Last Ezra Sermon

This week brings us to the end of the Ezra journey. We are going to be talking about his journey on. What this means is that we are going to see how well Ezra passed on his journey to others, specifically his followers. We are going to be looking at Ezra’s disciples.

There are two stories we are going to be looking at this week. The first is found in Ezra chapter 8. Turn with me to your programs. We read:

EZRA 8:24

24Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. 25And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. 26I weighed out into their hand 650 talents^[d] of silver, and silver vessels worth 200 talents,^[e] and 100 talents of gold, 2720 bowls of gold worth 1,000 darics,^[f] and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. 28And I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers. 29Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers' houses in Israel at Jerusalem, within the chambers of the house of the LORD." 30So the priests and the Levites took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

Now we have looked at this story before, and it would seem that we have talked all we could about it, however, there is still one more moral, if you will, to learn.

Last week I talked about how Ezra’s faith must have affected these men. When presented with a treasure of over 100 million dollars, and no one to protect it, they are okay with it. They fast and pray with Ezra, and then begin their journey. We are never told that they objected, that they complained, or even that they were scared. It is all very matter of fact isn’t it? Ezra gives them the money, and they accept it, and then they leave.

Could it actually have been this simple? I think so. Now why do I think this, well first, as I said last week, these men would have been with Ezra for quite some time. We are told in Ezra chapter 7:25 that he had appointed magistrates and judges who knew the law and that he was to teach them even more. They were pretty much his apprentices. They would have been with him for hours a day, every day of the week. They would have seen his faith, and he would have grown them in their own.

As I already said, because Ezra knew the stories in the Scripture, they would have too. There is really nothing to amazing in that when we really think about it. Ezra could only teach them what he knew. So I am sure that since it was obvious to Ezra to trust God instead of the king’s army, it would have been obvious to these men as well.

This principle is easy for us to grasp, is it not? We know what our teachers know- we logic like our teachers logic. While and undergrad at Umass I had a pretty amazing physics professor- Dr. Gerace. His research at the time, and I am sure still, was in how people learn science, specifically physics. His class was the first college level physics class I ever took, and it changed my life. In high school, although I had great teachers, they didn’t really teach physics. What they taught was applied mathematics. What I mean by that is that we had a formula we needed to learn, know how to derive, and use, and then we would be given a problem about said formula. But we didn’t learn physics.

Gerace’s class was different. He didn’t care about formulas. Sure we had to use them to solve problems, but he first taught us the physics. Where in high school we needed to memorize the formula for the test, it was not so for Gerace. If you needed a formula, he would just give it to you. His focus was on how thing worked. We looked at the problem, and not just the formula. That is now how I do physics. Before his class I looked for formula, now I try to describe what is happening, and worry about the math last. I do that because that is how I was taught. I don’t even think about it anymore. Because Gerace first looked at the physics of a situation, and let the math follow, that is all I can do as well.

It is the same for Ezra’s men. He had been teaching them. His method is really all they know, so there is nothing they can do, but what Ezra himself has set about to do. Now it is amazing that they decide to go along with Ezra’s plan, because the plan is sort of crazy, but it is not amazing that they decide to go along with Ezra’s plan. What do I mean, well it is obvious that they were going to follow Ezra- that fact is not amazing, but the plan itself is.

But we talked about this last week, and there is a greater principle being taught in this story. It is not that Ezra’s disciples follow him, that is what a disciple does, but how Ezra treats his disciples. How does he treat them? What does Ezra do in this story?

He gives them 100 million dollars and tells them to meet him in Jerusalem. Now, I am kind of a control freak. It think it is called a Type A personality. If I had 100 million dollars, I highly doubt I would give it to a bunch of barely trained, untested disciples. I may have them walk with me, or guard it with me, but to give full responsibility over to them, that it madness in my mind.

If I am the leader of a specific project, I like to have my hand in all aspects of the thing. I like my way of doing things better than anyone else’s. I was terrible to work with on group projects in college, because I never trusted the other person, often I would do their part too, just in case. I been trying to get better, but it has been a slow and painful process, just ask my wife.

But Ezra doesn’t just give a little bit of responsibility; he gives his disciples full responsibility. He doesn’t mention the treasure again until they are in Jerusalem and it has all been weighed out. I think we can infer that he didn’t have the treasure on his mind until that time. He gave the money to others, and until it had to become his responsibility again, he doesn’t think about it. This is almost as crazy as traveling without an armed escort.

But what is he doing? Why does Ezra give these men the treasure? He is giving them ownership of the trip, of the vision. It is all well and good to have people following him when things are good, but what about when things are bad. How does one keep disciples in the tough times? Now I am sure there were moments when these guys were scared, or wanted to abandon the mission. It was safe and comfortable in Babylonia, why should they continue to travel in the desert, opening themselves up to bandits and the elements? The answer was that they too had ownership of the vision. People were depending on them. Ezra was depending on them. They were not just passive spectators in this God thing, they were participants. They had a stake in the game.

This ownership is a big deal for two reasons. The first I just mentioned, it involves others in a way that just passive observance doesn’t. But there is a second, more important reason; it is the way in which Ezra grows his disciples. There is no way that those men were the same after that trip. They had to learn, first hand, what it meant to rely upon God. They had seen Ezra put his faith in practice, and without this ownership, that is all they could have experienced. To grow they had to put their faith into practice, so Ezra gives them 100 million dollars.

Notice something else that must happen when Ezra gives these men the money; he has to trust them in that moment. How can he do this? He had been walking with them. He knew their character. He saw in them the qualities needed to take on this task. And this was a huge task. They not only had to protect treasure, they had to fight the urge not to take just a little for themselves.

There are people in this church who I have walked besides for years and know that I could trust them with such a task. I know that they would see it through to the end, and give their entire being into it. For years I have walked beside Ben Kulp. I know his character. We meet almost weekly, and we share struggles and joys. Because I knew Ben, I got him a job at Mullins Center when I worked there. I knew him, so I knew he would be a good guy to hire. But I still had to trust him in that moment. Based on who I knew him to be, I took a risk and put my name on the line. It is the same for Ezra here.

He knew these guys. They had been studying under him. They did life together, so when it becomes time for Ezra to transport a ton of treasure, he can put himself on the line, and give the task to his disciples.

There is one more facet of the story that deserves discussion here; do you think that these men were ready for this task? Remember that before all these decrees for the king, these men, being Jews, would have been in exile and slaves. And now they are given about 10 million dollars each to look after. I highly doubt any of these men thought themselves ready. They were probably as nervous as could be. They have probably never seen treasure like this before, and now they are told that they are in charge of it. I don’t think they were ready, I am sure that they feel they are not ready, but Ezra gives them the treasure anyway. How could Ezra do this? Well, the short answer is that he thinks they are ready- and he is right.

How do we know that he is right? We are told that they arrived safely in Jerusalem from their travels, and that all the treasure was accounted for. The men did what was asked of them. That seems to be a pretty good indicator of readiness.

How many of you have been on a competitive sports team in your life? In high school I tried out for the wrestling team, and I made it. The coach said I was a natural, that I had raw talent. The problem was that I had no idea how to wrestle. But there were practices and training, and I began to learn how to wrestle. And then the day came when we had our first meet. A meet in wrestling is the term for the team competition. I had only been wrestling for about 1 month at this point, and didn’t know very many moves. But my coach put me in the 135 slot anyway. Each match before I was to go on got me more and more nervous. I wasn’t ready. I could feel my heart beating faster and sweat seeping out of every pore. And then it was time for the 135’s to go. I stepped out there, and it all faded away. I knew what to do. I was in fact ready. My coach saw what I didn’t.

I would love to tell you that I won that match, but I didn’t. The guy I wrestled by the way kicked my but. He was the previous year’s state champ, which they neglected to tell me before I got out there. I got him on his back for about 1 second, at which point the entire team cheered, and then he put me in the most painful thing I have ever been in. I had no idea how to get out because of my inexperience and his superior skill, and I lost. But I learned how to never be put in that hold again.

What my coach saw was the same thing that Ezra saw. He knew they were ready, and so he gave them ownership, and they grew because of it.

This is something that Mercyhouse tries to do. How many of you are involved with the Northampton plant? How many of you feel ready to plant a church? But we are going forward anyway. I am going to come back to this point later, so remember it.

Let’s move on, for the moment though, to the next story we are looking at this morning. Turn with me to your programs. In Nehemiah 8 we have a familiar story. We read

NEHAMIAH 8:1-12

1And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. 2So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 4And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. 7Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites,^[a] helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly,^[b] and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

9And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." 11So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved." 12And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

I know that the Old Testament names can be hard to recognize, so I am just going to inform you that the guys from the last story are in this one two. They have continued their story with Ezra.

This story has a lot of similarities to the last one, doesn’t it? First, as I just said, the same characters are in both, and this is important. Ezra’s journey on wouldn’t be very good if he couldn’t keep disciples, would it? To be a good leader on needs to have followers, right? Using terms like leader and follower in the culture today isn’t very popular, so let me clarify just a minute. I am not talking about an unswerving allegiance, necessarily, although I am confident that these men had that allegiance to Ezra. However that congers up thoughts about cults and the like, and that is not what I am talking about at all.

It is more like today’s obsession with sports teams. We live in Massachusetts, so this is an easy analogy to make. Ho many of you are Red sox fans? Now to be a true Red Sox fan in New England demands an unswerving allegiance, right? You can’t be a luke-warm fan; the real fans will kill you. YOU have to love the Red Sox. They can almost do no wrong. This is what I am sure Ezra’s men had for him. It is why they have done life with him. It is why they took all the responsibility for the money on the trip to Jerusalem, and it is why they are standing next to him now.

The only way that one has people ready to do all this when one asks them, is that one is a good leader. If Ezra was a terrible leader, when he asked people to travel to a different country on foot carrying millions, or when he asked them to stand in the rain and explain what he was talking about to an entire nation, people simply wouldn’t have done it.

So it is the same people, and they follow Ezra. So far it seems like his journey out is successful.

Look back at the story for a second. Do you see the other similarities to the last story we read? Here too Ezra divides the responsibility. He doesn’t just preach and then send the people home; he preaches and then sends his men to the Israelites to make sure they understood what he just read. He invests his men in the mission, yet again.

Like I said before, I am kind of a control freak. I don’t know if I would have had the same technique for explaining the Scriptures as Ezra had. I probably would have explained as I went, or handed out study guides with all the answers in them. I would have given my interpretation in neat little packets, and told the others to simply regurgitate what I have said.

But that is not what Ezra does. He reads from the Law, the first 5 books of the Bible, and then lets the men he has appointed take it from there. How can he do this? The answer in the same as in the last story- he knows these guys. He has walked along side them. He has taught them. He knows their character.

He gives these men the huge responsibility of teaching the people, knowing that they are going to do the best job they can. This is even a bigger responsibility than watching all that gold. How so? Well the treasure that the men had to guard is just metal. At the end of it all, yes it is pretty, and worth some money, but you can’t bring any of that with you in death. If it got lost or destroyed it could always be replaced some how. Here though, the stakes are much higher.

Here, Ezra trusts his disciples to give meaning to the Law. He trusts them to guide Israel in Godly matters. He trusts them with Israel’s soul, so to speak.

He can only do this because he knows these men. He has taught them and trained them, and now he sends them off to do as he did.

Again here too, the disciples are brought in on the vision and given a stake. They are given ownership. It is their teaching that is to clarify the Scripture to the people. Israel’s understanding is not based solely on Ezra’s teaching, just like the safe passage of the treasure was not based solely on Ezra’s stewardship. He gives it away to his disciples so that they have a share in the responsibility.

Also, here too, I doubt that these guys thought they were ready to teach the Law. They would have seen this as a great responsibility, and I don’t think any of them were eager to take it on. I am not saying that they didn’t love the opportunity, they probably did, but I am sure they felt inadequate at the same time. I know this feeling. It is the feeling I have every time I am given an opportunity to preach. I am more that happy to be up here teaching, but I also feel unable every time. What right does an ex alcoholic with no theological training have with preaching Sunday mornings? I was terrible my first few times preaching. If you think I am bad now, you should have heard me then.

But like my wrestling coach, Robert saw I was ready. He gave me some shared responsibility. First it was helping him in his house church, and then it was being given a house church of my own, and then it was preaching occasionally Sundays. How did he know I was ready? The same way Ezra knew his guys were ready. He walked besides me.

This is how Ezra does his journey on.

I want to mention something as kind of a tangent. Ezra is only able to trust these men, give the vision to them, and allow them to take the lead because his journey up and in are sound. He understands that this mission is not his own, but God’s. He is able to not be a control freak because he has already slain that demon. If he were resting upon himself I am sure he would never have allowed others to guard that treasure or teach his people. But he wasn’t. He was trusting in God, and was therefore able to rest responsibilities with others as well as himself. He knew it was God’s gold and not his, God’s people and not his, and this gave Ezra the freedom to raise up others.

Before we jump into the application section of this sermon, notice one more thing about this discipleship journey. How many people do you think Ezra could talk to and teach effectively? Let me ask the college students. Do you like big classes or small? Small, right? Why? Because you can get individual attention. Because when you have a question there is someone there to answer it, right? Can the professor of a 400 person class invest the same amount of time per student as the professor of a 20 person class can? No. It is not that the teacher of the 400 person class cares less about the students than the teacher of the class of 20, but they both have the same amount of time in a week, and one has 380 more students.

What does this have to do with Ezra? Well Ezra can teach more people by sending out his disciple, right? It seems that he could teach 12 people effectively. How do we know this? Well there are 12 people that he gives control of the money to and there are 6 people on both his right and left during this past story, for a grand total of 12 men teaching Israel.

These stories tell us how many people he chose to do stuff for him, but how do we know that these are all Ezra could teach effectively? We just need to look a little at the story.

Ezra was the chief scribe, and as such, was charged with teaching others and spreading his discipline. We know that Ezra took this seriously, for he tells us such, and everything we have seen in Ezra’s life informs this. So why does he only “promote”, so to speak, 12 men. It would seem that is it were ones life goal to propagate ones belies, that the more people one raises up the better. And surely, since Ezra was the head scribe, others wanted to study under him. Everyone wants to study under the best, right? I am sure that there were faithful Jews begging Ezra to teach them. So why doesn’t he? Why isn’t the list of men that Ezra has standing with him, men he has trained, take up pages and pages of Scripture?

If he was true to this command to train up scribes and judges and the such, why are there only 12? The answer is that he was true to the vision of training up leaders. He knew that he could only impact meaningfully a few, so he limits himself, and pours all he is into these men, in hopes that they too will pour themselves into others.

The list of men on his right and left are all that Ezra could effectively teach. And so he employs these men to teach others. And the ones whom Ezra’s disciples teach will teach others, and so on.

We should ask before we go on any further if this strategy paid off. Well, what Ezra began is the root of the Pharisaical movement. Now I know that all you Christians out there are thinking that the Pharisees are the bad guys in the New Testament, so Ezra must have failed, but the Pharisees were not always bad. Yes they became corrupt, but the idea of studying the Scriptures and a call to righteousness are not bad things. What Ezra starts becomes a movement that we could say continues to this day. The Pharisees lasted for a few hundred years before Christ, stick around after him, and evolve into the modern Synagogue. Ezra’s technique was very effective.

Now what is the application of these stories? How do we take Ezra’s journey on and make it relevant to our lives today?

Well there are a few ways.

We could go back and look at the stories for the disciple’s point of view and decide that we need to be vested more in the mission that God has planned, and this is a good application, but what does it actually mean? We could tell the leaders that they need to give up their power and invest it in the people around them, and this is true, in some cases, but how do we know when to hold on to jobs and when to give them up?

Maybe the application could be to let go and let God. We need to learn to trust God with his plans and not ourselves? We could decide that the application is to trust others more, but again it becomes sort of abstract. How do we know when to trust and whom? How do we know when God is calling us to do the work, and when it is to be given away?

See, although all these applications are good, they are not enough. There is an over arching mega theme that all these applications are a part of. What is this mega theme? Well it is Ezra’s entire journey on. What do I mean by that? Let me ask another question. What did Ezra do in these stories? How did he make sure his journey on was going to continue? He made disciples. This is the application. Make disciples.

Now, as it turns out, this isn’t just an application from Ezra’s journey on. It is the application of every Godly characters journey on I can think of in the Bible. It is the last command that Jesus gives his disciples. In Matthew 28:19-20 we read Jesus saying

Matthew 28:19-20

9Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Now what does this mean? How does this application encompass all the others we have talked about? How can we do this? What does it even mean to make disciples?

Let’s answer these questions.

First, let’s talk about what it means to leave a disciple. What do the men who follow Ezra do? Well, the simple answer is that they do what he does, right? He prays and fasts to protect treasure, and they do the same. He teaches them the Scriptures, and in turn they teach others. They follow him. They walk the way he walks. They have the faith that he has. This is all it means to have disciples. Today we think of it as a very Christian thing, to be a disciple, but it was not always so. How has it taken on a special Christian meaning? Because of the verses we just read.

It seems then that to make a Christian disciple today is different than being a disciple of Ezra, and to some extent that is true. Why this different meaning? Well, instead of being a disciple of Ezra, or Robert, or Piper, or so and so, we nee to make disciples of Jesus. Now what does that mean?

Well, like the disciples of Ezra did what Ezra did, disciples of Jesus must do what Jesus did. Instead of calling people to follow us, we must call them to follow Jesus.

Ed Stetzer says that to be a disciple of Jesus we must do what Jesus did, Love like Jesus Loved, and Leave what Jesus left behind. And what did Jesus leave? He left people who did what he did and loved like he loved.

Now do I mean that we all must raise people from the dead or make water out of wine? Of course not! That is not even the bulk of what Jesus did. The majority of what Jesus did was to love sinners, call them to repentance, and show them the Fathers love. This then is what we must do.

Why are we called to make disciples of the nations? In the same way that Ezra could reach 12 guys, training them in all they needed to know, Jesus being fully human, lived in a specific time and place. As such, he could reach and train but a few as well. However, those 12 were to go and do the same, and then their followers did the same, and so on and so forth, and soon the entire world could be reached.

As I just said, making disciples is the larger application. It encompasses all the rest. How is this possible? Well let’s look at it.

What were some other applications? One was getting others to be more vested in the vision. And what is this vision that I keep talking about? Well for Mercyhouse it is reaching the Pioneer Valley for Christ. And what exactly does that mean? Well, Robert is still working out exactly what that means for this church, but we can be sure that it means giving everyone in the Valley an opportunity to hear the Gospel. How we are going to do that? Well, that is still up in the air. But how does making disciples accomplish this goal? Well for one, the disciples are the goal in themselves, right? If we are making disciples than we can be sure we are carrying out the vision.

But there is so much more to it than that. And I am going to get to that momentarily, but first let’s look at how making disciples encompasses the other possible applications of this text.

One of the other applications was trusting others, right? Ezra trusted his disciples, and so we must trust others around us. But how did this trust get built? Did he just pick 12 guys at random to give gold to and let teach the Nation of Israel? No. He had been making them disciples for quite some time. He had been walking with them and teaching them. He learned to trust them because they did life together.

See when Jesus tells us to make disciples, he is not just telling us to have an alter call, convert people, and send them on their way. He is telling us to make disciples. Make people who lived like Jesus, loved like Jesus, left what Jesus left behind.

To make a disciple means we are walking with these people. We rejoice in their joy, hurt in their pain, correct them when they have gone astray, congratulated them on their victories. To make disciples we need to invest in others. Through this walk we can learn to trust them, and God.

We will see them grow, not because of our skill in discipling, but in spite of our discipling. We will see the Holy Spirit work in new Christians, and come to trust God more. Through this trust, we will then be able to hand over control, and watch God’s mighty hand work.

Not only will we learn to trust others, but we will learn to trust God- yet another application of the text answered by making disciples.

And as for the other applications, is there any way to not invest in people if we are making disciples? NO. By the very definition we are investing. And what about times we don’t feel like it, how does making disciples fix that? Well, I am sure there were days and weeks that Ezra did not want to invest in others, but his disciples still showed up and begged to be invested in. He had bonded with them, and they with him, and I am sure that they called each other on the others faults.

See, this making disciples is the answer to so much else. Are you going to be able to slack off in your walk with Christ if you know you are expected to help others along the way? I think not. It would be impossible. Those whom you made disciples would not let you. Plus, how many of us would let our witness be tarnished by repeatedly pursuing the same sinful behavior in front of those who look to as the ones who brought them to Christ.

I know I couldn’t. One of the safeguards in my life against going out and drinking is this fact. I have been telling my family, friends, AA-ers about the healing power of Christ. I tell them how he rescued me from the bondage of sin. And I am not lying. What I couldn’t do for myself, Christ did for me. I couldn’t stop drinking, so I cried out to Him, and instantly there was freedom. As I have said before, I don’t go to AA after attending for a brief stint. They all thought I would go back out and drink, but I have Jesus.

What would it do to my word and witness if I chose to go back to that lifestyle? It would ruin it, right? So then, because I am trying to make disciples of the nations, I have been sanctified in this area. And drinking is not the only place my life has been sanctified because of trying to make disciples. I’ve grown, believe it or not, in patience, kindness, humility. You name it, God has done mighty works in me. And I was more willing to let Him work because of this call to make disciples.

Now I said I was going to return to how making disciples invests people more in the vision. Remember, these are Jesus words- Go and Make disciples. He doesn’t say go and make converts, but disciples. Why? What is the big deal? Well, I am going to tell you what the big deal is, and in this explanation comes a greater understanding of why disciples are more vested in the vision of the Church Universal.

There is a huge problem in the church today, and it is consumer Christianity. It is epidemic. It can be seen in the way people “shop” so to speak for a church. I know of a couple who were looking for a church in the area to which they just moved, and the selling point of one of the buildings was that they were giving away I-Pods to new members- I-Pods! And I am sure that they had a few people come.

Today we, and I mean Americans in general, are more concerned with what a church can provide us, what programs does it have, what kinds of classes are offered, how can it serve my needs, that if it is providing life change to broken people. Now, I know we are in New England, and we really believe that what I was just talking about happens only in Southern Mega-churches, and not in our house, but that simply isn’t true. We see the problem as being with those out there, ignoring the festering sores on our own flesh.

This consumer Christianity is here, now. We are all subject to it in some respect; I am guilty of it myself. We expect others to clean, volunteer, cook the meal we used to serve, work the concerts we have as outreach, repaint the windows, and we don’t want to get our hands dirty. We never have enough time, enough money, enough resources to give to the Church, or the community, or our neighbors.

We have been sold the lie that if we show up to a service somewhere Sunday morning we have lived the Christian life. Maybe, if we are really righteous, we show up to a Bible study, but that is the extent of our faith.

And then we wonder why our church is not growing, why we have not baptized more people, why this Valley is so dark. It is dark because we have hidden our lights!

We wonder why the Church in America is shrinking (this is the only continent where this is true, by the way), yet we do not feel it incumbent upon ourselves to change the situation. We sit around tables with out Christian friends, go to Christian rock concerts, and if you are in Ministry, attend Christian conferences, dedicated to figure out how to make the Church more relevant and get people into our doors. But we never think to step out of those doors, and travel to the ends of the world, making disciples of the Ethne, the people groups, as we go.

I know this is our attitude, because this was my attitude. How can I do anything? Let the ministers and missionaries do the converting, I am just going to go to church and live right, and surely that will impact others. That is how I am to be a light.

That is not what Jesus calls us to do, though. He does not say to his disciples, stay here and be really holy, and see if anyone wants to join you. Ezra does not wait for men to come to him who say that they can be trusted with gold and teaching. He chooses them, teaches them, disciples them. And once they were trained he sends them out to train others, to choose others, to walk with others.

Jesus doesn’t command us to get converts, to just pack out buildings with large numbers of attendees, because he is not calling people to this consumer Christianity. He is calling them to Himself and New Life. And we must do the same.

This is how we reach the Valley for Christ, this is how we baptize the nations, this is how we make the Church relevant again. We make disciples. We accept people as dirty as they are, and then let Jesus wash them clean. We walk besides them in all their pain and misery, and watch the Spirit fill them with His joy. We do what Jesus did, and love like Jesus loved, and soon we will too leave what Jesus left.

It doesn’t matter if we are Modern, Post-Modern, or any other tag we care to give our selves. It doesn’t matter what the nations we are trying to reach are either, Modern, Post-Modern, or anything. All people can relate to this. We relate to people, we walk besides them, we offer them Jesus. To lock ourselves away, awaiting the end times, and discussing our theology is not going to accomplish anything. We must GO, and make disciples of the nations.

And this really is the answer to the problem of consumer Christianity with in the Church, and the hatred of the Church from without. See, when we are making disciples we must be invested in the church, we will volunteer in our community, we will reach out to the broken, we will search for the lost. There is nothing else we can do.

If we want to reach the homeless is Springfield, we will go to them, doing what Jesus did, and loving like Jesus loved. We will give them food and shelter, and listen to their plight. We will wade in it with them, helping them in their struggles and affliction. And do you know what will happen? They will see the Church, not just as a building that is closed every day but Sunday, but as the body of Christ. They will ask us about or faith, and become disciples.

Ask Patrick Harner. He went to Springfield, he met with the homeless, week after week. He found then clothes, and shelter. He rented hotel rooms for them. He prayed is with them. And what were the fruits? Disciples were made. People came to know Jesus. People can to see the church, not just as an outdated institution, but as an organization where people loved them. And they wanted more. They were hungry, not just for food, but for friends and faith, and they were able to find both because Patrick takes this mission seriously.

And it is not just homeless. If we want to reach these college campuses for Jesus, do you know how we do it? Right we make disciples. Everyone is selling something to these undergrads, and what do we have that is different. To them we are just another organization that wants them to attend and give their money, right? Wrong. We want to change their lives if we are true to making disciples. We want to expect the best from them, and wade through the worst. We want to love them and help them in any way we can. We want to invest in them, and show them how to invest their lives in others. And you know what will happen? One kid on one floor of one dorm will become a Christian, and soon he will be giving life to all around. Others will loose their suspicion of the Church, and of Christians, and come to know Jesus too.

Just ask Ben Novello. He takes this call seriously, and last semester, after reaching gout to all on his floor he started a Bible study during Lent for all to come to. Now how many people do you think came? All of them. And not one was a Christian. Why did they come? Because Ben had been walking with them, he had been loving them like Jesus loved them. And after Lent, what do you think happened? They asked Ben if he would continue the study! They initiated with him, all because he was investing in their lives. He was doing what Jesus did, and loving like Jesus loved.

For years the main complaint about Christianity is that it doesn’t practice what it preaches, and here is the solution. Make disciples. That is the application for today. Go and make disciples. If we are loving people, both Christians and non-Christians, we will surely be practicing what we preach. If instead of calling the dirty to adopt our morality, we walk besides them and love them, we will be answering the question “What Would Jesus Do”. And people will want more of this authentic faith that we are living out.

Ezra worked with the men he chose for years, preening them and getting them ready to teach others. This is the call on us as well. We are to go and make disciples of the nations. We are not to create converts, but make disciples.

Today people are more connectedthan even, but the rates of depression and loniness are at all time highs. We have cell phones, ands email, and facebook, and myspace, and blogs, and blackberries. We can talk to others half way around the world, but the majority of Americans our age don’t know their neighbors. We live in a society where we have the option to never be alone, yet are alone all the time. And people are hurting because of it. They want to connect to people. They want to be reached out to. If we take this call to make disciple seriously, we can offer people a solution to the isolation that is falling I around them. We can give them an escape.

We are called to invest our lives, out entire lives, everything, into this. We are not called to go to church on Sunday and Bible Study on Wednesday, and be done with it. We are told to be lights to the world. A city on a hill can not be hidden. But we have been hiding our lights for so long.

We have all, at some level, bought into the idea that church is for us. That it is about us. It is not. It is about everyone but us. It is about God, and about the un-discipled. Paul says our lives are not our own. Church isn’t about us.

Let us go and make disciples. Let us show people how to do what Jesus did, and love like Jesus love, and watch them, leave what Jesus left behind.

This was God’s plan A for growing the Church. It was not I-Pod give-a-ways, or the best child care, or flashy programs. Not that child care and classes and the such are bad. We need them, but they are not the way the kingdom grows. It has always grown by relationships, by disciples, and it will always grow that way. One can only make disciples by being in relationships, and one can only become a disciple by being in a relationship.

This disciple thing is how we give ownership of the vision up. We, like Ezra, pass out treasure on to others. We pass on the vision to them, and let them carry it away. They in turn invest in others, who take over the vision, and the kingdom grows. And it grows to places we could never reach. Ezra couldn’t have taught all the Israelites, and we can neither teach the entire Valley. But our disciple could teach more than us, and their disciples more than them.

So then, this is the application for us today. Go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of The Holy Spirit. Let us repent of our old ways, and follow Jesus. Let us show others how to follow Jesus. Instead of calling people to come to church and chose our morality, let us cal them into relationship with the most high. Let us invest all that we have, all that we are. Let us give freely what was given us. Let us walk besides people, taking on their problems as our own, and direct them to the source of our strength. Let us administer God’s mercy ad Grace here on Earth.

Let us do what Jesus did, and Love like Jesus loved, and Leave what Jesus left behind.