REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE : SUNDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2004 : MORNING SERVICE
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Psalm: 72:11
Confession of faith
Law
Psalm: 90:9
Prayer
Psalm: 73:10
Scripture: Haggai 2
Text: Haggai 2:9
The
glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the
former house says the Lord Almighty …
Whereto is the Lord taking us?
- In Haggai’s days the Lord’s judgement was
forcefully proclaimed when they strayed from the path He had shown them.
- But they were also comforted by the Lord that He
would remain their God.
Hence the question – where does the Lord take us to on the day of His
Coming if we are obedient to Him?
The day on which the Lord Jesus comes again is in a sense a day of
fulfilment. We can say that the uncertain matters of this world will
end on that day.
- On that day our Redeemer’s sure victory over death
and all that goes with it will proceed into the effecting of His
eternal and perfect.
- Then we will know what the Lord did when He made
the future kingdom of God a reality for us.
In this passage we read from Haggai we see a disheartened Jewish
people. Then the Lord comes to them and encourages them.
- They must rebuild the temple – they must restart
working physically for the Lord.
- The rebuilt temple is to them the symbol of the
reality of God’s promises for their future.
Their responsibility is not erased by the promise.
- Nothing will just fall out of the sky.
- The Lord’s command is that they must work hard and
take heart because He is with them. (Haggai 1:13)
These words refer back to an age old promise, because at Sinai the Lord
made a covenant with them and said:
‘You
are My people and I am your
God’.
There they also received a sign that the Lord dwelled among them
because they were His people.
- The tabernacle of the Lord was put up in their
midst.
- Later, after they had moved into the promised land,
the time of the tabernacle was past and the temple became the symbol of
God’s presence.
In the meanwhile the people’s worship had deteriorated and they
received a symbol of this too:
- Their temple was destroyed and they were taken to
Babylon.
- The symbol of God’s presence was destroyed.
In this condition we find the people in their former capital city.
- With consternation they realized that they lived in
a world of uncertainty – everything was loose and changing.
- Of their former capital nothing remained – kingdoms
had come and gone.
But then the comfort: The Lord is with them again!
- The proof thereof is that the temple is being
rebuilt.
- However, the temple has lost its former meaning.
- Now it is a prophecy of what is to be fulfilled.
- It becomes the symbol of a new kingdom in which
matters will not be so changeable and unstable.
- In the end it points to the kingdom of the
hereafter.
Hence the Lord says in verse 5:
‘And
my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’
With this the Lord confirms His personal care of His people.
- He will lead and rule them with His Spirit.
- For the small number of Jews among the ruins of
Jerusalem it contained the promise that the Lord would through His
Spirit give them the strength and enthusiasm to rebuild the temple.
The prophecy builds up to a climax.
- Before this new kingdom of God arrives the Lord is
first going to shake the present heaven and earth.
- Everything that is earthly will be shaken until it
falls.
Then comes a new creation. A new heaven and a new earth.
- The temple they are to build is the symbol of this.
- As the destroyed temple is rebuilt new, likewise
God will create a new earth after the old one.
We know that this recreation is guaranteed in the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- We saw some of the signs the day of the crucifixion
when there was an earthquake and the rocks were split and people who
were dead were raised to life (Matthew 27:51 – 52)
- In broad daylight the sun lost its power to shine.
In verse 22 the Lord tells more of what shall precede the Messiah’s
holy kingdom:
“I
will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign
kingdoms.”
The Lord predicts that the world is to become unstable – which in fact
is a direct result of the merit on the cross of the Lord Jesus.
- That is why kingdom after kingdom arises and falls.
- The Lord takes the throne away from them because
they are heathen kingdoms who despite their show of power cannot stand
up to God’s rule.
Take note of the grace being revealed here – the unbelievers will never
be able to found an enduring power on earth.
- The grace is that Jesus died and was resurrected so
that the power of the world would always crumble until the kingdom of
God finally comes and is settled at his coming.
- His crucifixion was the beginning of the shattering
of all power that tried to stand up to God because Jesus’ death was the
final victory over the devil and his empire.
- The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus occurred so that
with his death he could guarantee the coming of an unshakeable kingdom.
- A kingdom where God Almighty rules in peace.
- A Kingdom that shall never fall.
We are often anxious and when discussing the future we do so with a
dark frame of mind. We say that all appears to be wrong but that
is how it should be.
- Our world presently experiences extremes of drought
and flooding and everywhere we see rebellion and terror.
- The fact that the world is in this condition shows
that God’s plan with the world is coming to fruition.
- With it God tells us that the victory achieved by
Jesus with his crucifixion and resurrection is now coming to
fulfilment.
- When the Lord Jesus comes on the clouds He will
take away all the people’s power because in the Kingdom of God there is
place for only one throne.
- Already the Lord Jesus is reigning from the throne
of God. He is in the course of founding the coming of the Kingdom
of God according to His promise.
This is where the richness is to be found in the crucifixion.
- The crucifixion occurred so that the Lord Jesus
could bear before God the punishment for our sins so that we would not
together with the world be shattered before the wrath of God.
- The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus occurred so that
we could be part of those who can worship on the new earth.
Haggai teaches that God comes to dwell among His people. This
sounds impossible, because we are all mortal and sinful, how can God
who is eternal come to dwell among us?
- Again it is the crucifixion which made this
possible because through it Jesus conquered death for us.
- Put differently – He gave us life everlasting so
that we live eternally with God when He dwells with us.
- The crucifixion further fulfilled the promises of
God dwelling among us because the Holy Spirit was poured out over the
church.
- God is so close to us that He rules us with His
spirit to persevere in the true faith and to reach out to the life
everlasting with Him.
On the day of the Second Coming God’s grace and the reconciliation will
achieve its highest fulfilment.
- Grace because God’s promises of salvation come true
in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross because with his death he
bore God’s wrath over our sins so that we would not be destroyed in His
judgment.
- Grace because His death saved us from death.
The meaning of the death on the cross stands out clear when we listen
to the words of Haggai:
“The
glory of the present house will be greater than
the glory of the former house.”
- Not only because Christ is in it.
- Also because the new temple and its inhabitants are
recreated by the blood of Christ into perfection.
- And also recreated to be a temple and a people
where God lives and rules.
Through the death on the cross we have become a kingly priesthood who
await the coming of our Redeemer.
- The second time the Lord Jesus Christ comes He does
not come to die so that we may live as the first time.
- The second time He comes to judge.
- The second time the Lord Jesus Christ comes to take
into his unshakeable Kingdom those who have piously accepted to their
redemption his death.
- The second time the Lord Jesus Christ comes to
destroy those who do not expect their redemption through His death and
resurrection and do not have a part in His eternal kingdom.
This lets us understand why the Apostle Peter calls us not only a royal
priesthood but also a Holy nation. (1 Peter 2 : 9)
- We become all of this because the Lord was
crucified for us, and the acknowledgment of debt for our sins was
nailed to His cross – as Paul puts it.
- He died so that we may live in holy perfection
forever.
Amen
Closing prayer
Closing hymn 9 : 1 + 5
The Lord will bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine on you
And be gracious to you
The Lord lift up his countenance on you
And give you peace
Dr MJ du Plessis, Reformed Church
Bellville.
1 February 2004
Scripture NIV