Sunday Morning Service 21st August 2022

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Eph. 2:19-22)

We are continuing with the theme of “building for God’s glory” and we have been looking at the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem after the return of the first group of exiles from Babylon around 536 B.C. We were considering last time from Ezra 3 the rebuilding of the altar of sacrifice and the laying of the foundation. When the foundation was laid there was rejoicing as the people sang to the Lord, “He is good, his love endures for ever” but some of the older people who remembered the splendour of king Solomon’s temple wept, apparently because they felt that this temple would be a poor substitute for the previous one. Some of us older folk might look back to decades when things seemed brighter, church attendances were higher, and there seemed to be a greater interest in the gospel. Today the moral climate seems to be darker with many new ideologies around, some secular and anti-Christian but I believe God is sifting and testing to prove our reality, obedience and faithfulness so that we are more visible as His witnesses. We should also be looking for spiritual increase and growth, not decline.

Opposition and building stopped (Ezra 4:4,5,24)

In Ezra 4 verses 6-23 are a parenthesis and a “fast forward” to a later time of building in Jerusalem. The chapter opens with “enemies” approaching Zerubbabel the governor of Jerusalem and other leaders with an offer of help with the building of the temple. They discern that there is a devious motive behind the offer and refuse it and immediately the opposition becomes open and direct. In v 4 and 5 we read of discouragement, intimidation, bribery and frustration or disruption. The people capitulated in the face of this opposition and the work stopped for about 15 years until 520 B.C. when a new king of Persia Darius was on the throne.

When God’s work is progressing, the devil will invariably mount an attack. In the days of the early church, the apostles faced intimidation, threats, imprisonment and flogging (Acts 4 and 5) but they brought the problem before the Sovereign Lord and asked for boldness to continue speaking God’s word (Acts 4:29). In Acts 5 an internal problem arose due to the deception of Ananias and Sapphira. In Acts 6, within the Christian community there was the dispute and complaint from the Greek speaking Jews about food distribution to their widows which was resolved quickly. In Acts 7 there was violent opposition leading to the martyrdom of Stephen. In Acts 10 God had to adjust Peter over his prejudice towards Gentiles prior to the call for him to visit the God-fearing Gentile soldier Cornelius and preach the gospel to him. I think that if we’re honest, many of us would have to admit to some element of (even sub-conscious) prejudice.

If we go back to the people in Jerusalem, we discover that before they would be persuaded to restart building the temple, an internal problem had to be addressed. It’s noticeable firstly that, unlike the early church, they had given up building without bringing the problem of opposition and intimidation before the Lord and seeking his strength and courage to carry on. Then eventually God himself intervenes, sends a drought to try and get their attention, and also sends two prophets Haggai and Zechariah to speak to the people. If we look at Haggai’s short and very direct prophecy, we see that his first message is one of rebuke (Hag. 1:1-11) and his second message (Hag. 2:1-5) one of encouragement. It seems astonishing that after decades in exile, the people didn’t seem to be eager to get God’s temple built quickly so that they could get back to serving and worshipping him as they ought to have been doing. They were busy building their own houses and cultivating their land but were in no hurry to build God’s house (Hag. 1:2). The house of God was not a top priority and they seem to have fallen into apathy and complacency and were dishonouring God.

I reckon we too can easily become apathetic and lethargic and feel we want to get on with our own lives without being stirred up or challenged too much. Serving God and giving him his rightful place may be way down our priority list. I heard one preacher saying that “too many Christians seem to be prepared to settle for less than the best”. When Jesus cleansed the temple of the money changers in John 2:13-17, the disciples remembered the word, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (Ps.69:9). How is our level of zeal for God’s house right now?

Building restarted and the temple completed (Ezra 5:2, 6:14,15)

The leaders and the people “obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of Haggai” and were “stirred up” to resume the work (Hag. 1:14). God promises to be with them Hag. 1:13, 2:4) and reminds them that he is their covenant-keeping God (Hag. 2:5). In Ezra 5:1,2 we pick up the story of the restart of the building and in Ezra 6 following a search of the archives for the original decree of king Cyrus (Ezra 1:2), the new king Darius issues a decree (6:5-8,12) authorising the building of God’s temple. In 6:13-22 we read of the completion and dedication of the temple and the rejoicing which accompanied that (6:16,22). It’s noteworthy that the people celebrated the Passover feast (6:19-22) in memory of the deliverance from slavery in Egypt – it must have been the first time they had done this in many years.

This would remind us that Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed (I Cor. 5:7,8) and also of the Lord’s Supper/Communion which flowed from the Passover meal in the “upper room” on the night of Jesus’s betrayal. We should value highly the significance of that ordinance and the opportunity to respond to the sacrificial love of our Sayiour with our own affirmation of love and loyalty to him.

Eph. 3:19-22 quoted at the top of these notes reminds us how people are being built together to form “a holy temple to the Lord”. In the church at Ephesus there were two main cultural groups, the Gentiles from a pagan background (the far away people v17) and the Jews from a Judaism background (the near at hand people) and through the cross these disparate groups were reconciled to God and brought together into one spiritual body. Over the centuries God has brought together believers in Christ from every cultural, social and religious background and of every language, people and nation (including ourselves) into one body to form his temple and so provide an environment where God can dwell and be among his people. This will be a reality not just for time but for eternity (Rev. 21:3).   

May it be that each of us is “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14 ESV) as we keep on building and serving the Lord.

Grace and peace, Eric