The Church - A building under construction

Building God's temple Zech. 4:1-10, Matt. 13:31-35 In 538 BC the Jewish people were allowed to return from their captivity in Babylon in order to rebuild God's temple in Jerusalem, which they did along with their two leaders, Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest. Things went well for a while, however they suffered a great deal of opposition from their neighbours and as a result the work stopped altogether after about eight years and this lead to the prophet Zechariah, along with Haggai, being sent in about 520 BC to encourage the people to begin the rebuilding once more. Because despite their forgetfulness of God, and of their promises to Him to carry out the rebuilding, He hadn't forgotten them nor their calling so that He sent these two prophets to once again stir them into action. In fact, it's interesting that the name Zechariah in the Hebrew language means, "The Lord remembers". Zechariah's purpose then was to rebuke the people for their failure to obey God's original command to them, as well as to encourage and challenge them to complete what they'd once so faithfully started, and too to assure them of the future blessings that would come upon them and their descendents if, as we're told in chapter 1 verse 3 of our book, they will only return to him. Now the book of Zechariah contains eight 'night visions' as well as a number of prophetic oracles through which the Lord challenges his people pointing them towards the future that he has planned for them. It is a book that tells of small beginnings, which, starting and continuing with an attitude of obedience to God, will lead to great things. But firstly, the people are to complete the temple. The passage that we read from Zechariah gives us the fifth of his visions in which he sees a central gold lamp stand, with seven lamps on it, on each side of which there is an olive tree. Zechariah has urged the people to return to the job of building the ruined temple once more but the opposition remains such that, no doubt, there's much fear and many mutterings amongst the people as to what's going to happen to them when the work begins. "What's the point of even trying to start again", they reason, "when we're likely to be stopped, and by force at that?" And so to meet these fears God gives them this vision of the lamp to show them that he will be at the centre of all that he's asking them to do. You see the light from the seven-branched lamp stand had always represented Gods Glory reflected in the holy service of his people. And therefore, he is reminding them that as they serve him now, so his glory, just as it did in the past, will shine through all that they do. All that stands against them might well seem like a great mountain that will be impossible to overcome but, the Lord says (verse 7): "What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground". In other words, God tells them, all the opposition that seems like such a barrier to you now will simply melt away as you and your leader trust me and follow my leading. And why? Because it is "'not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit', says the Lord Almighty" (verse 6). Today, as we consider the church in our own country, we no doubt think back to, and perhaps remember, a time, not that long ago, when it had much more influence than it appears to have today. To a time when our pews were filled week-by-week, when all our Sunday schools were well attended, when churches were being built rather than being closed, when the name of God and of his Son Jesus Christ were generally respected in society. How often, I wonder, have we thought of this with regret, but also perhaps with a sense of resignation, accepting that there's nothing that we can do to change things? Because, we reason, the fact of the matter is that society is simply getting worse, so that all we're left to do is to keep our heads down and watch all that's going on, whilst doing our best not to be affected too much by it. But then if this is how we tend to feel then we'll find that God's words to his people through Zechariah those many years ago, still will have much to say to us today. Because there we discover that the people to whom Zechariah spoke, telling them that they were to rebuild the temple, already knew that this was what the Lord wanted them to do. Yes, they'd chosen to ignore God's instructions, because they feared the consequences, but that didn't make them go away. Similarly, God's church today has been given all the instructions that it needs to see the Lord building his Kingdom here on earth even as it in heaven. For instance, we're told: "hear the word of God and obey it" (Luke 11: 28), "come out from them and be separate" (2 Cor. 6:17), "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances"(1 Thess. 5:16-18), "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). And these are just a small sample of the many instructions that we know we've been given by God in his Word. Well, it seems simple enough. But then there are people in the church today who believe that the Bible is something that should be critically evaluated and that the parts that don't appeal to us anymore should be got rid of? As a result, as far as they're concerned, what they hear when the Bible is read isn't necessarily God's word so that any obedience to it on their part is strictly on their terms. Then again there are many who're more concerned with finding the similarities between Christianity and a society which rejects God, or between the Christian faith and other beliefs, than they are with obeying the call to be separate? And how many today take their faith so seriously that they work as hard as they can to grow in it whilst ever fearing the consequences of falling away? And what of the reality of joy, the need for the prominence of prayer in our lives, the abiding gratitude to God for all his constant blessings and the constraining desire to reach out to others? Because, as we've noted, these and many others, are our instructions and they are not going to change, whatever some of our theologians might say. Rather, and just as was the case for the people of Judah to whom Zechariah spoke, God is surely waiting for us to obey his commands before we'll see again his glory shining through his church. A number of years ago now the call going out to all Scottish churches for their members to pray on a certain day for the future of the Church in Scotland. A very laudable request. And yet perhaps it begged the question why every congregation in Scotland ever needed such a call to arms. Shouldn't they, shouldn't we, not already be doing this constantly, at the very least on a weekly basis? Surely God is calling his church today, his people in Scotland, in the UK, throughout the world to act today, just as he did those many years ago, for then and only then will we begin to experience his full blessing. Of course, there's no doubt that the Church here today, as was the case for the returning Israelites, faces opposition. Perhaps not the potentially violent kind that they faced, not the out and out persecution that Christians in other countries even now face where many are ostracised, or face imprisonment or even death because they refuse to abandon their Lord. However, what we do find is that our beliefs are maligned and undermined daily in the press, on our televisions, at our places of work, on our streets. That people are being influenced by many things that would take the place of a living faith in the Living God, that we can be laughed at or mocked because of what we hold to. But here too we can learn from these words of Zechariah. For what might seem to us at times to be a mountain to be climbed, a set of powerful forces arrayed against us which are determined to crush us and, at times it seems, making a rather good job of it, to our Lord is as nothing. Such that before those who live in obedience to his will, these high obstacles will become like level ground, as they hold onto his promise that they will finish the job that he has set them amidst shouts of blessing. But what about the fact that we're only relatively small in numbers, that perhaps we don't have the resources that we would like to have to meet the challenges that we face as we seek to obey our Lords commands? Well doesn't our Lord say to us: "not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit"? Therefore, it doesn't matter if we're not mighty, if we feel that we don't have much power, because he is and he has, more mighty and more powerful by far than all that this world possesses and the victory will be won, not through our abilities, but by the Holy Spirit whom, Paul tells Titus in chapter 3 of his letter to him, God generously pours out on all those who have been justified by God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result, when we are a people who know the Lord as our saviour, then it follows that we already have all we need to overcome any opposition. Ah, but if that's the case then how do we go about doing this? Well, the secret surely is that we take our focus off ourselves and away from those who we see as opposing us and instead we focus upon God and upon his sufficiency to meet all our needs. Because he has called us for a reason having without doubt plans for us, as well as the means to enable us to carry out those plans. For our God wants to build his church, he will build his church, but amazingly he wants us, you and me, to be his co-workers. And the reality is that the building process even now goes on. If it is hard to see this sometimes in our own country, then let's look to other parts of the world and there we will see that God's church is in fact growing in a way that it has never done before in the whole of its history. You see nothing can stop the inexorable progress of our God's most Holy building project. Jesus told the parables of the kingdom that we read in Matthew's Gospel to highlight this fact. Firstly, he said, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds and yet it grows into the largest of garden plants such that the birds are able to sit in its branches. Or it is like the relatively tiny amount of yeast that a woman takes and mixes with a large amount of flour when making her bread and which spreads through the whole batch causing the entire amount to rise. On reflection these natural processes seem amazing and totally contrary to what one would expect and yet this, says Jesus, is how God's Kingdom grows, both within the individual and through his church and, whilst we might not understand the process, we will see its effects. Therefore, if we are people who have found new life in Christ Jesus, then we should expect the unexpected; we should expect great things beyond our imaginings, we should believe great things of our great God. We should be prepared to get excited both for our personal situations, being where God wants us to be, and for our church. We should be prepared to get involved, taking every opportunity to worship together, to pray together, to study together, to praise our God together, to reach out to those around us together. And to encourage each other where we find all this difficult ... because we will! Many people, I suspect, look at the church today and too often decide that it is boring, whereas the truth is that the church, properly functioning, working in obedience to God's command, is anything but boring. Because the God who we serve and represent is a surprising, an amazing God, often working in ways that we can't ever anticipate as he carries through his plans for his people and for his creation. I remember some time ago attending a missionary society meeting in Dundee where we listened to a young student in her early 20's telling us about the time she'd recently spent in India working with people suffering from leprosy. She spoke very well for someone of her age but what particularly stood out was the excitement that she had so obviously felt, and continued to feel, at being able to participate in God's plans, in feeling and seeing God's Holy Spirit at work, many times in totally unexpected ways. And this shouldn't be seen as anything unusual because experiencing the Lord's power at first hand has always been, and continues to be today, something that is both humbling and exciting. "Well", we might say, "She was young, and it's relatively easy for the young to be excited." Which I guess is true, but you know the majority of the people in the room that night were much older than she was, most of them retired, long retired in a number of cases. And yet from their reactions to what she had to say you couldn't help but get the strong impression that they were each able to relate very much to what she had to say from their own experiences. To sum up then we, who make up the church today, we who Paul tells the Ephesian Church in the second chapter of his letter to them are ourselves rising to become a holy temple in the Lord, stand as it were in the middle of a construction site with a task to set our hands to, the continuation of a building project that has been going on now for two thousand years. It's a task that calls for us to give of our all, because it won't be easy. We will without doubt face opposition, because, as Paul tells the Ephesians, there are rulers, there are authorities and powers in this dark world, there are forces of evil in the heavenly realms that will stop at nothing in their attempts to prevent the Lord achieving his purposes. And yet how rewarding a task it will be. For we can be assured that if we do take up our spiritual trowels God's glory will be in the midst of us, and so we will in the end succeed through the sure enabling of his Holy Spirit. The question is, are we prepared to obey the instructions that we've been given, or do we prefer to ignore them? It's a simple choice and one that we can't avoid making. Because of course Christ Jesus says: "By their fruit you will recognise them" (Matthew chapter 7 verse 16). And so, no doubt, we will be. However, lest we shy away at the task before us, lets just remember that we aren't called to do great things, just the small things to the best of our God-enabled ability. He will see to the rest. Amen