Ezra 3:7 - 4:6; A Foundation for Perseverance

Martin Wagner August 31, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:24):
A few weeks ago, we began a series in Ezra and
Nehemiah.
These are two Old Testamentbooks that recount the story of
exiles leaving and returningback to Jerusalem where they are
going to rebuild the temple,rebuild the city walls of
Jerusalem.
These are a group of people whoare undertaking something

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significant, something costly,something that's going to
require sacrifice and time andenergy from them, and we are in
a season, as a church, wherewe're undertaking something
significant, something that'sgoing to require time and energy
and sacrifice from all of us aswell.
And so in this series, we'relooking at what can we learn

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from Ezra and Nehemiah as achurch in this season.
We said that a few weeks agothat we needed a foundation of
hope.
Jason preached from Ezra 1 andtalked about that.
We needed to remember that Godwas going to be faithful to all
that he had promised to Hispeople, and last week it was a
foundation of worship.
When the people returned to theland, they set up the altar,

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they reinstituted the feast.
They knew that there wasnothing more important than the
worship of God.
And so this week we're going topick up in the middle of
chapter 3.
The bulletin begins in verse 7.
I'm going to begin reading inverse 6.
I couldn't decide which verse.

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You know you had 6, 7.
You didn't know where to start,so we are going to start in
verse 6 today.
From the first day of theseventh month, they began to
offer burnt offerings to theLord, but the foundation of the

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temple of the Lord was not yetlaid.
So they gave money to themasons and the carpenters, and
food and drink and oil to theSidonians and the Tyrians to
bring cedar trees from Lebanonto the sea to Joppa, according
to the grant that they had fromCyrus, king of Persia.
Now, in the second year aftertheir coming to the house of God

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at Jerusalem, in the secondmonth, zerubbabel, the son of
Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the sonof Josedach, made a beginning,
together with the rest of theirkinsmen, the priests and the
Levites and all who had come toJerusalem from captivity.
They appointed the Levites,from 20 years old and upward, to
supervise the work of the houseof the Lord, and Jeshua, with
his sons and brothers, andCadmel and his sons, the sons of

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Judah, together supervised theworkmen in the house of God,
along with the sons of Hinnadadand the Levites, their sons and
brothers.
And when the builders laid thefoundation of the temple of the
Lord.
The priest and their vestmentscame forward with trumpets, and
the Levites, the sons of Asaph,with cymbals, to praise the Lord
according to the directions ofDavid, king of Israel, and they

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sang responsibly, praising andgiving thanks to the Lord, for
he is good, for his steadfastlove endures forever toward
Israel.
And all the people shouted witha great shout when they praised
the Lord because the foundationof the house of the Lord was
laid.
But many of the priests andLevites and heads of the
father's houses old men who hadseen the first house wept with a

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loud voice when they saw thefoundations of this house being
laid, though many shouted aloudfor joy so that the people could
not distinguish the sound ofjoyful shout from the sound of
the people's weeping, for thepeople shouted with a great
shout and the sound was heardfar away.
Now, when the adversaries ofJudah and Benjamin heard that

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the returned exiles werebuilding a temple to the Lord,
the God of Israel, theyapproached Zerubbabel in the
head of the father's houses andsaid to him Let us build with
you, for we worship your God asyou do of the father's houses,
and said to him let us buildwith you, for we worship your
God as you do, but we have beensacrificing to him ever since
the days of Ezerhaddon, king ofAssyria, who brought us here.
But Zerubbabel, jeshua and therest of the heads of the

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father's houses in Israel saidto them you have nothing to do
with us in building a house toour God, but we alone will build
to the Lord, the God of Israel,as Cyrus, king of Persia, has
commanded us and the people ofthe land discouraged the people
of Judah and made them afraid tobuild, and bribed the
counselors against them tofrustrate their purpose.
And all the days of Cyrus, kingof Persia, even until the reign

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of Darius, king of Persia, inthe reign of Assyrius.
In the beginning of his reign,they wrote an accusation against
the inhabitants of Judah inJerusalem.
Let's pray, our Lord.
We confess that we need yourhelp.
This morning, as we look tothis passage.
This can seem so far away fromus, removed from what is going

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on in our lives today, but wepray that, by your Spirit, that
you would make this word to usliving and active, that it would
be sharper than any two-edgedsword, that it would divide us,
that it would expose our needand that you would remind us
again of the sufficient andsteadfast love that you have for

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us in Jesus.
And so, lord, come now, give usears to hear your word.
I pray this in Jesus' name,amen.
If you've ever visited Barcelona, you have no doubt gone to La
Sagrada Familia.
Familia, it is the famousbasilica in Barcelona.

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Many pictures taken of it, butone of the interesting things
about this place is that it'sstill under construction.
Construction on the basilicabegan back in the 80s, which
seems like a really long timeago, until you realize that it
began in the 1880s.
They've been building thisplace for over 140 years.
They've run out of moneyseveral times.

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The Spanish Civil War haltedprogress, they lost the plans
and they had to redevelop them.
There's been economic andpolitical and technological
issues they faced all along.
For 140 years they've beenbuilding this thing, issues they
faced all along.
For 140 years they've beenbuilding this thing.
Can you imagine the amount ofperseverance it took to make it
140 years and still keep thevision alive?
The exiles that are rebuildingthe temple.

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They are experiencingopposition, beginning in chapter
four, and this opposition thatbegins in chapter four will
continue until the end ofNehemiah.
That begins in chapter 4 willcontinue until the end of
Nehemiah.
Time after time, they are goingto face this opposition and
challenges to the progress thatGod has called them to.
And there's no doubt that ourchurch, that we need the same

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kind of perseverance in thisseason we are in as a church,
and you and I need perseverancein the challenges that we face
in a fallen world, needperseverance in the challenges
that we face in a fallen world.
And so what does this passagehave to tell us about how you
and I can build a foundation ofperseverance?
In order to build a foundationof perseverance, this passage
shows us three things.

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First, it shows us thatopposition is normal.
Secondly, that honesty isneeded.
And thirdly, that God's lovewill last.
So I actually want to workthrough the passage backwards.
We're going to start in chapter4 and work our way back to
chapter 3.
But the first thing we see isthat opposition is normal.
In Ezra 3, they began thisbuilding process.

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They're very zealous, they'refull of energy.
As they began, they rebuilt thealtar, they laid the foundation
of the temple.
They've joined together incelebration and the worship of
God.
But almost immediately theycollide with a harsh reality of
opposition.
In verse 1 of chapter 4, thetext says that the adversaries
of Judah and Benjamin heardabout their building plans.

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You know, you can read in Ezraup to this point and assume that
they're going back into thisland and the land was desolate,
that there was no one living inthe land.
But this text reminds us thatthey had neighbors.
They moved back into the landand the neighbors weren't very
happy about them moving back.
And so the nosy neighbors comeout and they want to know about

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the renovation project that isgoing on down the street.
And the neighbors approach withkindness.
They say we would love to helpyou.
We've got a lot in common.
We worship the same God.
Why don't you let us help youbuild?
And the Israelite leaders seethrough their offer and they
tell them thanks, but no thanks.
We alone will rebuild thetemple to our Lord.

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And then verse four says thatGod's people were discouraged
and afraid.
And you read in the rest ofchapter 4, read chapter 5 and
chapter 6, it's discouragementafter discouragement, story
after story of the people aroundthem rising up to discourage
them and to frighten them in therebuilding of the temple.

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The dreams that they had of asmooth path back to the glory
days of Solomon's temple weremet with the harsh reality that
this what God had called them to, that it was going to take more
than they had.
It was going to take more thanjust zeal.
But isn't that the way it sooften goes in our lives we step
out in faith, we're full ofenergy and zeal and we expect

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the fact that we're doing thisfor God.
And if we're doing this for God, what that means is it's
obviously going to be smoothsailing, that whenever we
encounter unexpected resistance,when the opposition comes, when
we have setbacks, when thereare voices of fear and
discouragement, we think well,god, why have you left me?
If you're in this, thenobviously things should be going

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easier than they are now.
Every spring, I am renewed withgreat zeal to grow a vegetable
garden in my backyard.
Every spring, I am convincedthat this is going to be the
year.
And so you plant the vegetables, you get everything ready.
Spring is there, it's lovelyweather, lots of rain, lots of

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sunshine.
Things begin to grow.
But then summer comes and weedsbegin to grow from every
possible direction.
Every bug known to man isswarming around the vegetables,
animals or eating the vegetables, and I eventually give up and I

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just go to the grocery storeand buy them, with a greater
appreciation for farmers andthose who work in agriculture.
And like the exiles in Ezra 4, Ifind myself faced with my own
limits.
You and I, in life, we needmore than we can supply, and
opposition that we faced is nota sign that God has left us.

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It's not a sign that God hasfailed.
Ezra 4 shows the same truththat runs throughout the whole
of Scripture that oppositiondoes not equal abandonment.
Think about the Apostle Paul.
Nearly every city he went to hefaced opposition.
There was a riot in Ephesus, hewas run out of town.

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In Thessalonica he was inprison multiple times.
Everywhere he went, the spiritmoved, but the enemy moved as
well, and Paul's path was neversmooth sailing.
But that did not mean that Godabandoned him.
It actually meant that God wasat work in his ministry, and
this is exactly what we see inthe life of Jesus.
The sinless son of God healedthe sick and preached good news
to the poor.
He lived blamelessly andrighteously in every way, but

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yet he was slandered, he wasbetrayed and he was ultimately
crucified.
So if the perfect obedience ofthe Son of God led to opposition
and led to a cross.
What are you and I, as sinfulhuman beings, to expect?
Martin Luther said that ourhearts are always tempted toward
what he calls a theology ofglory.

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A theology of glory is the ideathat if we just have enough
faith, if we obey hard enough orwe give enough, then God is
going to bless us with healthand protection and moral
improvement and steady progress.
Life is about moving onward andupward.

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Life means more success andmore strength and more glory.
More glory not for God, butmore glory for you and me.
But that is not the story ofthe Bible.
Instead, jesus calls us to atheology of the cross, and it is
the opposite of the theology ofglory.
To follow Christ is to die withhim.

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Faith in Christ does not mean,does not guarantee, that our
life will go easy, but what itdoes guarantee is that, even in
our weakness, that God haspromised to do his greatest work
.
The theology of the cross meansthat resurrection will only
come after death, and that'sexactly what Ezra 4 reminds us
of.
God does not call his people.

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The projects that we can finishin our own strength, our
insufficiency, ourdiscouragement and even our
failures are a reminder to usthat God has not abandoned us,
that our failures, our weakness,our suffering actually preaches
the need for a Savior.
What we see is that the crossalways comes before the crown,

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that for the Christian, goodFriday always precedes Easter
Sunday, and so if you and I aregoing to persevere in what God
has called us to, we need tofirst remember that opposition
is normal.
But the second point inbuilding a foundation of
perseverance is that honesty isneeded.
Let's look back at chapter three.
The scene shifts again.

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There's a time of worship thatthey're having.
We saw that in chapter one, butagain in chapter three they get
in the land, they rebuild thealtar first and the second year
it says so they've been back forabout a year and they began to
rebuild the foundation of thetemple.
And I want to give just a bitof Old Testament history to show
the context of what is going onhere.
You could argue that thepinnacle of the Old Testament,

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in terms of the people of God,was the dedication of Solomon's
temple.
People had finally made it intothe land that God had promised.
They built this immaculate,majestic temple under the reign
of Solomon, and it was a sign ofGod's blessing, of God's favor
upon his people, a sign that Godwanted to keep his promises,

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that God wanted to dwell withhis people, and this was grand
beyond all that we could imagine.
But as a result of the people'srebellion, as a result of their
disobedience, they were exiledand the temple, this beautiful
temple, was destroyed.
And so these people have comeback.
They've come back to rebuildthis magnificent temple and we

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often call what they're doingthey're rebuilding the second
temple.
They come and come back andthis is the temple that will
remain in Jerusalem until thetime of Jesus.
So as they complete thefoundation of this second temple
, they begin to worship the Lord.
What's interesting is theresponses that the people have.
I'm going to read verse 12again, but many of the priests

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and Levites and heads of thefathers' houses old men who had
seen the first house wept with aloud voice when they saw the
foundation of this house beinglaid, though many shouted aloud
for joy.
The text stresses that thereare two different emotions
present on opposite ends of thespectrum.

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You have the old timers, thosewho remember the first temple,
weeping with a loud voice, andthen you have others who are
shouting aloud for joy.
But it's interesting that youhave the same event.
You have the same experience,but you have diametrically
opposed emotions.
It doesn't say exactly why theywere weeping.

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They could have been weepingbecause they remember the first
temple and they knew that thesecond temple wasn't going to be
as grand.
They could have remembered allthe exile, all what they had
lost, everything that led totheir being exiled.
We don't know exactly, but forwhatever reason, we had both joy
and grief in this worshipservice.
Whatever reason, we had bothjoy and grief in this worship

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service and it seems as thoughGod was pleased with both
emotions.
I can imagine if I were one ofthe happy people in that worship
service I would have looked atthe sad people and said what's
wrong with you?
I mean the temple's beingrebuilt.
Why are you sad?
I might've even said I laidsome of that foundation.
You seem really ungrateful ofthe work that I've been doing

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for the last year.
Why are you sad?
God has kept his promises.
We're not in exile anymore,we're in the land.
Why are you so sad?
I would have interpreted theirsadness as a fact that something
might be wrong with me orsomething was wrong with them,
but I love that the text saysthat the sounds of joy and the

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sounds of grief were so mixedtogether that you couldn't
distinguish one from the other.
God didn't rebuke the weepersand he didn't shame the shouters
.
Both emotions belonged in theworship of the people of God.
Their grief and their sadnesswas not appalling or
discouraging to God or thepeople around them.
They were being honest abouthow they felt in that moment.

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Some were happy, some were sad,and that seemed to be okay.
So I want to take a minute totalk to the old-timers at Faith.
Those who have been around fora while maybe even remember the
old building next door.
You have seen and you haveexperienced a lot at our church.

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A lot of memories that you havein life are connected to years
spent at this church, and a newsanctuary is a great thing,
something that we've prayed for,that we have longed for for
decades now, and God has beenimmeasurably more kind to us
beyond what we could ask orthink or imagine to our church.

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But even with that, it wouldmake sense that you might feel
some sadness as you think abouta new sanctuary, not because
you're sad about where we'regoing, but you're sad about what
we're leaving behind, becausethis room, this room, is
significant to you.
You know I've spent the last 20years of my life worshiping in

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this room.
All three of my kids werebaptized here.
I stood right there, took myordination vows and knelt up
there at the front, and eldersand pastors in our presbytery
laid hands on me to ordain me togospel ministry.
I've had some of the mosttranscendent, blissful moments

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of my life amongst the people ofGod, here in worship.
I've been in this room for someof the worst, lowest, darkest
days of my life, and this roommeans a lot to me because of the
experiences that I've had inthis place.
And change can be hard, becausechange always involves some kind

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of loss.
And so I am over the moonexcited about our new sanctuary.
I can't wait to be there.
I can't wait for everyone tohave a reasonable amount of leg
room as they get in and out ofRose.
That's going to be really great.
But there's also a part of methat's sad.
Sad to leave this room becauseof the memories that it holds.

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But I've got to be able to holdboth of those things at the
same time.
One doesn't invalidate theother, and so I want to free you
up as much as I can.
To be sad.
I can imagine you might thinkthat sadness is a sign that
something's wrong with you orsomething's wrong with the
church, or something's wrongwith the people around you, or
something may even be wrong withGod.
But sadness might just meanthat something you love is

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changing, and that's okay.
The people of God in Ezra.
They were able to perseverebecause they were willing to be
honest about their emotions.
They didn't hide their grief,they didn't mute their joy.
They brought both of them intothe presence of God, and God was
gracious to meet them there.
John Cox is a psychologist.

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He's spoken at our church on afew occasions before and he
likes to say that grief andsadness are transitional
emotions, that we can't be sadforever, that God somehow uses
sadness that we have in order toheal us, that sadness is one of
the things that God gives to usin order to heal us, that
sadness is one of the thingsthat God gives to us in order to
heal us from the pain that weare experiencing.
And so, if we are to persevere,we need to remember that

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opposition is normal, thathonesty is needed and the last
thing in verses 8 to 11, we seethe deepest foundation for
perseverance, and that is toremember that the love of God
will last.
So the exiles have been back inthe land for two years now.
They rebuilt the altar, theyhave re-established daily
sacrifices and finally thefoundation of the temple was

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laid.
You can imagine that this is aday that they thought would
never come.
They've been in exile for along time, and so what do they
do first?
What's the first thing they doafter laying the foundation of
the temple?
Verse 11 says they sangresponsibly, praising and giving
thanks to the Lord, for he isgood, for His steadfast love

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endures forever.
First words that they sangwithin the bounds of their new
temple were not words aboutthemselves.
They were not words about howgreat this place was going to be
.
They were words about thefaithfulness of God.
And think about what thesepeople had endured 70 long years
in exile, decades ofuncertainty, of wondering if God

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had forgotten them.
They'd seen Jerusalem destroyed.
Their temple had been reducedto rubble.
Some of them had been carriedaway as children.
Their entire lives were spentas strangers in a strange land,
and can you imagine the doubtsthat must have filled their
hearts?
Maybe they thought the covenanthad been broken.
Maybe they thought that theyhad sinned too much that God had

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given up on them.
But yet here they are.
They are back in the land, thealtar is restored, the
foundation is laid and the firstwords that they sing for he is
good, his steadfast love enduresforever.
Do you see what they're saying?
Do you see what it is that theyare confessing?

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The exile didn't last forever.
The steadfast love of the Lorddid Our failures.
Our sin and our failures didnot outlast the faithfulness of
God.
Our sins did not break God'scovenant with us.
What is going to allow you andme to persevere in what we are

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facing in life?
It is to remember that thesteadfast love of God will
outlast whatever we are facingtoday.
Maybe for you it's a diagnosis.
Maybe for you it's a chronicillness that has stolen your
strength, that has changed theplans that you thought you would
have for your life.
It's a disease that's robbingyour memory and your cognitive

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function.
Maybe it's a brokenrelationship that you have
doubts that will ever heal, orthe heaviness of grief that
never seems to loosen its grip.
Maybe it's a besetting sin orsome addiction that you have and
you wonder is God going tofinally grow weary of me?
Is God going to regret evergetting involved in my situation

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.
And in these moments you wonder, just like the exiles must have
has God forgotten me?
Is this suffering going to lastforever?
Ezra 3 is a reminder to us thatno, it won't.
God's love will last forever andyour suffering will not.

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Your suffering has an expirationdate.
Your depression has anexpiration date.
Your cancer has an expirationdate.
Your addiction has anexpiration date, but the
steadfast love of the Lord willnever expire.
It will last every diagnosis,every heartache, every sin,

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every death, every grave.
We know that God hears us whenwe pray to him.
Today, psalm 56 is a reminderto us that God bottles our tears
for us, he counts our tossings,he knows our sleepless nights
and sometimes, in the kindnessand mercy of God, we receive
what we've prayed for.
We receive a reconciliation orremission or a prodigal child

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that returns home.
But sometimes those answersdon't come this side of heaven.
Sometimes the healing and therestoration and the redemption
that you and I long for willonly be received when Jesus
makes all things new and one day, in a new heavens and a new
earth, you and I, and all of thepeople of God, we will join

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together with the people of Ezra3 and we will sing the same
song.
For he is good, for hissteadfast love endures forever.
And you and I, on that day, wewill know in full what we only
know in part right now thatevery tear we cried, every
season of waiting, every longnight of doubt was carried by

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the unshakable love of God foryou in Christ, because here's
the good news of Ezra 3.
All of this the temple and thefoundations and the altar and
the sacrifices, all of what'sgoing on in Ezra is pointing us
to Christ, who is the true andthe final temple.
The temple, as glorious as itwas, as glorious as what they

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were building, this secondtemple had an expiration date.
Like Solomon's temple before it, it would one day be destroyed.
It was never meant to be theultimate meeting place of God
and his people.
It was a signpost pointing themto something greater.
The temple is the place whereheaven and earth met, where God

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chose and showed that he woulddwell with his people.
The temple was the enduringsign to the people that God was
with them, that he desired arelationship with them.
But in Jesus we see the true andbetter temple.
In Jesus we see the one in whomthe fullness of God was pleased
to dwell.
He is now.
Jesus is now where heaven andearth meet for us.

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He is the one, john 1, who says, tabernacled among us.
He is the one who said destroythis temple.
And speaking of his body.
And he said three days.
I will raise it up For thispassage, for Ezra 3 and 4, to be
more than just sentimentaloptimism for you and I one day.

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For this to be true for us,christ had to die.
Jesus had to die for our sins.
Jesus endured the full weightof our exile, of our sin and our
shame and our judgment, so thatyou and I could be brought home
to God.
Jesus is now the temple whereyou and I meet God, not in a
building made by human hands,but in Christ.

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You and I draw near to God.
His is the sacrifice thatcovers sin, the foundation that
will never crack or crumble.
And so in Romans 8, when Paulsays that nothing will separate
us, when he says that nothing,not tribulation or distress or
persecution or famine ornakedness or danger or sword,

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that nothing can separate usfrom the love of God in Christ,
he meant it, because not exileor opposition, or suffering or
even death can separate a childof God from their Savior, jesus
Christ, and so that is why youand I can persevere when we have
nothing left is because thelove of God will last for us as

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well.
God's love for you does notrise and fall based upon
circumstances or yourperformance, but it lasts
forever.
We can persevere because Christis the one who persevered first
.
He endured the cross, hescorned its shame and sat down
at the right hand of God, andhis perseverance guarantees that

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you and I will make it home oneday.
And so, whatever you are facingtoday I want you to hear this
it will not outlast the love ofGod.
One day, your exile will end,your tears will be wiped away
and your voice will join thateternal chorus around the throne
of God, and we will sing.

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For he is good, his steadfastlove endures forever.
Let's pray, our Father.
We pray that you would help usto believe this word, that you
would take it and that you wouldmultiply it by the work of the
Spirit in our hearts.
Lord, we pray that, whatever weface, that we would remember

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and believe that your steadfastlove endures forever.
And so we pray for your mercyto us as we come to the table.
Feed us again.
We pray in Jesus' name Amen.