The sermon titled 'A Great Awakening' by Scott Brown, based on Ezra chapters 1 and 2, draws parallels between the physical exodus of the Israelites from Babylon and a spiritual journey of revival and awakening in the lives of believers today. The sermon emphasizes that God knows each individual's name and calls them to return to true worship, highlighting the restoration of worship and the rebuilding of the temple as symbols of spiritual renewal. The speaker discusses the role of financial support and the contributions of various groups in the community, underscoring the collective effort required to rebuild the house of the Lord. The sermon also points out that true revival begins with a heart awakened to God's call, which then leads to the provision of resources necessary for worship. The passage from Ezra is used to illustrate the importance of returning to biblical patterns of worship and the personal nature of God's relationship with His people. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to engage actively in the rebuilding of the church, drawing strength from understanding their place in God's greater story of redemption.

The scripture text this morning is from Ezra chapter 1, starting at verse 5 and to the end of chapter 2. Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered. King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods. And Cyrus, king of Persia, brought them out by the hand of Mithridath, the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheish-Bazaar, the Prince of Judah.

This is the number of them. 30 gold platters, 1, 000 silver platters, 29 knives, 30 gold basins, 410 silver basins of a similar kind, and 1, 000 other articles. All the articles of gold and silver were 5, 400. All these sheish bazaar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem. Now these are the people of the province who came back from the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city.

Those who came with Zerub Babel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraia, Reliah, Mordecai, Bolshan, Mispa, Bigvai, Reham and Bana. The number of the men of the people of Israel, the people of Parosh, 2, 172, the people of Sheftiah, 372, the people of Erra, 775, people of Pehat Moab, of the people of Jeshua and Joab, 2, 812. The people of Elam, 1, 254. The people of Zato, 945. The people of Zakai, 760.

The people of Bani, 642. The people of Be'erai, 623. 623. The people of Asgad, 1, 222. The people of Adonaiqm, 666.

The people of Bigvai, 2, 056. 2056 the people of Aden 454 the people of Ater of Hezekiah 98 the people of Bezai 323 the people of Jora 112, the people of Hashem 223, the people of Gebar 95, The people of Bethlehem 123. The men of Netopha 56. The men of Anathoth 128. The people of Asmaveth 42.

The people of of Kirijath-Aram, Chephriah and Beiroth 743. The people of Rama and Geba 621. The men of Mikmahs 122. The men of Bethel and Ai, 223. The people of Nebo, 52.

The people of Maghbish, 156, the people of the other Elam 1254, the people of Haram 320, the people of Lod, hated and honor 725 the people of Jericho 345 the people of Sena 3630 the priests the sons of Jedi of the house of Jeshua, 973, the sons of Imar, 1052, the sons of Pasher, 1247, the sons of Harem, 1017, the Levites, the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodeviah, 74, the singers, the sons of Asaph 128, the sons of the gatekeepers, the sons of Shalom, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akab, the sons of Hataita, and the sons of Shobay, 139 in all. The Nathenam, the sons of Zihar, the sons of Hasapha, the sons of Tabaut, the sons of Kairos, the sons of Sayaha, the sons of Padon, the sons of Lebana, the sons of Haggabah, the sons of Akkab, the sons of Hagaab, the sons of Shalmai, the sons of Hanan, the sons of Gidel, the sons of Gehar, the sons of Rehaya, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nechada, the sons of Gazam, the sons of Yuzer, the sons of Pasea, the sons of Besai, the sons of Harsha, the sons of Barcos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Tema, the sons of Nezair, and the sons of Hetaifa, The sons of Solomon's servants, the sons of Sothai, the sons of Sophareth, the sons of Peradah, the sons of Jailah, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Gidele, the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pokareth of Zebaim, and the sons of Amai.

All the nethanyim and the children of Solomon's servants were 392. And these were the ones who came up from Tel-Mehla, Tel-Harshah, Cherub, Adan, and Imr. But they could not identify their father's house or their genealogy, whether they were of Israel, the sons of Deliah, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of Nechada, 652, and of the sons of the priests, the sons of Hibiah, the sons of Chos, and the sons of Barzili, who took a wife of the daughters of Barzili the Gileadite, and was called by their name. These sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy, but they were not found. Therefore, they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled.

And the governor said to them that they should not eat of the most holy things till a priest could consult with their Urim and the Thurman. The whole assembly together was 42, 360, besides their male and female servants of whom there were 7, 337 and they had 200 men and women singers. The horses were 736, their mules 245, their camels 435, and their donkeys 6720. Some of the heads of the father's houses, when they came to the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to erect it in its place. According to their ability, they gave to the treasury for the work, 61, 000 gold drachmas, 5, 000 miners of silver, and 100 priestly garments.

So the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the nethanim, dwelt in their cities and all Israel in their cities. Let's pray. O Heavenly Father, we thank you for these names that we've just read, the names that have been recorded in Scripture. Oh Lord, and now today you call us individually by name, and Lord you have brought us, and now Lord our names have been written in the Book of Life. Oh God, what a day it will be when these names are read aloud.

I pray, Lord, that each one of us will be found there. Oh, Father, this is our prayer today. Lord, that not one of us will be missing when those names are read. Oh, Father, I pray that as Your Word comes from Your preacher, Lord, that it will change us. Father, that our hearts will be moved.

Father, that we would forsake the ways of Babylon and father that we would deep drink deeply of you of your goodness today in Jesus name amen I'm fairly confident that this is the longest passage of scripture I've ever preached on in my entire life. And by measure, this should be a seven and a half hour sermon to go by these verses one by one. We won't actually do that today. I know that they're great size of relief, thanksgiving for such a thing. But this really is an important passage of scripture and it speaks of how God does know your name.

It speaks of the fact that God does see every pilgrimage that his children engage in. And this is about a pilgrimage. It's really about an exodus There are three great exoduses in the Bible and of course the first is the Exodus from Egypt to the promised land in 1445 BC and then there's the Exodus from Babylon in 538 BC and then there's the greatest Exodus the Exodus that all the previous Exodus is point to and that is the Exodus from the clutches of the devil because of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ setting you free from the law of sin and death and taking you home, bringing many sons to glory. And this picture here that we find in Ezra chapter one and two is it's a it's a physical picture of a spiritual reality that takes place in the lives of all those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ and it's a story of it's a story of their lives but it's also a story of your life, and it's a story of my life. How He takes you out of ruin.

How He restores you. How he takes you back home. And as it turns out, the journey home isn't always all that easy. We'll talk about that later when we get into the text here. But that journey home is marked by the fact that God knows your name, and He's caring for you, and He's going to take you to the end of that journey.

And this whole testimony in Ezra is about this awakening that took place in people's lives and God was restoring them from the ruin that they had experienced and what you'll see here is that you know revivals they in a person's life and among God's people they always follow the same pattern first of all people are awakened and then they then God provides for the awakening and then he employs many different kinds of people. This exodus from Babylon must have been a dramatic thing to see there were 50, 000 of them that left Babylon to go back to the promised land they traveled for four months and they were going across the desert with an enormous amount of baggage and This is the truth about about your your exodus from the world is that there's baggage And it takes a long time and even once you get back to the promised land you find that your God's not done with you yet Because that's what happened to the exit to those returning exiles here I mean you imagine the scale of this you children Just for a second think about this. You know you you they had they had 736 horses 245 mules camels 435 camels 6720 Donkeys How about that?

How would you like to go across a four month trip across the desert or something like that? Must have been a wild trip. What, you think it was an easy trip? You know, you can fly to the west coast of the United States in five and a half hours now. And they'll serve you drinks on the way.

But this journey was a remarkable journey. And it was a journey that was marked by people who wanted to worship God. God changed their hearts. He awakened them. And they're part of this whole testimony that the entire history of the world is designed to display and that is this God is looking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth and those those who he awakens they launch out on a journey and it's a long journey and it's an arduous and it's a hard journey Though he never leaves you or forsakes you, sometimes you're not sure because the journey is so hard.

But he doesn't leave you. He knows your name. He's registered your name. And so these 50, 000 people are going to return back to Jerusalem from Babylon You know there there are there are 367 names listed in Ezra and Nehemiah ash. Thank you so much for reading those Anybody else want to sign up for that next time?

That was such a great reading. But these people that are returning, I don't know if you noticed it, but they're classified as children. Did you notice that? Because almost all of them really are children of those who are taken captive in Babylon. They've been in Babylon for 70 years.

There are two or three generations now who grew up in Babylon. The original exiles, most of them are dead. Probably Daniel is alive, but he's over 80 years old. Probably Ezekiel is alive, but he's in his 80s too. Maybe even older than that.

And so these are the children of the parents who were taken captive because of their sins. How about that? There are often trials and tribulations that children experience from their parents sins. Well it's always like that. No children get to grow up in perfect homes.

They always have some baggage that they have to drag across the desert because of their parents sins. Well here most of the people, most of the returnees were born in Babylon. Zerubbabel was born in Babylon. Almost everybody that's listed here was born in Babylon. It was their parents who had two great problems that led to their captivity.

First of all, they didn't take the worship of God seriously and they broke Sabbaths for over 400 years. They wouldn't observe the Sabbath. They wouldn't do the simplest thing to observe the Sabbath. And also, while they worshiped God with all the, or at least most of the elements that God prescribed it was heartless they didn't love him from their heart they didn't see the grace of God They didn't feel the mercy of God. They didn't know God and so they went through the motions and But that was their parents.

So their parents were going through the motions and now the children are in captivity in Babylon But and and and here's there's a principle here that you see in scripture. When the worship gets fake, God destroys the worship. He destroys you. By the way, he's destroyed a number of temples that were used for his worship. He destroyed them because he could no longer stand the worship that was going on in them.

And that's what God does. When it gets fake, he destroys it. And that's what he did with the temple in Jerusalem that Solomon built. He destroyed it by Nebuchadnezzar and took the captives to Babylon for 70 years of captivity. But what we learned from this is God doesn't turn his back on man.

He extends his grace and he moves their hearts. He redeems them. He sets them free. He puts a new song in their heart and he takes them on, he doesn't leave them where they were. And so there's this new generation and they wanna worship God, how about that?

You know, one of the most wonderful things that can happen in an old person's life is when they see a new generation that wants to worship God. One of the most disappointing things in my life is when I see people in a new generation, They do not want God. They don't want His holiness. They don't want His Word. They don't know His love.

They don't want to walk according to His ways. This is the most heartbreaking thing for a man like me in my age. But the most encouraging thing that I can see in this world is when the rising generation loves the Lord from their heart. They want to be holy. They don't want this world.

They want God. They do not care about this world. And what happened here was an uprising of the rising generation. And I know you know you have there's so many parents here and you have children. And you know what you know exactly what I'm talking about.

How you long for the rising generation to love Jesus. To treasure Him, to feed upon Him, to follow Him, to be comforted by Him. Because they've been saved by him. And so this is what's happening here. And they wanted to go back to the pattern of scripture.

They wanted to go back to the pattern of scripture. They wanted to go back to the patterns of worship that moses outlined To me That's one of the most encouraging things as well is when you have a generation that wants to go back to the patterns of worship that God has ordained. They don't want just some hot, slick thing, they want God. And they're satisfied with God. And so, you know, as we go through a passage like this, you know, with lots and lots of names and maybe some confusing things, we should always just be asking, what does this teach me?

What does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about the gospel of Jesus Christ? What does this teach me about the church? What does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about the gospel of Jesus Christ?

What does this teach me about the church? What does this teach me about sin and redemption? And what does it What does it teach us at Hope Baptist Church? What are we supposed to get out of this? That's probably one of the critical questions that we need to ask.

But let's be really clear about what this is. This is a movement of God for the rebuilding of true worship in the hearts of individuals who will gather together in Jerusalem to worship corporately and And so this is about the work of joining with God to rebuild, to rebuild the worship of God in a place. And this is what Christians are supposed to do. They're supposed to be involved in rebuilding the worship of God and it begins with evangelism and then it continues on with all the equipping ministries of the Church of Jesus Christ. And it's about a people who want to build the church.

I really do pray that the Lord gives us in our land a mighty generation That wants to rebuild the Church of God According to biblical patterns not according to the modern patterns that have grown up all around us. And so, you know, when you look at this whole passage of scripture, you see the whole variety of people, and you think about yourself, and you even maybe think of your own name and you think of you know You know you think of the children of Tim Harris or the children of Mike Davenport or the or the children of Ash Noah or The children of John felment. That's what these are the children of these people And I you know what you should you should think of your own name and the names of those around you when you read this list. On the one hand, these verses aren't first about you, They really are about the captives returning, you know, but these verses do speak to us about our own names. We should ask, you know, am I in that number?

Has my heart been awakened? This is so pivotal. And that's what's before us here. Now, I'm gonna cut to the very end here before we get to this exposition and just tell you what I so pray that God would give us as a result of this. That none of us would give up rebuilding.

Because when you see sin in the Church of Jesus Christ, it often makes you want to give up. But what you'll see is that God never gives up building and he always awakens people to rebuild. And just in terms of the great history that we see here, this drama of all of history, you know now we're in 538 BC but don't forget That when the captives went back, well there was a lot of sin that got revealed among those captives. They had married foreign wives, pagan wives, and things like that. There were all, you know, when you, and when you're making your way back, there's sin that you see in your own life and in other people's lives.

And then if you even fast forward to the days of Malachi, just a little bit later, Malachi is writing about the same problems. Because God is purifying a people through his worship, but he only brings imperfect people together. He only brings sinners together so that they could be sanctified because he is bringing many sons to glory. And he knows your name and you shouldn't be given up on the rebuilding of his temple and of the walls of the city. So that's what I hope we can see out of all of this.

So let's dive into the text. First of all, God awakens worshipers to build. That's verse five in chapter one. You see there are four critical points that I wanna make this morning out of these 76 verses. But first of all, God awakens worshippers to build.

And verse five says, then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, all whose spirits God had moved, Arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem now This this phrase God had moved the spirits God had moved It means to be awakened. It means to be aroused. And they needed to be moved. They needed to be awakened. By the way, last summer, we were in Isaiah 52.

And this exact same word is used in Isaiah 52 because Isaiah prophesied this. Maybe you remember these wonderful words. I was so taken by these words and I feel it. Please turn to Isaiah 52 just for a minute. Isaiah chapter 52 the first verse, awake, awake, put on your strength O Zion, guess what?

Awake, awake is the exact same word that Ezra uses in verse 5, those whose spirits God had moved, those whose spirits God had awakened awake awake Isaiah was talking about this very moment in Isaiah chapter 52. He says put on strength Oh Zion and then he says get dressed put on your beautiful garments Oh Jerusalem the holy city in verse 2 shake off the from that yourself from the dust and arise in other words Get out of the dust of Babylon. That's what he was saying. And then in verse 2, Sit down, O Jerusalem, loose yourselves from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Isaiah was prophesying the captives coming back that they were going to wake up and they were going to throw off the dust of Babylon and they were gonna make their way back home and then in verse three he says for thus says the Lord you have sold yourselves for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money." And then in verse 6, we read that these people, they'll know God's voice.

Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks behold it is I and then verse 7 behold how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings, and who says, your God reigns. I mean, this is the whole picture. This is what was happening in these people's hearts. They were being awakened, And they saw that God was reigning.

They saw Him as the most wonderful thing. That's why in verse nine, He says, break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem. Well, that's what's gonna happen. They're gonna leave the waste places of Babylon. They're gonna come back and what are they gonna do?

They're gonna sing and they've got hundreds of singers with them It's fantastic. They're returning They're really returning from ruin and they're gonna sing You know one of the marks of people who've reached are returning from ruin is that they sing. I mean it looks like they sing with their heart. Do you remember the first time you really sang with your heart in worship? What was after you became a Christian, wasn't it?

It was different. The words were just different. And you sang them differently because your heart was different. So Isaiah 52 speaks about this. And he also, by the way, it was prophesied in Isaiah in a really unusual way remember Isaiah's two sons a share Jeshu and mahar shalal hoshbaz remember those two sons and both of them meant something mahar shalal hoshbaz his name was given in order to proclaim the captivity that you're going to be taken in bondage.

But, but Shiar Jashub, Remember what his name means? A remnant will return. That's what's happening right here. The fulfillment of the prophecy that was demonstrated in Isaiah's two sons is being proclaimed here. And so these are restorers.

They're going to build up the old waste places. This is one of the most important things that the people of God do, is that they rebuild what's been ruined by sin. And you spend your whole life restoring church life and family life. It begins with your own heart, But the greatest work you can do in this world is is to restore church and family life and that's exactly what they were doing there and You know God is raising these people up to build up what was broken down. Now what we learn later is that just them returning didn't build everything up.

There was a lot of broken things that still needed to be rebuilt. And that's the story of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what this, in verse 5, indicates, it indicates the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to rebuild a life. And it begins by the rebuilding of the temple of God. Now we'll get into more detail of that next week.

But the church is the household of God. It's a place where God dwells. And in the New Testament we learn that the human heart is the place where God dwells, that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So when the people are rising up to build the temple in the days of Ezra, it was just pointing to the days of the Lord Jesus Christ where your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and He's rebuilding from the inside out Because that's how God works. He works from the inside out That's why they were awakened right God doesn't work from the outside in, he works from the inside out.

He works from reality. And so they were awakened as a result. And then, and so, and then they're, they're brought financial help. That's the second mark of an awakening. First of all, God changes people's hearts.

You have a rising generation that wants to walk with God. It's the neatest thing you can ever see. But then God brings financial help in verse 6. All those who were around them, do you see that? They're neighbors.

All those who were around them did you see that their neighbors all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold and goods and livestock and precious things besides all that was that was willingly offered in other words those who were going back willingly offered a lot, and then their neighbors also kicked in. That's what was happening. And it encouraged them, and hearts were moved, and then gifts and resources started to flow. Because godliness and generosity always go together. And it was a joyful and willing giving.

Do you see that? All that was willingly offered. Now this is repeated again in verses 68 and 69 where it says that they offered freely for the house of God to erect it in its place. And then in verse 69, according to their ability, they gave to the treasury for the work. And then it tells how much it was an enormous amount of money.

But what happens in an awakening is that God moves people's hearts. Those hearts move their wallets, and resources are released in order to rebuild the temple. And God has always called upon his people to give for the work of rebuilding, to establish his presence in communities. And that's what was happening in Jerusalem but God does that today you know there there there are thousands and thousands of churches in the world today because of this very same thing God has awakened people to build outposts of his glory Places for people to gather where preaching and healing and everything can take place. But you notice how the awakening of the heart awakens the resources as well in people's lives.

It's right for the church to always be about the business of multiplying preaching, multiplying places where the people of God gather. And that's what we're doing here, in a really small way. But it's part of this very same thing that God has done. You know it's interesting the Apostle Paul repeats this very same phrase in 2nd Corinthians 8, 1 through 4. He says that they gave according to their ability, but get this, yes, and beyond their ability.

They had such faith they even gave beyond their ability. You know, and you know We just should ask ourselves have we been awakened to such a point like that that the Apostle Paul Speaks of in second Corinthians 9 7 Paul says so let each one give as he purposes in his heart not grudgingly or of necessity For God loves a cheerful giver. I think what Paul said is a description of what was happening in the days of Ezra They were God loved a cheerful giver. They were willingly giving what they had. And this just opens up the whole subject of generosity for the work of God in the world.

It's a legitimate and right thing. And you know what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9, it always applies. He said, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. But it's just like what Solomon said in Proverbs 11, 14 when he said, one man gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

So this is the whole, you know, cultural atmosphere that an awakened church experiences people want to give and it's a mark of revival when you see this kind of thing and there are many examples of this in the bible you know mary magdalene and the other women you know they helped to support the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. You can read about that in Luke 8, 1-3. You have Joseph, a wealthy man. He provided his own tomb for Jesus, recorded in Matthew chapter 27. Nicodemus supplied expensive spices for the burial of Jesus in John chapter 19 and So you see this kind of generosity and even Churches also help one another in second in in Philemon I'm sorry in in second Corinthians 8 and 9, you know Christians are giving their money to help impoverished Christians in Jerusalem.

How about that? The gospel is spread and now money is flowing back into Jerusalem to support the Christians who were under persecution in the first century. But anyway, it's just this whole pattern of giving. In 1 Corinthians 16, we learn that collections were taken up in the church on the Sabbath day. On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside storing up as he may prosper that there be no collections when I come he said that in first Corinthians chapter 16 so you know we it's right for us to collect funds right now we collect funds in a little wooden box somewhere I don't even know where it is It's somewhere back in the back of the church and people give there.

This isn't, we don't do that because this is the biblical way to do it. There, you know, most churches they take an offering there's nothing wrong with that. If we ever start taking an offering don't be concerned It's not any more biblical than putting a wooden box in the back of the church It's the way that we chose to do it about 15 years ago But but what is right is that there's a collection? But a mark of revival is that people are giving willingly and they're giving cheerfully and sometimes they give beyond their ability. That's the hard one, isn't it?

But why does that happen? Because you see the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that He'll take care of you. You see that He does take care of you. He knows your name.

And so you're free. And you know He's going to get you home when He takes you home. So these marks of revival, God awakens worshipers to build, verse 5. Then God brings financial help, verses 6 through 11. And then God provides what's necessary for worship versus 7 through 11 And here is a listing of the articles of worship that were in Babylon, that were taken from Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar stole them, okay?

And he brought them back. So King Cyrus issues an order to gather up the riches of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem. He put them in the temple of his own gods and he used them in a lot of really shameful ways. By the way the last time you read about those articles was when Belshazzar had his big drunken party and he's drinking from these articles of worship that were used in profane temples, God brought them back and he restored them to their right use. You know, I wonder if it's an illustration of how that works in our own lives, that the things that we are involved in in our lives, We once used, you might have used your car or your house for profane purposes, but then because the Lord awakens you, you use them for holy purposes.

So these things that were used for profane purposes were turned into holy things used for holy purposes. And that's one of the blessings of being redeemed, is that God takes all those things you used to do and he turns them for good, the resources that he gave you or the gifts he gave you. You use your body for his glory in the same way that the articles of the temple began to be used for his glory again. You come out of the pagan temple that you lived in and you come into the temple of God. So they're returning.

Now remember, these people in Babylon, you've got to get your coordinates about you from a timeline standpoint, they've been in Babylon for 70 years. Nobody's used these things in 70 years, okay? But They wanted to return to the biblical ordinances for worship. That's what they wanted to do and so for 70 years The God ordained practices of worship had been abandoned you know and so there was this long period where the church didn't have the ordinances of God. You did have guys like Daniel who would pray three times a day.

There were people who did love God in Babylon, but they didn't worship God according to the pattern of Worship and I I wonder if something like that has happened even here in America, you know the American Church has largely abandoned biblical practices for worship and discipleship because they wanted something cooler than God and The church in many the church has so many Circus elements to it things that don't they don't really connect with scripture at all. You have all kinds of ministries that really, when you look at them, they don't really seem to fit with the things that God called his people to do. It's full of games and all kinds of antics and things like that. And the church has abandoned through pragmatism because it's a way to gather people and reach people. All you have to do is, hey, give the kids games and they're going to want to come back.

That's what you do. So the church becomes a place of games. And the church has set aside the basic practices of Christian worship and as a result you have whole populations of people that's what they want they want games they want they want something to thrill them they want to film they want to they want to they want to play They want something to thrill them that's different than what God has provided. And, you know, almost a Total disregard of the Sabbath in the American church today. Well, it's an age of pragmatism.

When did it start? Well, I was thinking about this. You know, when did the age of pragmatism really start to ramp in America? Well, it was right after World War II. If you go back, if you go from 2016 and subtract 70 years that gets you to 1946.

For 70 years I think the church has just been ramping toward more and more pragmatism, more and more worldly stuff in the church and We in many ways the American Church has been in a Babylonian captivity It hasn't really had it hasn't had the the elements of the worship of God among it. There are pockets of it and there is a true church in America, absolutely, and it's bigger than you think. But the truth is, and God does sustain his people in times like that, but you know with the influence of Charles Finney and many others, since World War II, pragmatism and the circus has taken over the church. But what's happening here is that God God is providing what is necessary for worship and that's always a mark of a revival when people hey when people want to gather together and they want to sing and they want to pray and They and they want to be involved in preaching and they want to be involved in preaching and they want to be involved in the Lord's Supper. They want to observe the Sabbath.

When they want to do the stuff that God told the church to do, it's a sign of a revival. And you know, I know, hey, revivals can be hard. Returning can be hard. But don't give up in the rebuilding. You know, be patient.

God is moving. God awakens, and he's looking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. You know he's looking for people like Daniel who even when the biblical practices aren't provided They pray, they cry out to God. But it's a blessing when the church returns to the heart of worship, which is to worship God in spirit and in truth. In other words, worship God real with your heart the way he wants you to worship him, and not with your antics to try to draw people.

When you draw people with antics, then your people will be satisfied with antics and you won't have a true church after a while. So now then, as we move into chapter two, this fourth element of revival, God awakens all the right people for the moment and I'm just gonna say that's the whole message of chapter 2 of those 70 verses of names and you know There are there there are there are I Have in the outline, there are five reasons chapter two is important. Well, that's a typo, there's six, that I'm gonna give you. And First of all, before we get to this list here, these are real people who once lived. They had lives.

They had trials. They had to walk for four months. And when they got there, they came to a city in ruins. That's who these people were. Because when God awakens you, this journey has to do with dealing with the ruins of your life and We shouldn't get too discouraged about that the way that God redeems because he's redeeming in in a deep way and It's real And so those people, you know, they had a past, their parents were exiled in Babylon, but there was no anonymity at all.

God knows their names. I love that part of this list. When you turn to God, your name is written in the book of life. You know, there's that song, The Saints Go Marching In, you know that song? Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in.

That's kind of like Ezra chapter two. And so why is chapter two important? First of all, it's inspired. All scripture is God breathed. This is part of the comfort and the instruction of the scriptures that Romans chapter 15 speaks of.

It is, all scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable. So it's profitable for something. It's a lot of names, but boy, I'll tell you, you should learn something from the names. There's a lot to learn, and I hope it's comforting and encouraging. And secondly, it speaks of Christ and his lineage.

We'll get to that when we get into the exposition a little bit further, but Zerubbabel is in the line of Jesus Christ. And God raised up Zerubbabel not just for Zerubbabel's time. God raised up Zerubbabel because it was part of a greater story of redemption and guess what? That's true of you. You're here today, not just for you.

This life isn't really about you. It's about glorifying God. You're put on this earth not for yourself. Your life is not your own. You're a temple of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, it doesn't matter what happens to you. You can glorify God in your body no matter what. No matter what trial or reversal or horrible thing happens to you, guess what? You're in the lineage of Jesus Christ. That's why you're here.

You know, you look at the people that are in the lineage of Christ. It would be really interesting to, someday, to just go through and document their troubles and their sins, the hardships they had. But you know, the story isn't really about them. It's about how Jesus Christ rescues sinners and he takes them to heaven. And he cares for them along their journey.

That's what this whole thing is about. And it's so that God would sum up all things in Jesus Christ. He's not summing up all things in your life. He's summing up all things in His righteousness that He has bequeathed to His children. So it speaks of Christ in his lineage.

Number three, it's an important subset of people. These were people who were going to restart regulated worship. They wanted to get back to the heart of worship, which was to worship according to Spirit and in truth. Number three, I'm sorry, number four, it's a listing of a remnant. And we don't know exactly how many went into exile, maybe two and a half million, but only 2% are going to return.

That's a small remnant. Think about this for a minute. How small are you? You know, how small is your family? How small is this church?

How small is the church in the world? Well, think about it this way. You know, it's often discouraging sometimes to look around and say, look at how small we are. We are so small, it's not even funny. But I mean, how many million came out of Egypt?

Two million, plus women and children. And then, how many came out of Babylon? 50, 000. That's a really small number. Hey, you know, you can get 100, 000 people to scream and yell for a sports team on the weekends.

100, 000 all over the country. This is only 50, 000 people. This is a small group. God works through remnants. He always has worked through remnants.

You know, Jesus said that there are only few that are truly his children. We don't know how few that is. So it's the listing of a remnant. And God works like this all the time. You remember Jonathan's armor bearer where he said that they would be rescued by many or by few.

Or you remember David and Goliath? Do you remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal? Do you remember the apostles? Twelve men. Twelve men.

Well, remember Jesus Christ? Everybody abandoned him at one point. Everyone abandoned him at one point. He was down to one. The world was down to one.

But God works through remnants and here you know there are 50, 000 people. You know William Bradford wrote of the Plymouth colony he said this, Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by his hand that made all things out of nothing and gives being to all things that are as one small candle may light a thousand so the light here kindled has shown unto many." That's proven to be true. There were only 50 left after the first winter in Plymouth And it was a candle that was lit and guess what we're all sitting here. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people in this land are believers that came from those original candles that were lit and the gospel being preached. So don't don't despise the day of small things.

By the way, Zechariah is going to say that to the captives in a few weeks here. Okay, number five. These names demonstrate the historical authenticity of the Bible. They were real people, real families. They lived in real cities.

They took real journeys They lived under real kings and they lived in certain nations There were real leaders because the Bible tells the story of reality. It's not a myth Then then number six to illustrate the very personal nature of God moving in the heart. God moves people and He knows their names. He knows if you're His child, He knows and He loves your name. Even the smallest.

Even the smallest. Even if you're like from the tribe of Gideon, even if you're like Gideon, the smallest of them all. Okay, so now let's gonna break, we'll move a little bit more quickly here. We're gonna break down these people. First of all, they're the names of their leaders in verses one and two.

They're two prominent names, Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and I think Those are probably the two to focus in on. Zerubbabel, his name means offspring of Babylon. He was born in Babylon. And he is the leader in restoring the people. And if you read in chapter one, verse 12 of Matthew, you'll see in the line of Jesus Christ and they were brought and after they were brought to Babylon Matthew 1 12 Jeconiah begot Shealtiel and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel and so forth and so forth Until you finally read and Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus Who is called the Christ?

It's a really important. It's an important list of names because the rubble who is in the line of Christ is named there It's a it's a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ And and how God works the second name is Jeshua His name means Jesus Jehovah saves and his grandfather is Saraiya And he was the chief priest when the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. And he was personally executed by Nebuchadnezzar. So you have you had these two leaders you have the spiritual leadership in under Jeshua and you have the civil leadership under Zerubbabel. This is the way that God works his glory in his world.

And then you have specific families, verses 3 through 20. You'll see them, you see this itemized. There are 18 families returning, a totaling about 15, 606 people. And again, you know, you've got these children's names. It's a picture of the power of God working in a family.

A family that was once apostate, and God raises up children who want to restore worship. And their hearts are toward the Lord. They want the authority of God in their lives. This is what we should pray for, is that God would give us children that want God's authority in their lives. And you know, that's one reason why we just, we should not give up rebuilding.

You know, to be patient. God is glorifying himself. He has named his children by name and you're one of them perhaps and Then number three there are people from different locations in verses 25 21 through 35 Now the list begins in the south with what I think is the most important name of the place, the people of Bethlehem. Bethlehem, Let's see, what happened in Bethlehem? What happened in Bethlehem?

Something really, really significant happened in Bethlehem, didn't it? Right at the beginning of this, now the names start, these places start in the south and they work up toward the north. But there were only 123 that went back to Bethlehem to populate it. But why would Bethlehem need to be populated? Because Jesus Christ would be born in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem had to be restored. And God brought these 123 piddly, no-account people who have names to come and rebuild Bethlehem so that when Mary and Joseph are there there's a town there's an inn there's a place to stay for a baby to be born. Isn't that remarkable? And you know in Micah 5 2 the prophet says, but you Bethlehem, Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting." Oh, Bethlehem. You know, we'll probably, somebody will probably sing that song this season.

Oh, little town of Bethlehem. Well Bethlehem was populated as a result of this movement of God. It was God who wanted Bethlehem to be restored so that the Messiah would be born there. You know, think about that. Bethlehem, a town in ruins most likely, and the greatest blessing that was going to happen to Bethlehem is of 123 people were going to go back there and rebuild worship in that town.

How about that? You know what what could be the purpose of like a hundred and twenty-three people? You know God confounds the pride and the wisdom of the wise, and he uses the small things to glorify himself, even like 123 people. Like, what could God do with a church that was really small in a town? Like if they really reestablished worship, how could God use them?

Will God use these 123? You know, they didn't even know what was going to happen there, probably, unless they understood the prophecy of Micah 5.2. And then there were those who were related to worship, number four, this fourth group in verses 36 through 58. And first of all, they're the priests. And there are four families of priests.

And then there are the Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers. There were only 74 Levites. By the way, the priests were 10% of the total number. But the Levites, there were only 74 of them. The Levites functioned kind of like deacons in a way.

They were the deacons to the priests, and they did, they did the, they took care of the physical matters so that the priests could do their work, so that the priests could be set aside to bring the word of God to the people. And then, and you know the commentators say that the work of the Levites was a lowly kind of work, but not that lowly, because it meant for the building of the temple. And then there are the singers, these are the descendants of Asaph, you can read all about them. In Psalm 50 and in, You can read some of their Psalms in Psalms 73 to 83 the singers I I don't know why I just I just love to think about the singers in the body of Christ who lift up their voices. There's nothing more healing and encouraging to hear people sing with their whole hearts, isn't there?

You've been in moments like that where you thought the roof was gonna lift off because the passion, the love, the desire, the brokenness, the humility, the joy, all that was just like loaded up in one. And it was almost like, you know, like in chapter three, you weren't sure, you know, what were sounds of weeping or what were sounds of joy because it was all there. That's us. You come in here and, you know, somebody's weeping and somebody's in joy, but you don't know, you can't distinguish which is which sometimes. And then you have the gatekeepers.

You know, they were charged to lock and unlock the doors of the temple and to watch over the treasury. 139 of them. The gatekeepers were there to make sure nothing unclean got into God's house. The gatekeepers. This is really important.

You know, do you have gatekeepers on your heart? The temple of the Holy Spirit, does it have right gatekeepers? That Keep the unclean, filthy things out of your heart. Build up, feed the gatekeepers. That's what you need to do.

So that you're not defiled in this defiling world. Now interestingly enough, nobody'd been gatekeepers before. They hadn't really been singers like the days of the temple before. They, you know, nobody had really been Levites the way that Levites were supposed to function. There was no temple.

There's no way to do it. So they were going back to restore something they hadn't even seen. Can you imagine how clunky that might have been? You know, when you're reestablishing worship, it can be clunky. It's not perfect, like us, right?

Like, I hope nobody thinks that what we do is like the quintessential essence of, we're all learning, you know? How to worship God. Then you have the Nethanime, These are the lowest class of the temple servants. There are many foreign names. It's possible they were people who were captured.

They might be the Gibeonites who became the water carriers and the woodcutters in Joshua chapter 9. We're not sure exactly who the Nethaneme were, but they were doing kind of menial temple work, which was really necessary. Whole bunch of them are listed. And then there are the people of unknown descent in verses 59 to 63. And you know, there were qualifications for the leading of worship.

There always have been and there always will be. And in the same way that there are qualifications for elders and deacons, officers in local churches, if you ignore the qualifications, you get in a lot of trouble. And you remember Korah and Dathan and Abiram and the warning of the danger of trying to get into the priesthood by falsehood. Do you remember Uzziah, when we were in Isaiah, who he got proud and he went into the temple to offer sacrifices and the priests were running after him to stop him to try to physically stop him from doing it and he got leprosy. God struck him with leprosy because he presumed upon an office that wasn't his.

But God, you know, God has qualifications for leaders. Now you have the Urim and the Thummim here that are mentioned to try to discern who are qualified and who are not. Nobody really knows what the Urim and the Thurman were. If you go to Leviticus 8.8, you can learn a little bit about it. But apparently there were two small objects, maybe stones, kept in the pocket of the high priest.

It could be almost like lots. One said yes, one said no. We're not exactly sure, but it was a way of making decisions. And so they, hey, the heart of the people was they wanted to go back and do the stuff that God wanted told them to do. They just wanted to do the stuff.

They wanted to go back to the stuff that was real and true. They wanted to go back to the stuff that was eternal. They didn't want a bunch of new jives that they learned in Babylon. They wanted God. They wanted God to regulate them.

They wanted to do the stuff. They wanted to heal and save and worship. They wanted God. That's what, that was the heart of it. And so you might say, how goofy, you know, to get the Urim and the Thummim, You know, when you put them together and you know, you cast lots.

Well, you know what? They wanted to do the stuff that God told them to do, even if it was goofy in the world. I think God blesses people like that. And he knows your name if you're like that. But they wanted to be detailed in their obedience according to the scriptures.

And they wanted to go build the tabernacle, they wanted to go build the temple out of the same spirit that the tabernacle was built, out of the same spirit that Solomon's temple was built. They wanted to rebuild it according to the specifications. So they wanted to get all the articles together And they wanted to make decisions about the priesthood together They wanted to have all the offices set in place the priests the Levi's the gatekeepers the net that they want to have everybody In line they wanted to have themselves structured and regulated by God That's a right impulse and Then the final section here the total who made it back home I Love this final part verse of 64 to 69 the return is now completed you can tell and The gifts have been given they're off. They're off rebuilding. The whole assembly together is 42, 360, besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7, 337, and they had 200 men and women singers and he goes on and Then in verse 68 some of the heads of the father's houses when they came into the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem offered freely to the house of God to erect it in its place according to their ability They gave to the Treasury and then the final verse 70 So the priests and the Levites Some of the people the singers the gatekeepers and the nethineem, look at these words, dwelt in their cities.

They got home. They got home. And they were there now, beginning to worship this new generation, worshiping God, trying to return to the biblical patterns. Now, so God is going to get you back home, But getting there isn't the end of the story as we'll learn as we go through Ezra. That God, He takes you to your place to refine you.

And sometimes it's a refinement by fire. Sometimes it's a refinement by things you did not expect you could not even imagine But he puts you with the people in the city that you need to be whether it's Bethlehem or wherever and he'll use that time as you worship him wherever you are in this world. But during that time he'll also reveal to you more of your sins and the sins of others and he'll comfort you by his grace which we'll learn about next week when the first thing they do is they make burnt offerings for sin because sin is real and it's still real in them. Well, okay, so maybe this is gonna be a seven and a half hour sermon. No, it's not, I'm getting to the end.

I just want to make a few points before we leave this text. First of all, I want to say that what you've read here gives you a small window into the whole theme of the Bible. And that is that from the first creation to the new creation, God is demonstrating his glory in the salvation and the discipline of his people and how they're restored. That's what God is doing. That's what all of scripture is about.

And you can find yourself in that timeline. That's what God is doing. God is rescuing a bride, and he disciplines her, and he restores her. And he never leaves her, even though it might be hard. Number two, the second thing is that they were a remnant that was cut down But the truth is his kingdom will never end.

Don't be confused by the small numbers of the people of God in the world. God has always worked through a remnant. And then number three, they were a remnant who kept building in spite of their imperfections and what was revealed. And we need to keep building. You know, we've seen our own imperfections, our own sins over the years here, and better remnants should just keep building according to the biblical patterns as best they know how.

And I think God has given us a heart for that. Notice how the rebuilding kind of takes place. Did you notice the sequence at the beginning of this list? I mean it was the Father's houses. It began in the hall, or It began with the leaders and then the fathers houses.

What was happening in homes was really pivotal. And then it happened in the way that worship was conducted with the singers and the gatekeepers and the priests and the Levites. It's the way that God restores us. It's a multifaceted restoration program that God has, and it begins in homes, and it's fostered through godly leaders and through the whole body of Christ, all the different functions in the church, all the living stones working together. It's this really diverse way that God uses to restore his people.

And that's why you should be in a church where there are people that you know because you're part you living stones have to rub up against each other or else they're not going to find themselves really rebuilding with the strength now the fourth thing I want to say is that they were experiencing a new stage in their discipleship journey. When they left, it was a totally new stage. And my question is, what about you? What do you need to return to? Is there a part of worship that you need to return to?

Is there a part of the building of the body of Christ that you need to return to? Like for example, are you just hanging around here? Or are you part of rebuilding? It really matters. You know, in a church like ours, it can be really easy just to show up, hear the preaching, go to prayer, do this, do that.

And that's part of the building, but it's only a part of it. You know the living stones gathering together and singing and working together all that's all that's really really important but the question is have you really piled in to rebuild this temple? And I'm not saying that I'm not looking around trying to condemn anybody about I'm just saying this is what God has appointed us to do and you should be giving your whole heart to it according to the gifts, according to the ability that God has given you. You don't sit around here just waiting for somebody to minister to you. You need to go minister to people and build this temple.

I pray that God would expand, that we would be sending out more and more preachers, establishing more churches, because the people are active in building. But if people just want to come in here and hear a nice sermon and take off, you know, then there won't be that much building really going on. So they were experiencing a new stage in their discipleship. Do you need to experience a new stage in your discipleship? And you might even, I mean, it might be radical, like a four month journey, like that's a whole semester, isn't it, you know?

And you're gonna go back and you're gonna herd 7, 000 donkeys, you know, on your way. And it's not gonna be that easy and then you're gonna show up and there's all this all this rubble you know, and that's why you have to have the Zerubbable to clean up the rubble to lead the charge and but you know, they were experiencing a new stage in their discipleship. The other thing is it was a new Exodus. And this Exodus is figurative of the other Exodus. It's a deliverance from bondage of sin.

That was the whole reason for the Exodus in 1445 BC with Moses. And it was the purpose of the Exodus from Babylon, and it's the same purpose of your Exodus from sin. To come out from among them, to come out from this world and serve Jesus Christ. So you know don't don't lose heart. Your story is part of this great story of redemption that God is telling until the end of time.

And so, you know, this story is being told through your life. But it really is his story of how God redeems sinners. And sometimes it's hard, and sometimes you show up and all you find is a broken down city and a bunch of sinners in it. But remember this, God knows your name. He's appointed you to rebuild and He's doing it because He wants to demonstrate His mercy and kindness in the world towards sinners.

That's why God's gathered us all together here and I pray that God would manifest his glory in saving sinners and sanctifying the saints. Let's pray. Lord, Lord we thank you for your word, how it makes us think thoughts that we could not have on our own. But, oh Lord, we thank you that you know our names. We thank you that Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom we are chief.

We thank you that you're rebuilding the walls. We thank you that you are showing us that the rebuilding is messy sometimes, but we know that you have ordained it all for your own glory. And I pray, oh God, that you would take away any weariness that anyone has as a result of our own sins and weaknesses in the rebuilding of these walls and that you would give us such urgency to continue to build with all of our hearts. Amen.