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.

For those of you reading my last sermon, you may have noticed a movie clip. I didn't know what I was going to use at the time I posted this, but I now I do. SO here it is.

It is from Glory. The 24 minute. In this clip, the Cornell, Robert Gould Shaw, from the Massachusetts 54, an all black regiment (the first in the country) finds out that the South has issued a special order. They order states that any black man found in Union garb will be killed, and not treated like a prisoner of war. Also, any white man in a black regiment will also be killed.

He tells the men that they may feel free to leave the army. He also tells his officers the same (all of which are white), but he asks them, one on one to stay, but says he understands if they leave. He also says that he is going to fight on.

In the morning, no a single man, enlisted or officer has left.

Then I start my sermon. Enjoy.

I wish I had internet at home

I would blog more often if I had the internet at home, but it is more of a hassle than it is worth. By not aving it, I cannot check work email after the day has ended, spend less money, and am forced to go into the world every now and again. But I don;t blog as often as I would like.

On that note, I am just posting this weeks sermon. I am just to busy to write a sermon, post a new blog, and do everything else expected fo me, so for the next two week, you get only sermon. For those of you who are at church anyway, sorry.

I want to begin this week by showing a movie clip. Let me set up this scene.

What was the point of the clip? Well it has a lot to do with what we are going to be talking about today. And what exactly is that, well it is Ezra’s journey out. We are going to be looking at how Ezra influenced those around him, what kind of impact he had.

Before we go any further though, I think it important to recap where we have come from. Ezra began his journey by looking Up. We see Ezra looking to God, and God giving Grace upon Grace. Next, because of this Grace we see Ezra put his entire faith in God. Part of his journey in was relying on God’s provision, and the other half was to come bare before God, cleaning his closet out, and repenting of his sinful ways. Now we could assume that the journey ends there, but we’d be wrong. In fact, from a worldly perspective, his journey had just begun.

What do I mean? Well, I think most of us wouldn’t be very impressed with someone who had a clean closet, but didn’t tell others how they did it. We expect people who have “fixed themselves”, so to speak, to then help others. There is a whole section at Barnes and Noble dedicated to this kind of torch passing, right? It is the self help section. The way we judge if someone has been “fixed” is if they can tell another about how they did it, and then the other, following the same techniques, can be “fixed” too.

And although it is not proof that Ezra was great, nor do I think he did this to be remembered, Ezra also gives others the truths that he has come to know. The difference between Ezra and the self help section though is immense. First off, although Ezra wrote a book, he wasn’t out to make a buck. Second, as we will see, Ezra never gives himself credit for his success, but rather gives all the Glory to God. Ezra’s self help is in fact a self un-help.

What does any of this have to do with anything? Even more than this, when are we going to talk about Ezra’s journey out? How did he affect those around him? I hope to answer all those questions for us.

It seems fitting that we should begin by looking at the beginning f Ezra’s journey out, so lets do just that.

Turn with me to your programs, and we are going to read a bit of Scripture that we have read in each Ezra sermon so far, we read:

EZRA 7:9-10

9For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. 10For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

I seem to be making a big deal of this tiny piece of Scripture, don’t I? It seems that it has been the lynchpin of every sermon thus far, doesn’t it? Well the answer to both these questions is the affirmative. I am making a big deal of these verses, and it has been the lynchpin of every sermon so far this summer. Well then the question becomes why? Why are these verses so important?

They are important to these sermons because they are important to Ezra. They are, in fact, the driving force behind every journey we have looked at, and are going to look at-so get ready to hear them next week too.

How are they the beginning of every journey, Up, In, Out and On? Simple, without them, there is no Ezra. This is where he himself starts his journey, so it is where we must begin too.

So what, Ezra loved the Law, big deal. Well it is a big deal. It is because he loved the law that he found his motivation for everything else.

Before we look at how his love of the Law was motivation for all his future endeavors, let’s first discuss what it meant to Ezra to love the Law.

Now there are a few possibilities for loving the Law, are there not?

He may have loved it like we love a good book. My wife loves “To Kill a Mockingbird”. She has re-read it multiple times since we have been married. If she had to read it yet again, beginning today, she would be ecstatic. We have multiple copies of the book at out house, mostly because she has worn out the older ones. Pages are falling out, torn, missing, so we get a new copy. My wife loves the book for what it is. She is not writing a dissertation about it. When she reads it, she is not focusing on the imagery as metaphor, or how this word was a better choice that that. There is nothing scholastic about her study, she just likes the book. It tugs at her heart strings.

Now is this the love that Ezra had for the Law? To some extent yes, but also no. Before we get further in depth about this answer, let’s look at other types of love that Ezra may have had.

The other love that is possible here is one of an academic for a great work of literature. This is different, I assure you, than my wife’s love for “To Kill a Mockingbird”. This is a love that one develops over years and years of study. It is one that appreciates the history, the language, the grammar, the vocabulary. This love is one that we can only come to when we been alone with the text for weeks, trying to decipher what a specific passage means. It is one that the Grad Students in the room can relate to with their research. It is the love we develop for a novel that we must read for class, analyze and write a 200 page paper about. While we were doing the work, we may not have liked the work we had to evaluate, but after, when talking with others, we realize that we truly do love that novel, and all because we were forced to come to a greater appreciation of it. Is this the love that Ezra has for the Law? Again, to some extent yes, but also no.

Now what is going on? Am I just playing word games with us? Well, to some extent yes, but also no. Really, what is going on? The reality of the situation is that the Love that Ezra has for the Law encompasses both these other loves, but goes deeper than either could hope to go.

Ezra loved the Law as a story. How can we be sure? Well we will see this love come through as we continue looking at Ezra’s journey out. But he also loved the Law as an academic. He set his heart to study it. He wrestled with the text, saw its poetry, rejoiced in its grammar. How do we know this? Well, because he tells us.

But Ezra also tells us that his love goes deeper than this. He just doesn’t want to study it, like a modern professor, he wants to follow it and teach it. Ezra’s love goes deeper than enjoying the story or appreciating the history; Ezra has been converted to the text. He first liked the story, and then appreciated its literary value, and finally saw that it was good for his salvation, and not just his, but for all.

And here is where his journey out starts. He loved the law, and set his heart to study it, do it, and teach it. And so he does.

The next place we read about Ezra wanting to teach people about the Law is with his encounters with the King of Babylonia. Now remember last week that the King told Ezra to go back to Jerusalem, take all the exiles with him, and also to take over 100 million dollars worth of treasure. After all this we are told that Ezra was too ashamed to ask for an armed escort home because he had told the king "The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him."

Wrapped up in this text is the assumption that the king had been asking Ezra questions about his faith, and about the Religion of Israel. And since Ezra loved the Law, as I said last week, I am sure that he had no problem answering all the king’s questions. But why would the king have chosen Ezra in the first place, or asked Ezra questions about the Jewish tradition? Simple, Ezra loved the law, and set his heart to study, do, and teach it. The king would have seen Ezra’s faith, and his diligence in his study. Who better to ask about the sacred texts than someone who is studying them, and wants to teach them, right?

Now there is another aspect of Ezra’s journey out wrapped up in this story, and that is that he didn’t ask for an escort. We can only imagine how this would have affected the king. But this decision doesn’t just affect the king, it affect Israel much more.

It is easy to see why it would have affected the Jews more than the king; they were the ones who were supposed to walk back to Jerusalem with 100 million dollars and no one to protect it.

Imagine we were part of this caravan. We see miles of camel and donkey and horse and people, all loaded up with treasure, and then Ezra comes down from talking to the king, and we are ready for him to give us some instruction. We are listening to hear how many guards Ezra negotiated for the trip. We are expecting that since he has already gotten so much, we probably have half of the Babylonian army with us. But instead of him telling us to mount up and be ready for the army to come, he instead says

EZRA 8:21

21Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods.

So maybe the army is coming after, right.

So we fast, and still wait. Surely the army is coming. And then we see Ezra talk to his leading men. We read in EZRA 8:28-30

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.

“Surely he has more in mind than this? How could he do this to us?” we may think. “Where is the army?” But Ezra just begins the journey, and the officials follow, and the people follow.

There are a few ways in which Ezra’s love of the Law affects this decision to not ask for an escort. First, which I talked about last week, is because he doesn’t want his witness to the king compromised, and second is because he knew the God of Israel, and of His might, because of the Scriptures. Ezra knew forward and backward the stories in the Law. When he tells the King that God is for all those who seek Him, and against those who forsake him, he is not just trying to brag. He is telling the King a truth he has learned from both previous experience, and also from the study of the Law. He is simply relating the truths he has come to know due to the love that has grown in him over the years.

Surely this affected not just the king, but all the Jews who were going with him. But they followed nonetheless. They followed without an army, and with tons of cash exposed and rip for the plucking. Why? Well I imagine that Ezra told them the same stories he had been telling the king. He let his love of the Law speak for him. And so the people fast with Ezra, and pray, and begin the months long journey.

Before we move on to the next story, notice something here. Ezra doesn’t take the treasure by himself, he gives it to others. Now we are going to look at this more in depth next week, but it is important here too. If I were given a few million dollars, and told to watch it for a few months with no guard, I probably would have asked for one. But it is clear that these men have been so affected by Ezra that they just take it and do what he asks of them. I’ll bet that they were also talking to the people, explaining Ezra’s plan. Ezra’s faith allowed his men to travel unguarded as well.

There are two more stories we are going to look at before Ezra’s journey out is complete. The first I talked about last week.

Here’s what happens: The Jews leave Babylonia for Judah. Ezra and the caravan show up safely in Jerusalem and do what is required of them. They dole out the treasure, pay the officials their salary, and make the allotted sacrifices. And then, while all seems to be going well, Ezra’s top men come in and tell him that Israel has married foreign wives. This act is strictly forbidden in the Law, and since Ezra loved the Scripture, he knew this was wrong. And he reacts. What does he do? We read

EZRA 9:3-4

3As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. 4Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.

As I said last week, the first thing he does is repent. And that is important, but we discussed that last week. What concerns us here today is the reaction by the others around him.

These men clearly told Ezra what was going on so that he would lead them. I don’t believe they were “telling” on the Jews, in the way a child might, just to get them in trouble, but they were genuinely afraid for the people. Because of Ezra’s love of the Law, these men, who have walked beside Ezra, loved the Law too. They are going to their leader for guidance, because they, like Ezra, know what the people have done is wrong, but unlike Ezra, they don’t know what to do about it.

However, as soon as Ezra takes the lead, the others around him follow suit. Because Ezra loved the Law, and set about to study it, and DO it, and teach it, they followed his lead. They would do as he did, since he set about to DO the Law, and they too wanted to DO it.

Now Ezra’s reaction doesn’t stop with those who are closest to him. We read in EZRA 10:1:

1While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly

The Whole of Israel follows suit. They watched Ezra confess, and they did the same. They realize that they had broken faith because Ezra tells them they had. They gather around Ezra and wait and weep bitterly. But that is not all that happens. Ezra speaks to the crowd. We are told:

9Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. 10And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. 11Now then make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives." 12Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "It is so; we must do as you have said.

They see Ezra confess and repent, and are convinced to do the same. Because Ezra loved the Law and studied it, and did it, and taught it, the people are able to do it as well. Because Ezra studied the Law, he knew what was right and wrong in the sight of God. But it doesn’t end there. That doesn’t change people.

The people first saw Ezra confess, and then he taught them the Law. He didn’t get up and tell them that the Law said such and such, and that they needed to change their lives. He didn’t tell them about how much he knew, or for how log he had been studying the Scriptures, but first rather repents. He did the Law. This is what the people saw. They first saw him living out the Law. They saw it with his conversations with the Babylonian King, with his faith in God along the journey home, and now in his confession of sin.

They were able to confess because they first saw Ezra confess. Because they knew he practiced what he preached, they were able to look to him and see what they must do. Finally, because he set his heart to teach the law, he was able to tell the people what to do as well. His knowledge was not just his own, but he used it for the benefit of Israel as a whole. He could well have shut himself up away from everyone, knowing that they had sinned, confessed, and never gone near those dirty people out there ever again. He could have gathered those who didn’t sin to him, set up a barrier, and begin anew. But that is not what he does. He confesses in public, and tells Israel what they have done, and how to fix it.

He teaches them the commandment, but he also teaches them how to repent, and how to confess. He teaches them, not just of the Law, but how to live the Law as well.

Now I hope we can all relate to this story. I mean that. I hope all of us have someone in our lives who not only tells us the Law, but lives the Law, and teaches us how to live the Law. I can say that I have been blessed by people in my life not just telling me the Law, but living it, and showing me how to live it. I don’t know if we can live the Christian life without this. How does one live by faith? What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? I have only been able to grasp these things because others before me have done them, and shown me.

I was only able to stop drinking on a Friday nights because people showed me how. Now it seems obvious, right, just don’t drink, but when that is all you do for years and years, every Friday night, it is not that easy. I really had no clue about what to do Friday nights, but drink. But people in this Church came along side me, and showed me what to do.

Another example from my life has been my journey to join Mercyhouse staff. I have only been able to do it because Robert and his family did it first. There are many things about being a missionary on church staff that are not immediately obvious. There are many aspects that I needed to see someone do. First and foremost is fundraising to live. Trusting in God to provide money every month, instead of on your own hard work is something that I definitely needed to see in action to be able to live in my own life. I don’t think I could have done it had I not seen Robert do it first. Second, you make your own schedule here, and have to discipline yourself to follow it. Now certainly there is accountability, but it is not like a regular job where your boss is in the next room. I had to learn to figure out how to balance God, family, friends, work, all on a schedule that I made up. I don’t know if I could have done it if Robert and Lois and Cindy had not already been doing it. I learned by watching them.

In the same way, the people were able to repent because Ezra first repented. Because Ezra lived the Law, they too could live it.

There is one more story we are going to look at today. This story is not found in Ezra, however, but in Nehemiah. Let’s read what happens.

NEHEMIAH 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.

This story conveniently seems like the culmination of Ezra’s influence over others. It is the crescendo to the music that was Ezra’s journey out, isn’t it? It works out great for me that this story is last in the sermon. I mean how convenient is it that Ezra is speaking from a platform, surrounded by the other leaders, speaking to the entire nation of Israel, and that because of the Law and his teaching, they all react in unison. Clearly this is the end of his journey out.

Now what is the last thing that Ezra does in this story? He tells Israel to stop their weeping and rejoice. And why was Israel weeping? They were weeping because Ezra just read the Law. Not only was the Law read, but it was expounded on. Ezra was preaching. Now this must have been the longest sermon in history. Ezra isn’t just reading a piece of Scripture and then explaining it, he is reading 5 entire books- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and then explaining them. We have been here about 25 minutes, and I am only talking about portions of chapters of books.

Why are they crying? Well, the answer is simple, Ezra just read the law, and explained it. They realized that they are in some deep trouble. Why are they in such trouble? Well, in the Law, it is pretty clear that God has a very high Holy standard that he expects Israel to live up to. There are 613 laws found in this section of the Bible. There are the ones that we as westerners are all familiar, the Ten Commandments, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t kill, but there are also laws like

Lev 17-18

17"You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Or against having mildew in your clothes as in Leviticus 13:47

47 "If any clothing is contaminated with mildew—any woolen or linen clothing, 48 any woven or knitted material of linen or wool, any leather or anything made of leather- 49 and if the contamination in the clothing, or leather, or woven or knitted material, or any leather article, is greenish or reddish, it is a spreading mildew and must be shown to the priest. 50 The priest is to examine the mildew and isolate the affected article for seven days

And the statute goes on. Who would have thought that mold and mildew would have ceremonies attached to them. But they do, and if we haven’t followed the proscribed solution for such problems, we have sinned. This is why Israel is weeping. They have heard the law, and realized that they have not lived up to it. For the entire day they have heard law after law, statute after statute that they have broken.

They also hear that God smiles on those who do his will. We are told throughout these books that, as Ezra says, God is for all those who seek him, and against all those who forsake Him. Israel realizes that over and over they have forsaken Him. They are being told repeatedly, in over 613 ways that they did not, do not measure up to God’s standards, and so they weep. Why wouldn’t they weep?

But that is not were the story ends, and that it doesn’t end there is surely more interesting than them weeping. How so? Well we would expect Ezra to tell them that they should weep, and make confession, and then repent for all the rules they broke. This is what he did in the last story, right? So why should this be any different? But look back at the text. That is not what Ezra ends up doing. The text says

"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."

Why does he do this? Why the apparent sudden change of heart? Well, it is not necessarily a change of heart, first off. In the Story about intermarriage, yes Ezra confesses his sin, and then reads the Law, and then tells the people to confess and repent. And yes, he doesn’t do the same here, when clearly the people realize they have sinned. Does he just not see the sin? Or maybe h is only concerned with certain sins that get under his skin? Neither of these things is true. Ezra must clearly see the sins of Israel; he is trained in the Law. He knew of their short comings before they did. Also, because Ezra loved the Law, I doubt he thought some sins worse than others. He would have agreed with God about sin, and God despises all sin.

So why doesn’t Ezra lay into them? Why doesn’t he tell them their reaction is right, like he did before, and to confess and repent, and beg God to with hold his mighty outstretched arm? Good question.

Partly it is because Israel had already made confession. They had already repented. This, then, is not the time for it. But more that this, because Ezra loved the Law, and set about to study it, and do it, and teach it, he is able to see the greater story being told here. He is able to see the proverbial forest through the trees.

And then he is able to guide the people to see the forest too. Why does he say to take Joy in the Lord, and to celebrate and not weep? Well, Ezra, as I just said, sees the forest, and that forest is full of joy. The forest is not these laws and regulations that we will surely break. The forest is not that God demands animal sacrifice when we have messed up. The forest, the big picture that he is trying to teach Israel about, is THE STORY.

What do I mean by that? It is as follows.

In The Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. And in six days he prepared a place for the pinnacle of His creation. He sets a garden aside, and places man in it. He then stoops down from heaven and breaths into Man the Neshema, the soul. This Man was lonely, and so God created Woman. Male and Female he created them. They were created in the image of God, and were to rule over the Earth.

Now the Serpent was more crafty than all the other beasts, and he sneaks in the Garden and decives woman and man. They eat forbidden fruit, deliberately disobeying God, and as punishment are thrown out of the Garden. But God has compassion on his creation, and makes them clothes before he ends them on their way.

Things get worse from there. SO bad in fact, that God decides he needs to undo his creation. However here is one man, and his family who know God, and love Him, so in His Mercy, he tells them to build an ark. Noah does, and when God floods the world, to start afresh, he spares Noah and his kin.

But people were still sinful. God, however remained faithful. He finds a man, Abram, and calls him to Himself. Abram follows God, and is given a new name, Abraham. God makes a covenant with this man, and promises that his offspring will be as many as the sand on the shore.

Abraham has a son Isaac, who God loves, who has two sons Jacob and Esau. God loved Jacob, and chooses Him to covenant with, not because of who Jacob is, but rather because God had promised such things to Abraham.

The story continues, and soon God’s chosen people are Slaves in Egypt, but God has not forgotten them. God raises up for Himself a prophet Moses, to lead these people to freedom. Through miracle after miracle God displays His power, and rescues those who he had chosen.

But Israel is disobiediant. God sends them into the Desert for forty years, and we would think he has done so to kill them. But God remained faithful, even when Israel was faithless. God makes food fall from the sky daily, and provides water from rocks.

Moses tells Israel that this kindness that God is showing them is not because of anything that Israel has done, in fact the only thing they do is remain faithless, but because God had so ordained it. God then Gives Israel the Law, so that they may be set apart. He continually tells Israel that he saved them, not because of their righteousness, but because of His mercy. He has a plan, and His will will be done. They can not mess this thing up, for He has so ordained it.

And Israel’s story continues.

Israel reaches the Promised Land, Canaan, a land given them by God. They march on cities that seem impenetrable, and God destroys them before the Jews. Over and over God fights their battles, while Israel cowers on the sidelines.

Joshua, the new leader of the Jews, continually reminds Israel that this Grace is not of their own doing, but because God is mighty to save. He looks to God before each battle, and bows before Him as his God, leader, and general.

God remains faithful to His promise amid abandonment by His people generation after generation. And more than this, God promises that he will send one soon who will be greater than Moses, a Messiah, a Cristos.

The LORD God tells us in book after book of this Law that He is Israel’s Savior. It is His mighty hand that upholds the Jews.

It is because He chose David that Davis became king. It is because God chose Solomon after that He was given wisdom and allowed to build a Temple to the Almighty.

It is because of His promise that they are left a remnant. It is because He told the prophet Jeremiah that He was going to gather the exiles to Jerusalem that they were gathered.

This forest, this Big Picture that Ezra understands is one of God’s work. He sees that it was not Israel’s actions in Egypt that saved them, and neither is it their actions now.

Rejoice he says, because God’s mighty hand had redeemed them again. This day was Holy to the Lord, because the Lord made it holy by his saving Grace. And more than this, because of God’s Grace, he was always going to save His people. Ezra understood that God is the same. This God who saved Noah by His grace, who gave the Jews a Promised Land by His Grace, is the same God who brought the Jews out of exile now by His Grace, and the God who would continue to sustain Israel by His Grace.

THE STORY doesn’t end there though. Ezra knew it wouldn’t end there. Ezra saw something in the Law and Prophets that he didn’t receive. He saw the one who was to come in the Spirit of Elijiah. HT eprophet that Moses speaks of. He saw that some how God wa going to save His people forever.

Ezra would have seen how this return of the exils was but a glimpse of a future return. He knew God’s had was mighty to save. The author of Hebrews says it thusly.

13These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

39And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

What Ezra saw but dimly was the finally to the story, but he saw it nonetheless. He saw this theme of created, fallen, redeemed, ad it drove everything he was. He knw he was created by God, was sinful, but was also Redeemed by God. What he didn’t see as we see today is the way in which the final act plays out.

What he didn’t see was this.

The Jews were allowed by the Babylonians to return from exile. And they do, but a new super power waits for its time in History. For hundreds of years there has not been a prophet raised up in Israel. Movements come and go to call Israel back to holiness. They are looking for God’s voice anywhere, and He seems to be silent.

And then this threat that has been growing and devouring everything in its way arrives. It is called Rome, and the worlds had known nothing like it. It conquered and oppressed all the peoples of the ancient western world like none before.

And the entire time Israel is crying out to God. Where are you? Why are you silent? Where is our Redeemer? And God hears their prayers.

At the perfect time, in the perfect place, born in a manger to a poor family, greeted by shepherds and animals, a child comes into the world. And Angels rejoice!

This child grows up and becomes a Man. And one day he gets Baptized, and a voice comes down from Heaven, saying, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus of Nazareth walks among men, chooses 12 to be his closest companions, and teaches the masses. He walks on water, heals the blind, and causes the Lame to see. He does what every prophet has done before him, and then he raises the dead. He claims for himself the title of Messiah, but tells his closest friends to tell no one. He marches in triumphantly to Jerusalem, like Israel’s Savior is supposed to do, and then leaves.

He is betrayed by one of his 12 chosen, arrested like a common criminal.

He is beaten by his own people, and handed over to Rome. Rome beats him even more, and then sends Him to His death. Hanging on a cross that he carried trough the city of Jerusalem, a city he wept for hours before, he cries out in one last breath that it is finished.

His followers run for their lives. Their leader has just been killed, and surely they are next.

But something happens. A few women, his mother and some friends go to his tomb to finish the process of preparing the body in a fashion prescribed in the Law, and they find him gone. They beg that he be returned to two men standing there, who tell these grieving women to stop looking for the living among the dead.

And then Jesus appears to them, and then to the 12, and then to others.

H explains to his followers all the scriptures, how the Messiah was to be killed as a sin offering, and then conquer death, rising from the grave, and ascend into heaven.

Hew leaves His followers after 40 days, telling them to tell the good news in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the Ends of the World.

What Ezra saw, but didn’t see, is that God was going to save His people. He knew tat God was the Redeemer, but how he was going to do it, well, we can only speculate about how much Ezra knew.

But this is the Good News that Ezra tells the people of. This is the Forest he sees. God was going to save his people. God saved His people.

As Jesus hung on a tree, we are told that he became sin, so that sin may be condemned. God’s plan for redemption was that he would live among us and pay the penalty for our fallenness. He would step into history and be the Savior that humanity needed. What was impossible for us to do, God did for us. This story, THE STORY, did not end with Ezra. It ends with us.

God did not redeem Israel and then let them fend for themselves, he continued to redeem them, though they were unworthy. This is the story today, for all who sit in this room.

We have all been created by God. Like Adam, we were created in His image. He is our Father, and he loves us. He desires us to be in communion with Him. He wants us to be his children. But there is a problem. Like Adam, we also fell. We are fallen. We are broken and sinful. As Ezra says we stand before God in our guilt, and none can stand before Him because of this.

See God is holy. He is light. For us to truly be with Him, we must be holy too. But we aren’t. Paul says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We miss the mark. We don’t live up to the standards that God has set. There are 613 laws in the Torah alone, and if we were to read them here today, we like Ezra’s Israel, would weep. What else could we do? We would see our guilt, our shame, our inadequacy.

But remember, God is the redeemer. We can not save ourselves, but what was impossible for sinful man, was possible for God. SO he sent His son to earth. He sent him knowing he would die. Jesus came with the foreknowledge that he was going to be hung from a tree. He saw the pain laid before him. He knew the cost. And yet he came anyway.

Hebrews again tell us that

Hebrews 12:2b

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He came for the joy set before Him. What joy is this? It is our redemption. Though Christ, and his crucifixion, and resurrection, we too may live.

Created, Fallen, Redeemed. This is the story. This is why Ezra rejoices.

Let us rejoice too. Hear this story. Created, Fallen, REDEEMED. God loved you, yes you, enough to die for you. Knowing that you could not come before Him in your guilt, but wanting you to be able to come before Him, He set about o make you innocent. He paid the price that we could not.

So that you might be righteous before the Lord, he sent him who no sin to become sin, so that sin might be condemned, and we might live.

Jesus died on the cross for one reason, to give you life. He is offering it here today. He is calling to each one of us, stop your weeping and rejoice, for today is Holy to the Lord. Stop looking at the trees, and see the beautiful forest laid out before you, for you.

Know that you have been created, have fallen, and are now being asked to be redeemed. God is extending his hand of fellowship to you right now. The question I, will you take it?

He knows you are broken. He knows you are unclean. He knows you are sinful. He is extending it anyway. He wants to you be in fellowship with Him. He created you; He loves you like a child. He wants to care for you, protect you, love you. He wants to redeem you. He wants to redeem for from your sin, from your uncleanliness, from your brokenness. He wants to make you whole, clean you off, and make you holy.

SO come unto Him. There is a time for weeping and confessing our sins, but today is not the day. Today is a day of Joy, for God has saved you. There will be plenty of time to repent, but now just live in His redemption.

Know today the forest that is in front of you. Look and see the beautiful landscape God has prepared. Run unto him like a child, and know that it is finished. He has already done the work, let us thank Him for His Sacrifice.