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The Old Testament seems like it's filled with altars and sacrifices, and Ezra chapter 3 is no exception. If you've ever felt like it has no real connection to our everyday lives, then this sermon is for you. Join me, Pastor Richard, as we continue our series in Ezra and Hemiah. Today we have Zerubbabel. All right, if uh you we just had those verses read for us. Zerubbabel was actually uh in the line and would have been heir to the Davidic throne, all right? He was from that line of David, but he was appointed as governor with some restrictions on his authority because the Persian Empire didn't want there to be any competing authority. And so uh he was the one who came back in these verses here, and his name, Zerubbabel, it means planted in Babylon. Planted in Babylon. And so this is uh the person who came over, and it led to the situation where the high priest led a much more prominent authoritative role uh in the life of Israel than he might have otherwise had. And so who is a high priest in this section? Ezra, right? Ezra is the high priest of our passage, our series that we're looking through. And yet we don't see him yet. We don't see him yet because there's actually two or three waves of returnees from exile that happen. And so the first is with Zerubabel, and that's where we are right now. And then the next is with Ezra. And then we're not sure there was a third wave where Nehemiah brought people back, or maybe he came with Ezra, but we didn't hear about him until later. That part's not too important for us. The important thing is for us to just recognize this Ezra-Nehemiah section, it can be uh portion can be broken into three sections: Cerebbable and then Ezra and then Nehemiah. And so each section kind of has a sequence. There's this uh entrance of the main character, and then a sequence of events, and then each portion ends with this kind of an anti-climax where things are left a bit open-ended. And so today we're in the first section focusing on Zerubbabel, who had led this first round of returnees back to Jerusalem, and there would have been some high expectations on him. There was a lot of pressure on him, there was a lot of expectations, and some perhaps were even wondering. Because remember, Zerubbabel is from this line of David, the Davidic throne. And there might have been some wondering: could this person be the promised and prophesied Messiah? Is this God's provision for us? And so there was a lot of pressure upon him, I think. Zerubbabel, he was kind of in charge of the civil affairs, maintaining law and order, collection of taxes, and he was also the main force behind rebuilding uh the temple in Jerusalem. And so here we are in Ezra chapter 3, and we find ourselves at the beginning of this ambitious temple rebuilding program. I don't know if any of you have been through a church building program. Uh through through the decades, I have seen a few of them. Wow, it is a massive undertaking, and it feels like it goes on forever sometimes. And so they've come back, and this is mostly funded by Persia. Actually, God moved the heart of the king and not only allowed them to go back to their homeland, but to re-establish, to rebuild the temple, to reinstate the worship of their God, and is mostly funded by them. And so here they are, and they're going to begin today with a rebuilding and dedication of the altar. And this, the location of it, was a serious thing for them. I'm not sure if you realize this. And so, although things have been destroyed, they've been in exile for so long by Babylon, and then the Persian took over, but they've come back and they were careful to try and build the altar on the exact space that it had been before, when everything had been destroyed. The one true altar for the one true God. And so, verse one in Ezra chapter three, it tells us when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. They gathered as one man, they all gathered to Jerusalem. And uh we can understand that this first wave of Israelites returning from the second captivity that Israel's experience. They were first living in various towns and places, they weren't all there in the capital of Jerusalem. They were spread out, maybe in their ancestral homes, uh, wherever their uh their predecessors had lived. Why is it important? Well, because they all headed to Jerusalem to rebuild this temple. Uh sorry, to rebuild the altar first. And that means there was no one left at home. No one to keep an eye on the place. Okay, they didn't have an IP cam that they could just plug in, keep an eye on the place, make sure nobody broke in while they were away. They didn't have a padlock to keep things. They didn't actually have any way to protect their home while they are away. They didn't have their neighbor to ask because their neighbor was also supposed to be going together with them to rebuild the altar. And if there was somebody left, can you really trust them? Actually, they shouldn't be there, should be going together. And so uh who was left? If everyone, all the returnees, all the Israelites were going up to Jerusalem for this rebuilding project, who was left? Well, it was the people, the inhabitants of the land, uh, who were not Israeli, who were not Jewish, who uh had not been in captivity with them. It's the people they're afraid of. And yet they chose to go up to Jerusalem anyway. They decided that their safety, it lies in the power of their God. Their safety lies in the power of their God. And so uh the tension is building in verse 3. It said they set the altar in its place, that specific place. For fear was on them because of the peoples of the land. They they they were afraid. You could even translate that as terrified, terror was on them, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. These people of the land it's talking about, uh, they were opposed to Israel returning and taking over the land and setting things up and trying to establish them again. And yet they knew their safety lies in their God. They were afraid, they were terrified of what was going to happen. But that didn't drive them to stay in their homes and hide. It drove them to faster. We need to come together, we need to rebuild this altar, we need to get right with God because our safety lies in God, not in our own strength. I think there's a lesson for us there. We continue on to verses four and five, and it says, uh, they kept the feast of booths as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the rule, as each day required. And after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon, and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a free will offering to the Lord. And it's really fitting that they celebrated the Feast of Booths, because this is a remembrance of the first time God had brought them out of slavery, out of exile, and that's from Egypt. And so here they are, they've traveled a very long way from Babylon, from under the Persians, and again, out of exile, returning to their homeland. The hand of the Lord has moved for them. We read earlier the morning and evening sacrifices that were reinstated, and then this would have been a sacrifice of a year-old lamb, along with some flour, oil, and wine, each morning and each evening. And they were diligent about this because they wanted to be right with God. Somehow, through that time of exile in Babylon, through that time there, instead of being diluted and losing their faith, it seems to have grown stronger in that time and their commitment and their obedience. And so when they return, they return ready and determined. We are going to follow all that God has said. We want to be right with Him again. We could go into depth here. There's more depth to go into, a deep background on the feast, uh, the types of sacrifices that are being offered, and why the significance of that time of year in the Jewish calendar. There's a lot to unpack there, but we're not going to because I'm not here to give you a history lesson this morning. Okay, we can all say, praise the Lord. We're not here for a history lesson this morning. Instead, I just want us to try and take note of first the big idea in the passage today and to recognize how God might move in our lives as a result. In the big idea in the passage today is that the purpose of the altar was to maintain a connection with God and to remind his people to live set apart lives. The purpose of the altar was to maintain a connection with God and to remind his people to live set apart lives. And this is the understanding, I believe, that they had in their time as they lived this. The setting apart of their lives, uh, you know, it had taken different forms at different times, with confession and repentance, proclamation of God's word, uh, pronouncements of blessing. And so coming to the altar, it was a place to offer something to God. And they showed their continued devotion by rebuilding this altar in the exact same place, offering the sacrifices in obedience to the law given to them by Moses. Now it's important as we travel through the rebuilding of the altar and the temple here in Ezra that we remember our own time in history. When Christ died on the cross, if you remember, it recounts that the veil at the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Not from bottom to top, which could be the foundation, earthquake, whatever, from the top to the bottom. And it was a clear sign that God Himself had torn apart this veil. And this veil had kept all but the high priest from approaching his presence. And even that was very seldom. But from that day forward, there's been no need for us to approach God through animal sacrifices and a dedicated priest. We don't need to make sacrifice to cover our sin. We don't need to make sacrifice to cover our sin, because the issue of sin and salvation is settled in Christ alone. Amen. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 26. It says, For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Jesus is our high priest. And the sin offering that he presented to God was himself, his own shedding of blood and death by the Roman death penalty at the time, which was death upon a cross. And his offering was so sufficient that it satisfied God's justice. It's the only thing that could. And Christ Himself, he was the perfect sacrifice, pure and blameless. And so we believe that whomever puts their faith in Christ will be pardoned on the day of judgment. And this is good news for us, and this is our faith. And it's the foundation on which we stand when we go to God in prayer, knowing that He accepts and welcomes us because of the blood of Jesus. And I don't know what week you've had, I don't know if you've had a great week. I don't know if you've, in a sense, tripped up and fallen again, but I want to tell you, because of Christ, you can go to God in prayer, and he will accept you because of Christ. And this is what we remember every time we take holy communion together. This is our faith. And so to rebuild a priesthood and restore a system of animal sacrifices, that is to count what Christ has done as worthless. And so we we don't want to do that. We recognize there's only one sacrifice that satisfies God's holiness and justice, and that is Christ. And the sacrifice he looks for us today is the sacrifice of our hearts and our will and our minds. And the sacrifice of where we die to our own selfish desires. That is the sacrifice that is pleasing to God today. As we move towards application, I just want to repeat the big idea one more time. We make sure you get this big idea. The purpose of the altar was to maintain a connection with God and to remind his people to live set-apart lives. And with this in mind, I'd like to exhort us to consider the practice of building a family altar. All right, show of hands. How many have heard the term uh building a family altar? Okay, some hands. Good. A family altar is literally church at home. The family altar is church at home. It's a way to maintain our connection with God and to live set-apart lives. Right? That's what it is. And that that ties in with our big idea from the passage today. So, what it looks like is it starts with the head of the household. Uh, the head of the household is usually the man of the house, not because he's somehow better than uh the rest of the household, but because someone must take the lead. And scripture tends to show this pattern of the man of the house uh being the one who's the head of the household. He's the one who takes the lead. And so to build a family altar, that head of the household is the one who needs to take initiative to begin things off if you don't already have this practice. And so there's different things that uh we kind of need to set in place. The first is when you're gonna build your family altar, you need to prepare your hearts. It begins with preparing your hearts. We quiet down our thought life intentionally. We're not just going doing a checklist A, B, C, D. We quieten down our thoughts and our minds. We slow down, which we need to do so much in Singapore. We take a few deep breaths, we quieten ourselves on the inside. We prepare our hearts, reminding ourselves that the presence of God is in your home. The next thing important in building a family altar is to have a set time. All right, you it's an important element. You've got to have a regular time for this. You just have to. Uh, it has to be intentional, it's not just something fitting around your schedule. This is something you put in your schedule and you really stick to it as much as possible. And so it could be different for different situations. Uh, for some, maybe this is something that's done three days a week. Or it could be seven days a week. Whatever it may be, it can be in the morning before everyone heads off for their day to school and to work. I know one family who, God bless them. I I couldn't do this. They're a family of uh four or five children. They would wake up every morning a little after 5 a.m. And all these school aid kids would have to get up to and they would have uh their time together as a family. This was their family altar. Most of us probably aren't going to be so ambitious as to target that hour. Uh I think most of us probably are asleep at that hour, never mind. Uh but whether it's in the morning or the evening after dinner, whatever it is, uh, it's important to set a regular time. Church, I'm sharing this not just because I want to give you ideas, but this is how we live out our faith during the week. And I think for many of us, that's what we want to do. And we sense we're we're not as far along as we want to be. But the good news is God wants us to too. So please, I hope this will be something we can grab onto that will help us a win-win. Uh we're pleasing God, we're doing what we we really want to, uh, to have this regular time with Him. So make it regular. The next thing is to set a place for your family altar. And it depends on our situations. It could be a room, it could be a small section of a room that's dedicated as your family altar. Uh, most of us live in smaller spaces here in Singapore. Uh my own family of five, we're in a three-room flat. Umce you get past some toys and school books and clothes, there's not much area left in our home. Never mind. If you don't have a space that you can dedicate to being your family altar, at least have a consistent place. Whatever that may be. It could be a dining table, it could be whatever. For our family, we all squeeze onto our sofa. All five of us. There's often a bit of elbowing and give me space, you're sitting on me. Never mind. Whatever it may be for you, try to make it the same place. Making this as regular as possible, set time, a set place. This is going to help us to be able to make this a part of our lives. Not something we do, but a part of our lives who we are. The next is to set a method. Uh, building a family altar, it isn't a one size fits all. The important thing is to choose a method, a format, and to stick to it. And so uh one of the recommended methods for building a family altar is this. Could begin with worship, could sing a song. If you're not up to singing a song, you could sing along to YouTube, uh, a worship song, however it may be. Then to read the Bible together. I think this is quite important. And you can use a devotional material, or you can just uh perhaps you're gonna read a chapter together and just go right through one book at a time, however. But read the Bible together. And the next thing in this, it's good to discuss how to apply what we've read. Too many times we we read, but we we don't try to apply it to our lives. So building the family altar, it's a good time to discuss how how can we apply this to our lives? Uh we can then pray for one another, which I think is quite important, to pray for one another and to pray for others, and then to end with the Lord's Prayer. Now, if this if this method doesn't work for you, that's fine. Maybe there's just a couple elements, whatever it may be, but choose what you're going to do and stick with it. It's it's the sticking with it that's really the key for us. Next, I'd like to say it's important to pursue unity. When building a family altar, you need to be pursuing unity. You know, households, it's regular. We spend enough time with each other, the rough edges will end up rubbing. I mean, that's just life. I've never met a family where there's never been any grumpiness or upset or different things happening like that. That's okay. But we need to regularly come back and to make sure we're in unity with one another. It's important to God. It should be important to us. And so we need to actively pursue unity as part of our building the family altar. You know, if a husband and wife have had a strong disagreement or children have been fighting or whatever it is, making peace with one another is part of this. And it's an opportunity for us to practice humility, something we don't enjoy practicing. It's an opportunity to practice humility, seeking common ground, offering forgiveness and receiving forgiveness, whether the hurt was intentional or unintentional. As we do this, we're living out our faith, not just one day a week on Sunday, but we're invading the rest of the week, that we'll live for Him every day. And if you have a domestic helper in your home, I'd like to encourage you to invite them for that family altar time. Not you have to, not that it's required, but invite them, give them an opportunity. As they are living in your home, give them an opportunity to join you for that. So I just repeat the last thing is to really keep it regular. And so if you're choosing, uh, okay, we're gonna give this a shot. We haven't been doing it before, we're gonna go for it. Monday, Friday, and Saturday, we're gonna try and start this family altar thing. Whatever it may be, please stick with it. This is the key. Don't let your schedule uh end up overtaking things. If it's gonna be in the morning at 6:30, make sure you're awake for that time. Make sure others are awake. Be ready for this. If it's in the evening at 8 o'clock, uh just because you've had a long day, try. Put in the effort. Keep it regular. Now, as an example, not as something to attain to, but as an example, uh, my own family, we usually gather every evening at 7 o'clock. Okay, 7 p.m. Uh my kids know every 7 o'clock, every day at 7 o'clock, it's time for our family routine. Okay, we don't call it family altar, we call it family routine. And so we'll gather together and we'll squeeze together on that sofa and we'll close our eyes and we'll have some time to quieten down ourselves. And you feel the wiggling and slowly settle down. Then you hear the sniffing and then settle. It takes time to settle ourselves down. Well, it takes some time to silence and settle down. And then each night, uh, a different one, I'll call out or I'll take a turn myself. Uh, each one takes a turn to to pray. Each day, different person to pray, to pray for our day, to pray for our family, to pray for others, and to pray for uh, in the case of my girls, for a classmate that who doesn't know the Lord, that they'd come to know Jesus. And then when we're when we're done with all that, um, we'll either read some scripture together, we'll read through a chapter or two, and we're in the book of Revelation now, we're almost to the end for the second time around. Uh, or else we'll go ahead and we'll watch some kind of a thing on YouTube, like a devotional for kids that that helps them to see things in a different way. Um and so we do things differently. And after that, it'll just be okay, girls, uh, what did we read? Uh, what stood out to you? Or there are questions from the devotional on YouTube. Um, okay, can you answer this? Um what does it mean to fear the Lord? What does it mean? And so we just talk it through to try and integrate it into our lives. The purpose of the altar, coming back to our big idea, the purpose of the altar was to maintain a connection with God and to remind his people to live set-apart lives. This is how we can apply today's scripture. It's not the only way, but it's a good way to have a family altar. Now, there are some barriers or obstacles that often stand in the way of us doing this. Um, otherwise, maybe we'd already all be doing a family altar in our home. Uh, the first one is time. I think that's obvious. Uh we have long working hours here, and it's normal and often expected to put in even more hours for our work. And it makes it hard to build a family altar, especially if the head of the household uh isn't getting back till quite late. But church, I want to I have to say the kingdom culture must come before our our national culture. We must choose our priorities intentional. And if we if we let our work take the highest place in our lives, that means God is not there. He's not really enthroned on our lives. So I encourage you, if this is an obstacle, would you seek the Lord and find a way to make this a priority, to somehow make space for this. That we can live our lives for Him, that we can maintain our connection with God and to live set apart for Him. Uh the other obstacle I would say is lack of spiritual life in ourselves. Um whether it's a real lack or a perceived lack, some sometimes for some of us we feel like I'm just not spiritual enough to lead this thing. Who am I to start a family altar? I struggle to pray, I struggle to read myself, and so forth. Um we're all at different parts in our life journey. I mean, that's real. But I think we can all start where we're at. And even if you right now you feel, real or not, that you aren't very spiritual, start. Start tomorrow and see what God will do from a little thing. Because God grows it. Whatever we offer to him, even if it's little, he grows it. He's very faithful that way. The last obstacle I want to talk about is selfishness. Like the concern for our spiritual life, this is an internal obstacle. The purpose of the altar is connection with God and living set-apart lives. But the sin nature, which we I think we still struggle with at times, doesn't want us to do that. It just says, me, me, me, me, me. Do the things that please me. I want the quick fix, I want to feel good, the foods, the entertainment, whatever it may be. The selfish nature says you don't need to have the family altar. Well, you do that, you're probably not going to feel good afterwards. You're not gonna, it's not gonna, whatever. Selfishness says, feed me, feed me, feed me. Friends, we we we know that in God we can fight this me monster because of his power. It doesn't have to overcome us and drive our lives, but we can overcome because of God. Because if our lives are in Christ, the Bible says we are a new creation, and God is transforming our minds. So we don't have to give in to this. Now, what about retirees? What about singles here? What about people who don't fit easily into this family category? Uh, if you're single or you're a married couple or not in this category, building a family altar can even be more meaningful to you, I would say. Uh because there are less distractions generally, because you're able to better focus. And if that's you, I'd encourage you, hey, really find a place in your home that you can set apart for this family altar. You're not buried under school books and things uh like I am. Maybe you have a bit of space. It could be a small cabinet, it could be a little table here, wherever it is, to have a dedicated set apart space for this. And on this, there's a few things that you might like to put on this family altar. Now we're talking about the physical thing for well, you do the spiritual thing. All right. You can put a candle on it to remind you, what are the candles to remind us of? The Lord's presence. You might set a little tea candle on that family altar and have a little lighter there. And each time you come to it to light that candle, to remind yourself of the Lord's presence. The Lord is here right now. You might put a cross there to remind you that Christ is your mediator. He's the one who mediates between you and God, and he has made you clean and acceptable to God so you can come to him. Whatever your day's been like, you can come to him. You might even put a bowl on that table. And each time you come, just fill it with water and empty it when you're done to remind you of baptism and that you are a new creation in Christ. You might have a few small special stones that you put on that table, one for each major event in your life where you've really encountered the Lord. Maybe God's worked a miracle in your life, whatever it may be, each time you see that stone to remind you of what God has done. And you might even put a little handwritten prayer to help guide and prepare your heart for that time with the Lord at your family altar or your uh your altar that is set aside set apart for the Lord. Uh this one episcopal priest, they had this written down, and it simply said this peace in your body, peace in your mind, peace in your spirit. Deep peace to you. Deep peace. This was the prayer that they would start with every time they came to this altar. So I'm wrapping up here. Okay, we're closing here. The big idea: the purpose of the altar was to maintain a connection with God and to remind his people to live set apart lives. That's the big idea. Establishing a family altar or a personal altar, uh, if you're not in a normal family unit, it can be a powerful way of integrating our faith into our everyday lives. And if you struggle with that, here's a tool for you. This is a good one. Finally, a simple way of describing what a family altar is, is church in the home. Amen. We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about each of Christian church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.