Haggai: Holiness

SCRIPTURE: Haggai 2:10-19 (ESV)

DATE: 7-11-21

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And the one thing I always want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us in person at our North Main campus or are joining us online — the one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and that I love you too. 

SERIES INTRODUCTION

A little over a month ago, we began this year’s edition of our Finding Jesus series. This is a series where we look at different books in the Old Testament and see how the whole Bible is ultimately telling one story — the story of Jesus. In previous years we’ve looked at the books of Moses — the first five books of the Old Testament. We’ve looked at the Major Prophets — the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. And last year we looked at the first half of a group of books known as the Minor Prophets.

In each of these sermons I introduce you to a book of the Bible that you may or may not be familiar with. We do an overview of the book before focusing in on one passage. And — finally — we discover a way to find Jesus because — that’s our goal — to find Jesus — because the whole Bible is pointing us to him. 

And in this year’s edition of Finding Jesus — we’re looking at the final six books that are part of a group known as the Minor Prophets. We looked at the first six — last year — and this year we’re looking at the other six books in this group. And — today — we’ll be looking at the book of Haggai. So if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Haggai chapter 2.

We’ve already looked at the books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. And in the coming weeks we’ll look at Zechariah and Malachi. And I hope that you’ll grow to know and love these books of the Bible and spend time in them — finding Jesus — and the joy that’s found only in him.

BACKGROUND OF HAGGAI

So let’s take some time to get our bearings in the book of Haggai — and I hope you’ll see that Haggai is a book you’ll want to go read for yourself.

First, what do we know about Haggai? And what’s the first thing I’m going to say? Haggai was a prophet — which means he spoke on behalf of God. And — other than that — we don’t know much about him. 

We do know that Haggai was a contemporary of Zechariah — who we’ll look at next week. And his prophetic ministry takes place over the course of about four months during the second year of King Darius’ reign. Now — his ministry may have lasted longer — but four months is all we find in this book.

To give you an idea of what’s going on in history — and I know if you’re here each week — you may be like “Josh, you say something like this every week.” And here’s why. 

I know how confusing the history of the Jewish people can be for me — and my guess is that it’s confusing for many of us — so I want to make sure we all understand what’s going on before we jump into our book. I want you to see yourself in the story — I want what’s going on to come alive to you — so you see how this moment in history is part of your history. 

At this point in history, the Jewish people are divided into two nations. Originally there were the twelve tribes of Israel — each tribe descending from a son of Jacob — who was also named Israel. And these tribes eventually ask for a king. The first king was Saul — he didn’t turn out to be the man for the job. Next came David — you’ve probably heard of him. Then David’s son — Solomon — becomes king. 

After Solomon, there’s conflict over who should be king and the nation ends up splitting in two. Ten tribes join together and keep the name Israel — they’re in the north — and two tribes join together and take the name Judah — they’re in the south. 

And for a while, neither Israel nor Judah experience external conflict — meaning war with other nations — but they have significant internal problems. Evil kings. Moral corruption. The people abandon God. Things are a big mess — which you can read about in the books 1st and 2nd Kings.

But here’s what’s crazy. The people of both Israel and Judah assume that the lack of external conflict — the fact they’re not at war with other nations — is due to God approving of the way they’re living. But — remember — they’ve abandoned God! Yet they think that God approves of their behavior. That is until the Assyrians show up. 

The Assyrians come from the north and invade and conquer Israel. Down in Judah — things are a little better than in Israel — but not much. They don’t get conquered by the Assyrians — they just find themselves oppressed by Assyria until the capital of Assyria — Nineveh — is conquered in 612 BC. Egypt takes over control of the area until the Babylonians come in and defeat Egypt and conquer Judah. This all takes place around 587 BC.

Nebuchadnezzar is king of Babylon at this time — this is the same Nebuchadnezzar you may be familiar with from the book of Daniel. And after conquering Judah, the Babylonians disperse many of the Jews. This is the beginning of the 70 years of living in exile that God had warned his people about. They will live in exile — as a consequence of their sin and rebellion against him — and this will go on for 70 years. Then — around 520 BC — Babylon falls to King Cyrus and the Persian Empire. 

And — it’s during Cyrus’ reign — that waves of Jewish people begin to return to their homeland. Haggai was part of the first group of Jews to return home — around 50,000 Jews returned at this time. After this initial group — two more groups of Jews will return to their homeland — one led by Ezra and another led by Nehemiah. This is the time when we read about Nehemiah leading the rebuilding of the Temple — one of the Old Testament stories you may be familiar with. But the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah will come later in history — they come after where we are in Haggai’s story. 

Now — when Haggai and the people first return to Jerusalem — they get right to work. They rebuild the altar. They start offering sacrifices on it. They celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. They begin to rebuild the Temple. And then — they face some opposition and everything comes to a halt. For nearly two decades — things come to a halt. Well — not everything..

The Jewish people become more concerned with their own homes and living conditions than they are about rebuilding the Temple. Remember — the Temple is where they gather together to worship God — so not getting the Temple rebuilt is a big deal. 

But — even more so — because you might be thinking — “Well, I’m sure they were getting to it as fast as they could — you said they had some opposition” — well the reason why God sends Haggai to the people — is to both rebuke and encourage them to get back to rebuilding the Temple so they can begin worshipping God properly once again. Yes, there’s opposition. But the opposition wasn’t an excuse to stop rebuilding the Temple of God.

OVERVIEW OF HAGGAI

So that’s the background of what’s going on. Now, let’s turn to the book itself. Let’s talk about the layout of the book. The book contains two chapters consisting of thirty-eight verses. Super short. Won’t take you much time to read through it.

Something interesting about this book is that — along with Hosea — this is the only prophetic book that doesn’t include a prophecy against a foreign nation. In fact — compared to the other prophets — Haggai’s message is pretty unique. He doesn’t speak out against idolatry. He doesn’t mention abuses of the legal system. He doesn’t mention sexual sin. He doesn’t mention many of the things that the other prophets bring up. 

“Ok. So that’s what we don’t find in the book — but what do we find in Haggai?” Great question. Thanks for asking. We find four messages to the people.

The first message is an accusation against the people for building up their personal homes and wealth while allowing the Temple to lie in ruins. Speaking on behalf of God the prophet asks, “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4 NLT)

The second message comes one month later. At first, the people respond positively to Haggai’s earlier message and begin to rebuild the Temple — but things aren’t going like the people think things should be going. Their attempt to rebuild the Temple isn’t going well. The result of their work is a poor substitute compared to the original Temple that once stood as the House of God. So the people’s morale is low — I mean — who wants to finish a project that isn’t meeting anyone’s expectations? So this second message is meant to help them keep going with the task at hand.   

The third message comes two months later — and this is the passage that we’re going to look at — so we’ll come back to it.

Then the fourth and final message comes later on the same day as the third message. This is a message about a future that’s full of hope. A time when the New Jerusalem will be the center of God’s Kingdom. A time when evil will be defeated. A day when God will fulfill his promises to his people. This final message describes a bright future for the people of God. 

MAIN PASSAGE

Which leads us to the section of the book we’re going to focus on today. So let’s turn to our passage. Hopefully you’ve had time to find Haggai chapter 2. We’ll begin in verse 10 as we discover a way to find Jesus in the book of Haggai — and in all of the Bible. 

“On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, 11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” 

13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. 15 Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17 I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. 18 Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider: 19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”” (Haggai 2:10-19 ESV)

SERMON INTRODUCTION

Have you noticed how much we praise action over character? We say that character matters — but we really admire a person who gets things done, don’t we? That is — until their character backfires on us. For example…

  • Jeffrey Ep-sten presented a “do gooder” image while sexually abusing underage girls. He was praised for his nine million dollar donation to Harvard, his seven and a half million dollar donation to MIT, and an unknown donation amount to a breast cancer charity. Until the donations were discovered to be the buying of people’s silence who knew about his abuse of the girls.
  • Harvey Wein-sten donated millions of dollars to various causes while he was abusing women. Much of his giving is suspected to be his paying people off for their silence.
  • Or Bernie Madoff. Prior to the public’s knowledge of his ponzi scheme — that cost his clients billions of dollars — Madoff had given millions of dollars to various causes supporting the community he was preying on. 

Yes — these are extreme cases. But the point is that we can easily be duped by people who do things — things we determine to be good works — all while not knowing what else is going on. And — add to that — everyone of us is just as tempted — though we may not go to those extremes — but we’re all tempted to do good works for the wrong reasons. Does what we do matter? Absolutely! But many have confused what a person does with who they really are. 

And with how much our modern culture values action over motive, people can get away with doing good things — for the wrong reasons — for a long time. And — often — the bad stuff goes on ignored by the rest of us until we’re forced to deal with it. And then there’s the “but what about all the good they did” that people will want to talk about. 

So what about you? Which do you value more? Action — getting things done. Or motives? The reasons why things are being done? But enough about you — and me — which do you think God values more — our actions or our motives?

If we remember where we are — in Haggai’s four messages — a few months earlier the people had been told to get back to rebuilding the Temple. So there’s the action. Is the Temple being built or isn’t it? And — it’s in the midst of their rebuilding that — the message we’re looking at from God — is given to the people. And it’s not a message about action — it’s a message about motive.  

MOTIVES MATTER

Let’s return to Haggai as we see that — according to God — our motives matter. Back to verse 10.

“On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, 11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 

12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. ” (Haggai 2:10-14 ESV)

Our motives matter. And by motives — I mean — our character — what the Bible describes as the condition of our heart — the reason why we do the things we do. In a culture that loves to get things done — rarely do we stop and ask why we — or others — do the things we do. And what Haggai’s getting at is how the condition of our heart affects the purity of our actions — regardless if we realize this connection or not. 

And — to show us this — the Lord gives Haggai an illustration that the priests would’ve been familiar with — the holiness laws found in the book of Leviticus. 

And the illustration comes by way of two questions — questions asked to make a point — questions not posed because the answers are up for debate — God’s giving a lesson on holiness.

Here’s the scenario. A priest is carrying holy meat in the pocket of his clothes. And as the priest is walking along — his clothes — with the holy meat in the pocket — touch something — let’s say a loaf of bread is what gets touched. And the question is this: “Does the loaf of bread — that’s been touched by the priest’s clothes — become holy?” Does the holiness of the meat — in the clothes — rub off on the loaf of bread — does the holy meat make the bread holy? 

And the answer to the question is, “No.” The bread doesn’t become holy. This isn’t like the Greek myth of Midas’ touch — where everything he touches turns to gold — the holy meat doesn’t make the bread holy. 

That’s scenario number one. Here’s the second scenario. Someone’s unclean — think unholy — because they’ve touched a dead body. 

And this unclean person touches that same loaf of bread. And the question now is this: “Does the loaf of bread become unholy because it’s been touched by this unclean person?” Now — you’d think the answer would be “no,” right? If the holy meat didn’t make the bread holy, why would an unclean person make the bread unholy? But — plot twist — the answer to the question is, “Yes. The bread does become unholy.”

And — then going in for a punch to the gut — Haggai tells the people — as he speaks for God — “This second scenario is what’s happening as you rebuild the Temple of God. You think you’ve got the Midas touch. You think — because you’re God’s chosen people — that everything you do is holy. But it’s not. Everything you’re doing is unholy — it’s impure — because your motives — your hearts — aren’t clean.”

You see, just because they’re building the Temple of God — a good work — doesn’t mean that they — the people — are holy. 

Doing good works wasn’t making them acceptable to God. No matter what they did — no amount of work was going to make them holy — because our works can never make us holy. Why? 

Because sin has touched every single one of us. And — just like the second scenario we find in Haggai — when sin touches us — it touches all of who we are. And none of us are without sin. The Bible’s clear — we’re sinners by choice and by nature. By choice — this one’s easy — we all choose to sin. But we’re also sinners by nature — meaning due to Adam’s rebellion in the Garden — all of us have a nature — meaning the natural condition of our heart that we’re all born with — is one of a sinner. 

Psalm 58 states, “These wicked people are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.” (Psalm 58:3 NLT)

“That’s about wicked people, Josh. Not folks like us.” Well listen to what King David — a man after God’s own heart — listen to what he says about himself. 

David writes, “For I was born a sinner — yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5 NLT)

The people were building a Temple to worship God in all while their hearts were far from him. Thus the people would have a holy building to worship in, but God would have no holy worshippers among the people. And God’s more concerned about their being — who they are — than their doing — what they’re getting done. 

And know that God cares more about the condition of your heart than he does your action. Because he knows that — once our hearts are right with him — our actions will follow. The purity — or holiness — of what we do follows the purity — or holiness — of our hearts. It’s not that our actions don’t matter — they do — it’s just that without a pure heart our actions don’t amount to anything that pleases God.

CONSIDER YOUR HOLINESS

Which leads us to the command for us in our passage. Let’s begin in verse 15. 

“Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17 I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. 18 Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider: 19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”” (Haggai 2:15-19 ESV)

Here’s the command given to the priests which is the command for us today. Consider. That’s it — here’s what we’re to do: consider. 

The priests were commanded to consider the consequences of their unholiness by considering the results of their actions. 

  • The harvest isn’t going well. 
  • The vines aren’t producing. 
  • Mildew and hail are destroying the crops. 
  • Thus they’re commanded to consider so they might see how their actions — no matter how seemingly good — are unholy due to their hearts.

And the same command is given to us. For we’re also to consider how our actions — no matter how good we think they are — our actions are unholy before the Lord without a heart that’s been cleansed of sin and made holy. Yet — there’s hope for us — just as there’s hope for the people in Haggai’s day. For we — like them — have been promised a day of blessing — not because of what we’ve done — but because of a renewal — a rebirth — a cleansing of our hearts. A holiness imparted to us by God — a holiness that’s the work of Someone else.

And — when I use the word holiness — know that — biblically — the word doesn’t just mean “the absence of wrong. [Holiness] is the unmistakable presence of the right.” For the presence of holiness is the presence of the One who is holy — God himself. And though it’s much easier for us to be unholy — being unholy takes no effort on our part — to be made holy takes a powerful work of God in our lives. It’s something we can’t do on our own — we need God’s holy presence to cleanse us and make us holy.

Think of the difference between unholiness and holiness like this. It’s easy to catch a cold from someone, right? But have you ever caught health from someone? Of course not. We catch colds — not health. Similarly — sin is contagious — holiness isn’t. Holiness must be imparted to us — by God — in order for our sin nature to be cleansed so we’re a holy people.

FINDING JESUS

And this is how we find Jesus in Haggai. We need holiness, but we’re unable to make ourselves holy. We need Someone else to come and make us into a holy people so that what we do isn’t just good — but is holy. 

And two stories — from the gospel of Mark — show us that Jesus is the One who’s come to make unclean people clean — to make unholy people holy.

One day…“And a leper (someone considered unclean — a leper…) came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 45 But he (the healed man) went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.” (Mark 1:40-45 ESV)

A few years ago — when I preached through this passage from Mark — I titled the sermon “Jesus makes the unclean clean.” That’s what Jesus does — he makes unholy people holy. A year later, we came to this passage in Mark.

“And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”” (Mark 5:25-34 ESV)

Now — it’s been a few years — so let me remind you of what’s so remarkable about this story. The lady in this story is unclean — she’s unholy. And she’s put everyone in the crowd at risk of being made unholy by her presence. Just like the person who touched the dead body — in Haggai’s illustration — everything this woman comes in contact with will be unholy. And she touches Jesus! 

Yet the holy power of Christ rubs off on her — her unholiness doesn’t rub off on him — at least not at this moment in his life. At this moment — his holiness is the Midas touch! And she is healed. She’s made holy. 

And — I’m sure you may have noticed — how I said that her unholiness didn’t rub off on Jesus “at this moment in his life.” But there was a moment in his life when her — and all who turn to him in faith — there’s a moment when our unholiness did rub off on him. When? On the cross. When “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT) 

On the cross — Jesus became the offering for our sin — the offering needed for our unholiness — so that we could be made right — and holy — with God through Christ. And — in having been made holy by Christ — the things we do now are better than good — they are holy.

CONCLUSION

Mark Twain once said, “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” His point was that no matter how good you get at golf, there’ll always be bogeys, double bogeys, shots into the water, and lost balls never to be found. Even the pros make bad shots.

Well evaluating our lives by our good works is similar. Sure, we’ll have some days where we make a few birdies — maybe even an eagle or two — and we’ll start rebuilding the Temple of God — and serving others, and reading our Bibles, and showing up to church regularly — and we’ll think that God’s pleased with us because of what we’re doing. And — most likely — we’ll deceive ourselves into thinking that we’re better than we really are — that we’re not just good people — but because of what we’ve done — we’re holy people. 

But once you’ve seen the condition of your heart — what it means to be a sinner by nature and by choice. And once you grasp what Christ has done for you so that you might be cleansed of your sins and made part of his holy people — you’ll find yourself doing many of the same “good things” as before. But — now — you’re doing them for much different reasons. 

Because — in having been made holy — our new pure hearts make the glory of God the reason why we do what we do. And we do good works — with our eyes on Jesus — because our holiness — as well as our joy and peace and hope and so much more — are gifts given to us at great cost to him. And we realize that what we do — is nothing — without us having been changed by what he’s done for us on the cross. Let’s pray together.

PRAYER

Father, you are a holy God. And you have commanded us to be a holy people. For you are more concerned about the condition of our hearts than you are with what we do. For you know that once our hearts have been made right with you — once — through our faith in Christ and in his work — we’ve been given spiritually alive and holy hearts — good works will follow. Good works that are holy works and pleasing to you.

Jesus, this Good News for us came at great cost to you. What a love you have for us — that you gave your life so that we might find eternal life — a pure life — a holy life. May our joy be so grounded in you that everything we do will be done while thinking of what you’ve first done for us.

And Spirit of God, for those who need to be cleansed of their sins — may you do the cleansing work that you do. Turn their hearts to Christ, guide them in repentance, make them into holy men and women, and give them life — so that all that they do will be holy and pleasing in your sight. And we pray all of these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

BENEDICTION

May you go doing good and holy works — from a pure and holy heart — given to you by the One who has cleansed you of your sins. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.