True Revival (Haggai 1:12-15)

Introduction

Revival is always a hot topic amongst Christians.

You’ll always hear someone say pray for revival…

You’ll hear the pastors or leaders of ministries say revival is starting I can feel it…

But what does the bible say?

Haggai is a unique book in the bible, especially in the prophets because the people listen to Haggai and obey.

Many of the prophets comes they proclaim their message of judgement, obey God or judgement will come, you didn’t obey God so judgement is coming, you didn’t obey God so this is why you are being judged.

Followed by their message of Hope… God is not done with you, He is making something new that you won’t understand. He will keep His covenant even though His people didn’t keep it.

God’s covenant isn’t based on our obedience, but on God’s perfection.

New Exodus

New Passover Lamb

New Temple

New Covenant

New King

Their judgement was Exile by Assyria and Babylon, the people hear the prophets and simply for the vast majority of the Old Testament do not obey.

The Southern Kingdom is exiled by Babylon to Babylon, 70 years they are in Babylonian Captivity. When they are finally released… they come home and find everything is in ruins…

The Temple, their homes, their city their home is a pile of rubble.

They have spent their punishment in exile and now God brought them back to the land He promised them, as a remnant.

However because of external pressures, and internal desires for a home, the people start building the temple, they get the altar done and the foundation laid, then they stop for 15 some odd years.

So its an important point in the history of Isreal… did you learn anything from the Exile?

What we will see happen is God brings about Revival in His people… true biblical revival.

Let’s Read Haggai 1:12-15

Haggai 1:12–15 CSB

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, delivered the Lord’s message to the people: “I am with you—this is the Lord’s declaration.” 14 The Lord roused the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the spirit of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. They began work on the house of the Lord of Armies, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

Pray

True Revival means Repentance and Obedience

Haggai 1:12 CSB

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord.

Starts with leadership…

Entire People repent...

Repentance isn’t I’m sorry I got caught, or even I am sorry… repentance is realizing that you are in sin, calling sin sin, understanding that demands a punishment, turning from that sin and turning to Christ…

It’s not turning from sin to another sin… it’s apologizing with words and then never really changing… It’s not always internal and private… if you sin against someone you owe them an apology and repentance is turning from that sin to Christ.

Revival comes from hearing the Word of God proclaimed…

We tend to think revival and contemporary music go hand in hand… that’s not biblical true repentance… we do this mainly because we think of worship only involving singing and revival is primarily a feeling we have to maintain...

Worship is an issue of the heart not an issue of smoke machines, a band, contemporary music etc.

You read in the bible about movements where lots of people were saved, what you find is congregational worship (singing theologically rich and biblically solid songs), the people singing together not watching a show and having their emotions manipulated, and the proclamation of the Word.

It’s not about contemporary verses traditional music.

There are some contemporary songs that are really good! There are some that are not.

There are hymns that are really good, there are some that are not.

The point is to get us all to sings, and to sing songs they prepare our hearts for the message from God’s word, and then to sing after the message to help us think through and pray through what we have heard.

If you want revival but do not want a sermon… you do not want biblical revival you want to to worship the god of emotions and feelings, you want to worship your self.

Your worship of God can only be hindered by your heart… the sound system could crash, all the instruments could break, and our worship in theory should go on…

One of the most basic parts of revival is recognizing that the Word of God is sent from God…

I love that what is evoked from the people is a fear of God.

One time growing up, my mom came home and didn’t know I was home.

In her bedroom it had a bathroom at the end of a narrow hallway.

So mom goes to the bathroom and I thought it would be funny to hide at the end of the hallway and jump out and scare her.

So i hide I hear mom open the door take a few steps and then I jumped out and yell Raaah!

Mom screamed like a girl… but she also channelled all of her pent up motherly anger into her arms and shoved as hard as she could!

I was not as big then as I am now and my fragile skeletal body flew across the room… I scared mom, she wounded me!

That’s not the kind of Fear Haggai is talking about here.

This fear means reverence, respect.

This is the kind of fear that comes about when you are in the presence of someone greater than you.

You come upon your favorite celebrity or sports player. Your going to be nervous… it’s that kind of fear.

The leaders repent, the people follow, they respond to the word of God with repentance and obedience, and they fear God.

This is healthy… we are not God. I am not God. You are not God.

Our plans can be thwarted and as frustrating as that might be most of the time in the grant scheme of life it’s not really than big of a deal.

This is because we are not God.

Sometimes when we think about God we think we will die or Jesus will come back we will see him face to face and it’ll be like talking to an old friend… I don’t think so, not initially. I think it’ll be staring at God slowly having all the implications that we know come more true…

He knows everything about me.

He knows E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.NG. about me… all my thoughts everything…

He still died in my place… He still saved me...

There is going to be a loss of words… I’m good at talking very rarely left speechless, I am certain I’ll be speechless, what do you say? hello? How are you? It’ll be genuine worship, pure undefiled, worship. Probably speechless.

It’s that healthy fear that spurs on revival… not God is your buddy who isn’t going to judge you and is all rainbow, unicorns, and oatmeal cream pies… God is Holy, God is just, God is GOD, He did what you and I could not do… He lived a perfect life and died the death that we deserved so that we can be with Him, for no reason other than it brings God glory and He loves us in ways that I can’t understand!

We fear have reverence for God...

Revival comes.

True Revival means True grace and True Mercy

Haggai 1:13 CSB

13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, delivered the Lord’s message to the people: “I am with you—this is the Lord’s declaration.”

The Lord’s Messenger gives the Lord’s Message.

This is from God…

what have the people delayed getting done?

Building the Temple.

Whats significant about the Temple?

It’s where God Dwelled with his people.

God had brought His people to the promised land, and the people had settled in Jerusalem.

They had houses, they had homes, that were more permanent.

King David recognizes that God doesn’t have a permanent Home with His people he is living in tents (Tabernacle) while God’s people are living in brick houses.

David goes about trying to build God a house, because David doens’t want God to leave, and want’s God’s dwelling place amongst His people to be something the people could be proud of!

God tells David… your heart is in the right place, but you aren’t going to do this your son will when He is king… instead someone from the line of David will come and be the snake crusher, the messianic line, the King.

David collects supplies, and when Solomon becomes King he builds the temple!

God now dwells with His people in a more permanent capacity, his temple is ornately decorated by the most skilled craftsmen…

This is part of what made the exile so horrific… when the Babylonians came thorough they destroyed not only the Isrealites homes, but also the Temple… God’s home…

To the outside world it looked like the Babylonian’s god was stronger than the Isrealites God.

In reality it was the God of Isreal who allowed the babylonians to come through because the Isrealites disobedience to the Covenant.

So the people come back from exile after 70 years, start the temple, stop because of external pressure, financial strain, and a desire to have their own house set up first…

But where is God’s house? How is God to be with them if His temple isn’t set up?

Think about the impact of these words by God to them… I am with you.

God is not only confined to the temple… it’s the symbol of His presence, He is still with the people… He never left.

He was with them in Babylon, He brought them back, but they need to rebuild the temple so that everyone else knows God is with them too.

This is why at Christmas time when we talk about Jesus and we sing Emmanuel, it’s such a beautiful truth… God with us.

True Revival is obedience and repentance.

It’s not watering down our sin, it’s not making less that what it is, but it’s also not making it more than it is either…

There is grace and there is mercy.

There is forgiveness of sin and sins because God with us…

He hasn’t left he is with us… Praise the Lord for this truth.

You cannot out run God.

Ask Jonah.

Ask Peter.

Ask Paul.

You are a sinner.

Jesus is the Savior.

You cannot escape Him.

His love finds you in the deepest pit in the worst situation, and redeems and rescues you… Praise God for His grace and mercy.

True Revival is a Work of God Through Repentant, Grace Covered Believers

Haggai 1:14–15 CSB

14 The Lord roused the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the spirit of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. They began work on the house of the Lord of Armies, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

This is an important part of revival for us to understand.

Who is doing the action and work here in the text?

Mainly and firstly it’s the Lord.

The Lord roused the spirit of the Governor, Zerubbabel.

The Lord roused the spirit of the high priest, Jehozadak.

The Lord roused the spirit of the remnant of the people.

I like the nuance that is at work here… all the people repented (leaning into the idea that everyone) while at the same time we are reminded this is a remnant of the people, a small group that is left… all that is left of the people of God.

This is the balance of the sovereignty of God and free will.

God is absolutely sovereign and revival starts when God rouses spirits, however what does that look like in the people?

It looks like them obeying God and doing what He commands.

We are not simply puppets or robots with no will and desire, we simply do what God forces us to do because He is sovereign. While at the same time, God is God and we are not.

Our desires, our emotions, our feelings, can lie to us and if we choose to follow them over the Lord, then we are in sin, and it is us who are punished for our sin.

God does not will us to sin.

Anytime someone is saved in the Bible the credit goes to God.

Anytime someone sins in the Bible the place goes to the person.

Our “free will” and the “sovereignty of God” are two points of tension that whole up the pole.

We need both, and we won’t every fully understand this… it’s one of those things that we recognize is beyond us because it belongs to the Lord.

So we trust God… We cannot save anyone and we are not called to save anyone.

Our job is to be faithful to God.

To proclaim the Gospel with our words.

To obey God’s God.

To live faithful lives...

To call people to repentance and to a relationship with Jesus, not because we have the power to save them, but because by God’s grace and mercy he has invited us into this redemption mission with Him.

We are to be used by God.

So we obey God as best as we can.

Understanding God is building something bigger than we could imagine.

Think about it… the temple that these people are going to build, it the temple that Jesus when he is a boy, stays at after Mary and Joseph leave Him in Jerusalem on accident.

This is the temple Jesus flips the tables at…

This is the temple that confuses people and ultimately leads to Him being killed because Jesus says I will tear it down and build it back up in 3 days.

This is the temple that when Jesus breaths His last breath and dies on the cross the curtain is torn from top to bottom in… opening up the Holy of Holies as God’s way of saying I am now going to dwell with you in a different way.

This is the Temple Paul is thinking about when he says God is making a your heart a temple for Him. Now God dwells inside His people… God is with us.

This particular temple that the people are going to build carries with it a huge significance.

They would not have fully understood that… they from their perspective simply obeyed God to the best of their ability.

God knew the whole plan.

But also notice what day they start construction. 24th day of the 6th month of the 2nd year of King Darius. Haggai gives us the day he proclaims, he preaches this message… it’s on the first Day of the 6th month of the 2nd year of King Darius.

23 days… was their delayed obedience? Isn’t delayed obedience not good?

What we see happening is true and real revival… it’s not so emotionally driven that the people lose desire after a day or two or a week or so…

One of the pieces of advice I recieved when I felt called to ministry was to pray about it for 30 days everyday.

If you missed a day, it’s ok but start over.

If you can’t pray for 30 straight days about something then in all likelihood it’s not a calling from God, but more an emotional desires that will fade with time.

What’s happening here is probably the people are in the middle of harvest, so they are worshipping, but also gathering the crops they will need to survive.

They have repented, the Lord is stirring in their souls to get to work.

So they finish their gathering of Crops, and they move to building the temple.

It’s not some drop everything and do this now, it’s with wisdom and discernment, obey God… get to work.

As Haggai’s message spread people responded with obedience because in reality the Lord was working on their hearts.

This is dangerous especially this time of year, when on the heels of Easter you have churches and pastors who fill the baptistries looking to baptize as many people as they can, and I think most have good intentions, however there is little to no discipleship that is taking place.

Are those being baptized actually believers? It’s hard to tell and in many cases it’s an emotional spur of the moment decision that is made that everyone rejoices and supports we love seeing people be saved by God, however we want them to actually be saved not simply say the right words, and get dunked underwater.

It’s no good for them It’s no good for us if we affirm their salvation and they are not really believers.

There is a massive movement going on on the outskirts of Christianity where people are leaving in droves… they are recanting Christ… they are tired of pretending to be a Christian when they are not… so they end up not simply as unbelievers, but as people who HATE the church, HATE the bible, HATE Jesus, when at one point during an emotional decision they got dunked underwater they walked the aisle and prayed the prayer.

Revival, salvation is not something that you and I can or should trick people into doing… It’s emotional, but it’s not temporary.

Emotions are given to us by God, for a purpose and for God’s glory… use them as such, but they are not the ultimate authority.

Revival is not about a feeling… it’s about Jesus.

Conclusion

The people obey this makes Haggai a unique book.

Message of Judgement- Repent and build the temple.

Message of Hope- I am with you.

We are prone to emotionalism.

If it feels right it must be.

We want to see emotional responses… people weeping and coming down the aisles.

We want to see hands raised in worship… We want the feeling of what we think Pentecost was like, or a “Spiritual Service”… What we see in Haggai is Biblical True Revival, and this can bring about emotions, but emotions are not the driving force.

Pastors and Churches are judged based on the number of decisions they can get people to make, the number of baptisms they can get, the amount of people in the pews, the amount of services you have to have, the amounts of funds in their accounts, the amount they give to various things, Etc.

Pastors and Churches are judged by those things because they are easy to measure… but they very rarely give the whole picture of what is going on.

Ove the course of the last 75 years or so in church life… discipleship has shifted into the background of churches, because it’s easier to measure and more emotionally exciting to say we have 10 people get saved, 20 people rededicate their lives, 35 people get baptized and 200 in attendance, while our church building only holds 100… it was so exciting God is so good.

Those can be good things, and we certainly should praise God for them, however we need to be carefully we are not using our means and methods to do those instead of trusting God.

True Revival is not something that you can I can do… it’s a work of the Lord on the hearts of people… but there are certain aspects of true Revival as opposed to revivalism…

Expository Preaching

Congregational Worship

Discipleship

Evangelism

Church Membership

Not over a relatively short time

Repentance of Sin

Reliance of Grace and Mercy

Typically unscheduled

It’s us all as one body one church, not I have it figured out… but so and so needs to get it together.

The Gospel is more than emotions and feelings.

It’s Good News… it’s something that has happened and is happening.

It has substance.

It’s Jesus in my place.

So how do you respond to the Gospel?

Repent of Sin, whether for the first time or for the 2 millionth time… repent.

Turn to Jesus and rest in His grace and mercy…

come back to the Lord prodigals.

Come to the Lord Lost.

Be humbled proud.

Be active lazy.

Be covenantally committed selfish.

Be loved by God unlovable.

Be forgiven unforgivable.

Lean into the Gospel you!

Let’s Pray