Sermon for MHBC (2 May 2021). You can listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays. Also available as a podcast here or by searching “Monument Heights Baptist Church” in your favorite podcast app.
This short series from Haggai is about prioritizing worship. A key factor in worship is obedience and holiness. Of course, our best efforts at holiness fail. So we need help. We need the indwelling Spirit to make us holy.
Last week, we saw the Lord issuing the call through Haggai that the temple should be rebuilt. The people are obedient to that word. Now, a few weeks later, a new word is issued through Haggai. Look at vv. 1–3:
In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
This new word has a few questions. Who is still living that saw the first temple—the one Solomon built? This temple was destroyed about 67 years prior, so it’s unlikely that many would still be living.
Next question: How does the temple look to you now? Remember it’s a halted construction. You probably have something like a foundation slab.
One more question: Is it not worthless in your sight? This question implies an affirmative answer.[1] Is it not worthless to you? Yes, obviously. Your past actions reveal it doesn’t matter.
But there’s a contrast. Look at v. 4: Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts.
Three times this command is given: Be strong. We see this command several times throughout the OT. It is always a call to obedience. In the past they have failed, but now is the time for obedience. Now is the time for courage and strength.
But we should never get the wrong idea. When God calls for obedience, he doesn’t leave us to rely on our own strength. Notice what the verse says. Why are they to be strong? “For I am with you.” Take courage. You are not alone. The Lord is with you.
This is repeated again in v. 5: according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. Don’t be afraid. My Spirit is with you. Remember that’s the whole point of the temple in the first place—God’s presence with the people.
But again, notice that the Lord does this unconditionally. He does this “according to the covenant” that he made with them. God acts before he issues a command to his people. What God has done precedes the call to obedience.
The last few weeks we’ve been talking about obedience and holiness. They are necessary for the renewal of the church. But we have to keep all of this straight. Attempts at holiness without relying on the work of the Spirit given to us through the work of Christ are like trying to start a car without an engine. Our ability to be holy is woefully lacking.
Martin Luther captured this beautifully in the second verse of his hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth is his name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
Our eyes must remain fixed on Jesus, who has won our righteousness. I’ll expound on that more in a moment, but one practical application of this passage is the necessity of prayer. How can we move toward obedience and holiness? Through a constant reliance on the Spirit of God. This is the only path to holiness. And if we desire real renewal at Monument Heights, then prayer must be prioritized.
I’m currently listening to a biography on the Scottish Reformer, John Knox. Remember Knox is the one of whom a powerful Queen once said, “I fear his prayers more than all the assembled armies of Europe.” This particular biography has a great title, The Mighty Weakness of John Knox. In an interview, the biographer states that the secret to Knox’s might was not some talent of his. It had nothing to do with a large personality. His might was a direct result of his prayer life. The biographer goes on to say that it isn’t Knox that rulers feared. It was Knox’s prayers.[3]
The world, the flesh, and the devil don’t fear a church that doesn’t pray. But a church that prays is more fearful than all the armies of the world. This is why Paul says at the end of his exhortation to take up the armor of God, “praying at all times in the Spirit” (Eph 6:18). Obedience, holiness, renewal, begin on our knees.
And this reliance is necessary because the Lord is the one who ultimately does the work. That’s exactly what we learn in Haggai 2:6–8. The Lord is about to do something new.
For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, 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.
Now this language of shaking the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, and all the nations isn’t typical language. Here we are getting our first hint that something more is happening than just building a temple. The fact that all the treasures of the nations are coming in also speaks to how universal this is going to be. It’s not just going to be a big deal in Judah. It’s going to be a big deal across the globe.
This section reaches a crescendo in v. 9, where we see clearly that God is talking about more than buildings: The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.
We have to pay close attention here. The first temple, Solomon’s temple, was splendid. It had the best materials from the known world, but this new temple isn’t going to be anywhere close. The resources just aren’t available. And there’s no way that this temple in Haggai is going to match the visions of earlier prophets like Ezekiel. So how is this new temple going to be more glorious than the first? And how is there going to be peace in this new temple? Glory and peace. Those are the two things I want you to hold onto for a moment.
Now it is true that the temple here in Haggai will be completed, but it will be nothing like Solomon’s temple. Herod the Great will make huge updates to it about 15 years before the birth of Jesus, and these updates will make it more splendid and audacious. But none of this actually pleases the Lord. In fact, the hints are clear here in Haggai that God’s interested in more than buildings and when we combine that with the whole biblical trajectory, we see that.
Biblical Theology of Temple (in brief)
It will be helpful if we just do the briefest sketch of the temple theme across Scripture. This could easily be a 10-week series. I’m going to try to give it to you in less than 60 seconds.
We start with creation in the garden. God shows his glory and goodness in creation and in the garden God comes down to walk with his people. Sin fractures this relationship and humans are expelled from the presence of God in the garden. But later, God moves toward people again. After freeing Israel from Egypt, he gives Moses the tabernacle pattern, which has all sorts of parallels with the garden of Eden. The tabernacle will be the place of God’s presence, but to enter into it, one must be holy, so sacrifices were necessary. Then as Israel moves from a roaming group of people to an established nation in their land, God gives them instructions for a temple. This temple confirmed God’s election of them and it confirmed all his covenants, especially the one with David, where one of David’s children would sit on the throne forever.
Unfortunately, this first temple is destroyed by the Babylonians in 586. A second temple is built in response to the prophet word of Haggai and Zechariah. But even then the OT closes not with the thunderous applause of a completed temple, but with the aching longing for God to do what he promised to do, to do something more glorious than he had ever done and to bring peace to the world. So at this point in the story, Haggai’s words are only partially fulfilled. Yes, there’s a temple, but it’s not more glorious than Solomon’s. Peace isn’t reigning.
When we get to the NT, we are introduced to Jesus. And he says some strange things about himself. For example, in Matthew 12:6, he says, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.”
And in John 2:19, after driving people out of the temple, Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” This creates some controversy since temples take a while to build. But John tells us what Jesus meant in vv. 21–22: But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Then when Jesus is raised from the dead, his followers expect things to be reestablished, but he tells them he is going to take his place on the throne. But he will send his Spirit to live inside them, so that Christ and his followers will be permanently united. The way the NT fleshes this out is that people of God, what we call the Church (not the building), are the temple of God, because the Holy Spirit lives inside them. Jesus is the cornerstone of that temple. And why would that be the case? Because this is the grand display of God’s glory. The Church, the new temple in Christ Jesus, is the display of God’s glory in the world.
This is why entire NT exhortations are based on the Christian’s identity as the dwelling place (i.e. temple) of God. Just consider one place. First Corinthians 3:16–17: Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. I love the way the Heidelberg Catechism puts it: We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy.
But God is not done. See through his Church, he is displaying his glory and gathering people to himself, and then filling them with his Holy Spirit so that they become holy displays of his glory. All of this is the process of redemption—God is acting decisively in Christ through the Spirit to buy back his creation from sin, Satan, and death. And when all is said and done, it won’t just be a particular group of people who will constitute the dwelling place of God. No, all creation will become the dwelling place of God. The goal and finality of the temple trajectory throughout the Bible is summarized in Rev 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Now remember what Haggai 2:9 said. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. All creation will be a mirror of God’s glory and peace will characterize every square inch of creation.
Doctrine
How does all of this work? What does this mean for us? There’s one place in the NT where our passage is referenced. That’s in Hebrews 12. The message of Hebrews is all about the need to persevere in the faith that Christ has won on the cross and in the empty tomb. Hebrews 12 is a calling to obedience because of the gospel calling. Here’s the relevant passage. Hebrews 12:25–29:
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
In other words, what God has done in Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises of the OT and it is permanent. Our response should be one of grateful obedience. I want to talk you through this just a little to close and I can summarize it with the following statement: Christ secures our cleansing so that the living God might indwell us.
There are two theological terms to know. First is the word justification. Justify means to make righteous. Justification is God’s unilateral action. We don’t help him. We see a hint of that in the fact that in Haggai the Lord says, “I will shake.” Before creation itself, God made a unilateral decision to act. Remember the passage from Rom 5:1 earlier in the service: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Justification results in peace with God. Do you recall what Haggai said? There will be peace.
So in Christ we are cleansed. We are made righteous. We are innocent. We are at peace with God.
But God doesn’t just justify his people. He intends to make them holy.[4] So here’s the second word you need to know: sanctification. Sanctification means to make holy. The New Hampshire Confession says it this way: We believe that sanctification is the process by which according to the will of God, we are made partakers of his holiness.[5] That process is secured by Christ and brought about by the indwelling Spirit. This is how God is glorifying his people.
No place sums this up better than Titus 3:4–7:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
So go back with me. The temple was never the end goal. The temple was just a shadow of what is the reality in Christ. We could never approach the presence of God, let alone have the presence of God indwelling in us. But through the work of Christ, we have become temples. We are justified and made holy by God’s Holy Spirit. Christ secures our cleansing so that the living God might indwell us.
[1] For the Hebrew construction, see Waltke and O’Connor, 684, esp. n. 48.
[2] Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” v. 2.
[3] https://www.ligonier.org/blog/mighty-weakness-john-knox-interview-douglas-bond/
[4] Thomas Watson: “It is absurd to imagine that God should justify a people and not sanctify them, He should justify a people whom He could not glorify.”
[5] New Hampshire Confession, X “Of Sanctification.”