Now if you are familiar with the book of Ezra, you would not be unfamiliar with the many names in this book. And so thank you very much Brother Yap for doing the hard work for us and reading all the difficult names. Alright, so I want to begin by asking those of you who are mountain climbers or hill climbers or those who like to go on hiking. You would know that the tough part when you are hiking up a mountain, it’s usually when you are you know huffing and puffing and climbing up to the top.

But once you reach the top of the hill or the mountain and you make your way down, generally it is less challenging or less tough than when you first you know climb up the mountain. I say that’s a general rule. For some of the older ones, climbing down would be a bit more difficult. The knee not enough cartilage. And so for that, need to ask Brother Michael for remedy. So I say that is the general rule. The upward ascend is usually tougher than a downward descent. And I say, that is related to you know hiking or mountain climbing.

But as we come to Scripture, as we come to the Bible, well it is a totally different thing altogether. Now it is almost as if there is no point of descent when you read the Bible because the Bible brings you to newer and to higher heights every time you open of it and every time you read of what is contained in it. And so it is with us this morning as we come to the close in fact of this entire book that we have been looking at for a number of weeks. The book of Ezra, we come to the last chapter in this book. Ezra chapter 10.

And you would have thought that you know we’re coming to the end of the chapter, the end of the book, the last chapter of this book, you know we should come to a comfortable closure. But not so alright- not so. On the contrary, we come to I would say a particularly difficult chapter not just in this book of Ezra, not just in the Old Testament, but I say in the entire Bible itself. And so this chapter is one that has had its fair share of controversy or you know discussion among theologians, preachers of old, historians. And so it is to this chapter that we come this morning. I say it’s appropriate before we consider this chapter to ask God for help. Now let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we recognise that we are finite creatures, that we are created beings coming before You, the infinite God, having in front of us divine truth. And so we pray that even as we come to consider this chapter, we ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds, to grant understanding so that as we depart from this place we would have said that we have not just met with the words in the Scripture but we have met with the true and the living God. We commit this time before You, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Now saying that this passage of Scripture here that has just been read to you is one that has had its fair share of you know discussion and debate in the past. And I’m sure you would want to know why. Now, why is that so? Is there a reason why this passage has been you know debated and discussed? And so if you’ve been following the reading of the narrative a while ago, not sure what went through your mind. Maybe you felt a little unsure. Maybe a little unclear. You’ll be confused, don’t know what to make out of this passage. Or now if you’re Uncle Kian Ming, you say: Oh, no problem. All very clear, very good.

And I say it wouldn’t be strange for you to think that way. It wouldn’t be strange for you to feel that way because as we come to this chapter (now Ezra chapter 10), what we are coming to and what we see in this passage is for lack of a better phrase. What we see in this passage is a scene of mass divorce. What we see in this passage is a scene of mass divorce. Now you look at just verse 19 in Ezra chapter 10, he says: “And they gave their promise that they would put away their wives”.

So clearly you see just in this verse itself there is a group of people coming together as a group, doing something to a group of women, their wives. And so here is a scene of mass divorce. I guess not many of us will know that there is such a chapter in the Bible. Now you have the faith chapter in Hebrews 11. Then you have the love chapter in First Corinthians 13. And then you have the Word chapter in Psalm 119. And then you have the mass divorce chapter in Ezra chapter 10.

Now and the more astounding thing is as you were probably following just now, the more astounding thing is that it seemed like this was the right thing to do. Well, this was the right thing to do. So as I’ve mentioned, this chapter is one that certainly has you know confounded great man in the past. And so as we come this morning, let us take a look at Ezra chapter 10 and see what really is the story here. What is this man Ezra trying to tell us in this chapter? Now we will just have two points this morning as we consider this chapter. Just two points. And point number one is this. Point number one, a penetrating conviction. A penetrating conviction.

Look at verse 1: “Now while Ezra was praying, and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large congregation of men, women, and children assembled to him from Israel; for the people wept very bitterly.”. Now let’s first recall what is going on here. Now you know Ezra has just come back with the second wave of exiles. He led the second wave of exiles back. And before he was able to even settle down (I would say before even the second wave of exiles were able to settle down), the leaders of the first wave came to him with a problem.

They said: Ezra, we have a problem. And the problem is what we have noted in Ezra chapter 9 a couple of weeks ago. The problem is that the people or the Jews that came back have intermarried, intermingled with the pagan wives of the land. They’ve intermarried with the pagan women of the land. And this was against what God has commanded (we saw that in the past chapter). Now at this news, we knew that Ezra was devastated. He was utterly distressed. He couldn’t believe his ears. He knew that this was a sin. This was clearly a sin. It was an obvious sin.

In fact, this was the sin that had caused so much of the problems and the troubles to the nation of Israel before that. Now we knew that King Solomon took pagan wives, and the nation of Israel was split into two- the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. And the Northern Kingdom continued in this lifestyle of pagan taking of wives. And after that, they practiced idolatry. They offered abominable worship to God to the extent of even sacrificing their children to the pagan god, Molech. And God was very angry with them, took them, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity as a result of the punishment of God.

Now the Southern Kingdom was not any better alright. They did the same thing, they were disobedient to God, and idolatry was rampant. And ultimately these two kingdoms were taken away into exile all because of the influence of these pagan nations and the intermarrying of the pagans by the Israelites. And that was what happened in the past. And now after seventy years of discipline, after seventy years of exile, after seventy years of being taken into captivity, these people they now come back to Jerusalem. And are they again you know repeating the same sins that their forefathers have done?

I mean how can that be? That’s why Ezra responded like what he did in Ezra chapter 9. How can that be? I mean how much more patience should God be with the Jews? How much more patient should God be with you and me for repeating, again and again, our sins? And I say that’s the reason why Ezra was literally speechless. Now we saw that all in Ezra 9. But coming to Ezra chapter 10, what I want you to note is the first or the second part of verse 1 in Ezra chapter 10 which says that there was “a very large congregation of men, women, and children who assembled to him from Israel; for the people wept very bitterly”.

Now here was a group of people- men, women, and children who recognised the folly of their ways, who knew that they were wrong, that they had done something terrible, that they had sinned. In fact, they actually didn’t need anybody to tell them that they had sinned. Up until this point, Ezra hasn’t directly addressed them yet. He hasn’t addressed the people. We saw in the previous chapter he mourned, he fasted, he plucked out the hair of his head and his beard, and he was distressed. But he hasn’t directly addressed them yet.

But yet the people here, they knew. They knew that they have done something wrong. And very often that is the case with us, right? We don’t actually need people to come and confront us directly. Most of the time, we know that we have sinned. We know in the deepest recess of our hearts with through what is called conscience that we have sinned against God. Now we know that. We know that, and yet this is what we see. Ezra hasn’t spoken a word yet, but they knew. I think here was a group of people who were deeply convicted of their sin. And so I said that they had this penetrating conviction of sin.

Now let me ask you: Have you been deeply convicted of your sin before? Have you been deeply convicted of your sin before? Have you had such a strong conviction of your sin that you can associate with the Jews here in verse 1: “for the people wept very bitterly”? Now when was the last time you wept over your sin? When was the last time you cried out to God: Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? But here we see a group of people who were convicted, who were aware of the sin that they have committed.

I say if you have never had that experience, that personal encounter of your sin, then you have never had a penetrating conviction of your sin alright. In fact, the chapter in Acts chapter 2 when Peter stood up and addressed the crowd and he told them that they have sinned by crucifying the Lord of glory, what was their response? Their response was that they were cut through the heart. And they said: Men and brethren, what must we do to be saved?

So that is the penetrating conviction. They were cut to the heart. They were pierced within. And that is what we see in the first verse of Ezra 10. Now verse 2. Verse 2: “And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God”. We have trespassed against our God. Now that must be the first sign that the Holy Spirit is working in a person. It’s that recognition that I as sinful men have wrong holy God.

How many of us here can say that I have trespassed against God, I’ve trespassed against a holy God? Again and again, we see that pattern in Scripture. And David says to God: Against You and You only have I sinned. Now we know that he didn’t just sin against God, he did sin against his fellow Israelites as well. But that was the recognition that he has trespassed God. There’s a recognition that there is the commission of sin that is first and foremost you know against God.

In fact, Jesus Himself said in the beatitudes. What is the first beatitude? The first beatitude is “blessed are the poor in spirit”. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed. Happy is the man who recognises his spiritual bankruptcy that he comes before God, knowing that he is a spiritual bankrupt. He has got nothing good in himself. He is a sinner. He is a convicted sinner. I say until you can see that; until you can see that you are a sinner; until you have been convicted of the sin that is in you, then you will never see the need for help. You never see the need for the Saviour.

So that’s the first point- a penetrating conviction. This then leads us to the second point. The second point would cover really the rest of the entire chapter. Now we’ve looked at the penetrating conviction, let us now look at a profound cost. A profound cost, that is from verse 3 all the way to verse 44. I want to first say at the outset that what we are seeing here in Ezra chapter 10, this is not a chapter that condones mass divorce. This is not a chapter that condones mass divorce. In fact, this is not even a chapter that permits divorce. And you say how so?

Now turn with me to the last book of the Old Testament- the book of Malachi in chapter 2. Malachi chapter 2, now you see Malachi also is a prophet that came after the period of the exile. Likewise is Ezra. And so between Ezra and Malachi, there is not too much of a time difference, you might say. So here is a prophet speaking to the people just as Ezra spoke to the people. Malachi 2:16, here’s what he says in verse 16: “For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” says the LORD of hosts.

Now here are two people coming at around the same time. Malachi is saying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God hates divorce. God hates divorce, that is the Old Testament. But in the New Testament itself, now Jesus himself addressed this issue if you turn with me to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19, the famous passage that is always read in weddings. Matthew chapter 19, now we know that this is a passage that speaks to you know people like to quote and say that you know: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? And so what God has joined together, let not man separate.”.

But in the context, actually, Jesus was talking about divorce. Jesus was talking about this subject of divorce because, in verse 3 of Matthew 19, the Pharisees were trying to test Jesus and say that: Is it lawful for them for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? And I want you to look at verse 8. Verse 8 is what Jesus is saying. Jesus said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”. And so let’s be clear. From the beginning, God’s good plan at the start of creation was not divorced.

Why did this come about? It came about because of the hardness of your heart. That’s what Jesus is trying to say. So divorce was never a part of God’s good plan for humanity. So this came about simply because of the presence of sin. In this day and age, you see divorce almost as it’s just an option or a choice that people make. I’m sure if you have been following the news, you would know that even in this past week one of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates just divorced his wife, following a long line of richest men in the world divorcing their wives. And so the world kind of glorifies now things like this.

But we saw in Malachi that God hates divorce and in Matthew chapter 19 that Jesus has said that divorce was never a part of God’s good plan. It was because of sin, because of the hardness of your heart. And so as we come back to Ezra chapter 10, what is this portion of passage in Ezra trying to tell us? How do we square? How do we put together all these you know truths that are taught in the Scripture? How do you make sense of this?

I want to first say that as we, you know approach this passage that let’s remember that what we are looking here in Ezra chapter 10 is a portion of passage that is descriptive rather than prescriptive in nature. Here’s a descriptive portion of passage rather than a prescriptive portion of passage. In other words, this is a chapter that is describing to us something that happened, that took place at a particular point of time in God’s history. Now it is not prescribing a command or telling us that this is what you need to do.

So I think we need to be clear about that first. And so it will be very unwise, I would say. It will be very incorrect for us to pluck this passage out of the entire biblical narrative and say that hey, we can do this and we can do that or we cannot do this and we cannot do that. Now it would be unwise because we have to read this verse in the context of a paragraph, paragraph in the context of the chapter, the chapter in the context of the book, and the book of course in the context of the entire Bible.

And so let’s not try to you know just pluck out like this and then try to apply it to our daily lives. Now people who do that tend to fall into one of two camps. You either fall into a legalistic camp or you fall into heretical camp. And both are not good as well. And so this is where biblical theology is important. So what we are looking here is a passage of Scripture that is descriptive. And you have examples like these in the Bible as well. You think about the story of Gideon who put the fleece out and try to ask God for a sign. If there’s dew on the fleece, I’ll do this. If there’s no dew on the fleece, I’ll do this.

Or more famous example would be you know the tongues in the book of Acts (Acts chapter 2) where the people tend to say that hey, here is a group of people you know they are speaking in tongues, failing to recognise that this is describing events that are happening at a certain point of time in history. And so I think we need to at least see that first. And I say that’s where biblical theology is important. It’s important to see the biblical narrative as we consider Scripture.

So as I highlighted in my second point, I believe what Ezra is trying to tell us here is that there is a profound cost. There is a profound cost for you and for me to call ourselves a Christian, to live out our Christian lives. There is a profound cost to live out our Christian life the way God wants us to do. I say you see something is not right with the people in Ezra chapter 10. Something is not right with the people. They know that something is not right. They have sinned against God, and now they want they want to put things right. In other words, they want to right the wrong.

Now that was their attitude, at least in the first few verses you would have noted that. That was their attitude, and I said that is a good attitude to have. That is the mark of a truly repentant heart. Now here is a response from the Jews to the conviction that they have sinned against God, that they have wronged the almighty God. And in our second point, we are noting here that there is a profound cost to that. There is a profound cost to that. Now, do you know that there is a profound cost involved in calling yourself a Christian?

You know that you call yourself a Christian, that means something. Or maybe to some of us here, doesn’t mean anything. It’s just another name that is tagged to the back of my, you know, formal name. Now let’s look at verse 3, Ezra chapter 10: “Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. Arise, for this matter is your responsibility. We also are with you. Be of good courage, and do it.”.

Now notice here in just these two verses that these are not the words of Ezra. Now here are not the words of Ezra. Now, these are the words of one of the men by the name of Shechaniah. These were the words of one of the men who was mourning there with Ezra by the name of Shechaniah. Shechaniah was the son of a man called Elam. Now Elam’s name is mentioned at the end of the list that was just read to you a while ago. His name was mentioned there. He was one of those who had taken pagan wives.

And so it is not as if when you read this chapter, it’s not as if Ezra is issuing a top-down command from the top to ask the people to now separate from your wives. I mean that is not the case. But rather there is I say a burden in the hearts of the people that rise up as a result of the deep conviction, the penetrating conviction that they have sinned against God. You see, what we are doing is wrong, and we need to make things right. We need to make this right.

Then verse 5: “Then Ezra arose, and made the leaders of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear an oath that they would do according to this word. So they swore an oath. Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity.”.

From here I hope you can see the heart of this man Ezra. Now here is Ezra knowing the problem. Here is Ezra thinking about the potential solution. And he didn’t just say yes, you people, you are all wrong, you’re sinful. Why did you intermarry with pagan wives? I mean you didn’t learn your lesson from your forefather? But that was not how he responded. He knew that this was clearly a sensitive issue. He was talking about relationships here. He was clearly saddened, and he ate no bread, he drank no water, for he moaned because of the guilt of those from the captivity.

But he was deeply distressed because this is no small thing. Sin is never a small thing. This is no small thing, and he knew. That’s why he was so troubled. He was so distressed about what is happening. And I think here is something that we can learn as well. When we deal with people who’s aware, who’s convicted of their sin, do we rush in straight away and condemn and you know try to make things right immediately? I think that at some point we need to kind of take a step back, pause. Think on behalf of the person or the group of people that you are ministering to, knowing that hey, this is a group of people or here is someone that’s deeply convicted of his or her sin.

So I think that is something that is good for us to note. Now verse 7. Verse 7: “And they issued a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of the captivity, that they must gather at Jerusalem, and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the instructions of the leaders and elders, all his property would be confiscated, and he himself would be separated from the assembly of those from the captivity.”. Now the oath is this that all the people must gather at Jerusalem and not one more, not one less.

He says if you were a descendant of those who returned from the exile (which really covers everybody because, at this point, there’s only the first wave of exile left), now you had to gather at Jerusalem. You had to gather at Jerusalem. Now verse 9: “So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month; and all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of heavy rain.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have transgressed and have taken pagan wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now therefore, make confession to the LORD God of your fathers, and do His will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the pagan wives.” Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, “Yes! As you have said, so we must do.”. Now again notice that this was not something imposed by Ezra top down. There is a recognition from the people, a sense of needing to put right the situation.

And they said with a loud voice: “Yes! As you have said, so we must do.”. We agree that this is what we need to do. And what was the thing that they needed to do? Verse 11: “to separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the pagan wives”. Now immediately I think someone would say: Oh, that is so cruel. We can almost hear that response. That is so cruel, how can you do that? Now some of them even had children, you look at verse 44. Verse 44: “All these had taken pagan wives (referring to the men that the names that were read), and some of them had wives by whom they had children.”.

Now, these are people who have families. They have had children. How is this a noble thing? How is this a correct thing to do? Now but let us remember the context again. Now the Jews have just returned to Jerusalem and they were to be a holy nation, a separate people, now utterly separated from the people of the land, from the pagans. And so if at this point of time they intermingled and they intermarried with the pagans and are unchecked, now what is the risk? 

What is the danger there? Now the danger is that the Jews will lose their identity all over again. They will lose their identity. And what is the greater impact? That has an impact on the coming Messiah because we know that it was prophesied that the Messiah would come from the line of Judah, the line of David. But here if at this point these were left unchecked, now there is an impact on the coming Messiah. And that is from the perspective of the Jews. And from the perspective of the pagan wives, they in a sense have a family to turn back to care for alright.

And so in those days, it wasn’t as if you know the man would just leave the wives and the family and just say that hey, I have nothing to do with you. You’re on your own. That’s it. I’m going away. And then they’re on their own and they’re supposed to fend for themselves. And whatever happens to them, who knows? Now it’s not like that because we have every reason to believe based upon historical documentation and based upon even biblical narratives that you know the separated woman and the separated family would be able to return to the father’s house to be cared for there, to be protected there.

Now you see for example in the story of Ruth and Orpah. These were both pagan wives that were taken from the land of Moab, and their husbands died. But what did Naomi tell them? Go back. You go back to your father. I’ve no more sons for you. Just go back. Go back to your father. Be cared for there, to be protected there. And so from the perspective of the Jews, I said you know that there is a risk that the holy identity will be lost. There’s a risk that the coming Messiah will be impacted. And from the perspective of the pagan wives, it is not a cruel throw you off the street kind of not caring about you, kind of scenario.

And so I think let us remember that that is what we are seeing here that there is this thing that is happening. And also I’ve mentioned that here is a descriptive passage of Scripture, not a prescriptive passage. And it was at a specific point of time in history. And today, what you see here in Ezra chapter 10 is no grounds for divorce. Now, whatever that you read in Ezra 10 cannot be used as the model for divorce or mass divorce today now because today we know that separation or divorce is only permitted under two reasons.

Number one is under the grounds of adultery or unfaithfulness. Secondly is if the unbelieving partner chooses to leave. Now but even in those cases, I say it is never to be quickly encouraged. Now, this is a sensitive issue that we’re dealing with. It is a relationship issue, and so we need to be slow when we talk about things like these. We have the words of Paul and of Jesus to guide us today. And so again let’s remember you know the background, the context of what we are seeing here.

But again as we come to consider here, I mean I believe what Ezra is trying to do. I mean the reason why we are having this tension or this struggle, now Ezra is highlighting to us the struggle or the tension in this story that points to the fact that there is a great cost involved in living out your Christian life the way God wants you to live. Now there is a great cause involved in being a Christian. Not sure if you have given much thought to this that there is a great cost involved in calling yourself a Christian, as to what it means to call yourself a Christian.

You know that there is a profound meaning in naming the name of Christ. But then sadly in this day and age, in our culture today, that meaning is very much lost. To some people, the definition of a Christian is simply because my parents are Christians and so I am a Christian. To some others, the name Christian or the title Christian simply is used to fill in an application form. You fill in the form, what is your religion? You just put a Christian. For some others, it is perhaps saying that I’ve once prayed a prayer, I’ve walked down an aisle, I have you know repented once of my sin in a revival event, and so I am a Christian.

Now you see, these are some of the world’s ideas of Christianity, but there is really just like another option or another choice. I’m a Christian, you are a Buddhist, and he is a Muslim like that. But not so much as we have just seen. Now Jesus himself told us to count the cost. Now there is a cost to Christian discipleship. There is a cost. I say yes there is a cost to separate- separate. Now using this word ‘separate’ as the title of our sermon this morning. There is a cost to separate. There’s a cost to separate from worldliness. You will be hated by the world, that is the cost.

And there is a cost to separate from idolatry. Now you may be viewed as narrow-minded, and that is the cost. See, there is a cost to separate from loving money. Now you may not be able to enjoy all the things that this world has to offer. There is a cost to separate from unrighteousness. You may be left alone in this world. Now that is the cost. Now for the Jews here, there is a cost. And the cost meant separating from their pagan wives, giving up their ungodly ways of living, leaving their you know past passions behind, and preserving their holy identity. Now that was the cost for the Jews, and we asked the Jews: Was it worth it? Was it worth it what they did?

Now ask yourself: Are these things worth it? Now how about we ask the Apostle Paul? Now turn with me to the New Testament in the book of Philippians. Let’s ask Paul was it worth it in Philippians chapter 3. In Philippians chapter 3, let me read verse 7 and verse 8. Now here are the words of the Apostle Paul. Now he says: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”.

Now, how many times did you see the word ‘count’? Counted loss, count this as loss, counted this as rubbish, count this as suffered the loss. Now you see Paul, the Apostle Paul was ready to count his years of study, of hard work and hard labour to attain the fame and the success and the knowledge that he had. And we know that the Apostle Paul is not a silly man. Now he is a brilliant man. In fact, he would have been a Ph.D. of our days. He studied under a renowned teacher and he was smart at a very young age. He showed much zeal, but he was ready to count all those things that he has achieved and attained as loss now for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ.

So he was ready to leave all those aside simply to be associated with Christ. Now looks like it was worth it for the Apostle Paul. Now is it worth it for you? Now back to Ezra chapter 10. Ezra 10:16- “Then the descendants of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of the fathers’ households, were set apart by the fathers’ households, each of them by name; and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.”. Verse 17: “By the first day of the first month they finished questioning all the men who had taken pagan wives.”.

And then the verses that follow, verse 18 to the end of the chapter. In fact, verse 20 onwards gives us the names of those people that paid the price of wanting to do what was right of obeying God. So here were these people who recognised their sin, they repented of their sin and they resolved to do what was right in God’s sight, resolved to obeying what He commanded. A profound cost. It is indeed a profound cost. Now there is a profound cost in being a Christian.

For some of us today, now the cost may be hostility and ridicule from the people that are closest to us- your family, your closest friends, your relatives. That is the hostility that you will face for naming the name of Christ. Now we know that for some others in some other parts of the world, to become a Christian is almost like a death sentence. You probably won’t have many more years left on your calendar if you associate yourself with Christ. Think about Christians in countries like Iran and Iraq, Saudi Arabia. I mean if you come out and say that I’m a Christian, your life is in danger.

Now for some others, it could be the loss of one’s job, loss of promotional opportunity, loss of monetary wealth, rejection. As I mentioned from an immediate community, from your immediate support system, you find yourself alone. I think that may be the cost. Now I recall the recent session that we had with Pastor Thompson Chung, the pastor in Hong Kong. Now he mentioned that he personally knew people, now young people in Pakistan. Now he knew them who were ostracised. They were ostracised because they claimed the name of Christ. Now they came out, they were not able to find a job that is on par with what they have studied. They were not paid the amount that they have studied and earned for.

So that is the cost to these people who are in Pakistan- cost of discipleship. You see J.C. Ryle, the Anglican pastor once said this. He said: “It costs something to be a true Christian. It will cost us our sins, our self-righteousness, our ease, and our worldliness.” It will cost us our sins, our self-righteousness, our ease, and our worldliness. Are you ready? Are you prepared to separate from your sins, your self-righteousness, your ease, and your worldliness? How many of us here can say with Martin Luther in his beloved hymn that “let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also”?

Well, he sums up everything, now let goods (material possessions) and kindred (relationships). Now what we saw in Ezra chapter 10, even his own life, let all these go for the cost of Christ. So at this point, I want to ask if you have examined your own life and asked the question: Have I really given up anything for the sake of Christ? Call myself a Christian? If somebody asks you: Can you name something that you have had to forgo for the sake of Christ? Anything, anything at all? Can you think of something? Can you name something?

If your answer is no or if you’re struggling to even think of something, then perhaps there’s something to be concerned about, to be examined because I wonder if that may mean that you are maybe too comfortable with the world, with the things of the world. Or maybe you still think that there’s no cost in following Jesus. See, the Jews here were willing to let go of some of the closest and the dearest thing that they have- their relationships, their families. 

What is the cost? What’s the cost of following Jesus? Now let me turn you to just one last passage in the New Testament and hear the words of Jesus in Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, now these are the words of our Lord, a familiar passage as well. Luke 14:26, Jesus says: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”. Now don’t be mistaken. Jesus is not demanding that you go back and literally start you know dishonouring your parents or you know ignoring your loved ones and hating your family.

Now but here what Jesus is doing is using a figure of speech called hyperbole. Here he is trying to illustrate the cost of following Christ and that to be a true follower of Christ, there is a profound cost. There is a profound cost. Here the cost could be relationships, which is clearly stated here in these two verses. And then Jesus goes on to say in verse 33: “so likewise”. Or in verse 28 first: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it”, employing you know the example of construction.

Now, who starts a construction program or a construction project without sitting down, taking out your spreadsheet, listing down if you have enough money, you have enough time, enough resources, enough labour before you even start laying the first brick? Now you don’t do that if you are building something. And so here is Jesus saying likewise before you call yourself a Christian, why don’t you sit down first and count the cost? Sit down and count the cost.

Are you prepared to let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also? Reason, verse 33: “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”. And so if you sit down and you put together the spreadsheet, what is the cost? Jesus says the cost is all, everything. All. If you are not prepared to let all go, you cannot be My disciple. Here is the negative. You cannot, not you may not. You cannot. If you want to be a disciple of Christ, there is a cost.

Now but the comforting thing is that a true follower of Jesus, a true follower of Christ will gladly. He will gladly, she will gladly give up his most beloved treasure on this earth, even to the extent of his or her own life as we have seen in history, in the Scriptures. He or she will have no problem giving up his or her own most beloved treasure to the extent of his or her own life to be associated with Christ. 

Now there was a German Lutheran pastor by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some of you may know this name, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a pastor that lived during the time of World War II. He was executed by hanging under the regime of Adolf Hitler, and he said this just not too long before his execution. He said: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him to come and die.”. When Christ calls a man, He bids him to come and die. And indeed Bonhoeffer did give his life for the cost of Christ during those days in 1945, during World War II.

See, there is a cost to live for Christ in the world according to the high standards of the Bible. But remember. Remember someone paid a far greater cost for you and for me. Now the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:20, and I close with this verse. He says that if you belong to Christ, “you were bought at a price”. You were brought at a cost. And the cost is this: It is the eternal Son of God coming down to earth, taking upon Himself the form of man, giving up all the glories of heaven, giving up all the rights that He had, giving up everything that was rightfully His, bearing our sins all the way to the cross.

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave His life for us in death, redeeming us from eternal hell and so that we may now come and call ourselves Christians, brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so when you look at the ridicule around you and when you look at all the cost and the price that surrounds you as you associate yourself with a follower of Christ and you experience the suffer of so much loss, what you can do is to look up to heaven and look down at the Scripture and remember that in actual fact there was only one true profound cost. There was only one true profound cost, and that cost is found in the cross- now the cross of Jesus Christ.

And so the hymn writer can say: “When I think about the cross that my Saviour had to bear, and how He died for me upon the tree. Then my heart with fervent plea cries, “O Lord it was for me!” Let me be worthy of the price You paid for me.”. So in response to what we have received from the nailed hands and the pierced feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, the response is not to be complaining over the cost of Christian discipleship, not to be complaining when things are difficult, but rather to sing with the hymn writer: “Let me be worthy of the price You paid for me”. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we draw near again this morning thanking You for Your Word. We thank You for the examples of the Jews as we have read in Ezra chapter 10. We pray that You will help us in this area of our lives. Help us those of us who named the name of Christ as we go through trials, sufferings, tribulations in this life because we are associated with our Lord to have the correct perspective, to know that in actual fact there was only one true cost, one true profound cost and that cost is our Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross dying for our sins.

May we continue to live in the light of the cross each day. Help us to see how glorious and how gracious this salvation is for those of us who call ourselves Christians. We pray that You’ll help us in this matter, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.