Ezra 5

All right this morning we're in Ezra chapter 5, so we'll read them first and go from there

These are the words of God Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo prophesied to the

Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who is over them Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jazadak Rose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem and the prophets of God were with them supporting them at the same time

Tatanai the governor of the province beyond the river and Shethar Boaz and I and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus

Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish the structure? They also asked them this

What are the names of the men who are building this building? But the eye of their God was on the elders of the

Jews and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius And then an answer be returned by letter concerning it this is a copy of the letter that Tatanai the governor of the province beyond the river and Shethar Boaz and I and his associates the governors who were in the province beyond the river sent to Darius the king

They sent him a report in which was written as follows To Darius the king all peace

Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah to the house of the great God It is being built with huge stones and timber is laid in the walls

This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands Then we asked those elders and spoke to them thus who gave you a decree to build this and to finish the structure

We also asked them their names for your information that we might write down the names of their leaders And this was their reply to us

We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth We are built rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished

But because our fathers had angered the God of heaven He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon the

Chaldean who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia however in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon Cyrus the king made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt and The gold and silver vessels of the house of God which

Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon These Cyrus the king took out of the temple of Babylon and they were delivered to the one whose name was

Shesh Bazaar Whom he had made governor and he said to them take these vessels go and put them in the temple

That is in Jerusalem and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site Then this

Shesh Bazaar came and laid the foundation of the house of God that is in Jerusalem and from that time until now

It has been in building and it's not yet finished Therefore if it seems good to the king Let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding

Of this house of God in Jerusalem and let the king send us his pleasure in this matter

This is the word of the Lord Lord God, thank you for your scripture and we pray that this word would have a profound impact on our souls that you would use the preaching of your holy word to change us and to make us more like Christ and to help us to trust you and have

Greater faith in you than we've ever had before in Jesus name. Amen So this morning

We are told how the Israelites turned everything around and they started rebuilding the temple after they stopped

Last week we saw enemies of God come in and through a variety of strategies and and ways they eventually

Stop the Israelites from building and that stoppage didn't last just a few days

It didn't last just a few weeks or even just a few months But it lasted years and years

The enemies of God and God's people had successfully stopped God's plan for years

And in chapter 5 it starts up again and it starts because God sends his people his word

It starts with a couple of prophets This morning in chapter 5 we got to see about the prophet

Haggai who we've mentioned already a bunch in this sermon series We get to see the prophet

Zechariah and you know last week I was talking to Chris about how awesome the Bible is and it's

The way the way it's structured, I mean, it's not we don't just get history, right? We don't just get to see what happened

Sometimes that's all we get but sometimes we get to see Explanations of why things happen and like like the book of Ezra.

It's just like a newspaper almost It's like a narrative story and it's just the facts right like even in our chapter this morning

We saw that he says, okay This is a copy of the letter that they sent and he just writes down what the letter said word for word

It's just like a newspaper of the book of Ezra But God doesn't just leave us with just the facts.

He also gives us The prophet Haggai and Zechariah and he provides their prophecy in the

Bible So we get to see the content of what they prophesied about. I Think that is gold

Maybe maybe I'm weird, but I get excited about that because we get to see what happened But also we get to see from God's perspective an

Interpretation of infallible true interpretation of why it happened and what

God thinks about it. I think that's awesome Now the prophets of old, you know, the prophets of the

Old Testament What they really did was they preached is what they did That's what they did.

They were preaching Now it wasn't exactly the same thing that I'm doing obviously So when the prophets preached they were delivering direct revelation from God to the people and I do that as well when

I'm Reading the Bible word for word But the prophets also provided a

God -breathed infallible interpretation To the people and so when

I interpret the Bible, that's not God -breathed that could that could be fallible I could be wrong about things.

So what I do and what the prophets do it's like it's different There's some differences there, but the prophets do preach.

That's what they do God put his own words in their mouth. And so when they went to the people they preached and It was

God's own word So that's what Haggai and Zechariah were doing in the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

They were preaching and Because we have the books of Haggai and the books of Zechariah We get to see some of the content of their preaching we get to see what their message was all about Here here are a few passages

I pulled out from the books of Haggai and Zechariah, this is Haggai Chapter 1 verse 3.

It says the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins now?

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways Because of my house that lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house

Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce and I've called for a drought on the land

So you see Haggai he preaches and he says that God is not pleased with what the

Israelites are doing he's not pleased with the people as They mind their own business and they ignore

God's business And the prophets message is pretty gloomy God has caused the drought

God has caused these troubles that they're they're undergoing But the prophet doesn't end there his sir.

That would be a pretty bad sermon if it ended there Haggai chapter 2 it's only two chapters, but the second chapter is more hopeful

Haggai says the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts and in this place

I will give peace declares the Lord of hosts He says consider from this day onward from the 24th day of the ninth month since the day that the foundation of the

Lord's temple was laid Consider is the seed yet in the barn indeed the vine the fig the tree the pomegranate the olive tree have yielded nothing

But from this day forth, I will bless you We get the same kind of pattern in the book of Zechariah this a different prophet, but he has a similar method message for the people

Here's how he starts he says the Lord was very angry with your fathers Therefore say to them thus declares the

Lord of hosts return to me Says the Lord of hosts and I will return to you says the

Lord of hosts Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets cried out

Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds, but they did not hear or pay attention to me declares the

Lord Your father's where are they? so it's again, it's very kind of Ominous message to start but then

Zechariah says this at the end of his book He says rejoice greatly.

Oh daughter of Zion shout aloud. Oh daughter of Jerusalem Behold your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation as he humbled and mounted on a donkey on a colt the full of a donkey

I Will cut off the chariot from Ephraim the warhorse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations his rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth as For you also because of the blood of my covenant with you.

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit That's you could probably recognize part of that that's a prophecy about Christ Christ the

King returning to Jerusalem You can see the concept of victory. You can see promise and hope all over the second half of Zechariah's sermon

He starts off severe, but he he calls his people to repent and then there's an a vision of hope for the future

You see I hope you see the similarities here between what the prophets used to do and what preachers do today

It's this is this is the gospel. That's like when you hear the gospel today You know, it usually starts with a statement of the fact of sin rebellion

You have rebelled against God you're walking away from God and God is not pleased with that It's a serious thing and a lot of times when you hear gospel preaching it's a very serious

Solemn thing you find yourself under the wrath of God, but it doesn't end there The prophets it doesn't end there and I would never end there

There's always a call to repentance. There's always a call to say stop rebelling against God turn back to God And it doesn't end there either because after that happens there's

Encouragement to be had the preaching becomes hopeful. It tells of a glorious future.

It tells of salvation It tells of peace. It tells of prosperity and blessing That's the message of Haggai.

That's the message of Zechariah and it's the same message today And you know what

The people in Ezra chapter 5 respond to that message And it's amazing they respond almost immediately our text tells us that the prophets began preaching at a certain time and if you

Match up the dates between what it says in the book of Haggai, for example what you'll find is that Haggai was preaching for three weeks and Only three weeks later the work on the temple begins again

That is a quick response. That's amazing One thing

I noticed when I saw this is not only does the works have start happening quickly But nothing changed for them from a legal perspective during this time

Like it's not like the decree of the king had changed. It's okay guys. You could start again They were still technically legally banned from working on the temple

There's no indication in the text that Israel's enemies had sort of changed their mind like, you know, we were wrong. You could build

There's no indication of that There's no indication of any of the danger that we saw last week.

None of that threatening physical opposition None of that has let up. I Think it's safe to say that literally nothing has changed externally for the

Jews but something has changed in their hearts and their souls and The preaching was responsible for that change.

I Think when I think about the prophets, maybe you have the same idea But when I think about the prophets in the in the

Old Testament, I think like it sometimes it's almost like a magical mystical way that it worked right like the prophets

I start glowing and They give the people the Word of God and like the wind picks up and there's thunder in the distance and you know just for effect and So that's how you really knew it was divine revelation me their eyes were going

That's how it is in my head You know, I think sometimes to the prophets were probably like I go

I go back and forth sometimes I think that there were like lunatics like on the street corner just like ranting and raving and sometimes

I think that there were like super authoritative the super powerful booming voices commanding respect

I Go back and forth between those two images of these prophets But I bet you

I'm wrong on both counts. I bet you most of these prophets. It was just standard preaching run -of -the -mill standard preaching

Now that's not to say they didn't preach with authority. I think they preached with authority, but it was still just preaching.

I Think they preach with conviction but it was still just preaching I Think that had guy and Zechariah and all these guys they preach with faith, but it was still just preaching and that's not a bad thing

There is great power in preaching when you're preaching the Word of God because God gives it power Now in the book of Corinthians Paul reminds the people of the

Church of Corinth He says that the message that he preached wasn't flashy Like it wasn't super profound or complex

It was just preaching Corinthians chapter 2 starts off like this. It says when

I came to you brothers. I Or wisdom

See so he's saying that the preaching he was it wasn't complex. It wasn't like super profound sounding.

It wasn't like insightful or high -minded But it was simple He goes on Paul says

I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and My speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the

Spirit and of power So that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

I Think this is how prophets and preachers of God operate It's not like they all have tremendous oratory skills.

I think some of them probably did It's not because they had glowing eyes at least not all of them there was that weird thing with Moses But they didn't all glow

They didn't I I don't think that all the prophets had advanced rudder rhetoric training Some of them maybe they did but I don't think all of them did

Because none of that matters to God because God's the one who gives the message its power And so they don't need to be super skilled in order to have power in their preaching

Now obviously we should I mean I I try to be as persuasive as possible When I preach or when

I talk to somebody and you should too I think there's nothing wrong with practicing rhetoric and practicing

You know evangelism and stuff like that. There's nothing wrong with that So when you're talking to your children or your friend or anyone?

Yeah, it's okay to read books about how to do that You want to be as attractive you want to be as convincing as possible?

But understand that the response that you get doesn't depend on your skill alone In fact the response that you get is entirely within God's power instead of yours

Don't think that the people in Ezra chapter 5 changed their mind in just three short weeks because Haggai and Zechariah were just super persuasive

Don't think that they went from complete fear and and Selfishness to action and humility in such a short time because Haggai was just so profound

Look you could read Haggai's prophecy or Zechariah's prophecy and it's basic stuff It's not

It's not mind -blowing. It's it's basic But it's true and God caused it to have power and it caused he got caused the message to hit its mark when he wanted it to So don't worry about how smart you are

When you're telling someone about the gospel Because that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things

Don't worry about how clever your arguments are how persuasive your arguments are Because in the grand scheme of things that doesn't matter very much either

Also, don't worry about how you feel I think this you know, Paul I Get so much encouragement out of this

Paul. He says when he first came comes to Corinth He says that he came in weakness fear and trembling.

I Imagine that's probably how Haggai came. I imagine that's probably how Zechariah also came.

I Imagine that you have a conversation about about Christ with your family members or your friends or your co -workers

And that's completely fine That's completely fine In fact,

I think according to this verse from Corinthians. It's almost like that's how God wants it It says here it says

I was with you in weakness and fear and trembling why? Well, he explains why he says so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God so if you're fearful and weak and Trembling as you share the gospel with anyone take heart

Because at least the way I understand Corinthians that seems to me like it makes you qualified to do it

So let's move on for a second because I want to talk about the response of the people because I think this is so interesting and You know

Haggai and Zechariah they preach for three weeks all of a sudden they start working on this temple again and All of a sudden

I mean, it's like immediate you get the opposition coming right back the Persian officials. They're curious

Why are you guys working on this temple? And in verse 3 they it's funny. They challenged the people

They said who gave you the decree to build this house? And they want to know their names too.

That's That's a veiled threat. I would say They want to know who's responsible for this

Now, I don't know if it's these Persians were just more agreeable or maybe just more reasonable I Don't know if maybe the the

Israelites just had more resolve this time around. I don't know what it was But when they get challenged this time

The work doesn't stop The work doesn't stop So they're challenged they know that that that that the

King King Artaxerxes told them to stop officially by decree and they stopped He didn't reverse that decree and so it's still in effect and they just start working

And then they get challenged and they continue working interesting

Here's what the Bible says about why the work is continuing Verse 5 says the eye of their

God was on the elders of the Jews and they did not stop them To the report should reach Darius and the answer be returned

You see God responds to the people's obedience And God responds to their obedience with protection and favor in the face of the opposition notice that God doesn't eliminate the opposition

Like we have to understand that it's completely within God's power to like maybe have the

Persian authorities distracted and not Notice them or maybe even have them not care that they're building the temple or even make them fear

God can do any of that, but he doesn't he allows the opposition to come right to them directly

But then he shows his people favor in the face of that opposition What what an encouraging line the eye of their

God was on the elders of the Jews and they did not stop them. I Found it interesting when

I was reading this that the strength the strategy the Israelites use They write the letter to the king and they you know, what they do in this letter.

I find it very comical I don't know if it's intended to be funny, but I found it funny What they do is they they write to the king and they explain the situation and they say get him to search the archives and find the decree made by Cyrus and They conveniently leave out the other part about the decree about Artaxerxes Or he told him to stop

Now I find that funny because that's what the enemies of Israel did just in the last chapter

Remember they told the king they said search the archives to find out about how rebellious these people are and They conveniently left out the part about Cyrus allowing them to go build this temple

So the Israelites use the same strategy in reverse Which I believe

I when I've read that I was like Oh, that's that must be what that prophet in the New Testament was talking about when he said

You should be as shrewd as vipers, but as innocent as doves You see you should be strategic and clever, but don't sin while you're doing it

And of course the prophet who said that was Jesus Christ You see this thing we have such an advantage today over the

Israelites in Ezra chapter 5 Because we get the prophecy we see the prophecy more clearly and more completely

So when I preach repentance and faith just like Haggai did And when

I preach about the future of the future glory that awaits the people of God just like Haggai and Zechariah do

I? Can preach a lot clearer than they can even though they had direct revelation from God and they were speaking

God's own words They were doing it in a much less detailed way Then we can do it today and the reason we have this advantage is because Jesus Christ the true prophet

Came and explained things to us so clearly Earlier I said that part of the prophets job was to interpret history

They they would tell you why things happened what they meant and what the future would be like Jesus of course did that too

But Jesus actually interpreted something far more important. He interpreted God John 1 17 we said it all together

We said for the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ No one has ever seen

God the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known Now that last bit he has made him known you may have seen my video

That comes from one word one Greek word Exegesis And that's the word where we get exegesis

So literally what this verse is saying is that Jesus Christ exegetes God to us.

He explains God to us He interprets God to us you see

Jesus Christ is the ultimate prophet and so let's respond to him as the Israelites respond to Haggai and Zechariah will respond with confidence and faith and obedience

Let's pray Lord God we thank you so much for giving us so much insight into the events of Ezra chapter 5

Through the books of Haggai through the books of Zechariah, thank you for sending your prophets To your people consistently

In many different ways in many different times. Thank you for making sure your message was clearly delivered

You didn't have to send prophets. You could have just left us where we were But you did send prophets because you loved us that much

But God as much as we thank you for the prophets that you send as much as we thank you for the preachers over the years

We thank you so much more for your son Because he explained it all to us

God. He explained it clearly to us He helps us to understand you. He helps us to understand who you are

And so we're grateful for that So Lord, I just pray that you know, maybe we think about your son as Differently than we have before Lord in a way that we understand that that he is the ultimate prophet

And he not only explains history But he explained the creator of history

And so Lord, we pray that you would help us to be more like him every day Thank you for your grace and for your mercy in Jesus name.