Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20100926.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Ezra: Following God For Reconstruction After Group Defeat
Part VI: Focusing On God's Future Kingdom Versus The Passing World System
(Ezra 3:7-13 with Haggai 2:1-9 and 1 John 2:15-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. There is often a pull in our era for "the way things used to be", a longing for the past's "good old days".
    2. However, the believer is to be forward-looking, and the reason for this shift in focus and devotion is explained in Ezra 3:7-13 with Haggai 2:1-9 and 1 John 2:15-17 (as follows):
  2. Focusing On God's Future Kingdom Versus The Passing World System, Ezra 3:7-13 et al.
    1. Following the reconstruction of the temple altar and the Levitical sacrificial system (Ezra 3:1-6), the returned Hebrew exiles started to reconstruct the foundation of the fallen temple, Ezra 3:7-11:
      1. Ezra 3:7 shows the Hebrew exiles contributed money to hire skilled workers from Tyre and Sidon to bring cedars from Lebanon to start rebuilding the temple much as 1 Kings 5:7-12 reports was done in the construction of the original temple under Solomon; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ezra 3:7.
      2. The religious leader Jeshua and the civil governor Zerubbabel with the priests, Levites and the people arranged for those Levites 20 years of age and older to supervise the work, Ezra 3:8 NIV.
      3. When the foundation was laid, the nation held a great celebration to the glory of God, Ezra 3:9-11.
    2. However, amid all the celebrating, some of the older leaders who had seen Solomon's former great temple grieved at the sight of this temple foundation of lesser grandeur, Ezra 3:12 with Haggai 2:1-3.
    3. So great was this grief that Ezra 3:13 reports witnesses present could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of weeping though the noise of the people could be heard from far away!
    4. Instead of weeping, God wanted the people to be joyful, and His reasons are given in Haggai 2:4-9:
      1. God wanted the returned exiles under Zerubbabel and Jeshua (Joshua in Haggai 2:4) to be strong in their dedication to finish the work of the temple reconstruction, for He was with them, Haggai 2:4.
      2. God said that just as He had been with the fledgling nation of Israel when it came out of Egyptian slavery to be a nation, He was with them now that they were returning out of national weakness from the Babylonian Captivity, Haggai 2:5a. They were thus not to fear failure or destruction, Haggai 2:5b.
      3. The reason for this positive outlook on the future was that God would establish the Messianic Kingdom when His blessings would be far greater than Israel had known under Solomon, Haggai 2:6-9:
        1. In judgment, God planned to bring His Great Tribulation judgments, to "shake" the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land and to "shake" all the nations in the final Battle of Armageddon, and the "desire of all nations," the Messiah, would come to Jerusalem (Rev. 19-20), Haggai 2:6-7a.
        2. The temple in that coming Messianic Kingdom would then be filled with glory, and since the silver and the gold of the earth's nations belonged to the Lord (Haggai 2:7b-8), even the material glory of the latter temple of God would be greater than the former glory of Solomon's temple, Haggai 2:9a.
        3. Besides making the Messianic temple far more materially endowed than Solomon's temple, God promised to give peace at that Messianic temple, a provision not previously enjoyed, Haggai 3:9b.
    5. Viewing this Haggai 2:4-9 outlook from the 1 John 2:15-17 perspective, God wanted Israel in Ezra's era to exchange a love for the passing world and its lusts for the love of God and His coming Kingdom:
      1. This world and its lusts of the flesh, of the eyes and of the pride of life (1 John 2:16a) is in the process of continually passing away (paragetai, the present tense of parago ) 1 John 2:17a; Bauer, Arndt & Gingrich, A Greek-English Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 619.
      2. To love this transient world system is to be at enmity with God and with the love of God (1 John 2:15).
      3. However, to hold to the love of God leads a believer to do God's will for him (1 John 2:17b), and that leads to the process of having that work with that believer keep on remaining (menei , the present tense of meno) unto the eternal Kingdom of God; Ibid., p. 504-505; U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966 ed., p. 816.
Lesson: The returning Hebrew exiles were not to grieve over the world that was passing away, but to hope in the future under God and to love Him so as to do His will in rebuilding the destroyed temple!

Application: May we shift our love away from the world system and its lusts that are passing away unto God and doing His will in faith that we with our work will last unto the eternal Kingdom of God!