The Rise of Resistance
The Work of Revitalization • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Work of Revitalization
The Work of Revitalization
Well good morning and welcome to Burr Oak. For those who are visiting, I am Pastor Ben and it is so good to be with you today. Well we are picking back up in our series, The Work of Revitalization. Just to refresh our memories to this point we have established a couple truths about revitalization.
First, it is not about the number of people, the remodeling of a building or the buffering of a bank account. It is about the transformation of the human heart and collectively the heart of a church.
Second, the defined end date of a revitalization process for a church is at the return of Jesus.
Finally, since there is no earthly end date, our God has been faithful to give us markers to know we are heading in the right direction.
We established these markers to be:
Hearts soften & desire to grow in Godly wisdom
Repentance of sins
Growth in knowledge and understanding
Increased attacks by the enemy
New conversions & baptisms
With the desire to have our hearts soften and renewed let us have our hearts and minds brought to attention with our focus verse for this series.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Please pray with me. Father this is your day and your service. May you be with us this day. May you bless this message and our gathering here today. Open our hearts and our minds now as we prepare to receive your word. May we be encouraged where we feel weak. May we be comforted where we feel sorrow. May we be convicted where we have become complacent. Ultimately, may we be drawn closer to you. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Our message today is going to be centered around marker number 4, increased attacks by the enemy. I want to remind you that these are markers not steps. Steps you take one at a time until you have reached your destination. Markers highlight the path that you are to be taking. This would be similar to slalom skiing where markers let you know you are on the correct path. If you do not see the markers then you know that you are not on the path.
What this means for a church working through the revitalization process is that as we consider these markers we need to realize that there will be times along this path that we may see only one marker or a combination of markers all at once. The markers indicate that we are heading int he right direction. No indication of the markers means we have gotten off track.
With this in mind let us turn to our message for today. The title for our message today is “The Rise of resistance: The Expected Schemes of Satan.” For this we will be looking towards Ezra 4. If you brought your own Bible or want to follow along on your device please turn there now. If you are using the blue pew Bible it is on page 431. Or you may follow along on the screen. For our reading today we are going to read the first five verses and the last two verse of the chapter.
Let us hear the word of the Lord.
1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,
2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.”
3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build
5 and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
23 Then, when the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease.
24 Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
As we approach this passage today there are four biblical truths that we are going to focus on; Two Family Lines, Persuasion Before Persecution, The Adversary's Consistent Scheme, and Faithfulness Amidst Persecution.
Two Family Lines
Two Family Lines
When we read Scripture to grow in knowledge and understanding, one question that we have to wrestle with is, “What does this mean?” The passage that we just read what does it mean? To come to a true understanding of a verse or a passage it needs to stay tethered to the intended message of the immediate passage, the chapter, the book, the covenant that governs the passage, and the overall meta narrative of the whole Bible.
Our passage today comes from the 4th chapter of the book of Ezra, which is govern by the Mosaic Covenant with the anticipation for the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, and resides within the meta narrative of Redemption. Or the aspect that Stephen Wellum states, asks the question “Where can we find hope?” Amidst the brokenness of this fallen world.
The meta narrative of Redemption covers the majority of Scripture by beginning in roughly Gen 3:15
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
And ends with Revelation 20. Within this meta narrative there is a nuanced overreaching theme that God wants us to see and understand. This is the division of two family lines. This verse here indicates the start of the emergence of this theme. We see a division between the offspring of Eve and the offspring of the serpent. What does this mean? Does it mean that as humans we are to hate snakes and be at war with them? No because this is not a physical division. This is a spiritual division. Adam is referred to as the son of God. This division is between the children of Yahweh and the children of the Adversary or Satan.
Scripture clearly presents this ongoing separation. We see in the separation of the genealogies of Adam’s sons Cain and Seth. We see it again with Noah’s sons Ham and Shem. We see it again with Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac. We see it with the separation of Esau and Jacob. We see this spiritual family separation clearly spelled out by Jesus.
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
We see Paul pick up on it.
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
We see John understand this as well.
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
The Bible clearly presents that the division amongst people is a spiritual division. The deciding factor is not based on your skin color, or your gender, or the amount of good works you do. It is based on whether or not you belong to the family of God. Ezra highlights this with the opening verse of our passage today.
1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,
Ezra names the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. By using the tribal names he is referencing back to the family of Israel, the chosen lineage for God’s family. But the question could be be, where is the indication of the opposing family line. This is wrapped up in the term adversaries. Commenting on this Kidner states,
Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary An Offer Refused (4:1–5)
It is easy to overlook or play down the description of this deputation as the adversaries and so to form an impression of the encounter as a rude rebuff to a sincere and friendly gesture. Instead, we are meant to see it as the opening of a battle of wits: the first round in an assault on the integrity of the nation-church, an attempt which would be pressed home with every kind of tactic, disarming or menacing, defamatory or obstructive, but always geared to the one objective.
Furthering the indication of the presence of the opposing family line is Peter Adam’s comments.
Ezra & Nehemiah: Walking in God’s Words Chapter 6: From Opposition to Joy (Ezra 4–6)
Satan is not mentioned in these chapters of Ezra, but we can see signs of his work. George Simenon’s fictional detective Maigret said of an infamous gangster that his fingerprints were all over a series of crimes. So can we see Satan’s fingerprints in the oppression and seduction of God’s people in Ezra and Nehemiah.
Now one thing we had mentioned in one of the earlier messages from this series was that this return from Babylon was liken to that of a miniature exodus. It was a small scale march on the promise land. Recognizing this what we need to keep in mind is Zerubbabel is conscious of this and wants to make sure the returning exiles do not fall to the same temptations that their forefathers did. Namely intermixing with the opposing spiritual family.
This is an aspect that many people who wrestle with the OT tend to bring up. Why would God order the Israelites to destroy so many people groups? Why were they so standoffish so to not accept help from outsiders? The reason for this is because Yahweh was providing a lineage that would bring about the offspring of the woman that would finally break the curse.
Do you know that there is point that comes when the Scriptures stop detailing out genealogies? The first chapter of Matthew and the third chapter of Luke are the last genealogies that we read in the Scriptures. The reason for this is that the tracing of the offspring of the woman to the promised son has come. The lineage of Yahweh’s family has it’s culmination in Jesus Christ, the son of promise. Through him we are incorporated in the the family of Yahweh when we are born of the Spirit.
And because we are still in the time of Redemption within the meta narrative, the battle between the spiritual families still rages on. So as we continue down this path of revitalization what is it we can expect from the enemy? This brings us to our next two points.
Persuasion Before Persecution
Persuasion Before Persecution
Here in Adam’s comment we read the terms seduction and oppression. I have chosen the words persuasion and persecution. The idea here is the same though. When we begin to talk about the enemy’s tactics he will first try to persuade or seduce his prey into following his path. We see this highlighted in our passage today in verse 2.
2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.”
Now while this may seem initially to be an innocent offer of help, this is a tactic that is regularly applied by Satan. It is very similar to what happen with Eve in the garden.
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Solomon highlights this tactic through his description of the forbidden woman.
For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,
See often times the that path that seems welcoming and beneficial to travel down, is actually the path that leads to death.
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;
As a church that is working down the path of revitalization not only do we need to know the markers to indicate that we are on the right path. But we need to know the schemes of our adversary to make sure that we do not get convinced to start trekking down the wrong path. Because we are intentionally engaging in this process we can expect the enemy to come after us.
In his book “The Adversary” Mark Bubeck states this regarding Satan’s hindrance of revivals.
“I have come to see how very important spiritual warfare is to the subject of revival. It is important to the bringing in of revival blessings and to the sustaining of the fruit of any great move of God.
Satan hates the subject of revival more than any other burden of the church. Revivals have jarred and sent into retreat the kingdom of darkness as no other events ever have.
Satan will do everything and anything to stop revival. If it should come, he will immediately begin to corrupt and divert the movement from the Spirit of God’s great work.” - Mark Bubeck “The Adversary” pg. 155.
This corrupting and diverting comes through persuasion and seduction. There is a luring into the enemies trap. This is where we need to be growing in discernment and keeping our eyes on the main things like we discussed in our series in Philippians last year. But persuasion and seduction are only the first step. If we withstand that temptation into what looks like an easier and beneficial path, then persecution or oppression comes. We see this in our passage today from verses 4 and 5.
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
In Bubeck’s book he states that this is the second step to block a church if corruption through persuasion dose not work. This second step is to create fear through persecution. You do not have to look very hard or far to see that many Christians and Churches in America are operating out of a spirit of fear. Our zeal to see people freed from the grasps of sin has dwindled from the flame boldly going to where God has called us, to a pilot light that only acknowledges that we should be telling others.
Just as the adversaries that Judah and Benjamin faced brought fear and frustration to their project, so too does our adversary attempt to bring fear and frustration to what God has called us to do. What we need to realize is that this plan of attack is not new, but it is his consistent scheme.
The Adversary's Consistent Scheme
The Adversary's Consistent Scheme
and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
As we come to the middle portion of our passage for today, we see something take place that could feel a little confusing. Ezra mentions four different kings that rule over the time period of the rebuilding. He starts with Cyrus and Darius, then moves to Ahasuerus also so known as Xerxes, and then to Artaxerxes.
In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.
The question we need to ask is why would Ezra choose to break chronological order within the text?
Akin states that he does this to show a thematic unity. In Chapters 1-6 Ezra is showing how difficulties were presented by outsiders and the later chapters will show how the difficulties came through the complacency of the Israelites. By highlighting this theme what we can see is that for the duration from Cyrus to Artaxerxes there was opposition from those who were not part of the chosen lineage. This time frame cover nearly a hundred years. Answering why Ezra arranged this section this way Akin shows three other points besides thematic unity.
Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah The Timeline of Ezra 4
• This arrangement reflects Ezra’s view that the returnees are a united group on one side, with all the opposition from various periods of time on the other side.
• Ezra’s perspective, also reflected in Ezra 6:14, is that this multi-generational effort, comprising multiple groups of returnees, is one united restoration accomplished by God’s decree.
• Breaking the returnees into these two camps communicates that the opposition faced by Ezra’s own generation will be defeated just as opposition from earlier generations was.
Akin’s points here serve us in a couple ways. First it affirms our first point from today. There are two family lines to be concerned about. Yahweh’s family line and Satan’s family line. These lines are at opposition with each other. The second point is seeing that revitalization is a multi-generational aspect. This is not something we have talked much about yet. This is part of what sets revival and revitalization apart from one another.
Revival occurs and last for a generation. Revitalization is multi-generational. It is not merely for us who are here today. It is for those that come after us. It is for our spiritual sons and daughters that we will raise up. In revitalization we need to be thinking far down the road about what we are doing and why.
Finally, Akin’s last point is that as we look back and see Yahweh’s faithfulness to previous generations, we can be assured of his faithfulness to our generation. All of these affirm the fact that we are looking to markers to guide us. That revitalization has no earthly finish line. The increased attacks by the enemy indicate that we are heading down the correct path. But how do we respond?
Faithfulness Amidst Persecution
Faithfulness Amidst Persecution
As we consider this last biblical truth for today, there are a few aspects that we can consider to aid us in staying faithful amidst persecution. The first principle that we see comes in the aspect of Zerubbabel’s response.
But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
This first aspect ties back to the sermon series we just ended, what is the purpose of the church. We need to know what we are doing and why. By knowing our purpose and our mission, we are less likely to be derailed in working toward its completion. Which what is our purpose here at Burr Oak, why do we exist?
We exist to grow the family of God!
It is staying on point with what we have been called to do as Christians. Coupled along with this is not being persuaded to use worldly tactics to accomplish our Goals. God’s word is sufficient in directing our steps as his children and as his church. Learning how to interact with people, how to love people, how to prayer for people, how to serve, what gifts we have been given, how to glorify God in the roles he has placed us. All of the answers to these questions and more can be found in his word. We do not need to turn to personality tests, to enneagrams, to horoscopes or signs. We do not need to turn to organizational consultants or professionals. We simply need to be dedicated to following Yahweh and the ways that he has called us to live in regards to him and each other.
The next principle we see is knowing what portion God has called us to. We see this demonstrated in a couple verses. Again looking to Zerubbabel.
But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
Zerubbabel knew clearly that they were to build the temple. That was the task that they had been called to. Moving forward to Ezra’s time we see that the role has changed.
be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.
Ezra and Nehemiah were tasked with the rebuilding of the city walls. Both the temple and the city walls were a vital job and each were committed to the role they were called to complete. We might ask why did the walls around the city not come first? Could this not have served as a protection from all these attacks? Yet, in Yahweh’s wisdom he had the walls built later. There may have been times that the first group lead by Zerubbabel and Jeshua hoped for greater physical protection from these threats, but they were committed to the task that they were called to.
See we may not always understand why God has called us to serve in a certain role within his church. We may think that there is a better way for us to serve or that we ought to be doing something different than what we are. This comes down to a trust issue with God. What has God called you to? To answer that look at the roles that he has placed you in.
Are you an elder in the church? What is your role? Are you a deacon? What is your role? Are you a member? What is role to be? Are you a husband or a father? What is your role? Are you a wife or a mother? What is your role? Are you a child? What is your role? We tend to over complicate these things.
We do this because we are dissatisfied with the role that we have ben called to. While there are differing views on how to understand some of the passages related to these role what I can tell you is that if you simply live out what is plainly written then you will be well within the bounds of honoring God with how you live. To keep Satan from persuading us and seducing us we need to know what it is that we have been called to both individually and collectively.
The last principle comes from the last verse for today.
Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
To understand this, we need to know that Ezra now goes back to the timeline of Zerubbabel. Their work had been brought to a stand still during the reign of Cyrus and ceased until the second year of Darius. While we do not know exactly how long they were stalled we know it was at least two years. How many of you have the patients to see a project delayed for two years and still continue on with it? Most of us would probably drop that project and move on to something else.
I want you to remember the zeal they had once the foundation was laid. Their celebration out of humility that God had been faithful to them. Shortly after this they are waylaid in their work. While this could have been a point used for the enemy to make them believe that Yahweh was not truly with them, this did not distract them. Our message next week will pick up with the resuming of the building.
What we need to see is that there may be times where progress is not as evident or smooth as we have hoped. Yet, we cannot grow complacent, or lackadaisical in our efforts. We cannot become discouraged believing that Yahweh has removed himself from us. We have to guard ourselves from chasing experiences of memories from long ago in replace of chasing Yahweh. When we get to a point where we feel like our work has stalled. That is the time to begin to check our hearts, to take assessment of what they are set on. This protects us from worshipping the wrong things. This protects us from chasing after the wrong things. This will help to prevent us from walking down the wrong path.
Through Zerubbabel we see this amazing picture of Jesus painted for us. Zerubbabel would not be swayed, he rebuked those that tried to mislead and harm, and despite to suffering he endured it to carry on the work assigned to him. Jesus did all these things as well, but the outcome was not for a physical building. It was for a body of people. It was for a dwelling place of God that had been more personal that ever before.
Jesus was not swayed in his temptation in the wilderness, he was not swayed through the voice of the Pharisees and Sadducees He was not swayed when his mother and brothers tried to persuade him. He was not swayed when Satan used his disciples to persuade him. He protected the innocent and came to set the captives free. He gladly faced suffering finding it joy to complete the task he was given so that you and I could be reconciled to him.
And now because of Jesus we do not need to be afraid, or worried. When we face trials, when we are being persuaded to follow the wrong path, when we are being caused to fear due to persecution, we can rest in Jesus, for he has told us this would happen.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
There will be times of trouble in this life, but family do not lose heart. There will be times during this process that we will feel as though we have failed and cannot go one. These are the times we need to keep our eyes firmly of Jesus and rest in his word. Take heart! For I have overcome the world!
Do not fear, do not panic, do not worry. Come to Jesus, find rest for your weary soul in him. Find encouragement to carry on. If you know Jesus this day as your personal savior rejoice for greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world. If you have not accepted him as your personal savior, why? What is keeping you from coming to Jesus?
END IN PRAYER