In the sermon 'Stirred up to Build the House of the Lord,' Scott Brown explores the events in Ezra 1:1-5, highlighting the role of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfilling God's prophecy as spoken by Jeremiah. The sermon emphasizes that every historical event, including the Babylonian captivity, is part of a larger narrative orchestrated by God for His glory. Brown suggests that just as God stirred the hearts of people in the past, He continues to stir hearts today to build His spiritual house, which is the church. The sermon draws parallels between the physical rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and the spiritual renewal and reformation that God seeks in His people today. It underlines the importance of returning to foundational biblical truths and being part of God's historical narrative, which is directed towards rescuing a bride and building a house for His glory.

Ezra 1, 1-5. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing saying, thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me, and He has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? May his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, he is God, which is in Jerusalem. And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the man of his place help, help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

Now 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. Let us pray. Lord, the timeless words of just this last song we sang of asking you to put your Word of God in us, to build your kingdom. We desire it so and know that only the Holy Spirit can stir our hearts to want the Word of God, to love the Word of God. And so we stand before you as people that understand that you are almighty, all-knowing, so creative in all your works, and we ask that spoken Word of God today to be spoken to our hearts and to bring fruit in Jesus name, Amen.

Well I'm grateful here to be in Ezra chapter 1. It brings us to a moment in history in 539 BC, the first verse opens up, now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. So this is a historical marker in the life of many, many people, and particularly in the life of Cyrus, the king of Persia. And this is a historical narrative that we're in right now. And I want to begin just by acknowledging that everybody is involved in a historical narrative right now.

Like for example, some of you are three years old right now. And the fact that you're three means that you're part of a historical narrative. Or maybe you're 13. Or maybe you're 33. Or maybe you're 93 years old.

You're experiencing a part of a historical narrative. Well it's your narrative, but it isn't just your narrative. Because the history of your life, whether you're 3 or 13, or whether you're 33, is all designed for a greater historical narrative and it's the historical plan of God as he works out his glory from generation to generation. Because God is always using history to declare the glory of his grace. And no matter whether you're three or 13 or 33 or 93, this historical narrative that you're caught in, really.

You didn't choose it. It's part of the greater historical narrative of the glory of God, of God bringing many sons to glory. I have in front of you, I put an extra handout, a historical timeline of biblical history. And you'll see it begins with creation and it moves down through the various elements of history. But at every step, God is working out salvation.

And so whether you're three or 13 or 33 or 93, your life is part of something so much bigger than your own life. And everything that happens in your life is designed to fit into that greater historical narrative of the glory of God. That's the purpose of your life. That's the purpose of history. And even this captivity in Babylon, People being ruled by a pagan king.

All of this is part of the glory of God demonstrated in history. Now, you know, as you look at this passage of scripture, there are various things that emerge. I wasn't sure what to focus on on this message, whether it should be on building the house of the Lord. That's a gigantic theme that this whole narrative continues to remind us of, and how God's building a spiritual house. Or it could be God stirring up stirring up hearts and how it's a God who who moves people to do things that move people through the trajectory of God's plan of bringing many sons to glory.

Or it could be the Word of God fulfilled. That's another huge issue here in these first five verses that God is fulfilling his word. He's making himself to be true Because everything that God says in the Bible is true and it's going to be proved true So there are various elements of this. You know, if I had little children, I would say, listen for, build the house of the Lord. I'd say, listen to that.

Or I'd have them say, listen for, the word of God is fulfilled and everything that God says is gonna happen. I would try to help them see that. Or perhaps I would help them to think about what it's like to be stirred up. What it's like when God changes your mind. He makes you think thoughts and you do things as a result of that.

How many times has that happened to you in your life where God gave you thoughts and you did something? Well, all these things are running back and forth in this passage of scripture. And it's a very beautiful passage in that sense. But I want us to understand something about Cyrus, King of Persia, the Babylonian captivity, creation, fall, flood, David, the building of the temple, the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Your life right now, everything in history is designed to declare the glory of God, even your history right now, even if you're three, even if you're 13.

Because God is the commander of all of history. And everything that ever happened in history is for the purpose of rescuing a bride to bring her into a house. I'll say that again. Everything that ever happened in history, whether you're 3 or 13 or 33 or 93, it happened for the purpose of the rescue of a bride and to bring her into a house. And that's why God stirs up hearts to build the house of God.

And that's actually why we're gathered here today as well. Now Ezra 1.1 reminds us that his word is reliable, he is true, he's faithful to keep his promises, and it brings us to this particular critical matter in the first five verses of Ezra that that that the whole Bible is really about God building a house for his people to dwell in and dwelling places for him to dwell in And God is always moving history for this purpose and he's causing all things to work together For good he's causing his house to be built and right now whether you're three or thirteen or ninety three God's building his house. He's building his house all around you. He's building his house through you, through the different things that you're facing, even though they might seem tragic and horrible, like the Babylonian captivity absolutely was. When you're absolutely hopeless and you don't know what to do next, what do you do?

And this passage helps us to understand in a type, in a shadow, in a figure of the Old Testament, to understand what's that like for us. And Ezra's a book about rebuilding, it's about revival and reformation, it's about returning, it's about repentance because that really is the heartbeat of everything God is desiring to do in his people as they're going through this historical narrative. And what we learned from Ezra is that there's really only one way of restoration and healing and it's to return to the old paths like Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 16 He says ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls. But the people, when Jeremiah prophesied this, they said, we will not walk in it. But now you have people who are gonna walk in it, like almost 50, 000 of them.

In verse five, rise up and say, we're gonna walk in it, we're gonna go back to the old paths. We're gonna believe that scripture is true. We are gonna pack our bags, and we're gonna travel four months and go back to Jerusalem and we're going to get back to basics we're going to begin to worship God again and that's exactly what's happening here they're they're moving They're moving back to the old paths. God is moving their hearts and it's there really only hope only God can move your heart to go back to the basics to go back to Jerusalem and Build an altar again and build the temple again and rebuild your life according to scripture Only Only God can move your heart to do that. It's impossible to do it on your own.

And God, what he does is he brings various difficulties into our lives to drive us there. That was the whole purpose of the Babylonian captivity. The people of God had created a fake worship. Their hearts were far from him. And as a result, God desired to chastise them so that they would turn to him.

Which, you know, as I look back over the years in my own life and the people's lives that God has had me intersect with, when somebody has times of trouble, It drives them back to the Lord and they rebuild an altar. That's exactly what you should do, just like the people here. So this is a story of God moving hearts. It's our only hope and it's a story of returning home and the hand of God upon them. And it makes it so clear that everything that has ever happened in history is for the purpose of the rescue of a bride, to bring her into a house where there is a real altar that really heals, that really saves.

It's an altar where there are rivers of living water running out of that altar, and you drink from his river of delights. And this Old Testament figure, this Old Testament prophecy, it speaks in shadows of things of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's really speaking of figuratively of what happens when you return to Jesus Christ, when you believe in Him, and you begin to call upon his name. So here we are, we're in Ezra, which is just a continuation of 2 Chronicles and we're reading about the three returns of the people of God back to Jerusalem. The first return happens in 530 BC after Cyrus issues this decree.

And under the leadership of Zerubbabel, they go back. And then Ezra returns with a smaller number of people. And that happens later on. And then Nehemiah comes and rebuilds the walls in 445 BC. So you have these three returns, but all of them speak to the power of the gospel through our Lord Jesus Christ.

They are figures and shadows that help us to understand what Jesus Christ is all about. And so you can see in your outline, this very simple outline of Ezra, the first six chapters are about the restoration of the temple that Ezra was the leader of, and he was the one who led the charge when Cyrus issued his decree in 539 BC. And then there's the reformation of the people when Ezra comes in chapters 7 through 10. So now, so when we get to verse one here, the children of Israel have been in Babylon for 70 years. Almost everybody who originally was deported to Babylon has died.

You have a few that are still alive. Daniel is probably still alive. He's in his 80s. And the Hebrew children, the young ones that came, are probably still alive as well. And they're seeing this radical transformation that God is bringing about.

And you know, Babylon was hard. You know, we learn about that in Psalm 137, one through four, where it's recorded, "'By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept for Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? Babylon was a hard time, 70 years hard. And so this word that is fulfilled through Cyrus is a refreshing word.

And so that's what we read in verse 1, where the word of God is fulfilled. The word of God is fulfilled. Now in the first year of King Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. And so the whole context of this is the drama of the way that God brings people into the land, how he is bringing many sons to glory, and he's doing it all throughout history, and how he's coming and he's rescuing a people. Now the context of verse one is God's plan to bring Israel back to the land and there are many reasons why they need to go back to the land.

One reason is that a messiah needed to be born in Bethlehem. We'll learn about that next week. Why is Bethlehem mentioned in the next section? Because God is doing something. A messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem and people need to come back and repopulate Bethlehem.

So Bethlehem is being repopulated to set the stage for something greater when Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem. These are all shadows and pictures of greater things to come. And this Exodus out of Babylon is also like the Exodus out of Egypt. And then it prefigures the exodus from sin that takes place when a person turns to Jesus Christ. And so the 70 years is now coming to a close and nobody knows how they're going to be able to get back.

There's no sign of help. There's no money. There's no body. There's nothing on the horizon to make the change. Nothing.

I don't know if you've ever felt like that, where you just, you couldn't see how God could provide for you. You know, I had this, I remember very distinctly when I was a young man, I was called to be a pastor at age 26 in San Diego, and I wasn't married. So I became the senior pastor of a church when I was single and 26 years old. And I went to this little town in San Diego. I think there might've been 3, 000 people in this town out in the middle of nowhere.

And I thought, you know, there's no way I'm going to find a wife. There's no way. It's impossible. You know, there's nobody, there isn't even a single person in this town. You know, much less, I don't get out much.

You know, I'm I'm just in this little town and I thought you know, it's impossible and so there were people around me who were trying to get me set up with all kinds of people and they wanted me to go to this group and that group where there are all these singles, all these available people, you know, and I could sort of surf around and find them. And I actually said, forget it, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to wait for God to move. I wanted God to move, and God actually did move. And, but there are times in your life where you think there's absolutely no way.

There's nothing. It's impossible. And that's exactly what the children of Israel faced. They're at the end of 70 years, and there's absolutely no way that they're going to get around this problem. But God is bigger than that because His plan is great, it's mighty, and he only regards his own plan.

And so here you have this marvelous display of hope in the midst of ruin. And God is using every element of history in order to display His glory. And that's why everything that's ever happened in history is designed to present a beautiful bride to Jesus Christ. And in the meantime to bring her into a house and to care for her there, to nourish her and cherish her. This is what the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is designed for.

And this is why God stirred up the heart of Cyrus in verse 1 of this chapter. And so God, out of the blue, where you absolutely could not expect it, he moves the heart of a pagan king, you know, help often comes from the place you don't ever expect it. You know, it almost always comes from the place you don't expect it, And that's exactly what happened here to the children of Israel. Because with God, victory happens when it can't happen. And restoration happens when there are no restorers in sight.

And so God raises up these people, you know, there's this fascinating verse in Haggai, in Haggai 2 verse 23, it's about Zerubbabel. And it reads like this, on that day says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel. In other words, God's doing all this. I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, my servant, And wear you like a signet ring, for it is you I have chosen. In other words, God's saying, I'm going to wear you like a signet ring.

You're going to be my authority in this picture of restoration. Because it's God and God alone who raises up for restoration. And He's really our only hope for any restoration. That's why we should look to Him with all of our hearts. He's the direction we should look.

Don't look out there, look toward him if you want restoration. And there, you know, Zerubbabel is a lot like Cyrus, as we'll read later, you know, God calls Cyrus my servant, my shepherd. And here, Zerubbabel, he says, you're my signet ring. Oh, you thought you had such a great vision for your life. Sorry, you're my signet ring.

Because God's using every moment of history to glorify himself. Everything large or small that happens in this world is designed for this very purpose. And so you have these You have these people that are raised up. Well, Cyrus is in the center stage in verse one. And who is Cyrus?

Cyrus, when Cyrus shows up in Babylon, he's already been king for 20 years anyway. He's already conquered many lands. His empire is already vast and it's getting ready to get way bigger. And so he's united the Medes and the Persians And when he conquers the Medes, he goes next to the Babylonians and he subdues them there. And in the first year of his subduing the Babylonians, he issues this decree.

Now Cyrus was different than Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar's philosophy was scorched earth and deport everyone, okay? Displace everyone. That's why so many were brought out of Jerusalem, 10, 000 of them, and were brought to Babylon in 586 BC because Nebuchadnezzar was a brutal despot, but Cyrus was a benevolent despot. And so he had a policy of conciliation.

So when he came into Babylon, he worshiped the gods of Babylon. He got everybody Wrapped around the fact that Marduk had worked mightily and He came in and he he acknowledged the gods of that region the Cyrus cylinder, which is a marvelous archaeological treasure that's displayed in the British Museum today says that he praised Marduk, the God of the Babylonians, and he says that Marduk was the one who gave them the victory over Babylon. And he minimized the bloodshed in Babylon and they surrendered really very easily. And as a result of it, he had an absolutely massive empire that went from India to the Red Sea. It was just huge and it was the largest empire most probably in the ancient world at that time.

And so Cyrus brings to an end this 70 year captivity, which by the way, sets in motion Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks of Daniel. We'll get to that at another time. We're not going to unpack the 70 weeks of Daniel that begins with Cyrus. And so there's much more happening than just a power-hungry king who wants to take over another kingdom because God is using every moment of history for his own glory. And he is setting forth the biblical timelines through these activities.

So Cyrus was a warrior, but he was an ethical one, not given to brutality, and he was pretty tolerant to those he conquered. How did he take over Babylon? Babylon was a wonder of the world. It was a gigantic city, incredibly well fortified. The Euphrates River protected it.

You couldn't get an army across the Euphrates River. So Cyrus was coming in to conquer Babylon and he got closer to the city after some small time fighting. And he ended up concluding, I'm not gonna be able to take over the city by just coming in with conventional warfare. So he pulled back and he started building some walls and the people in Babylon were standing on the top of their gigantic walls, mocking and laughing and saying, we have 20 years of provisions in this city. You can't, it doesn't matter what you do.

We're secure. This city is secure. So the people are mocking Cyrus. We learn this from Herodotus, the historian, not from the Bible. And so Cyrus pulls back and he waits.

And there's a gigantic party going on in Babylon and all the rulers are drunk. And it's a long party. And before that Cyrus decided that he would find a way to get into the city. So he figured that if he could dry up the Euphrates River, he could march his army right across and take the city. So while everybody was having their party, he was digging creeks to divert the water of the Euphrates River.

And he diverted the waters of the Euphrates River into a gigantic swamp that caught the water. The water went down far enough, and in the middle of the night, Cyrus and his army walked into the city of Babylon. The gates were open, and they took over the city, hardly without any bloodshed at all. And you know, The story is recorded in Daniel where Belshazzar sees their handwriting on the wall and his knees are quaking. And Herodotus says that when Cyrus' troops entered into the city, the king was so afraid he was going to commit suicide.

And so Cyrus took this city with hardly any bloodshed at all. Some but not a lot. But so Cyrus takes over this city. Here's what the Cyrus Cylinder says. This is Cyrus speaking.

When I, well disposed, entered Babylon, I established the seat of government in the royal palace amidst jubilation and rejoicing. Marduk, the great God, caused the big-hearted inhabitants of Babylon to love me. I sought daily to worship him, Marduk. My numerous troops moved about undisturbed in the midst of Babylon." So Cyrus goes into Babylon, and then he issues this decree within the first year of his ruling and reigning. Now, in your outline, you'll see this entry, the decrees of God in the prophetic record with several passages of scripture listed.

Now, I'd like to walk you through some of these. So I'd like you to open up your Bibles and I'd like you to look at some of the words. This is the prophetic historical record of this event that is recorded in Ezra chapter 1 because These events were prophesied by the Lord. Nothing happens in history by surprise. Nothing is ever going to happen to you by God's surprise.

He's ruling every moment of history. Whether you're three or whether you're 13 or 93, every moment of your history comes under the heading of God rescuing a bride and bringing many sons to glory. So all of this was prophesied. And so the first place I would like to go is 1400 BC, where Moses prophesies this scene. In Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 27, we read, "'And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

And there you will serve God's work, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, then all these things come upon you in the latter days when you turn to the Lord your God to obey his voice For the Lord your God is a merciful God He will not forsake you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them." Moses is prophesying the Babylonian captivity. And then if you go to Isaiah chapter 39, There's a prophecy to King Hezekiah that all he has accumulated in his sons will be carried away to Babylon in Isaiah chapter 39. And there's this recording there.

At that time, Merodot Baladon, the son of Baladon, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick." This scene here is that some people from Babylon came to Jerusalem to see Hezekiah, the king of Judah. And when they came, Hezekiah showed them all the treasures of the temple. He showed the Babylonians the treasures of the temple, all the wealth that he had. And then Isaiah the prophet speaks to Hezekiah and he says, hear the word of the Lord in verse 5, behold the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.

And they shall take away some of your sons, who will descend from you, whom you will beget. And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." This is over a hundred years before the Babylonian captivity. Isaiah is prophesying that this will happen, and it did happen. And then in Isaiah chapter 44 and verse 45, you find this remarkable context. Really all of chapter 44 speaks of the same scene that is being prophesied.

And Isaiah 44 really is about the sovereignty of God over everything, over all of history and how God's going to protect his children. In verse 2 he says, thus the Lord God who made you and formed you from the womb who will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and you, O Jeshurah, whom I have chosen." Isaiah 44 is about how God's going to protect his people. And at the end, he speaks about Cyrus, and he says that he's going to pour water out on them who is thirsty. That's in verse three.

He's going to care for them. He's going to bring them into his house. He's going to give them water to drink. And he says in verse four, and they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses. He's talking about God's protection of them to bring them to a place of abundance.

And he continues to speak of it. And then in verse 28, He says that he even controls kings in chapter 44 verse 28, who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple your foundation shall be laid." He's just saying that God, Isaiah is prophesying over a hundred years before Cyrus is born. He names his name and he calls Cyrus his shepherd. Just like he called Zerubbabel his signet ring, Cyrus is his shepherd. He is a tool in the hand of Almighty God, because every ruler and every age is nothing more than a tool in the hand of Almighty God.

And why? Why? So that Jerusalem shall be built and so that the foundation shall be laid. So that God would rescue a bride. In other words, he would rescue sinners.

He would come and he would take them into his house and he would feed them forever. He's using every moment of history for that purpose. In chapter 45, you turn the page. And in the next chapter, he calls Cyrus his anointed, whose right hand I have held to subdue the nations. So God is saying, I'm holding Cyrus' hand.

He's my shepherd, He's my anointed and I'm holding his hand He's a pagan ruler and God is holding his hand and in verse 6 He says why he's doing it this way. You see verse 6? That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, there is no other. That we should be in awe that he would be glorified.

And so here we learn why. Why did Cyrus come? He came so that from the rising of the sun to its setting everyone would know that God controls history. That's why this narrative is here. So that you'll always know, whether you're 3 or 13 or 93, that you know who's controlling history.

And he's doing it so that you would know that there is none besides him. You know, in verse 4, he says, I have named you. I have named you. God named Cyrus. And then in verse 13 he says, He shall build my city and let my exiles go free.

He's a tool in the hand of God. Every ruler that ever lived is nothing but a tool, including the new rulers who are being chosen now in our own government. You can rest assured they're being They're being tools in the hand of God, because God rules every moment of history, even your history and mine. And then in 2 Chronicles chapter 36, we see this prophecy of the Babylonian captivity and why it happened. And then in Jeremiah chapter 25, verses 1 through 13, we learn that Nebuchadnezzar is going to be the one who is going to take them to Babylon.

And in verse 10 he says, Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp, and this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon." God sends in Nebuchadnezzar for a season where they'll be weeping. And those wonderful sounds of the sounds of the bridegroom and the millstone will, you won't hear them. But it's because God is doing something greater, because He wants to drive His people to Himself. He wants His people to care nothing but Himself. He wants His people to have no affection for anything but Himself.

Their affections had been grown on the world and they loved the worldly things and then they were taken away from them. And God took them away in order to restore them, so that they would have a true heart toward him. That they wouldn't have a heart to him just because he blessed them, and he gave them abundance, but because he is God, and he's their only true sustainer. And then Jeremiah 29 we learn that God will orchestrate this return home. Verse 12, then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you.

And you'll pray to me. You'll turn to me. And you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations, from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive." You know, it really matters who you make your counselors in times of trouble.

And there were people in Babylon whose counselor was Jeremiah. Jeremiah was teaching them. Daniel was reading Jeremiah for sure. But it really matters who your counselors are when you're in a time of trouble. And there were those who had Jeremiah as their counselor.

And Jeremiah says that All these things have come so that you will call upon me and pray to me. And he says, and I will listen to you. And if you seek me with all your heart, you'll find me." It really matters who your counselors are in a time of trouble. There are certain people you shouldn't talk to in a time of trouble, and there are certain people you must talk to in a time of trouble. Jeremiah was a good counselor.

And then finally the prophecy of Daniel in Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 and 2. And again, we'll return to Daniel 9 at a later time. But what's happening is that all of these things are working together for good. And God is saying about Cyrus, he will perform all my pleasure. He's my shepherd, he's my anointed, and I'm using him to bring many sons to glory, even though it's very difficult.

Now, there's this word, fulfilled, in verse 1. It means to complete, it means to accomplish, It means to end, to bring an end to. And it's here to help us to understand that you can trust every single word of God. That every word of God is true. Everything that he ever said in his word is absolutely reliable, and you can trust in it.

And that's why verse 1 says the word of the Lord was fulfilled. And it was fulfilled. Because everything that ever happened in history is for the purpose of the rescue of a bride to bring her into a house which will be built, not made with hands. And that's the gospel. This is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That he has a house and he brings you into his house and he cares for you. And then he actually says that your body is the house. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit All of these things that are happening in as there are figurative. So so first of all we see that the word of the Lord is Fulfilled that's the first point The second is that the Lord stirred up the heart of the king. Fulfillment is a critical matter in these first five verses.

Stirring up hearts is another really critical matter that's here. And I think that what we what we learned from this is that you don't have any hope until the Lord moves. He moves the spirits of all who are in the earth. You know, the heart of the king is like a water course in the hand of the Lord. That's what Solomon said in Proverbs.

And all renewal starts with God stirring a heart. This is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, that God works all things according to the counsel of his will in Ephesians 1. Or what Joseph was taught, that he communicated in Genesis 50, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. God stirs up all hearts, he means it all for good. That's why Paul said in Romans 9, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Because this is a demonstration of the authority of God and his sovereign hand. You know, Amos said it like this in Amos 3.6, he says, does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? And so I think we need to recognize that it's God and God alone who stirs the hearts. You know what that means? That means that you can trust God in every relationship.

You can't trust the relationship, but you can trust God in the relationship. You don't need to worry about what people think. You don't need to worry about whether somebody is going to marry you. You don't need to worry about your boss. You don't need to worry about your president.

You don't need to worry about your president, you don't need to worry about anything, because God is the one who stirs hearts. It's God who is doing it. And this is how God works. And then the Lord caused the decree of Cyrus. And here, this is the longest part of our passage, But this is an official proclamation.

There are several decrees that are made. There are actually four critical decrees across Ezra and Nehemiah, and this is the first one. And the decree, out of the mouth of Cyrus, reads like this. He made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it into writing. Thus says King Cyrus of Persia.

And this is what he said, all the kingdoms of the earth, the Lord God of heaven has given me and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. So why did Cyrus do this? Why? You know, he might have had some other ulterior motives but Cyrus says that God commanded him to do it a pagan worshiper of Marduk Obeyed a command of God. Isn't that amazing?

God God commands pagan kings and he tells them what to do. And so I want to just make a few comments about this decree. And I think the first thing that I want us to recognize is that in the Bible, God speaks through a lot of different kinds of means. He speaks through kings and he can speak through a donkey. He speaks through the heavens, he can speak through the rocks who will cry out.

God can speak. When he wants to speak, he's going to speak. So you don't have to worry about it. He's going to speak in his own time. So you can rest.

You're waiting for him to speak. You want him to say something, rest. When he's ready to speak, he'll speak and you'll know it. So trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. When he's ready to speak, he'll speak. And he can use a donkey or a rock or a king or your dad or somebody, he'll speak and you'll know what to do. Notice his authority in verse 2. Thus says Cyrus, king of Prussia, all the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me he understood that God Somehow had given him these kingdoms.

He had a massive kingdom and Then notice his duty and he commanded me to build him a house At Jerusalem And then notice his encouragement Who is among you of all of his people? So there are all these people living in Babylon, and he's saying, who among you, who among you wants to listen to the Lord? Who among you wants to go back? Now, the people had lives in Babylon. A lot of them obeyed Jeremiah's instruction to them in Jeremiah 29, where Jeremiah reports the word of God thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel all who are carried away captive whom I've caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon to Babylon build houses and dwell in them plant gardens and eat their fruit take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters that you may be increased there and not diminished and seek the peace of the city Where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the Lord for it for in its peace You will have peace So they had a life in Babylon.

They'd been there for many of them, some of them for 70 years. So many of them had been born there. They had houses. They had jobs. They had a life in Babylon.

But God was calling them to leave their life that they had, constructed all those years. And then in verse 3, he encourages the people, he says, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, to build the house of the Lord, God of Israel. He is God, which is in Jerusalem. Now, because he says he is God doesn't mean that he actually believed in Jehovah as a Savior. He didn't.

He was a polytheist. He believed in all the gods. But he's calling on people to call forth their energy to ask them to go. The Lord is speaking through him to ask them to go and rebuild the temple. And, you know, this whole matter of rebuilding the temple is also typological because It's the whole doctrine of the household.

It begins in heaven. There's a household of God in heaven. There's a Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God comes and he calls his people to establish households. He tells them to be fruitful and multiply.

And then he gives them a tabernacle, another house, where he will come near them. And all the families of the people of God would arrange themselves north, south, east, and west around the tabernacle because it was a place where God was drawing near. The tabernacle, the temple, is a place where God draws near. All of this is about God drawing near. All of it is.

It's figurative for that. And then he commands him to build a temple where he'll meet them in the temple. But when worship gets fake, God tears down the temple. And he's done it a few times. And he did it here.

And now he's calling his people to rebuild the temple, beginning with the altar. And you know, then in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ has a family, it's his family. And we learn that it's the household of faith that we're being built together like living stones into a household. And God is there in that household. And then we also learn that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

So not only are you in a household of God in the church, your body is actually a temple of God, where God dwells in you. So when Cyrus issues this decree, he doesn't understand what it all means. But he's talking about God drawing near to his people in a household. Because all of history is about gathering people, sinners, into a household to take care of them forever and that he would be near them. And he would use trials and tribulations in order to do such a thing.

And that's why Peter says that we are as a living stone built up as a spiritual house. And coming to him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men but is choice and precious in the sight of God. You also are living stones being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." So then in verse 4, Cyrus offers help, really tangible help, And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold and goods and livestock beside freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem." Now here's what Cyrus is saying. You, he says, first of all, I'm going to give you money to do this. And then he tells the people who are going to go, you know, bring your wealth with you.

And then all those who are left, who aren't gonna go, you give your wealth to them to build the house of God. So the building of the house of God happens by a number of different means. The people who stayed are charged to build the house of God and the people who go also are charged to build the house of God. And he's saying, I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to make this happen.

And then we find finally that God moves the spirits of the heads of the father's household to rise up. That's in verse 5. 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 to build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem. So not only does God move kings, he also moves families to build his house. To build his house.

And again, this is the greatest work in the world, to build the household of God. And in our day, it's the local church. We don't build a temple like that anymore, but we build local churches which are households of God. And we're together building a household of God in the same way that God by his Spirit stirred up fathers to build the house of God, so that's how he builds houses today. And you know God is moving the hearts of men to build God's house.

And you know this phrase, whose spirits God had moved, it means awakened. In other words, God awakens people and they rise up and they build the household of God. God awakens them. That's the only way that it happens. There's a real problem that you can see in the church and that is where people who are doing the church, they haven't actually been awakened to build the household of God.

They're just doing something. They're just doing something for their own benefit. They're not building the household of God. But there's so much blessing when hearts are moved to build the household of God. And everyone is given a role.

And in this scene, there are some who stay and they give their resources. There's some who go and they take their resources. And there's even the king is offering resources in order to build the household of God. So you have these different things that are happening. But the question I think for us to ask is, how is God moving me?

Am I being moved by his Spirit to build his house? How am I going to be used of the Lord to build his house? How is God stirring up my heart to build the household of God? That's a really important question. And all of us should answer that question definitively.

And If you don't have an answer, you should cry out to God, oh Lord, help me to know how, as a living stone, I fit into building this household of God. Right now, the local church is the chief institution for the glory of God in the world. It's the only institution that Jesus Christ established. And believe me, I believe it is the most important institution in the world today. And it's, you know, if God gives me breath, I want to spend the rest of my life doing whatever I can to encourage the strength of local churches to return to biblical order in church life and in family life.

Because if you don't have a biblically ordered local church, everybody in that town is in danger. Everybody in that church is in danger. And there's so much good that comes when you have a biblically ordered church. It's so important. And everybody needs to ask, how is the Lord stirring my heart to build up the family of God.

And so I pray that's part of the conversation that you have today, you know, over lunch and as you go home and pray and ask the Lord, what's the purpose of our family? What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to contribute to the building up of the family of God? Everybody should ask that question. You know, some of you don't have families, but you still have to ask that exact same question because you're part of the family of God.

Those whose spirits God moved. You know, they couldn't move themselves. You know, one of the tragedies that happens in local churches is when people move themselves and God doesn't move them. Now we move according to obedience. I'm not talking about feelings necessarily.

I'm talking about being moved to obedience to God. You have a heart to obey Him. And so let me just come down with some applications from these first five verses. First of all, what you always need to remember is that when you're in captivity, the Lord is moving. He's moving even though you can't see it.

The Heidelberg Catechism speaks about the providence of God this way. What do you understand by the providence of God? Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God, by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that lead. And blade and rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things in fact come to us, not by chance, but from his fatherly hand. God is sovereign.

He's sovereign over nations, He's sovereign over animals, He's sovereign over Satan and all the evil spirits, He does what He pleases in the world and He has fixed the beginning date of your trial and the end date of your trial. He knows the reason for your captivity and everything that happens during the season of it and when you end and when it ends because God is sovereign. You know, I don't know, we shouldn't be worried about political leaders. The Lord moves the hearts of all the lawmakers. God is going to do His will.

The second thing is that the Lord builds His church through discipline. God disciplines those he loves. That's what Hebrews chapter 12 says. And I don't know, you know, what all burdens people are bearing here today. But you need to remember that your burden is never the end of the story.

It's always part of the story. It's always part of the process of God coming to heal and save because God disciplines every person he loves. I love the way that the writer of Hebrews says it. He says it so tenderly, My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chase him?" So the Lord, he creates conditions in our lives through this history, this timeline of history that he's controlling. He creates conditions that chastise us, they drive us to him, and they cause us to pray to him. They cause us to cry out to him because we need him more than we ever thought in our time of abundance, when we were living at ease in Zion. And so he takes something away so that you'll have something greater.

He takes some earthly thing away so that you'll understand that there are treasures in heaven forevermore, and they're greater than all earthly blessings. And I just want to end by just saying again how important the household of God is. It's a place of instruction, it's a place of protection, it's a place of love, it's a place of discipline. And God is, He's always building His household of faith. He was building it in the time of Cyrus.

And when He spoke in 539 BC, He was building it and he's building it today. Jesus Christ is building his church whether you're three or 13 or 93. God is building his church through your history that's all wrapped up into a greater story of God's glory. Because everything that ever happened in history is for the purpose of rescuing a bride and bringing her into a house and caring for her for all eternity. And that's why Cyrus rose up and said, you can go back to Jerusalem.

And that's why you're in the season of your life right now, is because God cares for you. And he's carrying you throughout this great journey that he's given you in this life. But don't be afraid because God is in control. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we recognize that these words here on this page are deeper than our ability, but we do find hope and we do find joy in the fact that you do order all things after the counsel of your will.

I pray, oh God, that you would give us such a heart within us to build your family that we would be as living stones, building the temple and the world, so that your love would be seen in this world. Lord, I pray that you would give us all great energy for this work, that you would stir us up. Amen.