Sermon Tone Analysis

“*RESTORED BY GOD*”

(A Series on Ezra: Building His Church)

 

Westgate Chapel 6~/4~/95 a.m.

Ezra 6:1-12

 

PROPOSITION:  Jesus came to earth to restore broken humanity and He still makes all who come to Him new...by divine decree...without enemy interference...and with all the resources needed.                                            .

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i. introduction

!! -     THE book of Ezra, in the Old Testament, is the wonderful story of the restoration of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of the living God.

!! -     THIS restoration was accomplished by a small remnant group of Jews who had been in captivity in Babylon for over 70 years, but had been allowed to come back to the City of God....by the Persian king, Cyrus.

!! -     THE city of Jerusalem had been destroyed 70 years earlier by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army....as part of the discipline of God for Israel’s idolatry and rebellion.

!! -     THE Temple had been leveled, the city of God had been burned and the majority of the people carried of as slaves to Babylon.

!! -     JERUSALEM looked like a disaster area.

!! -     BUT God had allowed all of this to bring His people to repentance....and ultimately back to Himself.

!! -     AND now He is getting ready to restore the city of God and the Temple.

!! -     AND the Old Testament book of Ezra records the story.

!! -     THIS morning the story is about restoration....and we pick it up in chapter 6.

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! ii.

restored by divine decree

!! -     THE enemy had done everything in his power to stop the restoration of the City of God.

!! -     IN chapter 4 the enemy tried to stop the restoration by....

!!! ~*     Joining the effort himself (4:2).

!!! ~*     Trying to discourage and frighten the people of the Lord by intimidation (4:4).

!!! ~*     Hiring counselors from within the City of God to work against them and frustrate the process (4:5).

!!! ~*     Lodging a complaint with Artaxerxes, then king of Persia(4:6).

!! -     THIS enemy attack succeeded, and the restoration process came to a standstill....for 16 years.

!! -     BUT God is in the restoration business....and he sent two prophets to Jerusalem to get things going again.

!! -     AFTER this 16 year work stoppage, the Word of the Lord through Haggai and Zechariah revived the builders and they were on task not to be deterred again.

!! -     IN Ezra 5 the enemy tries again to attack God’s restoration process.

!!! ~*     “Who authorized you to rebuild the City of God?”........Self-doubt (5:3).

!!! ~*     “Give us your names!”....intimidation (5:4).

!!! ~*     Then they write a letter to king Darius, asking him to look into the matter.

!! -     BUT this time the attack of the enemy does not achieve its purpose....God’s people keep right on building even though letters have been written by the opposition to king Darius.

!! -     EZRA 6:1-5 tells us about king Darius’ response to the enemy,

!!!       “*King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon.* (2) *A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it: Memorandum: *(3) *In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid.

It is to be ninety feet high and ninety feet wide,* (4) *with three courses of large stones and one of timbers.

The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury.*

(5) *Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God.*”

!! -     THE restoration process was on track by divine decree...even though it is two Persian kings whose names are attached to them.

!! -     REMEMBER Ezra 1:1 tells us that it was God who put it in the heart of king Cyrus to issue the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in the first place.

!! -     GOD has always been in the restoration business.

!!! ~*     When Adam and Eve blew it in the garden of Eden and lost their pure communion with God...God came back with a plan for restoration.

!!! ~*     When wickedness was always on the hearts of earth’s population in Noah’s day....God had a plan for restoration.

!!! ~*     When Israel was in captivity in Egypt, slaves to the Pharaoh...God had a plan for restoration.

!!! ~*     When Israel was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar...for 70 years....God had a plan for restoration.

!! -     FOR the last 6,000 years mankind has been in rebellion against God and has suffered the consequences of a broken life...physically, emotionally and spiritually.

!! -     THE evidence of our brokenness is all around us:

!!! ~*     Greed.

!!! ~*     Corruption.

!!! ~*     Violent crime.

!!! ~*     Lust.

!!! ~*     Alcohol and substance abuse.

!!! ~*     Child abuse.

!!! ~*     Divorce.

!!! ~*     Suicide.

!!! ~*     Genocide.

!!! ~*     War.

!!! ~*     Poverty.

!!! ~*     Hatred.

!!! ~*     Loneliness.

!!! ~*     Despair.

!!! ~*     Suicide.

!! -     AND we have proven that we are incapable of restoring ourselves.

!! -     ALL the kings horses and all the kings men.....

!! -     THAT was why God sent His only Son, Jesus.

!! -     BECAUSE man is in captivity to sin.....man is a slave to his own passions and is in rebellion against God.

!! -     THAT condition puts us at great risk.

!! -     WITHOUT God, mankind is broken and completely vulnerable to the attack of our enemy whom the Bible says has come to destroy mankind.....

!!!       “*Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.*”

(I Peter 5:8)

!!!       “*The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy*..” (John 10:10)

!! -     BUT Jesus came and by His death on the cross He broke the power of our enemy, this adversary of our souls....Satan.

!! -     IN Colossians 2:13-15 Paul describes what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross,

!!!       “*When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

He forgave us all our sins,* (14) *having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.*

(15) *And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross*.”

!! -     JESUS came to restore broken man to its intended purpose....to be a Temple of the Holy Spirit....a place of communion between Himself and His creation.

!! -     I CORINTHIANS 3:16 says,

!!!       “*Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?*”

!! -     SO, the decree of God concerning you today is that through Jesus Christ you be restored from your broken condition to be a Temple of God’s Spirit.

!! -     RESTORATION is a divine decree.

!! -     LISTEN to Jesus tell the crowd at the synagogue of Nazareth why He had come in Luke 4:18-19,

!!!       “*The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed*, (19) *to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor*.”

!! -     RESTORATION is a divine decree.

!! -     IT was in Ezra 6.....for the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem.

!! -     IT was when Jesus came and died and rose again.....for the restoration of the new Temple...you and me.

!! -     IT still is today...a divine decree.

!! -     II CORINTHIANS 5:17-18 says,

!!!       “*Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!* (18) *All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation*...”

!! -     IT is God’s #1 business....restoring broken lives.

!! -     HE has provided for it...He has decreed it!

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! iii.

restored without enemy interference

!! -     BACK to our story in Ezra 6.

!! -     EZRA 6:6-7 says,

!!!       “*Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you, their fellow officials of that province, stay away from there.*

(7) *Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God.

Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site*.”

!! -     GOD provided for the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem to continue without ever being stopped again by enemy interference.

!! -     AND through Jesus Christ we have been given the same authority over the enemy of our souls.

!!! ~*     I John 3:8 says that...