We finished the book of Zechariah last week and I don’t know if you remember or not but we started his whole series by looking at the book of Ezra which is about the rebuilding of the temple or the rebuilding of the body of Christ after they had been taken off into captivity because of their covenant breaking and then allowed to return to their land. We left off in chapter 5 of Ezra verse 1 where it said: “When the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them, 2then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them supporting them.
While it is only two verses in the text and it was probably over two months that I’ve been preaching through those books in real time those two verses probably cover a couple of years. To me that is another reminder that God works slowly in time and history. I think that is part of the reason why our culture seems to move at warp speed because we are trying to forget that God is at work. If we can keep occupied with the short term then we don’t have to think about the long term. But faster doesn’t mean better and we must remember that it is in the long term that God is slowly advancing his kingdom and destroying his enemies.
We tend to lose something when it comes to all of these names because we don’t understand Hebrew or aramaic so I want to try to read a few passage using the meanings of the names in When Zechariah says in verse two: 2then the one who was ‘sown in Babylon’ the son of ‘the one who asked of God’ and ‘the one who is saved’ the son of ‘Jehovah is righteous’ arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them supporting them. I want you to understand that you, each and every one of you is Zerubbabel, and Jeshua. You were sown in Babylon which is what Zerubbabel means, you were born in sin and if you believe in Christ Jesus you are saved which is what Jeshua means. You are those things and you are therefore responsible for rebuilding the house of God. You are responsible for your own growth in the Lord. You are responsible for staying on the path of life. You are responsible for you. That is something that we need to pound into our hearts, our children’s hearts and our grand children’s hearts.
We have got to learn to be responsible for ourselves instead of sitting around expecting others to take care of our needs. Yes we are a body but in your body the heart does what the heart is supposed to do and by doing that it lets everything else do what it’s supposed to do. The heart doesn’t try to do what the kidneys are doing. The liver doesn’t ask the tongue to do its job. They work together by doing what they are called to do.
It’s not my job as pastor to grow you up. It’s not my job to do your task for you. I cannot walk the path of life for you. My job as pastor is to support you as you figure out how to grow up and do what you are supposed to do. I can show you where the path of life is. I can warn you of the path of destruction but I can’t make you walk one way or another.
At the same time I don’t want you to think that you are in this all by yourself. The kidneys need the heart. The liver needs the tongue because the liver is not the body. The tongue is not the body. The heart is not the body. The body is the summation of all of the parts working together. That is something that I think we have lost in our day and age. We know how to sit in a room together for a couple of hours a week. We know how to do a toy store together and thanks giving baskets and that may very well be a part of what we are called to be doing together; but I think way too often in our culture the heart is doing what the heart is doing just so it can hear itself beat. Does that make sense?
The different parts don’t have a vision for what the body as a whole should be doing. And here at Immanuel part of that is my fault. I haven’t laid forth a clear vision in part because I’ve been reluctant to do so. That hasn’t always gone so well for me and to be honest my planning usually doesn’t turn out like I think it should anyway. But you deserve a clear unified vision. not one that is focused on getting the congregation to a new number level, but for rebuilding the church to the place where it is no longer a laughing stock in the community.
It is on my heart to begin to do that and in part that is what this whole foundation series has been about even though so far the details have been sketchy. It is my prayer that as we work our way through this whole foundation building series that such a vision will begin to emerge. Like I said I think bits and pieces are there but they need to be put together in to a unified whole: One where progress can be measured as we go along. That’s something that I haven’t seen in the church in my life time unless of course it was centered on a building program.
Back in the text we see that in the midst of being encouraged by the prophets in their pursuit of rebuilding the body of Christ or as Ephesians 4 says: the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
That’s really what this passage is talking about. It was written for our example remember? But in the midst of that there was trouble brewing. The enemies of God do not want the body to grow up, they do not want the temple of God, you and me to be rebuilt. As a result they make trouble. Look at verse 3: At that time ‘Gift’, the governor of the province beyond the River, and ‘Star of Splendor’ and their colleagues came to them and spoke to them thus, "Who issued you a decree to rebuild this temple and to finish this structure?" 4Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were reconstructing this building. 5But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could come to Darius, and then a written reply be returned concerning it. 6This is the copy of the letter which ‘Gift’, the governor of the province beyond the River, and ‘Star of Splendor’ and his colleagues the officials, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king. 7They sent a report to him in which it was written thus: "To Darius the king, all peace. 8"Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with huge stones, and beams are being laid in the walls; and this work is going on with great care and is succeeding in their hands. 9"Then we asked those elders and said to them thus, 'Who issued you a decree to rebuild this temple and to finish this structure?' 10"We also asked them their names so as to inform you, and that we might write down the names of the men who were at their head. 11"Thus they answered us, saying, 'We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. 12'But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon. 13'However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. 14'Also the gold and silver utensils of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and brought them to the temple of Babylon, these King Cyrus took from the temple of Babylon and they were given to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor. 15'He said to him, "Take these utensils, go and deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem and let the house of God be rebuilt in its place." 16'Then that Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem; and from then until now it has been under construction and it is not yet completed.' 17"Now if it pleases the king, let a search be conducted in the king's treasure house, which is there in Babylon, if it be that a decree was issued by King Cyrus to rebuild this house of God at Jerusalem; and let the king send to us his decision concerning this matter."
Now I stumbled upon something that is rather interesting to me and so I want to share it with you. In the books of Ezra and Daniel the word used for God is not yahway or Jehovah but it is the Aramaic word ‘ellah’ which when pronounced sounds very much like the Arabic word allah. It is a generic word for god. Thus the reason it is coupled with other words like the great God, or god of heaven and earth. I just found that interesting and so I passed it along.
Back in the text what we see is that the enemies of the one true God first resort to political pressure to get the work of rebuilding the temple stopped. I think it is easy for us in our day and age to get sidetracked from our purpose which should be advancing the kingdom of God in every area of life. We get sidetracked by all the political maneuvering that is going on around us. In fact, I would say that we have in many cases given up spiritual warfare and seeking God’s ways and have resorted to fighting God’s battle with political power. But that is not how the kingdom is built. That’s why I try my best not to get caught up in this whole liberal, conservative, left and right, socialist, capitalist stuff that fills the air these days because it is a ruse to get our focus off of advancing the kingdom of God.
Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned about how our country is being led; what I’m saying is that for the most part both sides of the game are playing against God. I don’t care if you are liberal or conservative if you are not advancing the kingdom of God; if your goal is not walking on the path of life then you are walking in opposition to the living God whether you are conservative or liberal, democrat or republican. Our focus should be advancing the rule and reign of the only King that matters Jesus Christ in every area of life. But we must do those things according to the word of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The kingdom of God is advanced by walking on the path of life. If we are accomplishing our goals by walking in destruction then we will find ourselves being destroyed eventually even if it looks good on the outside. Does that make sense?
It is so important that we not concern ourselves with results but with staying on the path of life. Pragmatism or doing whatever it takes to get to the goal, doesn’t work when it comes to the kingdom of God. The scriptures are pretty clear about that. When we get so focused on the results that we don’t care about the path we’re on then we are going to be on thin ice. I think that is a part of what has gone wrong with the evangelistic movement in our day and age. We got so focused on saving souls that we co-opted any type of method that seems to work but in doing so we forgot that our job is not to save anybody, that’s God’s job, our job is to walk on the path of life. If we do that then God promises to draw unbelievers to himself. We have to stay focused on what we are called to do.
The enemy knows this and so he fills our lives with distractions. Why do you think that he gives us so many family and relationship problems? Because they keep us distracted. When my grandson was born I went home for over a week and a half. That is too long for me to be with family. At some level I love my family but we have all of these years of dysfunction that kick into place as soon as we get together that causes me to be distracted. I fall into old ways of being.
This may sound weird to you but the more I grow up and learn to take care of myself the harder it is go back there. It took me a long time to figure it out and I guess the best way to illustrate it would be to say it like this. When I was younger it was like I was drunk all the time and so I didn’t hear as clearly, I didn’t feel as clearly. Most of my childhood (and in fact until I was in my 30’s) I was numb to reality. But over the last thirty years I’ve been getting sober. I’ve been experiencing reality in my family for the first time ever and it is not a pretty sight. It gets on my nerves real bad. And the truth is that for most of the last 20 years I would lose my soberity within a day or two of going back home. Reality was too painful for me.
Now I am a slow learner I will admit that freely. More often than not I have to wait for things to be over before I can figure out what was going on. And the same was true this time. It was a very stressful time for me but somewhere along the line I realized that it was so stressful because I was staying sober. I didn’t fall off the wagon. Well, I shouldn’t say that. What I should say is that I didn’t fall off of the wagon I am usually aware of. You see I have multiple wagons that I use to numb my pain. I have what I would call family idols. These are the idols that I bow down to in order to endure my family. Lust is one of them and that was the one I didn’t fall into but eating is another and about half way through my time there I realized that I had something in my mouth all the time. I would be standing there chewing and thinking I do not need to be eating this at all while I was reaching for something else to put in my mouth. I was attempting to numb my pain. But it didn’t work.
I want you to understand that sometimes you have to get away from the distractions before you can begin to walk on the path of life. I had to physically separate myself from my family before I could begin to take care of myself enough to love my family. If I would have stayed in the same zip code I would have never been able to be set free because there were too many distractions. I would get so caught up in the dance of dysfunction that I couldn’t find the path of life.
You may not like this but it needs to be said: your family is not more important than you walking on the path of life. Your family will not save you. Your family is not to be the purpose of your life. Your purpose is to walk on the path of life. See if your family causes you to be filled with hatred then something is wrong. Don’t point the finger at everybody else in the family that’s not the point. The point is why are you walking on the path of destruction trying to make things better? You see I spent a good portion of my life pointing my finger at my family: they were my problem. If they would act right I would be ok. That is a lie. It is another distraction to keep me off the path of life. The reality is that if I humble myself before the living God I can walk on the path of life regardless of what anybody else does. I can’t blame anybody but me when I bow down to an idol to try to take away my pain. I can’t use my family as my excuse to sin and walk in destruction. Oh I guess I did do that for a long, long time but it wasn’t the truth. The problem isn’t my family, it isn’t my ex wife, the problem is I don’t want to stay on the path of life because I don’t like pain and I don’t like growing up.
It has taken me 50 years to realize that I can’t save my family from themselves. I can’t make life better for my mom or my dad or my ex-wife or even my kids and Judy. I can’t do it because I’m not God and when I try to fix other people I am trying to be their God. I am trying to save them from themselves. I am trying to be their idol. Only God can fix things and when I try to fix things I am saying I can be God. The truth is in my family I’ve been pretending I was God since I was about 5 and that is a heavy burden to bear and so it wasn’t long after that that I began to lose my sobriety. I remember the day when in my little pea brain I hung myself on the cross to save my parent’s marriage. I was five. They were having a huge fight in my childish perception and my dad was storming out the door. I thought he was leaving me and maybe he was but what I didn’t next changed my life forever. I ran through a glass door to bring him back. It worked. He came back and from that point on it became my responsibility to sacrifice myself to keep my family together.
Of course none of that was going through my mind at the time I just felt threatened and thought I had to do something to protect myself. I am the king of make those kinds of bad decisions. I’ve been doing them all my life. I will lay under a moving truck if I think I can save somebody that I think I need. It’s taken me a long time to realize that I am not anyone’s savior and that I can’t save myself by saving others. My hope is not in whether my family stays together. My hope is not in whether my parents are kind to each other or not. My hope is not in whether my children stay married or even if they seek the Lord. My hope is in JESUS Christ ALONE.
Now my reputation in the eyes of everyone I know may be in all of those things. My standing in my community may be there and that may be why I get so nuts around family but in the long run what my family does is not about me it is about them. Unless of course I am tormenting them so badly that they feel the need to pay me back somehow.
Where is your hope? Have your hope of salvation in this world on how your children turn out? Is it in your job? Is it in your success? Is it in you? If so then guess what you have no hope. Jesus Christ is your only hope. It is my prayer that we all learn to accept that and begin to let go of trying to be the savior of our families or of letting our families save us. Salvation is God’s work and not yours and that is something to be very thankful about every day of the year.
May God have mercy on us all and save us from ourselves and our familes.
What does any of this have to do with the passage? Everything. We who are believers have a single task set before us and that is to walk on the path of life. The enemy has a single task and that is to make sure that we get so caught up in the distractions of a dysfunctional world that we forget what our task is and get mired down in the mud of distraction.
Maybe like me your family’s a mess and you spend all your time trying to fix everybody that you know is broken. I’m here to tell you to cut it out. Quit trying to save your family because you are not God. You can’t do it. You can’t even save yourself. Lay all that stuff down and focus on walking on the path of life, focus on being obedient to the commands of God in every relationship and everything you put your hand to.
Jesus in John chapter 10 says: 10"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. The thief has been working overtime trying to distract you to death. I am asking you to day to lay down the burden of being everyone’s god and turn to the only one who can give life more abundant. You playing God is not life more abundant. You walking on the path of life is. Death is never life even if it is done with the best of intentions.
Let’s pray. Dear Father, Be our God and stop us from trying to do your job. Do whatever it takes in our lives and in the lives of our families to keep us on the path of life. Please save us from ourselves. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Hear the word of the Lord from Psalm: 1O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger,Nor chasten me in Your wrath. 2Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. 3And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD--how long? 4Return, O LORD, rescue my soul;Save me because of Your loving kindness.
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