Wake Up: Ezra 1 & 2

Good morning church, do me a favor and go ahead and have a seat this morning. I know that’s a little different than usual, but it’s because I actually want to invite you in praying with me this morning. I mentioned last week as we kicked off Ezra/Nehemiah that I was full of expectation for what God was wanting to do in and among as as a church, so before we jump into Ezra 1 & 2 this morning I want us to pray together. So would you mind bowing your heads and just closing your eyes, and if you’re comfortable would you open your hands in front of you to God? A symbolic gesture of humility and willingness to be molded for His purposes.

Now if you weren’t here last week, we opened up a new series by giving a background of Ezra & Nehemiah.

I mentioned that these books chronicle the rebuilding of the people of God.

They show us how God goes about reviving and rebuilding his people, and if we are to know his rebuilding touch, we should ask God to do the same fundamental things among us as he did among his people then.

Let’s pray:

Introduction

If you have your Bibles’ go ahead and turn with me to Ezra chapter 1.

Sleep Walking

One of the most terrifying parts of being a parent, is that moment when you’re in deep, deep sleep and all of a sudden you’re jolted awake because you can feel a tiny presence in your room.

You know what I’m talking about right!

Sometime in the last year, I can’t remember when, it happened in our house.

But instead of being the traditional 2 inches from my face, one of my kids was out in the hallway in between our bedrooms kind of mumbling to himself.

I got up to investigate and saw that he was about a foot from a corner, talking about something.

When I asked him what he needed he told me needed to get some water.

I told him to go to the bathroom to drink from the sink, and i turned around to go back to bed.

Well instead of walking toward the bathroom, he walked back toward his bedroom still mumbling.

So I followed him into his bedroom, and ya’ll he was about to use the bathroom in the corner of his room!

And what I figured out was that He was Sleep Walking!

How many of you have experienced something like that? It’s wild!

He was totally functional, able to talk, able to walk and navigate, all the while totally asleep!

And as we turn to Ezra 1 & 2, the first fundamental principle we see is that we need to WAKE UP.

Romans 13:11 “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

We all know the dangers and darkness of our times. And instead of moaning and groaning about it, we should be all the more alert, and awake ready to WALK with God instead of sleepwalk with God.

Are you awake?

Consider your devotional life? Has it just become going through the motions, totally lacking intimacy with Christ?

Or consider your family or marriage, deep down you know that God wants to do a rebuilding work there, but everytime you consider what it will take to move towards it the feelings of inadequacy or fear push that rebuilding to dormancy… asleep.

Or consider your job or career. What was once a vehicle for the glory of God has overtime just become a paycheck. There’s no purpose in it anymore, no passion, no drive, no meaning. You know you’re just sleepwalking.

We worship a God that can rebuild these types of things, but church we’ve got to wake up.

We’ve got to let God shake us out of our slumber, and live alert and active, ready to join Him in the work of Rebuilding.

And this morning our text is going to give us 3 things that we have to Wake Up TO in order to catalyze this work of rebuilding.

Wake up to the Purposes of God

Wake up the People of God

Wake up the Purity of God

Let’s begin by reading the first portion of our text

Wake Up to the Purposes of God

Ezra 1:1-3 “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.”

The first point for us this morning is that we need to Wake Up to the Purposes of God.

This incredible moment in History occurred all to accomplish the Purpose of God, and the way He went about doing it is to the praise of his honor, strength, power, and glory.

First let’s look at Cyrus.

Cyrus

We read that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.

That word stirred is often translated Awakened.

So the Lord awakened the spirit of Cyrus, all for the Purposes of God.

Cyrus was the King of Persia who had just conquered the Kingdom of Babylon who had taken Israel into exile. And in the first year of his rule, the Lord awakened his spirit to fulfill the purposes of God, by proclaiming a return and rebuild.

Now Cyrus thought that he was just making a wise dimplomatic, political move to appease his subjects, but it was way more purposeful than that, he was being awakened for the purpose of God.

You see, long before Cyrus proclaimed the return, or conquered babylon, or even became King, or was even born… He was the chosen servant of God for this purpose of God.

More than 120 years before Cyrus was born, the prophet Isaiah writes:

Isaiah 44:28-45:4 “The Lord says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ” Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.”

This was written around 700B.C., and Cyrus didn’t issue this proclamation of Ezra 1, until 538 B.C.!

Do you see the power and purpose of God… God knew even before his people were exiled, that he would one day raise up a secular, pagan king, as Isaiah says, “a king that does not know the Lord,” to fulfill all His purpose.

Cyrus may have been ruler of a dominant kingdom, He may have been elite on the world stage, and all powerful as it regarded the kingdoms of thiw world… but in reality he possessed his power just to serve as an instrument in God’s hand, for God’s purposes.

So the spirit of Cyrus was awakened for the purposes of God.

Jeremiah

But even the timing was a direct fulfillment of God’s purposes.

As I shared last week, Israel was exiled for 70 years, and that also was to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 25:11 “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

But why 70 years, what was so significant about 70?

Well 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 “He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”

If you remember last week, during the period of 1st Kings all the way to the Exile, the people of Israel had rejected God and conformed to the world around them.

And one way this rejection of God was evident was their breaking of the Sabbath.

Leviticus 25:3-4 “For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.”

So every 7th year, the land was to lie fallow to honor the Sabbath Rest.

And as we saw last week Lev. 26 lists the consequences if God’s covenantal conditions aren’t met.

Lev 26:33-35reads “And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.” “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.”

Alright, let me slow down… do you see the signficance here.

One of God’s conditions for his relationship with Israel was that every 7 years the land will rest, but they broke those conditions and do you know how long Israel lived in rejection of God?

How long had God had compassion and called them back to Himself from the prophets, yet they hardened their hearts and didn’t listen?

Do you know how long it was from the day they broke covenant to the day of their exile?

490 Years.

Every 7th year the land was supposed to rest, but it didn’t.

What’s 490/7?=== 70.

One of my all time favorite lines of Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring,

“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. He arrives precisely when he means too.”

So in Jeremiah 29:10-14 ““For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my purpose and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

So God awakens the Spirit of Cyrus to fulfill His Purpose, in accordance with His Word, and in His perfect Timing.

Church, does it not bring you comfort to know that as Proverbs 21:1 says, “A king’s heart is like streams of water in the lord’s hand: He directs it wherever he wills.”

May the Soverignty and Power of God be the pillow on which you rest your head tonight.

His purposes will always be accomplished, and always in His Timing.

Church, God is a God of Purpose.

He has purpose for his children, and for his church.

Just as His purpose was to have a nation that would be His people, and reflect His glory, so now he holds the same purpose for you and I.

As we saw in Acts, the church has been given a purpose: to be God’s Witnesses by proclaiming the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ with our lips and our lives.

We are purposed to be a “lighthouse” in our community, pointing people to Jesus.

We are purposed to be God’s hands, mouth, and feet in this world--- namely to be the body of Christ.

But are you sleepwalking through the 70-90 years you may be given on this earth?

It’s time to wake up!

God has a purpose for your life, for your family, and for this church.

If we are to be a church rebuilt, we have got to open our eyes to the purposes of God. To grow restless and discontent with the trivial, and temporal purposes we expend so much time, energy, and money with; and WAKE UP to the purposes of God.

What does he want to accomplish in you? in this community? In this world?

we have to Wake up to the Purposes of God.

Secondly, we will see that He accomplishes His Purposes, by Waking up the People of God.

Ezra 1:4-5 “And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.”

Wake Up the People of God

So Cyrus makes his decree, and says, whoever wants to go… let him go! And did you notice who the first group to answer the call was…

None other than...

The Heads of the Homes

verse 5— “Then rose up the heads of the father’s houses… God stirred His people to accomplish His purposes, and the first grouping of people are the MEN.

Now ladies bear with me for a second, and please hold your elbow nudges to yourself.

Fella’s, it’s tough being a man in our world today— especially in a post Christian culture that isn’t even sure what manhood means.

There are so many differing opinions, definitions, and expectations of what a man should be like, and the weight is heavy while the responsibility is immense.

However, as men, we were created and designed by God to lead.

And you have it in you to handle the pressure, and face the obstacles, and overcome every challenge that life puts before you.

You were designed by God to be men, and the Scriptures as well as History attest, that when MEN rise up and take their place in the purposes of God, the world is better off.

But when men relinquish their role and take a step back, all of society is negatively impacted.

Men you have a duty, to be who God has purposed you to be.

Men you have a duty, to be the first volunteers in the purposes of God.

As Paul was concluding his letter to the church in Corinth, he writes, 1 Corinthians 16:13 “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”

Men… Paul says be watchful… you know another way another way to put it?… WAKE UP, AND STAY AWAKE.

As King David was dying he looked at his son solomon and said, 1 Kings 2:1-3 “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,”

How was Solomon to show himself a man…

Keep the charge of the Lord.

Walk in His ways

Keep his statues.

This isn’t a sermon or a text that goes into deep detail about the differing responsibilities of men and women, and by no means am I or Scripture advocating that women cannot further the Purposes of God as the People of God!

If that’s what you’re hearing… give me your eyes. The Scriptures are rife with God fulfilling His purpose in and through the lives of His Women.

What I am saying is that God has created and equipped Men to lead, but I fear we’ve fallen asleep.

Or we’ve abdicated our responsibility due to passivity. Or we’ve simply redefined our biblical responsibility to lead as Provision only., when clearly we are to lead in the fulfillment of all God’s purposes, not just provision.

So men… where are you? Are you sleepwalking? And far from feeling shame, what I want for you is to wake up. To let God begin the rebuilding in you.

So God stirred up people to go… heads of homes, priests and Levites, everyone whose spirit was stirred…

But some didn’t go. In fact, many didn’t.

We read in Ezra chapter 2 that the whole assembly that returned was 42,360 (Ezra 2:64), most scholars believe that this was a mere fraction of the Jews that were living in exile.

And remember this was only the first of 3 waves in return.

So in this wave, God only stirred some to get this thing going.

But what about the others… What was their responsibility?

Ezra 1:6 “And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.”

God stirred other People to support.

You may not be in a place where you feel stirred to jump into a particular purpose of God, but when you see someone else that is you should be stirred to provide.

There are people around us in this church, and in this community who God has woke up for His purposes.

Some are out on the sidewalks in Savannah sharing the Gospel to pregnant mothers considering abortion with Thrive.

Some are traversing Richmond Hill with meals in order to serve the poor in our community through Eleos food pantry at FBC, or Food for the Soul Soup Kitchen at UMC.

Some are working for better legistlation to serve the kids and most vulnerable in our nation.

Some have been stirred to jump into foster and adoption

Some are reaching out to the schools to build relationship with our communities’ teenagers like our friends at FCA.

Some are joining the purposes of God as foreign missionaries to bring about the obedience of faith among all nations.

And this doesn’t even begin to cover all the anonymous stories I may or may not know of

Meals being baked.

Yards being cut.

Rides being given.

Cars being donated.

Testimonies and gospel presentations being shared.

Bible studies being started in neighborhoods.

And on and on and on I could go…

And every one of these stirrings of god’s purpuses needs support and provision.

Prayer, encouragement, financial, etc.

God awakens His church to be involved in His purposes, but the church is just a bunch of people. You are the Church. We are the Church.

What we see here in Ezra is that God STIRRED THE PEOPLE to rebuild, and GOD STIRRED THE PEOPLE to support.

The formal role of the institutional church is to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

So if you sense God awakening something in you to serve His Purposes, we’d love to know about it so that you are equipped for that work of ministry, but

you don’t need a formal program hosted on our website to step out in faith and obedience to the Stirring of God.

As God WAKES up His People for his purposes or his provision, then we are being the church. That’s when we are being built.

So in Ezra, (vs. 5) the first wave began with God stirring up some to go up to rebuild, and others to aid them with their provision.

But let’s read Ezra 1:7-11 “Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.”

I just want to highlight, that God stirred Cyrus to provide too.

All the valuable vessels that Nebechanezzar stole in the spoils of war were returned, and he gave them to a guy named sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

Now I’ll tell you more about him next week, but Sheshbazzar is the babylonian name of Zerubbabel, his Hebrew name.

Much like Daniel was renamed Belteshshazzar, and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were renamed Shadrach, Meschak and Abendengo, Zerubbabel who was a decendent of the throne of David was renamed Sheshbazzar in Babylon.

So Cyrus sends all this provision with Zerubabbel...

but there’s one more quick point for us this morning.

Ezra chapter 2 chronicles the names and numbers of all those who returned in this first wave, but look with me at Ezra 2:59-63

Ezra 2:59–63 ESV

The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, though they could not prove their fathers’ houses or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel: the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of Nekoda, 652. Also, of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, and the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name). These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food, until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim.

Wake up to the Purity of God

This chapter was written to preserve the identity and purity of the Jewish community.

As they returned they wanted to ensure that it was the covenant people of God that would take up residence and rebuild, not others like the Samaritans that emerge later in chapter 5.

So the concern with this long list of census was to presereve the Purity of God’s chosen people.

Church, when God begins to awaken His People to His Purposes he is going to also awaken in you a need for Purity.

So often the root cause of our spiritual slumber is deep, unconfessed habitual patterns of sin.

Addictions or sin patterns that you find so shameful, that you’ve shoved them so far into the darkness of your life, that the result is a spiritual coma. A sleepwalk with God.

Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 5:9-14 “(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Hidden patterns of sin can leave you with a spiritually asleep state of mind.

Some of us need to be Awakened to purity this morning.

It’s been so long since you’ve felt the stirring presence of God, calling you to His purposes.

Perpetual destructive behaviors that include, but are not limited to…

Overindulgence or an unhealthy relatoinship with food.

Pornography

Drinking or drug abuse.

Sexual promiscuity before marriage or within a marraige.

Over time these behaviors lead to the loss of any conviction or guilt, so your spirit has grown dull and asleep…

But there’s good news, God wants to Wake You Up.

He is committed to preserving the purity of His people, for His purposes.

So are there areas of your life you need to Wake Up regarding purity?

Conclusion

God awakens His People to His Purposes, and their Purity.

And what’s beautiful about the obedience of Zerubbabel and this first wave is that they couldn’t have had any idea of how God was going to accomplish this insurmountable plan.

They were going to have to travel over 500 miles on roads littered with bandits and armies, while carrying all their belongings and valuables.

Only to arrive at a destination that had been destroyed, and set on fire.

I can’t imagine the fear they must have felt.

Fear of Failure

Fear of danger.

Fear of what they’d find…

But at this stage in the process their responsibility isn’t to have it all figured out.

It was to Wake Up.

This is the first fundamental step in being a people rebuilt is to be a people awake.

Awake to His purposes, not just your own.

Awake of His People, to serve and support.

Awake to His Purity, for our good and His glory.

Let’s Pray.