1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:01,840 Let's pray as we come to God's Word. 2 00:00:10,050 --> 00:00:13,730 Our Father. Your people in the day of Haggai 3 00:00:13,730 --> 00:00:16,690 heard the word of the Lord and all fell upon them. 4 00:00:18,290 --> 00:00:20,850 We pray now that in your mercy and by the power of your spirit 5 00:00:20,850 --> 00:00:24,770 given in your Son, that that same word would come to us and 6 00:00:24,770 --> 00:00:29,290 stir our spirits. Father, we're nothing without 7 00:00:29,290 --> 00:00:32,210 you. We have no power in ourselves as 8 00:00:32,210 --> 00:00:37,440 we pray that Jesus the true vine, in his mercy to us today I 9 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:41,000 would again pour life into our thirsty souls. 10 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:44,760 Bless us, we pray in his name, Amen. 11 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,560 I come from the land of rain and drizzle and fog, where the 12 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:54,760 temperature rarely allows you so much as to put on AT shirt. 13 00:00:55,240 --> 00:00:59,520 I've landed, as far as I can tell, in a land at least in the 14 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:05,440 summer of red hot sun, of deserts, and of soaring 15 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:07,840 temperatures. And so it may be that you here 16 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:13,440 in Texas could associate more nearly than us from the frozen N 17 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,240 with what our forefathers called the noonday demon. 18 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:22,800 The noonday demon. You may know that in the early 19 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:27,280 church they began to speak about 7 deadly sins. 20 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:32,720 It's not a scriptural concept, although each of the seven sins 21 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,640 are clearly there in scripture, but but one of the seven has 22 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,560 been lost. One of the seven has has gone 23 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:43,360 undercover, as it were. It's what our our forefathers 24 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,760 called the sin of Arcadia. Arcadia. 25 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,920 It's just not a word I suspect that many of us have even heard. 26 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:57,440 Arcadia literally means to be without care, Atheism without 27 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:03,080 good, Arcadia without care. And in the early centuries, as 28 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:07,440 many of the Christians lived in hot, dry, arid lands of the 29 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:11,240 Middle East, they would notice that as as the sun rose in 30 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:15,920 particular, that their spiritual zeal would drop. 31 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:22,600 So the monks who lived out in the desert began to detect in 32 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:27,440 themselves a kind of spiritual sleepiness that they knew they 33 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,840 were meant to be the the pacesetters, the leaders of 34 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:38,240 God's people, men of the Word and prayer, and yet they found 35 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,200 their mind could turn to anything except the Lord. 36 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:47,960 There were incredible accounts of monks pouring out their soul, 37 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,400 being really honest, describing how they were beset. 38 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:54,680 The task of reading the Scriptures from the moment they 39 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:59,120 read woke up in the morning until the midday meal, and yet 40 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:01,600 their mind would drift. They'd start to think, I, I wish 41 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:07,040 I was in another community. They'd start to think, why are 42 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:12,200 all the other brother monks holy and I alone find it so hard to 43 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:16,440 pray and read? They'd long even for someone to 44 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:20,040 walk past their window, the window of their cell, in order 45 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:26,160 that they might talk to them and escape the monotony of having to 46 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:31,520 spend time alone with the Lord. And they diagnosed it as Arcadia 47 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:36,800 being without care, apathy. In the modern world, we, we talk 48 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:38,800 about sloth. That's how it's come down to us 49 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,400 with the seven deadly sins. But it's not laziness. 50 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:45,160 It's not laziness. There are two ways you can ruin 51 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:47,680 a garden, aren't there? I'm no gardener, but I know 52 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:49,400 there are two ways you can ruin a garden. 53 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:52,360 You can go out and trample all over the flowers. 54 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,640 You can kick a football in it. You can let your kids run wild 55 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:02,200 and everything is gone, but you can also ruin a garden simply by 56 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:06,400 ignoring it, letting the weeds grow, never mowing the lawn, 57 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:08,680 letting the hedges become unkempt and wild. 58 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:13,000 The second way is the path of Acadia not having care. 59 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:15,360 There are two ways you can ruin a marriage. 60 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:24,160 As a husband, you can be vile, abusive, aggressive to your wife 61 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:30,160 and your children, but also you can be apathetic, disinterested, 62 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:35,600 never investing in your family, never taking time to discover 63 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:37,720 what what motivates your children, what excites them, 64 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:39,640 what cares and pressures are on your wife. 65 00:04:39,840 --> 00:04:43,400 Just letting the garden go wild. That second way is the way of 66 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:51,600 Acadia. Apathy, soul sleepiness with 67 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,760 mission. There are two ways to derail the 68 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:59,160 mission of God. One is to go hell bent. 69 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:02,800 And I use the the phrase advisedly hell bent to stop the 70 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:08,760 advance of the church, to hamper world missions, to derail local 71 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:11,960 evangelism. That is a path I suspect not a 72 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:15,360 single individual in this room is trying to take. 73 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:23,160 But there is a second way of derailing missions, the way of 74 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:28,680 apathy, the way of Arcadia, and the devil's just as happy with 75 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,720 the second as with the 1st. And that second way, as I 76 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,600 imagine you've already worked out, it's just not to really 77 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:41,200 care. If someone wants to go to China 78 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:45,680 to be a missionary, good on them, every blessing and 79 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:49,760 goodbye. If there are evangelistic events 80 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:56,320 organized at church or in the local community, lovely, But 81 00:05:56,320 --> 00:06:01,360 it's not for me. I read this morning in in the 82 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,680 oldest British News magazine. There are now more witches in 83 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:09,440 America than Presbyterians. How's that now? 84 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:11,120 I've not counted. I can't say I've verified the 85 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:15,240 facts, but it's a reputable paper, more identifying witches 86 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:20,920 in America than Presbyterians. And what's our response? 87 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:27,280 We we're shocked by that, I imagine, but after this morning, 88 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:33,120 slowly, our souls are so leaden that if you're anything like me, 89 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:37,920 we begin, frankly not to care. Well, welcome to the world of 90 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,520 6th century BC, welcome to Jerusalem. 91 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:43,560 Welcome to the book of Haggai. Haggai ministered to people who 92 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:48,040 were spiritually apathetic, who lost their zeal. 93 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,840 The book of Haggai, if you like, wants to move us from A-Z, A-Z, 94 00:06:52,840 --> 00:07:00,120 sorry, A-Z, from apathy to zeal, just to give us a little bit of 95 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:03,720 context because it's not a book, I guess that many of us are 96 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,920 super familiar with. Let's think just briefly about 97 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:09,240 the cast of Haggai and the context. 98 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:11,080 The cast and the context of Haggai. 99 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,000 You see down there in verse one, we get a very specific date. 100 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,000 Unusually for the Old Testament, Haggai dates his prophecy right 101 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,760 to the day in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth 102 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:24,680 month, on the first day of the month. 103 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,160 If you're interested, it's the 29th of August, 520 BC. 104 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:35,560 That's how specific we can be. And if you're familiar with the 105 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:39,440 story of the Old Testament, we are therefore right at the end 106 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:48,000 of that story, around 597, you may remember the Babylonians 107 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:52,440 swept in and destroyed Judah and Jerusalem, the remnant of God's 108 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:54,400 people, and took them off into exile. 109 00:07:56,160 --> 00:08:00,640 And prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel lived out of God's land, 110 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:07,160 out of Israel, off there in Babylon, surviving in exile for 111 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,240 70 years or so. That remained to be the case. 112 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,040 And the temple had been destroyed, the dwelling place of 113 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:16,040 God on earth burnt to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar. 114 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,360 But but now, now things have changed. 115 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:24,600 There's some debate over exact dates. 116 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,280 It doesn't matter too much for our purposes this weekend. 117 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:31,680 But around 538, about 70 years after the exile had begun, 118 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:37,200 Cyrus, one of the great Persian emperors, wrote the Edict of 119 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:39,520 Return, sent God's people back to their land. 120 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:45,360 And as he did say, he did so with extraordinary words. 121 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,040 Let let me read to you from the end of the book of Chronicles. 122 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:52,000 Now though, it's worth knowing that the way the the Jewish 123 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,280 people in Jesus day arranged the books of what we call the Old 124 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:58,080 Testament is different to the way we arrange them. 125 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:02,120 Nothing special about the order, but two Chronicles, as we call 126 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,640 it, would be the end of the Old Testament. 127 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:06,520 As the the Jews organized their Bible. 128 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:10,480 So the Old Testament would end with these words as I read them. 129 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:14,680 Do they remind you of anything? End of two Chronicles. 130 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:19,040 Here's Cyrus. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, 131 00:09:19,560 --> 00:09:23,720 the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the 132 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:28,720 earth, and he's charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, 133 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:32,240 which is in Judah. Whoever is among you, all his 134 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:34,720 people, may the Lord his God be with him. 135 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:41,000 Let him go up. Centuries later, another man 136 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:42,480 would say something very similar. 137 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:47,640 The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms. 138 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:54,840 All nations are mine. Therefore go and make disciples 139 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:58,920 of all nations, and I am with you to the end of the age. 140 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:03,840 Cyrus, as it were, no doubt unbeknownst to him, issues a 141 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:06,000 kind of Old Testament Great Commission. 142 00:10:08,560 --> 00:10:11,560 I'm the king of everything. OK, he's being arrogant there. 143 00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:14,840 But the nations are all mine. God's people. 144 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:20,440 Go, go and build the temple, and may the Lord your God be with 145 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:23,360 you. That is the command that was 146 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:26,040 echoing in God's people's ears as they headed back to 147 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:29,880 Jerusalem. There was excitement. 148 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:32,440 There was joy, there was hope for the future. 149 00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:34,360 Great things were about to happen again. 150 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:36,640 We've suffered. Now the Lord is going to move 151 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:38,760 powerfully. Now we'll begin to see this 152 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:41,000 Yahweh of hosts in all his glory. 153 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,000 And so they began in the book of Ezra to rebuild the temple. 154 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:48,960 But after a couple of years, they stopped. 155 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:56,520 And we know from the dating of Haggai that we're about 16-17 156 00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:01,480 years down the line and all that's happened is the 157 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:04,120 foundations have been laid. There is nowhere to meet, 158 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:06,800 nowhere to celebrate the Passover, nowhere to sacrifice 159 00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:10,040 the lambs, nowhere to meet with God and worship. 160 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:20,320 God's people were called to build his church. 161 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:25,680 You and I know that Our Calling is not to build a bricks and 162 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:27,680 mortar building in Jerusalem anymore. 163 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:31,960 The temple that Jesus sends us to build is the temple of the 164 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:37,760 Holy Spirit, the Church. We fulfill the commands given 165 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:42,840 through Haggai not by picking up trowels and cement, but by 166 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,640 preaching the gospel to the nations, the nations in Dallas, 167 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:48,080 the nations in the USA, the nations to the ends of the 168 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:53,880 earth, and through the church proclaiming the gospel Christ 169 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:55,600 built. That is what the book of Haggai 170 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:59,320 is all about, and I hope perhaps you're beginning to see why it's 171 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,560 such an important book for us. As we think about mission, we 172 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:07,200 are on the most part apathetic about mission. 173 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:12,080 We're not consumed with zeal. We're like our forefathers. 174 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:15,760 And the good news of Haggai is there are those who've been 175 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:18,960 there before us suffering with the same lethargy, the same 176 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:23,760 sins, the same lack of zeal. And God has come in his grace 177 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:29,520 and moved in them to stir them with a desire to see the Kingdom 178 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,560 built. And that is, that's my my prayer 179 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:34,480 for these 24 hours or so that we have together. 180 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:38,520 There's a little bit a bit about the context. 181 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:40,240 You can see the cast there as well. 182 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,120 Three main characters will meet over the next day or so. 183 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:50,320 The most obvious is Haggai first one, the prophet Haggai's name 184 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:54,080 means my feasts. That'll become important 185 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:56,600 tomorrow as we get to some of the later passages. 186 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:01,680 But alongside Haggai, do you see there's a Zerubbabel, the rebel, 187 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:03,600 the son of Xiaotiel, governor of Judah. 188 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:07,080 Now, Zerubbabel is the descendant of the kings. 189 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:09,960 He's in that Davidic line. He's never called a king in the 190 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:15,560 book, but but he is the one who inherits the throne of David and 191 00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:18,320 it's his bloodline that eventually will pass that throne 192 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:20,880 on to Christ. So you've got a prophet, a king. 193 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:23,360 And unsurprisingly, if you know your Old Testament, there's a 194 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:27,520 priest as well. There is Joshua, first one, the 195 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:31,960 High Priest, a prophet, a priest, and a king. 3 roles, 3 196 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:35,200 anointed offices. Each of these men, prophet, 197 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:39,520 priest and king, at least when the Kingdom is functioning well, 198 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:43,560 would have had oil poured on their head as they began their 199 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:48,920 work, and the oil being poured on their head was an anointing, 200 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:53,200 or if we spoke Hebrew a Messiah ING. 201 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:59,880 Or if we spoke Greek, a Christ ING Christ, Greek anointed, 202 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:05,480 Messiah, Hebrew anointed. So in a sense, Haggai is Haggai 203 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:09,680 Christ the rubbable is the rubbable Christ or the rubbable 204 00:14:09,680 --> 00:14:13,040 Messiah, Joshua is Joshua Messiah, Joshua Christ. 205 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:19,520 And again, that's going to be important for where we head the 206 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:22,280 action in Haggai. Is it like if you like is going 207 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:25,520 to be driven by these Messiah figures? 208 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,640 It is they who are going to take the lead and stir the people to 209 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:32,080 come after them. Well, there you go. 210 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:35,120 That's quite enough background. Let's dive into the charge, the 211 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:36,680 charge. We've seen the context. 212 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:40,040 What about the charge? What does God want to say to his 213 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,640 people? And it's there really in verse 214 00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:45,080 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts. 215 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:49,600 These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the 216 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:56,920 House of the Lord. They've just stopped work. 217 00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:01,080 They haven't become unbelievers. They haven't turned to Barl or 218 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:02,600 Dagon. They haven't abandoned the 219 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:05,600 faith. They're just saying, look, not 220 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:08,680 yet, Lord. They've stopped building the 221 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:10,600 temple. They've laid down their trowels. 222 00:15:16,290 --> 00:15:19,650 Are they lazy? No, I don't think so. 223 00:15:20,210 --> 00:15:23,570 These seem to be busy people, successful people. 224 00:15:23,570 --> 00:15:28,040 We might even say first four again. 225 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:32,080 The Lord speaks to Haggai. Is it a time for you yourselves 226 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:37,600 to dwell in your panelled houses while this house lies in ruins? 227 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:44,440 In the Old Testament, God calls the Temple his dwelling place, 228 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:47,440 his house, and he compares the two houses. 229 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:52,360 He asks the Jewish people, look at your own home, go back to 230 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:56,360 your front door, walk around the ground floor, look at it, and 231 00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,480 then look at my house and tell me which do you care about most? 232 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:04,720 Look at your panelled houses, he calls them. 233 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:08,680 The way the houses are described, that the Jews have 234 00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:11,600 built, that the language about them being panelled, It's only 235 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,280 ever used elsewhere in the Old Testament about Solomon's 236 00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:17,480 temple. It's as if God is saying, 237 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:24,200 whereas your forefathers built me a wonderful temple, you've 238 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:26,120 just built your own temples for yourself. 239 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:35,360 They're not lazy people, they're working hard building houses in 240 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:36,680 the Middle East. It's hard work. 241 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,240 Paddled houses, glamorous houses, all the more hard work. 242 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:43,680 They are successful, they are busy. 243 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:50,600 They are not lazy, but they are apathetic to the glory of God 244 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:58,530 and the Kingdom of God. One writer says this. 245 00:16:58,810 --> 00:17:02,730 As Christians, we are so often captivated by things we don't 246 00:17:02,730 --> 00:17:06,010 really care about and are lukewarm to. 247 00:17:06,010 --> 00:17:12,050 Things that in our heart of hearts mean the most to us find 248 00:17:12,050 --> 00:17:14,170 it very convicting. We're captivated by things we 249 00:17:14,170 --> 00:17:17,569 don't really care about. What fills our Diaries? 250 00:17:18,569 --> 00:17:22,480 What empties our wallets? What consumes our thoughts, our 251 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:26,280 things we know in our heart of hearts aren't really the most 252 00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:34,120 important things and the things we know really matter in reality 253 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:38,800 get far less of our dollars, our time, and our thoughts. 254 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:45,520 How do I diagnose this? Or rather, the Lord diagnosis 255 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:48,720 the problem a little deeper. He's he turns on the X-ray as it 256 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:52,320 were in verse 8. Go up to the hills, consider 257 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:55,840 your ways and bring word and build the house that I may take 258 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,360 pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 259 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:07,360 If you'd really understood two things, says the Lord, you would 260 00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:11,520 have been building that, that that building of the house was 261 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:13,960 meant to bring me pleasure and give me glory. 262 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:20,480 And so by implication, the reason that the Jews hadn't been 263 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:24,320 building the house was because they didn't really care enough 264 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:27,760 about bringing God pleasure or giving God glory. 265 00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:33,640 I suspect none of them would would have denied that both 266 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,880 things were true and good. The Jews were good 267 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,680 Presbyterians. They knew that the chief end of 268 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:41,840 man was to glorify God and enjoy him forever. 269 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:44,120 It wasn't the English in the 17th century who came up with 270 00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:48,880 that. It's a biblical principle, but 271 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:54,280 they didn't care. Pleasing God was second, third, 272 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,840 4th, 5th on the list of motivating factors, giving him 273 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:00,600 glory, bringing him glory, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th. 274 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:06,640 And so they built their own homes to their own glory and 275 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:11,320 looked to their own pleasure. And my children are of an age 276 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:12,760 where they're obsessed with Legos. 277 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,000 And there's a show on TV that they they love to watch called 278 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,400 Lego Masters. And the idea is at the beginning 279 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:22,280 of the show that the contestants who are amazing builders, get 280 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,960 given a challenge, go and build an underwater world or go and 281 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:29,520 build a, a scene from a fairy tale or a, a, a, a space scape. 282 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:32,560 And they get 10 hours. And at the end they wheel in 283 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:34,160 there these incredible creations. 284 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:37,600 What are they judged on? They're not just judged on 285 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:41,440 whether they've built something amazing, but whether they've 286 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:43,240 built what they were asked to build. 287 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,960 If the judge running the competition says I, I want a 288 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:54,040 wonderful underwater scene and you bring back a spectacular 289 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:57,280 world W scene, you might have built it brilliantly, but it's 290 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:03,000 not what the judge was after. How can I ask this? 291 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,280 What are we building? What is our our primary building 292 00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:11,760 project? One day we're going to have to 293 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,280 wheel out before the Lord what we have built. 294 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,760 No doubt for many in this room, what we've built will be 295 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:26,080 glorious. But is it what God wants built? 296 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,440 What of our time, our thoughts, our dollars have gone into 297 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:33,640 building His Kingdom, His church? 298 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,480 Or has that just dropped down our list of priorities? 299 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:41,520 Notice in Haggai, the people aren't anti God. 300 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:43,440 They're not atheists. They're not anti mission. 301 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:47,560 Haggai's not a prophet like some of his colleagues who had to 302 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:50,160 rail against immorality in the church. 303 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:52,640 It doesn't seem there are any great sins. 304 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,560 There's no sexual scandal. There's no idolatry. 305 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:05,440 He doesn't have to preach against heresy, false teaching 306 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:07,080 as some of the other prophets have to do. 307 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:09,320 The church. In Haggai's day, the people of 308 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:15,040 God seem to be more or less well behaved, more or less obedient, 309 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:17,800 more or less orthodox in their thinking. 310 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:20,160 There's not a a whiff that something has gone wrong there. 311 00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:24,240 They're just apathetic. They just don't care. 312 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,040 They've gone to sleep and they don't say no. 313 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,480 They just say not yet. Did you notice that in verse 2, 314 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,760 these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the 315 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:38,880 House of the Lord? It's not we're against it. 316 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:40,520 It's not that we'll never do it, just not yet. 317 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,360 Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I remember as a teenager on a 318 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,320 youth camp hearing the story, fictitious story. 319 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,440 Let me make clear a fictitious story of three demons at 320 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,120 training college. And the senior demon says, 321 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:56,800 right, we've asked you, how do you stop the Kingdom of God 322 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,880 advancing? And the first demon, junior 323 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:04,720 demon says, oh, that's easy. I'm going to tell my victim that 324 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,280 there is no God. And the senior devil says 325 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:14,280 useless, useless. Everybody knows there's a God. 326 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:20,600 And the second demon says, well, OK, I, I, I won't tell my victim 327 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:27,120 that there's no God, but rather I'll tell them that he's not the 328 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:28,240 man. And then the devil says he 329 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:30,160 useless, useless. The senior devil says useless, 330 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,560 useless. All Christians know deep down 331 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,280 they're meant to be doing something for the Kingdom. 332 00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:41,680 And the third devil, Bill junior devil, puts his hand up and 333 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:45,640 says, I'll tell my victim there's no hurry. 334 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:48,960 Brilliant, says the senior devil. 335 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:54,640 Top of the class. Manana, Manana, tomorrow, 336 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,320 tomorrow. Well, there's the charge. 337 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:02,080 It is a weighty 1. I hope you feel the the weight 338 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,040 of what the Lord says to his people through Haggai. 339 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,880 But as always, when when God convicts, he does so in order to 340 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:14,800 comfort and change us, not to crush us and leave us feeling 341 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,120 guilty and in despair. And even in this first chapter 342 00:23:18,120 --> 00:23:22,200 of Haggai, there is good news in verses 12 through to the end. 343 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,920 We won't have time to look at every detail of of chapter 1 344 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:28,880 this morning, but but you see the word comes and it is the 345 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,320 word that makes such a difference. 346 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,000 If you scan through the the those those verses, you see time 347 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,160 and again there are little phrases like the word of the 348 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:41,440 Lord or or the message of the Lord and it wakes the people up. 349 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:49,200 In fact, what what results from Haggai's preaching is verse 12, 350 00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:54,480 the people feared the Lord 1 accommodator says they were 351 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:56,480 startled awake by the voice of God. 352 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,600 It is the preaching of Haggai that sends the people back on 353 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:02,680 mission. And let me say, that is the only 354 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,200 thing that is ever going to come to you. 355 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:10,160 The Angel Gabriel almost certainly can't 100% promise it. 356 00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:14,320 The Angel Gabriel is almost certain not going to visit PCPC, 357 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,760 come out of the heavens, clap his hands together and say get 358 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,400 going on mission. The Seraphim and Cherubim are 359 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:27,200 not going to appear, but the Word will be preached to you 360 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:29,920 week by week to stir you to just this task. 361 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:31,840 Don't wait for something more spectacular. 362 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:34,840 This is it. It may just be a preacher from a 363 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:38,520 rocky island in the North Atlantic that God is using and 364 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:44,080 nobody but this is how He works. It is the Word that cause us to 365 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:47,720 mission, and it comes with a promise. 366 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:53,640 Verses 13 and 14, the Lord says I am with you, I am with you. 367 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,880 He doesn't send us on our own, but says go and build in my 368 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:02,960 power and I will think much more about that tomorrow. 369 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,360 So I don't want to get pulled into it too much today, but it's 370 00:25:05,360 --> 00:25:06,960 never alone. It's in the power of God. 371 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,560 And this is where we begin to see the grace of God in Haggai 372 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:12,320 Wan, the grace of God to his people. 373 00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:19,040 You see it in the fact that he doesn't just tell them off. 374 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:25,880 He doesn't just say you have no desire, sort it out rather. 375 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,680 You see, if you take a step back and look at Haggai 1, you see, 376 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,760 actually there is someone with a great desire for the temple to 377 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:37,800 be built on earth, and it's God. He doesn't look down from heaven 378 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:40,240 and say, well, they don't want to build a dwelling place for 379 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:42,240 me. They don't want to build a place 380 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,760 where heaven and earth meet, where I can dwell among them. 381 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,200 So I'll leave them to it. Fine, I'll stay away. 382 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,720 He says they don't want me, and then he sends a prophet to wake 383 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:58,880 them up so that he can come. Heaven wants reconciliation with 384 00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,000 earth far more than earth wants reconciliation with heaven. 385 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:06,120 God wants to know you far more than you want to know Him. 386 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:08,800 God loves you far more than you love Him. 387 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:11,520 He wants to come down far more than you want to go up. 388 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:15,040 Never doubt His zeal for you, His love for you, His desire to 389 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,320 be with you, and not just you, but those outside the Kingdom. 390 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:23,360 I'm a Calvinist, I believe in election and preetus all these 391 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:25,920 things absolutely, but never let that make you think. 392 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:29,560 God doesn't care about unreached people. 393 00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:33,640 He desires the church to be built. 394 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:35,360 He desires to be with his people. 395 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:38,720 His zeal exceeds ours. And that's shattered, I think, 396 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,520 in the the way that it is the prophet, the priest, the king, 397 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,680 whose spirits are stirred up in verse 13. 398 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,800 They take the lead, the Messiahs, and they're a picture 399 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,440 of Jesus. Of course, Jesus, the true 400 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,080 prophet, priest and king, the one great Messiah, He comes to 401 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,520 earth with the purpose of building his church. 402 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,520 We'll see in Haggai. They do get somewhere. 403 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,600 They build a temple. It gets a bit better, but it's 404 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:07,880 not great. And by the time of Jesus, God's 405 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:12,320 people are apathetic again. They don't care, but God still 406 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,800 loves them. Nobody asks for Jesus to come, 407 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,640 do they? As the New Testament begins, we 408 00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:21,080 don't find the church on its knees begging for the Messiah. 409 00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,720 They're apathetic again. But again God responds in grace 410 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:27,640 and comes in the person of his Son. 411 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:33,640 And as the Son comes, he says, he says, actually, my body is 412 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,560 the temple. In John 2. 413 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:42,720 As he overturns the tables in the temple, he says he'll 414 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,160 destroy the house and rebuild it. 415 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:51,400 And the disciples look at him and and remember Psalm 69, zeal 416 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:55,160 for his house will consume him. Jesus full of zeal for the 417 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,040 church, full of zeal for the House of God. 418 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:02,680 There's no apathy in Christ. So much does he want the Church 419 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,320 to be built that actually he, the true temple, the true 420 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,320 dwelling place of God on earth, will be torn down, will be 421 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,920 destroyed. You may know that the physical 422 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:16,080 temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans, but the real temple 423 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:18,800 of God was destroyed in 33 AD when Jesus was nailed to the 424 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:20,760 cross. That's when the Romans, and 425 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,680 indeed the Jews and all of us destroyed the real temple of God 426 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,600 as we pinned Him to the cross. But he was there willingly, 427 00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:32,240 knowing that after he'd been destroyed on Good Friday, he'd 428 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,160 be rebuilt, resurrected on Easter Sunday. 429 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,680 The head would rise, as it were, from the grave in order that the 430 00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,560 body, the church, might be filled with the Spirit and 431 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:45,240 brought to life. And so he promises to send his 432 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,760 church and be with them. He rises again to build a 433 00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:51,960 greater body, not just his physical body knit back together 434 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:55,120 gloriously, that was but the spiritual body of the church. 435 00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:03,320 The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit and amazingly, the 436 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,920 one who has nothing to gain. God doesn't need the church. 437 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:07,320 He was happy without us, wasn't he? 438 00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:09,160 He didn't need to make the world. 439 00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:12,480 He was perfectly blessed, as Paul calls him before the ages 440 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,680 began. The one who had nothing to gain 441 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:21,760 is the one with the most zeal to win us back into his house. 442 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,680 We have everything to gain and we're apathetic. 443 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:31,480 He has nothing to gain and he's full of zeal and love, and that 444 00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:39,040 should stir our hearts. Matthew 16 comes before Matthew 445 00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:42,120 28, doesn't it? It's not an interesting insight. 446 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,160 Matthew 16 comes before Matthew 28. 447 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:48,000 When you go home this afternoon and someone says, what did the 448 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:50,400 preacher say? You wouldn't believe this, but 449 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:55,000 Matthew 28, we know. Go make disciples of all nations 450 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,040 commands comes up at mission conferences all the time. 451 00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,840 Go make disciples. But remember 12 chapters 452 00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,200 earlier, Jesus said I will build my church. 453 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:06,880 It's not off you go, I'm going back to heaven. 454 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:11,920 I've done my bit, Jesus building his church. 455 00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:16,160 But now through you that the people of Haggai start building, 456 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:19,520 but they don't sit back and say, hey great, the Lord wants a 457 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:21,840 temple, let's watch him do it miraculously. 458 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,480 Let's see what Gabriel and Michael build. 459 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:30,000 Nor do they think we'd better go on doing this job because 460 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,520 otherwise God's going to cross with us and he's looking down. 461 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:36,760 And rather God says through you I will build. 462 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,120 That is how God builds his church. 463 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:43,280 It is one plan for the nations, but you're on your own. 464 00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,640 Not God on his own, but incredibly God through his 465 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,800 people. Go, pray, give. 466 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,280 But ultimately, it is always Christ who is working through 467 00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:00,600 his people, because Christ is full of zeal to see his house 468 00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:03,920 restored. God's desire for you and for the 469 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,640 nations far exceeds our desire for Him. 470 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:09,920 So in that confidence we go and we build. 471 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:16,080 Let's pray as we close. Father in Heaven, we pray your 472 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:20,280 forgiveness for our apathy and ask that in your mercy you would 473 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,520 make us zealous for your Kingdom, zealous for your house, 474 00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:27,880 zealous for your church. Move us, we pray, to be men and 475 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:33,880 women who know your presence with us and who know at the core 476 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:38,560 of our being that your mercy is great, your love is everlasting, 477 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,200 and that Your desire for us, incredible though it sounds, far 478 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:44,640 exceeds ours. For you build your church. 479 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,760 Therefore, we pray in the name of Christ, Amen.