The Purpose Of The Local Church (1 Peter 2:4-12)

Introduction

A. Preliminaries

Good morning. We continue our sermon series on the book of Ezra this morning, and we find ourselves in at the start of Chapter 8.

We have met Ezra who comes onto the scene decades after the Temple is rebuilt. He comes with credentials and a mission and a passion to extol and live out and teach God’s Law and Words to the people. He also comes with the authorization of the King of Persia. His pilgrimage from Babylon to Jerusalem is an act of faith and hope, looking forward to the fulfillment of God’s covenant.

What we will begin to see as the rest of the book of Ezra unfolds is that the people of Jerusalem have fallen back into sin. So nearly two generations later, Ezra comes from Babylon to Jerusalem, with many more exiles seeking to reform and to strengthen the people with God’s Words.

So we know that Ezra has come to Jerusalem, which is why we need to be clear about what’s going on in Chapter 8. Chapter 8 takes us back in time so to speak, where Ezra is narrating their journey back to Jerusalem. It was a four month journey, of something like 900 miles. And it was him and and many other people, in the middle of the summer. And he’s starting to tell them “I was in Babylon, here’s why I came back.”

What we find here in the first part of Chapter 8 is that Ezra took great care to prepare for this journey before it happened. And this chapter is meant to be a kind of celebration of God’s provision for Ezra and the returning exiles as he prepared to leave.

B. Sermon Text

So we will read portions of the text before we begin. Verses 1-14 is another long list of names, which I won’t read to you but for the first two verses as an introduction, and then we will move to verse 15

Ezra 8:1–2 ESV

These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king: Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom. Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. Of the sons of David, Hattush.

And then, from verse 15

Ezra 8:15–21 ESV

I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi. Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leading men, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of insight, and sent them to Iddo, the leading man at the place Casiphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his brothers and the temple servants at the place Casiphia, namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God. And by the good hand of our God on us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen, 18; also Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, with his kinsmen and their sons, 20; besides 220 of the temple servants, whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites. These were all mentioned by name. Then 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.

What I want to share with you this morning is that God works Reformation through a prepared people. He prepares them, and then he does his work through them.

C. Sermon Prayer

Let’s Pray

O Lord, make your Word a swift Word, passing from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip and conversation; that, as the rain returns not empty, so neither may your Word, but accomplish that for which it is given. Amen.

(Prayer by George Herbert)

I. Reform Involves People

So he recalls when he told exiles that God had given him a mission to return to Jerusalem. We know from back in Chapter 7 that he had asked the “leading men” of the exiled community to go with him.

Ezra 7:28 ESV

...I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

And so Chapter 8 begins with a list of who those people were.

Ezra 8:1 ESV

These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king

So this is the second exodus from Babylon just in the book of Ezra. It’s a smaller crew, about one-seventh the size.

But we get another list of names, just like back in Chapter 2.

What can we take from this?

The names matter to God. This was already preached when we were in Chapter 2, I won’t re-preach that sermon. But names matter to Ezra and they matter to God. Families and clans matter to God. In fact, name lists and genealogies like this show up so often in the Bible, I have to wonder if they’re one of God’s favorite parts of his stories. He is basically just showing off, reminding all the readers of this passage through the ages that these are the people he rescued and that he always keeps his promises. To individuals and to families.

But it also reminds us that Reform involves people. Ezra is on a mission to bring reformation to Jerusalem. To return them to proper understanding of the Word, proper obedience to God, proper worship in the Temple. But he doesn’t go alone.

And if there’s one thing that is stressed most about the work of the Church in the New Testament, that one thing is probably that the work is empowered by the Holy Spirit. But if there are two things that are stressed the second thing is that the work of God’s Kingdom is not primarily about superhero Christians. It’s about ordinary moms and dads and brothers and sisters and families and local bodies doing the work that God has put before them together. Reform always involves people engaged in the work that God has put before them.

But before they get to that work, Ezra gets them ready to go.

II. Reform Involves Preparation

There was much to do. There would have been family members saying goodbye. Likely forever. You have to imagine that older family members or those who were home-bound could not join the journey, and they had to be placed with care-givers, which meant more family staying behind.

So they have to get ready. They have to prepare. And they gather at the river.

Ezra 8:15 ESV

I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests...

We can see here that preparation was important to Ezra. And that’s because in God’s economy, faith and planning go together.

This is hard for us sometimes, because I think Christians, and perhaps especially American Christians have a real tendency to conflate not preparing with being faithful. Americans are romantics to our core. And spontaneity is always way more romantic and exciting than what we plan for.

There’s an old joke about a preacher who steps behind the pulpit one Sunday morning and he prays “Lord. I pray that you would speak through me today, and give these people all your words, and none of mine.”

And a voice from heaven boomed down and said “Oh. So you mean you decided not to prepare?”

Now that is not to say that God does not work around and in spite of our preparation. And sometimes totally levels and dissolves all our plans, Scripture is replete with those stories too, and I’m sure many of you in this room can testify how you had your plans and God had something very different in mind.

But I don’t wonder if we are not sometimes tempted to think of preparation as un-spiritual. It can seem so boring or bureaucratic.

And it would not have surprised me if there were people among Ezra’s traveling companions who might have said “Can we get moving already?!” I mean you know they had to be excited. It’s time to go! Let’s go. And in comes Ezra, with a steady hand, and calm control. He knew they had to properly prepare before they set out.

Oliver Cromwell, a leader in the English Civil War once famously told his men

“Trust God and keep your powder dry.”

In other words. Trust God. Don’t be afraid. Also, don’t be foolish. Be wise, discerning, and exercise diligence.

And there’s wisdom there. For whatever lies ahead for us, church. For our work of outreach. For the strengthening of our hospitality. For our evangelistic efforts. For our work together here in Rapides Parish as we seek to make it a place where the good, the true, and the beautiful can flourish as they are blessed by the Lord Jesus.

Trust God. And keep your powder dry. The commitment to preparation might sometimes feel unspiritual. But we are accountable to God as stewards of the resources he gives to us. So it falls to us to be mindful of how we use them.

So Ezra does an inventory and what does he notice? A shortage of Levites.

Let’s look again at verse 15...

Ezra 8:15 ESV

I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi.

Now this is a problem. He’s going to Jerusalem to reform the worship of God’s people in Jerusalem, as we will soon discover. And for that you needed priests. The priests were charged with watching over the temple, and they devoted themselves to making sure the temple was in proper order. They had to keep everything clean and functioning properly. They also functioned as a police force, gaurding the gates, even in the watches of the night. They would have taken their service in shifts, usually serving for a week straight before getting time off, and there was a rotation.

They also played the music and ordered the services of worship and the festivals for the people of God. In fact, there was one rabbinic legend that said that some Levites after the exile were ineligible for service because they had bitten off the fingers of their right hand so they wouldn’t be forced to play their Psalms for the Babylonians when it was demanded of them. Now as I said, that is a rabbinic legend. Impossible to verify, and to my mind probably didn’t happen.

But it signifies how holy they thought their own work to be, and how important it was for God’s people. And at the same time, it was lowly work. It was servant’s work. And probably more than a few of them at this point had pretty comfortable lives in Babylon. That’s probably why Ezra had trouble finding good help.

No thank you, Mr. Ezra. We’re good here. So his response was to send out some of his best men to, well, apply some pressure.

Ezra 8:16–17 ESV

Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leading men, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of insight, and sent them to Iddo, the leading man at the place Casiphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his brothers and the temple servants at the place Casiphia, namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God.

So notice these two categories. Ezra got

Leading Men and he got Men of Insight

The first category seems obvious—men who were leaders in the community. The second is probably learned men. Teachers. Probably like Ezra himself. Who would have had expert knowledge in Levties’ responsibilities. They would be able to tell them about their own obligations, and the work their ancestors had been charged with.

And you sort of wonder what they said. Oh, come join this merry band of adventures.

You might be familiar with the story of Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer. So the story goes, he placed a classified ad in a London newspaper before a 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which read:

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."

Did he get volunteers? You bet he did. Filled out an entire crew. He knew exactly how to speak to the heart of a man who yearns for purpose and adventure.

And I tell you that story because Ezra was up against quite the challenge recruiting Priests for this journey.

Leave your present comfortable lives. Possibly leave family members behind. Work with your hands with stubborn animals. You’ll be in charge of slaughtering them for sacrifices. Oh and when you’re not doing that you can look forward to menial servant work, and you’ll probably be away from your home and family for days at a time while you preform your responsibilities. Who’s interested?

And it makes you realize that this preparation had a kind of hard intensity to it. Ezra was not saying “Well you know we’re missing priests and we can’t do this without them, so I suppose we should just let go and let God, guys. There was no quiet passivity here. There was thoughtful active preparation for the work ahead.

And God blesses it!

Look at verse 18

Ezra 8:18–20 ESV

And by the good hand of our God on us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen, 18; also Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, with his kinsmen and their sons, 20; besides 220 of the temple servants, whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites. These were all mentioned by name.

And by the good hand of God on us. Notice he says “Not by my careful preparation” even though that’s what the last few verses have detailed. Well, which is it, Ezra? Is it your planning and wise decision-making or is it God’s good hand on you?

And the answer is “Yes.” This is the refuge you can take in your God that is designed to scatter your fear and strengthen your trust in him.

And that is why this last point is so important.

III. Reform Involves Prayer

Their only hope was in the Lord. And that’s why my favorite part of their preparation is in verse 21.

Ezra 8:21 ESV

Then 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.

After all the work of preparation. Three days of taking stock of all their goods. Ezra stops and says before we set out, we’re going to fast and pray.

This call to fasting and prayer is going to be the focus of next Sunday’s sermon. But I didn’t want to leave it untouched today. Fasting and prayer go together. We see the fasting here, and the prayer is at the start of Chapter 9, we will get there.

Next week we are going to focus more intently on the fasting and prayer, but for now, I want us to consider those things together as part of our preparation.

Because what will bind all our plans together as a people is the question of whether or not we fast and pray together. Apart from this, we are exposed. We can have all the fellowship events we want, and y’all know we have made fellowship a driving priority for this church because we cannot call ourselves a body with a straight face if we are not meaningfully connected to each other.

But the real test and fruit of our fellowship will come out in whether or not we pray together.

And so as you consider these points about preparation, I want to ask you, have you prayed? Whatever God has given you to do, have you prayed? Have you fasted? That’s a lost art, we’re going to talk about that more next Sunday, please come next Sunday if you’re curious about fasting.

But our prayer together is where God loves to connect us as a people. Have you ever been to a prayer meeting? If you haven’t it’s a little awkward at first. That’s a feature not a bug. God has to expose some discomfort and awkwardness before he dissolves it, that’s His way.

But then when you start to pray with other people, you will find yourself fitted for spiritual warfare beside them in a way that will make you wonder.

So if someone were to ask me “That Sunday night prayer meeting that y’all do—is that about discipleship or is it about outreach or is it about teaching or is it a fellowship event?” My answer is “Yes.”

So we will prepare. For there is much work to do.

There are perpetually opportunities to serve children, for example during our Wednesday Night classes. If you feel unqualified to do that, we can qualify you. The rules are you have to love Jesus, you have to love his word and you have to have a pulse. From there, we’ve got people who know what they are doing, can show you how to do it, and we use a curriculum, you don’t have to make it up.

But the real preparation will be praying for them. That’s verse 21. And praying for them by name. That’s verses 1 thru 14. Because this is the necessary work that God has called us to do. It’s simple. It’s ordinary. And it shakes empires.

One of my favorite quotations of the Reformation came from the lips of Queen Mary I of England (“Bloody Mary”), when she said

“I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”

Not I fear his sermons. Not I fear his church programs. I fear his prayers.

This is why some of our dads can testify that I’ve told them “I know you think that changing the world is probably a matter of some big expensive program or outreach event. And God blesses those. Some of you got saved because somebody decided to do a big event. There is a place for that.

But if you really want to change the world? Gather your children around your dinner table and teach them the Words of God. Pray with them. Sing with them. Repent in front of them. Grow in grace alongside them. Let them see that God conquers sin, by seeing your sin patterns get broken over time. Teach them the words of God. And fight the lie that there is a greater work than that. It’s not the only work for you, dads. There’s other work to be done. But it is your greatest work.

Your calling is not to do it perfectly. If you are afraid of that, then take heart, no one has ever accused you of being perfect, and I am certainly not going to start today. But Jesus Christ has given you a new heart. He’s put his Holy Spirit in you. He’s given you work to do and promised to be with you every step of the way so that you can be strengthened by his words and by water and bread and wine, because Jesus has come as the fulfillment of all God’s promises to you. Promises that Ezra only knew by their shadow.

Jesus came fully prepared for his work, knowing what was ahead, and chose to enter into the wilderness fasting not for a short time, but for 40 days, going to war with the devil, confessing the words of God, and coming out the other side, ready to extend the Kingdom of God over the whole earth.

And he calls you to walk after him in faith, Peter says as sojourners. As exiles on their way home. As faithful children asking their Father “Lord let your kingdom come here. Today. Among us. Among our neighbors. All over our parish.” And we follow after Jesus, the true and better Ezra, journeying to the New Jerusalem where we will keep on worshipping forever.

In Jesus Name, Amen.