1. Initial celebration (3:10-11)
2. Individual hesitation (3:12)
3. Ideal harmonization (3:13)
One time there was an old farmer who wasn’t much into modern conveniences. As a matter of fact, he didn’t have much contact with the outside world at all. He thought that everything he needed was right there on his farm. One day a travelling salesman ventured out to his door and offered to sell him a chainsaw. He saw all the timber on the man’s farm and made his pitch. He said, “I will guarantee you that this chainsaw will cut 15 trees into logs per day.” The farmer couldn’t pass it up, so he bought one. A couple of weeks later, the salesman stopped back by to check on his customer. The farmer looked at him like he was a crook. He said, “You guaranteed that this saw would cut 15 trees into logs per day. I could only get three per day out of it.” The salesman looked confused and asked to see it. The farmer handed it to him and he looked it over carefully. He couldn’t see anything unusual, so he pulled the cord to start it. It started right up, “Brrrrrr.” The farmer’s eyes got real big and he said, “What in the world is that noise!” Well, that noise was the sound of something working the way it was supposed to. Like the remnant in our passage tonight. It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve spent time with them, but they’ve been busy. God had faithfully seen them out of captivity in Babylon. He had restored all the things they needed, to get to work building His temple in Jerusalem. And after they delayed for a few months, they got started with the work. The leaders got them mobilized. They got organized. And they unified around the work to be done. And they got busy. They built the foundation of the temple of the Lord. What an accomplishment! It was an accomplishment worthy of making some noise. And that’s exactly what they did. This wasn’t some quiet political ribbon-cutting ceremony. You know, the kind where some political high-brows get together with a big pair of fake scissors to cut a ribbon in front of a new building. And there are a few dozen people in the crowd who do the proper “golf-clap” when they’re done. Well, there were no “golf-claps” in this crowd. They were excited. They were enthusiastic. The bottom line is, they were noisy. So much so that I’m sure the Babylonians who were surrounding them asked the same question that old farmer did—“What in the world is that noise?” I’m sure many of you are like me. We always went to very quiet and conservative Baptist churches when I was growing up. And I was always taught that you sit quietly in church and don’t make any noise. Even to the point that you learn the little tricks. You know the ones. If you want a piece of gum, you have to cover up the noise of the gum wrapper. So you fake a cough to cover it up. Well, there is a place for that. It is important to be respectful and reverent during the worship service. But did you know that there are times that the church should be noisy? Not from idle talking and milling around during worship—but a church should be noisy just like the remnant was. It should be noisy just like that farmer’s chainsaw should have been. A church should be noisy when it’s working. I’m going to say something I’ll bet you’ve never heard a preacher say before. I want us to learn how to be a noisy church tonight. I want us to learn to make the right kind of noise that only comes from doing the right kind of work. In order to do that, we’re going to look at three noises that come from a working church. The first kind of noise is initial celebration. Look with me at verses 10-11.
EZRA 3:10-11
The first kind of noise that comes from a working church is initial celebration. Isn’t it exciting when you complete a project? I remember when we had last year’s watchnight service, just a few weeks after the church called me. During that service, Roger had a slideshow. He showed us pictures from throughout the history of this church. I think some of the best pictures in the whole bunch were the ones of some of the building that has gone on here. The building of the addition on the sanctuary. The building of the activities building. I would love to see pictures from when the church met in the basement while the sanctuary was being built. Now, I wasn’t there when each of those projects was completed—but I’ve been there when they happened in other churches. Even though I wasn’t there, I can just about guarantee the church’s reaction when each of those was completed. I can just about guarantee that there was an initial celebration. That’s the way we are as people. When we finish a big project, we like to celebrate. Now, we all celebrate in different ways. Some of us are more emotional. We like to have big parties and dedications and things like that. Some of us are more reserved. We like to sit back and reflect. We like to look at the quality of work and ponder all the hard work that went into it. But whatever our personality, we all like to celebrate the accomplishment of a job well done. And it seems the bigger the job or the longer it took to get there, the bigger the celebration. It was no different with the remnant. Think of all that they had been through to get to this point. They had been in exile for 70 years. They had been without their land. They had been strangers in a strange land. They had no king, no nation, no home. But worse than all that—they had no temple. To them, the temple was the sole focus of their experience with God. It’s different with us. As last week’s memory verse says, ever since Pentecost, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in us. But for the Old Testament saints, that was not the case. They were not permanently indwelt with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would come upon them to empower them for certain tasks. But He didn’t abide in them as He does in believers today. That being said, in order to experience the presence of God, they generally had to experience Him in His temple. And they had been without that for years. But ever since the decree went out from Cyrus in chapter one, they had been anticipating the day when they could experience God’s presence in His temple again. As God was preparing them each step along the way, their anticipation was building. Their anticipation grew as they made preparations before they left Babylon. Their anticipation grew as they gathered and prepared for travel to Jerusalem. Their anticipation grew as they arrived in Jerusalem and began to settle down there. Their anticipation grew as they gave their money, and collected the resources, and set the altar, and began the worship ceremonies. Their anticipation was at a fever pitch. They literally couldn’t wait to see what the Lord was going to do. They couldn’t wait for something to be accomplished. And then it finally happened. They had planned. They had worked. They had dug. They had cut and laid stone. And now the foundation had been laid. They had accomplished something. It seemed that all that anticipation had been realized. And it erupted in celebration. You know, the more you look forward to something, the more you get excited when it begins to take place. And make no mistake about it, these people were excited. They had a big party. They didn’t just bring out the songbooks. They brought out the band. They had the gospel sing, the praise band, and the singing groups all out. I don’t know what cymbals and trumpets sound like together, but I can guarantee it’s not quiet and reserved. As a matter of fact, verse 11 says that their praise came out in a great shout. As a matter of fact, the force of the original is that they shouted praise to the point that it was like a cannon blast of praise. They were having a praise party to the Lord for the work He had accomplished through them. What a sense of accomplishment. What a voice of praise. But unfortunately, that noise is usually only an initial reaction. It normally only flows from a climax to all the anticipation that has built up. And then what usually happens? Reality sets in. And that’s when the noise of initial celebration is met with the noise of individual hesitation. Look with me at verse 12.
EZRA 3:12
The second kind of noise that comes from a working church is individual hesitation. There has been a tendency to misuse this verse in the past several years. I have heard and read several sermons on this verse that placed the whole focus of the passage on the words “ancient men.” And I have heard it said that the reason they were weeping was the fact that they were old people. And the fact that they were old people made them resistant to the change that was going on around them. Well, you know what? Old people are resistant to change. But so are young people. The fact is that all people are resistant to change. Not all change. Most people will say that they welcome change. It’s just that they want everyone else to change. Change is great as long as it doesn’t affect me too much. As long as it doesn’t mess up my comfort zone or my routine. Resistance to change isn’t a product of age. Many times, resistance to change is a product of selfishness. But no matter what the commentaries or the modern sermons will tell you, the issue with this verse isn’t that the ancient men were resistant to change. Yes, they experienced some individual hesitation. Yes, they experienced some sadness. Yes, they wept. If the other folks didn’t know what was going on, they could have interpreted that to mean they were being difficult. But they weren’t. So, if they weren’t being resistant to change, then why were they weeping? They were weeping because they had seen the first house. I love history. History is a wonderful subject. I enjoy reading it. I enjoy studying it. I especially like learning from it. But there’s one thing about history that we cannot do. And that’s live in it. The text points out the fact that these men were old, because they were the only ones who had actually seen the temple before it was destroyed. They had seen the beauty of Solomon’s temple. They had seen the majesty and wonder of the beautiful ceremonies that took place there. They had seen the glory days. Of course we know that the days they remembered were nothing compared to the real glory days that happened right after Solomon dedicated the temple. If it were possible, how much more would a person have wept who had been around since then? Can you imagine the memories that came to mind as these men saw this new foundation? Of course it wasn’t the same. The remnant around them was just a small portion of the great nation of Judah that they remembered from before the exile. And here they were standing in front of a slab with an altar. A far cry from the glory and splendor of the great temple of God they remembered. No, the reason they cried wasn’t that they couldn’t deal with change. The reason they cried was two-fold. First, they cried because it wasn’t finished. The work wasn’t done yet. With their age and wisdom came a certain amount of perspective. Why was everyone so worked up over just a foundation? Why are we partying—the work isn’t done yet! The text isn’t explicit in this, but just maybe, they understood the people’s tendency to get real excited for a short time and then quit. We’ll see in the coming weeks that that is exactly what happened. If that is the case, then their weeping was a warning. You know, one of the reasons that God allows us to stay around on this earth for a while is so we can collect experiences. But not just so we can hold on to those experiences like trophies in a case. He gives us those life experiences so we can share them with people who are younger and less experienced than we are. What a shame when our elders don’t share their experience and wisdom with us. And what a shame when their experience and wisdom aren’t listened to and heeded. But the fact that it wasn’t finished was only one reason that they cried. The other reason they cried was because it wasn’t like it used to be. And guess what? It never would be. Even when Herod did all he could to restore the architectural beauty and grandeur of the temple in Jesus’ day, it still would never be the same. It would never match the glory days of Solomon and Josiah and Hezekiah. Why? Because it wasn’t supposed to. God had different glories in mind for it. Not the glories of hundreds of thousands of animal sacrifices being offered during the days that Solomon dedicated it. Not the glories of the temple being the central focus of all of Jewish national life. But new glories. The glories that culminated with the temple vail being torn into from top to bottom. The glories that culminated with tongues of fire descending on believers’ heads, dramatically showing them that believers are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. God had a new plan for His temple. They wept because they couldn’t see His new plan for looking at His old plan. They wept with a loud voice because the work wasn’t finished. And they wept with a loud voice because they couldn’t see God’s new plan for His temple. But, I want you to notice what that weeping caused. Did it cause them to quit? Did it cause them to fall down in despair? Did it cause them to lose heart and consider themselves useless? No. Many of them wept. And many of them shouted with joy anyway. And it is that mixture of weeping and shouting and praising that is the third noise that comes from a working church. The noise that comes from a real working church moves from initial celebration. It combines the joyous shouts of many with the loud weeping of others. All those feelings and emotions are embraced and combined into the noise of ideal harmonization. Let’s look in verse 13:
EZRA 3:13
The third kind of noise that comes from a working church is ideal harmonization. Now, you know me. I’m not a musician. But just because I have absolutely no musical talent doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate good music when I hear it. And one thing I really like in music is harmony. I like quartets with good harmony. I like praise music that has good harmony. But what is harmony? Harmony is taking very different musical parts and combining them to make beautiful music. In a quartet, the bass line is vastly different than the alto or tenor line. And all those lines are meshed and brought to life with the lead part. That is a perfect illustration as to what happened here in Jerusalem. Let’s use our imagination to expand on the people for a minute. I imagine there were people in the crowd that just loved to party. They were into it for the celebration. I’m sure there were people who were truly praising God for the work that had been accomplished so far. There were people who were optimistically looking into the future and shouting with joy for what the Lord was going to do. There were people who were crying too. They were crying because the work wasn’t done. They were practical people who could look into the future and see that something was bound to go wrong. There were people who were crying because the foundation wasn’t meeting their expectations about how God should be glorified. They wept because God deserved so much more. And there were people who were crying because it wasn’t ever going to be like it was “in the good old days.” But do you know what happened? Their voices combined. Whether they were weeping or shouting—whether they were crying or praising. Their voices combined in perfect harmony. God knew exactly who was going to be there that day. Go back to chapter 2 where it lists those who would return as the remnant. Do you think those people were picked randomly? Do you think they were grouped together accidentally? Of course not. God chose them. So when God chose them, do you think He forgot about their individual personalities? Do you think it was an accident that He threw in some super-bouncy-happy types and some people who probably rarely smiled? Was it just chance that brought together weepers and shouters? Of course not. God chose each and every one of them and combined them to form His remnant. Just like He chose each and every one of us to form the Body of Christ here at Brushfork Baptist Church. He’s blessed us with weepers and with shouters. But here’s where we get into trouble. We get into trouble when the weepers look at the shouters and say, “You need to weep like me.” We get into trouble when the shouters look at the weepers and say, “There must be something wrong with you because you’re not shouting like me.” When everybody sings the same note, there is no harmony. And where there is no harmony, there is discord. And where there is discord, the noise will not be heard afar off. Do we want our noise to be heard afar off? I do. I want our harmonious noise to be heard so far off that people all around us stop and ask, “What’s all that racket going on at Brushfork?”
What will it take for that to happen? When we shout, our shout must be to the Lord. When we weep, our tears must be to the Lord. Whether we’re celebrating our accomplishments or weeping over shortcomings—we have to direct them to the Lord. When we do, the people won’t be able to tell if we’re weeping or shouting. Instead, all they’ll hear is what is described in the praise chorus: “Shout to the Lord all the earth let us sing. Power and Majesty, praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of Your name.” May the mountains of Mercer county and the seas of lost people around us bow down at the sound of Jesus’ name harmoniously shouted from this place.
