Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
At Faith Presbyterian Church we are seeking to exalt Jesus Christ the King and to exhibit and extend his Kingdom through worship, community, and mission.
Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
Ezra 3:1-6; A Foundation for Worship
Jason Sterling August 24, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin
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All right, let's look at God's Word. Look Ezra. Go to the book of Ezra, chapter 3, this morning. If you don't know where Ezra is, look at the table of contents in your Bible, or here's an easy way to find it Go to the center of your Bible, open it up. You'll go to the book of Psalms you should find Psalms in the center and then just start turning backwards. In a couple of books before Psalms you'll find Ezra and Nehemiah.
Speaker 1:If you're visiting with us, we are a church, we just study the Bible and we normally rotate between books in the New Testament and Old Testament, and this fall we're doing a series on Ezra and Nehemiah. Those books go together and there's a reason why we're doing this. We are in a very exciting season in the life of our church. We are anticipating the completion of new ministry space and a new sanctuary. That's ahead of us. And as we move forward into this new season of ministry, I want us to remember that what we're doing, season of ministry, I want us to remember that what we're doing, yes, it's a physical thing, but even more important than that, what we're doing is a very spiritual thing. And we are studying Ezra and Nehemiah because it tells the story of God's people who were building too. They were in Babylon for decades. They're now back in Jerusalem building a wall around the city and building the temple, and in this series we are discovering essential foundations that we need to build anything that's going to last. Last week, we looked at the foundation of hope through Ezra 1. We're looking at Ezra 3 this morning, the essential foundation of worship. The exiles are back in Jerusalem. The city is in ruins, the temple is destroyed, everything is uncertain and unstable, and what is the very first thing that God's people do? Well, let's look and find out. This is God's Word Ezra, chapter 3, 1 through 6. You'll see the passage printed in the bulletin and also on the screen behind me the Word of the Lord.
Speaker 1:When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in the towns and the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua, the son of Josedach, with his fellow priest, and Zerubbabel, the son of Sheethiel, with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the land and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord. Burnt offerings morning and evening, and they kept the feast of booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule as each day required, and after that the regular burnt offerings and the offerings at the new moon and at all, the appointed Feast of the Lord and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. There's a lot of offering going on in this passage. From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
Speaker 1:This is the word of God. Let's pray, ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Father, this is your word. Would you be with us? I pray you brought us here, so be with those who received the word and I pray that you would give us ears to hear and hearts to receive this from Ezra 3, that you would give us all something to lock onto that we can walk out of here with this morning. Speak to us, be with the one who preaches. Help me in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:If this has happened once at my house, it's happened hundreds of times over the last 25 years. Over the last 25 years. Something needs to be fixed, something needs to be repaired or something needs to be hung or some furniture needs to be moved or rearranged. And I'll look at my wife, susie, and I'll say very confidently, I'll get right on that. And the weekend comes and it hadn't been done. The next weekend comes and I'll say something like hey, things are really busy. When things slow down, then I'll get to that. Months go by, maybe even years, and it's still not done. You ever had things like that, that just you want to get to, but you never seem to get to.
Speaker 1:We do the exact same thing spiritually, don't we? I mean, how many times have we said things like I'll get serious about my spiritual life when work slows down or when I'm in a different season of life, or when my kids get a little bit older, or I'll commit to church and get really involved in church when I get married and when I settle down and have children. And if I've heard this once in college, I've heard it a thousand times in college ministry these years are for me. But when I get out of college and get a little older and get a job and all those things, then I will get serious about my faith. You see, often we postpone spiritual commitment, don't? We Postpone wholehearted worship by telling ourselves we'll commit later, when our circumstances are favorable and all of our fears subside. We think we'll worship when life settles down. But here's the truth Life settles down when we worship, and that's what we're going to learn this morning in Ezra, chapter 3.
Speaker 1:God wants to challenge us. This is challenging this morning. I was challenged this week. God wants to challenge our tendency to postpone spiritual things and commitment until our situation is favorable. God wants to challenge that in us this morning because this passage shows us what it's like to put worship first. Because this passage shows us what it's like to put worship first, regardless of whatever it is that we're dealing with in the moment. And this passage does it by teaching us the importance of three things. Teaching us number one the importance of gathering. Secondly, the importance of building. Lastly, the importance of celebrating Gathering, building. Celebrating is where we're headed. That's the roadmap this morning.
Speaker 1:Let's look at our first heading gathering together. Look at verse 1. When the seventh month came, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. The seventh month. You'll see bookends. Look at verse 1, verse 6, the seventh month. Why is that important? Why is it repeated? Because that was festival season for God's people. That is when they celebrated the most important feast.
Speaker 1:And these Israelites in exiles? They'd been scattered. Think about this. They'd been in Babylon for decades and the journey to Jerusalem was not an easy one, and I mentioned this last week. They are leaving their community, they're leaving their work, they're leaving their homes and they are starting over with nothing. And you know what this is like to transition and move somewhere. If there is ever a time to say, hey, hold on, and I'm going to focus on my needs and I'm going to get my family settled and I'm going to get settled, well, it's then, it's now, it's this situation, but when the appointed time came, they made a choice that reveals their priorities Notice the phrase as one man. In other words, this wasn't a few religious people that were really excited and really committed and really devoted. No, this was a corporate thing. This was a unified thing of all God's people coming together to gather for worship.
Speaker 1:Despite the practical challenges, again, of all the things I've already mentioned, the temptation would be to say and I feel this like, hey, we'll skip the feast this year, we just need to get organized and get settled, and we'll do that next year when everything is in a much better place. They don't do that because they understood that worship was something that you don't do only when it's convenient. It's something you desperately need, especially in the midst of challenging circumstances and instability. Why was it so important for them? Well, there's probably lots of things we could share this morning, but a couple of things to say is they had been isolated and scattered in Babylon for many years, and if you know what that's like to be isolated, it's really easy to feel all alone and to feel like you maybe forget who you are and you lose hope.
Speaker 1:But when people, when we gather together like this morning, and when God's people come together as one unified community, something powerful happens. We're reminded of our identity as God's chosen people. We gain strength. It encourages us, we draw encouragement for one another and it's also a witness to the world. We are standing together as one unified community. It is a way of saying things might not be great, but we're all in this together. It's a way to remind you if you're going through something tough, you are not alone.
Speaker 1:And then they gather, too, in worship. They participate in these feasts and remember what the purpose of the feast were. The purpose of the feast were to remind them and to celebrate God's faithfulness and God's goodness over the history of their lives together in Israel's history. The point is that these exiles recognized that gathering together was not just their duty to God. It was essential, it was not optional, it was their lifeline, their source of hope and strength in the middle of this transition back to Jerusalem and friends. Gathering together is our lifeline too.
Speaker 1:Just like the exiles, we all face challenges to gathering, don't we? We face challenges kids' sports schedules, trips, work, hobbies, the busyness of life and listen those aren't necessarily bad things, but when we neglect this and when we don't prioritize worship, it reveals something about our hearts, doesn't it? It reveals that we think we can make it on our own. It reveals that we don't understand how desperate we really are and how much we desperately need corporate worship in order to survive, spiritually speaking. You see, the question is not whether or not we have obstacles to gathering. Everybody has obstacles to gathering. The question is do we see gathering with God's people as essential to our spiritual health or do we see it as an add-on? Do we see it something we'll get to if we have time and it's convenient? What would it look like for us and for our families to gather together and to prioritize worship and to see it as a privilege and to see it as a lifeline that we desperately need? And think about this? I've thought about this this week.
Speaker 1:These exiles didn't have a building. They didn't have the temple was not yet built and they gathered anyway, and I think that teaches us something very significant that we must keep in mind as we move towards a new sanctuary the building serves the gathering, not vice versa. You can have powerful worship without a beautiful building, but you can't have a lasting church and a building without powerful worship, church and at building without powerful worship. The foundation that we're laying here, it's not just concrete and steel, it is a foundation that's what we want to be about of a place that prioritizes worshiping and gathering together. And it's not so that we can create a spiritual bunker and a spiritual retreat center. No, no, it's so that we gather together so that we can launch out into the world.
Speaker 1:Number one the importance of gathering together. Secondly, building an altar. Look at verse 2. They built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings. Again, notice I mentioned this as I was reading, but a lot of almost every verse, burnt offering or offering is mentioned. Anytime you're reading the Bible and you hear something repeated, slow down and pay attention. And the point of saying basically that saying worship is the priority, and it wasn't just like a one-off hey, we're going to do this as we transition, to just kind of give us a jump start. Now notice it repeats it wasn't a one-time ceremony, it was an ongoing, daily priority, and I think that's remarkable.
Speaker 1:Think about what they don't do first. We don't have a record that they built their own homes first. They didn't build walls for protection, they didn't start on the temple itself. What did they build first? The altar. The centerpiece of their construction project was the altar, the place where sinful people meet a holy God through sacrifice. The altar was so important because it was central to their relationship with God. That's where sins were atoned for, that's where thanksgiving was expressed, that's where the people could approach God through the prescribed sacrifices. And so when they build the altar first, they were putting a flag in the ground and declaring God is number one, our relationship with him is the priority. He and our relationship with him is what matters the most.
Speaker 1:Verse 3,. Look at this very crucial detail that's easy to miss at first reading. They set the altar in its place why? For fear was on them because of the people of the lands. Don't miss this. They built the altar because they were afraid the surrounding people did not want the exiles there.
Speaker 1:And notice, their fear doesn't paralyze them. It prioritized their worship. Their fear actually led to their worship, and I think that's really important because we want to put fear and faith as opposites. No, fear is often the catalyst for faith, and it reminds me of the underground church in China. I'm sure you're familiar with those stories and have heard those stories. But for decades, believers there have gathered in secret those stories.
Speaker 1:But for decades, believers there have gathered in secret, gathered in secret places, singing hymns, quietly, drawing the curtains, in order to pray and partake in the Lord's Supper, knowing that there is a huge risk for them of imprisonment and losing their jobs. So why do they take the risk? Well, just like the people in our passage, worship doesn't wait for safety and approval. They knew that the real danger was not in what the authorities could do to their bodies, but what would happen to their souls if they didn't worship? They understand exactly what these exiles understand, that worship isn't optional when they're afraid, it is essential.
Speaker 1:But why? Why does God call us to worship before we are secure? Because it's the worship that actually makes us secure. When we worship. Think about what we do. When we come here on Sunday morning, we all, throughout the week, everything is about us, presses in on us, and we start to turn inward right and we start to take refuge in ourselves. And we come here on Sunday morning and God says, no, I am your refuge and strength, your very present help in the time of trouble. And so it redirects us. Worship takes us out of our own hearts and reorients us towards God. He is our refuge and our strength, and our strength and it shows us something very important is that fear and faithfulness. You can have both at the same time. You can be fearful and you can be faithful. Look at verses two and four. I love this. You see it over and over as it is written. They worshiped exactly the way God had prescribed in his word. So in their fear, they didn't say, hey, we're going to cut corners, we're not going to do this. No, they remained faithful to God's word.
Speaker 1:And so my question for you this morning is what are you afraid of? What, right now, is causing you fear? What is causing insecurity in you? Maybe it's a difficult conversation that you know you need to have and you've been putting off. Maybe it's actually stepping into generosity and generous giving, even though your finances feel really tight. Maybe it's standing up for biblical truth in your workplace or in your school, when you know it will be very unpopular. Or maybe you're fearful because you know you need help. Right, you've been hiding, you've been dealing with this secret sin and you are full of fear. What would it look like, whatever your fear or insecurity is, for you to step out in faith in the midst of that fear? What would it look like to be faithful in the fear, to be faithful in the fear? Think about that this morning.
Speaker 1:And you can't talk about the altar without talking about Jesus, because these exiles built this altar and they were pointing to something far greater than they realized that every animal that died on this altar actually pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who would come into the world to die once and for all for the sin of his people, and that changes everything about how we worship. Because for Israel, worship meant bloody sacrifices, but for us, worship means spirit and truth. It means a table, it means the word and sacrament and prayer and song and being together. They needed repeated sacrifices. We need the once and for all sacrifice and for all sacrifice. We come to this table every single week. Of course, the table reminds us of Jesus' once and for all sacrifice. But coming to this table also does something else for us. It reminds us of our foundation. It reminds us every week. Jesus is our firm foundation and he must always be our foundation at our church, in our lives, regardless of the uncertainty and regardless of whatever opposition that comes our way. Lastly, the importance we've seen of building and gathering. Lastly, of celebrating. Look at verses four through six.
Speaker 1:One thing that's highlighted here is the Feast of Booths and that's also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. I'll refer to it this morning, probably as the Feast of Tabernacles. Same thing. Notice it says as it is written they're not in survival mode here. They're not getting away with just doing the bare minimum. They're celebrating. They're keeping all the feast, even though their life was in ruins, surrounded by enemies. They don't have a temple. They're feasting and celebrating God anyway. And let's talk about the Feast of Tabernacles, because I think it's really important that we get the context of what they're actually celebrating, because it will help us as well.
Speaker 1:The Feast of Tabernacles is significant. It was a week-long celebration where they would get in temporary shelter tents, basically cardboard boxes, whatever. They would live in outside with other families in the community and they would feast together and they would remember how God had sustained them for 40 years in the wilderness when they had no permanent home. And the whole point of this and I think this is challenging and amazing is they did that. I mean, think about us doing that. They did that so that they could experience that vulnerability again. They celebrated this feast so they could remember what it was like to be completely dependent upon God. God gave them this built-in yearly reminder that life often looks insecure and unstable and uncertain, but he is always their source of provision. And here's what I think is even more amazing. When I get in those situations, instead of being discouraged by their difficult circumstances I normally want to mope or get discouraged by difficult circumstances they're in the midst of those and they're celebrating anyway. They're celebrating God's faithfulness in the midst of them.
Speaker 1:What is your tent right now? What is the thing let me say it another way in your life that reminds you that you're really fragile and that life is fragile? Maybe it's a cancer diagnosis. Maybe it's a cancer diagnosis. Maybe it's a job loss. Maybe it's your marriage that is struggling. Maybe your children are struggling. The world says wait till all those things get better, wait till things feel settled before you celebrate.
Speaker 1:But instead of waiting, god calls us to come here. God calls us to choose to show up on Sunday anyway. Because when we do that by the fact that you came here this morning in the midst of whatever it is you're going through and I know there's lots of suffering in this room when you show up here, it is an act of faith. You are building, by being here, a booth each and every week, acknowledging yes, we don't ignore the difficulty and pretend like everything's okay. No, we acknowledge the difficulty, but we celebrate God's provision anyway. You can have joy and sorrow at the same time. They can coexist. We don't have to pretend like our life is perfect in order to come and to celebrate the goodness and faithfulness of God. And when we do that, we are essentially saying the same thing they said at the Feast of Tabernacles. My circumstances are temporary and, yes, they're fragile, but God's faithfulness is permanent and secure. And here's why we can celebrate, even in the midst of the wilderness that we're in and that we go through, because the truth is, if you're waiting for life to be settled, you're in trouble because life's never going to feel settled, because we live in a broken, fallen world. So how can we celebrate in the midst of the wilderness? Well, get this, the Bible. Pretty amazing stuff.
Speaker 1:Centuries later, jesus shows up in John, chapter seven, and he shows up at the feast of tabernacles, on the very last day, and he stands up and you know what he says If anyone's thirsty, let him come. Let him come drink living water and never thirst again. Jesus, in that moment, is declaring that he is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. Declaring that he is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, that he's the living water, he's the manna from heaven that will sustain his people. How does he do it? Through word and spirit. Through his word that comforts us with truth. His spirit comforts us when we feel broken. He gives us his people to encourage us and surround us so that we know we're not alone and we're in this together. He gives us his promises to anchor us in the midst of life's uncertainty. We can celebrate even when we feel completely depleted, when you feel like you have nothing to give in your work, marriage and parenting. Jesus says come and drink freely. Jesus says come and I will replenish you.
Speaker 1:We celebrate not because our circumstances are perfect, but because Jesus is perfect and because Jesus has the water, the living water that never runs out.
Speaker 1:So when these exiles return in Ezra 3, they teach us a very powerful lesson about building foundations. They didn't wait till their circumstances were perfect in order to prioritize worship. They built on the right foundation. They celebrated god's faithfulness even in their ruins. And as we move into a new season of ministry, as we move in towards a new building and ministry space, we are declaring the exact same priorities for generations to come. We are declaring and saying we're going to build the foundations of gathering together and building on the foundation of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and celebrating even in the midst of life's uncertainty. We'll celebrate God's faithfulness and goodness. Let's pray Father, thank you for this passage. Forgive us for the ways that we put off prioritizing worship. I pray that you would help us to be a people who gather, a people who build our lives on the solid foundation of Christ and who celebrate your goodness even in difficult seasons. We need your help in order to do that. Do it in Jesus' name, amen.