Intermediate Lesson Thirteen - Book of Ezra

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF EZRA

Church: Pergamos                                     Lesson 18 of 39                                           Theme: Repent

Background Information:

ü  We asked in 1 Samuel, “How can the creation know how to repent?"

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of 2 Chronicles:

I can be awakened to build an internal temple that repents by praying for my enemies with love.

Essential Question:

How can I live among people in peace who are not connecting Jesus’ sacrifice to God’s agenda?

Book of Ezra:

Have students read pages 68-74 in the book, The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Remembering to pray for our enemy with love is important. When the world tells us lying vanities, God will “stir up” our spirit to awaken us to turn to God and away from the world. When we turn to God, this is how we accept spiritual gifts from God.

The people who believe in lying vanities will try to influence people who are focusing on God’s promises to instead begin focusing on the world’s agenda. In the book of Ezra, Ezra was awakened to realize that he needed to teach people God’s statutes and judgments and how to pray for their enemy with a sincere heart when they made a sacrifice. After the people left Babylon and finished building the temple, Ezra immediately went to teach the people God’s judgments and statutes. He did this because while the people had been living in Babylon, the Levitical priests and the twelve tribes of Israel had not been teaching and learning how to apply the sacrifice to their lives by repenting with a true heart by praying for their enemy with love. The application of the sacrifice was a tricky subject to teach because the nations around were teaching a false god sacrifice, and that sacrifice was a ritual. Jesus’ teachings on repentance can be misunderstood because Satan, the father of lies, is teaching us to look at Jesus’ sacrifice and not to connect it to a heart that repents for sin. Just as the Levitical priests were to teach the relationship between the sacrifice and repentance in the Old Testament, preachers today are to teach the relationship between Jesus’ sacrifice and repentance.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

Lying vanities allow people to accept a worldview that teaches how God does not have an agenda with judgments and statutes. In the book of Ezra, we learn how Ezra prepared his heart to teach God’s statutes and judgments from the Law of the Lord. Statutes and judgments are brought against people who will not repent. Ezra was awakened to believe faith includes a sacrifice. He came to this awareness because of the miracles of God. The Israelites had many stories of how God had performed miracles to save them. The enemies of the Israelites had many stories of how they were punished by God. The Levitical priests were to teach the Israelites how to sacrifice, and the Levitical priests were also responsible for teaching the statutes and judgments that would be brought against someone who does not repent. Ezra was awaked by previous miracles to know that when the Israelites sacrificed if they did not prepare their heart to obey God’s commandments, they would be punished. Because the Israelites were living among the enemy, the Israelites were telling themselves lying vanities because they had begun to look at the world’s agenda and believe that the sacrifice as a ritual would protect them. The enemy living around them was serving false gods and looking at a worldly agenda. Because the Israelites were living among the enemy, the Israelites began to look at the world’s agenda.

Today, we need to awaken to believe that repentance includes a living sacrifice. We can come to this awareness because of the sacrifice Christ made. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus said, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” We are to be awakened to build our internal temple by praying with love for an enemy. Preachers today are to teach the sacrifice that Jesus made in learning how to pray with love (a sincere heart) for an enemy, and preachers today are also to teach the statutes and judgments that are brought against people who will not repent and turn to God.

Remember the Rock God Established:

After Judah was taken away to Babylon, the tribe of Levi did not have a temple to teach in. The Babylonians performed a ritual by killing an animal, sacrificing the animal to their god, and then eating the food. After being under Babylonian captivity for seventy years, the king allowed Zerubbabel to lead a group of Israelites from Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem to perform sacrifices. Approximately seventy Levites were willing to go back to Jerusalem. However, the Levites had become comfortable among the enemy. The seventy Levites who were going back to Jerusalem had to read the directions in the law of Moses to learn how to perform the sacrifices. They followed the exact directions given in the law of Moses on how to build an altar and offer sacrifices. There was more to the sacrifice than just performing a ritual. The altar was built just like the directions in the law of Moses said, but the Levitical priests were missing something. The people were scared of the people who lived around them. After they built the foundation, they stopped building the temple for sixteen years. The people living around them (the enemy) were causing them a lot of trouble.

After sixteen years God “stirred up” the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, and “stirred up” the people’s spirit. Haggai and Zechariah, who were prophets from the tribe of Levi, prompted the people to restart building the temple by reminding the people of the agenda of the Lord. The people finished building the temple. Once the temple was finished being built, Ezra entered the picture. Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to teach it. The law of Moses told people how to perform the sacrifices and the rituals, but the law of Moses did not tell people how to put their heart in the sacrifice, and that is the most important part. When Ezra learned about how the people were not repenting in Jerusalem, he mourned and was sad. When Ezra went before King Artaxerxes, Ezra was sad. The king asked Ezra what was wrong. Ezra told the King all that was in his heart. The king allowed Ezra to leave, and Ezra went to teach the people to repent with a true heart before sacrificing to avoid judgment.

Activity:

The activity directions are located in Appendix 2 – Step 4.

Students will perform a simulation that builds a temple by repenting and not believing lying vanities.

Conclusion:

People today who do not pray for an enemy with love are telling themselves a lying vanity.

Next Lesson:

After God reminds us, “stirs up,” and awakens a believer’s heart with the spiritual gift of forgiveness of sins, they are to live the life of a preacher and bear witness to accepting God’s spiritual gift by repenting. This is a witness testimony that aligns with the Chief Cornerstone to increase a believer’s faith in God. A preacher teaches people to repent by praying for their enemy with love by teaching the agenda of God which reveals the meaninglessness of the world. In the next lesson, a preacher teaches us how to be a witness who does not let the worldview culture influence the church culture.