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April 21, 2024: Message: Renewal Starts With the Bible | Scripture: Ezra 7 | Speaker: Pastor Stephen Choy
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Introduction
If able, please stand with me as I read to you from Ezra 7. TWoL: 1 Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, 2 son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, 3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, 4 son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, 5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest— 6 this Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the LORD, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him.
7 And there went up also to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king, some of the people of Israel, and some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants. 8 And Ezra1 came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
11 This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the LORD and his statutes for Israel: 12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven. Peace. And now 13 I make a decree that anyone of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. 14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand, 15 and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. 17 With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. 18 Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will of your God. 19 The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. 20 And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king’s treasury.
21 “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence, 22 up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cors of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. 23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. 24 We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll on anyone of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.
25 “And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach. 26 Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.”
27 Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem, 28 and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. 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.
A number of years ago my family and I were in Seattle for a wedding, and on the Sunday that we were there, I really wanted to check out Mars Hill Church. Some of you may know about that church. It was pastored by a guy named Mark Driscoll, and I was curious about it because it was perhaps the fastest growing church at the time.
And the reason I wanted to attend this church was because of their music. I was convinced that the way to revitalize the church I was at—my father’s church in Toronto—to get it past it’s being a “Chinese Baptist church” and towards a normal church—was to revamp the way we did music. So, I wanted to see how Mars Hill did their music live, and if you can imagine what megachurch, hippie, rock music sounds like, that’s what it was—loud, in your face, lights blaring, every leader on stage crying or rocking their head to the beat. I loved it.
I thought this was how church should be, but the thing I failed to consider was that, with me in tow, was my 80+-year-old grandparents. I remember, at the highest and loudest point of the music, looking at them with horrified expressions on their face, and as we left service, they weren’t just yelling because they’d gone deaf, they were yelling at me because this, for them, was not church. This, for them, was not how to worship.
Now, I’m not bashing churches that have this kind of musical worship. Everyone of us will have differing opinions on what church music should or shouldn’t be. But my question is what is necessary to bring renewal to a church—to become relevant? What does it take to grow a church in its health and vitality? Is it the music—do we have to sound like Mars Hill? Is it enhancing the dynamics of our culture—younger and more vibrant? Is it making us seem more acceptable to others—enhancing our website, beautifying our lobby, or offering food every week?
Don’t get me wrong. All of these things can be good, but the question is: what is essential—what does the Bible say is necessary—in order for a church to find renewal—real renewal? And the Bible says there’s only one thing you need, and it’s the Bible itself. The Word of God dug into, lived out, cultivated, and depended upon. If we want to be a healthy church—if we want to be a renewed church—we must be founded upon the Word, and it starts with digging into it—personally and corporately.
1) Dig Into the Word
Ezra 7 actually doesn’t pick up where we left off in Ezra 6. Remember, we left the people of Judah rejoicing because God completed the temple—the year was around 516 B.C. But roughly 57 years pass between those events and where we find ourselves today in Ezra 7. 57 years that everyone from Ezra 1-6 is either really old or dead. Haggai and Zechariah are dead. Zerubbabel and Jeshua are dead. And those who are still alive don’t know how to pass on more of their practice than the religious aspects.
They can tell their children to sacrifice animals for their sins, observe festivals, refrain from doing things that make you unclean, or that cut you off from the community, but they don’t know how to cultivate and foster hearts of worship. See, it’s likely, most of them wouldn’t make suitable priests—men who could not only help in the religious practices but shepherd God’s people. This is the case, firstly, because the general population can’t read or study the Word of God, so everything they do is by tradition—it’s grounded in the familiar and comfortable, and church done solely by tradition—by man’s understanding and guidance will inevitably fall apart. But more importantly, in order to be a priest, you had to be a descendant of Aaron, and it seems there are no more of these men in the land, or if there are, they’re incapable.
So, there’s a quiet in the land. The temple is done. God has created anew, but the people are stuck. Some of them, as we’ll find out in later chapters, actually begin going the wrong direction, marrying people outside the Jewish community. In other words, because they’ve let the building and completion of the temple become their identity—thinking their job is finished, rather than pushing towards an even greater holiness, they begin to sin. This is what happens, church, when we languish and delay our holiness—there’s no grey space—there’s no neutrality—you’re either pursuing holiness or you’re pursuing sin.
And around 458 B.C. a man named Ezra, who lived in Babylon (Susa—Esther’s hometown), hears about it (possibly because of the events that took place with Esther and Mordecai), and it turns out by God’s sovereign grace, that Ezra is a descendant of Aaron—a legitimate priest—someone who can lead the people of God back towards holiness, and his heart breaks for them and their lack of direction. It’s this Ezra, we’re told, who leads a caravan not only of people and priests and Levites and singers and gatekeepers and temple servants, but in verse 28, it says they were some of Israel’s leading, best men.
Remember back in Ezra 1, Judah was probably repopulated with people who were either zealous for being in the promised land or people who wanted a fresh start from Babylon—lower in importance. But here in Ezra 7, the people who come with this priest are the best of the best. More than that, we know Ezra is probably the best of the best of the best. How? Because verse 6 tells us, “He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses.”
Now, we have to ask, “what is a scribe?” Perhaps, you think of the men who persecuted Christ in his day—men who used their knowledge and influence in the law to do what benefited themselves. Well, Ezra wasn’t malicious or tyrannical in this way, but it tells us a little about what scribes were like. They were learned men. These were the scholars and bookworms of their day. They had all the information. Kings relied on these men not only to record things correctly, but when it came time for council and strategizing, scribes were always the first men called to give important information that other leaders likely couldn’t have accessed, found, or maybe even read on their own.
In other words, he was a secretary. Perhaps, in our age, we think of secretarial positions in a humbler light, but back then, secretaries held some of the most political power. It reminds me of a political science class I took in my undergrad where I learned that the way Joseph Stalin gained power in the Soviet Union wasn’t by typical force, but by starting as a secretary. See, he was so good at his job that everyone wanted him to be their secretary, and because he was everyone’s secretary, he possessed all their secrets, and he used those secrets against each of the country’s key leaders until they were all at his mercy. This is why his official title wasn’t King or Emperor. He called himself the General Secretary.
Ezra was that kind of political actor in Persia. A man of great power, probably great wealth, a mass collector of important information, and a great intellectual. And yet, unlike the scribes of Jesus’ day, and unlike Joseph Stalin, Ezra cared about using his knowledge and information for good. Listen to how he’s described in our passage. I’ve already read to you verse 6: he was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses. But then, look at verse 11: Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel. Verse 12: The King, himself, refers to his scribe as “Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven,” and he does it again in verse 21. Then, in verse 25, he’s calls Ezra, the one who has the wisdom of God in his hand.
But more than all of these, how we know Ezra was different than the scribes and the Stalins of the world is what we read in verse 10: “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord.” And I want to linger here for a second because this is the difference between Ezra and most all other scribes in Christ’s day, he gave his heart to God and to the things of God. It wasn’t about what he could gain in material wealth. No, he had that in Babylon. It wasn’t about accumulating knowledge, power, or influence. No, if he wanted, he could have been more than all the scribes of Israel. He desired to know his God.
And more than wealth and power, he didn’t seek to know God simply with his natural gifts. It tells us he set, intentionally, his heart to work at it. So, many Christians I know waste their potential because they’re lazy. Kevin DeYoung puts it this way in The Hole in Our Holiness, “the reason why some Christians are stalled in their sanctification—in their holiness—is simply because they lack the effort … Why some do not grow as much as they ought isn’t only because they doubt their conversion or presume upon grace, but because of plain old laziness.”
God had captured Ezra’s heart in such a way where Ezra wanted more of God—not knowledge for knowledge's sake, but knowledge for knowing God’s sake—possessing him—being transfigured to reflect his glory as his own glory. And this, church, is the ground level for how any church is renewed—it’s digging—plumbing the depths of the Word—setting your heart to it because your heart belongs to God—because his grace helps you value that which is eternal—that which is found in Scripture.
The Bible isn’t something you just study, it is something that as you study it, it searches out your heart, it tests your faith, and it requires your commitment because it brings you face-to-face with a God who is not half-hearted or callous towards us—no he is prodigal—he is running to bring you in—to send his own Son to die—so that you might be called not be lost! Do you hold fast to this Word like he holds fast to you? Or do you treat it like a chore, a difficulty in your way during the day—something merely to make you feel better when you feel low? Is this Word about you or is it about the God who’s regenerated your heart? Because how you regard it—how you attend to it—says a lot about your value in the Creator and Saviour who wrote it.
If there is one thing we commit to do today, let it be that the Word of Christ dwells in us richly—not poorly—not weakly—not superficially—but as a boundless treasure filling you with thanksgiving in your hearts to God. And that same God promises that as his Word goes out into your life—into our church, it shall not return to him empty. It shall accomplish all that he purposes, and it shall succeed in everything for which he sent it. Renew God’s Church by digging into God’s Word.
2) Live the Word
And as we dig into the Word with our hearts set on fire for it by the work of the Spirit in us, what is meant to happen? It’s meant to change us. See verse 10 again, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it…” Like I said, God doesn’t give his Word simply so that you might gain from it individually and greedily. He gives it so that you might live it—that you might abound in good works.
2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that the man of God might be complete—complete how? Able to do every good work. Jesus himself says this in John 17:17, as he’s praying his high priestly prayer. He says, “your Word—God’s Word—is truth,” and because it’s true, “please, O God, sanctify them—make them holy in the truth.” A renewed church isn’t a church that merely talks the talk but walks the walk.
I was reading recently a work by a liberal theologian who put together a compendium looking at nearly every preacher in history because he was searching for why so many people have been changed through the preaching of God’s Word, and the one that stumped him the most was John MacArthur. He asks, “why do so many listen to MacArthur? He’s the product of all the wrong schools. How does he pack out a church on Sunday morning in an age when attendance has so seriously lagged? He has no winning personality, good looks, or charm. Here is a preacher who offers us nothing in the way of sophisticated homiletical packaging.
No one would suggest that he is a master of the art or oratory. No, it must be that he is witness to a true authority. When he preaches, it is as one who hears. When he preaches, it is Scripture that he brings to bear. His life is a testament to the fact that Scripture is God’s Word. It’s not that the words of John MacArthur are interesting, as it is that the words of God are of surpassing interest and value to him.” In other words, people listen to MacArthur because he lives what he preaches—because he is the embodiment of a faithful servant confronted with God’s Word.
A renewed church—a healthy, effective church—is a church that not only digs into God’s Word because it makes us smarter or wiser but because it changes our lives to live the heart of God as those who are enraptured in a love for the Word of God. A renewed church is a church that believes in Scripture wholly for what it is and trusts in its authority for all things pertaining to life and godliness, and we cannot flourish or survive unless our lives are conformed to it. Dig into the Word, Live the Word, then …
3) Cultivate the Word
Teach it and train others up in it. Again, verse 10: “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” Ezra was so persuaded and enlivened by God’s Word that living it was not enough! He took it upon himself to bring it to God’s people. Having riches and power in Babylon wasn’t enough—the world never is—but when God grips you, it changes not only your life, but how you see others need him as well—that all might know who he is and what he’s done! And simply talking about it isn’t enough. No, his compulsion was to train others so that they might be able to go out and continue the work!
You don’t only see this in Ezra 7:10, but in vv. 24-25, the Persian king declares him to be a judge, and as he does so, he calls Ezra to appoint other judges and magistrates in the law. In the cases where they don’t know the law, Ezra is meant to teach and enable them to carry out the duty. To raise up other leaders and other workers for the God of heaven.
And both wrongly and stubbornly, sometimes we neglect to do this in our own churches, stifling our impact to upcoming generations or driving them away altogether. We think that this task is left solely to the pastors and the elders or deacons, but maybe not to the homemaker, or the accountant, or the dentist, or the engineer, or the musician, and in one sense, you’re right. It’s our task—it’s my task—to train up men to be able to do what I do.
But each of you have a part in it too. Don’t hold your knowledge and wisdom to yourself. All of us are meant to teach, instruct, and build up in some way. If not as a teacher, then as a discipler, as a mother or father, as a friend, as an accountability partner, as a follower of Christ who has the Spirit dwelling in you to illuminate the sin that is in your heart—as the Spirit does this for you, you should also be doing likewise for one another.
Let me say it this way, if you are not discipling someone or seeking to be discipled by someone then you are, perhaps, not a person of the Word because the Word doesn’t just give you knowledge to hide or seek personal comfort. The Word isn’t meant only to make you holy because there is no such thing as isolated holiness. No, the Word is meant to be cultivated outward by you as it is cultivated within you because God sent his Son on mission to save you, so too is your mission to save others—to cultivate their love for the Word and the gospel above all other things.
Graciously disciple others in the gospel because the gospel was discipled to you and in you by the grace of God. Don’t make it about yourself by accumulating for yourself, digging for yourself, living for yourself. God’s Son died for you, so live the life he’s given you for him and for those whom he has sent you to be a testimony of his mercy and love. Renew God’s church by cultivating God’s Word in God’s people, and lastly …
4) Depend Upon the Word
Perhaps the one uncontrollable factor to whether or not a church is renewed in its health is that it requires the favour of God. Verse 6: Ezra had received from the king all that he asked for because the hand of the Lord his God was on him. Verse 9: he set out from Babylonia and arrived in Jerusalem safely with all the riches and presents from the king because the good hand of his God was on him. And verse 28: because God put such an incredible thing in the heart of the king, to beautify the temple in Jerusalem, and to extend to Ezra his steadfast love, he, Ezra, took courage, for the hand of the Lord was upon him.
Ezra’s success was not luck. He didn’t take uncalculated risks. No, he sought the will of God in everything he did. He wasn’t lucky. I recently played the lottery for the first and last time in my life—but it’s not the lottery that you might think. It was a lottery for a visa to stay in this country—a strange machination of the U.S. government’s methods for accepting foreign workers, like me, to remain here. But believe me when I say, I did not enter that lottery and subsequently win that lottery by luck.
I won it because the hand of the Lord was upon us through your prayers and petitions on my behalf. I entered it because I see Scriptural value in what we’re doing here and in my staying here, and I am willing and will do whatever I need to within the limits of the law to carry out God’s will wherever he sends me. In this, even if I lost, I went into it knowing fully that the hand of God led us, and I would have been happy whichever way he led.
But when we place our faith—our hope—our trust—in luck—or in any other form of demonic power to deliver us, help us, or bless us—other than depending upon God—playing our hand and risking his gifts with things that we know we do not need or with things contrary to his heart’s intent in the use of his gifts, then, perhaps, we do not take the value and sufficiency of his Word seriously enough.
Look at verses 9 and 10. The ground for Ezra possessing the hand of God in all he did wasn’t his desire for success, worldly acclaim, or whatever luck might give him, but the Word of God studied, lived out, and cultivated. He was content with that. Ezra was successful long before the results of his journey and aided by the hand of God. Why? Because he made it about the Bible—about God—and everything else was bonus.
What the Word does for us, brothers and sisters, isn’t just give us treasure, or help us live, or make us better teachers, but it emboldens us to take courage that when we act, even if the results of the act are uncertain, we can act with conviction, power, and purpose because his hand and his will are upon us—because we conform our lives to his desires in this Book, and ultimately, because we conform our lives to whom it reveals in God’s Son.
This is why Ezra can say prayerfully in verse 27: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has done this. I took courage BECAUSE of his hand upon me. I knew this was right to do—to leave Babylon and come to Jerusalem—to depend upon God’s faithfulness in this task because I have set my heart to dig into the Word, to live the Word, and to cultivate the Word in myself and in his people.” And if Ezra is not enough inspiration for you to aspire to the same thing in everything you do, then look to the greater Ezra who left not just Babylon, but heaven itself as the Word to give you himself and to offer you a wealth, joy, and love in him beyond compare.
May we, brothers, and sisters, be those who, like Ezra says in 2 Chronicles 16:9, set their hearts before the Lord as he seeks to give strong support to—as he seeks to renew those—who are blameless towards him.” We can do nothing apart from his favour. We can do nothing apart from our dependence that he wills to work in our midst, and we cannot know his will unless we are saturated in his Word. Let us, then, be a people who pray and plead with God for his favour according to his Word—that his revelation and instruction might rest upon us and that we might be renewed in it as we live it, cultivate it, and depend upon it to the glory of his name.
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