Audio Transcript:

Welcome to Missions on Point, the Propempo perspective on church and missions.

Welcome back to Missions on Point, we’re on episode 242. Praise God for what he is doing in our lives to bring glory to himself. How amazing it is that he uses weak and foolish vessels such as you and I to accomplish his purposes. I’m so thankful for the many local churches that I have had the privilege of talking to that are working hard to be obedient to the Great Commission. And that’s what I want to talk about today in the three books of the Bible that we are considering. The Great Commission is hard work. Our churches may seem small and insignificant, but God is doing something amazing through his people. Our smallness, and small churches in particular, are not a hurdle for our great God. In fact, he is pleased to use us for his glory, and he wants to use small churches for his global purposes.

We are talking about how to preach about missions. And the first rule is that we need to rightly divide the word of truth. We must be faithful to the text. Yet as we consider each book of the Bible in connection with the entire storyline, we see God’s plan begin to take shape. The mystery that was concealed in the Old Testament is revealed in the New, and that mystery is the church, the ingathering of God’s called-out people from every nation of the world in fellowship together. Local churches spread out all over the globe are now God’s temple, where he dwells and makes his name known. We return now to the final history books of the Old Testament, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and we will consider in turn how each one leads us to God’s global plan for his glory in the church.

First for today, the book of Ezra. The Hebrew Bible combines this book with Nehemiah. They both tell a similar story, that of the Jews who have been in exile for seventy years and are now returning from all over the Persian Empire to the Promised Land. They are struggling with rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem’s city walls. Ezra and Nehemiah are contemporaries of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, whom we talked about previously. And they all have a similar message of encouraging the returned exiles to be faithful in the work God had given them to rebuild the temple and the city that protected it.

The main idea of the book of Ezra is the faithfulness of the Lord. And then in response to God’s faithfulness, his people must be faithful too. God’s people must be faithful by being distinct from the world through worship and obedience. The Jewish community struggled to maintain its identity as the people of the Lord.  They were insecure because of the moral and religious challenges needed to be a faithfully distinct people.

The outline of the 10 chapters in this book is the following four sections: 1. Cyrus’ decree and the return of the exiles from Babylon in the first 2 chapters. 2. The returned exiles rebuild the temple on its original site, chapters 3-6. 3. Ezra the priest comes to Jerusalem to establish the law of Moses chapters 7-8. And 4. Ezra discovers and confronts the problem of intermarriage chapters 9-10.

Cyrus is an interesting character, as we have already seen. He is called God’s servant and language is used of him that is also used of Jesus. He fits into a pattern for God’s chosen servant who saves God’s people, bringing them back from exile. The Lord stirred up his Spirit to fulfill the word of Lord. Cyrus recognizes that God had given him all the kingdoms of the earth and had charged him to build a house for God in Jerusalem, to allow the people of Israel to return to their land and worship God. The exiles then responded to Cyrus’ decree because God’s Spirit had also stirred in the people’s hearts a desire to rebuild the temple and freely offer gifts for the temple. And while the people live again in their ancestral homes, special attention is given to the priests, and the offerings for the work in the house of the Lord. In other words, the point of the land was to facilitate the worship of God in the temple. Worship had to come first for the returned exiles. And that is the fundamental principle behind all that we do. It’s why God called the Israelites out of Egypt, and why he returned them from exile. And it’s why God is presently calling people out from among all the nations, so that they would be gathered together to worship God.

The people had two different reactions to the rebuilding of the temple. Some shouted for joy because the new foundation was laid, but others wept, as they remembered the glory of the old temple and how the new one paled in comparison. The second temple clearly fell short of the honor and reverence that God deserves. And Jesus says the same thing when he talks about the temple being destroyed, he points us to a dwelling place for God that is so much more fitting. Church planters today can think the same thing. The church is meant to be a place of worship, but we look ahead to a greater ingathering of God’s people from all over the world worshipping God in the New Jerusalem.

Ezra the priest then comes onto the scene later. King Artaxerxes gives Ezra the authority to establish the Mosaic Law for the people, and he returns with a new wave of returnees. And when he gets there he is ashamed of the people’s guilt. The people were intermarrying with idolaters. And this is especially grievous because that is the sin that got the people exiled in the first place. And in the middle of a heavy rain, Erza confronts the people and they repent and dissolve their marriages.

The point here is that God’s people who are called out from the world to worship him must live lives of holiness. Pastors and missionaries who gather disciples into churches must also boldly insist on this same reality. Right doctrine must coincide with right living. This flies in the face of many missionary methodologies that are essentially non-confrontational.

The book of Nehemiah is another retelling of the story that Ezra told, but this time from a more political point of view. Nehemiah returned to the land about 13 years after Ezra did. While Ezra was a priest, Nehemiah was like a governor. Nehemiah lived in Susa as the king’s cupbearer. He was distressed because he had heard that the walls and gates of Jerusalem were in ruins and that the people were in trouble. And so Nehemiah prayed. There are several notable prayers in Nehemiah. The main idea of the book is that the Lord protects his people, and they need to faithfully keep his law and worship him. The walls of Jerusalem need to be rebuilt, because that city housed God’s temple, and God’s worship must be protected.

The flow of the book is as follows. Nehemiah returns to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. The wall is rebuilt, despite difficulties. The book of God’s Law is read, and God’s covenant is renewed. And then just like in Ezra, Nehemiah also must deal with problems in the community.

Nehemiah’s prayer is a remarkable feature. He confessed the people’s sin and remembers God’s promises of renewal. He pleaded with God before he asked the king for help with this project. The king is favorable to Nehemiah, but only because the Sovereign King of the universe is truly in charge.

The enemies of Israel take up much of the narrative in the book. They were displeased that someone was seeking the welfare of God’s people. The ancient conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is on center stage. In the face of opposition, Nehemiah prays again. And the enemies get angrier because the work continued. They set people on guard with weapons. Half worked on construction and half on defense. The enemies attempt to distract, deceive, and assassinate Nehemiah. And again, Nehemiah prays. And their final tactic is to use political pressure with a letter they wrote to the king. But their plan backfires, because God had already worked in the hearts of Cyrus and Artaxerxes to authorize the work. The work is finished in a remarkable 52 days, and the enemies of the Jews fear God because of it.

After the wall is finished, the people celebrate the feast of booths and Ezra reads the law from morning to midday. They confess their sins and renew God’s covenant and then the people praise God with prayer. The people continue to be reformed by God’s word. The people need continual building up, long after the walls are built. In fact 12 years later, Nehemiah had returned to Susa, but he heard that evil had resurfaced among the people, and so he confronts them calling them to repent again.

The story is one of repentance and renewal according to obediently listening to God’s word. And this is the real building program. God’s church today needs to be built up by the same means, obedient faith to God’s word, humble repentance and prayer, and a lot of hard work, because protecting the worship of God is worth it. So too today, there is a lot of hard work for God’s people to see the church built in all the world. But God is worthy, and his word directs our steps for what he wants us to do.

Finally, we briefly consider the book of Esther. The historical context is about the same time as the previous books, but Esther and many other Jews have remained in the Persian Empire. This unique book never mentions God, but his providence is clearly on display. Again, we are confronted with the theme of divine providence and human responsibility, and in light of that how absurd wickedness really is.

The story is one of a great ironic reversal. A wicked king installs a new queen because of his own pride. Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, is her guardian, as Esther is chosen to become queen. Mordecai uncovers a plot to kill the king, and tells Esther about it, who told the king. Haman is the exalted villain of the story. He is made highest in the land, and as a descendant of the Amalekites, he has an intense hatred for the Jews. Once again, the conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is on display. Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, and Haman responds by vowing to destroy all the Jews. He casts lots to determine when the Jews would be exterminated. The word of lots is “pur” where the Jewish feast of Purim is celebrated in commemoration of these events. Again, Mordecai tells Esther to go to the king to stop this evil. Esther is hesitant because she might die trying. But is convinced that God will save his people no matter what, but perhaps this is why God has placed her here. Esther requests to have a feast with the king and Haman. Haman boasts about this honor to his family but whines about seeing Mordecai. The king cannot sleep so he reads the book of chronicles, which recall how Mordecai saved the king’s life. The king then honors Mordecai instead of Haman. And, when he finds out about Haman’s plot to kill the Jews, Haman is hung on the gallows he had erected for Mordecai. The king’s new edict allows the Jews to protect themselves. And what would have been a day of slaughter became a great day of victory for the Jews. Their sorrows had been turned into gladness. And people from all nations joined the Jews in protecting them and even coming to faith in God. In all of this we see the evil plans of man subverted by the sovereign hand of God to protect his people.

The lesson for us is the same. We can see with eyes of faith beyond the machinations of evil men today. If God is for us who can be against us? God has guaranteed that he will save his people from every evil, and there is no luck about it. He sends his church all over the world for such a time as this, to do his will, to walk by faith, to resist evil and cling to the hope of God’s salvation. And the result is the one that God has planned all along: people from all nations come to worship the sovereign God of earth and time.

Thanks for joining us today on Missions on Point. We trust that you'll find more help and resources on our websites at Propempo.com and missioserve.org. We are so thankful for those who support us, enabling us to produce this podcast. Now to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen.