty
of rotten people
in the world
who profess
the name of Christ,
but genuine Christianity,
genuine faith
in the gospel
doesn't breed hatred
for those who are different.
Just the opposite.
You know,
it's the biblical gospel
after all
that gave us
the very idea
not merely of loving
our neighbor as ourself,
but even loving
our enemies.
In other words,
even if I deeply
disagree with you,
I'm commanded
to love you,
to treat you
with dignity
and respect
and kindness
because that's how
God treated me
when I was
his enemy.
That's what it means
to follow Jesus.
Not merely to approve
of everything
and everybody,
but to treat
even our enemies
with dignity
and respect.
God bless you
and let's see
the kingdom
advances in our midst,
brothers and sisters.
Do you realize
that there's going
to be spiritual opposition?
There's going to be
social and cultural opposition.
It's going to come.
So let's not be
caught off guard
as if something
strange is happening.
Some of it's
going to be subtle,
some of it's
going to be blatant,
but let's not get
angered or embittered.
This is what Jesus
himself said
would be the case.
It's expected.
But Ezra chapter 4
doesn't just teach us
to expect opposition.
The second thing
it teaches us
is that we have to
remember how the story ends.
As Ezra 4 sort of
stacks these stories
of opposition
one on top of the other,
it's a bit sort of
disorienting at first,
isn't it?
You sort of wonder
where is this story going?
But as he keeps
sort of telling story
after story
and example
after example,
he keeps pushing us
ahead, doesn't it?
It's sort of thrusting
us into the future,
forcing us to look
ahead and to realize
that, you know,
we're not alone
when we face opposition.
This isn't the first time
Ezra seems to be saying
that opposition has arisen
and it won't be
the last time.
The church has faced
it before
and will face it again
and each time
the church has endured
and will endure.
Do you remember
when Jesus said
the very gates of hell
in that arresting phrase?
The very gates of hell
won't prevail
against the church.
We have to look ahead
to how the story
is going to end.
So how does the story
of Ezra and Nehemiah end?
Well,
they finish the temple
and they finish the walls
and a lot of our sermons
in the coming weeks
are going to be looking
at how in the world
they do that
in the midst
of all this opposition.
But how will our story end?
And in order to see that
we have to look to Jesus.
In the face of Christ
we see how God's story
for us will be completed.
And ultimately
we look to a Savior
who faced opposition for us.
Jesus faced the ultimate opposition.
He was crucified,
died,
and was buried.
But three days later
He rose again,
ascended to the right hand
of the Father,
and will come again
in perfect justice
to judge the living
and the dead.
So what will keep us
from being discouraged
and afraid
and frustrated
when opposition comes?
It's this.
It's the certainty
that no matter
what the world
throws at us,
it can't ultimately
destroy us.
How do we know that?
Because friends,
the only opposition
that could really destroy us,
the only opposition
that could really undo us,
God's wrath
against our own sin,
that opposition
has been put to rest
at the cross.
And if that holy opposition
against our sin
has been put to rest,
what other opposition
could possibly,
truly harm us now?
Do you see how
the real sting
has been removed
from any worldly opposition
that we face?
No matter how dark
the clouds begin to roll,
we know
that whatever thunder
and whatever storm
they bring,
they're not going to undo us
because the righteous wrath
of God's been satisfied
and we're his children now,
fully accepted
in the beloved.
And any trial that comes
and any opposition
that comes
in fact
can only result
in our sanctification.
And God can only use it
for the advance
of his kingdom.
So brothers and sisters,
expect opposition, yes,
but remember
how the story ends
and remember
the confidence
that you have in Jesus,
that we have in Jesus,
as his church.
And may the Holy Spirit
empower us
to meet this opposition
with endurance
and wisdom
and with grace
and with peace.
Let's pray.
Father, you know the hearts
of everyone
who's gathered here.
God, you know the ways
in which
we are discouraged.
discouraged.
You know the ways
in which we are
afraid.
You know the ways
in which
our paths
seem frustrated.
Just like the people
who return from exile
and face opposition,
God, we too
get discouraged
and we get afraid
and we feel frustrated
at every turn.
But Father,
thank you for the confidence
that we have
that this story
we're a part of
is ultimately
in your hands
and that if Christ
is for us,
who can be against us?
Holy Spirit,
cause that truth
to come alive
in us.
Make it real
and make it burn
this week
with a fervency
and a fire
that allows us
to go out
into this world
that you have made
and that you love
and to be salt
and light
no matter what comes.
to respond
every
slander
with kindness,
to respond
to every untruth
with integrity,
God,
to respond
to every wrong
with forgiveness
and with boldness
and with courage.
And God,
would your kingdom
continue to advance
in our city
and in our day
so that people
could see how great
you are, God,
and how worthy
you are of our
whole lives
and our whole praise.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.