Cabot, Arkansas, Summer Series
June 15, 2016
Worship Is The Foundation
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A.
Several years ago I had the opportunity to attend a “homecoming” at the church
I
grew up in, the Holmes Road Church of
Christ in Memphis, Tennessee.
1. It was a wonderful experience to be in
the place where so many momentous
events in my life occurred. I was
baptized there in 1973 and preached my first
sermon from that pulpit only two years
later.
2. It was even more enjoyable to see people
who have had a huge influence in my
life.
3. I was honored to be a part of the
program with several men I grew up with.
4. No matter where we go in our lives the
thought of “homecoming” touches a
special place in our hearts. One of the
most beautiful homecomings in the Bible is
found in the book of Ezra where a nation
that has been living in exile has the
opportunity to return to its homeland.
B. Do
you remember important dates? What about July 4, 1776? December 7, 1941?
June 6, 1944? July 10, 1959 (my birthday)?
September 11, 2001? Dates help us to
remember important events in history. As
you study the Bible (particularly the Old
Testament) it is helpful to have an idea of
the timeline of history. Here are some
important dates leading up to Ezra’s
homecoming. (All are B.C.- before Christ).
1. 922 – Division of the kingdom.
2. 722 – Fall of Israel to the Assyrians.
3. 586 – Fall of Judah (Jerusalem) to
Babylonians.
4. 538 – Decree of Cyrus of Persia to
rebuild the temple at Jerusalem.
5. 538/7 – Zerubbabel’s expedition to
Jerusalem.
6. 536 – Foundation of the temple laid.
7. 535 – Work on the temple halted by
enemies of the Jews.
8. 520 – Prophetic ministries of Haggai and
Zechariah.
9. 520 – Decree of Darius to complete the
temple.
10. 516 – Completion of the temple.
11. 486 – Reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes)
begins.
12. 479 – Esther becomes queen.
13. 464 – Reign of Artaxerxes begins.
14. 458 – Ezra’s expedition to Jerusalem.
15. 444 – Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem.
Leads rebuilding of walls.
16. 420 – Nehemiah’s second journey to
Jerusalem.
C. The
books of Ezra and Nehemiah provide us with the historical record of this
homecoming.
1. There are some scholars who believe
these two books were originally one book.
2. It was near the end of the second
century A.D. when Origen listed them
separately.
3. The book begins by telling about the
edict of Cyrus, king of Persia, in 538 B.C. that
allowed foreigners in Persia (formerly
Babylon) to return to their homelands.
a. Cyrus is regarded as a good king.
b. From his own documents we know he was
a polytheist (believed in many gods)
particularly the god Marduke. He
urged the foreign people to pray to their god
(for the Jews this was Yahweh) and
ask them to be benevolent towards him.
c. When he issued his edict to the Jews
he used the name of Yahweh for God.
d. Not only did Cyrus allow the Jews to
return to Jerusalem, he gave them the gold
and silver bowls, plates and
utensils that had been taken from the temple when it
had been destroyed and urged all of
the Jews to support those who were
returning.
4. In Ezra 2 we find a list of those who
returned. It may appear to be monotonous
reading for us but remember why these
lists were important to the Jews.
a. Family history (genealogy) was
critical. This was the “ancestry.com” of their day.
b. Genealogy determined who would be
priests.
c. Genealogy determined the distribution
of the land.
D. As
Ezra 3 begins the first group of exiles has returned and settled in the cities.
Verse
1 says they gathered together as one man in
Jerusalem. It was for the purpose of
reinstituting worship to God.
I. THEIR PRIORITY
A. It is important to note that this is the
first thing they do after resettling the land.
1. Verse 2 says that two men, Jeshua (grandson
of Seraiah, who had been the high
priest when Jerusalem was destroyed (2
Kings 25:18) and Zerubbabel, took the
lead in rebuilding the altar so
sacrifices can be made to God according to the law
of Moses.
2. Through verse 6 Ezra stresses the
point that they reinstituted the sacrifices
and the feasts that were such a
vital part of their relationship with God.
a. They understood they could not be
right with God without the sacrifices.
b. What about us? The book of
Hebrews talks about Jesus being our High Priest.
B. This was their first priority.
1. There were many things they could
have done.
a. They had houses to rebuild.
b. The walls of the city needed to
be rebuilt. That would wait another 80 years.
c. There were farms and vineyards to
cultivate.
d. There was infrastructure to
repair.
2. For these people the priority was to
worship God.
C. In the early 20th century
there was business consultant named Ivy Lee. On one
occasion he visited Charles Schwab,
president of Bethlehem Steel company. Lee
guaranteed Schwab if he would instruct
his managers to prioritize their work each
day and make sure to complete the most
important task before moving to the next
one their production would increase
greatly. Schwab did this and later sent Lee a
check for thousands of dollars because
of the effectiveness of the advice.
1.
What are the priorities in your life? Your presence in this gathering speaks
loudly
about your priority to worship God,
study His word and live accordingly.
2. A recent statistic by the Hartford
Institute of Religion says that while 40% of
Americans “say” they attend church
weekly the figure is actually 20%. Though it
may be difficult to pinpoint the
exact number you can be assured that those who
are here on Wednesday night are very
rare in today’s world.
3. It wasn’t too many years ago when
Sundays occupied a special place in our
national consciousness.
a. Most businesses were not open.
Those that did open did not do so until after
lunch.
b. My mother worked as a sales clerk
for a large Sears store. It was the
mid1970’s before they were open
on Sunday. Today, the only restaurant I
know of that is not open on
Sunday is Chik-fil-A.
D. I
am impressed that the Jews returning to Jerusalem under the leadership of
Zerubbabel recognized the priority of
worshipping God.
II. THEIR SACRIFICE
A. Beginning in verse 7 the people began
giving so workers could be employed and
materials could be obtained to rebuild the temple.
1. The first temple was built by King
Solomon. It was an amazing structure overlaid
with gold. When the Babylonians
destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. they
completely destroyed the temple and
took the riches with them.
2. Now these people begin work on the
second temple. At the end of verse 8 the
Levites who were twenty years old
and older, supervised the work.
3. When the foundation stones had been
laid there was a great service of praise
and celebration. Some of those
present were old enough to remember what the
first temple looked like and wept. Notice
verses 10-13.
Now when the builders had laid
the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel
with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the
Lord according to the directions of King David of Israel. 11 They
sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel
forever.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the
Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 Yet
many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with
a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes,
while many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could
not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of
the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard
far away.
4. Compare this to Jeremiah 33:10-11.
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Yet
again there will be heard in this place, of which you say, “It is a waste,
without man and without beast,” that
is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are
desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, 11 the
voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the
voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, “Give thanks to the Lord of
hosts, For the Lord is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting”
.
B. The building of the temple involved
everyone.
1. King Cyrus had authorized the work
and returned many of the items that came
from the first temple.
2. The people gave money. The craftsmen
devoted their skills and talents. The
Levites oversaw the construction. All
of the Jews rejoiced. Everyone had
ownership.
C. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul uses temple
language in reference to the church.
1. In verse 10 he says he laid the
foundation and another built upon it.
2. What is the foundation? Verse 11
says, “For no man can lay a foundation other
than the one which is laid, which is
Jesus Christ.”
3. In verses 16-17 he says, “Do you not
know that you are a temple of God and that
the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If
any man destroys the temple of God, God
will destroy him, for the temple of
God is holy, and that is what you are.”
D. Just as all of the Jews had an interest
in the rebuilding of the temple every
Christian has a role in building God’s temple
today.
1. On December 1, 1912 Russell H.
Conwell, a preacher and the founder of Temple
University in Philadelphia, preached
a sermon about a little girl named Hattie
May Wiatt who died in 1886. Hattie
lived near a church where the Sunday School
was very crowded. Cornwell told her
that one day they would have buildings
large enough to accommodate everyone
who wanted to attend.
Sometime after that, Hattie became
sick and died. Conwell was asked to do
the
funeral and the girl's mother told
him that Hattie May had been saving money to
help build a bigger building. She
had saved 57 cents. Following the funeral
Conwell had the 57 cents changed
into 57 pennies. He told the church the story
of Hattie May and sold the pennies
for a return of about $250. 54 of the
original 57 pennies were returned
and put on display to encourage others to give.
People began giving what they could.
According to the sermon, some of the
members of the church formed what
they called the Wiatt Mite Society which was
dedicated to making Hattie May's 57
cents grow as much as possible and to buy
the property for new classrooms. A
house nearby was purchased. The 57
pennies continued to grow and soon
additional property was purchased that
soon became the beginning of Temple
College – later Temple University and
Temple University Medical center. It
all started with a little girl named Hattie May
Wiatt and 57 pennies.
III. THEIR DETERMINATION
A. Whenever you embark on good endeavor
there will always be opposition.
1. Anytime you have opportunity you will
have opposition.
2. “Dogs do not bark at parked cars.”
3. As chapter 4 begins the enemies of
the Jews see the rebuilding of the temple.
They understood the importance of
the temple to the national identity of the
Jews.
a. They came to Zerubbabel and
offered to help. They claimed that they had
been worshipping God. The Jews
knew this was not the case and refused
their offer.
b. Years later when the walls of
Jerusalem were being rebuilt some of these
same people opposed that effort.
The asked Nehemiah to compromise and
negotiate with them in the
plains of Ono. Nehemiah replied, “I am involved in a
great work and cannot come down”
(Nehemiah 6:3).
B. When the Jews refuse to let these people
help the opposition increased. Verse 4
says “they discouraged the Jews and
frightened them.”
1. They wrote a letter to the king
saying that Jerusalem had been a rebellious city
and the Jews were trying to rebuild
it so they could rebel against him and not pay
tribute. Thus, the king issued a decree and the work stops. For over
fifteen
years there is no work done on the
temple.
2. God used the prophets Haggai and
Zechariah to tell the Jews to continue their
work. Finally in 516 A.D the temple
is completed.
C. It is easy to become discouraged when
you are trying to do good.
1. Elijah became discouraged in 1 Kings
19.
2. Paul was discouraged in Corinth (Acts
18).
3. Later, Paul would write to Galatian
Christians, “Let us not lose heart in doing
good, for in due time we will reap
if we do not grow weary.” (Gal. 6:9).
4. Remember the story of the little
frog.
Two frogs fell into a deep
cream bowl. One was an optimistic soul.
But the other took the gloomy
view. "We'll drown," he lamented without much ado.
And with a last despairing
cry, he flung up his legs and said "Goodbye."
Said the other frog with a
steadfast grin, "I can't get out but I won't give in,
I'll just swim around till my
strength is spent, then I'll die the more content."
Bravely he swam to work his
scheme, and his struggles began to churn the cream.
The more he swam, his legs a
flutter, the more the cream turned into butter.
On top of the butter at last
he stopped, and out of the bowl he gaily hopped.
What is the moral? It's easily
found. If you can't hop out, keep swimming around.
CONCLUSION:
A. One
of the great themes of Ezra is the providential care of God.
1. From the decree of Cyrus in chapter 1 to
the decree of Darius in chapter 6 that
ordered the completion of the temple and
the execution of anyone who stood in the
way, the hand of God was with His
people.
2. God has not changed. We need to be like
these people.
B, May God bless you as you make worship the foundation and first priority of your life.
Amen!
