This house shall be greater than the former
Notes
Transcript
This house shall be greater than the former
Introduction
We have been examining passages from the minor prophets over the past couple of weeks and we continue today that journey building up to Advent which is the season leading up to Christmas. The series we are in is examining and understanding the state of things in Israel before Jesus came. In some ways, you can also say it was a preparation phase. In today’s passage both Israel and Judah have been conquered and people have been sent to exile. When you look at the references, you hear the name King Darius. If you recall Daniel served under King Darius. This prophet Haggai is in Judah where Daniel has been sent away. If you look at it this way God prophesied to the people exiled and he prophesied to the people who were left in Judah. God’s presence and words of hope were spoke in all places the people of God were. You could say God proved he was not just the God of that land they all once lived in but he was the God over all, including the lands they were exiled in and the lands that remained after the destruction and conquering nations took over.
State of things
For the prophet and the people he spoke to, the temple was destroyed, the people were scattered and everything seemed lost to never be restored again. The Babylonians who conquered Judah now had been conquered by the Mede and Persian Empire. They were now subject to the nation that conquered the nation that conquered them. Their status was now even lower than before. Their hope slipped even further away. All they had was stripped away. They needed some hope like the kind God could provide.
What about our own state of affairs today? I can’t help but feel the state of things in our nation are in turmoil too. We have had division rule solidly over us for several years now. You are either one of them or one of us. You are either part of the problem or you are rooting out the problem. As I mentioned last week, we have lost the ability to be love our neighbor unless they are just like us. When we talk about this problem, it is either dismissed and not true or it is put aside because nobody thinks it will change or could be made better.
Our central pillar of what makes us good is put to the side because people will take advantage of us or use you. What used to be a place of refuge, the church, is now under constant attack. Even within the walls of the church, you face the division of what we should do versus what we should cast out. The rule of division, the same that now rules our nation now fights to rule over the church. We need hope from above to bring strength and discernment to learn how to make the church a beacon of hope that demonstrates loving your neighbor to a hurting and broken world.
Future hope
In returning back to our text, Haggai spoke words from God that told the people who remained in Jerusalem, that this was temporary. Something else we know to be true is that God still spoke to his scattered and exiled people. The message was the same. While today’s troubles are real and hard, once again, God will bring hope and restoration to you as God’s people.
The temple that had been destroyed was in fact restored again. In fact, before Jesus was born the temple was in fact expanded and made ever more grandiose than before. God was not just restoring the temple, the place the Israelites hope was centered on but in fact preparing for something even greater. The people who had been exiled, the nations of Judah and Israel were to return to the promised land once again not just a few who would live in the ruins of the former glory but those who by God’s intervention would in fact rebuild the temple. They would rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They would be restored once again.
Yet, what they experienced in returning after 70 years in exile was not the end of God’s plan. It would be hundreds of years later something even greater than this earthly temple would be offered. Jesus Christ would come down and institute the new temple, the one that would live in our hearts and minds. The own where God himself in the form of the Holy Spirit would dwell with us. No longer is our hope based on physical locations or buildings in a given land, our hope is with us wherever we are and wherever we go.
Folks, whatever is the future of the church, I place my hope in God. Wherever we are in terms of crumbling or hitting rock bottom, I pray to God what happens next is God’s will. I believe in the message of hope the prophet Haggai spoke to the remnant left in the destroyed town of Jerusalem. I do believe God can not just restore the church but make something even greater than what was.
Our focus today must be returning back to God in all areas of our lives. To be Christ-like in a world that fights hard against who Christ has called us to be. Place God at the center of your personal life. Place God at the center of your job and career. Place God at the center of your family. If you keep God at the center of your life, then you have a better chance at being part of the solution God uses to rebuild and restore the church that has been dwindling in both its mission and its capacity to provide hope.
<Alert children service that communion is about to start>
Communion
Today as we prepare to take communion together, may you be reminded of people across all churches across the world and across all time, we find a common table we all are joined to in Christ. Before we approach this table, we ask forgiveness for our sins. We ask forgiveness for the ways in which we have failed to uphold God’s commands. We ask forgiveness for all the times in which we have used anger instead of love, division instead of unity. We ask God’s mercy once again to wash over us and restore us. By God’s grace, we not only are forgiven but we seek God’s favor to be filled up to do the work that is before us. It is God whose Holy Spirit we ask to be poured over the gifts of bread and wine that they become the body of blood of Jesus Christ. This spiritual food nourishes us for the work ahead of us. We pray this spiritual nourishment provides the strength to love instead of hate and to build bridges of unity instead of digging more ditches of division.
Come forward to receive God’s gift of grace we find in this sacrament. Come forward as you feel led.