The Temple and Ezra

 The book of EZRA which is actually a part of the next book NEHEMIAH. In the Hebrew Bible Ezra and Nehemiah are one book.

·        These 2 books make up the account of the 3 times the exiled Jews attempted to repair the Temple in Jerusalem and repopulate the Holy city - JERSUALEM.

·        It is a story we can parallel with our walk with God in these days ...so if you can, try to do that as we look at the story of the Jews who really struggled at times in their walk with God.

·         So it was 70 years since the Jews had been taken into captivity and the land had been desolate.

·         Then around that time a King named Cyrus came into power.

·         The work was initiated by God stirring King Cyrus's heart prompting him to write a letter and send it throughout his Kingdom.

·         

·         The first attempt at the rebuild was made by a man named, ZERUBBABEL..

·         Jews were stirred up and excited and after gathering 42,360 exiles and 7337 servants 200 singers 736 horses 245 mules 435 camels and 6720 donkeys.

·         Then 61000 gold coins 6250 pounds of silver and 100 robes for the priests they settled in the villages near Jerusalem.

·         They were afraid of the local residents but they were given time to settle.

·         Then the first job they attended to was rebuilding the altar:

o   The Altar represents a part of ourselves in our walk with God.

o   When we first come to God what is the first thing he asks of us? 

          To give ourselves to Him...

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Ø  It says in 1 Corinthians: 6:19

Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.

Ø  So if our body is the Temple...what is the altar?

o   OUR MIND

Let me show you a diagram to illustrate:

The Temple (like our bodies) is made up of many "compartments". In the times of Ezra these innermost storage chambers of Solomon's Temple were supposed to be used for storing the priests' worship items for the Holy Place.  However, it was here that the priests actually stored their own personal idolatrous items, thinking that since these chambers were hidden and out of sight, no one would see and no one would know.

So to compare to this to ourselves - if our bodies are the Temple - the secret recesses of Solomon's Temple correspond to the innermost, hidden part of our own souls - the place where we hide and bury our hurts, our wounds, our painful memories, thinking that no one will see and no one will know. 

When we come to God we are full of painful experiences and wounds... I believe God wants these hidden chambers (this innermost part), in His perfect timing and in His perfect way, to be cleansed, healed and then filled with the knowledge of the Truth.  Then we will be able to genuinely walk in the Fear of God and not the fear of man.  

God wants to show us the things in our hidden chambers, so that we can "see" and understand what exactly it is that we need to give over to Him.  Again, it's impossible to give things to Him, if we don't understand what exactly they are.

This is where rebuilding the ALTAR comes in: our mind is the ALTAR

You must be willing to bring these things up and into your mind to be able to lay them on the Altar. If your ALTAR is broken you will be unable to lay your sin on it.

The second part of Romans 12 (2) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We need our minds or our ALTARS to be in working order in ready obedience to Christ before any transformation to take place.

The fact that we are all sitting here in church listening and continuing in fellowship with other Christians shows an outward expression of a ready and willing altar.

_____________________________________________________________

·         Zerubbabel realised this so he rebuilt the ALTAR before they began laying the Foundation of the Temple. SO BACK TO THE STORY...

·         The Temple reconstruction began in the 2nd year after they arrived there.

·         All the materials were bought and everyone got to work and soon after the foundation had been laid.

·        The older Jews who remember the first temple before the exile wept with joy and the younger Jews celebrated loudly upon the completion of the foundation.

·        It say's "the joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud commotion that could be heard far in the distance!".

_________________________________________________________________________

·         Soon after the foundation had been finished the Jews encountered their first opposition. They were people who were against the rebuilding of the Temple.

·         First they tried to trick Zerubbabel and the other leaders into allowing them to build with them - with the intention of mucking things up. But the leaders would not allow them.

·         Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work.

·         Then they bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their work.

·         This went on for the entire reign of King Cyrus through the time of King Xerxes and King Artaxerxes  until the next King Darius took the throne.

·       

 ** must read:  LETTERS TO THE KINGS AND THE ENEMIES OF THE TEMPLE WORK

·         

·         After a 20 year struggle with their enemies, The Temple work ceased.

o   You see how you will encounter enemies when you try to turn your life around for God. You will come up against strong opposition and they will be ruthless. It has been like this for Gods people forever.

·         Several years later In chapter 5 you see the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesy and in response, Zerubbabel begins the task of rebuilding once again. In spite of what the King may say.

·         But once again the enemies saw the work being started up and confronted them again, the asked, "Who gave you permission to rebuild this temple?" and they wanted a list of names of all the people helping.

·         But because their God was watching over them, they were not prevented from building... until a report was sent to King Darius and he returned a decision.

·     

·         Note the answer the enemies quote to the King; V11

o   You must remember your identity when your enemy wants to know who you think you are!

· 

·         Notice what the orders were to Tattenai - "Stay away from there! Do not disturb the construction!"

o   God will order the enemy to STAY AWAY from us if we respond with the correct identity.

·         The Temple was completed on the 12th of March, it was dedicated with great joy.

_________________________________________________________________________

Ø  Now 80 years after this a man named EZRA comes into the picture.

Ø  Ezra was a very intelligent man who loved God and knew the books of the law.

Ø  I would say this means that he made the correct sacrifices and lived a holy lifestyle. You could say his ALTAR was intact.

Ø It says that Ezra was a scribe, well versed in the law of Moses, which the Lord had given the people of Israel. Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the Lord and to teach those laws and regulations to the people of Israel.

Ø  The King writes Ezra a letter...

Ø  So about 80 years after the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel Ezra returned to Judah with about 2000 men and their families. He was given that letter from the King and commissioned to carry out religious instruction. The letter gave him significant power but it is Ezra's priorities we should take note of:

o    First Ezra had decided when he was young to dedicate himself to carefully studying Gods word.

o   Second, he intended to apply and obey - personally the commands he discovered in God's word.

o   And thirdly, he was committed to teaching others God's Word and its application to life.

Ø  So he arrives in Jerusalem with a whole bunch of people and stuff (again)... and what does he find?

Ø  So what does Ezra do? 9 verse 3

o   This verse was very significant to me, because I have been here quite a few times with myself. 

Ø  Then we see the people come to their senses AGAIN and the people go on to tell Ezra they are willing to fully cooperate with him to make things right again.

Ø  READ 10:11-13 Ezra instructed them what to do to make things right

Ø  but then the people point out that this "making things right" was not going to be able to happen in a day.

Ø  And it says that it took from December the 29th to March the 27th the next year to get things back in some order again. Then it lists all the priests who had married pagan wives and the Levites who were guilty and the one singer who was guilty and the 3 gatekeepers who were guilty and all the other people of Israel who were guilty after them.

Ø  And the book ends with "Each of these men had a pagan wife, and some even had children by these wives."

Ø  Then there was another 70 years before Nehemiah came on the scene...

_________________________________________________________

I think the last point I want to make is that it will take time... probably a long time for restoration to happen. It will be happening little by little  as you are willing to bring the hidden things out of the chambers and present them on the altar... and be encouraged that the Israelites continued to muck up but notice that God didn't reject them when they came back to Him. Remember that. 

Ezra

·        Then we finally get to the book of EZRA which is actually a part of the next book NEHEMIAH. In the Hebrew Bible Ezra and Nehemiah are one book.

·        These 2 books make up the account of the 3 times the exiled Jews attempted to repair the Temple in Jerusalem and repopulate the Holy city - JERSUALEM.

·        It is a story we can parallel with our walk with God in these days ...so if you can, try to do that as we look at the story of the Jews who really struggled at times in their walk with God.

·         So it was 70 years since the Jews had been taken into captivity and the land had been desolate.

·         Then around that time a King named Cyrus came into power.

·         The work was initiated by God stirring King Cyrus's heart prompting him to write a letter and send it throughout his Kingdom.

·         Read EZRA 1:1-7 SLIDE

·         The first attempt at the rebuild was made by a man named, ZERUBBABEL..

·         Jews were stirred up and excited and after gathering 42,360 exiles and 7337 servants 200 singers 736 horses 245 mules 435 camels and 6720 donkeys.

·         Then 61000 gold coins 6250 pounds of silver and 100 robes for the priests they settled in the villages near Jerusalem.

·         They were afraid of the local residents but they were given time to settle.

______________________IMPORTANT INFORMATION_____________________________

·         Then the first job they attended to was rebuilding the altar:

o   The Altar represents a part of ourselves in our walk with God.

____________________________________________________

o   When we first come to God what is the first thing he asks of us? To give ourselves to Him...

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Ø  It says in 1 Corinthians: 6:19

Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.

Ø  So if our body is the Temple...what is the altar?

o   OUR MIND

Let me show you a diagram to illustrate: SLIDE

The Temple (like our bodies) is made up of many "compartments". In the times of Ezra these innermost storage chambers of Solomon's Temple were supposed to be used for storing the priests' worship items for the Holy Place.  However, it was here that the priests actually stored their own personal idolatrous items, thinking that since these chambers were hidden and out of sight, no one would see and no one would know.

So to compare to this to ourselves - if our bodies are the Temple - the secret recesses of Solomon's Temple correspond to the innermost, hidden part of our own souls - the place where we hide and bury our hurts, our wounds, our painful memories, thinking that no one will see and no one will know. 

When we come to God we are full of painful experiences and wounds... I believe God wants these hidden chambers (this innermost part), in His perfect timing and in His perfect way, to be cleansed, healed and then filled with the knowledge of the Truth.  Then we will be able to genuinely walk in the Fear of God and not the fear of man.  

God wants to show us the things in our hidden chambers, so that we can "see" and understand what exactly it is that we need to give over to Him.  Again, it's impossible to give things to Him, if we don't understand what exactly they are.

This is where rebuilding the ALTAR comes in: our mind is the ALTAR

You must be willing to bring these things up and into your mind to be able to lay them on the Altar. If your ALTAR is broken you will be unable to lay your sin on it.

The second part of Romans 12 (2) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We need our minds or our ALTARS to be in working order in ready obedience to Christ before any transformation to take place.

The fact that we are all sitting here in church listening and continuing in fellowship with other Christians shows an outward expression of a ready and willing altar.

_____________________________________________________________

·         Zerubbabel realised this so he rebuilt the ALTAR before they began laying the Foundation of the Temple. SO BACK TO THE STORY...

·         The Temple reconstruction began in the 2nd year after they arrived there.

·         All the materials were bought and everyone got to work and soon after the foundation had been laid.

·        The older Jews who remember the first temple before the exile wept with joy and the younger Jews celebrated loudly upon the completion of the foundation.

·        SLIDE It say's "the joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud commotion that could be heard far in the distance!".

_________________________________________________________________________

·         Soon after the foundation had been finished the Jews encountered their first opposition. They were people who were against the rebuilding of the Temple.

·         First they tried to trick Zerubbabel and the other leaders into allowing them to build with them - with the intention of mucking things up. But the leaders would not allow them.

·         Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work.

·         Then they bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their work.

·         This went on for the entire reign of King Cyrus through the time of King Xerxes and King Artaxerxes  until the next King Darius took the throne.

·         LETTERS TO THE KINGS AND THE ENEMIES OF THE TEMPLE WORK

·         Read EZ 4:6-23

·         After a 20 year struggle with their enemies, The Temple work ceased.

o   You see how you will encounter enemies when you try to turn your life around for God. You will come up against strong opposition and they will be ruthless. It has been like this for Gods people forever.

·         Several years later In chapter 5 you see the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesy and in response, Zerubbabel begins the task of rebuilding once again. In spite of what the King may say.

·         But once again the enemies saw the work being started up and confronted them again, the asked, "Who gave you permission to rebuild this temple?" and they wanted a list of names of all the people helping.

·         But read in verse 5 SLIDE - But because their God was watching over them, they were not prevented from building... until a report was sent to King Darius and he returned a decision.

·         READ EZRA 5:6 -11

·         Note the answer the enemies quote to the King; V11

o   You must remember your identity when your enemy wants to know who you think you are!

·         Read EZ 6:1-7

·         Notice what the orders were to Tattenai - "Stay away from there! Do not disturb the construction!"

o   God will order the enemy to STAY AWAY from us if we respond with the correct identity.

·         The Temple was completed on the 12th of March, it was dedicated with great joy.

_________________________________________________________________________

Ø  Now 80 years after this a man named EZRA comes into the picture.

Ø  Ezra was a very intelligent man who loved God and knew the books of the law.

Ø  I would say this means that he made the correct sacrifices and lived a holy lifestyle. You could say his ALTAR was intact.

Ø  NEXT SLIDE: It says that Ezra was a scribe, well versed in the law of Moses, which the Lord had given the people of Israel. Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the Lord and to teach those laws and regulations to the people of Israel.

Ø  The King writes Ezra a letter NEXT SIDE Chapter 7:13-26

Ø  So about 80 years after the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel Ezra returned to Judah with about 2000 men and their families. He was given that letter from the King and commissioned to carry out religious instruction. The letter gave him significant power but it is Ezra's priorities we should take note of:

o   NEXT SLIDE: First Ezra had decided when he was young to dedicate himself to carefully studying Gods word.

o   Second, he intended to apply and obey - personally the commands he discovered in God's word.

o   And thirdly, he was committed to teaching others God's Word and its application to life.

Ø  So he arrives in Jerusalem with a whole bunch of people and stuff (again)... and what does he find?

Ø  Chapter 9

Ø  So what does Ezra do? verse 3

o   This verse was very significant to me, because I have been here quite a few times with myself. .... TESTIMONY?

Ø  Then we see the people come to their senses AGAIN and the people go on to tell Ezra they are willing to fully cooperate with him to make things right again.

Ø  READ 10:11-13 Ezra instructed them what to do to make things right

Ø  but then the people point out that this "making things right" was not going to be able to happen in a day.

Ø  And it says that it took from December the 29th to March the 27th the next year to get things back in some order again. Then it lists all the priests who had married pagan wives and the Levites who were guilty and the one singer who was guilty and the 3 gatekeepers who were guilty and all the other people of Israel who were guilty after them.

Ø  And the book ends with "Each of these men had a pagan wife, and some even had children by these wives."

Ø  Then there was another 70 years before Nehemiah came on the scene...

_________________________________________________________

I think the last point I want to make is that it will take time... probably a long time for restoration to happen. It will be happening little by little  as you are willing to bring the hidden things out of the chambers and present them on the altar... and be encouraged that the Israelites continued to muck up but notice that God didn't reject them when they came back to Him. Remember that. 

Addressing the Father

We know our God is 3 parts 1 God. God the Father, God the son - Jesus, God the Holy Spirit.

It has got me thinking lately about the way we address God in our prayers. Do we have a formula when we pray? Is there a formula? Probably the only formula is what Jesus showed us...

Our Father, in heaven, Holy is your name.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the Glory, forever, Amen.

My question to myself was am I addressing the right part of God when I pray and am I doing it in a way that is respectful to Him? Am I getting my point across and even more important - am I praying His will?

I think it takes knowing the 3 parts of God intellectually as well as having an physical experience with each of them, to know how to address God properly in our prayers.

I know that the Bible has the utmost authority. It is the actual Word of God. It is more powerful than my human brain can grasp but in saying that I think we can take away from that power when we neglect engaging God as an ACTUAL being.

 We could easily start to treat Him as a 'far off' - way too busy to talk to me right now - kind of God... so we tend to throw out a bit of a "hoping this gets to Him" prayer - repeating ourselves and addressing Him too many times in a 2 minute long prayer - all the while hoping in our heads that He can make sense of our requests! We hope that He understands that we reeeeeallly want what we are praying for and He at some stage feels inclined to answer it!

Something mum said to me yesterday, when I was talking to her about my thoughts:

"Well I suppose you wouldn't say, 'Hi Mum, Nanna, Desma" when you visit me ...or when in conversation with me you wouldn't continue to refer to me as Mum, Nanna, Desma several times during the conversation.

I said ... mmm yes I think I would be looking cockeyed if someone did that to me.

So what mind set should we be in when we pray?

MARK 11:24

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

So who do we address when we are praying? How is this whole thing set up so we can experience an intimate relationship with God and not just hopeful prayers that could sound like begging or bargaining?

Well we know that Jesus is the part of God that came to earth as a man to sacrifice himself for peoples sins so that who believes in him has eternal life... (John 3:16) or in other words Jesus is the dude who died to make a bridge from you to the Father.

The Holy Spirit is the part of God that comes to live on the inside of us that gives us the "born again" part causing us to become the temple of God... causing us to have the actual spirit of God living inside of us to be our counsellor, comforter and teacher.

So the Father? Who is He? What does He do? He must be important if Jesus died to make a way for us to be in a relationship with him!

Romans 1:20

English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,^[a] in the things that have been made.    <---- that's how we start to perceive Him! Through the things that have been made!

READ GENESIS 1- The Creation Story

He refers to Himself as "US" (Let US make man in our image) He gives each part of Himself acknowledgment as being separate to the other ("and the spirit was hovering , then God said...").

 We know God has feelings and a will that plans - in Genesis "Let us DO THIS and let us DO THAT". He is amazingly creative and after He has finished creating the earth and everything on it, it says ^31 "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good".

The Heavenly Father is important to the health of our spiritual life. He cannot be ignored. He will not go away. He is the one we are meant to be glorifying! 

Romans 15

English Standard Version (ESV)

5May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the guy who gives us the earthly example to live by - in relation to how we are to have a spiritual relationship with the FATHER!

Matthew 23:9

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁹ And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

I wondered why Jesus would instruct this as I thought he wants us to honour our Father and Mother... but now I realise what He is saying is ... don't project your earthly Dads personality onto Him. When we think of our who our Father is I think a lot of us would project our earthly experience of our own Father to how we see how Heavenly Father. I believe that depending on our experience of our earthly Father is how we will engage our Heavenly Father.

HEBREWS 12

7It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?8But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers , then you are illegitimate children and not sons.9Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?10For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.11All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

It's funny how Paul is talking about discipline when He is explaining our earthly and Heavenly Father. Maybe he knew that our predisposition to project our dislike of discipline onto the Father because of our earthly Dad would not be right.

Personally I did not have a Dad who disciplined me at all so I am not afraid to run up to my Heavenly father and jump in Him lap and tell him everything I want! Unfortunately a Dad that doesn't discipline produces a rebellious and prideful grown up!

What we believe about the Father will determine how we feel when we come to Him in prayer.

 If we had an earthly Dad who was absent - you will not see the Heavenly Father as there for you.

 If you had a heavy handed Dad who physically abused you - you will fear the Heavenly Father.

If you had a Dad who was just too busy to really sit and listen to you, but you knew he loved you - you will be feeling as if our Heavenly Father has just stuck you on this earth, given you a little push in your back and let you go to work it out on your own.

These ideas that have been formed in us as we grew up are what will come out when we try to establish our prayer life. So how can we start to put our Heavenly Father in the right context in our minds... well first as always we need to read:

1 Corinthians

1By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! 2I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We need to change our thinking. Just like Phillip in John 14:

Jesus the Way to the Father

5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

That scripture right there is the weapon you need to tear down the stronghold (or lie) that you have in your mind about the knowledge of God.

We should meditate on that scripture this week!

It is difficult to understand 3 parts to one God... just like a mother who is pregnant 1 woman 2 humans... or an egg - 1 egg 3 parts: shell, yoke and white. Just as we can separate these things at some point we have to with God too. It doesn't make him less a God, just different.

We need to acknowledge the Heavenly Father in our prayer. We need to glorify Him. Jesus did a lot of work to give us that gift of reconciliation. I sure want to be thankful and a good steward of that gift.

On the way ...again...

So we have re-advertised in the paper with our legal name being changed slightly to The Storehouse Christian Church Mandurah. The 4 weeks have passed and we have resubmitted the Constitution again with the much appreciated help from Ps Mike Keating tweaking the document to abide by the laws. Now we are waiting again!