Haggai 1:12-15 ‘The Haggai Awakening’

 

Something amazing happened in Asbury University in Kentucky recently.

During a chapel service at this Christian university an unassuming young preacher got up and spoke from Romans 12.  It was 8^th February.  He invited people to consider what had been said and sung.

The students and staff stayed on.  There was singing, prayer and the sharing of testimonies.  This continued until the 24^th February (for 16 days) when it was decided that it was time to go back to class.

I listened to a really good preacher talk about this.  He pointed out that this event was not focused on a celebrity preacher or manufactured atmosphere.  There was lots of Bible, lots of prayer and lots of focus on Jesus.  It was marked by radical humility, a thirst for purity and a spiritual hunger.

The expert pointed out that the real test of this awakening will be changed lives.  He pointed out that American Christianity is addicted to excitement.  It is not, after all, mountain top experiences that build a church, but the living out of the gospel in our everyday lives.  The apostle Peter wanted to stay on the mountain after the transfiguration, but Jesus brought them down from the mountain onto a road that led to the cross.

Those who were involved in Asbury didn’t call what happened there a revival.  They referred to it as an awakening.  In our reading from Haggai we see a similar awakening.  50,000 people had returned from exile to Jerusalem.  They had been instructed by God to rebuild the temple.  But they were a selfish and materialistic people.  They neglected the temple for eighteen years.  Not that they weren’t capable of undertaking building projects.  They spent their time constructing fine panelled homes for themselves.  God was simply not their priority.  But then on 21^st September 520 BC they start to get to work on the temple.

So, what happened to awaken them to God’s priorities? 

We’ll see three things.  God spoke to them, He reminded them of His promises and the Holy Spirit stirred them.

1.        God spoke to them:

Awakening is to follow on from the speaking of God’s word.  In verse 12 God sends Haggai with His word and the whole remnant obey the voice of the Lord.

I am struck by the words of 1 Peter 4:11: ‘if anyone speaks, do so as one who speaks the words of God.’  He is talking about those who speak the Word through the teaching ministry of the church.  Peter’s words are so important to remember.  Those who teach in the church are not to do so in order to vent their personal opinions.  We are hear simply to explain, clarify and apply God’s Word, the Bible.  Where the preacher’s words correctly and faithfully reflect the Bible, then God is speaking to you.  It is not a matter of how entertaining the preacher is.  What matters is how truth-filled their words are.

Sometimes a sermon will leave you with a feeling of lightness.  You leave church with a spring in your step.  You have come to the gathering feeling guilty or worried, and you are reminded of God’s promise of forgiveness and protection.  God’s words have offered you comfort.

But, at other times, you will actually leave with a sense of burden.  The scripture applied will be revealing how we must change.  We go home with serius thoughts in our hearts.

A young woman, who was studying at London Bible School a few decades ago, used to attend Westminster Chapel.  She explained the effect of Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s preaching on her.  ‘Time and again, coming home from church, I went straight to my room and locked the door and went straight to my knees to pray.’

We aim to take God’s words seriously.  ‘These are the ones I look on with favour, those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word’ (Isaiah 66:2).  Don’t just read the word, let the word read you!

2.       God’s promises

Haggai’s message from God to the people, in verse 13, is beautiful: ‘I am with you’.  The task that lies before them is hard.  There are enemies who will make life difficult for them.  But God reminds them, ‘I am with you!’

This is a promise that stretches right throughout the pages of the Bible.

Jacob was a deceitful man, yet God chose not to treat Jacob as his sins deserved but according to His loving-kindness.  God promised Jacob, ‘I am with you and will keep you wherever you go’ (Genesis 28:15).

Joshua had an unenviable task.  He had to follow a great leader like Moses and lead a difficult people into the promised land, which was inhibited by a wicked and violent people.  God assures Joshua, ‘be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged; for the LORD will be with you wherever you go’ (Joshua 1:8).

Of course, the promise, ‘I will be with you’ points us to Jesus.  ‘They shall call his name Emmanuel’ (which means God with us).  When the risen Jesus sent the disciples out to gather followers and to teach them, he promised, ‘I will be with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20).

One of the first people to die of the AIDS virus in the UK was a young Christian doctor who had come into contact with infected blood through missionary work in Zimbabwe.  As the illness progressed he lost the ability to communicate.  He used to write on a little board for his wife to read.  One day all he could write was the letter ‘J’.  His wife wondered what he was trying to say until she realised that he was trying to say ‘Jesus’.  Jesus was who he needed to know in his suffering.  That is what he held on to.  Jesus was with him!

3.       God stirs through the Holy Spirit

God woke this selfish, materialistic apathetic people through speaking to them, reminding them of His promises and, in verse fourteen, stirring them through the Holy Spirit.  Then they came and began to work of the house of the Lord Almighty their God.

One of my favourite verses is Philippians 2:13. There we read that God works in our hearts to stir us to action.  ‘God works within you to both will and to act according to his purposes.’

Ask the Holy Spirit to work in your heart.  Ask Him to give you His desires.  Ask Him to so move you that you have to act. 

Conclusion

The Asbury Awakening was marked by radical humility, a desire for purity and a spiritual hunger.  May God so awaken us!  Let’s hope for mountain top experiences – but once stirred let Jesus lead us down to the road of the cross.

In the Haggai awakening a selfish materialistic and apathetic people were moved to action through the preaching of the Word, which focused on the promise of our God that was brought home by the stirring of their spirits. 

As we ask God to shake our priorities, we ask: ‘How Jesus focused are you?  Are your non-Christian friends convinced that you are more enthusiastic about Jesus than you are about your renovation project or the university grades of your children?  Are they amazed by how much Jesus sets the tone of everything you do? (Stephen MacAlpine).  We surely need the Word, promise and Holy Spirit!