The Unshakable Kingdom
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Intro:
Intro:
I want this morning to bring a word of encouragement and hope to you b/c of the climate of our post-Christian culture. We are not any longer just a nation turning its back on God and His decrees, we have become a nation living in open defiance of God and His character as revealed in His word. It is easy to become discouraged and fearful during these tumultuous, godless times. We must not allow the enemy of our souls through the degradation of our modern society to put fear in our hearts. The day is coming when God will arise and His enemies will be scattered (). Though we live in a day of grace, the time of the fulfillment of the gentiles is fast approaching and judgment looms on the horizon.
Text:
Text:
I want this morning to bring a word of encouragement and hope to you b/c of the climate of our post-Christian culture. We are not any longer just a nation turning its back on God and His decrees, we have become a nation living in open defiance of God and His character as revealed in His word. It is easy to become discouraged and fearful during these tumultuous, godless times. We must not allow the enemy of our souls through the degradation of our modern society to put fear in our hearts. The day is coming when God will arise and His enemies will be scattered (). Though we live in a day of grace, the time of the fulfillment of the gentiles is fast approaching and judgment looms on the horizon.
Message:
Message:
(Background)
(Background)
This prophesy came in the early days of the post-exilic period from Babylon. God commanded through Haggai that Zerubbabel and Joshua lead the people in the re-construction of the temple of God. There were some standing there who remembered the Solomonic temple in all of its glory and were discouraged at the sight of the rebuild. Chapter 2 of Haggai is a word of encouragement from God to the workers to keep building.
Encouragement is often needed in the work of God.
The word of the Lord through Haggai was an encouragement for the people working on the temple of God to not be discouraged because:
1. The Spirit of God was w/ them as He had been since He led them out of Egypt.
In the mind of God the rebuilding of the temple was of utmost importance b/c the house of the Lord represents much more than a place of worship or cultic service, its most important theological aspect is that the temple or house of God is the place where God is present w/ His people.
In the mind of God the rebuilding of the temple was of utmost importance b/c the house of the Lord represents much more than a place of worship or cultic service, its most important theological aspect is that the temple or house of God is the place where God is present w/ His people.
God has always wanted to dwell w/ His people.
It is the presence of God that enables us to do what He commands us to do.
Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
It was not by their own power or might that they would succeed in building the temple but b/c the presence of the Lord was w/ them.
This is why Israel may have faced opposition and even been disciplined by God, but was never annihilated. We may also face opposition today and be disciplined by God, but as the temple of God (cf. ) we cannot be destroyed (cf. ).
2. God was about to once again shake the earth.
“Refuse” (παραιτεομαι) means to reject by refusing to pay attention. It comes from the domain of “to learn.”
When God shook the earth the first time when He spoke to Israel; they told Moses they didn’t want God speaking to them anymore.
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
What is this shaking God is referring to in Haggai and Hebrews?
Heb
What is this shaking God is referring to in Haggai and Hebrews?
It is a reference to a day of judgment and reckoning that is coming on all the ungodly and the enemies of God and His people.
Earthquake had early become a symbol for God’s supernatural intervention.
This shaking literally means like a quake, and its inference is that of destruction.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the Lord of hosts
In the day of His burning anger.
“The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground.
While God’s presence means blessing for the righteous; it means destruction and ruin for the enemies of God.
But notice in Hebrews the shaking is for the removal of those things which are shakeable.
This is a reference to the second coming of Jesus:
“Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.
“Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.
“Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
“I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left.
“There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left.
“Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”
Matt
Luke 17.33-36
Notice that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
We are moving closer to this time of shaking.
Michael Snyder reports that in recent weeks, the pope and the highest imam in Sunni Islam signed a covenant which boldly declares that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, and that it is God's will that all of the various major religions in the world co-exist peacefully.
This covenant was signed by Pope Francis, and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb
A section of this historic interfaith covenant states,
“We, who believe in God and in the final meeting with Him and His judgment, on the basis of our religious and moral responsibility, and through this Document, call upon ourselves, upon the leaders of the world as well as the architects of international policy and world economy, to work strenuously to spread the culture of tolerance and of living together in peace; to intervene at the earliest opportunity to stop the shedding of innocent blood and bring an end to wars, conflicts, environmental decay and the moral and cultural decline that the world is presently experiencing.
Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept.”
Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.
For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
1 Thes
This destruction is the judgment of God.
If God only shook Sinai at the giving of the law? How much more glorious will it be when His word and appearance shakes the whole earth?
3. The latter glory will be greater than the former glory.
It is in the most difficult of times that God’s glory is revealed the most.
This is why God allows things to often be their worst before He intervenes.
Jesus walking on the water (He waited until the storm had arisen).
The raising of Lazarus.
The healing of Jairus’ daughter.
The revelation of the glory of God at the second coming of Jesus will be the greatest revelation of God’s glory ever.
My point to you and the conclusion of this message is be encouraged; the world may be getting worse, but for us the glory is getting greater!
Take heart my friends; you are part of God’s unshakeable kingdom!