REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 22 DECEMBER 2002: MORNING SERVICE

REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 22 DECEMBER 2002: 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 of praise: Psalm 89:1,11.

Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all the worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN

The Law : Ex. 20:1-17.
Psalm 40:4.
Prayer.
Psalm 118:1,12.

Scripture reading: Haggai 2 and Hebrews 12
Scripture text:

    Haggai 2:9:
        "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.

    Hebrews 12:28:
        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...

Christmas is the festival on which we celebrate God's fulfilment of the covenant of grace.

The birth of Christ heralded the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy that the impermanent things of this world would pass away.
With that the coming of God's unshakeable and everlasting kingdom became a reality.

In the passage we read from Haggai the Israelites are depicted as a greatly discouraged people. The Lord came to renew their courage.

They had to rebuild the temple.
The rebuilt temple was to them the symbol of the reality of God's promises regarding the future.

However, the promise was not granted them with any suggestion that they could now sit back passively and wait for the fulfilment of the Lord's promises to fall from heaven without their having to stir a finger.

The Lord told them to take courage and work, for He was with them.
This promise was centuries old: it was given on Sinai.

There the Lord said: You are My people, and I am your God.
There they also received a sign that the Lord dwelt among them as a sign that they were His people: The tabernacle of the Lord was established among them.
But the people afterwards entered the promised land, and the time of the tabernacle was past. Then the temple became the symbol of God's presence.

The observance of their religion deteriorated, and for this they received a sign as endorsement of their debt of guilt:

Their temple was destroyed, and they were carried off to Babylon in exile.
The symbol of God's presence among them was demolished.

That is why we meet a discouraged people standing about in what used to be their capital city.

They had discovered to their dismay that they lived in a world in which nothing was fixed and unchanging.
Everything on earth was in a state of flux and subject to change: Kingdoms came to power, and just as quickly again came to nought.

Then they received the comforting assurance: The Lord was once again with them!

The proof of this was that the temple was to be rebuilt.
But this temple had lost its former significance.

It had now become a prophecy of a promise which would be fulfilled in the future.
It was the promise of a new paradise to come.
It prophesied that there would be a new kingdom of God in which nothing would again be impermanent and subject to change.

Verse 5 states this very clearly:

"...My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!"

Thereby the Lord assures them of His continued care for them.
He will guide them and reign over them with His Spirit.
The Spirit of the Lord, Who is in their midst, will give them the strength and inspiration to rebuild the temple.

The prophecy moves towards a climax.

Before this kingdom of God comes, in which nothing will ever again be changeable, He will again shake the heavens and the earth.

All of creation will be set in motion.
Everything which is of the earth will be shaken until it falls.

Then a new creation will appear.

A new heaven and a new earth.
This temple which they are to build will be the symbol of that.
Just as the demolished temple is to be rebuilt, so, eventually, a new earth will be established in God's kingdom.

But the fulfilment of this promise will be preceded by tremendous upheavals in nature and among the people of the earth.

This began with the birth of Christ.

Heaven opened, and the angels came to rejoice on earth because the Son of God had been born.
They rejoiced with hymns because the One had come to the earth Who would begin to establish the kingdom of God.

At His crucifixion the situation was similar.

When He died on the cross, the earth trembled with shock. The rocks were split apart, and many of the dead rose from the grave (Matthew 27:51-53).
At noon the light of the sun was obscured, and darkness fell upon the land until the ninth hour (Matt. 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44,45).

In verse 22 the Lord provides further details concerning the events which will precede the heavenly kingdom of the Messiah:

"...I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the (heathen) nations..."

The instability of the world is therefore a product of what Christ accomplished on the cross!

That is why one kingdom after another comes to power and then falls away.
Every time the Lord removes from them their throne, because they are all heathen nations. That is what is prophesied here.

This is one of the gifts of grace which we have retained after Christ's birth!
He was born i.a. so that the power of the world would in time be broken.
He was born to be the beginning of the end of this world and of all that is so changeable and impermanent here.
He was born so that He could begin to establish a kingdom of God which is to be unshakeable and exalted above all impermanence.

Many of us celebrate this Christmas with heavy hearts. What is to become of us? It seems as if the world has once more turned against us who believe in Jesus. Furthermore the Christians are so deeply divided among themselves! Everything in the world seems to be so wrong!

This is naturally as it should be. It is this which is our comfort! If it were not so, we should have needed to be worried!

The very fact that the world is in such a state is proof that the intervention of God in the affairs of the world is being fulfilled.
The world provide us with nothing of permanence.

It offers a life characterized by double standards, and the uncertainty of everything is founded on doubt and shaky principles.
In this way God tells us that the writing is on the wall for the world.
He is at work removing the thrones of the powers ranged against Him.

It is this which was the promise of Christmas.

While the earthly powers and greatness are collapsing, the temple of God receives all the glory.
Despite all this apparent adversity, the Lord fills us with the glory of His grace.
The richness of Christmas lies herein that a tangible beginning was made on that day to fulfil the promise of God's presence and of His kingdom.

The coming of Christ on Christmas Day was not, however, the complete fulfilment of the promise. It was only the beginning of the process of fulfilment.

That is why the fulfilment of this promise needs to develop yet further.
An aspect of this fulfilment is that the Lord tells us to get to work and to believe.
We must work until this world and all its ever-changing impermanence makes place for the nearness of the kingdom of God.
That is the promise of Christmas which must still be fulfilled!

Haggai teaches that God comes to live among His people. This is the true Christmas, when Christ comes to live among His people.

It is for that reason that Christ teaches His disciples to establish churches and to proclaim the gospel throughout the world.
This promise that the Lord will come to live among us is also to be fulfilled when the church will one day be gathered together before the Lord on the new earth.

That is why the exterior of the church in Jerusalem was not particularly important in the time of Haggai.

Haggai's church merely testified that Christ would come.
Christmas then arrived: The Lord Jesus revealed Himself to us in the church.
But His promises reach so far into the future that, on the horizon, even the earthly church has passed by.
The final fulfilment is accomplished when God lives among the people:

when the tabernacle of God is established among the people and He dries the tears from their eyes;
when the kingdom of Jesus Christ brings everlasting joy for those who accept the coming of God's Kingdom.
The fulfilment is for those who believe in the Son of God: those who believe that He was born on earth to accomplish the task of redemption, of provision and of re-creation. In other words, for those who believe in the promises attendant upon Christmas.

Christmas was the preaching of grace and atonement.

The grace consisted in the fulfilment in reality of God's promises of immanence, that He would dwell among and in us.
The meaning of Haggai's words becomes clearer when we consider them in this perspective: the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former - because Christ will be in it. And because it will eventually consist in God's presence.

The first Christmas was thus the beginning of its fulfilment. We now await the second Christmas, the final fulfilment of the kingdom of God - the coming of Jesus Christ on the clouds.

We await the fulfilment of the promise of Hebrews 12:28. This kingdom is approaching in a world subject to change and uncertainty.
The kingdom of God will come by shaking this world to its very foundations and by overturning the existing order of things.
Christ has already done so in principle. But the power of His work is still hidden from view.

With the birth of the Lord Jesus the angels rejoiced because they knew that they would soon see the gates of hell broken down.

They sang because the elect were being saved from perdition.
They then already knew how we would enter into glory.
But the first Christmas is past. We now have only the promises, still hidden from view.
We now await the second Christmas - the second coming of Christ: the completion of the promises of Haggai.
Through the first accomplishment of Jesus Christ we become a kingly priesthood when He comes again. A holy people who must praise in song the excellencies of Christ:

"But you are A CHOSEN RACE, a royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR GOD'S OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." (1 Peter 2:9).

We celebrate Christmas. We celebrate our expectation of the second coming.

We are grateful that we are able to do so, because Christ's work is still in progress, and we celebrate this at Christmas until the Lord comes again on the clouds.
Every year we remember at Christmas our wealth in the Lord Jesus Christ!

But even the promises of God are not without the demand for responsibility!

We are called upon to be grateful for all the grace bestowed upon us.
We must manifest responsible gratitude by serving the Lord with good cheer and by being respectful and Godfearing.

Make it a lifelong resolution to serve God with greater zeal than we have done to the present - if this is in any way possible.
Pay to the Lord the respect we owe Him, because He not only makes promises, but fulfils every one of them!
Fear the Lord, so that the message of Christmas does not pass us by!

AMEN.

Closing prayer.

Closing Psalm: 116:1,9.

The Lord 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.
AMEN.

Rev. Dr. M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church, Bellville.
22 December 2002.
Scripture quoted from NASB.