Week before last, we started looking at this little book of Haggai. And we saw how the Jewish remnant had been in exile in Babylon for many years. The temple had been destroyed, Jerusalem had been destroyed, and they were far away from home. But after a period of time, God allowed them to come home to Jerusalem. And when they got home, they found that everything was in ruins. But when God allowed them to come home, He commanded them to rebuild it—starting with the temple. When they first got there, they were so excited and motivated that they got to work right away. And in no time, they had cleared the area for the temple, built its foundations and laid the altar. It was a wonderfully joyous occasion. They were back home and doing the work that God had called them to do. But then what happened? They quit. Not intentionally. Not deliberately or out of open rebellion. It just sort of happened. They were satisfied with what they had and where they were. And then days turned into weeks. And weeks turned into months. And months turned into years. Until, before they knew it, 16 years had passed. 16 years had passed in which absolutely nothing had been done. The temple was still in ruins. The city was still in ruins. The wall was still down. Nothing had been done to accomplish the work that God had called them to do. And then, out of His grace, God sent a couple of prophets. He sent Haggai and Zechariah to remind the people of what they were supposed to be doing. This book is God’s reminder through Haggai. Do you know what I think is wonderful about it? God didn’t remind the remnant by blasting them. He didn’t threaten them or chastise them. What did He do instead? He encouraged them. Not with a false rah-rah kind of encouragement. But with a joyful, hopeful kind of encouragement that only comes out of a relationship with a loving God. Once again, in our passage, Haggai sets the timeframe for us. He says that we are now in the 21st day of seventh month of the second year of the rule of Darius. If you want to translate that to our calendar, it was October 17th, 520BC. In other words, it was about 7 weeks after the prophesy we talked about last week in chapter 1. You remember that prophesy focused on the Lord telling His people to consider their ways. He wanted them to think about why they always seemed to be working so hard and didn’t have anything to show for it. And then He showed them that their real problem was that their focus was in the wrong place. They had become focused on their own personal wants and needs rather than what God required of them. They had become more concerned with the daily grind of life than they were with glorifying God. They had become more focused on dealing with the relationships within their own houses than they were with dealing with their relationship with God. And then in verses 12-15, once they had considered their ways and saw what the problem was, they set out to fix it. They weren’t satisfied to just sit there and do nothing anymore. They weren’t satisfied to just sit back and say, “That’s the way it’s been for 16 years, no need changing things now.” They were no longer satisfied with the ruins around them. They were no longer satisfied with living in the middle of God’s unfinished work. So they got busy. Verse 12 says that they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And when they began to obey, God stirred up the heart of the leadership. And God stirred up the heart of the people. And they got to work doing the work that God had called them to do. But there’s always a problem when we decide to get to work, isn’t there? The problem is not necessarily that work’s hard. Most people don’t mind hard work. The problem is that sometimes it can be overwhelming. On the news the other day, I heard a reporter from Haiti do something that you don’t hear too often. He was off camera and was describing all of the devastation and death and destruction. He was going over all of the problems with infrastructure and how that was making it impossible to get aid into all of those people who desperately needed it. Then he just started listing all of the things that needed to be fixed before those people could be helped. Clearing roads, but roads couldn’t be cleared without heavy equipment. Security, but security couldn’t happen because most of them were unaccounted for and communications were down. The port and the airport were damaged. Then he just completely broke down. He began to see the situation as completely hopeless, because he didn’t know where to begin. There was so much devastation, he didn’t have a clue where to begin. Isn’t that where a lot of good intentions go to die? We have the best intentions in the world, but sometimes they seem so big and we don’t really know how to get started. That’s where the remnant found themselves. After 16 long years, they were finally ready to get busy. But then they looked around. They looked at themselves. They were just a small remnant. One of the ones who would later oppose them called them feeble Jews. And that was after they had gotten a couple more rounds of reinforcements. They were small and feeble and certainly not equipped for the task at hand. And then they looked at the task. What a task it was! The temple was in complete ruins. Nothing was there except weed-covered rubble. And they were supposed to build a temple fit for the living God. Sounds like an impossible task, doesn’t it? How do you get started on a task like that? Did you know that the Lord has given us a job to do too? Matthew 28:19 tells us what that job is. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” And then Jesus clarifies it a little more in Acts 1:8. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” What is our job as individuals and particularly as a church? To reach our neighborhood, our city, our county, our state, our nation and our world with the Gospel. That’s a big job, isn’t it? Especially when we look around at all that’s wrong. When we see the poverty around us. When we see the abuse around us. When we see the neglect around us. When we see the drugs and alcohol abuse around us. When we see the crime and sin and despair around us. Broken homes and families and destroyed lives. That’s an overwhelming task, isn’t it? And we’re so small and feeble, aren’t we? When we look around at the magnitude of the task that needs to be done, how can we muster the energy and strength that it will take to do the impossible? Just like the remnant did, we need to do three things. First, we need to ask the question. Look back at verse 3:
HAGGAI 2:3
God asked them, “Who here remembers what this temple used to look like?” By this time, there were probably only a few old-timers in the crowd who remembered what the temple used to look like before it was destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the temple back in 586 BC, so anyone there who had seen it as a teenager was in their late 70s or 80s by now. And God asked them, “Remember what it used to look like?” And do you know what they remembered? They remembered how great and how grand Solomon’s temple was before it was destroyed. The Lord was reminding them of the way that things should be. And after He reminded them of the way that it should be, He asked them if what they saw now lined up with that memory. It didn’t, did it? But did that change the need? I have heard stories about how nearly every church in this area was full. And if you go back farther than that, I have read stories about great revivals that swept across this area. Revivals that started in Tennessee and in the Carolinas and swept across the country. Revivals that started in a little one-room church in Northampton, Massachusetts, and swept the entire nation and the world. Revivals that started with a dozen people at a prayer meeting in New York and moved to Philadelphia and around the world. I’ve heard stories and I’ve read stories and I’m tired of reading about them. I want to see them. How do those stories compare to what we see in front of us this morning? “How do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” It is important for us to ask that question. How do things that we see in our midst today line up with the way things should be? Now—when I say “the way things should be”… what standard am I using? I’m not using the standard of style or preference. Some might thing that we need to be traditional and never-changing. Some might think that we need to be modern and contemporary. Neither one of those are the way things should be—or both of them are. Because those questions of style and preference are not what’s important. They have very little to do with the way things should be. No, the way things should be is that we should be reaching our world for Christ. And the bottom line is, we’re not getting it done. The first step to finding the energy and strength it takes to do the impossible is to ask the question. Ask it head-on and don’t shy away from the difficulty or impossibility of the answer. How does what you see compare with the way things ought to be? After we ask that question, we will know the real need. Then the second thing we need to do is address the task. Look at verse 4:
HAGGAI 2:4-5
Here’s the problem with seriously asking the question. When we seriously ask ourselves if what we see lines up with the way things ought to be, we’re probably not going to like the answer. Because the answer might just seem too big to handle. It might just seem like it’s going to cost us too much. It might cost us too much money. It might cost us too much time. It might cost us too much commitment. And when that happens, it might just cause us to shrink away from the task. That would have been easy for the remnant to do, wouldn’t it? After all, it’s a whole lot easier to sit in the same place we did yesterday and the day before that and the day before that, isn’t it? It was a whole lot easier for them to watch the foundation and altar slowly deteriorate than it was to build the temple. As a matter of fact, those weeds that were growing up through the rubble might just look like flowers after you get used to them for long enough. You see, just asking the question isn’t enough. Because after we ask the question, we’re not going to like the answer. So after we ask the question, we’ve got to face up to the answer. We’ve got to address the task at hand. Addressing the task at hand is not simply acknowledging that it needs to happen. I think all of us in here acknowledge that the Lord has called us to impact our area and our world for Christ. I think we acknowledge that He has given us these facilities and these resources as a platform to proclaim His Gospel to our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. We acknowledge it, but do we really face up to it? Do we really address the fact that that’s what we’re called to do? Or do we just pay it lip service? So, how do we address it? By being strong. That’s what the Lord told the people in verse 4. He told the governmental leadership to be strong. He told the priestly leadership to be strong. He told the workers and people to be strong. He said, “Don’t shrink away from the task that I have placed before you.” “Be strong in addressing it head on—and work.” “Get busy.” And do you know what the wonderful thing is? The Lord didn’t tell them to do it in their own strength, did He? What did He say at the end of verse 4? He said, “For I am with you.” You see, we don’t have to fear the task that God has given us, because He is where our strength will come from. Where will our strength come from to have evangelistic events this year? Where will our strength come from to do mission trips? Where will our strength come from to reach out to this community like we’ve never done before? Where will our strength come from to plant a church? Our strength will come from the Lord, because He is with us. But how do we know? We can ask the question and we can address the task, but how do we know if we’re doing the right thing? Because after we ask the question and address the task, we need to hold on to the promise. Look at verses 6-9:
HAGGAI 2:6-9
Now, remember the scene here. The prophet Haggai is passing God’s Word to the remnant. We don’t know where they were when they were listening to this, but it had to be pretty close to where the temple was supposed to be. And when they looked around, what did they see? Broken down rocks and rubble and weeds and ruins. But what did God tell them in verse 7? He said, “I will fill this house with glory.” What house? There wasn’t any house there. There was only a cracked and worn foundation with an altar in the middle of it. But God saw it as already being there. Why? Because when God promises something, it is as real as if it had already come to pass. And do you remember how Jesus ended His command to us in Matthew 28:19-20? He said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” He said that as we are faithful to do the task He’s appointed us to do, He’s always going to be with us. He will be our strength. He will be our courage. He will be our success. Why? Because He said so. And then over in Acts 1:8 He said, “ But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Do you know what that means? It means that we WILL receive power to do the task He’s called us to do. And it means that we WILL be the witness He’s called us to be. That means that when we step out to do the task that the Lord has called us to do, our success is guaranteed. Not that all of our programs or events will be successful, but that when each of us is faithful to give and work and live and pray and tell and go… we will see this place full. And we will see our area impacted for Christ. And do you know what? We will even get to see some of those great stories of revival rewritten.
Look around. What do you see? Do you know what I see? I see opportunity. I see opportunity to do the task that God has called us to do. Let’s take our eyes of the rubble. Let’s take our eyes off our comfort. Let’s wake up from our complacency. Let’s cast off any fear and doubt we might have about moving forward. Let’s be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Let’s remember the promises of the Lord. Let’s remember that He is with us and will never forsake us. And let’s work to build this house by sharing the Gospel and living as a witness for Christ everywhere we go. The results are guaranteed. Let’s get busy.
