Ordinary People, Extraordinary Purposes

0:33Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Sarah Babel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Saraiah, Realiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvi, Rehum, and Baana. Please skip down to verse 64. The whole assembly together was 42,360, besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337, and they had 200 male and female singers.

1:24Their horses were 736, their mules were 245. Their camels were 435, and their donkeys were 6,720. Some of the heads of families, when they had come to the house of the Lord, that is in Jerusalem, made free will offerings for the house of God to erect it on its site. According to their ability, they gave to the treasury of the work 61,000 derricks of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priests' garments. Now the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns, and all the rest of Israel in their towns.

2:10This is God's Word, you may be seated. Ordinary. Most of us would rather be called anything other than ordinary. The word has become synonymous with average, mediocre, boring. Many of us grew up with every adult in our lives telling us that we were special, that we were going to achieve great things in our lives, that we'd change the world, that we would be anything besides ordinary. The result is that we are now living in a generation teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown because.

3:01We're always feeling like we're never doing enough things that are radical, epic, or revolutionary. We're always feeling like we're not meeting expectations, and maybe most importantly, that we're not doing enough for God. In 2014, Dr. Michael Horton became so concerned about this problem and this perception that he wrote a book called Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World. I want you to listen to this quote from the first chapter. Many of us were raised in a Christian subculture of managed expectations, called to change ourselves or our world with measurable results.

3:47There always had to be a cause du jour to justify our engagement. Otherwise, life in the church would simply be too ordinary. We want big results sooner rather than later. And we've forgotten that God showers His extraordinary gifts through ordinary means of grace, loves us through ordinary fellow image-bearers, and sends us out into the world to love and serve others in ordinary callings. Well, Dr. Horton is exactly right. Now, he's not against doing big things for God. He's simply articulating what the Bible actually teaches.

4:30That it is God who does big things through ordinary people like you and me. Well, friends, today we come to Ezra 2, which in case you hadn't noticed, is basically 70 verses of names and numbers. And some of you, God bless you, this is your first Sunday at New Life. We are committed to expositional preaching and teaching at New Life, which means that we preach verse by verse through books of the Bible, seeking to understand the meaning for the original hearers so that we can then apply that original meaning to our lives today. That's what we do.

5:15And we base what we do on passages of Scripture like 2 Timothy 3, 16, and 17, which tells us that all scripture is God-breathed and it is profitable to equip us, the church, for every good work. The problem is that so many Christians know that verse or those verses, they have them memorized, but we don't functionally live that way. We don't functionally live as though all of Scripture is God-breathed and is useful to us. And so what we're going to do today is we're going to open the word with faith that God had this chapter written and this chapter preserved over thousands of years because he intended us. To read it and to learn from it, to grow in our faith through it.

6:06This chapter is full of ordinary, ordinary leaders, ordinary people, and ordinary faithfulness. And I think that's exactly why it's going to encourage us so much. So, what we're going to learn today is that God uses ordinary people to accomplish his extraordinary plan of redemption. Let's look together here at the beginning of the text. Right off the bat, in these first two verses, Ezra provides a list of the people who returned from Babylon, where they were in exile, to Jerusalem to begin rebuilding the temple.

6:44And he begins by listing the leaders, starting with Zerubabel, the governor, who is the grandson of King Jehoiachin, descendant of King David. So that's very important. And then Jeshua, who is now serving as the high priest. Well, as we know, leadership is critical to success, and leadership was going to be critical for the Israelites if they were going to return from Babylon back to the promised land and reinstitute temple worship by rebuilding the temple. Leadership was going to be very important.

7:18But I think one of the problems that human beings have, not just today, but all throughout the centuries, is that we tend to idolize leaders. So we look at these people, these leaders. In Scripture, and we refer to them as heroes of the faith. Now, to be sure, there are many men and women in Scripture who were great leaders, and they did great things. We should honor them. We should seek to emulate their faith. But we should also recognize that every one of them struggled with unbelief, struggled with besetting sins, and made errors in judgment.

8:00Every leader in the Bible, except for Jesus, that is true of. So you think about Abraham, a great leader in many respects. He wavered in faith. He had a child out of wedlock with his servant, Hagar. Moses, perhaps the greatest leader who ever lived, led the people out of Egypt and slavery. But he also, in unbelief, killed an Egyptian. He also, in unbelief, struck the rock when God commanded him to speak to the rock, and as a result, he was not permitted to enter the promised land.

8:34And then you think about people like Elijah and John the Baptist, phenomenal prophets, phenomenal leaders, both struggled with doubt after God used them greatly in their ministries. Friends, even the very best leaders are ordinary people with ordinary struggles, just like the men that we see in verse 2. I mean, who are these people? I mean, almost no one, including many. Christians have ever heard of these people before. But they answered God's call to lead the people back to the promised land. And that was no small task. I mean, think about the Exodus, the last time that God's people made a long journey through the wilderness. Well, that entire trip was marked with grumbling and complaining. The people even threatened to rebel against Moses, replace him as leader, and then go back to Egypt where they had previously been enslaved. And we're talking about Moses, one of the greatest leaders of all time, who was simply following, remember this, the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.

9:42I mean, if that's not enough to get you to say, you know, I think that God's hand may be on this guy. We probably better listen to him. And yet the people grumbled and complained. And so, do we think that this time is going to be any different? Probably not. It's remarkable to me that there's not a word in the Bible about the actual journey back from Babylon to Jerusalem. But what do we think that was like? It's about 500 miles southwest from Babylon to Jerusalem, but you can't walk southwest. It's just a straight desert.

10:17So they have to walk northwest up along the Euphrates River, and then they've got to walk straight south down the Jordan River to get there. This adds hundreds of miles to the journey. The people are going to have to walk much further. And as you look at this list, you see in verse 64, the whole assembly, 42,360, besides the servants, so you've got about 50,000 people walking here. And if you were keeping track, if you add up these numbers, there's about 8,000 animals with them.

10:49So 50,000 people and 8,000 animals, that means that about 80% of the men, women, and children are on foot patrol. They're just walking for 600-plus miles. You think there was some grumbling? You think there was some complaining? It's hard for me to drive a 5K in my car. 600 miles. So these ordinary leaders, like Zerubabel and Jeshua, they don't have any special skills or training for leading 50,000 people through the wilderness. It's not like that was one of their college classes. They're just ordinary people who stepped up in faith when God called them to go. That's who they are.

11:33And friends, all throughout life, God is calling us to do things that we don't feel qualified to do. And people often ask me, Pastor Allen, how do I know when I'm ready to get married? How do I know when we're ready to have children? How do I know when I'm ready to step up and be a leader in the church? Well, of course, there's a baseline for all of those things. Things, right? There's a baseline that you need to meet in terms of maturity to be married or to have children. There's a baseline in terms of maturity and character and abilities that you need to have if you're going to lead in the church. But the reality is, nobody's ever ready for any of those things.

12:20We're never ready. We'll never be ready. You could always be more prepared. So, what leadership is, is just ordinary people exercising faith in God that they've been called to lead. And that's what we see here. We see God using ordinary leaders to accomplish his extraordinary plan of redemption through us, through ordinary leaders. But he doesn't just use ordinary leaders, he also uses ordinary people. And beginning in verse 3, you have about 68 more verses packed with names and numbers. It seems daunting, and that's why we skim or skip these chapters, right? Come on, you sinners.

13:09That's why we all skim or skip these chapters. But this chapter is here for a reason. These names and numbers are here for a reason. There are over 100 names in this chapter representing about 50,000 people. And of course, it was very important to have an accurate list of who. Who was returning to the promised land? Because these people, remember, had been gone for roughly 50 to 70 years or more. They were coming back to claim land and inheritance. So it was very important, both for the sake of unity and order, to have accurate lists of who is who and who has the claims to which parts of land.

13:56But beyond that, and for our purposes, we have to understand that these names and numbers represent real people, real people who really existed in history. How do we know that these are real people who really existed in history? Well, you might say, well, because it's in the Bible. And the Bible, in its historical accuracy, has been verified over and over again through historical accounts and archaeological evidence. And that's right. But here's another way that you can know these are real people who really existed in history.

14:38Have you ever heard of anybody in this list? You just scan down this list. Have you ever heard of any of these people? No, these are the most ordinary people ever. And who makes up a list of ordinary people? Nobody. I mean, in most History books, you only hear about extraordinary people, politicians, titans of commerce and industry, artists, great inventors, people who made a real impact on the world. You don't hear about people like Big Vi in verse 2 or Darkon in verse 56, whose names are just the best ever. And you should absolutely name your son after one of those guys. Had I preached to Ezra 12 years ago, our family would be Alan, Kendra, Taylor Joy, Big Vi, and Darkon.

15:44I might change Easton's name to Darkon just for fun. My point is this: the world does not care about ordinary people. If we're being honest, we barely care about extraordinary people. You go back and you look at textbooks growing up of history, and you've got Napoleon and George Washington, they get a couple pages each. Great men who obviously had a huge impact on how the world is today, they get a couple of paragraphs. We barely care about extraordinary people. But God cares about ordinary people. Every one of these 50,000 people listed or represented here was important to him. In fact, look at what Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

16:52See, every one of these ordinary people was important to God, and he was going to use them to accomplish his extraordinary plan of redemption. Through these people, the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel would be fulfilled, that the people would leave exile and return to Jerusalem, return to the promised land. Through these people, the dwelling place of God, the temple, would be rebuilt and worship would resume there, again fulfilling the word of the Lord. And many years later, the promised Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, would be a direct descendant of this small group of ordinary people.

17:41Look again at Matthew chapter 1 on the screen. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah, whose name was also Jehoiachin, was the father of Shiltiel, and Shiltiel, the father of Zerubabel, and Zerubabel, the father of. Of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim, the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok, the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matan, and Matan the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

18:29Isn't that incredible? Through this small group of ordinary people, God was going to bring the Messiah, Jesus Christ, into the world. Now, when we think about the person of Jesus, certainly he lived an extraordinary life, a life filled with miracles, culminating in his resurrection from the dead. But one of the big purposes of Jesus being born, taking on flesh, was to live a very ordinary life, to live a life just like you and me. Jesus was born in a small, no-name town.

19:13He was raised in an even smaller, no-name town, Nazareth. He was circumcised on the eighth day, just like every other baby in Israel. He grew up submitting to his parents. He learned his father's trade of carpentry. He submitted to baptism by his cousin, John the Baptist. And he was obedient, not just to God's law, but to all of the laws of the Roman Empire as well. You see, for all of the extraordinary parts of Jesus' life, it's almost like the big point is that he was as ordinary as could be. He was as ordinary as could be because he came to represent us. He came to stand in our place. He came to be submissive to parents. He came to be submissive to the government because we fail in all of those ways and many more. He came to succeed where we failed, so that when he did go to the cross for us, we had an ordinary man who had succeeded in all of the ordinary ways that we had failed, to stand in our place, to die for our sin, and then to rise again from the dead.

20:29That's the good news of the gospel. God brought him into the world through ordinary people just like us. And God uses ordinary people to accomplish his extraordinary plan of redemption. One cold Sunday in December 1850, there was a teenage boy who, for some time, had felt very convicted about his sin. And he didn't know what to do, and so he was wandering around through this terrible snowstorm. You can still read about this. How bad it was, looking for a place of worship. And he finally came to this small place of worship, and he walks in, and there's about 12 or 15 people there, that's all. And the snowstorm was so bad that the preacher didn't even show up. Come on, bro.

21:21So one of the church members steps up to the pulpit and delivers a sermon. By all accounts, it was not good. It was passionate and it was true, but it was not very good. But the teenager would later go on to write this: look at the screen. There and then, the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun. I could have arisen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith which looks alone to him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before: trust Christ, and you shall be saved.

22:09That boy, that teenage boy, was Charles Spurgeon, who would go on to lead tens of thousands of people to faith in Christ during his life and his ministry. Do you know that to this day, 170 years later, nobody has any idea. Who stood up and preached that sermon? But God used that ordinary person to bring Charles Spurgeon to faith, who would bring tens of thousands of people to faith, and whose ministry would still continue today through his preaching and writing.

22:47And friends, in the very same way, God uses ordinary people like us to accomplish his extraordinary plan of redemption. I think we get hung up because we look at men like Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham or D.L. Moody, and we see hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people who have come to faith in Christ. And we think, well, what am I even contributing compared to people like that? But I want you to stop and think for a moment that all of the people, that those handful of very gifted and very blessed men led to faith in Christ, that huge number, that does not even compare to the number of people who have been led to faith by ordinary people like you and me.

23:36Throughout our lives, if we are very faithful preaching the gospel, sharing it with our family members and friends and coworkers, we might see our children, Lord willing, we might see a handful of coworkers, we might see some extended family members or friends come to faith in Christ, and you think, well, what real difference does four or five or six or ten people really make? But when you've got hundreds of millions of Christians all around the world leading three or four or five or ten people to faith in Christ throughout their life, that number is infinitely greater than all the people who have been led to faith in Christ by men like Charles Spurgeon.

24:18And so I want you to understand that God uses ordinary people, and He uses ordinary people in their ordinary faithfulness. And I think that's why the end of this chapter is so helpful to us. I want you to join me in verse 59. The following were those who came up from Tel Malah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, Adan, and Emer, though they could not prove their fathers' houses or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel. The sons of Deliah, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of Nakoda, 652. Also, of the sons of the priests, the sons of Habiah, the sons of Haqos, and the sons of Barzili, who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzili the Gileadite, and was called by their name. These sought their registration among these are those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there. And so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim.

25:41You need to remember that the whole reason that the Jewish people were exiled is because they refused to listen to God. They refused to keep his word, his commandments. They refused to repent, to confess their sin when they did fail to keep his commandments. And so after years of calling them to repent, God disciplined them and took them away to Babylon. And thankfully, God kept his promise to them to bring them back. And so now they're back in the promised land, ready to start the work of rebuilding the temple so that they can reinstitute worship according to God's commands.

26:21But right away, right off the bat, they're faced with this really tough situation. There's a group of people who said that they were descendants of Levi, and not just descendants of Levi, one of Jacob's 12 sons, but also one of Aaron's descendants. And that's really important because the only men who could serve as priests were those who were descendants of Levi and specifically descendants of Aaron. No one else was allowed to do that. So these men come forward and say, we have priestly lineage, we are reporting for duty. We're here to start ministering to the people. And the easy thing for Zerubabel to do would have been to say, Look, we've had a long journey. You guys have proven your faithfulness by leaving Babylon and coming all this way and putting up with all of the hardships and difficulties. And so we'll go ahead and enroll you for service in the priesthood.

27:27I mean, the last thing that you want as a leader is to make this huge journey, survive that journey, get to where you're going, and then have to deal with conflict on day one. But Zerubabel doesn't do that. In verse 63, he excludes these men from serving in the priesthood until they could discern the will of the Lord in the matter. That's what the Urim and the Thummim were for. The priest would use those stones kept in the ephod to discern the will of the Lord when it was unclear. He says, We're going to put a whole pause on this thing, and we're going to wait until we hear from God. Now, you have to understand what a huge shift that is in the policy and the practice of Israel's leaders. So many of them were just flippant with how they approached God, and especially how they approached the worship of God.

28:21If you were here a couple of years ago, we went through the book of 1 Samuel. And in 1 Samuel chapter 13, King Saul has recently been anointed. He's about to. To lead the people into battle. And of course, before Israel goes to battle, they have a worship service. They pray for God's blessing. They sacrifice animals to the Lord. It's a big deal. They want to make sure that God is with them. But Samuel, the priest and the prophet, he delays in coming. So Saul gets really nervous and he says, Hey, just bring all the stuff to me. I will make the sacrifices myself. And he offers the burnt offerings.

28:59Saul is seeking the blessing of God while disobeying the commands of God. So years later, Zerubabel tells these men, We're not going to allow you to serve in the priesthood until we can discern God's will. And by doing so, he sets the standard. He sets the standard of obedience to God's commands in every area of life. No area is off limits. If they weren't sure that something was pleasing to God, they would wait until they became sure of it.

29:43And friends, that whole situation is an example of ordinary faithfulness. I mean, it's not like these guys were asking to do something evil. They were asking to minister. They were asking to serve as priests, to serve God and His people. But, friends, our best intentions do not excuse disobedience to God's commands. These same situations pop up in our lives all the time. God clearly reveals His will to us in His Word. We read it and we understand it and we resolve to obey it.

30:26But then, someone in our lives, a family member, a co-worker, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, asks us to make an exception just this once, just this one time. And in that moment, we have to make a decision: Am I going to be obedient to God's commands, or will I do what seems right in my own eyes? Ordinary faithfulness means that we don't just make big decisions that honor God, decisions that are made in front of everyone in public. Ordinary faithfulness means we make small decisions that honor God, decisions that may be nobody else in your life outside of your husband or wife, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your co-workers. Co-workers, your classmates, would even know about. That's what ordinary faithfulness means: that we make small decisions every day that honor the Lord. Look at what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.

31:45Therefore, whoever relaxes, I love that word, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that verbiage so amazing? Jesus doesn't say, whoever doesn't do one of the least of these commands. Obviously, that's implied. Because what is faithful? Faithful is doing what he commands. He says, whoever relaxes, whoever relaxes.

32:27And isn't that what we're being asked to do all the time? Not just in our jobs, not just in our classrooms, not just among family members, but sadly, even among Christians sometimes, we're being asked to relax. Relax. It's not that big of a deal. Zerubble demonstrated ordinary faithfulness by saying, in both big and small things, we are going. To obey God in every area of life. And it wasn't just him. It wasn't just the ordinary leaders who set this standard. It was the ordinary people responding with ordinary faithfulness. Look at verse 68.

33:17Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, made free will offerings for the house of God to erect it on its site. According to their ability, they gave to the treasury of the work 61,000 derricks of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priests' garments. You see, the people couldn't begin rebuilding the temple, which was the whole reason that they came back until they had all the building materials. Well, the building materials had to be purchased, and where was that money going to come from? There was only one possible source, the people themselves. Now, remember, these people had already sacrificed a ton.

34:06They left Babylon, the only home that nearly all of them ever knew. They left profitable businesses. They left land that they owned. Some of them left friends and family members behind. This journey was costly in many ways, far beyond just the financial costs of that huge journey. But we see here that some Some of the heads of families, notice it doesn't say all, some. Some of the heads of families made free will offerings for the house of God to erect it on its site.

34:41Now they didn't all give the same amount. Ezra is careful to note that each one gave how? According to their ability. So, what that means is some people gave more, some people gave less, but everyone there gave generously. No one forced them to give. They gave because they believed in the vision, the vision of rebuilding the house of the Lord to reinstitute worship there. And they did that because they were so grateful to God for all that He had done for them.

35:18And here we have another picture of ordinary faithfulness, of ordinary people saying, I can't really afford to give. I think people have always felt that way. I can't really afford to give to God's work. There's always more stuff that is calling for my money, for my resources. But they said, I'm so grateful for what God has done for me that I'm going to give freely to support God's work in the world. And I love how Paul spells out these principles in the New Testament. Look at what he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

35:56For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. In the next chapter in 2 Corinthians 9, he says this: You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. Paul lays out the whole theology and philosophy of giving in just a couple of verses in a couple of chapters in the New Testament. He says, Listen, the whole reason that we give is because God first gave to us. He gave his only begotten Son. There is no way for us to out-give God. He gave his only begotten Son that through his life, death, and resurrection, our faith in Jesus, we would be reconciled to God, forgiven of our sin, and adopted into his family. And he says, You're going to be enriched in every way. You're going to have what you need so that you can be generous in every way.

37:10And when you are generous in every way, that's going to result in people praising and thanking God for what he has done. And friends, our church is a testament to the truths that we see today here in Ezra chapter 2. For almost 10 years, our church has been marked by the ordinary faithfulness. Ordinary people, as we have learned to worship God and make disciples together. And through that ordinary faithfulness, God has done incredible things. Roughly 1,000 current or former members have had the privilege of being a part of a healthy local church.

37:56More than 200 people have been baptized in obedience to Jesus. And currently, we have nine family units on the mission field sharing the gospel and making disciples, all because of the ordinary faithfulness of ordinary people. Listen again to what Dr. Michael Horton says. We need ordinary believers of every generation, race, and socioeconomic background to whom we are united by baptism to one Lord and one faith by one Spirit. We simply need ordinary pastors to deliver the word of life and its sacraments faithfully, elders to guide us to maturity, and deacons to help keep the temporal gifts circulating in the body. Amen.

39:00In Ezra chapter 2, we have a picture of ordinary faithfulness from ordinary leaders and ordinary people. And thanks be to God. He is using ordinary people like us to accomplish his extraordinary plan of redemption. Let's pray. Father, we are so glad that you are so big and so powerful, so mighty, that you can accomplish all of your purposes through ordinary people like us. We've been told, most of us our entire lives, that we're special, that we're going to change the world.

40:05And I'm reminded of that quote from a movement here in the United States that said, everybody wants a revolution. Nobody wants to do the dishes. God, I pray that we would recover a vision for ordinary faithfulness. Ordinary faithfulness as husbands. Husbands and wives, moms and dads, professionals in the workplace, employees, employers, students, that we would not set our sights so high, intent, at least partially perhaps, on glorifying ourselves, that we miss all of the opportunities around us every day to be faithful in ordinary ways, to love our neighbors.

41:08God, we do want to see big things happen. We don't want to limit our prayers. We don't even want to limit our expectations of what you will do. We just want to refocus on who it is that does extraordinary things. It's you, it's not us. And so, God, we ask that you use us, use our little church in the relatively little city of College Station, Texas, to accomplish your extraordinary plan of redemption. We pray that people all over our community, our state, our nation, and the world would begin calling on the name of Jesus because we were faithful in the small, ordinary things of everyday life.

42:02God, I pray for our ordinary leaders here, our ordinary elders and our ordinary deacons, our ordinary life group leaders, our ordinary preschool and children's and youth volunteers. I pray that you would use our ordinary faithfulness to do extraordinary things. God, we thank you for this second chapter of Ezra. Forgive us for all the times that we have skipped it because we didn't think that there was anything to be gleaned from it. All of your word is profitable. And I pray that you would bear fruit through us because we have studied it and meditated on it and by your grace are now going to apply it in our lives.

43:02In Christ's name we pray. Amen.