Rebuild with God’s Protection and Provision
Posted: March 31, 2019 Filed under: Jesus, Prayer, Protection, Provision, Sermons, Uncategorized Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
William H. Seward is probably not a name many of you have heard of. He grew up in New York State, the son of a doctor and successful businessman. But it wasn’t until his coming of age trip to Georgia as a young man did he understand his calling in life. He hated injustice and after seeing the ill-treatment of slaves, William became an ardent abolitionist. He studied law and met a judge who gave him both his daughter in marriage and the opportunity to become a junior partner in a law firm. William’s breakout case that brought him national attention was his defence of a 23-year-old black man who slaughtered the family of Seward’s neighbours but was clearly insane. There were threats on Seward’s life for defending a black man, especially in those days when blacks were considered property but Seward stood tall in the face of adversity. He was a man of conviction. Seward went on to become a state senator, then the Governor of New York, then a U.S. Senator and in 1860 he became the leading candidate for the Republican nomination of President of the United States. That is until another man won over the people. That man’s name was who? I’ll give you a hint – his face appears on the U.S. penny! He was assassinated by an actor John Wilkes Booth. That’s right – Abraham Lincoln! Seward and Lincoln fought bitterly in the campaign and Seward often belittled Lincoln. In the end, Lincoln unexpectedly won the nomination and Seward was left bitter due to his unfulfilled ambition.
This reminds me of another governor. His name was Tattenai and probably many of you have not heard about him. Let’s read about him in Ezra 6:6-12. To give you some context before I read Ezra 6, Tattenai was the governor of the massive province west of the Euphrates River during the reign of King Darius and the Persian Empire. Tattenai governed much of what we know as the Middle East today including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. “Tattenai’s name means ‘to teach’ in the Zoroastrian scriptures or ‘to give’ in Hebrew.”[1]It appears he yearned for things to be done by the book. Ever met anybody like that? A legalist? Ever seen one in the mirror? I do! Whether driven by personal ambition like Seward millennia later or because he was truly concerned for his king’s and empire’s well-being, Tattenai vehemently opposed some rebels who threatened the peace and economic stability of the region because they wanted to rebuild a place of worship. So we read in Ezra 5:6-17 that Tattenai and his colleague Shethar-bozenai wrote a letter to King Darius notifying him that these rebels, known as the Jews, were rebuilding their temple despite orders not to. As one Bible scholar writes, “In spite of his accusation Tattenai wanted to be fair to the Jews and gave their justification of their act in full detail to the Persian King.”[2]Let’s read the response of King Darius and discover how God’s protection and provision should stimulate our prayers for our detractors. Read Ezra 6:6-12!
Today’s message is rather simple:God’s protection and provision should stimulate our prayers for our detractors.This passage is what is known as a comedy, not because it mirrors a late night show on TV, but because of the ironic twist. Tattenai and his assistant Shethar-bozenai oppose God’s people at first and then end up assisting God’s people. It reminds us that your greatest foe can become your friend by the power of God. Let’s walk through the passage and discover how God’s protection and provision should stimulate our prayers for our detractors. We first of all see God’s protection! Look at verse 6, “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away.” That was an explicit warning from the hand of the king. Just so it could not be misunderstood, King Darius restates his edict in verse 7 and adds permission for the work to continue, “Leave this work on the house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.” God was now putting up a wall; a fortress around the work on His temple. Sure, there had been some work stoppages in the past. Last week, when we studied Ezra 6:1-5, we learned sometimes when there is a delay physically, God has a message for us and is working in us spiritually. But God will always protect His work. Do you believe that? Has God not protected us time and time again here when we were threatened? Despite past internal conflict, exoduses, economic and legal hardships, this Temple has continued and the work will go forward. God protects us! My dad has remarked that he has never seen a church like ours in all his years that has been so protected. I wouldn’t arrogantly say that we are bullet-proof, but God has given us His Kevlar vest to take the bullets and still live. God can do this in your life. Maybe you are facing great threats? God can protect you if you run to Him for shelter. I love Proverbs 18:10, which has been turned into a worship song, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are saved.” God will protect us!
But God will not only protect us, He will provide for us! Look at verses 8-9, “Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. And whatever is needed – bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require – let that be given to them day by day without fail.” Did you catch that second word in verse 9 “whatever”? Can you say “blank check baby”? God will protect you and provide for you as long as you are continuing the work of God. Whatever is needed, God will supply. Does this not remind us of what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:19while he was in prison,“And my God shall supply all your needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”? Does God lack what we need? Is He ever not liquid? Does He get asset rich and cash poor? No! God will make available to you what you need when you make yourself available to Him. This is not a prosperity gospel I am advocating today like you may see on TV by a preacher asking for a new private jet. I am talking about God providing for your needs. Wants are a total different story. God will give you what you want for two reasons: 1) Your want aligns with His wants for you (Psalm 37:4); and 2)Your want creates a leanness in your soul that will drive you back to Him so that Heis all you want. (Psalm 106:14-15) I love how the King James Version renders these two verses, “But they (the Israelites) lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.”This would be akin to a parent letting a kid have too much candy in one sitting that it makes them sick of candy. I am not advocating this as a parenting strategy, but it fits with the saying, “You can have too much of a good thing” (or bad thing). Maybe God has given you so much and spoiled you so rotten so that you would have only a taste for Him? Maybe you are going through withdrawals because you have been addicted to something that is causing the leanness of your soul? I am praying that our addictions to food, porn, social media, video games and you fill in the blank would make us sick to our stomachs and that we would return to God in our country.
I know it is so tough to let go of that thing you love that is killing you, but remember God will protect and provide for you. It may seem dangerous, but I think when you and I are in these spots, we are like pilot fish. Those are the fish that follow sharks around. “Pilot fish follow sharks because other fish which might eat the pilot fish will not come near a shark. In return, sharks do not eat pilot fish because pilot fish eat the shark’s parasites.”[3]The pilot fish is both protected and provided for by the shark. And yet, the pilot fish also benefits the shark. It is a symbiotic relationship.
And this reminds me of what we are to do with God’s protection and provision. It isn’t just for ourselves, but to benefit others. Remember, God’s protection and provision should stimulate our prayers for our detractors. This is so evident in verse 10 where we discover the impetus for King Darius’ benevolence, “that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.” God’s provision and protection should incite intercession. My brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the great opportunities we have as we apply for the site plan approval and building permits from the City of Cambridge is to remember to pray for our Mayor, City Council, and city workers. This should be a priority in our prayers. Why? Because the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”Let’s be honest, if I were to give a quiz this morning on the names of our MPs, MPPs and City Council, many of us could not list all of our represents in federal, provincial and municipal government. So this is why we put their names on our Prayer Prompter every week! Let’s make them a priority to pray for during 4.0 and beyond. Let’s make them a priority to pray for during our “Who’s Your One?” prayer campaign, which begins this Wednesday at 6:30 PM right here in the Worship Centre. Think about the lost including those in government. Have any of you ever lost your children maybe in a store or at an event? How did you feel? Was there a sense of panic? Did you continue with your shopping or having fun? No, you dropped everything to find that lost child! Well, as Pastor Dave Claytonof Ethnos Church in Nashville, Tennessee reminded our Staff at the Exponential Conference, “God has many kids who are lost in your city.”Some of those kids are AWOL. And I love what Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Bell Graham, who said when her own son Franklin was on the run from God, “AWOL kids may reject our arguments but they can’t fight our prayers.” Incidentally, Franklin has returned to God and has taken over as the leading evangelist in his father’s ministry now that Billy is in heaven. We need to pray for God’s AWOL kids in our city and country. And we need to pray for God’s kids that He has not adopted yet. We need to create search and rescue teams to go find God’s lost kids. He knows where they are, so ask Him! Let’s pray for the king and his sons and every other person who at one time was opposed to us and stopped God’s work. God can change things and He uses our prayers to do it. As Pastor R.G. Leeonce quipped, “Our prayers make us omnipotent.”How? Because we are seeking the Omnipotent One, the Lord God! God’s protection and provision should stimulate our prayers for our detractors.
But what about those who still oppose us? God will take care of them! Look what Ezra 6:11-12 declare, “Also I make a decree that if anyone altars this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall be made a dunghill. May the God who has caused His name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.” The Persians and their Zoroastrian religion were infamous for impaling bodies and letting the scavenger birds eat them to the bone. And in this case, God was using this heinous practice as part of His own justice. As Derek Kidner explains, “This was poetic justice intended in making a man’s own house his instrument of execution for tampering with the house of God.”[4]And God was taking care of any future king that would tamper with this temple as verse 12 was “a curse formula.”[5]God’s Word came true through this formula and decree of Darius as this temple, “lasted 585 years until it was destroyed by the Roman Caesar Titus in AD 70”[6]as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:1-2.
You see, this decree of Darius actually points to Jesus. In contrast to the prophesy of any man who would try to violate Darius’ decree and would be impaled by a timber of his own house, Jesus was hung on a tree because He was building the house of God. Not a physical building, but a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:4-8). Jesus’ death and resurrection enabled us to continue on this work of God with all dilgence. And it continues with us praying and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus Himself now “lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) Jesus prays for His former detractors. God wants to make the Tattenai’s of this world become providers and protectors of His ever-increasing house and family of God. Can you imagine filling the stage with their balloons as they come to faith in Christ? So will you join Jesus in praying for them?
God wants our adversaries to become our assistants. Remember William Seward. Well, Abraham Lincoln had the audacity and genius to make William Seward part of his cabinet and his Secretary of State. As historian Doris Kearns Goodwin tells, “Seward was slowly but inevitably coming to appreciate Lincoln’s remarkable abilities. He told his wife, ‘It is due to the President to say, that his magnanimity is almost superhuman. His confidence and sympathy increase every day. Executive skill and vigour are rare qualities. The President is the best for us; but he needs constant and assiduous cooperation.’ Though the New Yorker would continue to debate numerous issues with Lincoln in the years ahead, exactly as Lincoln had hoped and needed him to do, Seward would become his most faithful ally in his cabinet. He committed himself ‘to his chief, not only with reserve, but with a sincere and devoted personal attachment.’ Seward’s mortification at not having received his party’s nomination in 1860 never fully abated, but he no longer felt compelled to belittle Lincoln to ease his pain. He settled into his position as Secretary of State and helped avert a war between England and France and after Lincoln was assassinated remained as the Secretary of State under Andrew Johnson including helping purchase the State of Alaska from Russia.”[7]Looking to the future, that acquisition helped keep the Cold War cold rather than hot and a full scale World War III. I dare say, this world would be a lot different without William Seward.
My friends, if we will start to pray for our detractors they may become attracted to Jesus and become our greatest allies.This will change the world and more important all eternity. In the meantime, God will protect and provide for us so we can pray and praise God. Jesus is the Cornerstone that will build a house of prayer here. Let’s join Him!
[1]Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattenai. Accessed March 31, 2019.
[2]F. Charles Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah – NICOT(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1982), 83.
[3]Source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_fish. Accessed March 31, 2019.
[4]Derek Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah – An Introduction & Commentary – Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries(Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), 57.
[7]Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 364-365.
The Local Church as Mission Agent and Agency
Posted: March 25, 2019 Filed under: Discipleship, Mission Leave a commentThis sermon/lecture was given at Heritage Seminary Chapel in Cambridge, Ontario on March 21, 2019!
Is God a single parent?Now lest you think I am a heretic, I am speaking metaphorically. I’ll ask again with a further explanation, can one become God’s adopted child without belonging to Christ’s Bride, the Church? As the Early Church Father, Cyprian, declared, “He cannot have God for His Father who does not have the Church for his Mother.”[1]To use another metaphor, many believe that they can be friends of Jesus and not care very much for His Bride, the Church. However, no husband can be a friend with a person who despises his most beloved. If you say you like me, but you are pretty upset with my wife because you have had her in one of your classes and you don’t like her American gregariousness, we can’t be friends. She can Greek me at home, now that she has had Dr. Baxter’s classes, but you don’t like a woman Greeking you and you criticize her without me taking up an offense for her. This is especially true of Jesus who “loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Nevertheless, there is a general dislike of the Church in society today and even among many ‘believers.’ Some treat Jesus as if He is divorced or at least separated from the Church. Many today think they can love Jesus and not His Bride and its tangible expression on earth – the local church! As Henri Nouwen explains, “When we say, “I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,’ we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too.”
So this has left a vacuum that has been replaced by what has been labeled the parachurch. The ministry “beside” (para) the church! The parachurch ministry does much of the specialized work. Sometimes in covert ways by using non-Christian names that the local church used to do and should continue to do. In some ways, the local church has outsourced its missional work. In other ways, the parachurch has determined to be independent operators. The problem is that lifelong discipleship can only occur in the local church. We can all agree that the church in North America has declined. CBC just reported that in the next decade, there will be “9000 Church closings.”[2]That is one-third of all church buildings in Canada will close their doors! It makes me question, is a vocational ministry pathway going to go the way of the dinosaur? I recall my aptitude test in high school said I should become a wildlife biologist because of my introversion and love for the outdoors. I looked into it and it was projected that once I had finished in graduate work in zoology, there would be few jobs available in that field, so I steered clear of the debt and disappointment. Is this the same for local church ministry that jobs will be scarce in the future? Should I direct my children who want to be missionaries and pastors to be at least bi-vocational? To go to university to have a back-up job rather than pursue ministry full-time? I believe absolutely not! We are not wasting our time in our training efforts here at Heritage to serve the church locally and globally! Why? Because Jesus promised that the gates of Hades would not prevail against His Church in Matthew 16:18! The church is a forward-advancing, kingdom-expanding agent of God.
So how do we fix the decline of church in North America?I believe focusing on multiplying disciples and churches through applying Ephesians 4:11-16 is the solution to the problem. I believe the solution is to re-establish the local church as mission agent and agency. I’ll say this again: we need to re-establish the local church as mission agent and agency.
Now, how could this be a problem at Heritage? Dr. Reed often reminds us that Heritage exists to “lift up the local church.” So can I ask you two questions from someone who is an insider and outsider? Someone who is an employee of Heritage, is a local church partner and one of your biggest cheerleaders? I am very pro Heritage and have sent a lot of my Staff and leaders here to further their training and education. My first question is: How many of you have been discipled?In other words, how many of you have been intentionally discipled by another disciple either individually or in a group? Does this not evidence the problem? Many of the best disciplers are out there on campuses and communities, not in the local church. The second question is:How many of you are members of a local church?I know TEDS at one time required their professors to be members of the EFCA. Who else will hold you accountable than the local church? My hope today is that God will grow your love for the local church. This is a call to live out the Book of Ephesians. My sermon is meant to be provocative and overstated. I am purposely trying to be prophetic while keeping my pastoral earnestness. A provocative professor and a protective pastor! Though I am not trying to discombobulate you without also bringing us back to a solid doctrine of ecclesiology. I teach preaching and church revitalization here at Heritage but this topic is what I wrote my doctoral thesis on and I feel pressed by the Holy Spirit to share it with you. Ephesians 4:11-16 teaches that all five leadership gifts are needed to equip the saints to do the work of ministry to unify and mature the church.Or I could state it in the negative, without all five leadership gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11 the church will not be unified or mature. Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic, Shepherds and Teachers are all needed to equip the church for unity and maturity.
I believe the crisis we face is caused by the fact that the local church has lost its primary missional leaders. These are the people I find most intellectually and missionally stimulating. I long for their fellowship and collaboration in the local church. Those giving leadership to the parachurch are often the APEs who are meant to equip the local church. What I mean by the APEs are the Apostolic, Prophetic and Evangelistic leaders. Alan Hirsch has helped shape this belief in me. Now, when I mean Apostolic, I mean small “a” apostolic. I don’t believe in apostolic succession or that we should call ourselves “apostles” today. What I mean is having leaders who have an apostolic gifting and are sent to break new ground for Christ’s kingdom. Think church planters, missionaries, and denominational leaders! Dr. Jon Thompson, pastor of C4 Church in Ajax and adjunct professor at Tyndale Seminary, describes an apostolic leader as, “A person usually recognized by a local church and released to a new pioneer work.”[3]Another writer defines an apostolic leader as, “one sent, commissioned, and therefore is not affixed to a particular location or church. Such an apostle operates in a trans-local manner, but does not operate independently.”[4]This trans-local ministry may describe some of the faculty and students here that have an itinerant ministry. Thank you for your sacrifice and service to us churches. We need you and you need us so I encourage you to ask your local church to pray for you. Every time Dr. Baxter goes to preach at another church, he is put on our Prayer Chain. He goes with our blessing and support! His itinerant ministry is local church based and that is what I am pleading for today. We need apostolic leaders for God to plant new churches.
Then there are prophetic leaders who call people to holiness and truth. Think Ravi Zacharias or Paul Tripp! And Evangelistic leaders go and win the lost. They are the “combines” of church agricultural implements. They are the harvesters. Think Billy Graham! These APEs need to be put back in the zoo called the local church.
This was not the case before the Protestant Reformation where the Roman Catholic Church had both a missional and attractional arm. The APEs belonged to and served out of the local church. What were they called? Monastic orders labeled sodalities by missiologists and local parishes labeled modalities. They worked together!
But here is our problem in Protestant Churches. Think about the typical life cycle of the local church. The church grows because you have apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic leaders that plant a church, but then they leave for the parachurch because they are frustrated or the church is frustrated with them. Then the church is often left being led by implementers and refiners who care for and feed the church. It happens when churches start to say we need to go deeper in the Word of God and not just hear evangelistic sermons. This just leaves us pastors and teachers at the mantle of leaders. Many pastors are chaplains caring for and feeding the flock, but not leading the flock. We need APEs to join the Shepherds in growing the church. To use a business analogy, the manufacturing side needs to work with the sales people and vice-versa. This improves and promotes the product. Our product is disciples! We need all five leadership gifts in the local church to makes disciples.
I am going to pause here for a second and deal with the text and objections in your mind. First, some of you have dispensational leanings or roots and say that apostles were foundational and since the foundation has been built, we no longer need APs. I empathize with you. You might quote to me Ephesians 2:19-21, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” The problem with this argument is context, grammar and practicality. The verbs in Ephesians 2:19-21 are in the present tense, not the past tense. The church is continuing to be built upon Christ. That started with the big “A” apostles and big “P” prophets but it continues and is an argument from silence to say otherwise. Where do we find in Scripture that it says these gifts have ceased? They were evident beyond the Apostles in the next generation of believers such as the prophet Agabus in Acts 11:27-28, and the apostles Adronicus and Junia in Romans 16:7. Look again at Ephesians 4, we would all agree that the call to unity preceding verse 11 is not just past tense, but is needed for today. Then in 4:11, the word “edoken” modifies ALL the phrases that proceed it in the verse. And practically, none of us would say that there are no longer evangelists in the world today, even though Billy Graham just recently went home to be with the Lord. So why are we cherry picking against the apostles and prophets?
Another question is that some will say that there are not five gifts listed in verse 11, but 4 with pastor/teacher being one gift, especially since 1 Timothy 3 requires elders being able to teach. I understand the Granville-Sharpe rule of grammar and am fine with you making that one gift. My point again is calling the APEs back into the local church.
Sohow could we re-establish the local church as a mission agent and agency at least domestically?Globally we have some anti-terrorism laws that forbid Canadian churches to be like the Macedonians in New Testament times and give directly to an international church. We still need agencies for global work. But how do we start here in Canada?
- Require Leaders to be Disciplers – We need to require our leaders to be multipliers of multipliers. If you are going to an established church as a pastor, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to men to disciple. In our church, we have found it most helpful to go through Greg Ogden’s Discipleship Essentials.
- Create Small Groups as Leadership Incubators– Small groups are the best place to reproduce leaders. I know the College Students have their small groups called Paracleo groups. How about you seminarians? Are you involved in a small group?
- Create a Discipleship Pathway – This was one of my first priorities when I arrived at Temple. How did we do it? We studied the Scriptures and tried to figure out what is the irreducible minimum of discipleship competencies. In other words, what does a fully mature and reproducing disciple look like and then reverse engineer that maturity process. This is how we came up with our discipleship pathway at Temple.
- Actively seek Missionaries – At the time of my doctoral research, only 1 in 8 churches sent out missionaries.[5]I know that some missiologists think we should stop sending Western missionaries overseas and support only indigenous missions but I do not think it is “either or” but “both and.” At Temple, we started to pray, identify, train and send missionaries. A big part of that was having mission’s internships to ensure local church orientation. For example, when we interned a Heritage grad Christina Mayer in missions, she came in the first day wanting to know where her desk would be. We lovingly told her that her office was the community and her goal was to reach her neighbourhood for Christ! We would help her, but this would be good practice when she went to the Czech Republic where there wouldn’t be a desk for her either.
- Identify Your Church’s Mission’s Priorities – Our church has identified our mission’s priorities as evangelism, life-long discipleship and church planting. This narrow focus means having the hard conversations of telling some that we will bless their efforts, but not support them at partner levels.
- Make your Missionaries your Staff and your Staff your Missionaries – Who sends the missionary? God? The Church? The Mission Agency? A Combination of the aforementioned? Or are we self-sent?This last one is one of the major holy discontents I had and was the impetus for this study. I was bothered that missionary applications circumvented the local church or a pastoral reference was needed halfway through the process. To use a sports analogy, this would be like somebody recruiting your player to play a game for another team and then asking their coach if the player was ready. I also was shocked to find out that mission organizations and missionaries were not engaged with the local church, particularly campus ministries. Instead, Acts 13:1-3 should be our guide of how to send missionaries. Paul and Barnabas were already serving in the local church when they were selected by the Holy Spirit for their first mission’s trip. At Temple, we consider our missionaries as extensions of our staff, which is why we want them to have a local church orientation first. The big question for us is: would you want this potential missionary as your Pastor/Elder or Deacon?Do you they meet the qualifications of an elder? Are they a disciple-maker? If not, they should stay home and grow in these things in a local church. This means that we support Christina at over 85% of her needs so that when she returns to Canada on home assignment, she can find rest and serve in her home church. Our missionaries when home attend Staff Meetings and Staff socials. This raises accountability. Ideally, like-minded churches, in a small geographical area could support one another’s missionaries and thus save much energy and ministry dollars.Likewise, we want our staff to be APEs and missionaries. This means that we have intentionally hired workers from mission’s agencies. In order to identify APEs, take the APEST Test at http://www.theforgottenways.org/what-is-apest.aspx.
- Develop a Going and Gathering Strategy– At Temple, along with our Love Hespeler partners, we have tried to identify specific missional efforts (e.g. adopting a local public school) and attractional efforts (e.g. Trunk or Treat, Christmas Musicals).
- Commit to training the APEs with a local church orientation. The polemic to my thesis is Sam Metcalf’s Beyond the Local Church, but I am unconvinced of his arguments. I also should mention that I wrote this sermon before I received the email last Friday from Dr. Barker announcing Heritage’s enhanced mission statement, “The mission of Heritage Theological Seminary is to equip people for biblically and theologically grounded leadership and ministry to serve the mission of Christ and his church through their involvement in evangelical churches, denominations, mission agencies, and parachurch ministries.” I sense the Lord wanted to still preach the sermon as is. My sermon is not meant to throw a grenade at you, especially since there has been so much goodwill established between Heritage and Temple. I am just pastoring a recovering church that believes with all my heart that the local church has to be part of the discipleship equation. I am deeply disturbed that if we don’t have the amazing missional leaders like you in the local church committed to pressing and proding us church leaders to go to the lost with the gospel, the Canadian church will continue to decline. And we will all suffer for that!
Before I give you some practical questions to reflect on and discuss over lunch, may I remind you that Christ was the only one who was an apostle (John 20:21), a prophet (John 4:19; Luke 7:16; Mark 6:4), an evangelist (Mark 1:14-15), a shepherd (John 10:11) and a teacher (Mark 10:17). Christ had all the gifts. Now as the Body of Christ, He has given us these gifts. If we make room and use them all in the local church, the church will become unified and grow to full maturity like the church in Canada has never seen before. For this I am utterly convinced – Jesus died for a unified, not a divided church! God has a daughter-in-law married to His Son Jesus and we need to do everything we can to unify and mature that marriage through the Holy Spirit. Get the APEs back in the church!
BREAK OFF INTO DISCUSSION GROUPS
- As the Early Church Father Cyprian declared, “He cannot have God for His Father who does not have the Church for his Mother.” What do you think about this statement? Do you think it is true? Why or why not?
- Why can discipleship not be separated from the local church?
- Does your church employ attractional, missional or both and in what ways?
Which of these strategies are predominate and why?
- Does your church have a discipleship strategy? Is your preset strategy of discipleship effective? Why or why not?
- According to Ephesians 4:11-12, the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are all needed for building up the Church. Do you see all of these being exercised in your local church? If so, how? If not, why not?
- Where is your church on the life cycle chart?
- How can the gifts of apostles, prophets and evangelists be better expressed in your local church and community?
What is your cyclical going and gathering strategy?
[1]Cyprian, Epistle to Iubanius (#73), in J. Campos, Obras de San Cipriano, BAC, 1964), 688-89.
[2]Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/losing-churches-canada-1.5046812. Accessed March 11, 2019.
[3]Jon Thompson, Convergence(Ajax: C4 Church, 2018), 135.
[4]J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology (Vol. III) (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982), 170-171.
[5]Ted Telford, Today’s All-Star Mission Churches(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2001), 93.
Rebuild with the Community’s Blessing
Posted: March 24, 2019 Filed under: Approval, Community, Jesus, Sermons, Uncategorized, Waiting Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
What approval are you waiting for? Maybe you are waiting for your acceptance letter into the school or a program of your choosing? Maybe you are waiting for your parents to say “yes” to your request? Maybe you are waiting to get into a new living situation; be it an apartment, new home or long-term care facility? Maybe you are waiting for a loan to be approved from the bank? Maybe you are waiting to hear back from the government for approval to go ahead with a project? This last question is what our church has been waiting on. This past Wednesday, we called the church to fast and pray as the City of Cambridge evaluated our application for our new site plan. Praise the Lord we got word that we need to make only some minor adjustments such as reconfiguring the side storage, adding sidewalks to go all the way to the city sidewalks, parking lights and water service for the sprinkler system. Our architect and Build Team will make the adjustments and then submit the changes to the City. Hopefully this will mean only minor delays! Thank you so much for your prayers and please keep praying.
Today, we are going to find hope from another group of God’s people who were waiting for approval. Let’s continue our study of Ezra in Ezra 6:1-5 and see how God is restoring His people spiritually as they rebuild His Temple. It will remind us that God is still working while we wait for Him. Read Ezra 6:1-5!
To recap, the Jews had been in exile for 70 years in Babylon because they were disobedient and cheating on God. But God promised that He would bring them back to the Promised Land of Israel. This miracle came true as God’s Word always comes true. After fixing up their homes, they started work on the altar of the Lord so that they could re-establish worship. Then they started rebuilding the temple, but they faced wave after wave of opposition. Their opponents even appealed to King Artaxerxes by threatening that the king would lose revenue and worse, control of this outlying province in the Medo-Persian Empire if the work on the temple in Jerusalem continued. They reminded the king that the Jews were a rebellious lot of people, which was true. So King Artaxerxes caused a government shutdown and halted the work on the temple. But just because the Persian King shut the project down didn’t mean that the work didn’t continue. We read in Ezra 5:2, “Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.” Ezra 5:5 also records that the work continued because, “The eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews.” What an encouragement! There was a holy defiance and a humble dependence on God as we read the rest of Ezra 5. I believe God still has His eyes on the elders and prophetic leaders of our day as we have a holy defiance to worldly schemes and yet a humble dependence upon God. The elders and prophets mentioned in Ezra were Haggai and Zechariah and their messages not only encouraged the people of God in that day, but also in our day. These books are part of the Biblical canon and point us to Christ’s work of redemption on the Cross as well as His future second coming to earth. This is a great reminder that sometimes when there is a delay physically, God has a message for us and is working in us spiritually. Maybe He wants us to pray more? Maybe He wants us to share the news of God’s Work here? Maybe God wants to speak something to us as we have encountered this minor delay from the City regarding recreating our property here at 400 Holiday Inn Drive? I don’t know all of the messages God has for us individually or corporately, but I do know He loves to talk to us. For His sheep hear His voice (John 10:3). Our God wants to talk to us today! He wants to talk to you! Are you listening?
Here is the message for us today:God’s deliverance comes from a distance away! You might be waiting on God and maybe you have been waiting for sometime for His approval, but I assure you today that God is working and your waiting is not being wasted. I know this because of what JesusHimself declared in John 5:27 (NIV), “My Father is always at His work to this very day and I too am working.” And this was also true in the days of the Jewish returning exiles. Let’s unpack Ezra 6:1-5 further. Verse 1 records, “Then King Darius issued a decree and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored.” Notice that there was a new king. King Artaxerxes had passed on. What a reminder that just because one leader is standing in your way, God’s Word still stands and can be fulfilled through a new leader. Psalm 75:6-7 declares, “For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.” Or as Daniel said close to this time period in Daniel 2:21 (NLT), “He (the Lord) controls the course of world events; He removes kings and sets up other kings.”So make your appeal to God. He can remove the obstacle, even powerful people, in your way. His deliverance comes from a distance away.
We see this most clearly in Ezra 6:2-4, “In Ecbatana in the fortress, which is in the province of Media, a scroll was found and there was written in it as follows: ‘Memorandum – In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: ‘Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits; with three layers of huge stones and one layer of timbers. And let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.” This is significant because the Ecbatana fortress was remote. It “stands in the modern city Hamadan, Iran and was the capital of Media and subsequently the summer residence of the Achaemenian kings.”[1] You can see where Ecbatana was on the map. What is important to understand is it was remote and it was the summer capital. It was like the Muskoka of our province and it explains why this decree could be lost. Anybody ever forgot something at the summer cottage and then not find it until you go back again? This is similar to what happened with the scroll with Cyrus’ decree in it.
You see, this was a decree from King Cyrus that was protected and hidden. Cyrus was a Persian King and we know from Daniel 6:8 and 15 that “the laws of the Medes and Persians could not be broken” even by the one decreeing it. There were no loopholes. This is why Daniel had to spend a night with some hungry lions in their den while the king spent a sleepless night with regret and frustration that he could do nothing to save his friend and most trusted advisor from not only the lion’s teeth, but also his own decree. And yet, there was a Deliverer from a distance away who came very near that night. That next morning, the king had the stone over the den rolled away and found Daniel without a scratch on him. Daniel declared to the king, “My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before Him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” (Daniel 6:22) The point being that God’s decrees are sovereign over any governmental leader’s decrees and God’s deliverance comes from a distance away. God’s Word became Cyrus’ word and it had to be followed.
Do you realize that God can use governmental leaders, His servants as Romans 13:4 calls them, to continue His work? This does not necessarily mean that the governmental official is a believer in God or that their motives are pure. It may be self-serving and God-serving at the same time. You may have an authority figure in your life such as a parent, a boss, or a teacher who is telling you to do something you don’t like and it actually could be something God wants for you. As Derek Kidner explains regarding Cyrus’ decree, “The decree was prompted by the desire to win the goodwill and intercessions of whatever ‘deities’ Cyrus ‘repatriated.’”[2] Cyrus was probably giving approval to gain favour with his subjects and possibly their “gods.” He didn’t realize that there was only one God and though he couldn’t gain favour from Him by trying to manipulate Him, God was going to use Cyrus. God used Cyrus to be very specific in his guidelines, which aligned with God’s previous requirements for the size of His temple. This is an amazing fulfillment of God’s Word and evidences His sovereignty over history. Bible Scholar Charles Fensham remarks, “We should expect a temple on the same scale as the one of Solomon. Even the measures of the temple are given to ensure that the cost of the building are staying within limits.”[3] So the lesson is that even though God provides deliverance from a distance and is sovereign over all governmental authorities, we should still submit to them. We need to follow the rules by these authorities because they are for our protection as long as they do not violate God’s Word. In other words, we rebuild with the community’s blessing.
And this also means we must still pay our taxes. Notice that the king said the cost of the Temple’s rebuild would come from the royal treasury. Well, where did the royal treasury come from? From taxes! This is what Derek Kidner explains, “There could be no better use of public money; besides the charge on the royal revenue could be collected in the province concerned as Darius did not fail to point out. The burden would not be felt at the capital.”[4]And it alleviates the original concern of the critics in Ezra 4:13, “Now it be known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired.” The Jews would contribute through taxation to the rebuilding of the temple, but others would too. This reminds me of one fantastic story I heard about a church in West Lafayette, Indiana called Faith Layette Church. They were growing and providing much biblical counselling to their community. They also found out the city had need of more community centres. So because they had a relationship with the city, they were approached by the city and given millions of dollars without strings attached to help build community centres and run community programs without losing their gospel focus. Another example closer to home is Hughson Street Baptist Church in Hamilton that is using their new building for low-income families with 42 units of affordable housing as part of their building. In a sense, we are trying to do something similar with the Master’s Plan 4.0 and make this about reaching our community. I love what our Elder Steve Limmer remarked in last Wednesday’s Next Chapter class, “When we built the building we now sit in, we built it for ourselves – the people already in the church. We built a school and we built a sanctuary. But not this time. Now we are building this for others in our community. We are building it for the people who are not yet in the church.” Amen! And this is why we need to you to start praying, sharing the Gospel and inviting people to church. Who’s your one?
You see, unlike in Ecbatana, we are not trying to be a fortress where God’s decrees are lost and hidden.We are not trying to be a fortress filled with angry people; known for what we are against rather than what we are for. Instead,we want this to be a place where the community can go to with their problems.This is why we reach out to the schools. Remember, we are on mission with Jesus to turn broken people into whole people who multiply Christ-followers. This should be a place of redemption – where things are bought back. In a sense, this is what King Darius decreed for the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem in Ezra 6:5, “Also let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; and you shall put them in the house of God.” The things that were lost were found. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar took these worship utensils from Solomon’s first temple and actually protected them. As we learned in past studies and sermons, the Jews through the years kept selling off their objects of worship and giving away portions of Solomon’s Temple. So God used a pagan king to take the worship instruments away so that they could be protected until they could be properly valued and used by the returning Jews. God was so serious about protecting His worship that when King Belshazzar decided to use the sacred golden from Solomon’s Temple as dinner ware at his party, God wrote on the wall and took Belshazzar off the throne that very night. We read about this in Daniel 5.
All this reminds me that God’s deliverance comes from a distance away. And this is still how God is working. You see, our own deliverance still comes from a distance away. Jesus Christ came from heaven when we were confounded and sin was reigning. When our opponents had stopped us. When we were surrounded by the kingdom of darkness. Jesus came as a new leader with a new decree that could not be changed. That decree was the offer of a new life that will last forever. And Jesus didn’t find a lost scroll, He found you and me who were lost. It is this Jesus was holy defiant to unrighteous rulers and yet humbly dependent upon God the Father and God the Spirit. And it was Jesus who doesn’t tax His people but used His own royal treasury so that we who were poor might become rich in His grace and build a new temple called the temple of God.
But the difference is that Jesus didn’t receive the community’s blessing, instead He blessed the community. He was actually killed by the community so that our community and every community around the world might find hope and approval by God again as we trust in Him. This is the greatest approval you have been waiting for – Jesus Christ’s approval as you trust in Him!
As I think about approvals, the two approvals most people seek are their parents and then the love of their lives. Children yearn to be told that their parents are proud of them and that they are special. And then all of us yearn to be told by somebody of the opposite sex they love them and want to spend the rest of their lives with them. I know I spent too much time as a young man looking for the approval of girls until one young woman from a distance away delivered me from that pursuit and gave me her approval. She came all the way from Kansas. How much greater Jesus who thinks you so special and so loved that He would come from Heaven to deliver you and continue on with His work of rebuilding His kingdom!
[1]Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ecbatana. Accessed March 21, 2019.
[2]Derek Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah – An Introduction & Commentary – Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries(Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), 56.
A Fruitful Woman
Posted: March 22, 2019 Filed under: Funerals Leave a comment
Thelma Eloise Reid December 26, 1951 – March 9, 2019
Thelma Reid loved gardening. In fact, whole groups of people would visit just to see her award-winning garden. I think she got this love of gardening from our Lord. Did you know that God is a gardener?As the Creator, God made a garden and gave the first human beings, Adam and Eve, responsibility for cultivating a garden. Genesis 2:8-9 records, “And the Lord God planted a garden in the Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” It was this second tree that has caused all the pain in life. You see, God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree in the Garden, except one. God often gets a bad rap that He is all about the rules. But God is not. “When God says don’t, He means don’t hurt yourself.”[1]God is actually about relationships. He is very generous and is actually the source of Thelma’s generosity.
The one rule God had was not to eat from the knowledge of good and evil. Why? Because we can’t handle such knowledge! Once Adam and Eve ate from this tree, they would be confused what is good and what is bad. It explains why we call things bad when they are good and call other things good when they are bad for us and others. I’ll give you an example that one of my Caribbean friends taught me. At graveside services, my Caribbean brothers and sisters know how to say goodbye. Funerals are very hard, aren’t they? Nowadays, people want to distance themselves from death. We struggle to show sympathy, especially when we post videos on social media of people doing embarrassing things or hurting themselves and we instead make fun of them.[2]We are losing a sense of sympathy. Fewer and fewer people are having funerals and as my funeral director friends tell me this is increasing the grief counseling and protracting the grief process. But my Jamaican friends, take what is evil – death and bring good out of it. At the graveside service, there will be a big pile of dirt and there will be shovels. And each one in attendance at the service will grab a shovel and put some dirt on the casket until we fully bury sister Thelma’s remains so her body can be at rest awaiting the sure resurrection that Jesus has guaranteed with His own resurrection. We will sing hymns. In fact, you are going to have to help this poor pastor sing great praises to God. Now the first time, I went to one of these graveside services for a Caribbean sister, I thought it was great that each person participated and grabbed a shovel. It was so communal and so cathartic, but what I didn’t realize was where this tradition came from until Mark Adams told me. On the islands, the casket is fully buried to protect from grave robbers. In fact, it is my understanding that sometimes rocks will be thrown on the caskets to dent the caskets so they cannot be used again by grave robbers. Can you imagine my white-privileged perspective seeing that for the first time? I would think, without knowing the reason why rocks were being thrown on a casket, that the deceased was despised, when in reality they were loved and protected? My false assumptions show that I am prone to call what is good bad and to call what is bad good. How about you?
Let’s go back to the first Garden. As the story goes, the great villain Satan comes and tempts Eve and she eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She gave some fruit to Adam and he also ate. God then shows up that night and Adam and Eve are hiding. They were trying to cover up their sin and shame. As BrenéBrown in her book Dare to Leadexplains, “Shame is universal and one of the most primitive human emotions that we experience … and almost always leads to unethical behavior. The only people who don’t experience shame are those who lack the capacity for empathy and human connection. Shame is a fear of disconnection and is the intensely painful feeling or experience that we are flawed and therefore, unworthy of love, belong, connection.”[3]Did you catch that word “disconnection”? Shame results in disconnection and distance. We see this in our first parents and it has been handed down to all of us. God promised Adam and Eve that they would die if they broke His one rule and so God kept His promise because He is faithful and just. He banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. But there is grace! As my friend Jon Thompson has said, “God removed Adam and Eve from the garden so they could not eat from the tree of life and be eternally lost along with the rest of the human race!”[4]So instead of giving ultimate punishment, God showed grace and just gave consequences. Like any good parent who lets children suffer consequences, the consequences are meant to teach us our need to obey. The worst of those consequences are what we are facing today – physical death!
Now, some of you might immediately think that isn’t fair. The time doesn’t fit the crime. I was told that when some watched Thelma battle cancer when she had so much more to live for, they complained to her, “It isn’t fair!” Thelma’s reply was, “That will eat you up!” You see, just like in the Garden of Eden, you become what you eat. Think about this apple! (Take a bite of apple)When I have a bite, it becomes a part of me to the cellular level. Sin has come into our lives and bodies and has affected every part of us. We can become bitter and it will literally eat us up. Or we can become better, rather then bitter! But becoming better is not trying harder but trusting more. I loved what Thelma’s daughter said, “If we could have mom’s faith, we would be better off!” How true! And yet, there is Good News! You can have Thelma’s faith. You see, every story has a villain, but every story also has a hero. The hero in God’s Big Story is His own Son. Jesus Christ came to live better than Adam. He came to earth to empathize with us. To know that the struggle is real! You see, as BrenéBrown explains, “Empathy creates a hostile environment for shame.”[5]Part of why we experience grief and why Jesus Himself experienced grief when His friend Lazarus died was to create a hostile environment for shame. We are here today to fight the shame of death and to find hope. But I have even better news. Jesus didn’t just empathize with us. He came to earth and followed God completely and never sinned to show us a better way. He was the only one who was ever perfect. Anybody here perfect? Me neither! So we needed Jesus to come and live, but we also needed Jesus to die. To take our place! To reverse the curse of death!
How did that happen? Well, the ultimate bad day became the ultimate good day. In fact, we call it Good Friday, which we will celebrate in about a month. It was on a cross that Jesus ultimately demonstrated that He is “the way, the truth and the life” and the only way back to being connected to God in John 14:6. Jesus explained it this way in John 15:1-5, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Did you catch that last part? We can do nothing (at least that will last) unless we abide in Christ. Unless we have His life flowing through us daily, moment by moment!
What do I mean Christ’s life flowing through us? You may remind me that Jesus died. Oh, but there is more to the story. You see, Jesus didn’t just stay dead! He rose from the grave. God was the only righteous grave robber! He didn’t come to steal, kill and destroy, He came to give life and give it abundantly. What was the worst day became the best day. Humans thought it good to kill Jesus, when it was evil and bad. And yet, God redeemed it. He did so through Jesus rising from the grave. This is why you see Jesus’ declaration in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believers in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Thelma believed this. Her daughters told me, “She was not afraid to die.” This was not just bravado; it was belief! It was belief in Jesus, the true vine – the only one who can connect you back to God. To take away your guilt and shame and to make you fruitful again! To give you eternal life so physical death is just a window to pass through to life forever with God. Do you believe this? Then abide in Christ. Let His words remain in you and act on them. Thelma did. And now she is gardening with Jesus. You see, the Bible ends with a garden in the midst of the great city of New Jerusalem. As Revelation 22:1-2 record Jesus’ most loved disciple John’s vision, “Then the angel showed me, the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” We will then be able to eat from the tree of life and not be eternally lost, but eternally saved. So today, will you be the fruit of Thelma’s life and more importantly, Jesus’ life? If you do, you have 10,000 reasons to sing!
[1]I heard this first from James MacDonald.
[2]Source: https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-your-childs-misbehavior-shouldnt-be-your-next-social-media-post/?utm_source=Crossway+Marketing&utm_campaign=ac160d8c22-20190321+-+General+-+Parenting+with+Words&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0275bcaa4b-ac160d8c22-296093617. Accessed March 22, 2019.
[3] BrenéBrown, Dare to Lead (New York: Random House, 2018), 125.
[4]Jon Thompson, Convergence (Ajax: C4 Church, 2018), 163.
Rebuild Expecting More Opposition
Posted: March 3, 2019 Filed under: Babylon, enemies, Jesus, Promises, Reputation, Resources, Sermons Leave a commentThis sermon can be watched or listened to at www.templebaptistchurch.ca!
Have you ever had a letter writing campaign against you?How about a social media blitz criticizing you? What about a gang of gossips dog-piling you with their words behind your back at school or at work or in your neighbourhood? Or maybe you just feel wave after wave of attack. I recall a time when I was a teenager and there were letters sent out to every household in our church by the treasurer complaining against my father who was the senior pastor. To this day, whenever I see those security envelopes with the blue lining inside of them I recall that letter writing campaign.
There may be a conspiracy against you, but I want to assure you today that God can defend you! He is working behind the scenes, even when you don’t see it. Today we are going to learn about a letter writing campaign, exposure of past sins, bribes to government officials, a government partial shutdown, and governmental officials going back on their words or at least not continuing with former regime promises. You would think we were talking about Canadian and American politics, but we are going to be looking at Ezra 4:7-24. This has nothing to do with Donald Trump or Justin Trudeau, Republicans and Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives, investigations into Russian election meddling or SNC-Lavalin payoffs and lobbying. This all happened because God’s people returning from exile wanted to rebuild His temple. My friends, be prepared for opposition and backlash when you try to rebuild God’s temple.Let’s read about what happens next in Ezra 4:7-24. Read Ezra 4:7-24![1]
After reading this passage, I want to give a short background of what happened to the Jews. It started with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 BC taking the Jews into captivity. Then the Medes & Persians took over from the Babylonians. There are numerous characters mentioned in the Bible who lived during this time period including, Esther, Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Trying to keep track of all the kings can be confusing so at the beginning of this message, I thought this chart may be helpful. It does not include the Assyrians who reigned for 300 years from 912-612 BC. who carted off the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel in 722 B.C.
KINGS OF BABYLON & PERSIA[2] DATES OF REIGN BIBLICAL REF.
* We cannot be certain that the mother of Artaxerxes I was Queen Esther. A 13thcentury Rabbi claimed Darius II was the son of Ahaseurus (Dan. 9:1) and Queen Esther, but this is unlikely due to the chronology. This chart may just look like simple history, but it still has ramifications for us today. A few weeks ago on February 11, Iranians celebrated the 40thanniversary of the Shah’s downfall after the nearly 2700 year dynasty ended of the Persian reign. The Americans backed the Shah and the Itollah’s took over. Remember the Iranian Hostage crisis in the late 1970s where Canadians helped with the release of the Americans. We are still dealing with conflict between the Americans and Iranians today over the Americans ironically chosing to back the less democratic monarchy linked back to Biblical times.
Back to Ezra 4:7-24, it is clear from the start of this passage that there were a ton of enemy plants within God’s people. The returning exiles lived in a hostile culture. Ezra 4:7-10 describes a consortium of conspirators. You have Bishlam and Mithredath in verse 7. Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe mentioned in verse 8, meaning that both the general and the prosecutor are against the returned Jews. Verse 9 records judges, governors, officials, Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa or Elamites (meaning those in the capital). This meant you had both local and federal officials of the Persian Empire against the Jews. And if that wasn’t enough, verse 10 adds the rest of the nations that settled in Samaria. Like Canada today, the world had come to Palestine in those times. But they didn’t get along! There was a coalition of detestation; a humongous hate group; an alliance of anti-Semitism. It is not unlike today when many of the countries that surround the modern State of Israel have avowed to wipe the nation off the face of the earth. So what would you do if the military, lawyers, judges, local and federal government, lobbyists and representatives from the U.N. were all against you? You may have faced opposition this week, but probably not to that extent! How do you face opposition when you lack a good reputation, the resources to continue and past promises are revoked?
Let’s start thinking about your reputation! Maybe you have made some mistakes in the past and there are family and friends who knew you way back when in your wild rebellious days and they love to bring it up in your face? In fact, this may be one of the most pressing issues of our day. Everybody is being exposed to their past sins and failures even from things that happened decades ago or in their youth. And the results of these exposures is that leaders are losing their positions and jobs. Condemning pictures and quotes are resurfacing. Numbers 32:23 is being realized before our very eyes, “You have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.” God’s people are not immune. This is true today and also in history. God’s people had such a reputation of being rebellious. In this letter writing campaign, the Jewish returning exiles state in verse 14-15, “Now because we are in service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s dishonour, therefore we have sent and informed the king, so that a search may be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will discover in the record books and learn that the city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in past days; therefore that city was laid waste.”
Now was it true that Jerusalem and the Jews were known for being non-compliant? Yes, I think we could classify them today as having oppositional defiant disorder. In verse 19, we find that the king had ordered a special investigation and found out that the accusations were true of the Jews’ past insurrections, “And I made a decree, and a search has been made, and it has found that this city from of old has risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it.” The king may be referring to the vassal King Jehoiakim in 2 Kings 24:1, “In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up and Jehoiakim became his servant three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.” The truth is that Jerusalem has always been fought over and Jerusalem fights back. Years later, but before Jesus was born, the Maccabees (a Jewish family and guerrilla group) revolted against their oppressors. There were riots in Jerusalem against Rome in Jesus’ and Paul’s days. Jerusalem has always been a powder keg, which is one of the reasons why we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). In a movie about the Crusades, there is an enlightening question from Balian of Ibelin, the defender of Jerusalem, to his Muslim counterpart Saladin, “What is Jerusalem worth?” Saladin responds, “Nothing … and everything!”[8]Jerusalem may be one of the most rebellious and yet prized cities on earth.
And so what do you do when you lack a good reputation? Maybe you come here today with massive regrets. I am not going to answer this question yet so you don’t go to sleep. I’ll give you the answer at the end but God’s Word provides hope.
The problem of lacking a good reputation is that it often is accompanied by a lack of resources. Not always, as there are some rich criminals, but those who have a bad reputation more times than not are marginalized financially. In Ezra 4, the enemies of Jews were trying to rob the Jews of their reputation and their resources. This is why they accuse the Jews in verse 13, “Now be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired.” The opponents of the Jews were preying on the king’s pride, on his greed and on his sense of control. Leaders often worry that if they don’t crush one act of sedition, then everyone will rebel and not pay taxes. As Bible Scholar Charles Fensham explains, “The first consequence was that if the city were strengthened, the Jews would not be willing to pay tax. Taxation was regarded as very important in the Persian empire.”[9]And I think we could add that taxation has been regarded as very important by every government since the invention of taxes. We are heading into the dreaded income tax return time. Though not a fun time, it is a time to obey God and pay our taxes (Romans 13:6-7). And for some of us who give to charity, we are going to see the blessing of a refund that we can use to further God’s kingdom. Maybe you will consider giving part of your tax refund to the Big Reach Sunday in June? But I am also reminded that taxes will be one of the ways that opponents will try to hurt churches. As you may know, churches do not pay property tax and also recover most of the HST back from purchasing goods and services. The government recognizes much of the social assistance both tangibly and intangibly the church provides such as “the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, and the advancement of religion.”[10] I first became aware of this campaign against churches in 2002, when I was given responsibility to administrate a “Keeping Traditional Marriage” rally for my church. There were signs in downtown Toronto that said, “Tax the churches.” Nowadays there is a group on social media who calls themselves “Tax the Church Movement.” Their tagline is “It doesn’t matter who you are, $71,000,000,000 is a huge number. Taxing the churches = money for better causes.”[11]What these opponents do not understand is how much greater a tax burden will occur when the church is not there to help in both tangible ways and intangible ways including creating economic lift as people become more moral, back to society and are more law-abiding citizens. For example, mental illness and grief counselling increase when people do not acknowledge God. Many of the organizations that help feed the poor have been church-based and to cut them off will be short-sighted. I say all of this not to scare you or incite a political response but to prepare you for when our government no longer recognizes the benefits churches provide. Some countries like Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy and Sweden still pay a church tax at a little less than 2%![12]Some of you from one of those countries may not realize that churches here run by the free-will offerings. Other countries like Australia do not issue receipts for charitable giving to churches. We can learn from those churches in countries where giving is without earthly benefit.
Back to Ezra 4, the enemies of the Jews mongered fear into the Persian King’s heart and made him fear he was going to lose tax revenue. King Artaxerxes needed the money, “After the expensive wars of Darius and Xerxes, especially with the Greeks, the royal treasury was depleted.”[13]The result was not that the king lost revenue, but the Jews lost the funding for the rebuilding of the temple as we read in verse 24. So it begs the question, what do you do when you lack resources? I can’t wait to tell you, but you are still going to have to wait because there is a third way that the enemies of the Jews opposed God’s people – they had past promises revoked. Have you ever had somebody make a promise and revoke it?
We probably have had companies not keep your lifetime warranties or added fees when we were promised no fees. We have had governments rescind on their promises. Maybe it has been more personal and you have had a spouse break their marriage vows or a parent did not keep their promise to you? Those broken promises cut deep. I bet the returning Jewish exiles were deeply hurt and confused. They had been in exile for 70 years, made the difficult journey back to Judah, and had their hopes massively raised because they were finally going to have their sins atoned for and be able to worship God again in a rebuilt temple, but then we read the king’s response in Ezra 4:21-24, “Therefore, make a decree that these men be made to cease, and that this city be not rebuilt, until a decree is made by me. And take care not to be slack in this matter. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king? Then, when the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease. Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” The Jews’ rebellious reputation led to government shutdown of their work and worship of God. How devastating!
That is until we notice the most important word in this passage “until.” It is a pivotal word. As Derek Kidner explains, “This word ‘until’ made a policy review possible and with it, by the grace of God, the mission of Nehemiah.”[14]You see, God was doing something far off that the Jews in Jerusalem didn’t know about. In Nehemiah 1, we read that God had his own plant. The cupbearer of King Artaxerxes was Nehemiah and when Nehemiah heard about “the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile was in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates were destroyed by fire,” he sat down and wept and fasted and prayed. We are going to study Nehemiah more in-depth later this year, Lord willing, but for now I want to read this prayer from Nehemiah 1:5-11, “5 I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; 9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ 10 They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. 11 O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man.”Now I was the cupbearer to the king.
Notice what Nehemiah did! It answers our questionhow do you face opposition when you lack a good reputation, the resources to continue and past promises are revoked?You own your sin and seek God’s grace!
And here is the Good News, like Nehemiah, God has somebody far off who is concerned about your situation and is praying for you and me. In fact, like Nehemiah who eventually went to Jerusalem, God has sent another to go to Jerusalem to rescue and rebuild. This other that I am talking about is none other than God’s own Son Jesus Christ! Jesus Himself wept over and prayed for Jerusalem. But He went further and allowed Himself to be killed by His enemies. Why? He took upon Himself our bad reputation and our lack of resources to fix our problem in our own strength. Unlike our enemies, He kept God’s promises and so if today you will own your sin and seek God’s grace, you will find His grace and be able to extend it to others.
I have found this to be true. Do you remember the letter writing campaign against my dad? Well, I had the opportunity a few weeks later to end my opponent’s letter writing. I was driving our car and came to a four way stop and was alone except for an elderly man who walked across the front of my grill. It was the treasurer of the church and for a moment, I had the opportunity to end the treasurer’s letter writing for good. But then I realized that I had murder in my heart and how desperately I needed God’s grace myself. I had to own my sin and seek God’s grace! Only Jesus can help you with your enemies, your rebellious reputation, your lack of resources and broken promises.
[1]In Ezra 4:14, the phrase “we eat the salt of the palace” means they were dependent upon the king. In fact, the English word “salary” comes from the word “salarium” or “salt-money.” The word “dishonor” in verse 14 means “nakedness.” The “mighty kings” in Ezra 4:20 probably refer to David and Solomon.
[2]Adapted from ESV Study Bible(Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 1587 & 813.
[3]The most well-known Babylonian king who exiled the Jews to Babylon in 586 B.C. His pride led to his insanity and losing his kingdom until he repented and was restored.
[4]Belshazzar was Nebuchadnezzar’s son and is known for being the king when God’s “hand” wrote on the wall after using the gold vessels from the Temple in Jerusalem and worshipping them.
[5]Though the Achaemenid dynasty began in 705 B.C., the Persian Empire did not begin until Cyrus II or Cyrus the Great as he was called conquered the Babylonians. Cyrus was half-Persian and half-Median.
[6]Darius was appointed viceroy over Babylon by his nephew Cyrus II and was most famous for being tricked and throwing his friend Daniel into the Lion’s Den.
[7]Last of the Achaemenid kings and was defeated by Alexander the Great.
[8]Ridley Scott, The Kingdom of Heavenfilm, 2005.
[9]F. Charles Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah – NICOT(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1982), 74.
[10]Source: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/charities-giving/charities/policies-guidance/policy-statement-024-guidelines-registering-a-charity-meeting-public-benefit-test.html#toc4. Accessed February 27, 2019.
[11]Source: www.facebook.com/taxthechurchmovement. Accessed February 26, 2019.
[12]Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax. Accessed February 26, 2019.
[14]Derek Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah – An Introduction & Commentary – Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries(Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), 52.
Finding Value
Posted: March 2, 2019 Filed under: Funerals, Jesus, Resurrection, Suicide Leave a comment
Curtis Cutting November 1963 – February 20, 2019
Our deepest sympathy and prayers on behalf of Temple Baptist Church go out to the family. Curtis and Jeanne met and were married here at Temple after Curtis first brought his grandmother, who lived down the street at St. Luke’s Nursing Home, to church. You see, going to church pays off. Curtis and Jeanne attended Temple for a number of years, especially with their deep connection through Jeanne’s parents Ed and Jean Kennedy. So it was a shock to hear of Curtis’ sudden death a week ago last Wednesday and not having many answers to the impetus for his death makes it even harder. I would encourage you to continue show the grace you have because many of us don’t know what to do or say. We may say unhelpful or insensitive things, so please be patient with us. Curtis and more importantly, God wants us to respond with kindness. Truthfully we will probably never have all the reasons for his death this side of heaven. I think it is much better to remember a person for their whole life and not just their final act. And this is why we need comfort from God’s eternal Word when this world is so unstable! Read Psalm 27!
Curtis was a deeply caring man. When I talked to the family and asked how they would describe him they said, “Curtis was kind, energetic, fun, quiet, had a soft heart, had a good sense of humor, liked to garden and liked to study his Bible. He was the Operations Manager at Sports World, loved trips to his parents’ cottage and loved his Lord.” However, Curtis also had his struggles. Those struggles overwhelmed him. Maybe this is one of the reasons why he felt overwhelmed because he felt he could not care for Jeanne to the level heexpected. We don’t know and we shouldn’t judge. Even one of the greatest Christians of all time and who wrote most of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:8, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” And Jesus Himself on the night He was betrayed told His disciples in Matthew 26:38, “My soul is very sorrowful even to death.” Curtis felt such despair and acted upon it. That is wrong, but not unforgivable. We do know Jeanne didn’t share Curtis’ despair and was happy just having Curtis in her life even through the trial of regular dialysis for Jeannie. Curtis was valuable to God, valuable to us but he struggled to find his own value towards the end of his life. Permit me to explain how we can find value. Even though I didn’t know Curtis really well, except that he was always the best-dressed man in the building, I know the message he would want you to know today. Why can I say this? Because he has met his Maker and he desperately wants you to know the truth.
Maybe some of us today are struggling with our own value? Many of us, especially on a day like today, are struggling with despair and our own mortality. You may think, “Does my life really matter because I am not sure I can go on?” The Psalmist in Psalm 144 asks the question to God, “O Lord, what is man that You care for him, the son of man that You think of him?” In fact, the writer of Hebrews says that God made “humans a little lower than the angels; and crowned him with glory and honour.” You see, you and I are valuable because we come from God. He made us. Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Not only do we come from God, but because He created us, we belong to Him. Some of you maybe doubt this, but think about your DNA. DNA is often called the Book of Life. Take out the programs we passed out! Ray Comfort points out that no one would dare say that the programs in your hands right now dropped from the sky with all the letters perfectly formed into intelligible words and then arranged into readable phrases and sentences.[1]There had to be a designer of your program. Your program did not evolve over time to form letters and words and pictures. Think about it, each of you have 3 billion base pairs of DNA in you as your “book of life.” Scientists actually refer to our DNA as the “book of life.” Our DNA is a highly complex code that tells our bodies how to form. Would you say that this happened by accident? No, the book of life points to a writer or a creator. In the same way, our bodies point to God who created us. And all creators have a right of ownership. If you were to paint a picture or even make something, you have the first claim of ownership. My children, when they have drawn something, run to me and say, “Look at mypicture, daddy.” God can say about us, “Look at mycreation.” In fact, He did in Genesis 1:31, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” It follows that if God is my Creator, He is also my Master. I belong to Him. Even the statement that one can take his or her own life is incorrect. We belong to God and we belong to each other. Our gathering today proves we have a responsibility to each other and our actions affect everybody else around us.
The problem is that we don’t act like God is our Master. We still have a choice and our responsible for our actions, not God. And too often our choice is to rebel against God and this explains why our world is so messed up and broken. Could this be one of the causes of depression?We are not living up to our true value before God and do a terrible job of trying to rule ourselves. This overwhelms us to varying degrees.
Because we have rebelled against our Loving Creator and Ruler, God gives rebels what they ask for. We might say to God, “Go away. Leave me alone.” God grants that wish because He won’t let us rebel forever! God cuts us off from Himself and because He is the source of all good things, being cut off from Him means death and hell. God’s judgment against rebels is an everlasting, God-less death. Hell is a place for people who want nothing to do with God and God doesn’t force them to be with Him. He loves people too much to force them to be with Him. But we do not realize how awful it is to be without God, even if we don’t acknowledge Him and His ever-presence.
However, there is good news. God sent His Son Jesus to take care of our rebellion. Jesus came to earth and lived perfectly under the rules of God. He even let Himself be executed on a cross. Why? Because Jesus died as a substitute for rebels like us! Our rebellion could be like defaulting on a loan. Remember, God created us and we belong to Him. We don’t really even belong to ourselves. Our bodies and lives are on loan from God. However, we get ourselves in debt by missing the payments of love and obedience that God requires. The debt is so massive that we can never pay it off without the help of the Heavenly Father. We are never good enough. Even if we are good for a time, our mess-ups cancel out all the good that we do because God demands absolute perfection. Anybody here perfect? So we have a major problem. A problem only God can fix. This is why God sent His Son Jesus to pay our debt. 1 Peter 3:18 says, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” Our lives are that valuable to God that He would send His Son to die for you and me.
Now do you think that God would create you and cause you to belong to Him by sending His Son to die for you and then not keep you? Of course not! This is in part why Jesus didn’t just die. He came back to life three days later rising from the grave. His body wasn’t stolen! Christ rose from the grave to conquer death and give you life forever. In fact, Jesus declares this about Himself in John 11:25-26, which you can read in your programs once again, “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’” Resurrection is better than reincarnation! Who would want to go through this life once again with all its pain and days of intense sorrow like we have had these past few days? Instead, resurrection promises a new and perfect body and living with God and His people in the new heavens and new earth for all eternity. You are now destined for God. Your life could be one of purpose and value for eternity. You do not have to merely cope with the difficulties of life but have confidence in Jesus that He will keep and comfort you. Remember what we read from Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” Depression has been labeled a stubborn darkness. Though that darkness may not flee entirely while on this earth, the LORD will provide enough of His light as a lamp unto your feet, if you will seek Him. The Psalmist faced all sorts of threats but he sought the Lord as verse 4 declares, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I am dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple.” And what does God promise? Relief from anxiety and shelter from depression, “For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock.”
Many think God has abandoned us. They identify with the Psalmist who questioned God, “Cast me not off; forsake me not” (Psalm 27:9). But then declared “O God of my salvation.”
This is the key point! The Psalmist knew he was a rebel. And this begs the question, how do you change over from being a rebel to a righteous person, from a victim to seeing yourself with value? Simply believe that only Jesus can pay off the debt you owe God. Ask God to forgive you of your rebellion and now live in such a way that shows you belong to Him. Just like a child who is rescued from a destitute orphanage, and adopted by her parents endeavours to show her gratitude for her rescue by being a well behaved and helpful child, so we desire to live in ways that show that same gratitude and love, by our obedience to God, our Heavenly Father.
God gave us the gift of Curtis. Now He wants to give us the gift of Jesus, which will radically change our lives. As Psalm 27:13 says, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” If you wait, you will receive! Will you receive another gift, no the ultimate gift, from God? It is assured because Jesus lives!
[1]Ray Comfort, “The Atheist Delusion” film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChWiZ3iXWwM. Accessed November 13, 2017.
Commissional 