Christ the Overcomer

Before we talk about Christ the Overcomer, we ought to briefly talk about why Christ needs to overcome at all. And what must Christ overcome?

After seeing the horrors of the twentieth century, the Jewish Holocaust preeminent, but the many other wars and the devastation that man has brought against man, it is apparent that evil abounds. Not only that, but the decay of ethics and integrity continues. The housing bubble and the economic collapse of 2008 and 2009 in large part was due to the greed of everyone who thought that they could get something for nothing. Scandal after scandal seems to befall those in political office. The continual increase in sexual sin, and I'm not just talking about the rise of homosexuality. The rise of sex outside of marriage and the increase of promiscuity. More and more children born out of wedlock. More and more broken marriages and single parent homes.

There's road rage and murder-suicides and suicide bombers and child abuse and child pornography and modern-day slavery. Problems and problems and more problems. There is a whirlwind of bad news every day. It just keeps coming. There is something wrong with our society. There is something wrong with our world.

Overcoming Opposition

Nehemiah 3-4

Welcome! We are continuing our series on Ezra and Nehemiah, today looking at Nehemiah chapters 3 and 4. Last week we looked at the first two chapters of Nehemiah, and we saw Nehemiah, cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, learn of the state of disrepair and discouragement of the people in Jerusalem. After several months of prayer and fasting, the king asked Nehemiah why he seemed sad, and Nehemiah told him of the situation in Jerusalem among his people. In a miraculous answer to prayer, the king had profound sympathy for Nehemiah and sent him to take charge of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. 

Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Nehemiah looked over the walls one night, and then he spoke to the people and encouraged them to begin rebuilding the walls under his leadership. They agreed, and despite some initial opposition in the forms of taunting from several non-Israelite leaders of surrounding regions, they began to rebuild. This brings us to today’s passage.

Overcoming Inertia

Nehemiah 1-2

Good morning! We are about to enter the wonderful book of Nehemiah. Last week we finished the Book of Ezra, and it is helpful to know that these two books are really two parts of one story. In fact, in the original Hebrew Old Testament, as well as in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament (a translation into Greek made about 2000 years ago), Ezra and Nehemiah were actually combined into a single book. The separation of the book into two separate works seems to have been first done by one of the early church fathers, Origen, who lived from 185-254 AD (plus or minus a year or two). He was an expert in Hebrew who studied and compared various translations of entire Old Testament. 

It is possible that the separation was never meant to be deliberate, but a simply a practical thing because he wrote on scrolls of fixed length. When Jerome, about 150-200 years later, translated the Old Testament into Latin, he continued this practice, and it became established to keep them as separate books. Regardless of why the split into two books came to be, the important thing to understand is that we are continuing the story of the history of the Israelites in Jerusalem after the end of the exile that had followed the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

Leaving Behind

Ezra 9-10 

Welcome! Today we will look at the last two chapters of the book of Ezra. As a brief review, Ezra starts with the decree of Cyrus, after 50 or 70 years of exile (depending on from where you start counting), that allowed the Israelites to go back to Jerusalem. We saw how they overcame persecution and trials to rebuild the temple, and how, after a period of about 80 years after the decree of Cyrus, Ezra came with a group of exiles to Jerusalem to serve as high priest at the rebuilt Temple. Once there, they sacrificed burnt offerings at the Temple to the Lord, thankful beyond words for how the Lord had protected them (and all of the valuable artifacts for the Temple they had carried) and, more fundamentally, for how the Lord had given the Israelite people back what had been lost due to the forsaking of God by their ancestors some 150 years prior.

After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, "The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness." – Ezra 9:1-2

Bringing Along

Ezra 7-8

Good morning, after a week off to take communion and have a sharing time, we're back to our series on the book of Ezra. Today, we get to meet Ezra, the man himself. Before we get started, let's take a moment and pray. I encourage you to take a moment and ask the Lord to speak into your own hearts. Let's bow silently for a minute.

Father God, that is our prayer. Speak Lord to us. We are yours. Thank you that Your Word accomplishes its purpose and that it does not return void. Bring the truth and lessons of Ezra to us in the present day. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, let's go directly to Ezra chapter 7, and meet Ezra.

After these things … Ezra 7:1