We are in Ezra this evening. A couple weeks ago, we covered Ezra 1-1. We are picking up the pace dramatically as we cover Ezra 1-1-4. When we were going through Galatians on Sunday evenings a little while back, one Sunday evening kind of built on the other because Paul builds a logical argument through the book of Galatians and it makes it very challenging to preach through the book of Galatians well. If you miss a week or two or if we misstep or don't review well as we go forward, it's easy to miss Paul's argument and therefore miss his point and the whole evening is kind of shot in a lot of ways. Ezra's not like that. which is very relieving. Each sermon can kind of stand on its own, which is very helpful, I think, and very good, because we'll only be doing this one more time, theoretically, before January 7th or 8th rolls around. So we're here again this evening. Not building directly on two weeks ago, so if you weren't here, you don't need to cover your loins with sackcloth and put dust on your head. We might be able to get through this. Ezra 1, 1 to 4, I will read it. And the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judea. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of the God that is in Jerusalem. Our main point for this evening is God continues his plan to dwell with his people. We did mention last week that this isn't plan B, it's a continuation of God's plan, and we're going to pick that theme up in just a bit. But before we do, we're going to go down what feels like a rabbit trail that will hopefully lead us right back onto this path. The first place we're going to start is with the fact that we are unavoidably impacted by our culture. but God works to create the culture in and through us. Merriam-Webster defines culture this way, the beliefs, customs, and arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time. A culture is the beliefs, customs, arts, etc. They gave another definition right beneath it, as they often do, This definition is, quote, a particular society that has its own beliefs, way of life, arts, etc. So, definition one, it is the beliefs, customs, arts, etc. of a particular society. Definition two, it is a particular society itself that has its own beliefs, way of life, art, etc. So, the question is, which is it? What is a culture? That doesn't help me. Is it a society or is it the beliefs, arts, so on and so forth that make up, that are inside the society? Is it the society or is it the beliefs, way of life, arts, so on and so forth? Regardless, we live in a society. We live in a culture. We live in a society that possesses beliefs, customs, arts, so on and so forth. And we live in a culture because we live in a relationship. Culture is not possible outside of relationships. How many of you have ever walked into someone's house, and all of a sudden, before much really happens, you just have a feel about where you are. I can remember that walking into my grandparents' house. Combination of smells, memories, the people that are there, so on and so forth, it created an atmosphere. But that atmosphere wouldn't be picked up if I walked into an empty house. Not the same way. As we enter into relationship, we enter into culture. For example, if I were to go live in the Ethiopian part of Sioux Falls, I could take on the Ethiopian culture in Sioux Falls in a minimal way by avoiding as many relationships as I possibly could, to be as little impacted by the culture as possible, though it doesn't leave me uninfluenced because there are people around me who are still in relationships and they relate to one another. And so if I, as an outsider in the Ethiopian culture, am looking in, I'm influenced by that. I can react emotionally to that. I develop thoughts about that. I am influenced, for better or for ill, by being either on the outside of the culture or, should chance be, I am born into the culture. If I were born into the Ethiopian culture in Sioux Falls, I would then be raised with thinking the beliefs, customs, arts, so on and so forth that are around me are a natural part of life. Right, so we weren't born and raised in an Ethiopian culture, so we do not think that their beliefs, customs, and arts are the regular way of life. We think our own way of life is the regular way of life, which comes along with where we were born and raised. If I were born and raised in that culture, I would take on their beliefs, their values, their way of life, in a much more dramatic way than if I enter it from the outside. But that is because my relationships would be that much deeper. By nature, we are people in relationship with other people, and therefore we take on ways of thinking that we are often unconscious of. I bring all of this up to make one point. I hope we realized how impacted we are by our culture in tremendous ways we are often not even conscious to. We take on some of the same assumptions. I've mentioned one of them, the assumption that our culture is the best one. How many of you have ever heard or even said, as I am guilty of having said, The American governmental system is the best the world has ever known. Right? It just is. I mean, the Republican way of life, or the democracy we live in, or republic we live in, whatever you want to call it, it's the best one ever developed. And it's modeled off of the Romans, so they had a great one too. However, if you mention that to a Muslim Pakistanian, I think he might take exception to what you're saying. It is an opinion to say where we live is the best place to ever have lived in the history of the world. There are some evidences for that. There's reason for saying it. But to say that our form of government is the best one ever created, even though it's flawed, perhaps even broken, is still the best one, is to make an assertion because of where you were born and raised. a Muslim from a Palestinian country would not say the same thing. They wouldn't agree with that, by and large. So we take on that view because the way we have experienced life, and because of the interactions we've had with the people around us, and what they think and say begins to rub off on us after a while. Another assumption that I think most of us have, if we assume that someone is not antagonistic to me, especially if they are permissive of me or supportive of me, they must agree with me. For example, how many of you would say, if you voted for the candidate that I did not vote for, you must agree with most everything they say. No, I don't necessarily agree with everything the candidate I voted for says. But you must, right? So think back to this last election. Those who voted for Clinton. How many of you would say those who voted for Clinton seem to get along most agreeable with everything Clinton says? I mean, there's maybe a couple of issues. For the most part, those who voted for Clinton are obvious huge Clinton supporters. They agree with Clinton. They're like Clinton. Now, they say the same thing to those who voted for Trump. You're just like Trump. That's why you voted for him. And we say, well, well, well, I'm not exactly like Trump. I voted for him, yeah, but there are policies that... We can't have it both ways, right? We often don't give those who are opposed to us the same benefit of the doubt that we would harbor for ourselves. So I can say I voted for a candidate. That doesn't mean I agree with them on everything. But those who voted for the candidate I didn't agree with them on pretty much everything. That's why I can be so antagonistic to them. Right? So the assumption is If you are not antagonistic to me, and even if you support me, you must be like me in nearly all things. We must be very similar, very much alike. All of this converges on us when we come to the text of Ezra. This is how it often happens. We read verse 1. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. Jump down to verse two, Cyrus' proclamation. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem. Do you think that Cyrus, how do we think about Cyrus? Do we think that maybe Cyrus was kind of a God-fear? Maybe you could say he's a God-fear? Maybe he's even like an Old Testament version of Cornelius. That's possible. Or, if we were to take an extreme step, he's a covenant child. He advocated the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. That's a big deal. We're going to pause on that for just a second before we address that specifically. I'm going to take a step back. I had a conversation with an aunt whom I dearly love, worked hard for the Lord, and this last summer in a conversation, we started talking about the impact of Islamic thinking in American universities. She does not like where things are headed, simply because the influence of Christianity in the universities is waning. And there are bad things about that. I will grant her that. My argument was kind of going the other way, though. I said, how many people in our culture in the last 50, 100 years thought they were Christians because they lived relatively like a real Christian, only to be self-deceived? How easy has it been in our nation to think relatively like a regenerated, God-centered individual and not be a regenerated, God-centered individual as long as the decisions I make are relatively like the one who is. As long as my thought process is relatively like the one who is. So I can make all of the same decisions as someone who is born again, God-fearing, Jesus-exalting, wants-to-show-the-supremacy-of-God-in-all-things sort of person, I can make decisions that are relatively in line with that, and therefore I think I am that. Though I'm really not. So my argument was, what's really happening, I think, it has a very negative aspect to it, right? As in any culture. As you remove Christian influence, if you want to call it that, you remove common ways of thought, or what were common ways of thought. But it also removes nominal Christianity. If your faith costs you something, you're not going to stick to a faith that you really don't possess. And so, I said, going back the other way, Nominal Christians are not the sort of Christians who are eager to make an impact on other people around them for Jesus Christ. What we have now is an opportunity for Muslims to meet real Christians. Because they stand out. So I took a slightly more positive reading of it. And all of that because of living in relationship to one another. And when we come to the text of Ezra, we can have the same sort of perspective. Cyrus, because he made decisions that looked relatively Judaistic, Yahwehistic, he must be a Yahweh worshiper. But, God does stir spirits, though he does so, I think, typically in and through his word. So rather than thinking that Cyrus had some weird mystical experience where this pagan king all of a sudden has this out-of-the-blue desire, hey, I'm gonna build a temple for Yahweh in Jerusalem, perhaps he knew something that we often overlook. Turn with me, if you would, to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41 verses 2 through 4. Who stirred up one from the east, whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him so that he tramples kings underfoot. He makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. He pursues them and passes on safely, by paths His feet have not trod. Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am He." Verse 25, same chapter. I stirred up one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name, for he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. A couple more passages over, getting a little bit more specific. Isaiah 44. Verse 24. Isaiah 44 verse 24. So God is just setting up, I'm the one who does this. Jump down now with me to verse 27. Pretty specific now, isn't it? How about over again to Isaiah 45, verses 1 through 7, and this is a text we're going to come to again and again and again and again and again as we go through the book of Ezra. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed. I will go before you and level the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of the darkness in the hordes and secret places that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord and there is no other. Besides me there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, spreading out through all nations, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Imagine being Cyrus. You're handed this 200-year-old document and you see your name in print. Might get your attention. But what was the culture Cyrus was a part of? Cyrus was a king who believed in many gods, giving them all fairly equal airtime, for that matter. And remember his policy. The people of the nations he subdues and conquers, he sends back to their homeland, and he's always favorable towards that god. For example, this comes from the Cylinder Cyrus. Assyrians primarily worshipped Ahur Mazda though they acknowledged other deities Quote the best known example of this is the Cyrus cylinder in which Cyrus elaborately attributes his victories to Marduk the Babylonian God So after Cyrus marches and over Babylon Stomps the city to dust. He says your God is the one who gave me this city. I He attributed his victories to Marduk, the Babylonian god, saying he declared him, that is Cyrus, to become the ruler of all the world. Quote, whose role Bel and Nebo love, whom they want as king to please their hearts. Indeed, Cyrus goes so far as to call himself a worshiper of Marduk, the great lord. Yet at Ur, Cyrus can equally say that the great gods have delivered all the lands into my hands. Cyrus saw himself as one who returned the gods to their shrines." That was his policy. Is it surprising that when he sees a prophecy that has his name in it that's 200 years old, who believes in multiple God, who takes oracles and omens and signs very seriously, is it that out of the stretch of the imagination to imagine that God might have used the text of Isaiah to spur Cyrus to do this? I don't think it is. I don't think Cyrus needed some mystical experience to have this inkling. I think it was the text of Isaiah. brought to his attention. And when Cyrus sees that, he says, oh yeah, that sounds exactly right. Well, let's send them back. Let's build that God's temple, shall we? Along with Marduk and all the other gods that seem to be floating around. What's it going to hurt to have all of their support? So, verse 2 is not that earth-shattering, In the sense of Cyrus would actually have it decreed and say he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem when he sees his name in 200 year old documents. Of course, Cyrus is absolutely right. Though it's truer in his mouth than he thinks it is. He doesn't know that Yahweh is the only one who has done this for him. But that's exactly what Yahweh is trying to show him as he does it. Remember the texts in Isaiah. That you may know I am the only one who does this. But the point, for the most part, seems to be lost on Cyrus, just like it is on most of the rest of the nations. So God stirred Cyrus up by God's own word. And is our experience really any different? So imagine you go to some sort of event, and you see someone sitting alone. And you go over and you start talking to them. And something pretty significant happens as a result of that conversation. And you say to yourself, God just prompted me to go over there. Start talking to this person. Possible. But I hope you were prompted because of something like Proverbs 14, 31. Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. There's no mystical experience to be moved to do something because of those texts. It's being formed by the Word of God. So, then, here's the plea. Pick up your Bible, read it, and never put it down. Ever. You know why it's so easy to feel like you're not led very often to do things? I think it's because we're not formed by the Bible as much as we think we are. We might be impacted by the culture around us. Outside of the church, you know why some people have busier retirements than others? Why some people can't seem to quit ever, ever traveling. And other people work their retirements away harder than they did during their working career. Serving other people in their retirement. I think it's because they're people who are formed by the word. I do this for Jesus. I see what he wants me to do. I feel prompted to do these things that are hard. They require me to sacrifice going to places and doing things, other things that I would enjoy doing. But I do this. Because Jesus said, I have set you an example. And so we do that. The scandal is that Cyrus, who is a multiple God-worshiping pagan, paid more attention to the text of Isaiah than a lot of the Jews in the Dyspora did. That's the scandal. Cyrus sees some divine voice in here. Not all of the Jews returned back to build the temple. A lot of them didn't. because they didn't see what the author of Ezra clearly sees, in order that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. And so, what was Cyrus prompted for? To build a house. It occurs two times, that phrase, one in verse two, he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah, And then down again, verse 3, So the whole purpose for all of this prompting is in order that God's house might be built because God's aim is to dwell with his people. It always has been. That was God's aim in the garden. That was God's aim after he set a group of people aside and led them through the wilderness in the Exodus. His whole purpose in that was that he might live among his people. Exodus 29. You don't need to turn there. You can just hear me read it when I find it. Exit is 29 versus 43 to 46. There I will meet with the people of Israel and it shall be called and it shall be sanctified by my glory. This is referring to the tent. I will consecrate the tent of meeting in the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel and be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. After the people polluted themselves, God said, I'm not going to live with the people like this. I told you I would not live with the people like this. So he sends them out into all the nations through the Assyrian and the Babylonian captivities. Bringing them back to the temple, though, is not plan B. Okay, plan A, living with them that way didn't work, we're gonna try something different. No, this is a continuation of the same sort of thing. God still insists, I'm going to redeem a people, and I'm gonna dwell with them. So he brings them back. Ezekiel 37, and this one you will want to turn to. This is a marvelous text. A little lengthy, but worth it. Ezekiel 37, verses 15 through 28. A big chunk. But context is very helpful. So Ezekiel 37, 15 and following. And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. And when your people say to you, will you not tell us what you mean by these? Say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph, that is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone and will gather them from all around and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all. And they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all their backslidings in which they have sinned. And I will cleanse them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will set them in their land and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. Ezekiel prophesied the same time-ish as Jeremiah. Their ministries overlapped, though in slightly different locations. They both emphasized Judah's fall, judgment, and restoration. And when they would be brought back, God would fulfill His promises to Abraham. And when that happened, Israel would find itself ruled by its messianic king who would rule in their land. Verses 24 to 26, my servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. What's happening in Cyrus' decree? Whoever among you is from the people of Israel, go back and rebuild the temple. These are the things we ought to have rushing to our minds. Is this it? Is this when God fulfills his promises to Abraham? Could this be? They expected messianic king in their land. Verse 26, they expected God's presence would be permanently found in the new temple. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore." They also expected God's kingdom to rule over the nations and to be a wellspring for all the nations. These are the three things Israel really expected to have happen. And when Cyrus gives that call, as he does, Whoever is among you of all his people, this is verse three of Ezra 1 now. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem and build the house. Notice the emphasis on build a house. The temple isn't merely a building. A temple is not God's house in the same way the church is God's house. How many of you when you were children were told not to run in church because it's God's house? Right? A show of hands. I would like to see this. A good number of people. Don't run in church, it's God's house. The temple is not God's house in the same way the church is God's house. Very, very different. The temple is the place for worshiping God. Everything in every individual Israelite's life is supposed to center around the building of the temple. Everything in it was designed so that when you walked into it, or you even saw it from the outside, you couldn't help but think, God is holy, I am not. All worship takes place at the temple. There is no other place of worship. One place to worship, my house on Zion. That's where you go to worship. That's where the sacrifices are. That's where my presence is. I dwell with the people in physical form in the glory cloud in the temple. Have you ever seen the glory cloud in the church? No, it's not the same. Completely different. We would be the glory cloud, by the way. The temple is completely different. That is the place where God dwells with his people. So when Cyrus says, go back and rebuild the house, and the author of Ezra says that is to fulfill what Jeremiah spoke, that is to say, God's restoring his promises. He's restoring his people. He's going to live among them again. That is a huge deal. The temple is supposed to be built so that the people can relate to God. They can come to the temple. They can worship Him there. That's the only place Old Testament law prescribed, and you could argue, worship God the way He said He needed, ought to be worshipped. Not needed, ought to be worshipped. So it is a part of Cyrus's decree to say, go back and rebuild the temple. But there's so much more behind it. This is God restoring his relationship to the nation of Israel. That's a big deal. A very, very big deal. There's also an emphasis on Jerusalem for the exact same reason. The temple is found at Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mentioned three times in this text, by the way. Verse two, he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Verse three, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. So three times Jerusalem comes up, and it is a part of Cyrus's decree, but more than that, it's the emphasis of God is returning people from their captivity, he's separating people back out, just like he did at the Exodus, and it's in order that they might worship God where and how God told them to worship him. He's bringing people back. that they might live in God's midst. Now verses three and four, whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem. That's not a command, it is an invitation. It is an opportunity. And the same thing in verse 4, let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of the place. That's not a command, that's an invitation. It's an opportunity. Which will become a very big deal later on. But we're going to leave it for now. Verse 4, each survivor And there's a lot of debate. What is a man of the place? Is that a Jew who stays behind and simply doesn't go because life has treated him quite well? He's been comfortable in Babylon, so he sticks around in Babylon. Or, is that the Babylonians, etc., who are around the Jews, are supposed to assist the Jews as they go back? Commentators are pretty split on this one. The text leaves it a little vague. I slightly incline myself to say that's reference to the Jews that are deciding to stay back, though I have absolutely no reason to say that there needs to be a hard distinction between the two. It is not unlike God, who can move the heart of a pagan king, that he can move the heart of pagan laymen as well, to allow his people to plunder them on his way back. Just imagine their thinking though. Yeah, I'm going to support this God. Why not? I'm going to hedge my bets. I'm going to spread out my worship to as many gods as I can because I need all the help I can get in this world. Incidentally, Pascal's Wager is more pagan than Christian in its philosophical thinking. Pascal's Wager, for those of you who might need a refresher. If I worship God and I am wrong, big deal. If I worship God and I am right, I have gained everything. If you don't worship God and you're wrong, you've lost everything. Yeah, so that sort of logical thinking has, I mean, that's exactly the way the people of Ezra's day thought in all of the idol-worshiping nations around him. So it's not unlike God to use something like this to stir people along, to help in rebuilding the temple. So, to summarize here a little bit, verse four, Let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns be assisted by the men of the place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides free will offerings, for the house of God that is in, number four, Jerusalem. We are supposed to put ourselves in their shoes as the Israelites are living in a country that is not theirs, they were forcibly removed out of the land of Israel for 70 years. They've had Ezekiel's prophecies running through their minds for nearly 70 years. They've had Isaiah's words of the coming restoration for 200 years. And when they get the sweet news from Cyrus, go back, rebuild the temple, Let his God be with him. His God be with him. We're supposed to think to ourselves, could this be it? Could this be the end that God has promised? When the temple is rebuilt, will he come and vindicate his people? We know it's not, but we'll deal with that more in depth later on, when they realize that that's not the case. We also pause on the consideration of what God desires. God is not passionless in redemption. He's not ho-hum about salvation. It's a big deal. The reason it's a big deal is because he does not struggle to find joy in relationships. He is fully and completely joy-filled in his children. It's not trite to say Jesus is giddy with excitement over you. That's why God wants to dwell with his people. They're the ones he's given his heart to. They're the ones he's sacrificed his son to redeem. The way we're going to end, we're going to speak to one another of benediction. And we're going to close this way for quite a long time as we go through the book of Ezra. We're going to memorize a passage. I'll have it up on the screen for a good number of weeks. But we're going to do this together. And this is how we're going to close week after week after week. So if you would stand. We're going to recite to one another the words of Zephaniah 317, and then I will pray in closing. So, let us say to one another, The Lord your God is in your midst. mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing." Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, what marvelously wonderful words. You rejoice over your children. You do not save grudgingly. You save in full joy. You save with unhindered affection. We pray that that would impact us in a way it has never impacted us before. May we be a people who are astounded that the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who holds all things in the palm of his hand, the one who steers the hearts of kings as streams of water in his hand, that you are the one who has set his affection on us. Lord, let us ask, why have you chosen us in all the world? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. Thank you, God. May we be those who display the joy of redemption every day. Help us to this end. In Jesus' name, amen.