Introduction: Ezra is a post-exilic book that tells about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.
Ezra 1:1 — The Lord prompts King Cyrus to make a proclamation to fulfill the prophecy of the Prophet Jeremiah, proving, as God promised Jeremiah, that as God's prophet he would be put over nations and kingdoms, to plant them and to pluck them up. (Jeremiah 1:10)
He who steps down from the pulpit to make political stump speeches relinquishes his power as a mouthpiece of God to become a mere weathervane for the winds of public opinion.
Ezra 1:1-11 — A sovereign God uses this world’s sovereigns to bring to pass His promised, predicted, and predestined plans and purposes.
Our world is not in the hands of world rulers, but world rulers are in the hands of God.
Ezra 1:5 — God raises up the spirits of all He raises up to build His house.
It is Christ, not us, who builds His church, but it is through those called and compelled by Christ that He does it. (Matthew 16:18)
Ezra 1:5-11 — No one enters the service of the Lord until their spirit has been raised up by the Lord.
Whatever God moves us to do, He will provide us with the means to do.
Ezra 2:1-67 — It was only a minority of the Jewish exiles who returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity. The vast majority preferred to remain behind in Babylon rather than to return home to rebuild God’s house in Jerusalem.
Nothing much has changed since the days of Ezra, for today only a minority of church members attend church services and only a minority of the attendees work in the church.
Ezra 2:61-63 — Some returning exiles, in spite of their profession to be priests, were excluded from the priesthood, over their unproven priestly pedigree.
Our royal priesthood is invalidated and our Christian profession suspect without proof of our second birth and spiritual pedigree. (1 Peter 2:9)
Ezra 2:68-70 — To prove themselves fit to lead God’s returned people, the chiefs of the fathers first gave to the rebuilding of God’s house on its appointed holy site, before turning their attention to the repairing of their own houses in their appointed cities.
All who give to the building of the church, God’s spiritual habitation upon this earth, should not only do so proportionately, according to how God has prospered them, but also cheerfully, never dutifully or begrudgingly. (Ephesians 2:22; 1 Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians 9:7)
Ezra 3:1-6 — God’s house begins with the building of the altar, for where there is no sacrificial worship of the Lord, no solid foundation for the Lord’s house can ever be laid.
It is not the pulpit, where the clergy offer sermons, nor the choir loft, where the choir offers songs, but the altar, where the congregation offers itself as living sacrifices, which is the core of the church. (Romans 12:1)
Ezra 3:10-13 — In our day, like in the day of Zerubbabel, the young rejoice over the perceived grandness of the present-day house of God, while the old weep remembering the previous glory of the past house of God!
The contemporary church has replaced that Old Time Religion with Show Time Religion, and in doing so has exchanged its former glory with frivolous glitz and glitter.
Ezra 7:10 — Preparation of the heart is a prerequisite to the practice and preaching of God's Word. Only those who love the law of the Lord will live it, and only from those who live it can others learn of it.
A seen sermon is far more influential than a spoken one, since it is far harder to forget.
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