Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem. And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered.

-Ezra 1:5-6, ESV

One of the most remarkable accomplishments in the Old Testament is the construction of the Second Temple.  While Solomon’s Temple was the top priority project of a nation at its peak, the Second Temple was built by small band of returned exiles amidst much adversity.  Since Jesus Christ made the Temple obsolete, we will not be called to rebuild it.  However, God certainly does call His people to embark on massive efforts involving great sacrifice in order to build up the local church and thereby build the Kingdom.  My current church was recently presented with a wonderful opportunity for a much-needed expansion, but that opportunity also comes with significant cost.  In our case, it is double rent and a renovation project.  As we embark on this project, we have much to learn from the Jews who rebuilt the Temple.

God Provides Opportunities for Sacrifice

The amazing Second Temple project started with an equally amazing edict: a pagan king directed and largely funded it.  Cyrus thought that if he rebuilt the temples and restored the worship of various gods in his empire, they would bless him.  This prompted him to issue this amazing decree that signaled the end of the seventy-year Jewish exile to Babylon:

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

-Ezra 1:1-4, ESV

Despite his selfish motives, Cyrus was being used by God for His purposes.  God “stirred up” Cyrus to issue this decree in fulfillment of prophecy (Jeremiah 29:10).  Writing hundreds of years beforehand, Isaiah calls out Cyrus by name as God’s servant to rebuild Jerusalem (Isaiah 44:28-45:13).  So it is clear that God provided His people with this opportunity. 

As amazing as this opportunity was, it still required incredible sacrifice from God’s people.  Cyrus may have provided resources, but these poor returning exiles still had to do the work of rebuilding.  Their parents or grandparents had been dragged to Babylon in chains with nothing.  All of their property in Judah had been plundered as well, so they had to start over from nothing in Babylon.  Now, they were being asked to leave the little they had to return to a destroyed city in a now-desolate land to rebuild a wonder of the world.  God had given them an opportunity to sacrifice their safety, stability, resources, time, energy, and perhaps even their lives to rebuild His house.  So it was just as amazing for God to stir the hearts of the exiles to take on this work as it was for Cyrus to decree it.  God caused them to not only make this sacrifice, but to do it enthusiastically. 

Bearing that in mind, we Americans have no room to balk at the comparatively miniscule sacrifices required of us when our pastors introduce opportunities for building expansions, church plants, or other major ministry changes that build build the Kingdom.  Of course it is of vital importance to make sure that these projects will actually advance the Kingdom, since many do not.  God does not build His Kingdom through massive events and buildings but through local churches and families.  Building an addition to the church in order to enlarge a currently-crowded sanctuary—as in our case—is directly related to the Kingdom, whereas building an addition for a gym and game room probably isn’t.  Similarly, starting a Christian school or Gospel-based pregnancy care center would build the Kingdom but raising money for a production-quality media setup or youth group vacation—I mean, “mission trip”—wouldn’t.  We must be wise in which opportunities we pursue, but we must also be bold enough to pursue those that are worth pursuing.  And while it is appropriate to critically evaluate these opportunities, once it is clear that God has laid one of them on the heart of a faithful pastor, it is wise and prudent for the congregation to sacrifice in order to pursue it. Only what is done for the Kingdom will last, so should we not sacrifice to build the Kingdom? 

Do Not Neglect Regular Giving

As we pursue these opportunities, we must remember that the resources, time, energy, and effort we give to them must be over and above what we give for the normal operation of the local church.  I have previously discussed how Scripture still commands us to tithe—to give at least ten percent of our gross income to the local church.  During the project, the church still needs to function and the pastor still needs to support his family.  As I said in my sermon on giving, if our pastors are struggling to make ends meet while we live comfortably, we are sinning.  It is difficult enough to tithe in the current economy, so it may seem impossible to support a major project on top of that. But it is often much more possible than we think. Our affluence often leads us to be lax in our budgeting, so we need to relearn the skill of penny-pinching so that we can adequately invest in the Kingdom.  My pastor put it this way recently:

Today, brothers and sisters, let us not be the generation known for white-knuckling our excesses. Let us not be the generation who finances the kingdoms of Disney or Hollywood, Tesla, and larger homes, vacations, and retirements but neglect to give to God and to the advancement of His Gospel. Instead, let us be a people who obey God. Let us look at our income, intentionally apportion 1/10th to the Lord and His local church, and trust Him with the results. Let us be the kind of people who do this work joyfully and regularly to build up Christendom.

Every dollar, minute, and calorie we spend is an investment in something, so we need to be wise about those investments and make sure that our first and best goes to God and not the World.  Certainly we must still meet our obligations, but in most cases it is possible to both adequately care for those entrusted to us and adequately care for the local church.  And perhaps the reason finances are tight is because we are not giving adequately to the local church.  God calls us to show our reliance on Him to provide for us by giving our first and best to Him.  He specifically said that to the returned exiles who were barely scraping by:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.”

-Haggai 1:2-6, ESV

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

-Malachi 3:8-10, ESV

Both of these passages indicate that the exiles were prioritizing themselves over God.  At first they had done well, diligently rebuilding the Temple and also offering the regular sacrifices, including the regimen of offerings in the Feast of Booths (Ezra 3:1-5).  But after the initial novelty wore off, they were focusing on meeting their own needs rather than the massive project God had called them to.  They built their own houses and procured their own food and clothing while neglecting the command to give to God what He is owed.  God says this is the reason why they were not prosperous, calling them to put His faithfulness to the test.  This is not about poverty theology or prosperity theology but about wisely using the resources God has graciously given us and trusting Him fully.

There Will Be Obstacles

While taking care of themselves and their families was one reason the returned exiles had stopped rebuilding the Temple, it was not the main reason.  They had stopped work after their adversaries had written to Artaxerxes that the Jews were not rebuilding the Temple but rebuilding the city in order to rebel.  Lacking any reference to the decree of Cyrus, this intentional misrepresentation led Artaxerxes to order the work to stop (Ezra 4-5).  God then rebuked them for this in the second year of Darius (Haggai 1:1), at which point they restarted the work (Ezra 5:1-2).  This drew questions from the provincial governor, who reported to Darius what was really going on without misrepresentation.  The resulting archive search yielded the decree from Cyrus, so Darius re-issued the decree and even strengthened it by threatening anyone who would oppose the work (Ezra 6:1-12).  But since God told the Jews to restart before this resolution, He was telling them to defy the existing edict from Artaxerxes, who was the governing authority that God had placed over them (Romans 13:1-7).  This brings up the question of when to defy civil authorities, which is much too large to handle in this post.  What I will say is that since all authority comes from God, no one has the authority to disobey God or compel anyone else to disobey God.  Furthermore, the edict from Artaxerxes was to cease rebuilding the city not the Temple (Ezra 4:21), so the argument can be made that they could have lawfully continued.  Regardless, they likely saw the edict from Artaxerxes as a sign that they should pause the project.  God reminded them through Haggai that such obstacles did not give them license to pause the work He had called them to.  To their credit, they immediately obeyed and restarted the work despite the still-present opposition. 

When we face opposition when pursuing the large opportunities God calls our local churches to, we can be similarly tempted to turn back.  We may not raise the funds we had hoped for, civil authorities or local interest groups may oppose us, and we may run into any number of technical or logistical problems.  Now just like then, such obstacles are not a sign that we should give up.  Instead, we should expect such opposition, even viewing it as confirmation that we should continue.  We should also be unsurprised when God uses those obstacles to bless us even more.  On a small scale this happened to our church a year ago with Pastor Story Hour.  In response to the abhorrent “drag queen story hour” that is polluting libraries across the nation, our pastor scheduled an event at the local library.  By reading books about what God says about gender, he would be boldly showing that Jesus Christ claims lordship over every square inch of this planet—even in New England.  But when the library received a few complaints, they illegally cancelled the event.  Massachusetts Family Institute lawyers stepped in and the library ultimately relented, but not before our little event made national news.  Despite a few protesters and some less-than-flattering local news coverage, the event went off without a hitch.  Let that be an encouragement as we embark on both large and small efforts to build the Kingdom.

Still, projects may get bogged down, buildings may be destroyed by natural disasters, church plants may fail, and many other calamities may doom our efforts—or do they?  I find it interesting that in the Parable of the Talents, none of the servants lost money (Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 19:11-27).  The good and faithful servants multiplied theirs while the wicked servant kept his to himself, but none came back empty handed.  If a servant had come back empty handed, he likely would have still been called a good and faithful servant for being about his lord’s work.  But no such servant exists in the parable because it is about building the Kingdom—and God will multiply all of our efforts in building His Kingdom such that even if they fail in earthly ways, we will never be empty handed.  God began a good work in us and will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6), so we should trust Him to be faithful to complete the good works He begins through us as well. He may not complete them in our lifetime or in the way we envision, but He will complete His work. Nothing invested in God’s work is ever wasted even if it does not accomplish what we intend.  About 2,500 years ago, God enabled the Jews to complete the Second Temple four years after the work resumed.  So saints, let us likewise step out in faith in the works that God has called us to, be they large or small.  Let us devote our resources, time, energy, effort, and abilities to projects that build the Kingdom through the local church.

And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.

-Haggai 2:7-9, ESV