Overflowing

Brian Carroll / General Adult

Work in Progress / Ezra 6:1–18

 

Introduction

• I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the store called IKEA, but it’s an experience.

• They’re in larger cities - I think it’s originally a Swedish company.

• They sell a lot of stuff, but what they’re most famous for is their pretty affordable furniture.

• But what makes them “famous” is the fact that you pretty much are guaranteed that when you buy something, you’re about to embark on an assembly journey.

• It’s not just IKEA…they’re just the most famous.

• And if you’ve bought something that requires assembly, then you know that the experience always begins with some kind of package that has all of the hardware in it

• And they almost always include three tools.

• A little piece of metal that imitates a crescent wrench, a little stubby screwdriver, and an allen wrench.

• I know they include those things for people who don’t own tools, but if you’ve ever used the included tools to put something together, you know that it will work - you CAN put it together, but it’s not going to be pleasant.

• You use that dumb little crescent wrench, or wear your hands out on that allen wrench and you start to think, “There’s got to be an easier way to do this.” 

• You’re using all your effort, but it feels like you’re getting nowhere fast.

• The first thing I do when I find myself in that predicament is I throw away the tools they include, and then go to the garage and get my own tools that, oh, I don’t know - have POWER.

• When you replace the crescent wrench with, I don’t know, a ratchet.

• And the stubby screwdriver and allen wrench get tossed and replaced with a drill

• Suddenly that same job that wore you out before becomes smooth, steady, even enjoyable.

• You haven’t changed — the power has.

• You’re still holding the tool, but now something greater is working through it.

• That’s the difference grace makes.

• Grace is the power of God at work in our weakness.

• It’s the strength we don’t have, the resource we can’t manufacture, the endurance we can’t fake.

• And just like that power drill, grace doesn’t make the work disappear — it makes the work possible.

• The people of God in Ezra’s day understood that.

• They had faced setback after setback.

• They started rebuilding the temple, only to have the work shut down by opposition.

• For years, all they had to show was a foundation — a reminder of what could have been.

• Last week, when we were in chapter five, the Temple rebuild had been frozen for 15 years.

• There was a ton of opposition to the project.

• We might say it got held up in bureaucratic red tape, but it was more than just government inefficiency at work.

• So the people stopped.

• But in his grace, God raised up prophets to remind the people of their purpose.

• Men like Haggai and Zechariah reminded everyone what God wanted from them, so rallying behind leaders like Zerubbabel and Jesuha, they got to work.

• That didn’t stop the opposition.

• The governor, a guy by the name of Tattenai (His official title was Tattenia the Tattle-Tale) - he tried to get the nation to stop building.

• This time there would be no stopping the people as they worked to accomplish God’s purpose.

• We get to chapter 6 and we find that Tattenai’s efforts were in vain.

• King Darius found the original decree from King Cyrus.

• And just like his predecessor, Darius issued a decree allowing the work to continue.

• This wasn’t just a political victory, it was God’s grace at work.

• Grace opened the door.

• Grace provided the resources.

• Grace strengthened their hands.

• And before long, the people who once felt defeated were standing in front of a finished temple, celebrating the goodness of God.

• That’s what grace does for us too.

• When we’ve been knocked down, when work feels too hard, when all we see is what’s been lost — grace steps in.

• It equips us. It empowers us. It undergirds every effort we make to rebuild what’s been broken.

• But what do we mean when we speak of God’s grace?

• We often think of God’s grace as it relates to salvation.

• That is made manifest to us in what Luther called the Great Exchange.

• God took our sin and gave it to Jesus and in exchange, he gave us Jesus’ righteousness.

• We didn’t earn it…it was given to us. That’s grace.

• But God’s grace isn’t limited to salvation.

• We see God’s undeserved favor in all kinds of different ways that aren’t just limited to Christians.

• Theologians have called this common grace.

• It is summarized in the idea that the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

• But we also speak of God’s grace in a different sense.

• In 2 Corinthians 9:8, the Apostle Paul says:

2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV

⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

• Paul is talking about grace as a kind of divine influence working in us to change our capacities for work and suffering and obedience.

• So God’s grace is as broad a concept as it is an abundant reality that overflows in our lives.

• So as we look at Ezra chapter 6 today, we’re going to see that the story of the temple’s completion isn’t just about construction — it’s about witnessing the abundance of God’s grace at work in the world to accomplish his purposes.

• It’s about what happens when the grace of God goes to work in the lives of people who refuse to quit.

• And hopefully we will learn to open our eyes to the overflow of God’s grace in our lives as well.

Ezra 6:1–18 ESV

¹ Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored.

² And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record.

³ In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits,

⁴ with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.

⁵ And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.”

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.

⁷ Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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,

¹⁰ that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.

¹¹ Also I make a decree that if anyone alters 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.

¹² May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out 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.”

¹³ Then, according to the word sent by Darius the king, Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered.

¹⁴ And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia;

¹⁵ and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

¹⁶ And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

¹⁷ They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁸ And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their divisions, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses.

• We open chapter 6 and Darius is responding to the letter that was sent to him by Tattenai.

• The first step was figuring out where this crazy idea of restoring Jerusalem originated.

• He knew that Cyrus was involved, so it was time to head to the archives.

• This makes you thankful for Google…they didn’t have that, so they had to go actually lay eyes on the original documents.

• Now kids, a long time ago, like back in the 1900’s…when you wanted information you had to GO get it at this thing called a library.

• The library was this great reservoir of knowledge.

• Some books, you could borrow and take with you.

• Other books were more special and you couldn’t take them with you.

• They were called encyclopedias (they were kind of like a printed version of Wikipedia).

• Here, Darius sends his researchers to a fortress in a neighboring province that held all of the official records.

• There they find it - the scroll that contained Cyrus’ original decree.

• Turns out this temple WAS a sanctioned project.

• And it wasn’t just sanctioned by the King, it was to be financed by empire as well.

• That was all Darius needed.

• Remember, the foreign policy of the Persians was driven by a desire to keep all of the gods in the empire happy.

• The rulers were certainly beholden to their own particular god - but just in case any of the other gods had any pull in the grand scheme of things, we need to make sure they’re all being placated.

Darius is an unexpected agent of God’s grace (vv. 1-5)

• Darius didn’t know this - but he was simply acting as an agent of God’s grace.

• He was doign his best to run the empire and keep everybody happy.

• But this was part of God’s plan for his people all along.

• This serves to reminds us of God’s sovereignty over the nations.

• There’s nothing that happens that is beyond the control of God.

• We talked about this several weeks ago when we first unpacked Cyrus’ original decree.

• Cyrus believed he was doing something great and magnanimous, but really he was just accomplishing God’s plan for his people.

• God is sovereign over the nations.

• The Bible says, “You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you” (2 Chronicles 20:6).

• No nation does anything that God does not purpose. 

• We may not understand God’s purpose, but our lack of understanding doesn’t undermine the reality of God’s hand.

• Psalm 33:10–11 “10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.”

• This means that even in the face of opposition, God’s purposes will prevail.

• God doesn’t lose.

• We may experience a whole host of opposition and disappointment. God doesn’t lose.

• When I serve Christ, I’m not trying to ensure that Jesus wins, I’m simply making sure that I’m doing my part on the team that wins - even when it sometimes feels like a loss.

• I was reading about the plight of Christians in Nigeria this week.

• Dozens of Christians are being killed every day in Nigeria.

• With that kind of news, it feels like it’s a losing battle.

• But God’s purposes are such that even in death, his plans are perfect and he is accomplishing his purposes.

• The decree of Darius reminds us that God’s work might be accomplished through unexpected channels

• In this case, we have another pagan king who have become pawns in God’s plan.

• They’re simply the channel through which God orchestrates his purposes.

• What was true in the 500’s BC with Jerusalem and the exiles is still true for us today.

• We can rely on God’s unwavering grace, trusting that He can turn any situation around for our good and His glory.

• As Romans 8:28 says, “28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

• The second thing we can see here in chapter 6 is this -

God provides in order to accomplish his purposes (vv. 6-12)

• Darius issues the decree, but he also picks up Cyrus’ mantle in the fact that he orders all of the necessary provisions to be made for the work.

• He provides security

• He said in v. 6 to Tattenai and his goons, “keep away.”

• Mind your own business.

• Leave these people alone.

• Darius is probably only thinking about provoking the ire of the Hebrew God, but his thinking doesn’t matter.

• What matters is that this is very clearly God’s grace at work.

• He also provides the material resources needed.

• This is just funny.

• v. 8 tells us exactly where the money is to come from.

• It says that the project is to be funded specifically by the tax money generated by the province from Beyond the River.

• That’s the province that Tattenai is the governor of.

• So this time, the money isn’t coming from the main imperial treasury, it’s coming specifically from the bank account controlled by the greatest opponents of the project.

• Tattenai has to write the checks, while before he was having to write the cease and desist orders.

• We wrestle with resources, but we need to remember that God has limitless resources to accomplish his purposes.

• That doesn’t mean that God gives blank checks as needed.

• God teaches us stewardship by reminding us that the resources he is pleased to use are the resources that are in our control.

• That’s why we pass offering plates and collect funds because we know that God has given us resources over which we steward.

• You can see a little nugget of Persia’s foreign policy at work here in v. 10.

• Darius not only provides for the financial resources, he also ensures that they will have the animals needed for sacrifice.

• But part of his decree is that as they offer sacrifices, they should go ahead and breath a prayer or two for for the king and his family.

• “While you’re at it, go ahead and pray for me too.”

• Even this pagan king understands something of God’s grace.

• If you are starting to feel good about Darius, don’t…

• The very next verse is the punishment for crossing him.

• If you alter this, then I’m going to pull out a beam from your house, sharpen the end and run it through you.

• That usually means that your dead body is going to be put on display somewhere for everyone to see.

• Oh, and I’m going to tear down your house and throw all of the manure from the stables on the debris.

• So, yes, please pray for Darius.

• There is a third thing I think we can take from this passage:

Grace-powered Persistence Pays off (vv. 13-15)

• Despite all of the setbacks, we finally get to this momentous moment when the temple is finally constructed.

• Tattenai the Tattle-tale becomes Tattenai the Financier.

• We see again, the presence of Haggai and Zechariah here, reminding us again of how important the preaching of God’s word is in accomplishing his purposes.

• Our labor for the LORD isn’t in vain.

• It’s never promised to be easy.

• Again, that’s why we use the language of perseverance.

• Perseverance is needed in the struggle, not when the sailing is smooth.

• When we persevere, even in the face of adversity and challenge, we eventually will get to the place God wants us to be.

• That’s God’s grace at work in us.

• God’s plans will come to fruition, even if it isn’t in our timing.

• Our job is not to force God’s plans, but to do what God says and let God bring his goals to bear in the time he has appointed.

• God reminds us over and over again that his timing and our timing don’t always align, but our job is not to question his timing, but to align ourselves with his purposes.

• That’s true no matter how difficult or easy our circumstances may be.

• That’s true whether we are facing the opposition of the Tattenai’s or the favor of the emperor.

• Now that the temple is built, and the people have tasted and seen the goodness and grace of God at work in their community, how do they respond - the only appropriate way:

Genuine worship is the only appropriate response to God’s grace (vv. 16-18)

• Verse 16 says it succinctly - Ezra 6:16 “16 And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.”

• If you remember back when the foundation was built, there were those who saw the original temple who lamented the sight of the new one.

• That day, there was worship, but it was mixed with sorrow.

• That’s not true on this day.

• Nobody is grumpy today because they’ve seen what God can do.

• They have tasted God’s grace at work in their lives and it is such a sweet thing to behold.

• God’s grace absolutely overflows in our lives.

• From the fact that God grants us our next breath…

• To the miraculous work of salvation that I hope each and every one of you have experienced.

• We see God’s grace in all of the good gifts that we receive.

• We see God’s grace at work even as he disciplines us as his children.

• When we recognize the overflow of God’s grace, how can we be anything less than genuine worshippers?

• That doesn’t mean that worship is always a time of happiness and laughter.

• Sometimes our worship comes through faces streaked by tears of grief.

• But even in the hardships, even in the most difficult moments, even in the opposition, we can see God’s grace at work, moving in our lives and in the lives of others to accomplish his plans and his purposes.

• Phil Wickham released a new song this week that is absolutely beautiful. The chorus says:

The greater the storm

The louder our song will be

Battles may roar

But we sing from victory

Darkness will tremble

Prison walls are gonna shake

Cause fear has no power

When we worship Your name

• And it is so abundant. It overflows in our lives, each and every day.

• As God told Paul, my grace is sufficient.

• It is never lacking.

• It is always what is needed for God’s glory and for our good.

Invitation - Grace Greater Than Our Sin

• When we speak of God’s grace overflowing, we certainly recognize it in our daily lives, but we absolutely have to recognize it in terms of our salvation.

• Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest preachers in American history said, “The greater the guilt of any sinner is, the more glorious and wonderful is the grace manifested in his pardon. It is the honor of Christ to save the greatest sinners.”

• King David wrote, Psalm 25:11 “11 For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.”

• We have heaped up an unimaginably overflowing refuse pile of sin.

• But we have a God who specializes in grace and for every sin that we can name, there is sufficient grace to cleanse and forgive.