Full-Strength Worship

All right. Well, we are back in our study of the book of Ezra. Just by way of reminder, think about the history covered in the Old Testament, with the Garden of Eden at the beginning. Then we get all the way to the end, where there are essentially 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the New Testament. The book of Ezra is really close to the end of that Old Testament time period, but in your Bibles, it's not at the end of the Old Testament. Mine's on page 549. That's where Ezra is in my Bible, but you can be making your way to the book of Ezra. And I'll also remind you, what is Ezra addressing?

In the history of the people of Israel, the nation was divided after King Solomon. Ten of the tribes in the northern kingdom went their own way, followed Jeroboam, and worshiped other gods, and eventually they were captured by the Assyrians. Then two tribes in what's called the southern kingdom, or Judah, had a little more of a mixed history of following God and departing from God. But they too were eventually judged by God for their unfaithfulness. They were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and they were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, just as God prophesied through Jeremiah. Then they eventually returned to the land, to Jerusalem, and they began the work of rebuilding the temple, and then eventually the city and the walls of Jerusalem as well.

So we're in Ezra, chapter 4. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin and the Levites, many of those people, have returned from Babylonia. They're in Jerusalem. They've rebuilt the altar. They've rebuilt the foundation of the temple, and they're beginning to build the temple. That's the time frame at the beginning of Ezra chapter 4.

Chapter 4 is a confusing chapter. We'll look at it. That's why we're here, right? It actually covers a period of about 50 to 80 years of history in this one chapter, so it jumps around a lot through different time periods. But as we dig into this chapter, what we are going to see is that pure worship matters to God. Pure worship matters even when God's people are faced with persistent and even prolonged opposition. And that's why it's important to understand that we're talking about 50 to 80 years of history in this one chapter. The prolonged opposition is key. Let me just read the chapter so you get a feel for what's in it, and then we'll dive in. Ezra chapter 4:

"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 fathers' 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 fathers' houses in 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 bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

"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 Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The letter was written in Aramaic and translated. Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows. Rehum 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 Osnappar deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and 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 is 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 is 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 Rehum 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, and 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 Rehum 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."

Now when you read that, you might think that makes sense, but that is a lot of back and forth across many decades of history. It was not just one fell swoop. They wrote this letter, the king responded, it came back, and they shut it down. Boom. That was it. There's a lot more going on than that. But let's get into what this is all about.

First and foremost, as far as the people of God are concerned, the people of Judah, the people who returned from exile to Jerusalem, this is what matters. This is what matters for you and me today as we sit here: purity in worship is nonnegotiable. Let me say that again. Purity in worship is nonnegotiable.

We need to think about this common theme that runs throughout Israel's history as you read the Old Testament. First and foremost, they're called to be separate, different from the nations that are all around them. They're not to just blend in and be like every other nation, and this separation itself is supposed to be an act of worship to God. In their separation from the nations that surround them, what that separation is supposed to make clear is that they understand there is one God, and they worship him alone. Think about the Ten Commandments, and even just the first three. Number one, you shall have no other gods before me. Number two, you shall not make any carved images. And number three, don't even take the name of the Lord your God in vain. This was supposed to characterize the people of God: a singular devotion to the worship of the one true and living God.

Throughout their history, though, they didn't like following that instruction. They didn't like having a singular devotion to the one true God. They really liked and were attracted to the way the people all around them lived, their values, their priorities, even their gods and their systems of worship. And so God sends prophets to prophesy and call them back to this purity of worship of the one true and living God. Even before they were conquered, even before they were sent into captivity, these prophets were primarily calling on the people of God to repent of their idolatry and return to the purity of worship of the one true and living God.

Remember, in that one sermon where I tried to make our way all the way from Adam and Eve to the time of Ezra, one of the things we mentioned is that even when the tribes divided, with the ten northern tribes separating and the two tribes to the south, there were no good kings in the northern kingdom in that whole 500-plus-year history. There were a few good kings in the southern kingdom. But what characterized almost all of even the good kings of the southern kingdom is that they failed to tear down the high places and put a stop to the worship of these other gods. A fancy word for that is syncretism, merging two or more belief systems into one. It's like a religious smoothie.

If you've ever made a smoothie at home, you get your blender out, you put it on the counter, or you go to Jamba Juice and order your smoothie, and what do they do? They put a little bit of this in there and a little bit of that, and then they hit puree, right? And when it's all blended together and it's uniform, then they give it to you, or you pour it into your cup and you drink it. The fruits and the vegetables and the yogurt and the honey and whatever else is in there are all mixed together. That was what they were practicing here. They weren't practicing true, singular devotion to their God. They had some of that, but then they also had a little bit of worship of this god over here and that god over there. We put it all together, and voila, that's what we do.

So what is happening here after 70 years of captivity, 70 years of dealing with the consequences of that false system of worship? When the people of God return to Jerusalem, what cannot happen, what must not happen, is a return to that smoothie way of worship. "Let's just put it all together. We'll take a little bit of our worship of Yahweh, a little bit of worship of Baal, a little bit of worship of Molech, a little bit of worship of this god and that god, and we'll just blend it all together." They cannot allow even the smallest sliver of a possibility that that kind of worship would return to Jerusalem.

This is so important. It helps us make sense of what's happening at the beginning of this chapter, and it also helps us understand how God would have us worship him today. He wants us to be as singularly devoted to his worship as he cared about the people returning to Judah under Zerubbabel back then.

Go back to the first five verses of Ezra chapter 4. "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 fathers' 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 fathers' houses in 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.'"

At first, Zerubbabel's response to their offer to help seems a little off-putting. It seems a little high and mighty: "We don't need your help, and we don't want your help. You have nothing to do with us rebuilding this temple." It seems like they come and say, "We want to help. We worship your God too. Can't we help? Let's get this thing built faster." And Zerubbabel and the other leaders say no. Well, why not, right? They say they worship God. Well, because it's not true.

First of all, we see right from the very beginning that they are adversaries. This is not an ally. This is an adversarial relationship. These are enemies of Judah. These are people from the surrounding nations who moved into this region in the vacuum that was there during the 70 years of exile. They filled that void when Judah was taken off to Babylon. They lived close to the ruins of Jerusalem, possibly even repurposing what was left of the temple for their own religious observances. If they did in truth worship Yahweh, the God of the Bible, the God of the Hebrew people, they did so in a syncretistic way. What that means is they brought the worship of Yahweh alongside the worship of their gods. They combined these worship systems into a hybrid worship, which is what God does not want for his people. At best, they were doing the very thing that had gotten the people of God sent to Babylon, the very thing God had judged them for. So partnership with them would not be a step forward, but a tragic step backwards. Not progress toward a singular devotion to God, but a return to this smoothie version of worship.

We have to understand that the temple they were endeavoring to rebuild was to be a place dedicated to the worship of God and God alone. Remember, the rebuilding of the altar was an act of worship, starting there so that they could resume the worship system that was given by God through Moses. This temple, even though it was going to be a very simple and utilitarian structure compared to the temple Solomon had built, was still a gift to God, dedicated to the worship of him nonetheless. And so the people of God cannot in any way diverge from the pursuit of the pure worship of God. That cannot be compromised in any way. They have to say, "No, you cannot help us rebuild this, because you don't want what God wants for us."

Now, we have to talk a little about the difference between the temple and this building we're in right now. The temple represented the place where God would come and meet with his people to receive their sacrifices and their devotion. It represented the dwelling place of God on earth. This building here today is not that. I can assure you. Just go in the basement and you'll find that out, right? Under the new covenant, the covenant ratified in the blood of Jesus Christ, the believer is the temple of God, you and I. He dwells in us. The good news of the gospel is not only the forgiveness of sins. It's not only being credited with the righteousness of Christ. The good news of the gospel is also that every believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God. That happens at our conversion. The apostle Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 6:19: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?" He was writing to the Christians in Corinth, telling them they needed to understand that how they conducted themselves, what they did with their bodies, was of significance, because their body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, the dwelling place.

So this building is not a temple. This is a church building. It's a facility. In essence, it's a tool, an extension of our desire to love our neighbors and our community. We often allow the facility to be used for non-religious purposes. Some of you have had birthday parties here for your kids or your grandkids. For many years, this place was an election polling place. Maybe some of you have voted here before. And even now, we have a ladies' exercise group that uses part of the CE wing on Monday and Wednesday nights. It's not a religious gathering. They just come and exercise.

But what we have to do is insist that we, as a church, as a congregation, avoid participating in worship activities that compromise or undermine our singular devotion to the worship of God. What that means is there are important questions we have to ask when we consider partnerships and participation with other organizations or individuals. We have to ask, is this going to undermine our commitment to the one true and living God, the God of the Bible? Is it going to somehow compromise that? We have to ask, would our participation in this state or imply that all religions are equally valid, or that there are many different paths to God and this is just one of many? Would our partnership contradict a clear command of Scripture or one of our doctrinal convictions? And maybe most importantly, would this dilute or contaminate the clarity of the gospel we are commanded to share with people?

Even though we're under the new covenant, we don't have to go to a temple. We don't have to go to a temple to offer sacrifices. Christ is our high priest, our prophet, our king. He has offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice by dying for sinners on the cross and rising victorious over sin and death for our justification. Even though that has taken place, we still have to consider how we conduct ourselves. We can't ever afford to imply, or even act in such a way, that we are beginning to hybridize, syncretize, smoothify our religious devotion to God. The reality of what was happening in Jerusalem in the days of Zerubbabel has to be taken into account when we engage in worship as well.

But let's go back to Ezra 4. Two matters are clear here. One, these people wanted to participate in the worship of God by helping to build this temple to him. And two, they did not want to support the pure worship of Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know this because we already pointed out that they are adversaries. They are enemies. We also know this by the way they responded to the rejection of their offer for help, which brings us to the next point and purpose of this chapter. Not only is pure worship of God nonnegotiable, but persistent opposition to that pure worship of God is inevitable. Persistent opposition to the worship of God is inevitable.

Notice in verse 3, Zerubbabel tried the diplomatic no. He tried to be political about it. He fell back on Cyrus's decree. He's essentially saying, "You know what? You guys can't help, because King Cyrus of Persia said that we're the only ones who can rebuild the temple. That was his decree when he sent us from Babylonia back here to Jerusalem. It was us, and we don't want to get him upset. So we're just going to say we'll be the ones to rebuild the temple. We don't want to arbitrarily modify his offer." That was Zerubbabel's tactic. It's Cyrus's decision. He tried to offer an easy way out: "Thanks, but we're the only ones with the king's permission, and we don't want to get in trouble."

But the response from these would-be helpers reveals their true heart. It's not a heart that cares about the worship of God. A heart that cares about the worship of God would have said, "We understand. We're just glad this temple's being built." That's how a true worshiper of God would have responded. Instead, verse 4 tells us that they discouraged the people, most likely through harassment and mockery. It says they made them afraid to build, most likely through some form of threats of violence. And then finally, they bribed counselors against them. Does that resonate with any of you? Do you ever see opposition and responses to Christian worship in that way? Just read the PJI updates that we have. They are devoted to legally defending Christians who face opposition and harassment. That's the focus of their ministry.

And it says that this happened from the days of Cyrus until the reign of Darius. In other words, this is not a short-lived effort to harass. This is 20 years of persistent opposition to the work of rebuilding the temple and the city of Jerusalem. So if you think your teenager is obstinate, these people were elite-level bullies. Elite-level obstinate.

Here's where the confusing format of Ezra 4 comes in, but it's there to help make this point: this opposition is long-term, ongoing, determined, persistent. It's not just 20 years, but anywhere between 50 and 80 years, depending on how you date the reigns of these kings. Ezra tells us it wasn't just opposition from the time of Cyrus until the reign of Darius. In verse 6, he says this also happened in the reign of Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes. And in verse 7, the same thing happened in the reign of Artaxerxes. Three different Persian kings, the same response. Whenever a new king came to reign over the throne of Persia, and the Persian Empire was what controlled Jerusalem at this time, they wanted to make sure this king knew these Jews were there, rebuilding the temple, rebuilding the walls, rebuilding the city. "We don't want them to do that, so we want to make sure whoever's on the throne in the capital of Persia is aware of it and puts a stop to it."

In other words, they tattled on the Hebrews again and again and again. They misrepresented the situation. They convinced these kings to prevent the people of Judah from doing the work of rebuilding. And you have to keep in mind that these kings are ruling over sprawling empires. Their power waxes and wanes. Information travels slowly. Trust is hard to come by. So oftentimes for them it is more expedient to assume the worst and act accordingly rather than do the hard work of determining the facts.

Okay, teenagers, has this ever happened to you? Your brother or your sister accuses you of doing something wrong to your parents that you didn't do. You tracking with me so far? Your parents say something like, "I don't know if you did that or not, but what I do know is you have done that in the past. So I'm going to assume you did it this time too. You're grounded." Has that ever happened? That's so unfair, right? "I didn't do it this time. Maybe I did it twenty times in the past, but I didn't do it this time."

This was the evidence presented to these kings. "Hey, kings, you know that city of Jerusalem? Look it up in your history books. In the past, they've been naughty to you. They've disobeyed. They've rebelled." And the king said, "You know what? They have done that in the past, so I'm just going to assume whatever they're doing now, I don't like it either. I'm not going to look into it any further. You're grounded." That's basically what happened from the reign of Cyrus into the reign of Darius, into the reign of Xerxes, into the reign of Artaxerxes. It is decades of disruption.

And don't forget that this rebuilding is what God wanted his people to do. It's what he prophesied would happen. It's what he told them to do. It's what he orchestrated to begin happening through King Cyrus. So it isn't like they're doing something God doesn't want them to do. And they believe, just as we believe, that God is in control. He's the ruler over kings and nations. He's sovereign over his creation. It is what he desires. But we have to understand that just because what we're doing is what God wants us to do doesn't mean the red carpet is going to be rolled out for us. Whether it's God's people back there in Jerusalem or us here today, we're not just going to be welcomed with wide-open arms. The clash of beliefs is a part of God's plan as well.

His desire for his people is to be singularly devoted to and dependent on him. And the tests of our resolve to trust him and obey him are also a part of his plan and his purpose. They're there to help us grow. They're there to keep us humble. They're there to help us glorify him. It is all a part of the plan. The opposition is a part of the plan.

Think about the promise of the gospel. The promise of the gospel is that we are regenerated, that we are made new, that we're born again. The promise is future glorification, that one day we will dwell in the presence of the Lord forever. But the promise of the gospel is never a life of comfort and luxury right here and right now. In fact, if you think about Jesus, Jesus had none of that, and he promised none of that. Quite the opposite. He challenges his disciples to expect trials and opposition. He says things like, and just keep in mind, people, if the world hated me, well, if you follow me, they're going to hate you as well. Or in the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:11, Jesus says, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." When that happens, just know you are blessed. You should be happy. This is a source and a point of joy for you.

For some reason, nothing stirs up anger and rage in people quite like the message of the gospel. Step one of the gospel is a recognition of our sinfulness and our separation from God, and most people take offense at that. Most people want to believe that they don't need God to do anything for them. That's often enough to infuriate people. We want to keep up the facade that we've got life figured out, that we're living it just great. We don't want the emptiness and the brokenness that we carry around to be exposed. So if we have to acknowledge that we don't have it all figured out, that we can't control what goes on in this world, that we can't save ourselves, that we do need Christ to die for us, well, we're going to get angry about that.

Think about what's going on here at the time of Zerubbabel in Jerusalem, and this persistent opposition to them. Not only were they discouraged and threatened and had people bribed against them, but letters were also sent off to the capital, to the king, saying, "Hey, you've got to keep these people from building these walls, from building this temple." It all begs the question, why? Why would anyone willingly endure year after year, decade after decade of this kind of harassment? Why not just give up? Why not figure out a way to convince them to leave you alone? Or why not just try to avoid the conflict? Isn't that what we try to do so often? "Just get me out of this conflict. I don't like conflict. I'll say anything. I'll do anything. Just don't make me be in conflict."

Why would they do this? Psalm 147:11 says, "But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love." They put up with it because of God, because of who he is, because of what he had done for them, because of what he had promised them. These people who were returning had had their eyes opened to the truth about who God is. They saw the problems of their forefathers and the previous generations and their desire to worship God alongside these other gods. They recognized the failure of that belief system, and they wanted to live singularly devoted to this God who had loved them and brought them out of captivity. So they recognized that whatever the harassment, whatever the hostility, whatever the pushback against their attempts to worship God, putting up with that kind of experience was worth it if it meant they could worship God as he desires us to worship him.

In James chapter 1, maybe you're familiar with how James launches that letter. He says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." What we often fail to do is make the connection with what comes a little later in the chapter, in verse 12, where he says, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial." He picks up this concept of steadfastness and trials. And he says, "For when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to," and don't miss this, "those who love him." It's a love for God that allows us to endure trials and difficulties and opposition and harassment. It's a demonstration of our love for the one who has first loved us. Paul says this in Romans 5:3-5: "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

I don't ever want to suggest, or diminish, the opposition and harassment that Christians sometimes face in America. I also don't want to make it seem like we're living in Iran or Sudan. I remember growing up hearing missionaries who came out of the Soviet Union, people who had been thrown into prison and things like that because they were Christians and tried to evangelize. I don't want to compare the two and say, "Hey, it's like we're living in a communist country, or under some oppressive regime." But I also don't want to say it's like people are welcoming you with open arms. What I do want to say is that wherever we're at on that spectrum, when we experience mockery or harassment or ridicule or whatever it is, our ability and willingness to endure that and persevere in it is going to be directly tied to our understanding of who God is and his love for us. When you recognize that, you are willing to put up with it.

So when we look at what the people of Judah endured under this kind of hostility, and as we make our way through Ezra and even into Nehemiah, we're going to see it doesn't stop. They're going to keep experiencing the pushback. When we think about that and bring it into our own lives, we can ask questions like, do you love your God and Savior enough to publicly express your devotion to Christ, whatever the pushback may be? Are you willing to be slandered for refusing to dilute your worship or blend it with the worship of some other faith system? Will you persist in Christian worship even if you get harassed for it for years and decades on end? That's a question we can ask ourselves when we look at what the people of Judah were experiencing under the reigns of these different kings, as the people around them continued to try to thwart their attempts to restore the pure, singular worship of the Lord in Jerusalem.

Don't think that just because it happened thousands of years ago, there's nothing we can glean from it, nothing that applies to our lives. It very much applies to how you and I live our lives today. God wants you to be pure and singularly devoted to him in your worship. And he wants you to understand that it is inevitable that if you do that, you will experience opposition. But the solution is to continue to keep your eyes on Christ and remember that God loved us even when we were dead in our sins and transgressions, that he sent his Son to die for us.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you so much for the lessons we learn through the experiences of your people as they returned to Jerusalem and attempted to restore and rebuild the tools you had given them for worship. We thank you for their persistence. As we look further down the line, we know there are going to be setbacks and failures, but we thank you for their willingness to stand firm and continue to be obedient in the face of this opposition. We ask that you would help us to do the same. We ask that we would not cave easily, that we would not seek to just avoid conflict, but that we would willingly stand up for what we know to be true about you and be obedient to what you have called us to be and do. Help us to not be obnoxious in the way we live our lives for the sake of being annoying. Help us to be patient and gentle and considerate and understanding, but also to be unwilling to compromise in our worship of you. We thank you for the gift of salvation. We thank you for the gift of your Word and your indwelling Holy Spirit that enables us to do what you have called us to do. We ask that you would help us to shine like bright lights in a dark world. And we ask all this in your name, amen.