The title of my sermon this morning on Ezra 1 is Stirred Up to Go Where God Leads, and
I want to have our focus on that climax in that text that Jono read to us so well.
Verse 5, Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests
and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of
the Lord that is in Jerusalem, Ezra 1.5.
I invite you to pray with me before we turn to God's word.
Dear Father, we ask that you would tune our hearts to hear your word this morning, that
you would give us a renewed sense of delight in your word, of delight in being with your
people in your house.
We ask that our thoughts and all of our doings today as we go forth from here will also be
pleasing to you in your sight.
We ask that you would strengthen us for the tasks we face ahead.
This we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
It's quite something preaching from up here, having seen the particular play that happened
here some nights ago, Stella and I come.
And so it's a little bit of cultural whiplash, I guess you could say, knowing what action took
place here, having Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.
It's great.
But that's why our prayer book, it's a prayer book, as J.I.
Packer says, a prayer book for real people in real places and real situations.
So as I think of the gospel coming into this scene here, I think it's great.
What motivates someone to dedicate himself or herself to a major task or life work?
No doubt there's something of a mystery there because I suppose any number of things could
come together to lead us in one direction as opposed to another.
But my guess is that if you go up and ask someone who has stayed with something for the long haul,
as we say, if you ask them what led you to do that, they'll probably say that they had a strong sense
that there was nothing else that they should be doing or that they would rather do.
Well, in our text in Ezra this morning, that's what happened to a whole group of exiled Jews
as God himself gave them a strong determination to leave what they knew behind and to go to Jerusalem
to rebuild Solomon's temple that lay in ruins.
It's that stirring that I want us to reflect on this morning, specifically,
how it came about, what it teaches us about God and his ways, and what it might mean for us today.
As many of you know, our rector has now arrived in Rwanda to attend the Global Anglican Future Conference,
otherwise known as GAFCON, which begins tomorrow.
And as we face something of a real regathering and restructuring in the Global Anglican Movement,
I think there's a sense that God has been, and is now even, stirring many hearts toward a new beginning,
a reformation even, where faithfulness to God's word is paramount.
I certainly feel that stirring myself, particularly as I think of the moment of great upheaval God is allowing us to go through.
And that is reflected in the life that we see reflected in the life of the church throughout the world.
Now, good historical sense, I think, teaches us to be careful in drawing conclusions about the present moment we're going through
that are too precise or overly precise.
However, I think it's safe to say that the dividing line between two churches, effectively,
is becoming more and more apparent every day.
It happens to cut right through Christian denominations and not between them.
One is a church that is positively comfortable in Babylon,
and as such is determined formally to bless behaviors in the area of sexual ethics.
We've heard about a lot.
I won't spell out details, but in the area of sexual ethics that God forbids,
as if Scripture and the Spirit who inspired them could be kind of set against each other.
The other is a church that believes that all things that pertain to our salvation in this life and the next
are abundantly clear in Scripture,
and so is prepared to leave behind certain church structures that have been so familiar
and have given us so much,
and yet move in a direction that may not be clear in every way.
Now, I'm not here to suggest that once we've embarked, by God's grace,
on the road to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple,
that the dividing line between believers and non-believers is neat and tidy,
because it isn't.
But what I do hope we'll see this morning is how gracious God is in bringing his people,
that remnant that he keeps for himself,
to a place where we can begin afresh,
where we can say that he's been faithful to his promise,
and that he will show us the way ahead as we trust in him.
So in the weeks ahead, we'll be studying Ezra and Nehemiah.
Really, it's one book,
and it's my privilege while George has gone to get this study launched.
So before we look into Ezra 1,
let me just remind you of the situation that God's people found themselves in at the time.
Ever since Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king,
had carried many Judeans into Babylon,
and then sometime later,
in 586 B.C.,
destroyed Jerusalem and the temple there,
God's people found themselves in captivity.
For centuries, they had experienced gradual decline.
If they were thinking of their glory days,
with David and Solomon,
when they enjoyed,
well, they enjoyed a clear national identity,
they would have to be thinking about 400 years back.
To recall their entry into the land of Canaan,
they had to go back another 400 years.
And now in exile,
where most of them had been born,
prophets like Ezekiel reminded them of their homeland.
And so did Psalm 137,
which gave them these words.
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres,
for there our captors required of us songs,
and our tormentors mirth,
saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
And then is the reply,
How, though,
shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
Now according to Daniel,
himself an exiled prophet,
God is a God who removes kings
and sets up kings.
Daniel 2.11.
I beg your pardon, 2.21.
So it comes to pass in 538 B.C.
that Nebuchadnezzar's grandson,
King Belshazzar,
is overthrown by the Persians and the Medes.
And Cyrus comes to power.
What we need to know about Cyrus
is that about 160 years earlier,
Isaiah had prophesied that God would call
and use him for his own purposes.
Here's what the Lord had said to him
through Isaiah in chapter 45,
and verses 4 and 5.
For the sake of my servant Jacob
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name.
I name you,
though you do not know me.
I am the Lord,
and there is no other.
Besides me, there is no God.
I equip you,
though you do not know me.
And then, jumping ahead,
another about 110 years
before the fulfillment of that prophecy,
God says through Jeremiah,
when 70 years are completed for Babylon,
I will visit you,
and I will fulfill to you
my promise and bring you back to this place.
So that brings us to Ezra.
So if you have that handy,
whatever format,
it would be great if you could
just have an eye there
on the first four verses that Jono read,
verses 1 to 4 of Ezra 1.
Because I want to highlight four things
that we wouldn't want to miss
in this passage,
in that decree of Cyrus.
If we are ultimately trying to understand
how God moved a people
in the direction of Jerusalem,
we need to know that God
had first stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.
And how did that come about?
Well, we can't be sure
what motivated Cyrus,
humanly speaking.
Maybe he was impressed
with Isaiah's prophecy
and wanted to show some regard for it.
Maybe he just wanted to show
a more tolerant and enlightened
view of things
compared to his predecessors.
The point here is this.
Whatever his personal motives,
the text tells us
that it was God actually
at work,
moving him.
And the second detail
to notice is that Cyrus,
by speaking of Yahweh
as the God of heaven,
was apparently ready
to acknowledge
that there is one supreme God
by whose authority
he, Cyrus,
now reigned over all
the kingdoms of the earth.
Now, the new king
wasn't necessarily boasting here.
He had taken over
the kingdoms
that had belonged
to Nebuchadnezzar.
And according to Daniel,
Nebuchadnezzar's reign
reached to the ends
of the earth.
So he was just
repeating that,
if you like.
But the third thing
to notice
is that Cyrus
did not know
the living God
in the way
that the living God
knew him,
as Isaiah
had prophesied.
On the one hand,
he acknowledged
that it was
his task
to see
that the house,
that a house
was built
in Jerusalem.
And so he proclaimed
that the Jews
were free
to go do
just that.
In fact,
he put it in writing
so that it could be
disseminated
throughout the land.
At the same time,
Cyrus took their God
to be a territorial God.
The God
who is in Jerusalem,
as written
in the decree.
That's why
one commentary
sets this proclamation
within the context
of Cyrus'
wider agenda
that we can call
his plan
for the resettlement
of foreign gods,
PRFG.
With that policy,
he allowed
the gods
of earlier conquerors
to be taken back
to their original lands.
And in doing that,
Cyrus
had just one request.
He said,
please,
when you
pray to your gods,
ask them
to ask
my gods
to give me
long life.
The fourth detail
to notice
is that while
Cyrus remains
a pagan,
God still
chooses to work
through his policy,
his enlightened policy
on religious affairs,
to speed the exiles
on their way
to Jerusalem.
He decrees
that friends
and neighbors,
presumably,
not just Jewish neighbors,
but others,
are to gather up
treasures
and provisions
that the Jews
will need
for their journey.
then we come
to verse 5,
what I'm calling here
the climax
of the passage.
I'll just read it again.
Then rose up
the heads
of the fathers
houses of Judah
and Benjamin
and the priests
and Levites,
everyone
whose spirit
God had stirred
to go up
to rebuild
the house
of the Lord
that is in Jerusalem.
I think I've chosen
it as the
theme verse.
Well,
let me explain.
We're considering
how God
has been at work.
He's prepared
a way
for a new order
in the land
with Cyrus
now in charge.
He's made use
of a particular
political agenda
so that it favors
his people,
God's people.
And through means
of his choosing,
he has stirred up
Cyrus' spirit
to issue
this proclamation
of glad tidings
and to see to it
that it's enforced.
Now,
he brings all this
together with his
chosen people's
longing for their
homeland,
which he has also
kept alive
in them,
incidentally,
through means
of his choosing.
Always means.
And consider
God's method
in verse 5.
First,
he sets the face
of some,
the senior
members of the
houses of Judah
and Benjamin
towards Jerusalem.
Then he takes
the priests
and the Levites
and he sets them
behind them,
as it were.
And then he,
finally,
he,
to that group,
he adds many,
many more,
working in their
hearts,
a determination
to follow
where their
political
and religious
leaders
are taking them
to go out
like Abraham
did so long
ago.
Well,
the remaining
verses tell us
how God's promise
did not lack
his provision
because the
provisions were
more than abundant
and even Cyrus
came forward
at that point,
didn't he?
Having done
his own
gathering
about 50
years earlier,
as I mentioned
with Nebuchadnezzar,
he didn't just
take away
the Judeans,
he took away
the precious
things from
the temple,
all the temple
vessels,
gold and silver
basins and
bowls and so
forth,
and installed
those in
his own
temple where
they would
have been
used in
the worship
of idols.
And now
Cyrus is saying,
here,
take them
back,
take them
with you
and may
your God
go with you.
Let's
think about
working our
way towards
applying this
passage to
our own
lives.
You might
be asking,
well,
okay,
so all the
Jews packed
up and left,
didn't they?
Well,
if my
sources are
correct,
only about
one in
six did.
And they
did that
in three
waves of
emigration.
The first
led by
Zerubbabel
or Zerubbabel
would see
to the
rebuilding
of the
temple first.
And then
the second
wave would
get to see
the law
established
with Ezra,
the priest.
And then
the third
wave led
by Nehemiah
the governor
would see
the city
rebuilt
and the
walls.
So why
did so
few,
relatively
speaking,
leave?
Well,
from a
human side,
we can
assume
several
reasons.
Group A
would have
been physically
unable to
make the
journey.
Someone in
group B
would have
said,
well,
this is the
world I
know.
I've made
my home
here and I
have people
to care
for.
A member
of group
C might
have said,
if I
leave,
it's going
to break
up my
family.
And in
any case,
I can
pray to
God right
here.
And we
can imagine
a group
D,
too.
Members of
this group
would have
been discouraged
about the
prospect of
going to
Jerusalem
itself.
The city
was in
ruins and
held by
enemies in
any case.
and the
journey
ahead
would be
rough.
And so
if we
ask,
well,
so was
it wrong
for them
to stay
behind?
And here
I think
something
that J.C.
Ryle had
to say
can be
helpful.
In his
sermon,
A Call
to Prayer,
he wrote
this,
it is not
absolutely
needful to
salvation
that a
person should
read the
Bible.
A person
may have
no learning
or be
blind and
yet have
Christ in
their heart.
It is not
absolutely
needful that
a person
should hear
public
preaching of
the gospel.
They may
live where
the gospel
is not
preached,
or they
may be
bedridden
or deaf.
But the
same thing
cannot be
said about
prayer.
It is
absolutely
needful to
salvation
that a
person
should
pray.
Now,
applied to
Ezra and
Nehemiah's
day,
what I
think
Ryle
would say
here is
that the
exiles who
remained in
Babylon could
still call
out to the
living God
and be
saved.
The logic
is the
same.
It
wasn't
absolutely
essential
for them
to get
to Jerusalem.
So the
natural
question would
be,
well,
why go
up to
Jerusalem
in that
case?
Well,
hold that
thought as
I try to
sum up
what I
think we've
learned in
the passage
about God
and his
way of
working.
Now,
the bullet
point version
would simply
be this.
God
speaks,
God
moves in
human
hearts,
God
directs,
God
provides and
preserves
what is
his.
God
speaks,
God
moves human
hearts,
God
directs,
God
provides and
preserves
what is
his.
The first
two of
these remind
us that
God works
through his
word and
spirit
together.
From one
side,
God
speaks.
Notice how
the passage
gives priority
to his
word,
that the
word of
the Lord
might be
fulfilled.
And what
he has
spoken,
among other
things,
is a
promise
that he
keeps.
From the
other side,
the underside
if you like,
the side of
the human
heart,
God moves
within
those hearts,
stirring
them up,
stirring up
even a
pagan
ruler to
do his
bidding.
And other
hearts to
receive the
promise and
to take
hold of
it.
And the
second two
also form a
kind of
pair.
they express
what we
might call
a doctrine
of direction
and provision.
That is,
God directs,
pointing his
people to
Jerusalem,
and he
says,
go,
and I'll
go with
you.
And then
from the
other side,
God provides
what is
needed for
the journey
and preserves
what we'll
need for
the task
that faces
us.
Now,
if we ask
what holds
all that
together,
well,
we can say
it's God's
providence.
I like
Burkopf's
definition,
brief,
succinct.
He says
that divine
providence
is that
work of
God by
which he
preserves
all his
creatures,
is active
in all
that transpires
in the
world,
and directs
all things
to their
appointed
end.
In other
words,
we can say
that what
moves the
world along
is not
some
impersonal
principle
force,
but a
personal,
wise,
and good
God.
What's
remarkable
is that
the doctrine
comes to
focus in
Jesus.
That's
because the
writer to
the Hebrews
says that
Christ
upholds the
universe
by the
word,
by his
word of
power,
Hebrews 1
and verse
3.
Now,
that's a
glorious
doctrine that
we can
truly delight
in.
The reason
is that
it reminds
us that
God is
working out
his purposes
right in
the middle
of human
history.
He takes
the real
stuff of
history,
political
movements,
social
realities,
quirky
motives that
we bring,
sadness by
the waters
of Babylon,
all of it.
He takes
all of it
and he
bends it
towards the
fulfillment of
his plan.
To do
what?
Well,
to sum
up all
things in
Christ and
to bring
all things
under his
authority.
Now,
in the midst
of that,
he knows
who belongs
to him
because both
the call
that stirs
up spirits
and the
reason why
some spirits
are stirred
while others
aren't are
in his
hands.
The timing
of all of it
remains with
him and
not us.
Our duty
is simply
spelled out
there in
Psalm 97.
Today,
if you
hear his
voice,
harden not
your heart.
Today,
if you
hear his
voice,
harden not
your heart.
So,
with that,
I think we
can come
back to that
question.
Why the
need to
get to
Jerusalem
if God's
people can
call on
him anywhere?
dogma.
Well,
in our
own day
of stirring
towards that
new beginning
in the
global church,
why the
need to
leave behind
structures
where we've
been baptized,
catechized,
nurtured,
if it's still
possible to
call on God
from within
them?
Here I'm
reminded how
even John
Calvin,
the great
reformer,
wrote that
the Babylon
of his
day,
the papacy,
insofar as it
stood in
opposition to
God's word contain God's people still, if in a hidden way. And the flip side is surely true.
What I mean is that at some point or another, some Jews would have just gone along for the ride,
so to speak. And even once in Jerusalem, and this is probably even more to the point,
we'll see in the weeks ahead that the leaders were going to face challenges not only from outside
God's household, but from within it, as some would show with their lifestyles and with their
actions, how much their hearts were still in exile.
By the same token, it's very likely in our day that some will publicly identify with the new
beginning in the global Christian movement, coming out of churches that have undermined central truths
of the gospel, as we believe, or attaching themselves to these new emerging movements,
while their hearts and minds won't be tuned to God's word and promise. And yet, and yet, I think
we need to say this. The one fundamental reason why you or I should come out of a structure in which
grave error has entered the citadel, as Calvin put it, is that God has stirred our heart to do it.
That's the basic reason. The passage itself gives us tools for discernment of that reason, but that's
the fundamental reason. So how to, and what, the rest of what I want to share with you, I want to share
orientation principles that I think are in our text to help us discern just that.
I call them orientation principles because they relate to how we look to the future,
how we look to the past, and how we think about our present. In the first place, Ezra 1 teaches us
how to look ahead, how to fix our eyes on God's promise. In the light of the New Testament,
the new Jerusalem we long for, the city of the great king is there. It's there, and it's coming.
The beauty and glory of that truth was something I desperately needed to hear and to be reminded of
one day when I was wandering in a kind of spiritual fog as a graduate student, a few years back, I won't
tell you how many. I happened to wander into the recording section of the library at the University
of British Columbia where I was studying, and I picked out a record at random from the gospel collection.
You remember those recording sections used to have those old vinyl records.
And I played that song, somehow I came to play the song, We're Marching to Zion.
You probably know the words. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. Maybe it was something about the beauty that
captured me, I don't know. But I can really say that the words, those simple words, stirred my heart.
So I actually walked out of that library somehow with new hope.
And if that stirring was from God, and I trust that it was, it was because it came purely
from his mercy. It represented the start of a new beginning as I could stop looking within to my own
resources for direction and for confidence about my own sense of direction, but rather with Abraham
to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God, as Hebrews 11.10 puts it.
And it represented the birth of a new longing for truth in me, together with holiness.
A passion that I believe God increases in our hearts. He works in our hearts as we remain
by his grace on that road to Zion.
A second thing that our passage teaches us is how to look to the past with the same grateful hearts.
I just want to share, speaking for myself again, that I'm not the greatest example here on looking
to the past. Because by temperament, I think I might have spoken about my dad here from this pulpit
before. Well, anyway, he is the kind of fellow who, well, I'm not at all like him.
And he, because he's the kind of fellow who's always, as long as I can remember, always pressing
toward the finish line, which is an apt metaphor for him because, well, he was an expert half mile
runner when he was a student at Mississippi State University. I thought he probably could have gone
to the Olympics. I don't know. And I'm one, by contrast, who tends to dwell in the past. I don't
know. Maybe you're like me. I don't know. If given a chance, I'm really one of those who tries to find
a way to relive past moments that I think are worth reliving. That's just the way I seem to be wired.
But by vocation, as a presbyter, of course, I'm supposed to be out in front, right? I'm supposed to
be out in front leading the way to Jerusalem. But by temperament, I'm more comfortable sticking
around in Babylon. And I know this because growing up, I was part of a group called Operation
Mobilization. How many of you have heard of it? Okay. Several of you have heard of it. Well,
the leader of that organization, just as a footnote, he died two days ago. And he and my father were
roommates back in their time in Bible college. And so all to say Operation Mobilization, which has
this kind of militaristic sound and also the mobilized part. Well, for the life of me, I could
not figure out or come to terms with the mobilized part. My relatives in Mississippi or Arkansas would
have said, with the cotton pickin' mobilized part. I wondered, why is the Christian life all about going
somewhere? And we did seem to always be pulling up stakes. Maybe that trained me for scouting.
As a partial cure to my nostalgic temperament, I found something C.S. Lewis wrote very helpful.
I don't remember the exact words, but the idea was basically this. If we find ourselves longing for
the past, what we're actually longing for was a particular future that we were looking forward to
in that moment. A particular future we were leaning into, if you like, in that moment. So what that means,
I think, is that it's not the naked moment itself that would satisfy us, even if we could have it.
The rest of the cure, if you like, comes from the reminder of God's providence, as we see here in
Ezra 1. God has brought us where we are, rescuing us from enslavement to sin, giving us a new start.
And since he transcends all our moments, even while holding them all in his hand, we can leave it to him to
gather up, gather them all up, and make and give them meaning. Maybe it's a little bit like this. As long as we
look ahead, fixing our eyes on Jesus, our past can be truly meaningful, because it's only in light of the
future that we see something of how God was working in past moments to draw us to himself, like that
moment in the library, maybe. Well, in the third place, we can take from Ezra 1 an orientation principle
that helps us to think about the present moment. And under this third heading, if you'll forgive me,
I have three very brief points in conclusion. It's always having third point, three points, but it's
not that complicated. This is my last point, and it has three brief sub-points. In the first place,
it's only because past and future are real that the present makes any sense at all.
Now, the Buddha was alive when, roughly, when the time we're talking about was happening, and
there is, in kind of a Buddhist-inspired popular thought, the idea that we should just learn to
live in the present moment. After all, the future and the past are to be thought of as illusions.
What matters is that we live in the eternal now, where we learn to make our roads as we walk them.
As we think of that poem from Antonio Machado, the road is made as you walk it. But in the light
of Ezra 1, we can be confident that the journey between here and the new Jerusalem isn't one that
we have to make up as we go along. And why is that? Well, it's precisely because Jesus himself
has already made that road. We have a real road to walk on, and it leads to where he is.
And in the second place, we can think about that journey as a real means of grace.
As a real means of grace. Sometimes we're inclined to think of that first journey that the Judeans made
to Jerusalem as a mere type and shadow of what was to come. Well, and in light of its fulfillment,
of course, it was a type and shadow of the journey to the city that is yet to come. But for those who
were moved by God's Spirit to go, it was nothing less than a means of grace, the instrument God had chosen
to keep us, to keep them in his care, as he does with us today as we remain in prayer, as we hear God's word,
as we celebrate the sacraments in the life of the church.
So I think it's the same with us today, and I think I will try to be bold saying this, as we work towards
a regathered and restored Anglican communion, where we can be confident that the pure word of God is proclaimed,
and where with David we can learn to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple.
And finally, as we follow where God leads, we can trust that he'll provide and preserve what's his.
We can trust that the decisions and actions of our political leaders are not out of his control.
We can be thankful, too, for our elders in the faith and pray that they, too, will stick to their main task.
And along with the provision of leaders, we can also trust that God will provide for our physical needs.
But he also preserves what's his, as he did with those temple vessels.
What is that precisely?
Well, what belongs to him are his statutes, his ordinances, his testimonies, his word, in short.
And he promises that his word will accomplish what he has purposed for it, Isaiah 55, 11.
So even after periods of neglect or even abuse, which is not beyond even a reformation movement,
we constantly, this need to be ongoing reformation.
So even after periods of neglect and abuse of God's word, as it happens naturally in Babylon,
there comes a day when God stirs up hearts afresh, causing us to pray that he'll send his word with power once again.
Now, in light of that, I can't think of a more fitting closing prayer than what we find in Psalm 43 and verse 3.
So I'm going to pray that as a concluding prayer.
Amen.
Send out your light and your truth.
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
Amen.