WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.540 Let me pray and then we'll turn our attention 00:00:01.540 --> 00:00:04.679 to Haggai 1. Our Father, all good gifts come 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:06.839 from above and so we pray in your kindness you 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:09.640 would give us a good gift now of your spirit 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:12.160 in order that through him we might see your son, 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:15.699 that we might know more of his grace, more of 00:00:15.699 --> 00:00:21.079 the faith and hope to which we're called. And 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:24.440 for this we pray with more zeal in the building 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.239 of your kingdom wherever our callings take us. 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:33.280 And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I want 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:34.500 to suggest to you this morning that one of the 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:37.439 seven deadly sins has gone missing. One of the 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:39.840 seven deadly sins has gone missing and Haggai 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:42.880 has found it. Now I realise the seven deadly 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.100 sins are probably not quite where you might expect 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:46.920 a kind of reformed Presbyterian pastor to begin. 00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:49.299 I realise they're not a strictly biblical concept 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:51.899 and yet there's much wisdom in them. There's 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:55.880 much wisdom in them. Pretty early on in the church's 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:57.649 history in the fourth century. There's a man 00:00:57.649 --> 00:01:01.850 called Evagrius. And it was he who first came 00:01:01.850 --> 00:01:05.250 up with a list. He had eight, in fact. And one 00:01:05.250 --> 00:01:07.810 of them, one of Evagrius' list has more or less 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:09.950 disappeared from our kind of Christian vocab 00:01:09.950 --> 00:01:11.870 in a way that the others, lust and gluttony and 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:15.890 pride, have survived. Evagrius noticed, particularly 00:01:15.890 --> 00:01:18.689 when he walked among the desert fathers, those 00:01:18.689 --> 00:01:20.810 strange characters who went out into the desert, 00:01:20.930 --> 00:01:24.510 lived in cells and devoted their lives to reading 00:01:24.510 --> 00:01:27.579 and meditating on scripture to prayer. He noticed 00:01:27.579 --> 00:01:29.560 there was a particular demon that plagued him. 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:33.219 He became known after a while as the Noonday 00:01:33.219 --> 00:01:35.920 Demon, because the middle of the day was a time 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:39.079 when this demon particularly struck. The Noonday 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:47.140 Demon was known as Acadia, or sometimes called 00:01:47.140 --> 00:01:50.680 Acedia. It literally means lack of care. Down 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.099 the centuries, it turned into sloth. We now speak 00:01:53.099 --> 00:01:57.969 of sloth, but that's not how it began. Acedia 00:01:57.969 --> 00:02:01.530 struck these desert fathers when they were trying 00:02:01.530 --> 00:02:03.790 in the morning to wake up and turn straight away 00:02:03.790 --> 00:02:06.750 to prayer and meditation, and yet almost instantly 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:10.289 beginning to get distracted. So Vagris writes 00:02:10.289 --> 00:02:13.150 about them being able to think about more or 00:02:13.150 --> 00:02:14.729 less anything apart from the scriptures they've 00:02:14.729 --> 00:02:17.370 just read. They'd get to the end of a section 00:02:17.370 --> 00:02:20.569 and already the words had gone. They turned to 00:02:20.569 --> 00:02:22.409 pray and they could think about anything except 00:02:22.409 --> 00:02:25.949 what they were trying to pray about. And it's 00:02:25.949 --> 00:02:28.150 almost comical if you read him. He describes 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:30.349 how they would look out the window in the hope 00:02:30.349 --> 00:02:32.409 that someone might walk past their cells so they 00:02:32.409 --> 00:02:36.889 could have a chat. He describes them dreaming 00:02:36.889 --> 00:02:40.069 of where else they might be doing ministry. He 00:02:40.069 --> 00:02:42.550 talks about them longing, if only I could be 00:02:42.550 --> 00:02:44.550 doing a funeral, anything would be more interesting 00:02:44.550 --> 00:02:48.650 than this. It's not that monks were lazy. That's 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:51.550 what sloth brings to mind, isn't it? It's not 00:02:51.550 --> 00:02:55.919 quite laziness as apathy. A kind of spiritual 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:02.580 weariness. Spiritual weariness, apathy, acedia, 00:03:02.699 --> 00:03:06.340 acadia, can strike even the busiest of people. 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.159 And that takes us, I think, to the world of Haggai 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:15.560 1. In this gathering, particularly given our 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:17.360 time constraints, I don't want to spend too much 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:19.960 time this morning on the context and the cast, 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:22.699 but just very briefly, so we're somewhere in 00:03:22.699 --> 00:03:25.509 the right zone. We're there, verse 1, in the 00:03:25.509 --> 00:03:27.669 second year of King Darius. It's actually 520 00:03:27.669 --> 00:03:31.150 BC. So Haggai usually dates his prophecies very 00:03:31.150 --> 00:03:33.610 specifically. That's the 29th of August, 520 00:03:33.610 --> 00:03:36.389 BC. And God's people have returned from exile. 00:03:37.189 --> 00:03:39.069 Remember the great commission of the Old Testament 00:03:39.069 --> 00:03:42.949 at the end of the book of 2 Chronicles, where 00:03:42.949 --> 00:03:47.889 in that great edict of return, the Jewish people 00:03:47.889 --> 00:03:52.069 are sent back to rebuild the temple. That's extraordinary 00:03:52.069 --> 00:03:55.060 language, actually. Very reminiscent of the end 00:03:55.060 --> 00:04:01.139 of Matthew's Gospel. As the exiles return to 00:04:01.139 --> 00:04:04.840 Jerusalem, what are they told to do? Well, here's 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:07.919 the words of King Cyrus, king of Persia. The 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:09.680 Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:13.539 kings of the earth. And he's appointed me to 00:04:13.539 --> 00:04:15.879 build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:19.879 Any of his people among you may go up and may 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:23.199 the Lord their God be with them. See the echoes 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:26.819 of the Great Commission? The Lord, the God of 00:04:26.819 --> 00:04:28.259 heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the 00:04:28.259 --> 00:04:30.800 earth. All authority in heaven and earth has 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:33.079 been given to me, Sir Jesus, centuries later. 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:37.759 Because I have this authority, what is Cyrus 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:40.819 sending the people to do? Go and build the temple. 00:04:40.899 --> 00:04:42.740 What does Jesus send his disciples to do? Go 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:44.759 and build the church. Go and make disciples of 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:46.500 all nations. Go and build the temple of the Holy 00:04:46.500 --> 00:04:49.959 Spirit. And even the promise. Or at least the 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:51.740 blessing. May the Lord their God be with him. 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:53.000 It turns into a promise with the Lord Jesus. 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:56.220 And I will be with you to the end of the age. 00:04:57.139 --> 00:04:59.120 Those words should have been ringing in the ears 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.560 of the exiles as they returned home. But actually, 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:05.360 as the book of Haggai begins, we're maybe 16 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:07.720 or so years later. And although they've laid 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:10.899 the foundations, they've quit the job. They've 00:05:10.899 --> 00:05:14.680 quit the job. And so we get the charge in verses 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:17.439 two through four. This is what the Lord Almighty 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:21.050 says. These people say the time has not yet come 00:05:21.050 --> 00:05:27.769 to rebuild the Lord's house. Not yet, they say. 00:05:27.910 --> 00:05:30.509 The Lord's house is the temple, obviously. We're 00:05:30.509 --> 00:05:34.629 not ready yet to put our hands to the plough 00:05:34.629 --> 00:05:39.610 and build his house. What have they been doing? 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:41.589 Verse three, the word of the Lord came through 00:05:41.589 --> 00:05:43.970 the prophet Haggai. Is it a time for you yourselves 00:05:43.970 --> 00:05:46.470 to be living in your paneled houses while this 00:05:46.470 --> 00:06:00.060 house remains? 16 years or so of not laziness, 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:03.240 but apathy. They have been busy, haven't they? 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:05.860 The people of Haggai's day. They've been busy 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:07.379 building. They've been working hard. They've 00:06:07.379 --> 00:06:09.699 been in many ways a success. They're living in 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:12.339 paneled houses. Almost every time that word comes 00:06:12.339 --> 00:06:14.540 elsewhere in the Old Testament, it's used to 00:06:14.540 --> 00:06:16.839 describe the temple, the building that Solomon 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:19.720 constructed. It's almost as if they built their 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:23.399 own temples and poured heart, soul, sweat into 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:26.980 that, but neglected the one temple that God called 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:35.819 them to build. Lazy? No. Apathetic? At least 00:06:35.819 --> 00:06:40.600 to the things of God, yes. Underneath, Haggai 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:46.699 diagnoses their problem. Verse 7 and 8. This 00:06:46.699 --> 00:06:48.759 is what the Lord Almighty says, give careful 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:52.060 thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains 00:06:52.060 --> 00:06:55.199 and bring down timber and build my house so that 00:06:55.199 --> 00:07:00.519 I may take pleasure in it and be honoured. Kind 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:02.240 of reverse engineer that verse a little bit. 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:03.939 What's it telling us? I mean, there's a command, 00:07:04.220 --> 00:07:05.939 go get the timber, get building again, that's 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:08.860 obvious. But why haven't they been building? 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:13.540 Well, because they haven't been concerned, verse 00:07:13.540 --> 00:07:16.519 8. with the glory of God and the pleasure of 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:19.480 God. But the whole point of building the temple 00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:21.600 was it was meant to bring pleasure to God and 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:24.240 honour or glory to him. These things clearly 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:26.420 haven't been high up the priority list of God's 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:30.399 people. Not lazy, but apathetic, spiritually, 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:34.860 listless. There are a few ways to ruin a garden, 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.379 aren't there? I'm no gardener. And I think I've 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:39.720 probably done both ways of ruining the garden. 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:41.519 As a kid, I remember playing football with my... 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:43.579 sort of buddies over the road, constantly getting 00:07:43.579 --> 00:07:44.899 told off by the neighbor for kicking football 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:46.779 into the daffodils. You can ruin a garden by 00:07:46.779 --> 00:07:49.560 trampling all over the flowers. And actually 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:51.079 as an adult, I don't do that. I've not trashed 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:52.980 my own garden by running outside when my wife's 00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:55.300 not looking and kind of shredding the roses and 00:07:55.300 --> 00:07:59.240 skipping through the tulips. The way I ruin my 00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:02.519 garden nowadays is just by ignoring it. Letting 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:05.139 the weeds grow, not mowing the lawn, leaving 00:08:05.139 --> 00:08:12.000 it be. It's that problem that is infected. Haggai's 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:17.899 contemporaries. They're not anti -God. Haggai 00:08:17.899 --> 00:08:21.500 is not a prophet like Jeremiah who has to rail 00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:24.040 against idolatry. He's not like Hosea who has 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:28.639 to call out sexual immorality. Haggai's not like 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:31.220 Amos who has to put his finger on social injustice 00:08:31.220 --> 00:08:33.600 in the nations around and even in God's own people. 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:36.940 Rather, Haggai looks at God's people and just 00:08:36.940 --> 00:08:42.580 sees a kind of meh. Who cares? I've got things 00:08:42.580 --> 00:08:45.600 to do. It's not high -handed rebellion, is it? 00:08:45.820 --> 00:08:49.000 Verse two, it's not, we will not rebuild the 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:54.580 Lord's house, but not yet. Not yet. One of the 00:08:54.580 --> 00:08:57.740 very few talks I can remember as a teenager, 00:08:57.980 --> 00:09:01.179 to be able to go to Christian meetings, was part 00:09:01.179 --> 00:09:03.580 of one talk I can remember. A little illustration, 00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:07.580 obviously apocryphal, of... Three junior demons 00:09:07.580 --> 00:09:09.720 at Temptor's College got a screw tape situation. 00:09:10.539 --> 00:09:13.700 And the senior devil says, right, you're each 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:15.059 going out from here soon. You're graduating. 00:09:15.820 --> 00:09:17.600 What are your plans? So the first devil puts 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:18.840 his hand up. The little junior demon puts his 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:20.539 hand up and says, well, I'm going to go and tell 00:09:20.539 --> 00:09:23.399 my patient that there is no God. And the instructor 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:26.659 says, useless, useless. Deep down, everyone knows 00:09:26.659 --> 00:09:30.799 there's a God. Fail. The second one says, well, 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:33.820 I'm going to tell my patient that there is no 00:09:33.820 --> 00:09:38.149 hope. And the instructor says, well, it's better, 00:09:38.269 --> 00:09:42.370 but still not great. The third devil puts his 00:09:42.370 --> 00:09:44.730 hand up and says, I'm going to say there's no 00:09:44.730 --> 00:09:47.330 hurry. Brilliant, says the senior devil, top 00:09:47.330 --> 00:09:50.730 of the class. There's no hurry. There's no urgency. 00:09:51.210 --> 00:09:55.549 Not yet. Not now. They're busy, but building 00:09:55.549 --> 00:10:00.750 the wrong thing. If you've got children or maybe 00:10:00.750 --> 00:10:03.509 just a grown up child and you're into Lego. My 00:10:03.509 --> 00:10:05.289 kids are obsessed with Lego. There's a lot of 00:10:05.289 --> 00:10:07.250 Lego masters in there, the TV show. You've seen 00:10:07.250 --> 00:10:09.470 this bit like Bake Off, but with Lego. So the 00:10:09.470 --> 00:10:12.529 beginning of every program, a challenge to say 00:10:12.529 --> 00:10:14.169 you've got to build maybe an underwater scene 00:10:14.169 --> 00:10:18.470 or a space station, whatever it may be. And over 00:10:18.470 --> 00:10:20.049 the course of the next ridiculous number of hours, 00:10:20.090 --> 00:10:22.149 10, 12 hours, whatever they get, the different 00:10:22.149 --> 00:10:26.309 contestants construct these models. How do you 00:10:26.309 --> 00:10:28.230 fail at Lego masters? You can fail just by building 00:10:28.230 --> 00:10:31.590 a rubbish model. You could also fail by building 00:10:31.590 --> 00:10:34.509 a brilliant model of the wrong thing. If the 00:10:34.509 --> 00:10:39.230 judges asked for a Western scape and you build 00:10:39.230 --> 00:10:42.450 a seaside scene, however brilliant it is, you 00:10:42.450 --> 00:10:46.529 wasted your time and you will fall short. Of 00:10:46.529 --> 00:10:49.710 course, people in Haggai have built busily, but 00:10:49.710 --> 00:10:56.389 they're apathetic to the things of God. We're 00:10:56.389 --> 00:10:58.870 going to minister very lightly to busy people. 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:01.620 Well, the two most common answers, whenever you 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:03.620 ask people, how are you doing? Two answers come 00:11:03.620 --> 00:11:07.659 back so quickly. Either tired or I'm busy. Almost 00:11:07.659 --> 00:11:10.639 always, isn't it? I'm tired or I'm busy. And 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:12.620 in some way, that's just kind of English, British 00:11:12.620 --> 00:11:15.039 social discourse. That's fine. You don't have 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:16.639 to pick it all up. But we will minister to busy 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:21.720 people. We will be busy people. Part of our challenge 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:24.720 is to encourage people to be busy about the right 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:29.960 things. And not neglect. A concern, or rather 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:32.639 not to suppress, not to lose, that underlying 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.059 motivation for the honour of God and the pleasure 00:11:35.059 --> 00:11:40.259 of God as his church is built. I think the strange 00:11:40.259 --> 00:11:42.240 thing is that even ministry can do that to us. 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:45.399 Even ministry can do that to us. We can become 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:51.440 incredibly busy. We can be very hard working 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:56.200 at building ministries and yet have lost that 00:11:56.200 --> 00:11:58.850 underlying desire to see God on earth. and to 00:11:58.850 --> 00:12:05.409 bring in pleasure. There are many critiques of 00:12:05.409 --> 00:12:06.470 modern ministry, aren't there? And sometimes 00:12:06.470 --> 00:12:08.950 it feels like anybody feels like it can kind 00:12:08.950 --> 00:12:10.690 of put their boot into ministers with soft targets 00:12:10.690 --> 00:12:16.750 you can't strike back. But think of how the pastor's 00:12:16.750 --> 00:12:18.970 study has become an office. Think of how much 00:12:18.970 --> 00:12:21.509 easier you find it to answer emails than to pray. 00:12:23.340 --> 00:12:25.700 Even ministry, building a slick ministry, putting 00:12:25.700 --> 00:12:27.720 together a good CV, keeping the whole show on 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:31.919 the road, can slowly dull our appetite for seeing 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:35.399 God honoured and seeing God glorified. There 00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:38.360 can be activity and busyness yet without the 00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:45.799 Lord. Spiritual apathy, lack of zeal, infects 00:12:45.799 --> 00:12:48.379 pastors and youth workers and missionaries as 00:12:48.379 --> 00:12:52.940 much as it does congregation members. One of 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:56.360 the signs that very likely the Lord gives in 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:00.080 his kindness is a lack of fruit, a lack of watering. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:02.500 Now, clearly, we're in the days of the old covenant. 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:04.679 And so for them, it's very literal. Verse six. 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:08.840 Keep careful thought your ways. Examine yourselves. 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:11.559 You planted much, but harvested little. You eat, 00:13:11.559 --> 00:13:14.240 but never have enough. You drink, but never have 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:15.740 your fill. You put on clothes, but you're not 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:18.779 warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse 00:13:18.779 --> 00:13:25.720 with holes in it. Red Fed exhausted me earlier, 00:13:25.820 --> 00:13:29.139 didn't we? Some of the laying out of the old 00:13:29.139 --> 00:13:31.639 covenant, the Mosaic covenant. The blessings 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:35.220 are not coming in part because of Israel's unfaithfulness. 00:13:37.340 --> 00:13:40.600 Verse 10. Therefore, because of you, the heavens 00:13:40.600 --> 00:13:43.200 have withheld the dew and the earth its crops. 00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:46.600 I call for a drought on the fields, the mountains, 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:51.039 on the gray, the new wine, the produce, on people 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:52.639 and livestock, on all the labor of your hands. 00:13:55.049 --> 00:13:58.429 I don't need to tell you that they're under a 00:13:58.429 --> 00:13:59.889 different covenant era, that things don't work 00:13:59.889 --> 00:14:01.509 as literally with crops and grain and all the 00:14:01.509 --> 00:14:04.149 rest. But a kind of dryness, a lack of fruit, 00:14:04.389 --> 00:14:08.289 a lack of refreshing from heaven often comes 00:14:08.289 --> 00:14:11.570 on the back of this acedia, this spiritual apathy. 00:14:14.889 --> 00:14:19.389 And so how does the Lord use Haggai to change 00:14:19.389 --> 00:14:21.870 them? How does he move them from A to Z, as it 00:14:21.870 --> 00:14:24.580 were, from apathy to zeal? If you know the story 00:14:24.580 --> 00:14:26.799 of Haggai, by the end of the book, they are building 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:32.740 again. The project gets back on the road. It 00:14:32.740 --> 00:14:34.980 probably doesn't surprise you that part of the 00:14:34.980 --> 00:14:36.559 reason for picking this passage this morning 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:37.940 is I've been thinking about Haggai a little bit 00:14:37.940 --> 00:14:40.299 recently. I can't say it's totally fresh material, 00:14:40.419 --> 00:14:42.100 I'm afraid, prepared for Oak Hill Chapel. But 00:14:42.100 --> 00:14:46.139 one of the things I noticed in trying to do a 00:14:46.139 --> 00:14:49.519 bit of work on Haggai is that I've got the impression 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:54.179 that people preach Haggai. in one of three, or 00:14:54.179 --> 00:14:57.340 often three situations, A, B, C, or I started 00:14:57.340 --> 00:14:59.179 to think there was A, B, C, let me skip A straight 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:01.259 to B, building project. You've got a building 00:15:01.259 --> 00:15:04.139 project on, okay? And perhaps your congregation 00:15:04.139 --> 00:15:06.500 are wealthy and you really want to go for it. 00:15:07.139 --> 00:15:09.360 Okay, we need money. I've seen the hot tub on 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.460 your back lawn. Yeah, I've seen the nice carpet. 00:15:12.019 --> 00:15:15.700 Give, give, give, give, give. When I was a curate, 00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:20.399 my boss told me about his time actually as a 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:24.340 curate. And he said the vicar had sat at the 00:15:24.340 --> 00:15:28.100 table in the PCC meeting and said, we need to 00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:30.860 refurbish the church. And a congregation member 00:15:30.860 --> 00:15:33.259 had said, oh, we're putting new carpets down 00:15:33.259 --> 00:15:35.500 in our house. You can have the old ones. And 00:15:35.500 --> 00:15:36.659 the vicar had said, oh, you're putting new carpets 00:15:36.659 --> 00:15:38.559 down. Tell you what, you keep the old ones, we'll 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:44.080 have the new ones. Punchy. Not recommended, by 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:48.139 the way. Building projects. But you know, as 00:15:48.139 --> 00:15:50.220 well as I do, that Haggai does not call us directly 00:15:50.220 --> 00:15:53.559 to build physical buildings. That's the B, the 00:15:53.559 --> 00:15:56.539 C. Crusades. Evangelistic crusades. It's getting 00:15:56.539 --> 00:15:58.100 closer to the truth, isn't it? We build the church 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:00.419 as we do evangelism. We preach the gospel. Billy 00:16:00.419 --> 00:16:02.120 Graham's in town and you want to whip everybody 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:04.500 up. Put your hands together. Come on, serve. 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:09.279 Put church higher up your priority list. It's 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:13.059 getting closer. I'm sure we're not totally sure 00:16:13.059 --> 00:16:17.490 we're there. What about the A? I think sometimes 00:16:17.490 --> 00:16:18.970 ministers preach Haggai when they're just angry, 00:16:19.149 --> 00:16:23.370 just fed up with congregation. Come on, I've 00:16:23.370 --> 00:16:24.809 asked for volunteers for the youth work and we 00:16:24.809 --> 00:16:27.389 haven't got any. I've been preaching my guts 00:16:27.389 --> 00:16:29.049 out and nothing. Why are you never inviting people 00:16:29.049 --> 00:16:30.929 to Christianity Explored? Why is church half 00:16:30.929 --> 00:16:35.529 empty on a Sunday? And Haggai becomes a book, 00:16:35.570 --> 00:16:39.370 a useful tool for lashing the congregation. And 00:16:39.370 --> 00:16:41.409 of course there is a call to repent in Haggai. 00:16:41.470 --> 00:16:43.929 We don't want to avoid that. But Haggai 1 is 00:16:43.929 --> 00:16:48.769 not just command. not just commands. And Haggai 00:16:48.769 --> 00:16:53.730 1 is not just a story of apathy, is it? Haggai 00:16:53.730 --> 00:16:58.009 1 is as full of zeal as it is apathy. The apathy 00:16:58.009 --> 00:16:59.870 sits with God's people, but the zeal sits with 00:16:59.870 --> 00:17:02.879 the Lord. The zeal sits with the Lord. If you 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:04.519 step back and say, what is it that God wants 00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:06.180 building? He wants the temple building. What 00:17:06.180 --> 00:17:08.079 is the temple? The temple, of course, is the 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:09.940 meeting place between heaven and earth. It is 00:17:09.940 --> 00:17:12.119 a place where God and his people will meet. It 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:14.920 is a place where he will be able to gather his 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:16.680 people and they will be able to worship him. 00:17:18.140 --> 00:17:22.940 Who desires that temple most in Haggai's one? 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:27.920 Not the people, but God. Heaven's desire to come 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:30.759 to earth far exceeds earth's desire to ascend 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:33.730 to heaven. And that's where we start seeing grace 00:17:33.730 --> 00:17:37.869 in Haggai, isn't it? God desires to come down 00:17:37.869 --> 00:17:41.029 and meet with this apathetic people. He could 00:17:41.029 --> 00:17:44.170 have said to them, look, I've called you back 00:17:44.170 --> 00:17:48.730 from exile. You've had this huge warning. I've 00:17:48.730 --> 00:17:52.509 got you freed. You started and now yet again 00:17:52.509 --> 00:17:53.789 you've turned your back on me and so I'm going 00:17:53.789 --> 00:17:55.950 to leave you. But he doesn't. He calls them back 00:17:55.950 --> 00:17:57.890 again. Why? Because he wants to dwell with them. 00:17:58.309 --> 00:18:01.609 His desire for them far exceeds their desire. 00:18:02.170 --> 00:18:04.970 For him. It's bizarre, isn't it? The one who 00:18:04.970 --> 00:18:08.569 has nothing to gain has all the zeal. And the 00:18:08.569 --> 00:18:10.769 ones who have everything to lose have sort of 00:18:10.769 --> 00:18:14.769 apathy. But thank God it's that way around. God 00:18:14.769 --> 00:18:16.990 is full of zeal to come and meet with his people. 00:18:19.730 --> 00:18:22.549 We know how the story goes on. The temple is 00:18:22.549 --> 00:18:25.789 built and it's no great shakes. And by the time 00:18:25.789 --> 00:18:28.690 the Lord Jesus comes. God's people is every bit 00:18:28.690 --> 00:18:31.250 as apathetic as ever they were in the days of 00:18:31.250 --> 00:18:35.210 Haggai. And yet God's zeal remains, doesn't it? 00:18:36.089 --> 00:18:40.089 The father's zeal to meet with his people, the 00:18:40.089 --> 00:18:42.390 father's zeal for heaven and earth to be reunited 00:18:42.390 --> 00:18:45.950 is shown in his sending of his son to earth. 00:18:46.130 --> 00:18:51.069 The Holy Spirit's zeal to fill a people is seen 00:18:51.069 --> 00:18:54.029 as he prepares a better temple, a true temple, 00:18:54.170 --> 00:18:57.380 prepares. the body, the flesh of the Lord Jesus 00:18:57.380 --> 00:18:59.759 in the womb of Mary, in order that there might 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:02.880 be a true, holy dwelling place on earth for God. 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:06.619 And God, the son of the Lord Jesus, his zeal 00:19:06.619 --> 00:19:08.420 is shown, his passion for his people is shown 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:12.019 as he descends from on high and tabernacles among 00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:15.200 us, dwells among us, as he assumes that flesh 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:18.180 to himself. Haggai is a Christmas reading. It's 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:21.740 not quite as out of place as it might be. Haggai 00:19:21.740 --> 00:19:24.750 points us to the great temple. On it, the Lord 00:19:24.750 --> 00:19:30.849 Jesus. Appropriately, Haggai's name means something 00:19:30.849 --> 00:19:33.930 like my feast. If you were to read through the 00:19:33.930 --> 00:19:35.349 rest of the book, there's all sorts of kind of 00:19:35.349 --> 00:19:36.970 interesting crossovers with the feasts of the 00:19:36.970 --> 00:19:43.069 Old Testament. Haggai speaks of Christmas. And 00:19:43.069 --> 00:19:44.869 of course, Christmas, as ever, leads to Easter. 00:19:46.509 --> 00:19:48.509 Even when the true temple comes, the holy temple 00:19:48.509 --> 00:19:50.789 of the Lord Jesus himself, what do we do? We're 00:19:50.789 --> 00:19:53.859 not just apathetic. But we destroy the temple. 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:57.740 Nebuchadnezzar destroyed one temple. The Romans 00:19:57.740 --> 00:20:00.880 destroyed another temple in 70 AD. But all of 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:04.200 humanity gathers together in 33 AD to destroy 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:07.839 the real temple. It wasn't the nails and hammers 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:10.579 of the Romans in 70 AD, but the nails and hammer 00:20:10.579 --> 00:20:14.640 of the centurion in 33 AD that tries to destroy 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:18.599 the real temple. Or it's apathy, but hatred. 00:20:19.789 --> 00:20:22.650 And yet God's zeal to meet with his people continues. 00:20:23.309 --> 00:20:25.869 The Lord Jesus, knowing what will happen, perseveres, 00:20:25.869 --> 00:20:30.029 lays down his life. The temple is destroyed, 00:20:30.230 --> 00:20:33.369 but yet built up again and built up again in 00:20:33.369 --> 00:20:35.769 order that it might become far greater, in order 00:20:35.769 --> 00:20:39.089 that the temple might be not simply his earthly 00:20:39.089 --> 00:20:40.970 physical body, but might be the temple that stretches 00:20:40.970 --> 00:20:42.470 to the ends of the earth, the temple of the Holy 00:20:42.470 --> 00:20:49.599 Spirit, the church of all nations. And so. The 00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:53.380 commands of Haggai 1 come to us, not as simply 00:20:53.380 --> 00:20:56.799 go build the church, brute commands from heaven, 00:20:56.940 --> 00:21:01.900 nor just a kind of, hey, sit back, I've got this, 00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:05.400 but rather a promise of the Lord Jesus that I 00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:08.859 will build through you. Matthew 16 comes before 00:21:08.859 --> 00:21:10.480 Matthew 28, doesn't it? There's an insight for 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:12.779 you. Matthew 16 comes before Matthew 28. Matthew 00:21:12.779 --> 00:21:14.940 28, we know, go make disciples of all nations, 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:18.490 but Matthew 16, I will build my church. And the 00:21:18.490 --> 00:21:21.390 gates of Hades will not overcome it. Not go build 00:21:21.390 --> 00:21:23.250 it for me. I will build. Now, he'll do it through 00:21:23.250 --> 00:21:25.869 his church. But it's always the Lord Jesus who 00:21:25.869 --> 00:21:29.349 is active in mission, in building, in any kind 00:21:29.349 --> 00:21:31.869 of strengthening of the great structure that 00:21:31.869 --> 00:21:39.990 is his church. God desires to be with his people. 00:21:40.970 --> 00:21:42.869 If you want to move yourself from apathy to zeal, 00:21:42.990 --> 00:21:45.049 if you want to spur your congregations and youth 00:21:45.049 --> 00:21:49.220 groups and families. from apathy to zeal, then 00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:54.200 we need to see his zeal every bit as much as 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:57.359 we need to hear his rebuke. Rebuke without the 00:21:57.359 --> 00:21:59.700 passion, without the love, is just going to strike 00:21:59.700 --> 00:22:02.519 fear. But when we see it in the context of his 00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:05.539 overwhelming desire to descend, to dwell with 00:22:05.539 --> 00:22:08.700 us, to call us to himself, we remember that this 00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:11.059 is Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, the one who needs 00:22:11.059 --> 00:22:12.880 nothing from us and can gain nothing from us. 00:22:14.660 --> 00:22:17.750 And we know that... All he's doing ultimately 00:22:17.750 --> 00:22:21.809 is giving. Yes, the glory is his. But it's not 00:22:21.809 --> 00:22:25.130 an actual gain for God, is it? He is the blessed 00:22:25.130 --> 00:22:26.789 God. He needs nothing from us, can gain nothing 00:22:26.789 --> 00:22:30.130 from us. Who can give to God? The glory, the 00:22:30.130 --> 00:22:31.950 praise, the honour is his, but the gain is all 00:22:31.950 --> 00:22:36.769 ours. And so however hard your temple building 00:22:36.769 --> 00:22:41.569 work is at the moment, ultimately, even the difficult 00:22:41.569 --> 00:22:43.690 tasks are for your good. They're part of his 00:22:43.690 --> 00:22:48.119 gift to you. And the reason he's called you to 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:52.720 it is because he knows and he desires to spend 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:55.319 eternity with you and with the people you serve 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:58.480 in order that it might be a blessed temple stretching 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:02.319 from east to west, north to south, with every 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:04.559 nation bowing before the Lord Jesus. Let's pray. 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:12.160 Father in heaven, we confess that very quickly 00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:17.890 we move from zeal to apathy. It can't honestly 00:23:17.890 --> 00:23:20.490 be said of us that zeal for your house consumed 00:23:20.490 --> 00:23:24.269 us. Forgive us our sins, we pray. And we praise 00:23:24.269 --> 00:23:25.930 you that we're saved, not by our zeal for you, 00:23:25.970 --> 00:23:31.450 but by yours for us. So our hearts, this Christmas 00:23:31.450 --> 00:23:36.549 again, we pray with the joy and wonder of seeing 00:23:36.549 --> 00:23:38.289 the Lord Jesus coming to tabernacle among us. 00:23:39.069 --> 00:23:42.069 And we pray that that love might drive us with 00:23:42.069 --> 00:23:45.369 joy to call others to join this great temple 00:23:45.369 --> 00:23:48.819 project. and to motivate those who are already 00:23:48.819 --> 00:23:52.400 a part of your kingdom to work with ever more 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:57.299 zeal and to see your temple built and the nations 00:23:57.299 --> 00:24:00.380 reached. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.