Chico Alliance Church
Pastor David Welch
"Consider Your Life”Pt 2
Introduction / Review
Last week we explored two of the five messages God sent through His prophet Haggai to the Israelites who had returned from 70 years of captivity in Babylon far from their beloved country Israel and capital city Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been left in rubble by the prolonged Babylonian siege of the city. Years later the Persian King Cyrus allowed a number of caravans to return to their country. A group of jubilant Jews at least 50,000 people made the 500 mile trek from Babylon back to their native country.
Ezra identified the completing reason to return to Jerusalem. Many were successful and tied to the Babylonian system and culture and gave up their comfortable lifestyle there. Why?
Then the heads of fathers' households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:5
During the first two years of their return, they all enthusiastically teamed up to lay the foundations to rebuild Solomon’s temple which had been decimated by the Babylonians.
The temple was a focal point of the city and national identity as a nation chosen by God.
It was where God’s present manifested to the people.
It was where the community gathered for worship and celebration.
It was the designated place where sacrifice and repentance for sin took place.
The temple was essential for spiritual community to not just survive but grow.
So many significant movements of God flowed around the temple.
Due to the great leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua and the dedication of the people, the foundation for the new temple was laid.
Now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD according to the directions of King David of Israel. They sang, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, saying, "For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away. Ezra 3:10-13
Shortly after, the enemies of God redoubled their efforts and succeed in putting a halt to the building for the next 16 years. Ezra’s historical account offers a bit further insight into the reason for the work stoppage. It seems that when the Hebrews began work on the foundation, the Samaritans who were the tribes of the North that had been deported and repatriated as a mixed race of people by the Assyrians came to offer their help rebuilding the temple.
Judah refused to let them participate. That triggered a vendetta against the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building, and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. (16 years) Ezra 4:4-5
They tattled on them to the new Persian King insinuating that this was an act of rebellion against him and the king ordered the work to be stopped.
Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes' document was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms. Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. Ezra 4:23-24
After the foundation had been laid, the people were intimidated and afraid to do God’s work and did not think to fight it. They failed to assert their written authority to build and just quit. Subsequently, they became engrossed in their own projects and personal pursuits.
What has the enemy told you? How has the enemy intimidated you to stop ministry for the kingdom? Are you going to listen to God’s “GO” or the enemy’s “STOP”? Will you assert the authority written by God or the threats whispered by the enemy?
Know your authority and keep engaged. Spiritual focus was now out of focus and community spiritual life was no longer viewed as essential. They were caught up in living life on an earthly plane.
The neglect of God’s stuff and making it a priority had taken its toll on their quality of life.
• There was much effort but little harvest
• There was intensified labor but little satisfaction
• They experienced continual thirst
• They had plenty of clothes but no warmth
• They make money but there was never enough paycheck to go around
• They lamented shattered dreams
• They noticed little accomplishment in spite of much labor
• Their saw their savings and investments dwindling away
God sent His prophet Haggai to enlighten them and encourage them. Along with Haggai God used Zechariah and Ezra to bring encouragement and revival. All this happened because they failed to assert their written authority to build rebuild the temple and got ensnared in their own stuff for 16 years.
I. Message One -- Consider your calendar (timing) and adjust it to God’s 1:1-2
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
"These people say, `The time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built.'" 1:1-2
The finishing of the temple was frankly not even scheduled. Why? Because their mentality was “Me and mine first”. The time has not yet come to work on God’s stuff. They were afraid and preoccupied. The second message came through Haggai on the same day.
II. Message Two -- Consider your priorities and get to work on God’s stuff first 1:3-15
A. Haggai proclaimed the message from God 1:3-4
Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?" 1:3-4
Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!” Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified," says the LORD. 1:7-8
Take time to set your heart on what is going on in your life. Understand that God’s kingdom must take priority over ours. Rebuild my temple! Get back to work on the temple in order to please me and that I may again manifest my glory. Notice, he didn’t excuse them because of the intimidation of the enemy. He expected them to work in spite of it. They had allowed the enemy’s intimidation to sideline them from kingdom work. He would have taken care of the situation with the king if they had taken care of the situation with their heart.
This was a piercing message that pricked the heart of the leaders and people.
What was the people’s response to this piercing proclamation of Haggai from God?
B. The people responded to the message
1. The people heard with their heart
Then Zerubbabel and Joshua with all the remnant of the people, obeyed (listened) the voice of the LORD their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him.
2. The people demonstrated reverence for God
And the people showed reverence for (feared) the LORD. 1:12
3. God affirmed his commitment to them
" 'I am with you,' declares the LORD." 1:13
4. God motivated their heart for the work 1:14
5. The people went to work (obeyed the call)
and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king. 1:14-15
They returned to the work in spite of the enemy’s warning. They should have stood up to them 16 years earlier. They lost 16 years of pleasing and glorifying God as well as 16 years of fruitfulness. Instead, because of fear and self-centeredness they experienced all the stuff mentioned previously. What happened to the opposition this time around? It is a most interesting story told by an eyewitness to the events; Ezra. It seems these same guys that stopped the work before noticed that they had resumed work on the temple and they came to the worksite to remind them that the king had told them to stop and they were going to tell. They even got names so they could go back to the king. Ezra records the response of the newly invigorated workers which was to appeal to God’s command and Cyrus’s original edict.
The foreigners ran to the king and told him what they said and what the Jews answered.
Darius decided to look up Cyrus’s original edict which the Jews encourage him to do and discovered that his predecessor Cyrus had indeed fully endorsed and even financed the rebuilding of their temple. Here is what he then told those who meant evil and wanted to stop the work on the temple.
“Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away. Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. And whatever is needed—bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require—let that be given to them day by day without fail, that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.” Ezra 6:6-12
Wow! What a reversal! The sad thing is that they could have had that same result 16 years earlier had they continued the work and trusted God. God LOVES to turn it back on His enemies. What people mean for evil God is able to turn for God. In fact Paul declared that He works ALL things for our good and His glory to those who love God and are called according to HIS purpose.
III. Message Three - Consider the future glory and be encouraged 2:1-9
These people were thoroughly discouraged. Probably those same people who had been discouraged at the completion of the foundation now wept at the completion of the temple. In comparison to Solomon’s glorious temple, this rebuilt version seemed lame. Solomon’s temple had been a glorious building: one of the great wonders of the world. It had been built with the imported cedars of Lebanon, had been decked out with precious stones and the whole thing had been overlaid with tons of gold and silver. The altar, the cherubim, the floor, the front porch and the holy of holies were all covered in gold. Even the nails were gold.
Now a month later, the people who remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple found this task discouraging. They found no delight in completing the task because it seemed anticlimactic. Often our work seems to be inadequate and inconsequential. We can get discouraged at what things look like compared to history or even other churches. I understand the discouragement of some of you old timers.
You remember the “glory days” of Chico.
You remember 250 kids in Sunday School
You remember youth quiz teams and music teams.
You remember choirs and a flurry of activity and building projects.
You remember young families all over the place.
We sometimes lament that our church is not like the one up the street or doing the things that they are doing. We might even feel discouraged that our church is not like the early church in Acts when thousands were added to the church and huge growth realized. Some of you lament that your walk is not as it used to be. Some may remember when you had all these dreams and now you are older and your dreams will most likely never materialize in the years you have left.
Some may long for some mountaintop experience you experienced years ago. I can’t tell you that this passage is a direct promise from God. This passage and its promises applied directly to Israel at a particular point in history. I can tell you that there is a timeless principle to hang on to for our day. God sent a message through Haggai to encourage their discouraged thinking.
So often God helps us survive the present problems by reminding us of future possibility. God’s message through Haggai went first to the leaders -- the governors and priests and then to the people.
• God acknowledged / addressed their discouragement.
On the twenty-first of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet saying, "Speak now to Zerubbabel and to Joshua and to the remnant of the people saying, 'Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?
“How do you see it now?” “Does it not seem to you like nothing in compassion?”
God doesn’t sugar coat it. God deals in reality. He wants them to deal with what they were feeling so He could redirect their thinking.
• God affirmed His commitment to them AGAIN.
'But now take courage, Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD, 'take courage also, Joshua and all you people of the land take courage,' declares the LORD, 'and work; for I am with you,' declares the LORD of hosts.
The antidote for discouragement is encouragement. God repeats the command “take courage” three times; one for each level in the community. It is like Paul’s command to stand against the enemy. It is like God’s call for Joshua to be courageous in the face of new battles. It is a Hebrew term meaning to hold on, take courage, be encouraged, and be strengthened, stand.
The best encouragement ever is to realize that God is in it. God is with us. After Jesus commissioned His disciples with a seemingly impossible task to take the Gospel from the innermost to the outermost He reminded them, “And take note, that I am with you even to the end of the age.
That promise was for ALL believers because those guys died and the end never came before they did. “Take courage and keep engaged in kingdom work for I am with you.” Sometimes all we need to know is that God is in it. God is with us. God is directing us.
• God appealed to a previous promise.
'As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!'
He reminded them of a previous promise. He reminded them of His promise to bring direction and protection and get them to their destination through His Holy Spirit. Not only can recognition of His presence encourage but bring peace rather than fear. It is interesting that God spoke to Zerrubabel along this same line through Zechariah.
Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6
Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. "For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel—these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth." Zechariah 4:8-10
Do you feel like God has abandoned you? Get back in the game. Get back to work on kingdom work. He promises to be with you and empower you by His Holy Spirit in spite of our weakness.
• God accentuated the future
God moved them from a depressing focus on the past to an encouraging focus on the future.
"For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. 'I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD of hosts. 'The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,' declares the LORD of hosts. 'The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and in this place I will give peace,' declares the LORD of hosts." 2:1-9
The problem with their external focus on the beauty and size of the first temple was that it is not always the physical that demonstrates glory; it is God’s presence. The first temple as beautify as it was, forfeited its glory when the presence of the Lord departed. Glory does not always come from external beauty but the manifested presence of God. God wants his glory to be evident in His followers.
Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? "For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD. "But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. Isaiah 66:1-2
God promised
“Thorough shaking of political systems.”
“I will bring you all the wealth of the world”
“I will fill this place with greater glory than ever before.”
“I will give peace”
The prophecy here kind of has a dual fulfillment. The political shaking unfolded from the shaking of Persia by the Greeks and the Greeks by the Romans followed by the presence of Jesus (the Lord of Glory and of Peace) in that particular temple. He brought glory and peace between earth and God. But that temple was later destroyed by Titus in 70 AD.
There is yet to be a worldwide shaking referred to by the writer of Hebrews as well as another rebuilding of the temple.
This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:27-29
What about us?
In spite of how things look on the surface, if God is in it, there is glory and peace. His Spirit continually abides with us and eliminates all need to be afraid. It must be His presence among us that distinguishes us from all others. He can bring all the necessary resources to accomplish His agenda for us. He can cause the latter glory of this place to outshine the former. He can cause us to be at peace and contentment in His presence.
You may think you are on the shelf and you no longer have the resources and energy to make a difference for the kingdom. The message is clear. If you are still alive you have responsibility in kingdom service. Don’t’ focus on what you used to be able to do. What does God have for you right now? When God is in it, the possibilities are endless and glorious. God may do something more glorious now than He did before.
We may never see these seats full again. For sure we won’t if we stop work for the kingdom and focus on the past. We won’t if we let the enemy terrify us or discourage us or distract us.
God’s presence opens every possibility for the future. Work in the present with a focus on His presence and the future promise. The promise of His presence certainly does apply directly to us today in kingdom work. Jesus promised He would build his church and even the formidable gates of hell and all the armies of hell can’t stop Him. Will we believe that promise for Chico?
They were able to complete the task because they believed God and stopped focusing on the enemy or the externals.
And the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. This temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar; it was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. And the sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. They offered for the dedication of this temple of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel. Then they appointed the priests to their divisions and the Levites in their orders for the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. Ezra 6:14-18
The following month they reinstated the Passover celebration.
For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were pure. Then they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, both for their brothers the priests and for themselves. The sons of Israel who returned from exile and all those who had separated themselves from the impurity of the nations of the land to join them, to seek the LORD God of Israel, ate the Passover. And they observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the LORD had caused them to rejoice, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. Ezra 6:20-22
God was not yet done speaking through Haggai. God not only wanted them to get their priorities and perspective straight but their walk as well.
Chronology of Haggai, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
559-530 Cyrus the Great Rules Persia (29 Years)
538 Cyrus Edict allowing Jews to Return to Jerusalem
@50,000 return to Israel led by Zerubbabel (Ezra 1:5)
7th Month Altar built and sacrifices resumed
537 (2 years from altar to foundation)
536 2nd Month Foundation for Temple Laid
529-521 Cambyses Rules Persia (8 years)
522 Darius I rules Persia (522-486) Zechariah begins ministry
521 (16 years from foundation)
520 6th Month day 1 (Darius I 2nd year) Haggai’s first and second message
7th Month day 21 Haggai’s third message
8th Month Zechariah First message
9th Month Day 24 Haggai’s Fourth Message
11th Month Zechariah’s Second Prophecy
518 9th Month Day 4 Zechariah’s 3rd Prophecy
517
516
12th Month Day 3 (Darius 6th year) Temple Completion
515 1st Month 14th Day Passover Celebration Reinstated (Ezra 6:13-18)
(Six years from Passover to bible classes)
486 Xerxes Rules Persia (486-465 21 years)
474 ESTHER saves Jews in Persia
464 Artaxerxes Rules Persia (464-424 40 years))
457 Ezra began to study and teach the Law
(13 years from Bible teaching to revival)
446 Nehemiah begins his journal while in Susa
445 Nehemiah commissioned to rebuild the walls & restore worship
444 Revivals through Ezra
Nehemiah’s first governorship (12years)
430 Malachi prophecies
432 Nehemiah’s Second return to Jerusalem
