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As we continue our journey in our Ezra-Nehemiah series, we come to the arrival of Ezra the scribe. With the temple already rebuilt and Israel's worship restored, what was Ezra's role? How does it fit into God's plan? Join Pastor Wei Eve for today's sermon.

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Church, today we are at Ezra chapter 7, which marks a turn in the Ezra Nanhimaya series. Previously, the first leader, Zerubabel, led the people to rebuild the temple, and their worship was at least partially restored. But Israel's full restoration is not yet finished. So God now sent a second person. He now sends Ezra, who was definitely the right person for the job. And I think we all have someone who is like that in our lives, right? The right person for specific jobs or specific tasks. I've got a friend who is truly a handyman. He's an engineer by training. I think part of his job uh in the army was to maintain and to service vehicles. And so he's really good at fixing things, right? And he's always also very eager to help. So whenever I I something something small is broken in my house, I will ask him for help, for advice. Uh whether it's a strip screw or whether it's the toilet door locked, cannot cannot lock properly, or whether it's my speakers cannot turn on, right? Um I'll ask him for help. And he'll always be very willing to do so. Uh he's so helpful that sometimes we will just have him over for dinner and he'll come and ask, hey, so do you have anything in your house that needs fixing? Uh you go to my house, slide the door, okay, not bad, not bad. Then he will he'll look for things to try to fix, you know. Uh he's tr really the right person to help me uh with all these things. And this morning we are introduced to the right man for God's second stage of restoration for Israel. Right? Um he had a position, he had the skills, and he had the initiative to do this specific task. And his name is Ezra. And the the Jews, I think even today, the Jews hold Ezra in very high regard. And biblically we can see why that is the case, right? Um in uh from verses one to six, we see that actually besides Jesus, Ezra's genealogy is probably the longest. I want to commend uh brother Gary for reading out all the names, right? Those are 15 or 16 names uh of the Old Testament characters that he just read out, right? His genealogy is probably the longest. And it traces all the way back to the first priest, Aaron himself, the brother of Moses. Not that that makes him automatically a great person, but at least through his lineage, he had the legitimacy of a priest, which will be later on in his ministry in Israel. Right? But not only was he an Aaronic priest, he was also a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. He was an expert in the Torah, the law. And we we read that the third thing is that the hand of God was on him. Right? He was favored by God so that he could carry out God's purposes for him.

unknown 3:25

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He had the lineage of a priest, he was an expert of the law, and God's hand was on him, that he was favored by God. And so in verse 10, um we see actually Ezra's motivation, right, to go out of uh Babylon to Jerusalem. For Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules to Israel.

unknown 3:51

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It's because of all this, and and subsequently for him to go and teach the law in Israel, um, and also the rest of the things that he will do in Israel later, the Jews hold him with such high regard that you know some people say he is second only to Moses. Some people think of him as the second Moses himself, right? To come and give the law and to teach the law again. And you could say that with the introduction of Ezra comes the reintroduction of the word of God. Right? The people had worship restored in some ways, but at this point they haven't been hearing the word of God, they haven't been taught the law for a long time. And so now Ezra comes to restore the reading, the hearing, and the learning of the word of God in Israel's life and worship. And we'll come to some of the specific issues that required Ezra to confront his people later on in the series. Right? But for now, I want to draw us and draw our attention to one major effect whenever the law is brought into, or whenever the law is brought back into the consciousness of God's people. And that is this term called reformation. Right? Um, every time the word of God is left out of the consciousness and out of the moral imagination of God's people, we fall into sin. We fall into idolatry and we fall into our destructive habits. Put another way, every time the people of God forget his words, they forget how to be people of God, or that they are the people of God. Right? We become spiritually malformed, distorted by sin. We become unholy, no longer set apart for God. And historically, the one thing that confronts and reforms the people of God is the word. The word of God. Uh you think of we think of uh the King Josiah and his story in 2 Kings chapter 22 and 23. Josiah became king in a time when Judah was steeped in paganism and the book of the law was out of sight, out of mind. They literally forgot where they placed the Bible, right? They did not have it on hand. And I wouldn't want to press this too hard, but Josiah seems to demonstrate a pattern that we are seeing now in Ezra Nahemiah. Right? First, he repairs the temple. And then the high priest Heukiah, who is mentioned in Aaron's, uh in Ezra's lineage, Huchiah finds the book of the law. He shows it to King Josiah, who, out of great grief that this book was lost for so long, tore off his clothes. And he made sure to reintroduce the word of God to the people of God. And that set off a reformation in the land. The people heard and the people obeyed the word of God and promptly cleansed themselves and the land of any idolatry. So they were destroying anything that has got to do with Baal, with Ashira, with all the other uh idols and idol worship, right? And they celebrated the Passover for the first time in decades. In a more recent and modern time, during the 16th century, the people were once again not hearing and not reading the word of God. Not because they misplaced or had forgotten about the Bible, but because it was only available in Latin. Right? There was a time when the Bible and the liturgy of the church was in the language that nobody understood, except maybe the priests and the aristocrats. And I really do mean maybe, because some priests were just mumbling and not understanding what they were saying either. And it was a time of spiritual and moral decline in the church. Extra-biblical beliefs were taught, and the Bible itself was not considered the primary authority in the church. And while there were a few Christians trying to reform the church, the most prominent one, the poster child of the Protestant Reformation, was Martin Luther. And long story short, he studied the word of God. He found that several teachings of the Catholic Church were at odds with Scripture. And he was firm in wanting to do the word. So, like Ezra, he not just studied, but he wanted to do the word. And that led him to challenge and to try to reform the church. Of course, he was then excommunicated, he was forced out of the Roman Catholic Church, and thus began the Protestant Reformation. And just a couple of the most important commitments that came out of Reformation. Number one, sola scriptura. I don't know whether you've heard this term before, but sola scriptura, scripture alone, right? Scripture alone has final authority in all matters of church and faith. And number two, that scripture teaches that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and never by words. In in both these instances, the word is so central for reformation to take place. And we see from 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, right? That God's word or scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction. Right? The word that correction is to set straight, to go back to its original intent. For correction, for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Some have used this analogy. If we break a bone and if we don't set it right, uh it can be misaligned, right? And then you will not heal properly. Um that's what they call mound union, right? It was not it's not uh in in proper union with with the other piece of the bone, right? So sometimes the doctor will have to go in and will have to find ways to manipulate the bones, right? Sometimes to the point of breaking it again, so that it can align the bones back and allow it to heal properly. And scripture kind of works that way. It goes into our hearts so that you know while our relationships with God, with people and with ourselves and with the world are malformed because of sin, the word of God breaks and aligns us back with God that we may be healed and our broken relationships restored. But the only way the Lord, the the only way the word of God can be profitable is if we are open to the work of the Spirit, to let Him open our hearts so that when we hear, we may also obey the Word of God and allow it to affect and change us, change us from within. Otherwise, the book, the Bible is just another book that we can forget about. Um Jeremiah prophesied about the new covenant and about the the word uh of God in Jeremiah 31, verse 33, uh, in which he says that God will do a new thing. So Jeremiah 31, 33 says, That for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. For what purpose? I will be their God and they will be my people. Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27 say something very similar where he will give you know the people a new heart and a new spirit, and he says, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Uh, in our Anglican liturgy, uh for Holy Com uh Holy Communion um service, right? The lay readers at the beginning will say, Our Lord Jesus Christ said the first commandment is this the Lord your our God is the only Lord, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this love your neighbors as yourself. There is no other greater commandment greater than this. It quotes Matthew chapter 22, verses 34 to 39. And all good Anglicans will reply with, Amen. Lord have mercy upon us and write all these laws in our hearts. Write all these laws in our hearts. We pray that God will write the greatest commandments, which encapsulates all of God's word through the law and through the prophets. We ask that God will write those commandments in our hearts. So that as Jeremiah puts it, God will be our God and we will be his people. And it was supposed to be the ministry of Ezra in Israel in his time. And today the ministry of the word continues to be vital for the church today. From time to time, we are drawn away, we are carried away by the competing voices in the world, and we neglect the word of God, right? We follow the worldly script for our lives instead of the scripture of God. We find our existential meanings in other places, in other relationships, instead of our relationship with our Creator. And our spiritual being is fractured and in need of healing. And we are in need of hearing the word of God again and again for God to speak his word of life and write his laws in our heart so that our hearts may be reformed, may be made right, so that our restless hearts may find rest in the one who formed us. And so, how can our hearts be reformed? Coming back to Ezra 7, verse 10, I think it offers us valuable insights, right? Let me read it out to you again in verse 10. For Ezra has set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. While Ezra is called to a specific purpose, which I'll talk about a little bit more at the end, there is a level where all these three things are relevant to us that it applies to all of us today. And the first the first point is to study. So he has three points, right? To study, to do, and then to teach. Right? That's those are the three things that Ezra set his heart to do. And the first thing is to study, to study so that we may know God, we may know his stories, and we may know his will for us. Uh I want to read out a funny story. I mean, I find it funny. I hope you you do as well. I want to read out a funny story to you. Um it is about this man who wanted to uh go into pastoral ministry, right? So he went uh and applied to the denomination he was in, the superintendent met him and examined his biblical knowledge, right? And he asked him a very simple question. Will you tell us the parable of the good Samaritan? And this man said, Yes, sir, I will, sir. Once there was this man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked him. And as he went on, he didn't have any money. And he met the queen of Sheba and she gave him a thousand talents of gold and a hundred changes of raiment. And he got into a chariot and he drove furiously. When he was driving under a juniper tree, his hair was caught on the limp of that tree. He hung there for many days, and the ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink. And he ate five thousand loaves out of bread and two fishes. Right? One night when he was hanging there asleep, his wife Delilah came along and cut his hair and he dropped on stony ground. But he got up, he went on, and it began to rain, and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. He hid himself in a cave and lived on locusts and wild honey. Then he went on till he met the servant who said, Come, take supper at my house. And he made an excuse and said, No, I won't. I have married a wife and I can't go. And the servant went out in the highways and in the hedges and compelled him to come in. After supper, he went down to Jericho, and when he got there, he looked up and saw that old Queen Jezebel sitting down way up high in the window. And he laughed, and she laughed at him, and he said, Throw her down out there, and they threw her down. And he said, Throw her down again, and they threw her down 70 times seven. And of the fragments that remained, they picked up 12 basketfuls besides women and children. And they said, Blessed are the peacemakers. P-I-E-C-E, right? Blessed are the peacemakers. And it's funny how this man had so much quote unquote biblical knowledge, right? And yet got everything absurdly wrong. It's a silly story, it's an absurd story, but you really kind of have to know the biblical stories well enough to know what makes it so wrong and so funny. We cannot just have bite-sized phrases or verses from the Bible in our knowledge of scripture. We cannot just heart this, we knew a bit of the Bible here, we knew a bit of a there, try to put everything together into a jumble, into a soup. To know the story of God, to know and understand his plan for his creation and his will for our lives today. Um a lot more can be said, obviously, when it comes to like how to read, how to study the scripture, right? Um, this is a very truncated version of it. Um but I think we can simply start by reading the word daily. Right? And there's so many Bible reading plans out there. Um if you feel so inclined, you can download the Praise DOS app, which uh have our Anglican liturgy and uh lectionary readings, right? It is an app that was designed and launched by the Anglican church, right? Um reading it, there's our the the prayers and also the readings of the day. The lectionary is designed so that anyone who uses the lectionary and reads through all the readings, right, will be brought through the all the major points of scripture. Um and the and they will be able to follow the church calendar, they will go through the gospels, they'll go through the Old Testament, the Psalms, and and basically every single year you will kind of run through the scripture uh over and over again. Right? We can start by reading the word daily and we can study the word. We don't need to be like Ezra, we don't need to be like experts in the law, right? We don't need an academic background to study scripture with enough depth for a faithful living. We start by praying for the Spirit to illumine his word for us and to guide our reading. And we can read closely, carefully, sometimes slowly to follow the story or to follow the train of thought, the argument. Right? Ask the simple questions of the five W's and one H, uh, who, what, when, where, why, and how. Look for repetitions, keywords, phrases, themes. Ask what does it say about God, about the world, and about ourselves. And anything you don't understand, you can ask Pastor Daniel. Right? He is he will be available. But you I mean, but it's easy, right? You can ask us as well. You can ask people who are in the know or who are trained, or you can chat with friends, attend connect groups, study the word there in connect groups, and so on, right? There are many ways and many resources for us to study the word of God today. So the first thing is to commit to studying and to growing in the word. Right? First is study, and second, then is to do so that we may be obedient.

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James chapter 1, verse 32 says that we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. It is in doing the word that we become faithful to what we hear. Right? It is in doing of the word that we become faithful to what we hear. God acts on us through his word.

unknown 20:28

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When God speaks to us, when we are reading, studying scripture, we are actually hearing and studying the very words of God to us. And as his words come into our hearts, we are becoming formed and reformed by him. Right? And the reformation comes not simply from hearing, uh, per James's point, right? Not simply from hearing, but more precisely from doing the word of God. And it means being obedient to God's word and God's truth. So if we hear the word of God telling us maybe to quit a destructive habit, or maybe to love a family member that always gets on our nerves, to show extra compassion to someone, or to deny ourselves so that we live in his will, even if it means letting go of our dreams and our aspirations. Faithfulness leads us to do his word and to follow his will. It is in doing his word that our lives become congruent with the word that we have heard. So the first is to study so that we know God and his will, the second is to do so that we may be obedient, and the third then is to teach, that we may impart. And I think this may prove the most challenging for some. We may think, I mean, we are not like Ezra, we are not like you know the pastors, we are not even CG leaders, right? Who are we to teach? We don't need to teach, right? Um, and I want to encourage you that all of us. Are called to teach something about the word of God and the gospel of Christ. All of us, Ba nan, have a role in teaching in some sense. And let me just give you one example. I'll give you two examples. The first one is in Deuteronomy chapter six. Again, where we find the Shema, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, which you know Jesus quotes as the greatest commandment. It says that love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, it continues to tell the parents to instruct, to teach their children God's commandments. In the family unit, parents are to teach God's word to our children. Because they learn everything primarily from us, from hearing our words, and from looking at us, from the way we live and act. I have that friend who is such a right person for handiwork, right? I cannot go to him and ask, hey, why don't you come to our house and also teach Sage how to how to read the Bible or teach Sage how to pray, right? I cannot ask someone else to come and teach my kid.

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If God has given us children, then it is our call and our responsibility to raise them up in the word of God. And so we can't think, man, we have to find the right person for the job. Try to outsource it, maybe to praise land, to the youth ministry. Or if you're fortunate enough, maybe the schools that our children attend will have Christian fellowship. You know, so when God has to go Christian fellowship to BB, to GB, and then they will learn about the Bible there. Right? We are the person for the job. Not to go out and look for the right person, but we are the person for the job. To teach our kids about God. And likewise, you know, even if you don't have kids, right? All Christians are called to preach the good news of Christ. The good news that we have heard about, the good news that has led us to follow the Lord today. And so in Matthew chapter 28, 18 to 20, at the end of it, Jesus says, right, teaching them all that I have commanded you. Or teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And it is understandable, again, that we feel like we are not the right person for the job. God, please ask the person sitting beside me to go and preach the gospel, right? Not me. But as per the Great Commission, right, it is for all disciples. God has called each of us to proclaim God's excellencies and to teach about Him in our lives. And we are the person for the job. Of course, until now I have been living out the word right, right? And that's because I believe that we can become the right person for the job. And again, it applies to everyone, right? Not just the professionals or not just the few. Because I think the good news is that if God has given us, if God has given us all of us his word to study, and if he has called us to do his word, and especially if he has called all of us to teach his word in some sense, then we can partner with him. He who causes us is faithful to supply us with the resources we need to do these things. So we can partner with him and grow and become the right person. Ezra probably wasn't born the right person. His lineage gave him legitimacy as a priest, but it did not automatically make him a good priest. And in fact, there were so many priests that were out of line and out of um uh that they were unfaithful to God, right? And he wasn't born an expert of the law, he wasn't born with the two tablets in his hands. His first words were not thou, Athus says the Lord, right? Scripture tells us he set his heart to study, to do, and to teach. He applied himself because he was devoted to God and was passionate for his word. And so even in going back to Jerusalem, right, while God's hand was on him, he was the one who initiated it. Right? Remember, if you if you look hearing the word of God uh being read just now by Brother Gary, um the Arthur's Dexis gave Ezra everything he asked. Right? Ezra initiated and asked Arthur's Dexis for him to go back to Jerusalem. And so for the things that God has called all of us to to know him, to obey him, and to impart his word to others, we can trust in his spirit to lead and guide us so that we may have we may fulfill his will for our lives. And lastly, uh just as I close this this uh sermon, uh I want to speak specially to those who sense the calling of God to full-time ministry. Uh we just watched the the video Vokari, right? Uh the diocesan's uh initiative for for people who are considering full-time work. And just want to reiterate some some some of the things that come out came out from the video, some of the things that Reverend Daniel shared, right? And one of the things that the video said is what if God is calling you to something different and something eternal? And what if, like Ezra, you feel that the Lord is calling you to a very specific task to study, to do, and to teach the word of God to the church. And maybe you're exploring, maybe you're unsure, right? This is precisely what the vocari retreat is all about. And so if you're sensing that call, please don't ignore it. Right? Come and speak with Reverend Daniel. Let's discern together, you know, so that um you may know the next steps, right? To whether to go for the retreat or not, after the retreat, whether to go on to full-time or not. Um it may be a, I mean, they ask also, they they open it up for for I mean mid-career people and all. And I mean, I think it is a very scary thing to leave your career behind to go into full-time ministry. Um, I'm sure it is. Uh and I think Ezra may have faced similar struggles.

unknown 28:24

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There are good indications to suggest that he held uh a pretty high official position in the court. Right? Um not just because he could make requests to the Babylonian king, uh not Babylonian king, sorry, the Persian king. At this is the Persian king, right? Not just because he could make requests to the king, uh, he was also authorized in the end to lead a large group of Jews out of Babylon to go back to Jerusalem. And later on, he will appoint magistrates and judges to for in in the land, right? He has been given official duties and he went to Jerusalem partly to carry out these official duties as well. There's a sense that his life in Babylon was actually pretty good, pretty cushy, right? So why go back to Jerusalem? Why go back to minister to the people? Why go back to teach the word, the law to a people who have we don't have the law anymore, right? It would be such difficult work to teach people who have no clue what you're talking about. Ezra was doing well at work and yet he felt that there was more to life, right? All along he has devoted himself to God and to the word of God because he loved God, he loved the word, and especially his people. He loved his people. And so when the time came, he answered the call and was used by God in God's restoration project in Jerusalem. And so, coming back to us now, if you feel that you have been called by God, if you have a love for his word, and you have a if you have a love for his people, boldly answer the call. If this is indeed God's vocation for you, uh, which is which is which is where uh you know which is vocale is where we get the word vocation, right? If this is indeed God's vocation for you, then this will be where you find your greatest fulfillment in life. So will you answer his call?

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We pray that you've been ministered to by the word of God today. If you'd like to know more about each Christian church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.