Ezra 8

So I'm excited to get back to Ezra this morning. This book has been a big encouragement to me personally

I hope it has for you as well. I Think that the Great Commission when you think about it, it can seem like an impossible mission.

It can seem like an impossible task Especially when you look around and you see how hardened certain people have become and it could be very daunting and discouraging

But the book of Ezra is such a good reminder of how great our God is and how capable he is like the power of God is

Clearly on display in this book He is completely able to push his mission forward.

He's working on his own behalf He's working through other people the book of Ezra just has it all and it's so encouraging in that way

In case you didn't know the book of Ezra is perfectly clear God is awesomely powerful Abundantly merciful merciful and ultimately capable and he's actively involved in the lives of his people

So it's good to get a reminder about that and we'll get right back to it right now this morning's chapter

Starts with a census or sort of a genealogy if you will which can be difficult to get through but as we've mentioned the genealogies

Demonstrate that God is into the details. He cares about The details We all know that God cares about the nation as a whole, of course

But he also cares about the individuals the individual families individual people No one is unaccounted for that.

The scripture says everything was recorded Even the goods that they brought were numbered and recorded.

This all matters to God. Nothing is left behind So as we worship

God, we can take confidence that he will hear your individual prayers Not just our corporate prayers, but he'll remember you and your family

Reminded again of that fact this morning So Ezra lists the families and it becomes very clear to him started in verse 15 that he has a problem on his hands

And the problem he identifies is that there's a missing tribe there are no Levites That's a weird problem to have

I kind of looked into it a little bit not too much But I was wondering why were there no no Levi it's like it was it just an oversight or did they intentionally not come

I Couldn't find the answer. But either way this is a problem for Ezra And this is a problem for the people of God and their mission if you remember

Two weeks ago when we were first introduced to the person Ezra We saw that God's good hand was upon him

Because he had set his heart to study the law of God and to do the law and to teach the law

That's why the good hand of God was on him to study to do and to teach that's what he was decided to make his life all about And the

Levites They were set apart to do the exact same thing You see having no

Levites meant that they would not have the right kind of people to serve and worship in the temple So when they built it up, they wouldn't have the right tribe to work it.

So that was a problem But also the Levites were responsible for teaching the people the law of God and so that's also for Ezra very necessary This isn't legalism.

We've talked about this so many times But the law of God is critical because it shows you how to love

God it shows you how to love your neighbor The law of God is the law of love.

And so Ezra knows that if the people do not learn the law they will not learn to love and Of course if they don't learn to love

Then even if they are able to rebuild the temple They'll be in the exact same predicament within a generation or two that they're in currently

So the whole mission of rebuilding the temple and reestablishing Israel would be for nothing

If they don't learn how to love God and love their neighbor And so having the Levites there to teach people that was necessary for their mission and it's actually necessary today not that we have the

Levites teaching us, but Matthew chapter 5 Jesus explains the situation.

I think pretty clearly I Think that personally, I believe that the church will rediscover

Matt Matthew chapter 5 starting in verse 17 because in some cases I think we've forgotten

Here's what Jesus says. He says do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them

Now we all know that part very well That's pure gospel right like Jesus accomplishes the law because we're not able to do it

Right, that's that's why that this is this is so awesome about Christ. He accomplishes and fulfills the law

Because we could never do it. So we love that part. That's gospel But his sentence continues and this is the

Sermon on the Mount mind you this is this is you know Epic for the church, right? This is this is what we love.

This is pure gospel, too It goes on it says for truly I say to you until heaven and earth passes away

Not an iota not a dot will pass from the law until is all accomplished therefore

Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven You see that's gospel, too

This is the truth, this is gospel truth, we should do the commandments and teach others to do the same just like Ezra Just like the

Levites were supposed to do. This is part of our mission. This is part of the Great Commission It's not legalism.

This is the Commission We need students We need doers

And we need teachers So if we're gonna be about the gospel We absolutely have to recognize the fact that Christ is our only way to salvation

He him accomplishing the law perfectly is the only way that we have standing before God, but that doesn't stop there

We have to teach and do the law as well Not to be saved

But to fulfill that Great Commission And that was the same in Ezra's time You see

Ezra knew that that was an issue. And so that's why he needed to have Levites with him So the

Levites come which is amazing It says again because the good hand of God is on them the Levites come and so they'll have their teachers

And then Ezra says You have to do something else now. You have to have a fast.

He proclaims a fast and The reason he says he says this he says we should have a fast that we might humble ourselves before God and The purpose of it is to seek a safe journey for Ourselves and our children and our all of our stuff, right?

He wants everything to be safe now It seems like a pretty humble request pretty common request. We we would call this traveling mercies

It's a common request and in those days it was more serious I mean, obviously we don't want to get in an accident. We don't want something bad to happen to us

But in those days traveling was slow traveling there were there were highway men There were people that could rob you and there was really no recourse.

There's no there's no cops waiting around the corner to help you out And so this is a more serious request but it's interesting not really what they were requesting because that's pretty common

I think But I think the reason why he recalled this fast is what the interesting part is for me

Verse 22. He says this he says he called the fast Because I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us

Since we had told the king The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him and the power of his wrath is against all those who forsake him

That's interesting to me He's like almost Embarrassed to ask the king because he had made such a big deal about how

God would protect him and God was powerful enough to Do it And so he didn't want to seem in front of the king like he lacked faith in God or that maybe

God wasn't powerful enough to do it and He felt like if he asked for the king's protection that that might look like that.

It might look bad on God and That is interesting to me and I want to make some application about that But before we do this is

I want to make sure that this is really clear I don't want you to misunderstand because The way

Ezra chooses to handle this is not the only faithful and possible way to handle this

Now up into this point we've cross -referenced the book of Nehemiah a ton of times because Nehemiah the prophet prophesied at the same time and he's involved doing stuff at the same exact time that Ezra is so a lot of the same events are talked about in both books and Nehemiah has a very different take on this type of thing in chapter 2 of his book

It's pretty clear that Nehemiah actually does ask the king for protection now

It's not clear that it's the same exact moment Although it could be we don't really know

But in a very similar situation, they were about to travel and Nehemiah does petition the king He says king protect us.

We're about to travel through this dangerous part of town. We would like your authorization. We would like protection

So Ezra and Nehemiah whether or not this is the same circumstance In similar situations, they have a different approach to handling the problem

And the interesting part about it is doesn't seem like God is against Nehemiah's approach In fact, if you look at I didn't

I didn't write I didn't quote the verse here But if you look at the verse in Nehemiah where it talks about him doing this it says that because God's good hand was on them the king grants the protection that they're looking for and so there's more than one way to handle this situation and The book and the scripture does not seem to favor one or the other

Ezra's approach might seem more pious and it does to me But Nehemiah's approach seems pretty effective and it looks like it's godly

God affirms this approach So what can we gather from this? That's the question Now when

I first read this, I'll be honest. The first thought I had was about politics and I know

Sometimes you look at Sunday maybe as a way to get away from politics and we won't get into it too much But no such luck this

Sunday When you talk about the gospel, I think sometimes it's impossible to avoid politics because the kingdom of God has very clear political applications and My approach to the last presidential election if you remember was kind of similar to Ezra's approach.

I Can fully admit that Personally this was how I felt I said I I felt embarrassed to sort of appeal to Donald Trump just because I feared a

Clinton presidency And don't get me wrong I absolutely did fear a

Clinton president presidency and Likewise, I also felt embarrassed to appeal to Clinton because I feared a

Trump presidency and I did maybe a little less but I still did But not only that I Felt embarrassed to appeal to the whole

American system of politics at all because I feared just because I feared the eventual result the reason

I didn't want to do that is because I feel that the American system is not built on a foundation that values obedience and righteousness to Christ and So from the start we're kind of messed up from the beginning

So any participation that I had this is how I felt any participation that I had would be perpetuating this

And so that was my reasoning and so I did not vote And what

I did instead was I prayed for God's protection, even though I was not going to participate I was gonna remove myself.

I said whatever happens it happens God and protect us in it And I personally believe that if every

Christian did what I did Didn't play the lesser of two evils game that we would be in a much better position today than we are

But that being said Not everyone agrees with that approach Not everyone would take the same opinions that I have on that lots of people take a more

Nehemiah like approach And they look at the choices they have right and what they say to themselves is

God Well, I mean, this is God's providence. He gave us these choices and They don't seem like great choices, but I'm just gonna do the best

I can with the hand I've been dealt And then I'm gonna trust that God will protect me either way

That's that's the more Nehemiah like approach they're working within the system and trusting God anyway

And so the question is were those Christians trusting God any less than I was Or was

I trust was I trusting God less than they were? That's the question

And I think that this example from Ezra Nehemiah tells us that you know There's more than one way to skin a cat that can be continued to be faithful to God Because I don't think that Nehemiah by asking the king for protection

I don't think you can say that Nehemiah was trusting God less than Ezra and I also wouldn't say that Ezra in not asking for protection was trusting

God more or less than Nehemiah. I Can't say that because the scripture doesn't seem to be willing to say that I think that I Think that Christians can debate strategic decisions without Trying to like Make it seem like the opponent isn't being as faithful.

That's what I think we can learn from this Because Ezra's approach I think was totally fine He he didn't want to ask the king because he had made a big deal about how

God can protect them And then he just put his money where his mouth was and God blessed them. He protected them

You see this is the thing like like there's a lot of Christians that just sort of held their nose and said, okay I'm voting for Hillary Like or I'm voting for Trump and like they knew that it wasn't like the perfect choice

But they it was the best thing they could do they could decide to do. I don't think that they've sinned if they've done that Not unless they were trusting men over God Like if you could somehow look in their hearts and they're in their hearts

They're like, yeah, I know God would not want me to vote for Trump But I'm gonna do it anyway, because I just can't we can't have Hillary. That would be something that would be different That might be sinful

Or like if Ezra was like or if like Nehemiah was like, yeah I know like like Ezra thinks that God could protect us

But I just don't think he can so we need to ask the king if that had happened that would be different.

That would be a lack of faith And so I don't think we have any indication that that's what's going on here

And we should have a lot of grace towards people who approach things strategically different than we would Because it doesn't necessarily mean that they have less faith than you here

This is this kind of a charitable approach to disagreements. I think we can apply to so many things in the church

There are so many things we can disagree on strategies without thinking that the other person doesn't trust

God One issue that I was thinking of was vaccines, right? Some of us vaccinate our children and some of us don't

But the question is does that mean one side has a strong faith and the other a weak faith or maybe no faith.

I Don't think so. I Think one of those has more of an Ezra strategy and the other one has a more

Nehemiah strategy One of them thinks God will protect my children. The other one thinks

God is protecting my children through the vaccines It doesn't mean that one's lacking the faith or not What about public school versus homeschool?

This is another one, right? A lot of us agree on this issue But not all of us maybe The the public school or get to say to the homeschool

You have less faith than I do because I trust that God will keep my kids saved in public school or vice versa does the does the homeschool or get to say to the public school or like you're sinning because you don't have the faith that I do that I do because God said that we should do this and I Don't think so When we were driving up here from New Hampshire this morning

Brittany said that the gun issue is sort of like this too A lot of Christians will say well if you have a gun and you need to have them then you're not trusting

God will protect You see that's an Ezra approach, right? It sounds very pious That does not mean the person who has guns is trusting

God any less They're just trusting for his provision in a different way So I think we should all sort of get out of this mindset that Puts us in this situation where if someone disagrees with my strategy that automatically means they're less faithful than me

It Could mean that that's the thing it could mean that but it doesn't it's not automatic like if you know them personally and they're like Yeah, well

God the prayers don't work. So I got to have my peace because otherwise I won't be protected like that's a sin.

I Don't think most people are saying that I don't think most people are saying that Oftentimes the

Bible leaves the strategy part of things open to us like the mission is very clear He gives us the

Great Commission, but then how to do it there Sometimes there's some wiggle room sometimes there isn't but sometimes there is and so the strategy piece

Is something that we'll disagree on? And we can debate on in good faith and not have to disparage or look down on our debate opponent

So I'm I'm for one I'm very thankful that God provided this passage of Ezra's sort of hesitation to ask the king but then

Nehemiah is like I wonder I Wish I knew if it was the same situation like God's Ezra's praying to God like God protect us, please please and around the corner

Nehemiah's like And that's how God is answering the prayer Imagine that that would be amazing

So like I said, the church has a mission and most everyone agrees on what the mission is So that's not really where the debate lies too much

Most of the debating has to do with strategy This one's a more personal kind of example for us in here in Rutland But like one thing

I also thought of during this was was was pastor Tim Owens, right? Down the street.

He's got a huge church and he does the things a lot differently than we would I would never do church the way he does it and I have my reasons and He probably feels the same way about us

And that could be fine that could be fine I Think we ought to be thankful that the gospel is going out to so many people through him even if We don't think the practice is necessarily exactly the way we would do it.

I Think we could debate him. That's not to say that, you know, we just agree to disagree won't talk about it No, we can talk about it

We can't say unless you know him very personally and I don't I I know him from a distance.

I Don't know what his heart's like. I don't know why he does the things that he does. I won't ever say about him That he's doing it because he lacks faith in God or the

Holy Spirit or something like that If I knew him better, maybe I could make a better determination, but I don't and so I wouldn't say that In Paul's day, we read this passage

Two three times or two times today already In Paul's day, he knew of people that were preaching about Christ because they were selfish and they had envy and they had a rivalry against him

So they were so he knew somehow that these guys were out there preaching Christ Proclaiming Christ and they were only doing it because they were jealous of Paul for some reason they wanted to be like Paul They had a rivalry with Paul.

That is the probably the worst Thing I could think of a reason to preach

Christ, right like And yet he says he rejoices Like Paul where were the discernment bloggers of your day shouldn't you be condemning these people

If Paul can say that he rejoices in people He knows for a fact only preach Christ because they have a rivalry with him.

This is inspired scripture. This isn't wrong, right? They had a rivalry with him. That's why they preach Christ and Paul's like I rejoice

Because he says in every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and so he rejoices

So I think if Paul can say that about people preaching the gospel in rivalry and envy Those aren't fruits of the

Spirit by the way If Paul can say that about those people we can say it about people with very minor strategic differences than we have

So let's pray for wisdom And humility in approaching or applying this to ourselves in our own different situations.

Let's pray We're God thank you for your word, thank you so much for your example of humility

Thank you that we're about to read in Philippians 2 that you've considered others more important than yourselves I thank you for teaching us that kind of humility

God and what you do in the cross And God, I pray that you would give us a much softer heart than we've had ever before towards Christians who disagree with us

Even if they don't return the favor God Even if some people think that we're heretics because we're

Calvinist or whatever or something like that or whatever it is I mean it could be anything Just because somebody thinks that about us we don't have to return that favor

God we can be glad that that your sacrifice in the cross is being proclaimed

Lord and that That if we just trust and believe in you that we could be saved God even if they're gasp

Arminians We thankful that they're doing it God that we can support that Lord God I pray that you give us wisdom to know the times when we should debate when we should maybe

Have a conversation a hard conversation about someone who's doing something that we don't think is right Because we all have plenty of stuff like that.

It could be any issue. It can be the gun issue It could be vaccines. It could be homeschooling. It can be anything God Help us to know when it's wise to confront someone help us to know when it's time not to keep our mouths shut

And Lord help us to just have that humility God to consider that person more important than ourselves Consider the fact that they might be right and we might be wrong

It's not to say that there is no right and wrong it's not Some sort of postmodern thing God, but we just pray for wisdom

We don't want to be people that are causing division. We don't want to be separatists We don't want any of that stuff

God We want to be united with the body of Christ in every possible way that we can God Obviously, we know that there are divisions that must happen.

But God we pray that we'd have the wisdom to know Which ones those are and which ones those aren't

God. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this awesome kind of look behind the scenes at two different prophets doing the same working the same group in the same time period and Handling something so differently and there's no indication of any conflict

Maybe there was one maybe Ezra was mad at me. My we don't know But God, thank you for providing the church with different people with different strategies and different skill sets and everything