Build God's House!

Introduction (Secure Attention):

Have you ever thought along these lines, “I am going to serve the Lord after I grow old.”

“I want to work for God but I’m too busy.”

“I want to serve God but I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to do anything at all for the Lord.”

If you had any thoughts like that, then you will have an idea about what these post-exilic Jews thought.

Brief Background of the Passage:

Haggai was a prophet who, along with Zechariah, encouraged the returned exiles to rebuild the temple (see Ezr 5:1-2; 6:14).

Here, explain briefly as to why they went into Babylon as exiles.

In 538 B.C. the conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus king of Persia, issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple (see Ezra 1:2-4; 6:3-5).

Led by Zerubbabel, about 50,000 Jews journeyed home and began work on the temple.

About two years later (536) they completed the foundation amid great rejoicing (Ezr 3:8-10).

Their success aroused the Samaritans and other neighbors who feared the political and religious implications of a rebuilt temple in a thriving Jewish state.

They, therefore, opposed the project vigorously and managed to halt work until Darius the Great became king of Persia in 522 B.C. (Ezr 4:1-5, 24).

The Jews were more to blame for their inactivity than their opponents, and Haggai tried to arouse them from their lethargy.

About 18 years went by between the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the temple. This delay is what brings forth the message of Haggai in 520 B.C.

Haggai preached four sermons to the Jews.

In 516 B.C. the temple was finished and dedicated (Ezr 6:15-18).

The Exegetical Idea (The Exegetical Theme):

Since the Jews became spiritually lethargic, God exhorted them to build His house.

Fallen Condition Focus (FCF; Demonstrate the relevance of the sermon to the contemporary audience):

Since Christians, like the post-exilic Jews, can easily become spiritually lethargic, we need to remind ourselves that we need to do the work of the Lord.

Proposition:

God encourages His people to do His work.

Sermonic Interrogative (Interrogative Sentence):

How does the Lord encourage us to do His work?

Transitional Sentence:

The Lord encourages us to do His work by taking us through the following steps (Key Word) that He used for the Jews.

Main Points:

I. God will Rebuke us (vv. 1-6, 9-11).

Verse 1 says that the Word of the Lord came to Haggai in the second year of Darius, King of Persia.

This is the first of the four sermons that Haggai preached to the Jews.

Here we see that God Almighty is rebuking His people.

The Reason for Rebuke (vv. 2-4).

These people. Because of their sin, the nation is not called "my people" (cf. 2:14).

Why is the Lord rebuking them?

The reason that the Lord is rebuking the people is that they were making lame excuses that “the time has not yet come for Lord’s house to be built” (Read v. 2).

While the Israelites were thinking about their own selves and their families, they had completely forgotten about the Lord’s house (Read vv. 3-4).

Theirs was not a genuine excuse. It was just a lame excuse!

They were trying to spiritualize the whole issue by saying that the time has not come for the Lord’s house to be built.

To refuse to build the [Lord’s] house was at best saying that it did not matter whether the Lord was present with them.

Perhaps the returnees were saying that it was better to wait for more favorable times.

In response to this, Haggai would have to say that the time is rarely just right to build the house of God--i.e., to do God’s work.

We can never expect the cooperation of the enemy in a truly spiritual task.

Taken from Shanklin’s Sermon, “It’s Time to Build the Lord’s House”. {Question: Is God against them building up their homes? Answer: No

Question: Is God against them because they spent more time building their homes and invested little or no time building up his house? Answer: Yes

Question: Is God against people maintaining a living, developing a career, having nice things? Answer: No

Question: Is God against folks who spend all of their energy maintaining a living, developing a career, obtaining nice things, but leave no room for God’s will, word, or work? Answer: Yes}

Taken from Shanklin’s Sermon, “It’s Time to Build the Lord’s House”. {God’s house in ruin, their house in riches;

God’s house, neglected, their house erected;

God’s house, not remembered, their house not forgotten;

God’s house, second class, their house first class;

God’s house, the leftovers, their house running over.}

The people had put their own comfort before the building of the temple.

The word translated "paneled" raises some questions.