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Spiritual Leadership

Ezra 7

Introduction:

• Chapter 6 ends with Darius on the throne.

• There is a 59-65 year span between the chapters and the Temple being completed.

• It is during the space between these two chapters that the book of Esther occurs.

• It has been about 85 years since the first wave of Jews has returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel.

• We are looking at the return of the second group of Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem.

• About 4,000-5,000 are returning with Ezra.

Read all of Ezra 7

Vs. 1-5

·         This is the genealogy of Ezra.  He wants us to know that his lineage goes all the way back to Aaron, the first High Priest.

·         Now he is going to tell us about his spiritual leadership.

·         Ezra wants us to understand how God views spiritual leadership and what is required by God.

·         Ezra also wants us to know that Phinehas, blessed for his faithfulness in Numbers, is in his genealogy.

Vs. 6

• All of the great men and women of God were people of the Written Word.

• This is the “hand of the Lord” working!

• Ezra will repeat this throughout his book.

• This is the first and foremost quality of a true spiritual leader, not prancing around saying that they are a spiritual leader.  A true spiritual leader has the hand of the Lord upon them!

• The first result of spiritual leadership is that God will favor you and watch over you!

• Whether you are a housewife, mother, father, whatever you do, if you will choose to spiritually lead your family God will place his favor upon you.

• My greatest fear would be that I would lose God’s favor on my life!

• I want to walk clean and pure before the Lord because I want “His hand” upon me.

• If God lifts his hand, I perish.

• Don’t have secrets!!  The hand of God will lift if you are harboring secrets.

Vs. 7-9

• Ezra travels 1000 miles over 4 months to teach a Bible Study…Now that’s dedication!

Vs. 10

• This is an autobiographical statement about himself.

• We see here the qualities of spiritual leadership.

• Ezra wants us to see the secret to his power and his calling before God.

• Nothing is mentioned of his personality because God uses any personality, any talents and skills. What God is looking for is the character of the leader.

2 Chronicles 16:9

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars."

• Ezra firmly set his heart to do three things!

• Ezra shares with us what God is looking for in spiritual leadership, the kind of leadership that He blesses: 

• A leader that studies, obeys, and teaches the Word of God.

Ezra Prepared his Heart (Not Just His Head) to Seek the Law of God.

• If we treat God’s Word as a textbook, we will study this book as some kind of history text. If our hearts are not open to obey what we read, we will become Pharisees and Hypocrites.

• We will miss the heart of the Word.

• Ezra set his heart by sitting before God’s Word and meditating in it.

• He sought God, not just the tenses of verbs and nouns, not just the history of the passage, but he went after God.

• He studied the Word of God with a prepared heart.

The Psalmist writes, (Psalms 25:4-5)

Show me Your ways, O LORD;

Teach me Your paths.

5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation;

On You I wait all the day.

• Do you see the direction of this man?  The direction is heavenward…it is a longing to know God, not just know the written word.

• The written word should lead us to the Living Word.

• Ezra first of all sought the Living Word through the written word.

Ezra Studied the Word of God in Order to Obey It.

• The core of Ezra’s study was so he could obey God.

• The Hebrew word for obedience means “to listen”.

• A spiritual leader is one who listens to God through the Word.

Psalms 1

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

3 He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

• The true spiritual leader is one who has his life directed by meditating in God’s Word and acting upon it.

• Many people study the Bible, and some of these people become scholars. But the spiritual leader is one who obeys God’s Word.

• Spiritual leadership is absorption and then application!

• Jesus said those who are his true disciples are those who “hear my Word and do it”.

Ezra Teaches the Word

• It is interesting that if we look at the leadership gifts of a pastor given in         1 Timothy 3, we read all about character.

1 Timothy 3:1-7

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

• The only ministry gift given is that he be able to teach.

• If a spiritual leader can’t teach, he can’t lead!

• Leadership, coaching, mentoring, fathering, mothering, all requires that you be able to transmit the vision and values of your belief system.

Acts 6:1-6

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. 2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

• The priority of the pastorate is prayer and the teaching of God’s Word.