Progress Despite Opposition
Good morning, everyone and welcome back to our sermon series on the Old Testament book of Ezra. We are reading the story of the Israelites so we can understand the challenges they faced and how God moved in their lives and hopefully draw parallels to our own lives as well.
The best stories include progress despite opposition. Opposition comes in many forms; external opposition can often reveal hidden internal opposition. This was true in the story of the Israelites. We learned in the last couple weeks that external opposition to building the temple revealed the Israelites were easily distracted building their own houses first, and the Lord needed to send prophets to help them get back on track.
If you are familiar with the story of Frodo in the Lord of the Rings (Pastor Alex, this is for you!) he encountered much external opposition trying to get the ring to the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. When he finally gets there, internal opposition is exposed, and Frodo needs help from his friend Sam. The Israelites needed help and we need help, and the Lord sends it to us in the form of the Holy Spirit.
“There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?”
– Frodo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings
These words ring true in our lives as well. We face knives, stings, tooths, and burdens. And we come out the other side different, transformed, and hopefully stronger.
Paul experienced eternal and internal opposition in Macedonia…
1 Cor 7:5 For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within.
The Israelites faced opposition and stopped building the temple in Israel for 16 years. After encouragement from the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, they start to build again.
Would you like to hear my paraphrased version of God’s word to the Israelites to start building again? We are just having some fun, this is not real, but the “MPV,” Michele Paraphrased Version would be:
Get off your butts and do what I told you to do, and I will help you. 😉
Nice and pithy, don’t you think? We can’t be too hard on the Israelites because if we are honest, these are often the types of things the Lord needs to remind us about in our own lives. Don’t get distracted (Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted about many things, but only one is needful.), be obedient (don’t make excuses or delay obedience.), and I am with you (I will never forsake you; You are mine.)
Ezra 4:24 Back in Ezra chapter 4… “The work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill…”
When the Israelites faced opposition the first time, they stopped, the work came to a standstill. There are many reasons why things can come to a standstill in our lives. Fear, intimidation, distraction are a few. In the case of the Israelites, it was likely a combination. There is a scripture in Habakkuk, another minor prophet in the OT, that I believe addresses this issue of standstill very well.
Listen to what the Amplified version of Hab 3:19 says…
Hab 3:19 (AMPC) The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!
This verse combines the ideas that it is the Lord Himself, through the Holy Spirit, that is our strength, our bravery, and our army and it is this help from the Holy Spirit that enables us to continue to walk, make progress, and not stand still in terror. The Holy Spirit is the answer to the standstill. And this verse says we will make progress on high places described as trouble, suffering, or responsibility. Some of us may be experiencing trouble right now, some may be suffering, but we all have responsibilities.
This verse speaks to each one of us to rely on the power of the Spirit as we take steps and make progress on the things we need to do. If you you are at a “standstill” right now in your life, where the Lord is waiting on you to move, not a “waiting period” which is when we are waiting on the Lord, an entirely different sermon, maybe you are trying to accomplish things in your own strength. Let these words remind you that the Lord is your strength, your bravery, and your army; He WILL help you to make progress as you take the steps.
One remarkable thing about this part of the story of Ezra, is that when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah spoke, the people listened!! This was not often the case in Israelite history. If you read the OT carefully, you will encounter many situations where the Israelite people, and even the Kings, didn’t listen to the prophets. It was what got them into trouble and captivity in the first place. They did not listen, and they did not obey. But this time they did.
Ezra 5:2 Then rose up Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel [heir to the throne of Judah] and Jeshua son of Jozadak and began to build the house of God in Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God [Haggai and Zechariah], helping them.
Yay, here it is, the work continues, and things go well. For one whole verse! Take a breath, savor the moment. Here we go…
Ezra 5:3 Then Tattenai, (should we just call him “tattletale”?) governor on the west side of the [Euphrates] River, and Shethar-bozenai and their companions came to them and said, Who authorized you to build this house and to restore this wall?
One whole verse and opposition comes again! Do you ever feel that way in your own life? Remember Brian’s story about finding the apartment in Germany, miraculous provision. It is amazing when that happens. And we need to celebrate and be grateful for it when it does. But I can guarantee that Brian’s story of his work in Germany not only included divine provision but opposition as well. And I share this with you to encourage, and not discourage, you. The Israelites were opposed, and it caused them to stop building. When they started building again, they were opposed again. In the life of a believer, opposition is ongoing. How we respond to the opposition determines how much progress we make.
And we see the Holy Spirit at work in the life of the Israelites in the next verse. “The eye of their God” was upon them.
Ezra 5:5 But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, so the enemy could not make them stop until the matter came before Darius [I] and an answer was returned by letter concerning it.
And it is more good news for the Israelites, they were not moved by this fresh round of opposition. They did not stand still, they did not stop building. The remainder of Ezra 5 contains the contents of the letter Tattenai wrote to King Darius, honestly kind of tattle-taling about what they were doing. Tattenai records the Israelites response to him when they were questioned, which is the significant part of the letter to me.
Ezra 5:11-13 We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, rebuilding the house which was erected and finished many years ago by a great king of Israel.But after our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away into Babylon.But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, the same King Cyrus made a decree to rebuild this house of God.
In their response, we find some keys to what enabled them to make progress despite the opposition. We see evidence of the Holy Spirit helping them in three key ways.
UNITY and COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, HUMILITY
Let’s consider these one at a time…
1. UNITY and COMMUNITY
A while back, I did a sermon on the Lord’s Prayer, and I noticed something that I never noticed before. All the pronouns referring to the people are plural. Plural pronouns: our, us, we. OUR Father, give US, forgive US as WE forgive. It struck me because I don’t think we pray that way normally. Particularly in a western culture, we pray help ME, give ME. In the Israelites response to their opposition, they use the pronoun WE. There is a sense of unity and community. They are resisting the opposition together. It’s important to remember that when we become believers, the NT positions us in a community, in a family of believers, as we walk out our lives of faith. It is not “just me and Jesus.” We walk together. Many of the things we need to learn, we learn in community. We learn to love well, we learn to forgive, we learn to make progress in the face of opposition. The Israelites are in this together. Frodo and Sam were in it together. And so are we.
2. IDENTITY
The Israelites identified themselves to their accusers as “servants of the God of heaven and earth.” Maybe they wondered about their identity when they were in captivity. Are we God’s people anymore? In their statement is an understanding of who they were and also who God is. As NT believers, we can go even further and know our identity as “sons and daughters of the God of heaven and earth.” John Chapter 1 tells those who believe in Jesus, they have been given the right to be called sons and daughters of God. Knowing who we are strengthens and sustains us in the face of opposition. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to cry, “Abba Father!”
3. HUMILITY
Probably the most remarkable thing we see in their response is HUMILITY. They could have said something like, “We were minding our business in Israel, just tending our sheep, and this horrible King Nebuchadnezzar came and conquered us and it’s just not fair.” But instead, the Israelites have fully adopted the Lord’s version of their story and admitted, “Our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath.” They are taking responsibility for their sin, or at least their generational sin. How often do we deny culpability and rewrite our own story according to what we want it to say? How often is “our truth or our story” a veiled attempt to blame others for our own shortcomings? They are allowing God to write their story without editing it. Are we doing the same? Are we humbly taking responsibility for the things we have done wrong so we can be forgiven and move on? Are we struggling to make progress on our high places because we are not living in reality? In the Freedom Course, we have a saying, “Only the Lord’s truth sets you free.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. When we accept the truth from the HS, we are on firm footing to keep moving when opposition comes.
When we look at the things the Holy Spirit helped them with, we can gain wisdom about what the opposition comes to attack. It attacks UNITY and COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, and it appeals to our PRIDE, which is the opposite of HUMILITY.
The NT describes opposition as inevitable and gives us hope that many things are happening behind the scenes when we encounter opposition.
John 16:33, this is Jesus speaking to the disciples after describing some of the hard things that would happen to them when He was gone.“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Romans 5:3-5 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
These verses encourage us that in in times of suffering and opposition, good things are happening, and we are being formed. We are given peace, and we develop perseverance, character, and hope, and we become mature and complete, which means we become more like Jesus. We are shedding things that we cannot take into our future, things that would prevent us from fulfilling our destiny. Frodo did not return to the shire the same hobbit; he was changed by his journey.
During a key period in my life, I faced opposition, overcame it, and then faced it all over again. I have always felt called to ministry, in particular, pastoral ministry. However, the churches I attended for years did not allow women to occupy that role. At HTC, I gained a fuller understanding of the context of certain scriptures and the freedom I had as a woman. I learned the Lord used women leaders in both the Old and New Testaments and I learned more about my own IDENTITY as a leader. If this is something you want to study further, I recommend the two books on the screen.
On Purpose by Julie Zine Coleman
Paul, Women, and Wives by Dr. Craig Keener.
In order to pursue my dream, I needed to get an MDiv. I had recently turned 50, so I went back to school in my 50’s. As you can imagine, that decision was accompanied by opposition. I’ve told some of those stories in other sermons. There is opposition, and then there is capital “O” opposition.
About 6 months before I completed my degree, I was diagnosed with lymphoma. I went through chemo and all the things, but I was bound and determined to get my degree and work as a pastor. And I was completely healed and had the job of my dreams. But just like the story of the Israelites, opposition came again.
A few months after chemo, I had a reaction that about only 20% of people have. I couldn’t sleep. At all. And I started waking up with panic attacks. I would go to sleep and wake up a half hour later, unable to breathe with my heart pounding. This went on for weeks, until it started to affect my ability to think and cope. One of the things that opposition can do is reveal your greatest fears. The external opposition exposed the internal. I had learned when I was diagnosed with lymphoma that I was not really afraid of death. Other than concern for my children and not being around for them, I did not have a fear of dying. However, when I could not sleep and my mind started to break, I realized my biggest fear was mental illness.
Some of you know my history, there was mental illness on both sides of my family line. My mother was so mentally ill she spent most of her life in a mental hospital. When I started to have these symptoms, I realized I was terrified of the same thing happening to me. And it seemed as if this was exactly what was happening. I lost my ability to think analytically, which I had always done as an engineer, my thoughts were in constant torment, racing and racing and racing, and then at one point, everything went black.
I could no longer function in any type of ministry. I could not do simple tasks like the laundry. I couldn’t even walk downstairs to eat dinner.
I started to believe I would never be well again and would certainly never minister again. In the darkest moments, I believed I wasn’t saved, I was never God’s daughter, and I had somehow done something wrong to cause this to happen. And this dark period lasted about 3 months.
And my family, particularly my husband Mark, took care of me. My sister came to help me. My kids helped me. The HTC prayer team and women’s ministry prayed for me. And pastor Derek, Josh and Jamie’s Dad, just loved me and gave me so much grace. I was in a loving community.
And because of relationships we had, a very charismatic pastor prayed for me, and it was like I could see pinpricks of light piercing the darkness. And then I went for prayer to an Anglican woman pastor. She kindly shared with me that a similar thing had happened to her just before she started one of the largest healing ministries in her area. And, after she prayed for me, I could breathe again. Such a beautiful picture of the UNITY of the body of Christ, the full gamut from nondenominational charismatic to denominational churches. Both were involved in my healing. True care and fellowship, like in the Fellowship of the Ring. And I slowly recovered. And here I am, doing my dream job. And trust me, it was not by might or power, because I had none, it was by the Holy Spirit.
I wanted to share my story because opposition takes many different forms, both externally and internally, no one is exempt from it, and everyone needs help. Please do not give up if you are in a dark season right now. No matter how dark it is, the light will penetrate the darkness and the Holy Spirit will help you like He helped the Israelites. I truly hope none of you experience that level of opposition, but I would not be a good pastor if I did not tell you that you will experience opposition.
Do I still experience opposition? Of course I do. I was telling those involved with the Freedom course that when I start the course every January, I start hearing this low-level static of thoughts, “You can’t help anyone. Your stories make no sense. You are annoying.” And maybe some of that is true, because I can certainly be annoying, but I have learned to ignore it and not let it stop me from obeying what the Lord wants me to do. Will I ever feel that black level of opposition again? I really don’t think so. I think that dragon has been slayed. Theologians call that a dark night of the soul. But we must learn to resist the opposition in any form it takes.
Paul said this when considering more ministry in Ephesus:
1 Cor 16:9 A wide door of opportunity has opened unto me (There are so many things I can do for the Lord here!), and with it many adversaries.
Opposition is part of the gig. We need to expect it and prepare for it. We need to decide to obey God no matter what opposition we encounter. Opportunity and opposition go hand in hand. Opposition is an opportunity to see the Lord move in new ways by His Holy Spirit.
Maybe you are facing a wide door of opportunity right now in your job, in your relationships, in school, with your kids, in your marriage, in your ministry. Remember that with it comes many adversaries. Don’t let the adversaries stop you. Take it as proof that you are invading enemy space. When you are facing opposition, remember that the Lord is your strength, your personal bravery, and your army and you WILL make progress on your high places of suffering, trouble, and responsibility.
The Holy Spirit will help you…
- Walk in UNITY and COMMUNITY with other believers
- Understand your IDENTITY and purpose
- Yield in HUMILITY to the greater story the Lord is writing in your life.
If you want to apply today’s message, how about remember my tongue-in-cheek version, “Get off your butt, do what God is telling you to do, and He will help you.”
Let’s pray…