The Temple Is Finished | Ezra 6 (Mark Evans)

The sermon is about the book of Ezra, specifically chapter 6. The speaker begins by reading verses 1-5 which talk about the king making a decree to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. The sermon then focuses on the themes of restoration, surprise, and joy. The speaker explains that despite the hardships and opposition the Israelites have faced, they are now surprised by joy as God's promise is fulfilled and they experience restoration and prosperity. The sermon emphasizes that God prospers His people and brings about joy through His promises, restoration, and provision. The speaker also highlights the importance of doing God's will and finding joy in His presence. The sermon concludes by encouraging the listeners to regularly experience the joy of Christ and find joy in Him. If you have your Bible, do feel free to make your way to the book of Ezra as we continue our sermon series through that book, and today we'll be in chapter 6 of the book of Ezra. And to get us going, I will read the first five verses of chapter 6 of the book of Ezra. And these are the words of the true and the living God. Vendarius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored. And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written, a record, In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem. Let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury, and also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God. When the grass withers and the flower fades, let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, indeed, You are the God who restores, but You are the God who restores even this world, even this creation, broken and fractured by sin, restored unto Yourself, that above all You would even restore sinners lost and ruined by the fall to Yourself through Jesus Christ, for our great joy and for Your glory. And so we do pray this morning that You would show us something of that great joy that we have in Him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Well have you ever been surprised by joy? Have you ever been surprised by joy? Now that is admittedly odd language. If we do speak of joy, we tend not to speak of joy as being surprising. If anything, joy is rather unsurprising because we tend to think we know best where to find joy and how to get it. We tell ourselves, oh, if I can just get this pleasure, accomplish this thing, have this relationship or this circumstance, then I will have joy. But it was C.S. Lewis who in his classic work, Surprised by Joy, unfolded how he surprisingly stumbled upon joy. And I say stumbled because Lewis' life was by no means a life void of pain, disappointment and discouragement, of sorrow. And yet despite that, or he might even say because of that, God revealed to him the essence of true joy found in Jesus Christ. And in many ways, that is what we have in Ezra 6 for us this morning. If you've been with us at all, you have seen how the life of Israel thus far has by no means been a life void of sorrow, of pain and of disappointment. And yet here in chapter 6, it's as though Israel is now surprised by joy. And we'll soon see that as, of course, no accident, it is nothing less than the joy of the Lord. So we'll walk through this very long chapter, but in three simple parts. Look at the decree, firstly, secondly, the dedication, and lastly, how it all culminates in their devotion. But it's always the main point that God prospers His people. Last week we witnessed how God always finishes the work that He begins. And this week comes the crowning achievement of that truth, that God prospers His people for their joy and for His glory. But before we dive in, just a refresher as to where we are in the story. Remember, Ezra is a story of restoration. And I use the word restoration because the book of Ezra begins with God's people in an exiled captivity. All right? So we've seen that they are far away from the promised land, which is nearly the same thing as saying they are far away from their God. But what have we seen? We've seen the awesome faithfulness of our God in that He has called His people back home, restored them to Himself and commissioned them to build Him a house, build me a temple. And that has proved to be no easy task. Even last week, do you remember? We witnessed these government officials, had every intention to interfere and stop the building. Remember these government officials? They had their government badges, their clipboards looking very official, very officious, and they interrogated Israel. And they said, hold up, who told you guys you could build, right? Show me your building permit. And Israel responded in great faith. They simply said, we are servants of the God of heaven and earth. By His authority do we build. But we left off with a cliffhanger, wondering, OK, is the building project going to be stalled out once again? All right? If books came with subtitles, Israel would read the story of whiplash, because what has happened? The temple starts, then it stops, then it starts, and you wonder, is it going to stop once again? And of course, so too is the Christian life, isn't it? It is only with great afflictions and adversities, progress only met with setbacks, do we enter into the kingdom of God. And so with that, let us reenter the story. Remember, last week, our God deliberately, providentially, delayed interference until a report should reach the king. We might ask the question, well, why would God do that? Why did God do that? Right? And we always, in fact, we rarely get to peer into, why does God do what He does? We of course know that God is over all things, but we so often do not know the why, right? The ways of God are often mysterious to us. If you are even the most incurious of Christians, at some point in your life you have wondered, why did God move this chess piece and not that chess piece? Why did God not prevent that from happening? Or why did God allow that to happen? Well, here in the opening verses, it's as if we get this rare insider's look into the counsel of God and why God delayed that report. So we pick it up there and let's look now at this decree and we see the Lord's purposes prevail in this report. It reaches the king in verse 1 and you see Darius says, okay, let's search the records in verse 2, and you see there of all places it's found in Ecbatana. Now if I could do something that usually only wealthy people are allowed to do, and that is turn the noun summer into a verb, because Ecbatana is where kings would summer. It's sort of like when Yankees winter in Florida, kings, who had a lot of wealth, had these multiple houses. And so they would summer in Ecbatana because of its temperate climate. And so they search in all places the king's summer residence. And sure enough, verse 3 uncovers what the previous king, King Cyrus, originally decreed. It reads this, concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered. Now let us not dare secularize this story. All right, let's ask the simple question, who made the decree that God's people can build the temple? Did God make that decree or did King Cyrus make that decree? Right? Who was it? Was it God or was it a king? Was it God or was it man? And of course the answer that Ezra gives us is yes. It was our sovereign God working through man. Notice this great truth that we just confessed, that God is the ultimate cause of all causes. And that's a truth that we should always have front and center as our current culture, seduced by secularism, so often wishes to explain reality in terms of natural causes that seek to erase God entirely from the picture. Modern man, if he were reading this, he would say here, no, no, it was only Cyrus as a free human agent who made the decree. Just as in the same way the sun rises on its own, a fetus is nothing more than a fertilized egg, bad behavior is nothing more than imbalanced biochemistry, a biological sex is one thing but gender, of course, is malleable and further down and down we could go into the abyss that seeks to remove God from reality. But you see, you have this clear example of God working through and in man. Even as we just confessed, God is the first cause of all secondary causes. He's the ultimate cause of all other causes. And so, indeed, Cyrus is the one who made the decree for God's people to build. But the full picture of Scripture tells us so much more. As even Isaiah says, he gave that decree because he was the Lord's anointed. As Isaiah 44 even says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and he shall fulfill my purpose. So you need to see why the temple project, it seems so wobbly, so uncertain at times we must place it under God's promise. And what have we seen up to this point? When that promise of God has been challenged, it's been opposed, it's been threatened, there have even been times it seems like it would be foolish to trust in God's promise, like God's promise would surely fail and not come to pass. What blossoms in verse 3 is this great truth that God's promise, His purposes will prevail in the most unusual and unlikely of ways, using of all things a Persian pagan king to accomplish His ends. And this, of course, is what our God loves to do. God comes to Abraham and Sarah when they are as good as dead and tells them, my promise will come to pass. Oh, you will have a child. And they can't help but laugh at this idea. God comes to Mary and tells her, though she is a virgin, God's promise will come to pass and she will give birth to a child and she cannot help but be awed and rejoice. The angel tells the disciples, no, He is not here, He is risen just as He promised. And they can't help but rejoice at this news. And so, too, is the Christian's confidence when it seems as though the entire world is aligned against God's promises. That is exactly the time for an increase of faith. But, you see, this is only the beginning. Not only do we see God's promise come to pass, we see His promise layered on with God's restoration. You see that in verse 5. This decree reads, May the vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple and brought to Babylon, may those be restored and brought back to the temple. Now you've got to appreciate what's going on there in verse 5. These are the gold and silver vessels that were ransacked, pillaged, and stolen from God's temple by God's enemies and carried off to a foreign land. By every rational calculation, they are gone forever. Kiss them goodbye. And yet here our God is restoring them back to His temple, His house. It's as if God is saying, Those are mine. My glory I will not give to another. And this, too, is what our God loves to do, isn't it? Our God loves to restore. He restores broken marriages. He restores strained relationships. He restores wayward children. As Joel says, He can even restore the years that the locusts have eaten. Of course, above all, what does our God do? He restores what is most precious to Him, and that is His image bearers, sinners lost and ruined by the fall. By every human calculation, gone forever, He restores them to Himself through Jesus Christ and for their joy. And so you may be here this morning, and you may think, I have a brokenness that is beyond repair. I have sins beyond restoration. Well, Christian, hear the word of the Lord to you this morning. Our God restores, and He delights to restore those who seek Him in humble faith and trust. But there's still more. We're just getting warmed up. We see not only His promise, not only God's restoration, we see also God's provision from the most unexpected of sources. Because next, King Darius enters the scene. He's the current king, and it seems like he says, I'm not going to be outdone by King Cyrus. Almost like he says, it's my turn now to flex my kingly muscles, and I'm going to do Israel even one better than Cyrus did. So Darius now turns to the governor. Keep in mind, this is the same governor who was about to interfere with the temple. And he turns to him, verses 6 and 7, and he says, leave Israel alone. Let them build unhindered. Verse 7, you see there it says, let the work on this house of God alone. But he's not done. Not only that, not only does he decree that the building project should go on uninterrupted, as amazing as that is, we see further that the royal coffers are going to pay for the temple project. You see it in verse 8 and following. Darius says, let the cost be paid to these men in full, without delay, from the royal revenue. Then it's even going far in verse 9, saying, whatever they need, bulls, rams, sheep for burnt offerings. You need wheat, salt, wine. We've got it. Bring it to Jerusalem. Let that be given to them day by day, without fail, so that they could sacrifice to God. And on top of it, let them pray for me and for my house. And then almost as this kind of fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, that those who dishonor you will be cursed, he says, anyone who interferes will face capital punishment from me. So you see, we have not only restoration, but this most awesome reversal. God's promise is not simply fulfilled, it is abundantly fulfilled with this reversal of fortune. It's fulfilled in this way that completely subverts the opposition and glorifies God to the utmost. And again, this is what our God loves to do, this awesome reversal. And if this is an awesome reversal, this is nothing, nothing compared to what God will do and has done in the Lord Jesus Christ. But in Christ, it's as if God is declaring to the principalities and powers, not only have you not destroyed my son, not only have you not removed him, he is in fact exalted, risen, and he has the name above every name. And your knee will bow to him, and your tongue will confess that he is Lord of all. And here in Ezra, it says we have this great preview of that. And this preview of the wealth of nations streaming to Jerusalem and into God's temple. It's this great preview of what we just read from Revelation 21, that the wealth of nations, the kings will bring their tribute to God. And Darius gives us a preview of that coming reality. And so what have we seen in just this short section? That our God has worked the most awesome restoration, most awesome reversal. And we are to know he does the very same thing today, but in his new temple that is the church, that he is restoring sinners to himself, and he is bringing all things to a head in Jesus Christ. And so there is a look at the decree, but now let us shift to the temple dedication in the next section. You see in verse 13, these leaders diligently comply with Darius' decree. And then we have these wonderful words found in verse 14, that Israel, quote, built and they prospered. Israel built and they prospered. One of the things that we rightly have a caution, a healthy hesitation against saying is that God prospers his people. And we know why we have that reluctancy. Because in our day there has been an entire movement, and of course speaking of the prosperity gospel, right, health and wealth, name it and clay it, pray it and say it, whatever other term you want to use, but we have this movement that has been dedicated to deceiving an entire generation into believing that God's job is to meet man's needs and to increase man's kingdom. And indeed, that is a damnable abuse. At the same time, we ought not to let that abuse cancel out the truth that God does indeed prosper his people. And I think what Ezra can help us with here is to clarify, what does that word prosperity mean exactly? What does it mean to prosper? And we saw last week, it can't mean living your best life, right? That was in fact the very problem that we looked at last week, right? People had digressed into living this life of self-interest and self-indulgence, right? The prophet Haggai comes along and he rebukes them. He calls them to repentance and says, you guys are so busy building your own fancy houses while God's house lies in ruins. Your best life is actually an empty life. Your best life is an unsatisfying life. Your so-called best life is a life unpleasing to God. But here in chapter 6, we get to see what does it look like when God prospers a people. And you get to see that when God prospers a people, it means that they are doing the Lord's will. They are doing the work that God gave them to do. They are doing what God has called them to do and He is blessing them. He is giving them success and favor. You can see clearly how it is God prospered His people in verse 14, that their prosperity came through the prophesying of Haggai and Zachariah, right? It was through the edification of God's Word empowered by the Spirit that they prospered. It's what we would just call the means of grace, right? By God's Word and through His Spirit do His people prosper. And with ordinary faithfulness, by the ordinary means of grace, our God brings about extraordinary results and prosperity. That is true success. And we see further the great fruit of this prosperity. If you've been with us for Ezra any amount of time, or even if this is your first time, let me just remind you that the one and only goal that they had in mind up to this point has been to build God's house. Let us build the temple. And they have encountered no shortage of opposition, threats, intimidations, opposition from without and opposition even from within their own sinful hearts. It's been decades of frustration, emotional highs and depressing lows all to finish this temple. But all along the way, our God has sustained them, He supported them, He strengthened them to build Him a house. And be further reminded, the point of the temple is not to have a nice piece of real estate. The point of the temple is not to have a place to worship on Sundays. No, the point of the temple is nothing less than God's presence with His people, that God would come down to be with them. And so some 21 years after their return, in the year of our Lord, 516 B.C., you see verse 14 reads, they finished their building by the decree of God of Israel and by the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. God prospered them and they finished their temple. And friends, here this morning, God has all the more, even greater, prospered you and I. And the reason for that is, is because our God has prospered the Lord Jesus Christ, that God has prospered Jesus Christ by giving him the length of days and resurrection life. He's prospered him by giving him the oil of gladness beyond his companions, that he is the finished temple, the place where God meets with man, that he is the temple that cannot be destroyed, the cornerstone that cannot be broken, that he is the foundation that will never be shaken. He is ultimate prosperity. And so if you are in Christ, if you are in that temple, then God has prospered you because he has prospered his son. Well, no surprise that the fruit of this prosperity is that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him. And so if we wish to characterize in one word, if you had a one-word quiz, what could sum up this expression of prosperity, it would be the word joy, abounding joy. And you see that in verse 16, the people of Israel, the priests, the Levites, all the returned exiles, they celebrate the dedication of this house with joy. It's been a number of months now that I received an email from a friend, and it was the introductory line that caught my attention, probably because instead of the usual flippancy that you see in email introductions, this one had much more weightiness to it. Because the opening line of this brother's email was, I hope this email finds you regularly experiencing the joy of Christ. And for whatever reason, maybe it was half rebuke, maybe it was half wonder, I paused, asked myself, yeah, do I? Am I? Do I regularly experience the joy of Jesus Christ? And Christian, I would ask you the same thing. Do you regularly experience the joy of Christ? And what did we just confess? As Paul says, not once, but twice, rejoice. Again, I say, rejoice. Are you a joyful Christian? Well, these Ezraites, I think, can teach us something about joy. Why are they so joyful? Well, we've seen because their trials, their setbacks, their failed worldly pursuits have finally forged in them the conviction that God alone is my exceedingly great reward. They have the very thing the temple pointed to, this deep satisfaction in God. For what is more joyful than being in God's presence? That as the psalmist says, better is one day in your courts, in your temple, than one thousand elsewhere. That in your presence is the fullness of joy. Now, church, ask yourself a question. When you think of God, what comes to mind? Is God grumpy? Is God cranky? Is God frowning? Even more so, is God perturbed? But one of the most fundamental truths about our God is that He is perfectly blessed, eternally happy in Himself. That as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our God is eternally, fully joyful and cannot be anything other than joyful, enjoying perfect communion as the triune God. And that is so significant because what good news is that God would bring us into that joy, into His joy through Jesus Christ. And we have a foretaste of that here with their joy of the Lord. And not only that, you see how joy expresses itself in worship and sacrifice. Verse 17, in their joy, they offer up these bulls and lambs in sin offerings. And notice, it's not so much spontaneous as it is by God's law. You see that phrase in verse 18. They're doing this as it is written in the book of Moses. And so far from being this kind of frothy, emotional high, joy is sacrificial. Joy is worship. Joy is knowing who God is and walking in His ways. This is why we could even say of the Lord Jesus Christ that upon the cross, He's most certainly not what we would call happy in the way that we use the word. Oh, but He is joyful upon the cross. And so for us, too, in our joy, we, too, are to offer up sacrifices just like they did. But the only difference is, as Romans says, offer your bodies as living sacrifices for this is your true, rational, spiritual worship. Well, lastly, let's look at how this joy only continues in the third section, and that is in their devotion. In particular, you see this devotion is one of keeping the feast. Verse 19, you see there it reads, on the 14th day of the first month, they kept the Passover. You remember, of course, Passover was that feast given by God to Israel when they came out of Egypt, that feast commemorating that God's angel of death passed over Israel. Namely, the firstborn, if that blood was smeared on the doorpost. And Passover taught many things, but not least of which Passover taught that salvation was by blood alone. Remember those words, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. It's important to remember that night that the avoidance of blood, the avoidance of judgment was not an option. That there would either be the blood of the lamb, or there would be the blood of the firstborn. But no blood, no death was not an option. And God commanded that Passover to be kept throughout the generations, regularly, as this kind of memorial feast that Israel would remember. But here, what we have in Ezra 6, you need to realize that for most of these Israelites, this would be their very first time ever to celebrate Passover. Because in exile, in Babylon, it's highly unlikely that they would have celebrated Passover. The law was very specific, that Passover was to be celebrated and kept in Jerusalem only. And so unless you were maybe 70, 80 years of age, this would have been your very first Passover meal. You can see in verses 20 and 21, the author makes sure to twice tell us, it's the returned exiles who are celebrating this feast. So just imagine, you're walking through Passover. This whole feast, this whole thing is new to you. You see this lamb being slaughtered. You see the blood being sprinkled. Perhaps that smell of blood. And you start to wonder, what is the significance of this? What are we doing here? Maybe you tap one of the older men on the shoulder. Why are we doing what we are doing? And he tells you, oh, our fathers, they were once slaves in the land of Egypt, under Pharaoh. But our God brought them out with this mighty hand. And then it perhaps slowly begins to dawn on you. Oh, yes, I see. That's exactly what God is doing for us right now, today. God brought us out of Babylonian captivity. And God is restoring us to Himself. And so the only response is again one of joy. It's this abounding joy. As verse 21 says, they keep not only Passover, but even the feast of unleavened bread. And you see there it reads, for it was the Lord who had made them joyful. And isn't that true? That we cannot manufacture our own joy. That we don't grow our own joy. We don't summon joy from within. And how contrary that is to the world's ways. Whether it was the ancient Greek philosophers all the way to the modern day psychologists. It's this prevailing worldly doctrine that man can find his own joy. Man can discover his own joy. But you see here this plain truth. It is God alone who gives joy. God made them joyful. For joy is the fruit, and not of man's doing. It's the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit's work uniting us to Jesus Christ. Testifying to us that we are children of God. And what is ours to do but to walk in the Spirit and to reap this harvest of joy. And so as we begin to close, let us lay upon our hearts three great treasures to mine out of Ezra chapter 6. Firstly would be the church on a mission. The church on a mission. And there's something very important in verse 21 that we better not skip over too quickly. And you see there in verse 21, this Passover was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile. So okay, that's very normal, that's ordinary. But notice they're not alone. You can see there who has joined them. It reads, also by everyone who had joined them and separated himself from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land. And so many commentators point out, here's this rare Old Testament instance of Gentiles, non-Israelites, joining Israel. Like moths attracted to a flame, they are attracted to the joy of the Lord. And so you see what's happening. The glory of God is radiating off of the temple, more so off of the people. And now strangers, aliens, Gentiles are coming in. Those who were once enemies of God are becoming friends of God. And so it was for them and so is the church's mission today. Only what we have is actually far greater and far grander. For the church, as the new temple that God has built, radiates with the glory of the only beloved Son of God. And is to expand and fill up this world with God's glory. So the church on a mission. Secondly, prayer for our magistrates. Prayer for our magistrates. One of the things that by now hopefully you have seen, hopefully is quite clear, throughout Ezra, is that God works through leaders. That of course means church leaders, absolutely. But just as much as we've seen that reality, we've seen God work through civil leaders. What we might just call politicians. We've seen God work through Cyrus. He works through Darius. He works through Artaxerxes. He even works through a governor like Titani. And what's been incredibly obvious is that God is just turning the heart of the king in whatever direction He wants the heart of the king to go. All according to His purposes and all for the advancement of His kingdom. You can even glance at that last verse there in verse 22. Seals the deal. It reads, God once again turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them so that the king aided them in their work. And so what that ought to encourage us to do is to pray for our rulers. As Paul says in 1 Timothy, I urge. Notice he says, I urge that prayer be made for kings and those in positions of high authority so that we could live quiet, godly, dignified lives. So that would be something simple to add to your prayer life and take Ezra as an encouragement that God delights to use kings in the most unexpected of ways. Turning their hearts to fulfill His purposes and to advance His kingdom. So pray for magistrates, the church on mission, and lastly would be make a joyful noise. Make a joyful noise. Joy is noisy. We've seen that today. Joy erupts in worship. Kids, one of the things I'm sure your parents have told you to do at some point, quiet down. Don't be noisy. But I'm sure this is something that parents would want to encourage you. This is an OK area to be noisy in. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. I hope you see it's true. If they were this joyful over the shadow, if they were this joyful over what is just the type, the preview, how much greater is our joy over the reality? If they had this much joy over a Passover feast, how much greater ought our joy to be? That Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. That He became poor so that you and I might prosper. So that you and I might become rich. Rich with the joy that confesses whom have I in heaven but you. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do indeed praise You that You have done what we could never do on our own. That You have made us joyful. That You have taken us as strangers and aliens and You have brought us into the joy of knowing You and being known by You. That You have done this through Jesus Christ and by the power of Your Spirit. And so we do pray that we would be obedient to this call. To live and press on towards the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That we would be a people known, characterized, marked by joy. And that all of that would redound unto Your glory. That the world would look on and say, surely God is among these people. We pray this for Your namesake. Amen.