Do you ever wish you could just start over? Staples has made a fortune with their easy button commercials. It would be nice if there was such a thing as an easy button, but you know what I’d rather have? I’d rather have an undo button. Can you imagine having a button that allowed you to undo anything that you’ve messed up? Messed up that project—undo. Messed up that relationship—undo. Messed up that good intention—undo. That would be nice. But unfortunately, we all know there’s no such thing as an undo button in life. Once we do something, it’s done. No matter how bad we’d like to, we can’t undo the past. God is all-powerful—He can do anything. But there are some things He won’t do—and that’s one of them. He will not change the past. But even though the Lord won’t change the past, do you know what He will do? He’ll do something even better. Even though He won’t change the past, He will give you a fresh start for the future. He did it for the remnant in our passage this morning, and He’ll do it for us as a church and He’ll do it for you. Back up to verse 10 to see where we are.
HAGGAI 2:10
That’s another one of Haggai’s time stamps that he gives us. What that tells us is that it has been almost exactly three months since they had started working on the temple. You remember that the remnant had returned to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile in Babylon and Medo-Persia. And when God allowed them to return to their land, He commanded that they rebuild the city—starting with the temple. They got started right away, but all they got done was the foundation and the altar. And then they quit for 16 years. After 16 years of doing nothing, God sent Haggai and Zechariah to remind them of what they were supposed to be doing. And to their credit, they listened. They listened and got busy rebuilding the temple. But here it was, three months later, and there was a problem. Things weren’t going as well as they seemed. Oh sure, there was some work being done. There was some building going on. But there was a problem. The people had the wrong attitude. They hadn’t really changed. They were working hard like they always did, but their hearts were in the wrong place. Stones were being laid upon one another, but lives were still in ruins. Remember back in chapter 1 what their problem was. The people were basically self-centered. They were more focused on their personal wants and needs and desires than they were with the Lord’s desires. They were more concerned with what was going on in their day-to-day lives than they were with glorifying God. They were so focused on their relationships with their own families and friends that they had completely neglected their relationship with God. And, three months later… even though they had started rebuilding the temple… they still had those same problems. And in our passage this morning, Haggai shows them that. But more than that, he shows them how God wants to give them a fresh start. Don’t quit what you’re doing. You can’t go back and change the past. What you can do is start fresh from where you are. Verse 18 that we started off reading starts with the words, “Consider now from this day and upward.” In other words the Lord is saying, “I don’t care what brought you to this point today.” “It doesn’t matter what brought you here or what has happened in your life up until this point.” “That is the past, and you can’t change the past.” “There is no undo button.” “But today is a new day.” “Today can be the start of a brand-new beginning for you.” “It can be a fresh start.” Just like the day that Haggai spoke these words to the remnant, this can be a new day for our church. This can be a new day for you personally. Are you ready to make that fresh start this morning? Are you ready for us as a church to make that fresh start this morning? If you are, then it’s going to require us to do three things. First, a fresh start requires a fresh look at where we are. Look at verses 11-14:
HAGGAI 2:11-14
Okay, how in the world does that have anything to do with taking a look at where we are? He’s talking about holy flesh and skirts and pottage and dead bodies and things. What in the world is he talking about and how does that apply to us? I’m glad you asked. God, through Haggai, is giving the people an illustration. He’s teaching them something by giving them a picture that they would understand. The problem is, we don’t have the same cultural background that they did, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us. Just like me talking about a Staples easy button wouldn’t have made a whole lot of sense to them. Here’s what was happening. Haggai was referring back to a Levitical code that they were very familiar with. The Levitical code was basically the rule book for priests that is found in the book of Leviticus—you know, those verses we read through real fast when we’re reading through the Bible? That’s the Levitical code. Except the priests didn’t read through it real fast. They knew it backwards and forwards—especially now that they were rebuilding the temple. They were learning it every day as part of their preparations to serve in the new temple. And because of that, they knew what would make a them ceremonially clean and they knew what would contaminate them. If a priest was ceremonially clean, he could do all of the stuff that priests were supposed to do. If he was unclean, he couldn’t. So, through Haggai, God asks them a question. Basically what He asks is, “If you are carrying something holy in your pocket, and you touch something else, does the thing that you touched become holy?” In other words, is holiness something that will rub off onto something else? And of course, the priests answer—no, holiness doesn’t rub off on something else. And then He uses the example of a dead body as something obviously known to be unclean. He asks, “If you touch something unclean like a dead body, that makes you ceremonially unclean. Then what happens if you turn around and touch something else?” So, the priests answered Him, “It will become ceremonially unclean.” That was the illustration, and they got it. Let me put it in an illustration that is easier for us to get. Imagine that your hands are scrubbed perfectly clean. Then imagine that I’ve been loading manure all day with no gloves on. Then we shake hands. Who rubbed off on whom? Did your clean hands make mine clean? Of course not. My filthy hands made yours unclean. That’s the illustration. But why was he using that illustration? To get the people to take a fresh look at where they were. They were working hard doing the Lord’s work. They were building the temple just like they were supposed to. They were doing good “churchy” stuff. They were being good and religious. But the problem was that they were still dirty inside. They were doing “churchy” things in the hopes that those things would clean them up. But religion won’t do a thing to clean you up. Churchy things won’t do a thing to clean you up. But even more than that, when a person with a dirty heart comes to do the Lord’s work, what does it do? It dirties up the work. Why do you think we have so many churches that are in such a mess today? Because we’re trying to do the work as a way to make us clean instead of doing the work out of an already clean heart. A fresh start requires that we take a hard look at where we are. Why are we doing the things that we do? Are we doing them with a clean heart? Or are we doing them as a way to try and clean up our dirty heart? Not only does a fresh start require us to look at where we are, it requires us to look at where we once were. Look at verses 15-17:
HAGGAI 2:15-17
And here for the first time, we see the phrase, “Consider from this day and upward.” In other words, the Lord is saying “Here is what I want you to think about from this point forward.” But what’s interesting is, even as He says that, the Lord is telling them to remember what’s gone on before. It’s like when Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” But immediately before he says that he’s forgotten his past, he goes through a condensed version of his whole history in 3:5-6: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” The Lord is telling the remnant to do the same thing that He told Paul to do. The only way you can move forward with a fresh start is to forget the past by looking at where you were. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? It does until we start to think about the kind of past we tend to think about. Sometimes we like to think about all of the struggles of the past. Sometimes we do the opposite and think about the past with rose-colored glasses. On the one hand, we think about the “old-time religion” while at the same time on the other hand we think about how somebody in the past has hurt us or offended us. Those are both the kind of past that we’re supposed to forget and leave behind us. What both Haggai and Paul are telling us to remember about the past is to remember what the Lord has saved us from. If you’re saved, it’s a good idea to reflect on exactly what Jesus has saved you from. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 does that perfectly. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” When we see lost sinners all around us acting like lost sinners, what is our reaction to them? Do we look down our noses at them? Or do we realize that, there but by the grace of God, go I? You see, the Lord was telling the remnant to remember how things were before He called them. Remember what it was like before they got to work. Remember the frustration. Remember the futility. Remember what it felt like to be lost. Do you remember what it felt like to be lost? If you do, maybe you’ll have more of a heart to live like you’re saved. When we truly remember what Jesus has saved us from, we’ll have the right heart to do the work that He’s called us to do. Remember that He’s called us to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the utter most parts of the earth. That’s our own immediate neighborhood, our outlying area, the people who don’t look like us or act like us, and the world. That is our job. We love to quote Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” But why do we leave off verse 10? “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” A fresh start requires that we take a fresh look at where we were. That means we need to remember what Jesus has saved us from and what He has saved us to do. We need to take a fresh look at where we are and where we were. We also need to take a fresh look at where we’re going. A fresh start requires us to take a fresh look at where we’re going. Look at verses 18-19:
HAGGAI 2:18-19
Some people call it vision. Some people call it long-range planning. Some people even call it dreaming. The question is, where are we going? If we are really looking for a fresh start, we will take a fresh look at where we are. And we will take a fresh look at where we were. But that’s not where we’re going to stay. It’s not like Jesus has saved us and brought us together and that’s it. No, He’s saved us and brought us together here in this place for a reason. It’s not to just occupy space. It’s not just to have a place to come to check off our religious duty for the week. It’s not just to come and have our batteries recharged. It’s not just to come and enjoy each other’s company. The Lord has brought us here for a purpose. And it’s not to just stay where we are. He’s brought us here to accomplish the Great Commission. In the same way that God brought the remnant together to rebuild the temple, He’s brought us here to rebuild His ministry here and win our world to Christ. Is it going to happen overnight? No. Is it going to happen in a week or a month or a year? No. It might not even happen in our lifetimes. But it’s going to happen. God will bring the revival that we pray for. That’s where we’re headed. In verse 18, the Lord told His people to stop and think about it. Think about what’s going on today. Think about what things were like 16 years ago when the temple foundation was laid. And then he gave another illustration. This time it was something we can relate to. What happens when you plant a seed? If you sit and stare at it every day, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot, does it? There are some weeds that grow pretty fast, but I’m talking about good, fruit-bearing plants. Is the seed in the barn or is it in the ground? If we’ve taken a fresh look at where we are and where we were and where we’re going, then the seed is in the ground. That means it’s going to grow. Slowly, almost imperceptibly. And then that seed will become a sprout. And that sprout will become a seedling. And the seedling will become a tree. And then, after a while, the tree will bear much fruit. Now, what happens in the meantime? Growth does. And growth is sometimes painful. Healthy growth is rarely quick. Sometimes it is almost imperceptible. But every bit of growth involves change. One thing about fruit trees—they don’t look anything at all like seeds. And they don’t act like seeds either, do they? When the Lord spoke this word to the remnant, it was still very early in the process. Thank God that where they were, looked nothing like where they had been. And thank God that where they were looked nothing like where they were heading. That day marked a fresh start for them. They were able to take a hard look at why they were doing the work that they were doing. They were able to assess their motives and line those motives up against God’s desires for them. They were also able to take a look back at what God had delivered them from. They were able to see His grace in their lives and take a fresh look at what He wanted them to do. Finally, they were able to catch a glimpse of where they were going. They saw the work that the Lord had for them and saw that they were just beginning a wonderful process that was going to result in wonderful fruit for the Lord. That same fresh start is available to you too. I may not have an undo button for you this morning. But I can offer you a fresh start. All you have to do is to see your sin for what it is. Without Jesus, your life is nothing but a crumbling pile of patched together rubble. And no amount of good religious works will pull you out of it. You can patch and patch and build and build, but it will never be right. Your dirty hand will never make it clean. That is, until you see your Savior for who He is. Will you see Him for who He is this morning? Jesus will be your fresh start today—all you have to do is ask Him.
