Scripture: Haggai 1:1-2:9
A dear friend I used to work with at AT&T decades ago, named Don, told me a story that he swore happened to a friend of a friend. Of course, as I now know, “friend of a friend” stories like this one are considered “urban legends,” which probably never happened in real life. Still, it’s a good story!
According to Don this “friend of a friend” was taking a Bible survey class in college. The professor gave one of those “blue book” final exams—in which you had to answer a long essay question. And every year the exam included the exact same question: to “compare and contrast the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul.” Before long, students who took the class figured out that for years the professor asked the same question on the final. So they didn’t bother studying for the final; each one came to the final exam prepared to answer this one question.
Except at some point, finally, the professor wised up, so he decided—after years—to ask a different question: to “distinguish between the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament.”
So upon receiving the test, everyone in the class panicked… Except for one clever student, who wrote the following: “Far be it from me to distinguish these holy men of God from one another! How could I be so presumptuous to call some of them ‘major’ and others ‘minor.’ Instead, I thought you might be interested in comparing and contrasting the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul.” 1
Well, our “Journey Through the Bible” series has now brought us to the minor prophets. And they’re not called “minor” because they’re less important, or less inspired, or less holy… They’re “minor” prophets simply because the books they wrote are much shorter than the major prophets.
And today we turn our attention to the prophet Haggai, who prophesied to that remnant of Israel that returned to Judah and Jerusalem… after the Persian king Cyrus allowed them to return and to rebuild the temple.
And at the beginning of this book, things are not going well for these former exiles.
Soon after beginning to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, God’s people encountered opposition… from Samaritans… Have you heard of them? Of course you have. These were descendants of the northern kingdom of Israel who had married foreigners and whose faith was now an unhealthy blend of Old Testament religion mixed with pagan practices. We will, of course, meet Samaritans again and again in the New Testament. But the Samaritans created problems for the returning exiles—even bribing Persian government officials to prevent or delay the rebuilding efforts. And over a period of sixteen years, these former Jewish exiles had grown to accept a life of compromise… of complacency… of settling for far less than what God wanted for them. And so God called prophets like Haggai—who wrote today’s scripture—and Zechariah to inspire the people to regain a vision for God’s kingdom and mission, and to put God first. And the most important way that God’s people would show their commitment to God’s kingdom, to God’s mission, and to putting God first was to finish the job they started sixteen years earlier and to rebuild the temple!
And I want to focus this sermon on three things that Haggai can teach us: Number One: Straighten out your priorities. Number Two: Don’t trust your eyes. And Number Three: Be filled with the Spirit.
But Number One… Straighten out your priorities.
As I said, the returning exiles encountered trouble, faced opposition, and endured suffering at the hands of their enemies. And so they gave up on rebuilding the temple. And God was displeased that his people threw in the towel so quickly and easily. One commentator said that this remnant of Israel had bought into some bad theology,which said something like this: “If it were God’s will for his people to rebuild the temple right now, then surely we wouldn’t face so much trouble, so much opposition, so much suffering.” 2
But hold on… Don’t these former exiles know their own history? When was it ever easy for ancient Israel to accomplish God’s will? Is it supposed to be easy for us?
Think of the apostle Paul. Second Corinthians 11 gives some examples of the trouble he faced as he carried out God’s will: He was whipped more times than he could count; three times he was beaten with rods; once he was stoned and left for dead; three times he was shipwrecked; once he was adrift at sea for a night and a day; he was in constant danger from his enemies; he was hungry, thirsty, cold, and naked at times. He was imprisoned on multiple occasions. 3
And yet this same Paul could say, in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood”? What’s Paul talking about? If anyone in the history of the world besides Jesus himself wrestled against “flesh and blood” enemies, it was Paul! Second Corinthians 11 lists plenty of those flesh-and-blood enemies with whom Paul “wrestled.” But Paul says no… Ultimately there’s a much stronger, much craftier, much fiercer enemy at work… and this enemy likes to use unwitting human accomplices to do his bidding.
So the devil used the Samaritans. And the devil’s plan succeeded. God’s people quit. For sixteen long years they gave up on the dream of rebuilding the temple. They got diverted from the main reason that God chose them to be his people in the first place: to bear witness to the one true God. To worship and glorify this God, to show the world his glory. They lost sight of God’s kingdom and his purposes and their mission.
This temple sitting in ruins was a fitting symbol of their failure and shame.
And brothers and sisters, I can totally relate to these people!
I came to this church five years ago with great zeal for evangelism and witnessing. I felt a burning desire to reach the lost in Toccoa. In 2020, I organized a street evangelism effort before the Ida Cox music festival. Some people were still wearing masks back then; it was the height of the pandemic. It was a weird, uncertain time. But the evangelism team was myself, Pastor April, Josh Villars, my son Townshend, Lynae Whitworth. We did it for several weekends. I told many of y’all at the time about some of those experiences we had. I even told you at the time that I think I encountered an angel—and none of you thought I was crazy. At least you didn’t tell me at the time. But we had long conversations on two occasions with a young woman who believed in the Norse pantheon of gods—literally viking religion—Thor and Odin and Loki… We shared the gospel with teenagers who knew nothing at all about Jesus.
Certainly nothing about my experience back then convinced me that our church should put less emphasis on evangelism… that the need for evangelism was anything less than incredibly urgent!
Pastor April headed up an evangelism workshop, in which some of you participated. We did evangelism at the “Red Rage” festival at least once.
Yes, I had a lot of enthusiasm for evangelism back then… and then I faced opposition. Literally everyone involved in what I’m about to describe has left our church and joined other churches—and I hope the churches they joined are served by pastors who are no less committed to reaching the lost. But in 2021 these critics circulated a petition to have me removed as pastor here—not to lose my job, of course… just to have me “itinerate” somewhere else. I saw the petition after the fact. Only three people signed it, and like I said, they’re all gone now.
But the truth is that experience scared me a little. I hate to say it, but I took to heart one of the chief complaints on the petition, which read, “Brent is too evangelistic. He preaches too much about it. He makes us feel like we’re not doing enough of to witness and tell people about Jesus. And what’s with all the altar calls? Does he think we’re not Christians?”
Of course I wanted to say, “If every single person in our congregation is already a Christian—if there are no unbelievers who show up here on Sunday—whose problem is that?”
I didn’t keep the petition, but I don’t believe I’m misrepresenting its contents…
I disagree with these critics and their characterizations. Even the statement, “Brent is too evangelistic.” Are you kidding me? I’m not nearly evangelistic enough! I’ll leave it to you to decide if you think you do enough in the way of evangelism and witnessing… But I certainly don’t, and I suspect most of us are in the same boat here!
Listen: I’m not even saying that the street evangelism I was doing back then was super-effective. I don’t know. But I’m reminded of something that the late-nineteenth-century evangelist Dwight Moody, in Chicago, said one time. After one of his evangelism crusades, a woman approached him and said, “I don’t like the way you do evangelism.” And Moody replied, “I don’t like it very much, either. How do you do it?”
And she hemmed and hawed before finally confessing, “Well, I don’t.”
Moody said, “Well then, Ma’am… I like my way of doing things better than your way of not doing them.”
Regardless, I let the trouble I faced in 2021 dampen my enthusiasm for evangelism… I thought, “Slow down, Brent. Maybe the people aren’t not ready. Maybe this isn’t the right time for this message.” So I let myself get distracted by other things. I say this with shame.
But there was plenty to distract us back then… God knows at times over the past few years it felt like we were fighting our own denomination, fighting our own bishop, fighting to disaffiliate from the UMC—even fighting one another, unfortunately… And there were casualties, as some of you know. And that breaks my heart. All this denominational strife that we faced… I’m afraid it diverted our attention from our main task—which—aside from glorifying God each week in worship—is to fulfill the Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, to teach them to observe all that Christ commanded us. And to bear witness through the power of the Holy Spirit to the Good News of Jesus Christ. 5 The kingdom of God is like that, Jesus says.
So… Will this “Pop-Up JAM” be successful? Don’t know. But what kind of success are we talking about here?
Worldly success is irrelevant in God’s kingdom. We modern people have trained our eyes and our senses to only care about worldly success. But that’s not how God judges.
Besides… We remember 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” When God’s people—including these ancient Jews who’ve returned to Jerusalem—including even God’s people at Toccoa First Methodist… when God’s people turn their hearts to God, and seek to obey him alone—seek to please him alone—by doing what he tells us to do, that very effort—not just the end result—but the very things that we do, however humble they may be—that very effort glorifies God; it pleases God; it hallows God’s name.
God’s not waiting to see how things turn out… that’s up to him anyway… We leave results up to God.
But what I want to tell to Kayla and the volunteers who will participate in Pop-Up JAM, and all the volunteers who are helping with Vacation Bible School this summer… When you are preparing snacks, and gathering up supplies, and singing songs, and reciting memory verses, and teaching kids the Bible, and leading them in games, and acting silly with them—you’re doing each of those activities for one ultimate reason, according to 1 Corinthians 10:31: to glorify God. And God loves that. And God rewards that.
If nothing happens other than that—and of course I feel confident this tiny mustard seed of effort will bear great fruit—but even if it didn’t, even if all we do is glorify God and his Son Jesus Christ through our efforts, we will have done more than enough.
And that’s Point Number Two: We don’t trust our eyes.
Point Number Three: Haggai teaches us to be filled with the Spirit.
Verses 4 and 5: “And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid.”
My Spirit remains among you.
When I was a teenager back in the ’80s, I had a job bagging groceries at Kroger. I worked alongside a fellow high school student named Christine, who went to a rival high school. She was Pentecostal, one of the first I ever knew. One day she told me something that has stuck with me. She said, “I admire you Baptists”—because, remember, I grew up Baptist, as many of y’all know.
But she said that she admired us Baptists.
“Why?” I said.
She said, “Because you have such strong faith in Jesus, even though you never get to see any miracles.” (“Unlike us Pentecostals!”)
You never get to see any miracles.
Was this true for me then?
Is it true now?
I hope not. As far as I know, I’ve never seen a miracle that broke the laws of physics—I’ve known brothers and sisters in Christ who have. But I have been filled with the Spirit; I’ve experienced his power; and I’ve seen him do remarkable things in others. And there have been times when I felt so close to Jesus—it was almost as if he were reaching out and touching me.
Jesus says that the Spirit is the One who makes Jesus present to us. I believe that!
And listen: I may have grown up Baptist, but I’m a Methodist by conviction. As such I believe that all those spiritual gifts that Paul describes, for instance, in 1 Corinthians, continue today. And they never went away… John Wesley himself saw mighty outpourings of the Holy Spirit in his day, including miraculous healings and other manifestations of the Spirit’s power.
The Holy Spirit, as I preached just a few weeks ago on Pentecost Sunday, is given to all believers. We all have access to incredible supernatural power through the Holy Spirit.
And yet… the Bible also makes clear that the extent to which we experience this power depends in part on us. “Be filled with the Spirit,” Paul says in Ephesians 5:18, which he could only command if you and I had at least some control over “being filled with” the Spirit. See what I mean? Elsewhere, in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, he tells Christians, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Which surely means that our own faith, our own actions, our own attitudes, our own behaviors have at least some impact on the activity of the Spirit in our lives.
Finally, Jesus himself said, speaking to us Christians in Luke 11:13, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Clearly one way to be filled with the Spirit is to pray for our heavenly Father to fill us. And surely one way we quench the Spirit is to fail to pray for our Father to fill us and do mighty things through us.
At that Global Methodist conference in Birmingham that I went to five weeks ago one of the speakers was a GMC pastor named Madeline Carrasco Henners. She teaches at United Theological Seminary. She was saying that in her experience, one big problem Methodists have in experiencing the Spirit is that we don’t expect the Holy Spirit to do anything.
So all I want to say is, can we at Toccoa First Methodist be a people who believe in and pray for and expect the Holy Spirit to show up when we show up and to do powerful things through us?
-
David Mikkelson, “Trick Answer,” snopes.com, 19 April 1997. Accessed 30 May 2024. -
Michael P. V. Barrett, “Invitation to Haggai,” thegospelcoalition.org. Accessed 29 May 2024. - See 2 Corinthians 11:24-33
- Summary of Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8 [/efn-note]
Disagree with me if you will, but I believe we got distracted from that mission.
So… inasmuch as I took my attention off of God’s mission for our church—and leading y’all to do the same—I repent.
I am delighted to be part of a new denomination that loudly proclaims that part of its mission is to “witness boldly”!
Listen… It’s a new day at Toccoa First Methodist. We’re a new church…
And just think: people in this community are driving by and seeing these gorgeous new “Global Methodist” signs and logos on our property… They look awesome, by the way! Thank you, Keith! Thank you, Jacob Reed and the team at Jaymarz!
But people drive by and say, “How nice! Look at what First Methodist is doing.”
Listen… They ain’t seen nothing yet!
Just wait… I pray that there will come a day when some of these same people drive by our church and they don’t say, “Look what First Methodist is doing.” They’ll say instead, “Look what God is doing here at First Methodist!”
Until that day comes, brothers and sisters, first we’re going to pray, then we’re going to roll up our sleeves, and then we’re going to get out there and witness boldly!
Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” John 4:35.
Now is the time! Today is the day to witness boldly!
Even this past week, Kayla and some of her children’s ministry volunteers gathered at the parsonage to plan “Pop-Up JAMs” this summer. That’s “JAM,” J-A-M, which stands for “Jesus and Me,” the name of our children’s ministry. But they will be popping up this summer in public and non-church-related places around town—swimming pools, parking lots, neighborhoods… The idea is to share the gospel with children and families who are not otherwise coming to church to hear it. “Pop-Up JAMs” will be fun, of course, but they’ll also tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And that’s just one small example of the point that Haggai makes in today’s scripture: to straighten out our priorities… and get back to God’s mission. And that’s Point Number One…
Point Number Two: Haggai teaches us not to trust our eyes.
So the people responded to Haggai’s message. They repented. And on September 21, 520 B.C.—we can date it exactly—on that date, according to chapter 1, verse 15, the people began rebuilding the temple. But then—see chapter 2, verse 1—less than a month later, on October 17, God gave Haggai another prophecy to share with the “remnant of the people.” Verse 3: “Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all!” And God told the people to be strong. Verses 4 and 5:“Be strong, all you people still left in the land…”
Why, after only a month of working on the temple, does God give them this message? Is it because their enemy, the Samaritans, have gone back to their imperial overlords, the Persians, and complained that these Jews are stirring up trouble by rebuilding the temple?
No… God’s people are facing a far more dangerous enemy than mere Samaritans or Persians. And of course, as I said earlier, the ultimate enemy is always the devil in disguise… But during this month between September 21 and October 17 the devil was working through a different kind of worldly enemy… and that enemy’s name is discouragement.
These Jews who are rebuilding the temple have done enough work by now to recognize that what they’re building today is going to pale in comparison with the temple that Solomon built about 400 years earlier. And they feel discouraged.
So God asks them, “Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor?” This was sixty-six years after the original temple was destroyed… So at least a few of the old folks would remember the former temple—and how glorious it was. By comparison, God tells the people, “this must seem like nothing at all.”
And the message here, quite simply, is, “Don’t trust your eyes.” You simply have no idea how this seemingly small thing that you’re building will be used by God for powerful purposes.
This is a recurring theme in scripture, of course. Jesus himself reminds us that the mustard seed, this tiniest of all seeds—this thing that seems so unpromising, so modest, so inconsequential—will grow up into a relatively giant shrub, so that “birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 4 Mark 4:32 ESV