Introduction

For the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at these concepts:

• Rebuilding
• Renewing
• Reviving

Throughout the history of God’s people there have been crucial moments of self-reflection, moments when God’s people have realized that something has gone off track and that something needs to be done about it.

Churches of Christ have taken this idea as one of our core beliefs – that God has an ideal for his church, and that throughout the centuries there have been many movements that have lead people away from that ideal, and many attempts to restore it. If you’ve ever said or agreed with the phrase “We need to get back to the bible” then you agree that there are times that we’ve lost focus of the Way and need to make an effort to get back.

And it’s something that we need to do often. Just as we repent and turn back to God on a daily basis with our personal sins, we need to examine ourselves as a church.

And it’s not the easiest thing to admit to. Rebuilding implies that we’re currently living in the ruins. Renewing means that our faith has grown old and worn. Reviving implies that we’re spiritually dead. These are not easy things to admit to, nor are they easy to even notice.

The elders have decided to focus on three major issues this year:

1. Evangelism
2. Unity
3. Spiritual Growth

These three topics have been chosen because its has been noticed that we can be doing a lot better at them.

So we’re going to look at different times in which God made his people confront the ruins they lived in, and what it takes for God’s people to build something worthy of his name.

This mornings focus will be on King Hezekiah and how he led the effort to Restore the Temple of God.

Enter Hezekiah

Hezekiah did not have an easy job when he took the throne.

• Assyria was on a rampage – one of their most recent conquests being the Northern 10 tribes of Israel
• Edom and Philistia had recently rebelled
• And the nation is filled with idols

In a situation like this we could expect most kings to have a list of priorities like:

• Shore up the defenses
• Strengthen the army
• Appease Assyria
• Put down the rebellions
• Or any other number of decisions a king needs to make.

But instead of all that, Hezekiah has one surprising goal in mind as the king – restore the temple in Jerusalem. And as a result he became one of the most successful kings in all of Israel.

As we struggle with the situations surrounding us as a church or in our own personal lives, it will be easy for us to get our priorities mixed up. There are a lot of appealing suggestions demanding our attention. But we’re going to take a page from Hezekiah’s playbook and see what his top three priorities were.

Priority No. 1: Cleansing

Priority no. 1 is clean up the temple.

2 Chronicles 29:3–5 ESV

³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. ⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east ⁵ and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place.

The temple had been shut up for a number of years. Now, Hezekiah wants to consecrate the Levites and commands them to carry out the filth from the holy place.  We see in verse 17 that it took them 16 days to carry all that filth out – and that filth was more than just dust and cobwebs. To understand just how bad the temple had gotten, we need to look at Hezekiah’s father, King Ahaz.

Ahaz faced the same situations of his son.

• Assyria, was conquering everybody and using their skin as wallpaper for the king’s palace
• So other nations were banding together and saying “Ahaz, if you don’t help us fight back against Assyria we’ll kill you and install a king who will.”

Ahaz decides if you can’t beat’em – join’em!

2 Chronicles 28:16 ESV

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help.

But that only backfires on him:

2 Chronicles 28:20 ESV

²⁰ So Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.

So if Assyria won’t help – maybe he’ll go the religious route:

2 Chronicles 28:22–23 ESV

²² In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz. ²³ For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.

Well that sounds pretty logical to most people. Damascus put the hurt on us, which means their gods are stronger than mine! So I’ll just ditch the God of Israel and worship my enemies gods in the hopes that they’ll like me more!

But in offering sacrifice to these idols, he ruined Israel.

That filth in the temple that Hezekiah cleaned out was everything Ahaz had placed his hopes in instead of the Living God of Israel. Hezekiah saw it for what it was.

It’s God or Bust

Hezekiah had quite a different approach. In his mind, it was God or bust. Hezekiah saw that all that the problems faced by Israel weren’t solved by foreign influence – they were made worse by it.

2 Chronicles 29:6–8 ESV

⁶ For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.

That’s the attitude we need to adopt in our work with God. We need to cleanse ourselves of the ideas that we need anything else but God to see his kingdom flourish.

There are countless books, blogs, and tweets that claim to have the secret to making a church successful, each with their own unique take on what drives church growth:

• Mission statements
• Targeted Advertising
• Big buildings
• Youth events
• Church apps
• There are entire business’ designed around critiquing you church and developing a game plan to revitalize it

I get a stupid email just about every other day from the same stupid company hosting webinars with titles like

• You won’t grow if you don’t do this!
• Your members are going to leave. Here’s how to stop that!
• Just give us money so we can tell you!

We can be faithless like Ahaz and trust in all of these gimmicks to do all these wonderful things.

We can be faithless like Ahaz and make compromises to be more attractive to the world. Relax those sexual ethics and tone down on the discipleship stuff. So many of those mega churches are mega because they peddle that soft comforting word. People are stressed out and just need to hear that God loves them just the way they are!

To do so would be to invite in all the filth that Hezekiah worked to throw out.

This might be a fringe belief, but personally, I think we should rely on the transformative power of God’s Spirit to transform this church into what it needs to be. That’s what we see happen in the book of Acts, right?

• Three thousand were added to the church on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 because Peter preached a hard message – You murdered the Son of God!
• The Lord added to their numbers because they were living Gospel fueled lives.
• They didn’t need any gimmick as they went house to house preaching the word of God.
• And when faced by opposition they didn’t reassess if their preaching needed to be friendlier.

As Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

1 Corinthians 2:1–2 ESV

¹ And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. ² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

For Paul, it was Jesus or bust!

It should be in our hearts, as it was in Hezekiah’s to make a covenant…

2 Chronicles 29:10 ESV

¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

Living by the wisdom of the world and trusting in their techniques will get us as far as Ahaz got with Assyria and his idols. We’re here to grow God’s kingdom, God’s way. Cleanse out the filth!

Priority no. 2: Seeking

Now that the temple is functional, Hezekiah wants to put it to use.

Priority no. 2 is to celebrate the Passover.

2 Chronicles 30:1 ESV

¹ Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel.

But there are a number of obstacles in the way.

First, nobody wants to come.

2 Chronicles 30:10 ESV

¹⁰ So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.

The people of Israel had been beaten down so much by the Assyrians, by Damascus, the Edomites, the Philistines, and everybody else – that the idea of celebrating God as their savior and deliverer was laughable.

The second obstacle was that the people were all unclean.

2 Chronicles 30:17–18 CSB

¹⁷ for there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, and so the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the Lord. ¹⁸ A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—were ritually unclean, yet they had eaten the Passover contrary to what was written.

Now we have Israel about to celebrate the Passover to God contrary to what was written.

What’s written, is that they were supposed to be ritually clean for this feast.

Leviticus 7:19–20 CSB

¹⁹ “Meat that touches anything unclean must not be eaten; it is to be burned. Everyone who is clean may eat any other meat. ²⁰ But the one who eats meat from the Lord’s fellowship sacrifice while he is unclean, that person must be cut off from his people.

What’s also written, is that they were supposed to have it during the first month of their year. And if they didn’t…

Numbers 9:13 ESV

¹³ But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the Lord’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.

But Hezekiah and his people are celebrating it in the second month, with all of their uncleaness.

2 Chronicles 30:13 ESV

¹³ And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly.

Now that sounds dangerous to me. We’re very aware of how demanding God is when it comes to his worship. Nadab and Abihu offered the wrong fire and were killed. Uzzah reached out to touch the Ark of the Covenant, because it was about to fall, and he died. Wouldn’t it be safer to wait and get all of this done next year? Maybe the people’s hearts will have changed and there will be a bigger crowd. They’ll make sure to cleanse themselves and celebrate right – just not right now.

Hezekiah could have rationalized and postponed – but he was desperate to seek God, even in less than ideal circumstances.

In the letter that he wrote, appealing for the Israelites to come worship, he ends with this phrase:

2 Chronicles 30:9 ESV

⁹ For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”

If you’re returning to him, if you’re seeking after him, even in your weakness and failings, God is gracious and won’t reject you. And that’s exactly what we see when the people come to worship.

2 Chronicles 30:18–20 (ESV)

¹⁸ … For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone ¹⁹ who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.” ²⁰ And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

Hearts Set On God

If we want to rebuild, we can’t let sub-optimal conditions stop us.

After I finished my training here back in 2018 I went to preach down in Conway at the Eastside church of Christ – and it was far from ideal. There were 19 of us, including Arianne and myself, and we were the youngest by about 40 years.. The month before I got there two of them got upset over something and left. The month after I got there two more sold their home and moved up here.

It didn’t seem like the optimal place to grow God’s kingdom.

But what made that church so special in those first couple of years was that they had set their hearts on seeking God and doing his work. We started inviting people – over 300 in the first 6 months that I was there. And within 18 months that little group of 15 retirees had grown to 45.

The optimal time to serve God is now. As the Preacher of Ecclesiastes writes:

Ecclesiastes 11:4–6 ESV

⁴ He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. ⁵ As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. ⁶ In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

We can’t let our weakness hold us hostage, saying:

• I can’t evangelize until I learn more
• We can’t grow until we get a better building
• I can’t do more until I finish college, get married, get settled, establish my business, or whatever

We kick the can down the road and make ourselves feel better by always thinking “At least I’m not just ignoring it!”

The constant delay of serving God is not seeking him. The heart that is set on God is going to drop anything and everything to lay hold of him. We have to drop our excuses, whatever it is that’s stopping us from serving our God.

Priority no. 3: Serving

Priority no. 3 of Hezekiah – maintain a sacrificial lifestyle.

2 Chronicles 31:3–7 ESV

³ The contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings: the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed feasts, as it is written in the Law of the Lord. ⁴ And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the Law of the Lord. ⁵ As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. ⁶ And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps. ⁷ In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.

The cleansing of the temple and the celebration of the Passover were two big events that oriented Israel in the right direction. But facing the right direction isn’t the same as walking in it. If Hezekiah and all the people of Israel had cleansed and celebrated, good job, high-fives all around, and just left it at that – they would have just slipped right back into idolatry.

Hezekiah made his own contribution for the burnt offerings:

• Morning
• Evening
• Sabbath
• New Moon
• Appointed feasts

My wife and I bought a quarter of a cow for our freezer last year – it was pricey. And we didn’t even get the whole cow! Hezekiah is giving up at the bare minimum 14 of those every single week.

And then he commands the people to give as well: wine, oil, honey, livestock, you name it! and we’re told that they gave abundantly. So much that they had to start piling it in heaps and heaps of all that they tithed.

And what this did was allow the temple complex to function. One of the challenges in celebrating the Passover was that there weren’t enough priests! But now with the regular tithe we could read in verses 11-19 how the entire priesthood is now supported and the temple is flourishing. With this support from king to peasant all going to God they were ensuring that the idols would have a hard time ensnaring them again.

• Regular feasts were held at the temple
• Worship was given exclusively to him
• There was now a network of priests and Levites who could live outside the cities of Jerusalem and help instruct the people -guarding against pagan influences.

Skin in the Game

There’s no point in rebuilding unless we are also in the business of maintaining. If you want to maintain your relationship with God, it’s going to mean sacrifice.

And I want to you to know that I’m not really interested in talking about how much money your giving on Sunday. Our contribution is one of the lest of my concerns for this church. We have no problem maintaining this building, two preachers, and any other expenses we incur.

I want to know what you’re willing to sacrifice to God in other areas to maintain that relationship.

• We have an evangelism class. Are you willing to sacrifice a weeknight to develop that skill?
• We’re supposed to be inviting people to church and for bible studies. Are you going to sacrifice a moment of comfort to ask them?
• We have a bible reading program this year. Are you going to sacrifice the time to sit down and let God talk to you? I don’t even care if you listen to the podcast – I just want you to read the bible!

Because if you’re not willing to make those sacrifices it doesn’t matter how much money we put in the basket. We’ll just end up as a little dying church with a big bank account.

Conclusion

Hezekiah could have done any of number of things to keep Jerusalem and his people safe. But he decided to seek the kingdom of God first.Let’s see how that all turned out for him.

In 2 Chronicles 32, it all comes down to the wire. The Assyrians have surrounded Jerusalem. Behind them is a long campaign of brutal victories over everyone else who tried standing up to them. And listen to what the Assyrians say to Hezekiah:

2 Chronicles 32:10–15 ESV

¹⁰ “Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘On what are you trusting, that you endure the siege in Jerusalem? ¹¹ Is not Hezekiah misleading you, that he may give you over to die by famine and by thirst, when he tells you, “The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”? ¹² Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, “Before one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn your sacrifices”? ¹³ Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand? ¹⁴ Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? ¹⁵ Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!’ ”

The threat can be summed up in two points:

1. Your God has probably abandoned you
2. And even if he hasn’t, he’s still no match for us

To the first point we only need to look at three passages:

As the people are cleansing the temple:

2 Chronicles 29:36 ESV

³⁶ And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had provided for the people, for the thing came about suddenly.

As they are celebrating Passover while unclean

2 Chronicles 30:20 ESV

²⁰ And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

And as they strive to maintain the worship of the temple:

2 Chronicles 31:10 ESV

¹⁰ Azariah the chief priest, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the Lord, we have eaten and had enough and have plenty left, for the Lord has blessed his people, so that we have this large amount left.”

It might be easy to think that in in the midst of rebuilding, that God would be mad at us. That he would be disappointed that we had fallen and needed to pick up the pieces. But God doesn’t show up only after the temple had been restored. He had been right there cleansing it with them.

To the Assyrians second point, that God was no match for the Assyrian army:

2 Chronicles 32:20–22 ESV

²⁰ Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. ²¹ And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. ²² So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side.

Right now Satan in out there tempting and taunting us:

• That we would do better to serve other gods or other methods
• That we can’t rebuild and should wait to do it next year
• That it’s all too costly and tiring

And God is telling us that if we’ll establish our covenant with him, set our heart to seek him, and commit to a lifestyle of serving him, then we’ll see the enemies of God humiliated.

If we want God to be with us, all we have to do is get started.

Are you in?