The Church must wake up to the call of God upon her, forsake its own kingdom and desires and throw away self-security and personal welfare. Only in so doing can the Body of Christ have opportunity to begin to perceive the work of God that awaits her and fulfil it by her commitment to the will of God as revealed through His servants, the prophets, and by the dedication of His appointed leadership.
Beautification Ministry (Book of Haggai)Haggai 1:1-15
There are certain principles that we can witness in the Book of Haggai’s opening passage which instruct us primarily in how we shouldn’t build but, from here, we will go on to consider how, in the NT, we are taught to construct a structure that is acceptable and pleasing to God.
a. Uncommitted Disciples
Haggai 1:2
Although this verse is a statement of fact, addressed to the two leaders of the nation, it gives us an insight into the attitude of the people as they busied themselves within their society.
The people, it seems, were content to make excuses and so neglect to build God’s House which lay in ruins. The statement shows us that, though they may have liked to think of themselves as God’s people who were in a covenant relationship with Him, they were, in effect, uncommitted followers who thought of the cost to themselves before they would follow the ways and will of God.
The questions that had arisen in their minds may have found a logical answer in their own understanding of the situation that they found themselves in, but it was not an answer that the will of God required from them.
How could they, they may have reasoned, build God’s Temple when they were frightened of what the neighbouring tribes and nations might do to them? How could they commit resources to a work that would require hard toil and valuable labour when they were ill-clad and in need of increasing their harvests to feed their growing families?
But, when a people commit themselves to following after God and His ways, of sacrificing their will and pleasure to that which God requires from them, they no longer retain the right to choose their own destiny. And it is always God’s interests that the people of God must have as their sole priority.
When Jesus walked this earth, He told would-be disciples that there were three specific things that He required from them to renounce in order that they might truly be found to be His disciples (Luke 14:25-33):
b. Building the wrong house
Haggai 1:4,9
It certainly wasn’t the case that the people in Haggai’s day were lazy but that they were building the wrong house. Theirs was a selfish work, it was not God-centred. So long as we busy ourselves with our own house, we will never make progress as christians. We try to build things around ourselves but they will never last or endure - only those things that are centred in Jesus will be permanent and will be translated through death into eternity.
How often do we think that we are doing something for God but really only do it to please ourselves? We can often be found busying ourselves in some work or other and pretend that it’s all done ‘in the name of God’ but it will only take us away from doing what God actually wants us to do, it being too costly to ourselves to forsake it and return to God for guidance.
The people’s excuses in the things they were doing must have been legion in order for them to blind themselves to the necessity of turning to God’s work and forsaking their own. They could rightly have argued that God wanted them fed and so they were only seeking those material things that were important, to establish their nation and so to recommit themselves to the work of God. They could have reasoned that God wanted to give them somewhere that they could put their name on, a place of their own, and that their building efforts were entirely justified that they find security in their plot of land.
But justification from religious sounding motives must always be questioned for they can often hide the reality of the situation and keep us away from doing God’s will.
The christian life has always been one of cost. If we don’t choose to pay the price then we will never succeed in going on in God for it is only those who sacrifice themselves to the work of God who will ever succeed for God.
As Paul wrote in Romans 12:1,
Kingdom Building
I Cor 3:10-15
This passage has been an often misunderstood and misinterpreted passage which has led congregations away from getting committed in their own churches - either through the unwillingness of the leadership or through the neglect of the people who make up the congregation.
The Truth that is often proclaimed from these verses is that we must be careful to build in our own lives what the Lord requires from us - not with perishable goods but deeds that will stand the test of time. But the passage actually points believers in a different direction - not of building in their own lives, but of building something imperishable in the life of the Church. Each believer has the ability to contribute to the edification of another and to encourage another to grow into more of Christ as they progress in the christian walk.
Both Apollos and Paul had built a foundation for the life of the church in Corinth (I Cor 3:5-9) so that those who came after them - whether visiting believers or those resident within the city - might establish what they were to subsequently do upon that firm and secure beginning.
That foundation, Paul says, can now be built upon (3:10) but there is a warning to every man who would choose to build - that is, that the foundation cannot be anything other than Jesus Christ. From here, though, each believer is encouraged to build upon what has been already laid and in keeping with what has already been put down (3:12) but not building upon their own life but upon the foundation that has been laid for and in the local church.
The reward or loss that Paul talks about in 3:13-15 is not based upon what we have done with the Gospel after we have first come to know the Truth (for salvation is not an issue here - 3:15), but is due to the nature of the work that has been done by the individual in the church.
Instead of thinking selfishly how we might better ourselves (as the Israelites did in the time of Haggai), the Corinthian passage urges believers to look to other people, to get the wider picture, and to therefore contribute to the larger work.
This building work has two specific principles that we need to consider:
Individual Commitment to build
I Cor 3:12,14
The Authority of the Leaders
Ezra 5:2, Haggai 1:14
