When God Rebuilds... Ezra/Nehemiah Part 15 Zechariah 1:1-6 "Return to me", says the LORD

 May 12, 2024

From The Series: When God Rebuilds…

Part 15 “Return to Me”, says the LORD

Zechariah 1:1-6

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

Good morning again.  This is a reminder that we are continuing our series titled: When God Rebuilds… and working verse by verse through the Book of Ezra. What we have discovered was that the Lord had stirred the heart of King Cyrus, the king of the Persians, and Yahweh moved Cyrus to allow the Jewish people to return to their homeland and to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem so that they could resume the proper worship of their God.

Not all the people returned at first, but a faithful remnant of about 50,000 people returned to Jerusalem and the surrounding area. Civil leaders, religious leaders, musicians, temple workers, priests, merchants, and farmers played a role in rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and the temple. There was also jealousy and resistance from surrounding people who wished to participate but were prevented because of the genealogies (they could not prove their priestly heritage) or because they wanted to introduce pagan rituals into temple worship. This refusal resulted in a 16-year bureaucratic halt to God’s work being attempted.

A new king ascends the throne and the work is permitted to resume. This occurred during the second year of the reign of King Darius which we would mark as the year 520 BC on our calendars. This would be a busy year prophetically speaking. God would raise two prophets to speak encouragement and warnings to His people in Jerusalem. One was named Haggai and the other was named Zechariah. Both have books named after them in the Bible.

We have been looking at the first two prophecies from Haggai that occurred in the second year of the reign of King Darius. Haggai eventually gave a total of four prophecies from God to the Israelites all within the second year of King Darius’ rule, and the final two came on the same day in the ninth month. During our last two messages together we examined what Haggai spoke to God’s people in Jerusalem.

In the first message from Haggai, we saw that God issued a Divine challenge from Himself to His people for them to stop procrastinating behind their selfish projects and to join Yahweh in the rebuilding of the temple. About a month later Haggai delivers another message from the LORD in which God encourages His people to be strong and continue the work because the LORD has made a covenant with His people and He was with them in the endeavor.

About a month after this second message from Haggai occurs, a new prophet named Zechariah emerges on the scene. Zechariah begins to call on the Israelites to examine themselves while he encourages and exhorts them to more holy behavior. One commentator put it this way, “Haggai’s task was to rouse an outward expression through their actions in the rebuilding, Zechariah’s task was of an inward nature to lead the people to a spiritual change”. Zechariah, whose name means “Jehovah remembers” was both a prophet and a priest whose father and grandfather were also priests in the service of God. Zechariah eventually shares a total of eight visions through three different prophecies over a span of two years.

If you can remember back to the second week of March, just before we took a four-week break to study the Providence of God leading up to Easter, we saw that Haggai and Zechariah were both mentioned in the fifth chapter of the Book of Ezra.

Let me remind us of that, “¹Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.” We can see from this passage that the reach of these prophets extended past just the city of Jerusalem, their reach extended out to the surrounding countryside into the area that was previously known as the Kingdom of Judah. This would have been the southern half of the original united Kingdom of Isreal which Saul, David, and Solomon ruled over.

Now that we have seen a little about who Zechariah was and when he ministered to God’s people, why don’t we open our Bibles or turn on our devices and look with me for the Book of Zechariah, starting at chapter 1, verse 1.

READ Zechariah 1:1-6

Let’s dig into this passage a little deeper and begin by looking at verse 1. We see that we are still in the second year of King Darius, which would translate into our modern calendar as the year 520 BC. Interestingly there are over 30 individuals named Zachariah in the Bible, but this Zechariah is identified by also listing his Father and Grandfather’s names. The father’s name Berekiah translates as, “Jehovah Blesses” and the grandfather’s name Iddo translates as, “His Time”. When you place the names together from all three generations you end up with, “Jehovah remembers to bless in His time”. You can tell from the names that these men were from the priestly class. Do you have any multi-generational names like that in your family?

Zechariah was a generational priest, but we can see that he was also more than what his father or grandfather were, Zechariah was also a prophet. Verse 1 identifies Zechariah as a prophet, and then Scripture makes it clear that the words that he was about to speak to the people of Jerusalem were “the word of the LORD”. This phrase occurs fourteen times in this book and it is the same phrase that is used to identify Haggai as a prophet of Yahweh as well. Priest and prophet, that was a lot of responsibility for one man to bear. Zechariah’s prophecies were much more intense than Haggai’s and they are more concerned with the spiritual care and condition of God’s faithful remnant in Jerusalem and the region of Judea.

Now I’m going to point out some things here in Scripture that may make some people uncomfortable or upset even. I may say some things that are going to challenge your worldview that you may have built around some inconsistent teaching that you may have heard over the years. My real challenge to you is to listen to what Scripture is saying and less to what people are saying about what Scripture is saying. Do I have your attention now?

Good. Let’s look at verse two. “The LORD was very angry with your ancestors”. In the original Hebrew, they simply repeat the word for anger or wrath twice. One commentary translated this phrase literally as, “angry with anger”. Another term for this is, “wrath” or the “Wrath of God”. So here is where I am going to challenge some of your worldviews that have built up around who God is.

I do not understand how the “God is only love” crowd can read a verse like this and make sense of it. Wrath is an attribute of God. It is one of the facets of the Father’s being that makes Him complete. The Father is not a two-dimensional being. There is real depth and breadth to His being.

I started reading a very interesting book this week titled, “God’s Devil: The Incredible Story of How Satan’s Rebellion Serves God’s Purposes” by Dr. Erwin Lutzer. The author introduces an interesting concept early in this book, in the second chapter titled, “The Star that Bit the Dust” Dr. Lutzer tries to explain why  Satan rebelled against God, Satan’s Creator. We often forget the fact, that Satan is a created being just as man is a created being, therefore Satan is inferior to God the Father.

In the second chapter, Dr. Lutzer makes this statement speaking to the reason for Satan deciding to rebel against God, “Did he misjudge God, thinking that His love would eclipse any possibility of stern judgment?”. Dr. Lutzer is speaking of God’s love here, don’t miss that. Stop right there for a moment. Think about that statement right there for a couple of minutes. Did Satan misjudge God when he rebelled against the Creator? Isn’t that the sin of our society today? We are discounting God’s anger towards sin. We are going to explore this in more detail in a few moments, but it really struck me when I was preparing this message and considering we are about to begin a month-long celebration of sin, that so many people, and a lot of them are in the church leadership of Evangelicalism, are misjudging God’s anger towards sin.

The book continues “We do not know, of course, but keep in mind that Lucifer had only seen God’s perfect love. The concept of justice simply did not exist. As long as there was no disobedience in the universe, there was no need for the demonstration of God’s anger. Lucifer did not foresee the lengths to which God is willing to go to preserve His honor.”^[1]

Over the years, I have read several books on the attributes of God, A.W. Tozer has written an excellent book, and so has A.W. Pink, and while they mention God’s love and His perfect love, these authors go on to show a complete and well-rounded description of God’s other attributes. I encourage each of you to read books like these that are written on the subject of the attributes of God.

But, think about what Lutzer is saying here: How did Satan make such a monumental miscalculation when it came to God? Well, according to Lutzer, rebellion had not entered creation yet. Rebellion, or what we call sin, had not made an appearance yet in God’s creation because the only created beings at this point were the angels and they were obedient to this point. Preachers often make the statement, and I have been guilty of this myself, that sin entered creation when Adam disobeyed God. But that statement is not completely accurate.

If we think of sin as a rebellious act against God, then sin entered Creation when Satan rebelled against God and the Book of Revelation indicates that a third of the angels were swept up in the rebellion as well and chose to follow Satan. Until this rebellion occurred, God was only exhibiting His love for His creation. If there was no sin, there was no need for justice and no need for God to reveal how jealously He protects His character of Holiness and Righteousness.

I bring up the fall of Satan today to introduce to us some of the other attributes of God. We must stop thinking of the Father as some sort of two-dimensional cartoon character who is undeserving of our honor and respect. He is holy and just and we must respect the fact that as Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, He gets to set the terms for our relationship with Him. Obedience is a huge prerequisite for a positive relationship with the Father. Perfect obedience is not required, but a proper heart attitude towards God is required to have a fulfilling relationship with Him. This proper heart-attitude begins with a complete and scriptural view of who God is, and what He expects from us.

With God’s character in mind, let’s examine verse 2 again and delve into what is meant by God’s “angry with anger”. Another word to describe God’s angry with anger would be the word “wrath”. I’m going to lean heavily on my book The IVP Dictionary of Old Testament: Prophets and in particular the article on Wrath written by D.T. Lamb to explore the concept of God’s wrath. I don’t wish to scare you into obedience, I desire that you should come to a full understanding of who God is and then you will want to obey from a position of love and respect.

Dr. Lamb defines wrath as it pertains to God, “Wrath is a strong negative response by God to human sin, often leading to expressions of judgment.”^[2] We, as people, need to avoid falling into the trap of assigning human traits to a Holy God. We cannot equate God’s anger with the imperfect human anger that we often display toward each other.

Lamb continues in his article, “To address this problematic aspect of biblical anger, several scholars describe divine wrath as pathos, not passion. In their understanding, Yahweh’s anger is not a spontaneous loss of self-control (passion) but rather a rational, predictable response to sin (pathos). Whereas capricious anger can be condemned, the pathos anger of Yahweh is therefore righteous and legitimate.”^[3]

Again, I’ll repeat, what the scholars are saying here: we cannot equate God’s anger with the imperfect human anger which we often display toward each other. Our anger is often fuelled by our passions and is primarily an emotional response to the actions of others. But with God, it is different. Although the Bible describes several emotions God has like jealousy, love, and mercy, God is not emotional! God is not ruled by His emotions, and His passion, rather God reacts rationally to the experience of witnessing our disobedience.

We must constantly check our views of God against what Scripture describes to us about God. It is so easy to allow the input of myths, movies, and bad teachers to influence our depiction of who God is. Yahweh is not a cold and constantly angry god who sits atop a mountain looking for excuses to punish his creation.

Instead, in scripture we read how God revealed to Moses the following about Himself. Exodus 34:6-7a reveals, “⁶ And he (this is speaking of Yahweh here) passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished;”.

It is my intention here this morning that we come away with a complete and well-rounded view of who God is. Not some caricature that too many paint God to be to make Him more attractive. I wish to show the Biblical God to those who are serious about following what He calls us to do. God is not some philosophy professor who presents different theories from which we are free to absorb what we like and reject what we don’t like. That is why I list the scriptures in the bulletin that I quote from each week, I don’t want you to take my word for what I say to be true, but I plead with you to read the scriptures, to be like the Bereans, and see what God’s Word says on the matters we are discussing. Don’t just check what I say, but check what you have been thinking up to this point and make sure that your thoughts align with Scripture. I’m not trying to win a debate here, or convince you of my way of thinking, I am trying to reveal to you what God says about Himself and His desire to be in a right relationship with you.

I say a “right relationship” because we do not get to dictate the terms with which we come to God. He does. Often, God’s wrath is a stumbling block to those who do not have a complete view of who God truly is. Several scholars have observed that in the Old Testament wrath is not a permanent aspect of God’s character. It does not characterize him in the same way that love, mercy or compassion do, since it is always caused by the sin of humans. In short, anger is provoked.

Jump down to verse 4 in this morning’s passage for a moment. Yahweh is explaining through Zechariah something important here. “⁴ Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’” What were the evil ways that the prophets were warning God’s people to turn away from?

The prophets were warning against the sins of Israel and Judah which included drink offerings to other gods, worshiping foreign idols, making offerings to Baal, and building high places to Baal. There were also types of oppression and injustice that provoked God’s anger which were diverse, involving, for example, wicked covetousness, conquering foreign land, shedding the blood of the innocent poor, robbing the poor, and taking advantage of widows and orphans.^[4] How many of these things is our Western society guilty of today?

Lamb talks about two primary causes of divine wrath in the Prophetic Books as seen here in Zechariah: relational anger and righteous anger. Relational anger focuses on the “vertical,” divine-human relationship. Yahweh was enraged because Israel and Judah were constructing idols and worshiping other gods.

Righteous anger focuses on “horizontal,” human-human relationships. Yahweh was angry because humans were mistreating other humans. Just as he had compassion for Israel while they were oppressed in Egypt, they should have had compassion for the weak in their society. Their oppression of their neighbors prompts divine wrath. While Yahweh’s relational anger involves the first four of the Ten Commandments, his righteous anger involves the last six commandments.

So what were the Israelites to do about this to appease the anger of God? How could they court the mercy of Yahweh? Was receiving the mercy of Yahweh wholly dependent on their completion of the reconstruction of the temple? The answer lies in verse 4 in the warnings that the previous prophets were proclaiming to the people while they were still in their sin. ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ Or, to put it another way, repent. Look at the words of God right there in the passage, “The LORD Almighty says, ‘Turn…’” That is what repenting means. Repentance is not simply feeling guilty about getting caught doing something bad against God. Maybe thinking, “I shouldn’t” but doing it anyway. Repentance is a turning away from your sinful ways and habits. But, if we turn away from our sinful ways, where are we to turn to?

The Legacy Standard Bible translation puts it this way, “‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares Yahweh.” We are not just to turn away from sin, we are to return back to God. We are to flee from our sins and return to the Father!

This was the entire purpose of the conquering of the Assyrians and then the Babylonians on God’s special people. The exile was done to cause the Israelites to turn from their wicked ways and return to Yahweh. They were to stop taking for granted the protection of God, His mercy, and His patience and to return to Him in obedience and in gratefulness. This is the heart attitude that Yahweh was calling them to, through the prophet Zechariah.

Can you see a parallel in our country today? Are you beginning to understand why I pray for our leaders by name each week? Our leaders must be called upon to repent. To turn from the influences of lobbyists and idealogues and return to the Lord and seek only His counsel. This can be done through the work of the Holy Spirit. We have read for several weeks how God has stirred or moved the hearts of rulers to accomplish His goals. The same can happen today, Lord willing, to our leaders in our country, province, towns, and county.

I genuinely desire their salvation through Jesus Christ for our leaders who do not have it. For those that do know Jesus, but are not ruling in accordance with His laws and guidance, I implore them to repent and return to the ways of the Lord.

But what about you personally? We have examined things on a national level, and we have looked at what is required of our leaders, but what about you sitting in this sanctuary this morning, or those who are reading these words on the internet? Is there something in your life that you need to repent of and return to the Father? Is there an area of your life where you have erected a false idol that you need to tear down and return to the Father and sit under His teaching?

Or, perhaps you have never known the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Perhaps, you are still under the bondage of the original sin and you have not understood the gift and the freedom that awaits you. We were all rebellious at one time. Scripture tells us that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that gives us eyes to see and ears to hear the truth contained in God’s Word on these matters. Maybe you think that you have to clean up your life and your act before God will accept you back into His arms.

That is false thinking friends, That is exactly the type of lie that Satan will whisper in your ear to keep you away from Jesus Christ.

Another of the Old Testament prophets wrote this, “¹³ Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and bounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” Joel is telling us that God wants to see a heart change first not a change in our actions before we come to the Father for mercy. The Lord knows, that when the heart changes first, the change in our actions will follow because we will have the indwelling of God through the Holy Spirit guiding our thoughts and actions.

How is this possible you may ask? The world and other faith systems tell me I must first earn my way back to God. The false systems claim I must make sure my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, or I must give money to buy absolution, or I must pledge allegiance to an earthly leader before I can gain favor with God.

It is by comparing the claims of Christianity against these false claims that I was able to determine the truth of the Bible. All false religions require the actions of man before they can come to salvation. Christianity is the only one that says, “You can’t do it. You can not pay what is owed for your sins”. Instead, the Son says, “Here I am, send me”.

So a perfect God gave up His perfect union for a time and supernatualy took on human form and lived a perfect life so that He would be an acceptable sacrifice to the Father. The perfect person, Jesus Christ was nailed to a rough Roman Cross by some of the very imperfect beings that He had created and sustained. They raised Him up and mocked and ridiculed Him as His human flesh hung from that tree. Then for three hours the wrath of God, which had been stored up against humanity was unleashed on the Son who bore our just punishment.

For what purpose you may ask? All so that we could be reconciled back to the Father in a proper relationship when we accept the gift of the Son’s sacrifice on our behalf. A gift that we call Grace. We can not earn it, and we certainly do not deserve it, yet it is there for us to accept and claim as our own.

The prophet Micah speaks for us when he addresses this question to God directly, “¹⁸ Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. ¹⁹ You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” Keep in mind that this is a promise given by one of God’s prophets some 700 years before the appearance of Jesus Christ. This was not a promise for just those in exile. The Father delights to show mercy to us, all the sinners, because of His love for the Son.

When we realize this and accept this gift, we are also allowed to experience some of the love between the Father and Son because we become co-heirs with Christ. We become adopted children of the Father. God then pours His love into us, so that we may go out and share that love with others, joining the Father and Son in the Kingdom work that will bring even more Glory to the Father.

CONCLUSION

The second part of Zechariah 1:6 says, ““Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’ ” That’s a pretty big statement right there. In the preceding verses, Yahweh lays out the reason for the all that His people had gone through during their 70 years of Babylonian captivity. He laid all of the responsibility at the feet of the Israelites, and they accepted it without question.

I wonder if we have that same level of acceptance for the hard times that we may be experiencing. Is there something that God is calling you to repent of and return to Him? If not individually, I know as a Nation, there are numerous sins that we have made acceptable and we should be repenting of and turning back to God to ask for forgiveness.

Why were the Jews so accepting of the punishment of Yahweh? Because they knew the character of Yahweh. The full character, and not some cleaned-up version of their own making. They knew because of the Holy and Just Nature of Yahweh that repentance was required on their part and because of His love and mercy, they would be received back and cared for once again.

I had wanted to touch on some other aspects of this text, such as God withdrawing His presence for His people, or the withdrawing of the glory before the fall of Solomon’s temple, but we have run out of time.

Pastor Paul’s Points:

1)        Sometimes, God punishes His people to have them return to Him.

2)        Simply returning is not enough, we must repent as well.

 

Questions to meditate on this week:

1.        What happens when a society ignores God?

2.        Does God withdraw His presence or fellowship from us?

3.        If so, when does God return to us?

 

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^[1] Erwin W. Lutzer and R. C. Sproul, God’s Devil: The Incredible Story of How Satan's Rebellion Serves God's Purposes (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2015), 43.

^[2] D. T. Lamb, “Wrath,” ed. Mark J. Boda and Gordon J. McConville, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: IVP Academic; Inter-Varsity Press, 2012), 878.

^[3] D. T. Lamb, “Wrath,” ed. Mark J. Boda and Gordon J. McConville, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: IVP Academic; Inter-Varsity Press, 2012), 880.

^[4] D. T. Lamb, “Wrath,” ed. Mark J. Boda and Gordon J. McConville, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: IVP Academic; Inter-Varsity Press, 2012), 881.

When God Rebuilds... Ezra/Nehemiah Part 14 Haggai 2:1-9 The LORD Will Keep His Covenant

 May 5, 2024

From The Series: When God Rebuilds…

Part 14 The LORD Will Keep His Covenant

Haggai 2:1-9

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

Last time we were together, we read and studied Haggai’s first warning to the people of Jerusalem from the LORD. In this week’s passage, we see Haggai giving another prophecy from Yahweh, which occurs about six weeks after the first. This message was delivered on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles as it was being celebrated in Jerusalem.

If you are familiar with the various Jewish feasts that were remembered, you will know that the Feast of Tabernacles was observed to commemorate the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. The feast was observed at that time by having the faithful travel to Jerusalem and they were to gather poles along the way to make a temporary shelter that they would stay in for the duration of the feast in commemoration of the time spent in the wilderness. Today it is usually observed by some orthodox Jews by erecting a temporary shelter, or a tent in the backyard and the family sleeps in the shelter during the observance of the feast.

The purpose was to remember that God had been faithful to the covenant that Yahweh had with His people before their journey to Egypt, and despite 400 years of slavery under the Egyptians, God remembered His people and He used Moses to deliver them out from under the Pharoah’s rule and into their own promised land. The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated their 40 years spent in the wilderness, and God’s faithful provision of His people during this time.

This was a major feast on the Jewish calendar. It was celebrated for seven days, and it was one of the three pilgrimage Festivals where a pilgrimage to the Temple was required. We see that even Jesus observed this Festival in His day and He is recorded at least once in the Gospels in John chapter 7 as observing the festival.

There are parallels between the earlier time of Aaron and Moses and the time we are currently studying with Zerubbabel and Joshua. Both groups of people had been delivered from bondage by Yahweh. As stated already, God delivered the Israelites originally from the Egyptians, and we see now God had once again delivered His people, but this time it was from the Babylonians.

You know, God is still delivering His people today. Only now, God is delivering through Jesus when He brings us out of our sin and into the presence of God the Father through a restored relationship with Him. The message to Moses and Aaron, to Zerubbabel and Joshua, and even to us today, is the same message: we are to build a place for the true worship of God.

What does that look like? Does that mean that the building that we worship in must be incredibly large and ornate? Must our church be like the great cathedrals of Europe to be used by God? Quite the contrary. If we look at those great buildings in England, France, and Germany, many of those great cathedrals are simply public museums. Many are no longer places of Christian worship.

So, if a large ornate building is not the answer, if that is not what God is requiring from His people, then what is required? What we need most in this church, is the presence of the Spirit of God. We need the Holy Spirit to be here with us, leading us to be used by God to build His Kingdom. We will get to that in a bit, but for right now, let’s look at a few verses in this passage in a bit more detail so that we may glean from these verses the truth that God has for us today.

Look at the first two verses again, “In the second year of King Darius, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ² “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people.” Notice who God is addressing through the prophet. God is speaking to the civil leaders, the religious, leaders, and finally to the remnant of His people present that day.

This message is for His people. The LORD is not addressing the entire countryside, He has a very specific message for His people. And it is a small group of people. Keep in mind, at this time, only a small group of all of those who had been scattered during the Babylonian captivity had returned to Jerusalem.

Because of the Feast of Tabernacles, there would have been a few extras that would have heard about the temple construction is started, and they would have traveled to Jerusalem to be in the proper observance of this festival. But, the group would have been small enough to be addressed as a “remnant”.

Look at the next instruction that Haggai received from God, “Ask them, ³ ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” The LORD is asking them to examine their hearts at the moment. We read in Ezra 3:12 and 13 when the rebuilding of the temple started, how some of those present were weeping instead of being joyous.

Ezra 3:12-13 says, “¹² But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. ¹³ No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.” Through Haggai, God is addressing these folks who are heartbroken at the loss of the former glory of Solomon’s Temple. You know, it only takes a few wet blankets to dampen a whole crowd of people and God is trying to encourage all who were present that day.

Which brings us to our first point this morning. We are to remember the past, but we are not to dwell there. God’s people are not to be backward-looking all the time. We are to be a people who are present in the moment but also forward facing. Looking to the future helps us to get through the difficult times that we may be going through.

Too many times, God’s work is delayed by those who are stuck in the past. They may be remembering past glories but more often than not, people are stuck on past hurts, and these wounds are preventing them from being present and participating in the work that the Lord is laying out for them to do today. Satan loves for us to dwell in our past hurt and pain. Instead, we are to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Colossians 3:13 gives us this very instruction, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” As I said, Satan loves for us to dwell in these places of pain and hurt. It is one of his most effective tools in keeping us disengaged from the present work that the Lord has for us to do. We can remember the past. This church has a wonderful history in this community, but our future does not lie in our past glory.

Just like many churches, there have been people who have come for a while, and then for a variety of reasons they have left and moved on. Some have found new church homes and are being cared for. I have spoken with surrounding pastors and have conversations about those who have left ensuring that they are being cared for and fed in their new church families. But our future is not tied to those who have decided to no longer attend Mountain View Church. Whether those people made those decisions last year or five or more years ago. There are more than enough lost souls in our community to fill this church several times over. We can remember the past, but we are not to dwell there.

We are to be in the present moment, with an eye to the future. When I say, “We are to be present”, what I am referring to is, are we currently listening to what God is asking us to do? Are we present enough and sensitive enough to the Spirit’s leading to join in with His work?

I mentioned last week a little about the Regional Conference for the EMCC and I have spoken to a few of you individually about the encouragement that Marilyn and I received while attending the conference. One of the biggest encouragements that I received was from a presentation that a pastor who has a ministry for church revitalization in addition to his pastoral duties for his church. Steve is his name, and God has given Steve a passion and gifts to help churches that are in decline to turn their situations around and become vital members in their communities again.

The encouragement I received while listening to Steve’s presentation was that many of the things that Steve listed as the steps necessary for revitalization, I recognized that we are already doing those things here at Mountain View. The funny thing is, that wasn’t the encouraging thing for me. The most encouraging thing for me, personally was that by listening to Steve’s presentation, he reinforced and confirmed for me that I was listening to the Holy Spirit here in this church.

You see, I am no expert in church revitalization or in church growth. When I accepted this call to pastor this church, I knew in my heart that this was God’s church and only He could be the one to grow or change it. Steve mentioned that 75% of the work needed for revitalization involves discovery and prayer. Those are the two main things that I have been concentrating on since I arrived at Mountain View, discovery and prayer. I have been trying to discover who Mountain View church is collectively as a body of believers and I have been trying to discover who each of you that attend are, and where you are in your present walk with Christ.

I have also been actively praying for this church since before I accepted the call to pastor this church. I have also been trying to teach by example what a praying church looks like. I have to admit, I have never prayed as much in my various roles in ministry that I have held in the past, as I pray now for this church. Praying is the heart of my ministry because I want to remain sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in my role as a church leader. I continuously pray that my plans are God’s plans and that the words in my sermons are God’s words for His people at this time.

This leads me to my second point this morning, “God is with us, do not fear”. Because of my prayers and because of the answer to one of those prayers that I received at the Gathering, I know that God is with us here in this church. He is already at work here in this building and here in this community. We should draw encouragement from God through His Word and through the actions that we can observe in the lives of others around us. I can see God at work here through the growth that I am seeing in several of you in this church.

I see renewal happening, I see hospitality happening, I see visits and encouragement taking place. I have seen organizational growth and spiritual growth happening in individuals in this church. I am seeing healing take place as well. I have seen renewal in the people as well as in the building. I see a willingness to look to the future, and I pray that we are looking to the Lord and His guidance through the Holy Spirit both individually and collectively as a church. I see God calling His people to this church. I see god’s people answering that call. I am seeing fellowship grow again in this body. I’m seeing new friendships and relationships spawn and grow. I see a family growing and developing. I see God…at…work.

God calls us to join His work. God recognizes that we can remember the past, but we are to be in the present. Look at verse 4 of this morning’s passage, “⁴ But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” Look at the encouragement that God is giving His people here. Three times, God encourages those to whom He is speaking, to “be strong”.

First God instructs Zerubbabel the civil leader to be strong. Be strong and faithful in the decisions that you are making when ruling over God’s people. Rule with justice and fairness, while following the civil laws that God had given His people. Oh, if only our current patch of leaders would do the same for us.

God then exhorts the religious leaders to be strong. God reminds the High Priest Joshua to be strong in His duties. Remember they had already had to be strong and refuse the assistance of their pagan neighbors and that resulted in a 16-year delay to their rebuilding project. God is telling the church leadership to be strong, oh if only today’s church leadership continued to heed this instruction. Too many times I have read how the church and its leadership is caving to the demands of culture here in the West. I was following this past week some of the happenings at the United Methodist Church General Conference in the US where they requested that the delegates share their preferred pronouns when they came to the microphone to speak on the issues. Most also identified their race and sexual preferences as well. The United Methodists have now rejected the traditional definition of marriage, they also endorsed gay and lesbian clergy and declared that homosexuality is no longer incompatible with Christian teaching. A complete caving of the church to the pressures of culture.

We must be strong. Strong and loving. Loving enough to tell people the truth of God’s Word. The great news is that we do not have to rely on our strength and wisdom. As believers in Jesus Christ, we can depend on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we have access to the strength and Wisdom of God. For God tells us here in verse four that, He is with us.

After encouraging the civil and religious leadership, the Lord then exhorts the people to, “Be strong” but he doesn’t leave it there. The LORD says to “Be strong and work”. You see, someone has to be the hands and feet of God and do the kingdom work that we are called upon to do. This may lead you to the question “Why, why must I do the work”. It follows the rule of sowing and reaping. Before you can enjoy the benefits of the harvest, you must put in the work of the sowing.

Here we are in the springtime again, and I know that you are all too aware of the effort required during seeding time. But why must we participate in God’s work for the Kingdom? I mean, He is God, can’t He just do it all Himself?

The answer lies in verse 5, “⁵ ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’” God reminds those present that day, and by extension, God reminds us today, that we are in a covenant agreement with Him, and as such certain responsibilities fall to us to accomplish.

According to the Lexham Bible Dictionary, a covenant is defined as the following, “Covenant: An agreement between two parties that specifies requirements for at least one party, and includes blessing and curses for obedience or failure.”

There are 39 covenants recorded in the canon of the Bible. 13 are between God and men. 12 covenants plus one promise of a new covenant are found in the Old Testament and one covenant is found in the New Testament. All of the covenants between God and mankind were initiated by God. God initiated the covenants and God is the primary party responsible for the success of each of those covenants. Man is responsible for maintaining their requirements of the covenant through obedience to the instructions of God.

As I said, a covenant is a contractual agreement between two parties. The agreement is often ratified by a binding action, such as an oath, from one or both parties. For an example, we will look at two specific occurrences of a covenant between God and men. The first and probably most well-known example of a covenant between God and man is the covenant between God and Abraham.

We don’t have time to turn and read the passages in the Bible this morning, so I will mention that we are looking at Genesis chapter 15 where God enters into a covenant with Abraham for the first time. A careful reading of scripture reveals that God entered into a covenant with Abraham a total of three times. This first time in Genesis chapter 15 and the location of this event is not revealed. The second and third events and locations are listed in the bulletin.

In Genesis 15, I want to draw our attention to one specific fact, this was a covenant between God and Abraham and God was promising a land of inheritance to the descendants of Abraham. The amazing thing was, that at the time of this promise, Abraham was old and Sarah was past her child-bearing years, yet God promised descendants to Abraham. Abraham was instructed to gather several animals and to cleave them in two and to place each half on the sides of a minor slope so that the blood would collect in the bottom. Traditionally, what would happen in the culture of those days is that each party would walk between the halves of the animals through the blood as an oath to the seriousness and binding nature of the contract on each of the parties.

However, this time if you remember well, only God passed through the halves of the sacrificed animals. Abraham drifted off into a deep sleep. The fact that only God passed through the halves represented that only God was responsible for the fulfillment of the covenant. If Abraham disobeyed the terms of the covenant, he would bring a curse upon himself from the LORD, but only God could fulfill the requirements of the covenant. God would gift the land to Abraham’s descendants. All that was required for Abraham to do was to accept the gift presented by God.

For the second example let’s turn to the New Testament example. Jesus makes a new promise. A promise of forgiveness of sin, one of spiritual transformation, and the fulfillment of the divine plan of redemption. Once again, blood is the sign of the covenant, however this time instead of the blood of innocent animals being shed, it was the blood of the most innocent Jesus Christ that was shed for our benefit.

Let’s spend a little time in the Book of Hebrews to gain a better understanding of the relationship between this covenant and the previous covenants that occurred between God and mankind. Some of the previous covenants were specific to the individual like Abraham and his descendants, this new covenant is between The Father and the ones that the Father has chosen.

Hebrews 8:13 tells us, “¹³ By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.” We see from God’s Word that this new covenant replaces the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant known collectively as “The Law” was replaced by the new and improved covenant found in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.

Hebrews 8:6 tells us that not only was the Old one outdated but the new covenant is, “is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.” But what makes the new superior to the old? The new is based on the ministry of Jesus Christ, it is based on the atoning sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf to pay the sin debt that we owed to the Father.

It is a more secure promise because “Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.” Hebrews 9:15 informs us, “¹⁵ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Once again we see that only God can fulfill the covenant. Only the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ could satisfy the wrath of God. All that is required from us is to gratefully accept this amazing gift, a gift that we call Grace. If you do not know Jesus in a personal and intimate way, I implore you to reach out to God through prayer and ask Him to reveal Himself to you and to accept this gift from the Father and the Son.

Back to verse five of today’s passage. We have seen that God is encouraging the faithful in Jerusalem to be strong, He is reminding them that they are in covenant with the Father, but we see two more encouragements in verse five.

After Yahweh reminds them of the covenant, He says to them, “And my Spirit remains among you.” Think about that for a second or two. This is Old Testament teaching where the Father is telling His people that His Spirit remains among them. This is a significant statement because too many times we incorrectly think that the Holy Spirit didn’t play much of a role until the day of Pentecost when the Spirit indwelt the believers. This isn’t true at all.

We see the presence of the Spirit here among the people in old Jerusalem guiding them as they rebuilt the temple. Pay attention to what Scripture says here, the Spirit was “among them” not “within them” as we have today. This passage today is the second time that God has reminded those in Jerusalem that He is with them. In Haggai 1:13, Yahweh also reminded them that He was with them at that time.

In verse five we see the culmination of all this encouragement with the statement “Do not fear.” Why are we not to fear? We are not to fear because of all that we may go through in this life, we do not go through it alone, for He is with us and therefore we should not fear. As believers in a risen Lord Jesus Christ, we can also have no fear of what lies beyond this life as well. We should not fear death as believers. Our faith and confidence in who Jesus was and what He accomplished for us should extend to His promises of the afterlife for us. We should not fear.

This leads us to our final point in this morning’s sermon, a day of judgment is coming. Look at verse 6 in Haggai chapter 2. This is the only fear that we should have and that is a Fear of the LORD in our lives. “⁶ “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. ⁷ I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

What Haggai is speaking about here is a day of judgment that is coming on all peoples and nations. When this day of judgment comes, God will be revealed in all His glory and the time of judgment will divulge the beauty contained within the attributes of God’s Justice and Righteousness.

The reference here in verse seven to the house being filled with glory is a messianic reference and not one restricted to the reconstruction of the temple. Although, it will apply to that as well. In the days of Herod and Jesus Christ, the Temple was a magnificent structure with great beauty. The most important glory that shone near the Temple was the glory of the sacrifice that Jesus made on Calvary for us. That is why in verse 9 God can declare, “⁹ ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

This is a forward-looking verse as the only lasting peace that can be offered is the peace that comes from the sacrifice of Jesus. Verses 6 to 9 definitely have an eschatological theme about them, so it is safe to reason that God is referring to end-times here when the final peace will come with the final return of Jesus Christ and the New Jerusalem will be established on the new earth. What a wonderful day that will be.

I hope that we can take some encouragement from the words of today’s passage. We need to recognize that it is ok to acknowledge the past, but it is not helpful to dwell there. We should remember to forgive or to seek out reconciliation with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We should not fear not even the fear of death, because God is with us. His character is sure and unchanging and because of that, we can draw strength from that as we join Him in His work. We should never forget that we are in a covenantal relationship with Him. That His Spirit dwells within us, comforting and strengthening us to be obedient unto He that calls us.