Building God's House

Introduction: Have you ever come to the place in your life where you knew God was calling you to do something? Think about it- how did it feel?

‌How does it feel to know that God was calling you to something? How freeing is it? How much easier it is to focus & move forward; it is an incredible feeling.

How fearful it is too.Because God doesn’t call us to do things that don’t matter. Sometimes they feel small to us, but they never don’t matter to God. If they didn’t matter, He wouldn’t send you to do it.

‌This feeling of calling, this freeing, fearful sense that God has brought you to something for such a time as this is what I want us to feel today.

We’ve seen God send people to deliver specific messages at specific times to specific people, and most of the time we know what the occasion is. All of the prophets fall into 1 of 3-time frames (sometimes they overlap, e.g., Jeremiah)- 1) before the exile, 2) during the exile, or 3) after the exile, when a remnant of Israel returned to Judah & Jerusalem. This is where we find Haggai & Zechariah. They were God’s original Blues Brothers. They were sent on a mission from God to get God’s people back to work rebuilding God’s house.

After the Jews were exiled in Babylon for 70 years, God used Cyrus to decree their return to Jerusalem to rebuild His Temple. The 1st group returned under Zerubbabel & laid the foundation of the new temple (Ezra 3). Opposition arose and the people stopped building the temple for at least 15 years.

Nothing like that has ever happened to us, right? God frees us from our former way of life, commands us to build a new life in Him, somewhere along the way it gets hard, & we stop building. It happens to individuals, & churches.

‌‌What happened when Israel stopped building? God sent them two prophets- Haggai & Zechariah to challenge them to Build God’s House.

‌Ezra 5:1–2, Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2 So Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.

Haggai & Zechariah contain the messages, visions, and prophecies that God used to get the people to resume building God’s house. I believe God wants to use those 2 books to do the same for us. I want to give you 4 ways God will build His House, & spoiler alert: you are one of the ways!

1. ‌The WORD of God. Haggai 1-2; Zechariah 1:1-6

Haggai is only 2 chapters long, Zechariah is 14. Together, they deliver 5 messages (Word of the LORD) that got the people back to work.

‌Haggai 1:1-11, A Call to Build God’s House, & it was effective. The LORD stirred up the spirits of the people, & they got to work.

‌ Haggai delivered this message in the 2nd year of Darius, on the 1st day of the 6th month. On Day 24 the people got back to work. When God is in it, & moving in people’s hearts, a lot can change in 24 days. Some of us have waited 24 weeks, months, & years, & we haven’t obeyed yet. When are we going to?

‌Hag 2:1-9, Promised Glory of God’s New House. ‌Some of the people doing the work on the new temple saw the old temple, & they were sad at the size of the new one in comparison. God promised that He was going to shake things up & fill the house with a glory greater than that of the former. How? Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God & the exact representation of His being, the Eternal Son of God who became flesh, visited this rebuilt Temple.

‌Zechariah 1:1-6, Zechariah delivers a message for the people to repent- a right response to God’s movement in your life.‌ We can do the work of God without a heart for God. We can go through the motions without any emotions. External motions of ministry mean little if internally our heart is far from God. It’s only when the heart is right, after that surrender to God, that the blessing & reward of ministry comes. Fulfillment comes after obedience.

‌Haggai 2:10-19, a month later Haggai delivers a message saying that with repentance comes blessing.

‌Haggai 2:20-23, the same day as the 4th message, Haggai delivered a message that the LORD had chosen Zerubbabel to be His sign (signet ring). Zerubbabel was the guarantee that what God was promising would be realized.

Eph 1:13-14, In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

2. ‌The SPIRIT of God. Zechariah 1:7-6:8; 8 Visions

‌Through these visions God is promising that His house will be rebuilt, He will throw down the ones that scattered His people, Jerusalem will be inhabited by so many people there will be no walls. The LORD will be a wall of fire around it and the glory within it (Rev. 21-22). I want to home in on 2 of these visions:

High Priest & the Branch (Zech 3:1-10); phenomenal illustration of what God has done for us in salvation; Joshua, the High Priest, standing before God, & Satan accusing him. Joshua was wearing filthy clothes (iniquity), but God removed them & gave him new, rich robes & a clean turban (righteousness). ILL: Imputation- Christ takes our iniquity & we receive His righteousness

Golden Lampstand (Zech 4:1-14); 7 lamps & 7 spouts, it was fueled by 2 olive trees, i.e., 2 anointed ones; it could be Zerubbabel & Joshua, or Zechariah & Haggai, perhaps Israel & the Church; I think it could be Christ & the Spirit:

‌How will it be rebuilt? Zech 4:6, This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.

In Acts 2 the Spirit came upon the Church to empower, indwell, & enable the church. 1 Peter 2:5, “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. God builds His House with His Spirit and by His Son.

‌‌

3. The SON of God. Zechariah 9-14

‌Zechariah breaks into two major halves, ch. 1-8 dealing with the restoration of the temple & people, and ch. 9-14 dealing Israel & her Messiah. It is remarkable the number of Messianic prophecies that are in Zechariah. There is at least one reference in every chapter from 9-14; I want to point out 3.

‌The Humble King, Zechariah 9:9-11, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey… Fulfilled in the Triumphal entry & crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The Good Shepherd, ch. 11. Zechariah performs a sign-act, i.e., he acts out the symbolic representation of his message. Zechariah is called to lead (shepherd) the flock that is doomed because it rejects the Messiah. He has two staffs (rod), one named Beauty & the other Bonds (aka Favor & Union). He symbolizes the Shepherd to come, rejected & betrayed with 30 pieces of silver.

‌‌Zechariah 11:12–13 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver, after that betrayal Christ was beaten & His disciples fled. On the night that Christ was betrayed He quoted Zechariah 13:7 (cf Mark 14:27).

‌Zech 13:7, And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion,” says the Lord of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.”

‌Christ’s Return & Reign. Zech 14:3-5- On the day of the LORD, He will fight against His enemies, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and it will split in two. His people will escape through the mountain. The LORD will come, & all the saints with Him. ‌Zechariah 14:9, 16, And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The Lord is one,” And His name one... 16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

‌God builds His House upon His Word, His Spirit, & His Son. Jesus said He would build His Church (Matt 16:18), & He does with His people- BTW, that’s you.

‌

4. ‌The PEOPLE of God. Zechariah 7-8

In the middle of Zechariah’s visions & revelations is a brief narrative. Two years after they started rebuilding the temple, some guys asked the priests & prophets if they needed to keep weeping & fasting as they had been doing for years. ‌During the captivity, they started observing 4 fasts:‌

- to commemorate the day the temple was destroyed.

- to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem.

- to remember Gedaliah’s assassination, Jerusalem’s governor.

- to mark Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem.

‌Fasting is not an easy thing. It requires sacrifice and effort. On the surface, it seems a very holy thing to do. But is it holy if God didn’t tell you to do it?

God asked, “When you fasted & mourned... during those 70 years, did you really fast for Me?" (7:4). God had prescribed only one fast and that was on the Day of Atonement when their sin was paid for, so these fasts were of their own doing. Fasting is an act of righteousness, but it is not something you do to be seen by others because then it is nothing more than a dead ritual.

Principle 1: True worship is not determined by our rituals but by our righteousness. We are not called to just go through the motions with no emotion, without faith or sincerity. What we do to worship the Lord must be for Him & not ourselves. Remember, Jesus said that those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23).

‌How do you know if it is true worship or not? God gives us a test. If we truly worship God it’s going to impact our social, moral, ethical, and spiritual lives.

‌Zechariah 7:9–11, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion Everyone to his brother. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, The alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart Against his brother.’ 11 But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.”

‌‌James 1:27, Pure and undefiled religion before God & the Father is this: to visit orphans & widows in their trouble, & to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

‌‌There are elements to our worship that can become ritualistic: praise, prayer, preaching, giving, even attendance, but when all our acts of worship are done because that’s what we’ve always done, we’ve missed the point of true worship, which is to make a difference in the lives of others.

Principle 2: When we truly worship God, He will make our work for Him flourish. In Ch 8, there is a phrase repeated 10 times- thus says the LORD of hosts; 10 blessings of building God’s House. He will build His House; He will use you to do it. ‌If you haven’t figured it out yet, you are God’s House, not just you individually, but we are- as His Church. You have a part to play:

‌1, By your confession of Christ as Lord. 1 Corinthians 12:3, “... no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” On that confession, Christ said He will build His church; the gates of Hades can’t stand against it (Matt 16:18).

‌2, By your encouragement at Church. We underestimate the importance of showing up & speaking up. Hebrews 10:24–25, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

‌‌3, By your care for one another. Christ has gifted you with something to be used to benefit His church. 1 Corinthians 12:25 says we are to use those gifts so “that the members should have the same care for one another.”

‌‌They may seem like small things, but they aren’t. Zechariah 4:10, “For who has despised the day of small things?” God can use small things to do big things, that’s what He wants to do with you.

1 Cor 3:9, we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. God is building us into His House 1) On His Word, 2) through His Spirit, 3) By His Son, & 4) with His People.

- What is He calling you to do?