3. Ezra 8.1-28 - Vision Sundays 2025

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Intro on vision Sunday

In 1961, SLIDE President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress and made a bold declaration: that the United States would put a man on the moon before the decade was over. At that moment, the mission was clear—but the resources were not.

The WHAT was clear… the HOW and the WHO (and the ‘who pays’) were far from clear.

Some of the technology to get to the moon simply didn’t exist yet, the expertise wasn’t all in place, and (of course) no one had ever attempted such a journey.

But then something remarkable happened. Thousands of ordinary people—from engineers to electricians, from calculators to cleaners-began to see themselves as part of that mission.

Famously… when someone asked him what he was doing, even a janitor at NASA famously replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

What made the difference? What meant that a man DID indeed get put on the moon?Well… People didn’t just stand on the sidelines (arms folded) to see if it could be done… they didn’t even just cheer for the mission; they gave themselves to it, and (of course) the government put massive money behind it - it became a spending priority.

Both leaders and people alike, all aligned their time, their skills, their energy, and made great sacrifices for a cause bigger than themselves.

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Likewise, here in Ezra… as we saw last week Ezra will lead the second wave of returnees back to the promised land with a vision - to rebuild for the Lord.

To re-construct the temple of God… re-teach the Word of God and re-establish worship of God.

We began to look at a small snippet of chapter 8 last week, today we’re going to drink in the whole chapter - lists of names and all!

Before we get to that though… it’s helpful to step back and look at Ezra himself, who we have largely neglected so far. That’s our first heaving…. Ezra is….

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1. The Visionary Preacher

So rewind back (for a moment) to chapter 7 were Ezra is introduced...

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Ezra 7:8–10 NIV

8 Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king. 9 He had begun his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the gracious hand of his God was on him. 10 For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.

V10 is the summary… Ezra is a Priest from the tribe of Levi… His calling and his passion is to study God’s Word… obey God’s Word…. and pass on - TEACH - God’s Word to others.

Later on in the book of Nehemiah with the people back in the land and the walls rebuilt we famously read of Ezra doing just this - reading and explaining the law (giving the meaning) to ALL the gathered people.

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His primary calling is communication.

Likewise we too are in the communications business. We have a message, from God’s Word, to broadcast loud and clear. We have a Gospel (good news) to tell.

Like Ezra we want the Bible - God’s Word (not mine or yours) to be at the heart of church life. That’s why we read it, and preach it, and sing it, and meet in small groups to discuss it, it sets the agenda at our prayer meetings… we all (I trust) are reading and digesting it daily ourselves.

Here is the Word that brings us life

Here in these pages we meet Jesus

This is what we have to share - ultimately - the only thing of lasting eternal value we have to share with the world around us.

Like Ezra (the visionary preacher), our mission and vision as a church are all about getting the WORD out… the word about Jesus. And the word goes out NOT ONLY from people like me at lecterns like this … but in homes, families, in conversations, in Sunday School, at Youth Club, as we witness to our neighbours… and all the rest. We are ALL involved…

Speaking of which - here’s point 2….

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2. The Visionary Servants

you will have noticed chapter 8 begins with a LIST!

There is a temptation, of course, whenever we read the Bible to skip over the lists. Yeah yeah…. this person and that person…. we get it.

But DON’T DO IT! The lists are always significant.

SO what’s significant about this one… well, it begins with guys named Gershom and Daniel - they are fellow Priests with Ezra… it continues with Hattush - a descendent in the royal line of David. SO the priestly line and the kingly line - at one level this is a link to the equivalent list in chapter 2 which begins in the same way.

After those names we get 12 further groupings… of people.

12 in Scripture often a number signifying completion - 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus (and so on).

In other words the complete number whom God wants to be here…. are here.

These people represent the whole nation… - EVERY ONE is involved.

And that is so crucial for us today. Every one of us has a part to play - including (as we’re thinking about today) incvluding in giving our money and giving ourselves to the work of Jesus here…. and (God willing) the fulfilment of our vision here.

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Here is Ezra every person - every returnee heading home to the land is vital. But can I be honest with you about one of the challenges of ministry? In every church I have ever belonged to about 20% of the people have done 80% of the work. It is an almost universal challenge.

You’ll see in your vision booklet we have identified some particular needs across the ministries of our church

LIST FROM THE SHEET

ALSO - WHAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT

It’s interesting, here in Ezra, we get these two lists - the two waves of returnees…. the first wave (listed back in chapter 2) was much bigger - way over 40,000 folk. This group is much much smaller - just a few thousand. Perhaps WE as a church feel even smaller still. And yet the Lord uses each one. And if we are small (which we are) how much more important that each one of us is giving of themselves.

RIFF (Burghead only) POV - helpful questions… we have lost a number of significant people, particularly in Burghead.

So we’ve looked at Ezra, the visionary preacher and see that WE TOO have the message of God’w Word to share.

We’ve looked at the people - the army of visionary servants and see that wee too each have a role to play. And that role is, yes in givien ourselves, but also in giving resources - giving money. That’s our third point this morning.

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3. The Visionary Givers

We saw last week (if you remember) that this squad of returning exiles are carrying a hugely valuable cargo - lots of money - LOTS of silver and gold.

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Ezra 7:15–16 NIV

15 Moreover, you are to take with you the silver and gold that the king and his advisers have freely given to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 together with all the silver and gold you may obtain from the province of Babylon, as well as the freewill offerings of the people and priests for the temple of their God in Jerusalem.

Huge resources for the rebuilding project.

Now, some of that has come from Artexerxes, King of Persia - a remarkable provision.

But some of it has simply come as freewill offerings - from the people - from the fellow Israelites.

They saw they need…. they were captured by the vision, to rebuild for the Lord, and they were even captured right down to their wallets.

It COST them to give…. but they gave anyway - the total was a huge sum - to go to the work of God, the rebuilding of the temple and the re-establishing of worship.

And again - the parallels aren’t hard to see are they?

Let me be clear about our congregation… we are NOT subsidised by the Free Church, not in any way. IN fact our denomination works the other way round…. it’s is congregations like ours who make a contribution to the central church - to the running of the denomination, not the other way around (and we do that gladly because we want to see our church flourish). That means though, that everything that happens here, from paying for a minister, to paying for ministry - resources, heat, light, projects, events…etc - is all funded by US.

God provides it all… but he does it through US.

The only exception is Brian and Sheryl Roby - in a remarkabe act of generosity they are being funded (as missionaries) by Christians and Churches across the USA. Next year Morag and I are hoping to have a trip to meet some of these churches, connect and build deeper relationships with them, and THANK them for the way they have invested in Gospel ministry here.

But in the end the work of God here must be funded by the giving of the people of God here.

And right now we have some real challenges before us.

First of all a word of thanks. Thanks to those of you, many of you who are giving seriously and sacrificially. Thank you. Without your giving the ministry could not go on here.

But we have some challenges.

If I can put it this way SLIDE “there is a need for more giving, and more givers”

There’s a challenge - we need more giving and more givers - because the Burghead building project has stretched us all financially - a huge, one in a generation commitment - it won’t be too far off £400,000 by the time all is said and done, although, what a resource for the future.

We have a challenge - we need more giving and more givers - because we need to take on another Minister for our Elgin congregation. One minister between two is (I guess) better than nothing but (if I may speak personally) it is not sustainable long term and that is especially true once the Roby’s depart back to the USA which will happen either in 8 months time, or 20 months time - depending on whether or not they manage to extend their visa (pray for that).

We have a challenge - we need more giving and more givers - because we need to take on another minister (eventually) to be our church planter in Forres, if that is to happen. It will not be me.

We have a challenge - we need more giving and more givers - because we also hope to take on a Minister in Training this time next year. We have a candidate who is LIKELY to come to us for the duration of his training - there’s a financial cost there. Speak to me, or to Chris (our treasurer) or download our giving literature from the Burghead website to see details of our dedicated training fund - for funding Ministers in Training. Just a word on that - we don’t take on MiTs for cheap labour… in fact to me (the minister) there is a substantial time commitment to TRAINING a Minister in Training. It’s probably a time cost (or at least) time neutral for me - but it’s an investment WE want to make to see eaders raised and trained up.

We also have a challenge - we need more giving and more givers -because folk move on, relocate elsewhere. In Burghead there’s been a real cost in the last couple of years as some significant folk have moved away… and other significant folk have taken up the call to move to Elgin Free Church - we sent five people to Elgin, plus the Roby’s when our congregations linked and of course, quite rightly, those folk took their giving with them so it’s on the ELgin side of the balance sheet now. The one of those folk haf the cheek to marry someone from the Burghead congregation and bring her to Elgin too (very inconsiderate).

I could go on but hopefully the point is clear.

There are no shortage of opportunities before us… no shortage of needs… but there is a shortage of money. I think God designs it that way to keep us praying, and giving and depending on him…. I think it’s probably spiritually unhealthy to be a church with loads of cash in the bank - the danger then, of course, is you start trusting money and stop trusting the Lord.

Anyway you see the point and you see the need - the need for more giving and more givers.

And so we ask you today (once a year - as part of our Vision Sundays) to review your giving. Perhaps you already are giving seriously and sacrificially - thank you, could you review your giving?

Perhaps you’re new to us, or (if you’re honest) you’ve never got goign with giving which is both serious and sacrificial.

The Old Testament speaks of a tithe - giving 10% of our income.

Were not bound by that - remember the poor widow (we’re going to study her tonight actually - from Luke’s gospel) she put in her last and only copper coin - she gave 100%.

There is a guide on the back of your vision book on the process of prayerfully reviewing giving. Please read it, consider it, follow it through - respond to it. And if you have practical questions on the mechanics of giving you can ask me - even better you can ask Chris, our treasurer.

But Ezra isn’t done… there’s more here in chapter 8 - two more things…. so point 4….

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4. The Visionary Leaders

We touched on this briefly last week.

But remember Ezra’s dilemna? He has the people lined up to depart for their 900 mile jounrey to Jerusalem…

But then there’s a problem - there’s arent any Levites to serve on the temple… and without their vital role as the carriers of Holy Objects and the attendants at the temple… the journey can’t happen and the temple (when it’s rebuild) can’t function.

Just refresh your memory - read form Ezra 8:15-19 MULTIPLE SLIDES

Ezra 8:15–19 NIV

15 I assembled them at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I checked among the people and the priests, I found no Levites there. 16 So I summoned Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah and Meshullam, who were leaders, and Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of learning, 17 and I ordered them to go to Iddo, the leader in Kasiphia. I told them what to say to Iddo and his fellow Levites, the temple servants in Kasiphia, so that they might bring attendants to us for the house of our God. 18 Because the gracious hand of our God was on us, they brought us Sherebiah, a capable man, from the descendants of Mahli son of Levi, the son of Israel, and Sherebiah’s sons and brothers, 18 in all; 19 and Hashabiah, together with Jeshaiah from the descendants of Merari, and his brothers and nephews, 20 in all.

In other words there was a crisis of leadership… but there was prayer and there was action to find what was needed. We too need prayer and action (inluding giving) to address our leadership issues

We have particular leadership needs

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Prospective new elders to be voted on in congregational meeting

Roby visa extended - apply from Nov. (otherwise depart in 8 months time).

Minister in training - possibility from autumn 2026 (giving needed).

Leaders of various ministries

Minister for Elgin and church planter for Forres

There are so many leadership needs, just as in Ezra’s day - we need to pray for capable and Godly people to take up the challenge just as happened in Ezra’s day…

But that’s an important note to end on… WHY was it that leadership needs were met? Why was it that such a crew (thousands of folk) volubnteered to serve the Lord and rebuild? Why was it that there was such generous giving to the vision?

Well it’s because of point 5…. because…

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5. The Gracious Hand of God

We’ve just read it - see it again in v18 SLIDE

Ezra 8:18 NIV

18 Because the gracious hand of our God was on us, they brought us Sherebiah, a capable man…

Why does anything get done? How is there any real spiritual growth? Only if the gracious hand of God is with us.

We should look back with thankfulness for the ways the Lord has been with us

We should get on our knees in prayer that he might graciously bless our labours…

We should look forward in faith at what the Lord can and will do amongst us….

So, for now, let’s pray to that end.