April 21st, 2024
From The Series: When God Rebuilds…
Part 13 Joining God’s Work
Haggai 1:1-15
Mountain View Evangelical Missionary
Church
It was on
September 1, 520 BC, that Haggai delivered this message. Haggai was the first
prophet that God had raised after the exile. Sixteen years had passed since the
laying of the foundation, and the temple lay unfinished. This message was
delivered to the two leaders of the nation, Zerubbabel and Joshua, the civil
ruler and the religious leader. Haggai does not waste any time; he gets right
to the point of his message: “The people are making excuses and neglecting
God’s house. But it is time to get to work and finish the house of God.”
If the people
of God had had firm confidence in the assistance of God, or if the Jews
had taken real pleasure in the continuation of the reconstruction of the
Temple, then there would have been little need for the LORD to raise prophets
such as Haggai or Zechariah. Over the next three messages that we will go
through together, we will examine what God had to say to His people through the
words of these two prophets.
Through Haggai, God points out their selfishness:
they had built their own houses, but they said it was not time to build God’s
house. In other words, they were putting themselves ahead of the Lord. Some of
the Jews even had “paneled houses,” which would have been luxuries in that day.
This sin is with us today, putting our own desires ahead of the will of the
Lord. How easy it is to make excuses for not doing God’s work! The weather is
too bad to go visiting or to attend church, but not too bad for a hunting trip
or a shopping spree. People will sit through a doubleheader baseball game and
never complain, yet they start to fidget if a church service runs five minutes
overtime.
Haggai warns
us that we actually lose out when we put ourselves ahead of God. In 1:6 he
tells us that our earnings vanish and our possessions fail to last when God is
left out. God held back the rain (v. 10), and for this reason, the crops failed
(v. 11). After all, the Jews knew God’s promise that He would bless their land
if they honored Him, but they did not trust His Word, so they lost the
blessing. We will examine these promises in a few moments.
The message
was received with real conviction (vv. 12–15), and the leaders became stirred
to do God’s will. “I am with you,” promised the Lord. “I will be glorified.” We
will notice that the whole enterprise was a spiritual venture and not merely a
work of the flesh. God’s people rose up and put the Lord first in their lives.
A spiritual venture that was successful. After sixteen stalled years, Haggai made
this proclamation to the people in 520 BC and approximately five years later,
the Temple was completed and dedicated.
The people are making excuses and neglecting God’s house. But it is time
to get to work and finish the “house of God”.
READ HAGGAI
1:1-15
PRAY
The title of this morning’s message is “Joining God’s Work”.
This is an important concept for us to grasp, “God’s Work”. Our theology and
understanding of the Sovereignty of God will determine how we interpret this
phrase, “God’s Work”. On the one hand, we can think of this as something that
God has determined for us to do. Some orders have come down from on-high to the
front-line workers for them to accomplish on their own. A work that was set
apart for them to complete for the sake of the Kingdom.
Another way of looking at the phrase, “Joining God’s Work” is
to consider that God is at work, that He is the driving factor behind
the events, and that the LORD is reaching out to us and giving us the privilege
of joining Him at what He is already at work in.
I was interested in listening to some of the conversations
that were happening yesterday at the Men’s breakfast. A couple of the guys were
sharing their experiences of their parents who were missionaries recalling the
fact that their parents were “called” to the mission field. Some people refer
to being called to the ministry. Churches use the terminology that they
“called” a pastor. I feel that God has called me here to Mountain View Church.
What I am interested in having us consider, when we use the
term “called”, are we using that term as in the person was called as in, “hired
to do a job set out for them by God”, or are they considering that they are
joining God in the tasks that He is already at work in.
Do you understand what I am trying to convey here? Are we
called, or hired and then given a set of tasks to complete
independently, on our own, apart from God for His Kingdom? Or, do we understand
that God is already at work and He is bidding us to come and join
Him? God is calling us to come and join Him in the
work that He is completing presently.
I want us to look at this passage this morning and consider
the three main points that are covered in the passage, but I also want us to
note who is doing the actions that are described here. Is it the people
described in the passage that are responsible for the work being completed, or,
is God the moving force, and He is completing His goals and bidding us to join Him?
Look again at verse 1, as I said in the introduction, we can
determine the exact day in history when Haggai first spoke to the people of
Jerusalem as a prophet of God. It was on September 1, 520 BC, that
Haggai delivered this message. Four times in this first chapter, the author
lets us know that Haggai was a prophet of God.
“1In the second
year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the
word of the Lord came through
the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of
Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest:” Let’s stop here
for a moment, in the second year of King Darius, which we can trace to
be the year 520 BC and the first day of the sixth month of the Hebrew lunar
calendar would, for that year, translate to September 1st. The word
of the LORD, or a prophecy from God came to man through one of
His chosen prophets a man known as Haggai.
Little can be confirmed about the life of Haggai.
Some extra-biblical sources from the end of the fourth century AD had Haggai
listed as an angel who appeared in human form. This incorrect thought stemmed
from a mistranslation of Chapter 1 verse 13, where the term “messenger” was incorrectly
interpreted by Jerome of Alexandria as “angel”.
Who exactly Haggai was, is not relevant to the fact
that he was indeed a prophet of God. We see this prophecy, this warning,
this encouragement from God was directed at both the civil and spiritual
leadership of Jerusalem. This warning was drawing their attention to the
dramatic conflict that was going on in their midst.
Culture and their concern for their personal
comfort had taken the eyes of the faithful off of God’s house and they had
instead placed their attention on their own homes. Look at verse 4 where God
asks’ “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in paneled
houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Haggai is referring of
course to the temple. The temple had been sitting in incomplete ruin while the
people said “The time has not yet come to rebuild the
LORD’s house”.
As I said earlier, if the people
of God had had firm confidence in the assistance of God, or if the Jews
had taken real pleasure in the continuation of the reconstruction of the
Temple, then there would have been little need for the LORD to raise a prophet
such as Haggai. After Haggai delivered his words of warning to those in
Jerusalem, two months later, God raised Zechariah to deliver more words of
judgment and encouragement to the faithful.
Are we guilty
of the same thing as the people of Jerusalem? Are we saying that “the time is
not yet right” for us to join God in the work that He is doing in this
community? Are we saying, “Not now LORD, I’m busy”? Are we thinking, I have a
holiday coming up, or I’ve not yet finished working on my house, or my degree,
or working on improving myself before I can join God in His work?
Are we
thinking that my plans for this church are not what God has planned, so I’m not
going to participate and make His plans a reality? This point of view is the
determining difference between joining God at work and
being hired to work. There is a difference in the level of commitment and a difference
in obedience to God's instructions. Jesus made the comparison between the two
in John 10:12-13 when He said…
“12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own
the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs
away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The
man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
Look at what Jesus is illustrating here. Using the metaphor of a hired
hand versus a Shepherd, when the going gets a little dangerous, or when life suddenly
exposes the difficulty in the assigned task, the uncommitted hired hand
abandons his post and runs away. The hireling sees a wolf and says, “Later, I’m
out of here, I didn’t sign up for this”.
This level of obedience and commitment to God’s instructions are
indicators of the level of heart one has for Kingdom work. Don’t misunderstand
me here, the Bible is not just referring to those who are paid to do Kingdom
work. As a matter of fact, in the passage we just read, Jesus is referring to a
hired worker. One who was just in it for the money.
Jesus was not paid for any of the work that He did. Churches and other
ministries around the world thrive through the efforts of countless volunteers.
There are many ministry leaders in this church here, that are doing valuable
unpaid work for God. But, are we recognizing the work that God is also
doing among us? Are we recognizing the work that the Holy Spirit is doing among
us? I am already seeing God at work in several of you, and I am excited about
the changes that some of you are experiencing. I know the Spirit is also at
work in the lives of others in the community, and we are actively praying for
those people and God’s work in their lives.
We had three new faces at the men’s breakfast yesterday, and two of
those were unchurched men. I received a call from one of the men later in the
evening thanking me for the invitation and he expressed how the event was
nothing like he had expected and that the next time we have a men’s breakfast
he plans on returning and bringing a couple of more friends. God is using that
breakfast to make connections in the community.
In the passage from John, that I just referred to, Jesus goes on to say
that He is the Good Shepherd, and He lays down His life for His sheep. “14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep
and my sheep know me—15 just as the Father knows me and I know
the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Then, after explaining
to the Jews who were present that Jesus was going to include other sheep that
were not part of the original flock, (those would be the Gentiles), Jesus
carries on and gives this amazing statement:
“17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my
life—only to take it up again.” What is Jesus saying here
when He describes Himself as a Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep?
Of course, we now know that Jesus is speaking of the atoning work that
He did on the cross for us. The substitutionary atoning work where Jesus paid
the sin debt that we owed God the Father, for our rebellion. You know, it is so
easy to not accept the responsibility on a personal level for Jesus being on
the Cross.
Sometimes we use general terms to deflect the personal aspect of the
work that Jesus did on our behalf. We talk about “mankind”, “all the world”, or
“once for all” never bringing the responsibility down to a personal level. It
was my sin that held Jesus there on the Cross. It was your sin
that held Him there. When we avoid the personal aspect of the responsibility
for our sin, then we often avoid the personal relationship that Christ
calls us to have with Him.
And that is exactly what Jesus is calling us to, is a personal…relationship
with Him. The unchurched guy I was speaking with last night, said he
wasn’t into religion. I said, great neither am I. I am into a
relationship with Jesus. I don’t want to observe rites and rituals in a
service, I want to hear from my King and become inspired enough by His Spirit
to get involved and join Him in His work.
This is exactly the mindset behind my prayer for God to reveal
what He is doing in the lives of others to us and allow us to come
alongside those individuals and work with our King to bring them to a saving
knowledge of Jesus. Are you willing to join your King in this work? Are you
willing to spread the Good News to your lost friends, family, and neighbors and
tell them about Jesus?
Here is more evidence of God and His Spirit at work in this church. This
occurred during prayer time at the men’s group. Without going into too many
details, prayers were offered up to God requesting that He give us men in that
group the courage and boldness to share the Gospel with the lost. We prayed for
opportunities to share with others the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How are you
doing with that, men? I will tell you, that Jesus presented me an opportunity
with the phone call last night and I shared a little bit of my story and a bit
of Marilyn’s testimony as well. We also made plans to get together, the man and
his wife, and Marilyn and I to have dinner together and talk some more.
When we are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and we remain
sensitive and alert for the opportunities that God will present to us, and if
we earnestly pray for God to help, He is faithful and He will give us the opportunity
to love others with the Good News.
Speaking of opportunities, you know, in our bi-weekly Bible study that
we have with the young adults, we are going through the Gospel of Mark and
Jesus makes an interesting promise in the Gospel of Mark.
In Mark 13:11 Jesus makes this promise of assistance from the Spirit to
the apostles when they are arrested for doing God’s work, “11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to
trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given
you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” Jesus
is referring here specifically to being arrested for the sake of the Gospel.
But, you know what, I think the same promise is available to us when we are spreading
the Gospel as well. You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to be able to share
Jesus with others. All you have to do is share what Jesus is doing in your
life. When you genuinely do that, and people can see the peace surrounding you,
the Gospel will be very attractive to those who know no peace.
Let’s turn back to Haggai and examine the passage to see where else God
was at work in the lives of the faithful living in Jerusalem. After pointing
out that they had neglected the work of the temple for the sake of their luxuries.
Look at what God is explaining in verses 5 and 6.
“5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful
thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested
little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill.
You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a
purse with holes in it.” Haggai is making it clear
that this warning is coming from the Father. Yahweh is telling them that the
pursuit of these comforts apart from God will result in little personal
satisfaction. They will harvest little, they will eat but never be full, you
will get dressed, but never be warm, and you will earn wages, but you will
never be able to save. You will never achieve personal satisfaction apart from
God. This is not unique to the Book of Haggai. The entire Book of Ecclesiastes
echoes these very same thoughts. As a matter of fact, the Hebrews had an
expression for living a life apart from God, it was referred to as “all things
that are done under the sun”. Similar warnings about a similar concept here in
Haggai.
Look at verse 7, a repeat of the warning identifying the source of this
wisdom, “7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful
thought to your ways.” No mistaking things here, this is coming directly
from Yahweh. “Give careful thoughts to your ways,” God instructs them to go
into the mountains and bring down the timbers that are needed to build His
house.
But they are still experiencing troubles, and God owns up to being the
source of their troubles. Look at verse 9, “You
expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I
blew away.” God is claiming responsibility for the troubles that
they are experiencing. It wasn’t Satan, or circumstance that caused the
problems, it was Yahweh! Yahweh tells them that He is to blame for their
troubles. This is what I meant last week when I asked if we were apologizers
for God or apologists. God is saying, “Hey, are you unhappy with your present
lot? Look to me, I am to blame. I caused it. Unhappy? Come talk to the man in
charge”. How many of us are willing to do that today? When we are experiencing
troubles, how many of us are willing to be exposed and vulnerable to the
Creator God and ask Him “LORD, what am I doing wrong to deserve this?” You may
find that you are not doing anything wrong, but that you are going through
hardship because of the actions of someone else in your life.
Yahweh challenges the faithful in Jerusalem with this divine challenge.
Look at the second half of verse 9, “Why?” declares the
Lord Almighty. “Because of my
house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore,
because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I
called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new
wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and
livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” Jesus takes
responsibility for the natural disaster of drought that is being inflicted on
them. Jesus caused the drought, He withheld the rain.
If you come across someone teaching that God is not responsible
for the troubles in this world, how do you explain these verses? God is not
claiming that Satan is doing these things to His people. He is! God is! God takes
responsibility for the actions of what they are experiencing, but Yahweh
lays the responsibility for the reason for the actions squarely at the
feet of the Israelites.
So, we see God issues a divine challenge to the Israelites to put aside
their selfish distractions and come back and finish the work that was started
on the temple. Come back to His house and finish it. God issues the divine
challenge and we see the Israelites respond. Look at the next few verses where
we will see a declaration of a promise.
“12 Then
Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the
whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai,
because the Lord their God had
sent him. And the people feared the Lord.
13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s
messenger, gave this message of the Lord
to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord.
14 So the Lord
stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and
the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the
whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, 15 on
the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.” We see in verse 12 that they obeyed and that they returned to work. The
promise they received from the LORD was that He was with them. Yahweh
was right there beside them helping them in the work. Why? Because it was God’s
work and they were joining Him. It was not their work and
God was joining them. The same applies here at Mountain View Church. This is
His work and we are joining Him. Are you? Are you joining Him in His work? Or,
are you sitting back waiting to see how this will all turn out?
Just before we wrap up, I want to point out two words in English that
are actually the same Hebrew word and we are going to see what Scripture has to
say. Look at verse 12 where God “sent” him and look at verse 14 where it
mentions the Lord “stirred up” the spirit of Zerubbabel and Joshua. The root
word in Hebrew is עָעַר [ʿuwr /oor/] v.
This word is used several times in the Old Testament and it always
refers to the actions of God in the situation. Yahweh is the one who is the
instigator of the actions.
When we hear of stirring, sometimes we can think of a can of paint. The
paint needs to be stirred before it is usable again. Particularly if it has
been sitting on a shelf for some time. It is important to keep in mind that the
Bible refers to God being the one who is doing the stirring.
2 Chronicles 5:26 says, “26 So
the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is,
Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria), who took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the
half-tribe of Manasseh into exile.”
“23 God stirred up animosity
between Abimelek and the citizens of Shechem so that they acted treacherously
against Abimelek. 24 God did this in order that the
crime against Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons, the shedding of their blood, might be
avenged on their brother Abimelek and on the citizens of Shechem, who had
helped him murder his brothers.” Judges 9:23-24.
Isaiah 41:2 says, “2 “Who has
stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service? He
hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him.” God raises the
question of “who stirs the ones from the east and then a few verses later, He answers
His own question.
25 “I have
stirred up one from the north, and he comes— one from the rising sun who calls
on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter
treading the clay.” Isaiah 41:25
Notice that it is
God who is taking responsibility for the actions of stirring things up. God is
responsible. God alone. Stop deflecting these things off of God onto Satan. That
idea is not found in these passages. That idea is a doctrine that is being read
back into the texts to try and find them there, rather than allowing the text
to speak plainly for itself.
Our best bet to
avoid these issues is with obedience to God. It does not guarantee a smooth
life, but it does drastically reduce the chances of hardships in our life.
CONCLUSION
We saw in this passage that there was a dramatic conflict
between God and His people. They had forgotten what God had called them to do.
They forsake the work of the LORD fo their personal comfort.
We saw that God caused them discomfort to bring their
attention back to Him. Aren’t we a funny race of people? When things are going
well we are prone to wander and forget all that we owe to the Father.
When they returned, God issued a divine challenge to
obedience to His people.
Then He followed it up with a declaration of a promise.
Pastor
Paul’s Points:
1) A dramatic conflict.
2) A Divine challenge to obedience.
3) A declaration of a promise.
A question
to meditate on this week:
·
Are
you joining God at His work, or are you expecting God to join you at your work?
No comments:
Post a Comment