The Sovereign God and human suffering

Here's a great talk by Don Carson on suffering and sovereignty:  http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/suffering_a_theological_response

What does God know, what's God like & what can he do?

These are, of course, pretty fundamental questions.
For many years, I didn't believe that God had one fixed plan for the world and my life. Rather, he had a final goal in mind, and could use events and decisions so that, eventually, by one route or another, he would get me and all creation to that goal. During that journey, I thought, I could (and certainly would) make many bad and wrong decisions, but everything would be alright in the end.
For many years, I didn't like the idea of predestination, preferring to imagine that it was entirely my choice whether or not I became a Christian.
And I had a rather naive & sentimental view of God's love - that he simply wanted me to be happy and comfortable.

These kinds of views, which are held by many (most?) Christians have, in recent years, been pulled together into a theological framework called, 'Open Theism', and on Saturday three of us went to hear Mike Ovey, Principal of Oak Hill Theological College) explain why this thinking is unbiblical and nonsensical. (Many thanks to Mike from whose lectures much of my ramblings spring, though don't blame him for any confusion on my part!).

As I matured as a Christian and began to experience more of the world as it really is, I began to see that these views simply don't make sense either of the Bible or of life.
You see, if God doesn't plan every detail of everything, then there are an infinite number of ways in which his plans can be thwarted by the plans of millions of people (or even the weather, since if God has no foreknowledge, then he doesn't know how the weather will alter events and decisions!). If God is unable even to foreknow, let alone determine, what I do tonight, how will he ever so order world events and arrive at the fulfilment of his plans?
More importantly, what are we to make Isaiah 46, where God says,

I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.  (Isa 46:10-11 ESV)

Of course the objection to God's determining of the future is that it takes away our free will. But that's not so. As Genesis 50:20 points out:

'As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.' 

God allows people to make free decisions and it is their free decisions which fulfil his purposes. This is called 'compatibilism', and it's evident in Acts 2:23,

'...this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.'

But we must remember that we are never entirely free to choose: we cannot choose to do what is contrary to our desires or our nature (i.e. we only do what we want to do, we can't do what we can't want to do. So the non-Christian cannot, of his own volition, become a Christian. He can't want to want to become a Christian because he is enslaved by sin (John 8:34; Romans 6:17) - indeed, he is dead in his sin and therefore utterly unable to do anything about his plight (Eph 2:1)).
The positive side of this is put by Paul in Ephesians 2:8,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Even our faith is the gift of God, without him, we cannot believe in him.

Of course it's natural to rebel against this idea - I am, after all, a sinner, and one of the fundamentals of sin is that I don't want God to be God. I want to be God - I want to have control.

And what of God's love? John says 'God is love' (1 John 4:8). But does God's love control all his other characteristics; his justice, holiness, righteousness etc.? Surely not. While God is perfectly and completely loving he is also perfectly and completely holy, and righteous, and just, and...
So it's not that God's love controls his other characteristics, but that each is constantly held in completeness and perfection. He is lovingly just and justly loving.

As a youngster, I (along with many others then and now) had a simplistic and sentimental view of God's love - that he just wanted me to be happy. If that meant I did things that dishonoured him, well... his love would overrule his anger at my disobedience, because love didn't demand obedience, it only sought my freely given love.

But then I began to understand the relationship of perfect love between the Father and the Son, and saw that God sends and commands the Son whom he loves perfectly and completely to do something which will cause him unimaginable suffering (see the account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and John 5). At the same time, the Son's perfect and complete love for his Father results in willing obedience. So love and commanding; love and obedience are not opposed to each other. God commands our love - he doesn't just desire it (what's 'the first and most improtant commandment'?). And he can command love because he is righteous, always doing what is right, and it's morally right that we should love God - he is more worthy of our love than anything or anyone else. In love, God commands love.

So we must be very careful not to begin to create in our minds the God that we would like. If, in a human relationship, we imagine our spouse to be someone other than they are, it is not only insulting to them but will result in disappointment and breakdown of the relationship. How much more is this true of God? If we have a sentimental view of God's love, then how will we cope when he asks us to suffer (cf Job)? If we don't think God is in control of the future, what hope do we have? Worse than all of this, if we imagine God to be something other than he really is, we've created a mental golden calf and committed idolatry.

If the Bible says things about God that we don't like, the answer is not to try to re-create God, but prayerfully to ask God to recreate our thinking and believing.

An ordinary pastor

I can't remember ever having sat and read a book from cover to cover in an afternoon, but that's what I've done today. It's called, 'Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor; The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson', written by his son, Don (D.A.) Carson, and I've been meaning to read ever since it was first published in 2008.
 Tom Carson was a missionary-pastor in Drommondville, Quebec and then, after many years of hard service with little fruit, he worked full-time as civil servant and 10+ hours a week as an assistant pastor in Montclair. In what were small churches, Mr Carson had to turn his hand to enything that needed doing - preaching & pastoring (of course), but also playing piano, sweeping, mending, setting up, clearing away, youth work, administration and so on. But despite working incredibly hard, and being faithful in prayer and holiness, he saw little fruit from his ministry and had times of deep darkness. He never doubted Christ, but in his journal he expressed the deep doubts about his own abilities, commitment, prayer and godliness that so many pastors feel.
His son concludes,

Tom Carson neevr rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais [region of Quebec] and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was neevr wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday's grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators." His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition...

...When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in parliament, no attention paid by the nation... But on the other side the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man - he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor - but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord."

Vaclav Havel

I'm not in the habit of reading speeches about architecture made by Vaclav Havel, but our Archdeacon, Clive Mansell, mentioned this in a circular email today.
Havel (the last president of Czechoslovakia), speaking in Prague on 10 October 2010, made some penetrating comments about 21st Century culture:

...we are also living in the first atheistic civilisation, in other words, a civilisation that has lost its connection with the infinite and eternity. For that reason it prefers short-term profit to long-term profit. What is important is whether an investment will provide a return in ten or fifteen years; how it will affect the lives of our descendants in a hundred years is less important.

 However, the most dangerous aspect of this global atheistic civilisation is its pride. The pride of someone who is driven by the very logic of his wealth to stop respecting the contribution of nature and our forebears, to stop respecting it on principle and respect it only as a further potential source of profit.

I'm reminded of the pride of another civilisation - that of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar & Belshazzar! He continues:

I sense behind all of this not only a globally spreading short-sightedness, but also the swollen self-consciousness of this civilisation, whose basic attributes include the supercilious idea that we know everything and what we don’t yet know we’ll soon find out, because we know how to go about it. We are convinced that this supposed omniscience of ours which proclaims the staggering progress of science and technology and rational knowledge in general, permits us to serve anything that is demonstrably useful, or that is simply a source of measurable profit, anything that induces growth and more growth and still more growth, including the growth of agglomerations.

And surely he's right. The atheists (or practical atheists) who control Western society are breathtaking in their arrogance and selfishness.

I believe that the recent financial and economic crisis was of great importance and in its ultimate essence it was actually a very edifying signal to the contemporary world.

Most economists relied directly or indirectly on the idea that the world, including human conduct, is more or less understandable, scientifically describable and hence predictable. Market economics and its entire legal framework counted on our knowing who man is and what aims he pursues, what was the logic behind the actions of banks or firms, what the shareholding public does and what one may expect from some particular individual or community.

And all of a sudden none of that applied. Irrationality leered at us from all the stock-exchange screens. And even the most fundamentalist economists, who – having intimate access to the truth - were convinced with unshakeable assurance that the invisible hand of the market knew what it was doing, had suddenly to admit that they had been taken by surprise.

I hope and trust that the elites of today’s world will realise what this signal is telling us.

 But while I agree with his analysis, I don't share his hope or trust. The same arrogant, proud, selfish bankers and corrupt politicians who got us into this mess are still doing their jobs and will only repeat past mistakes. (The argument from the bankers was, 'You have to pay us so much because we're the best'. But then they demonstrated that they weren't the best. So now they say, 'You have to pay us so much because you need the best'!).

I regard the recent crisis as a very small and very inconspicuous call to humility. A small and inconspicuous challenge for us not to take everything automatically for granted. Strange things are happening and will happen. Not to bring oneself to admit it is the path to hell...
...In all events, I am certain that our civilisation is heading for catastrophe unless present-day humankind comes to its senses. And it can only come to its senses if it grapples with its short-sightedness, its stupid conviction of its omniscience and its swollen pride, which have been so deeply anchored in its thinking and actions.

 Now I wish Havel really meant those words in their original sense, and I wish he knew the real answer. Yes, mankind is rushing headlong to hell - real, eternal separation from the love of God which mitigates and limits the proud, arrogant, evil selfishness of men & women. When God withdraws his grace from all those who continue to reject him, it will be the catastrophe of sheer hell.
But if humankind is truly to come to its senses, it has to realise that the only cure for its stupid delusions of grandeur is the new life offered by Christ. Humans can try to pull their socks up, but they'll only fall down again after a few steps. The solution is a completely fresh start, empowered by the Spirit of God himself.

See Vaclav Havel's website for the full text

Building the church or the church building?

When I planned to preach through Haggai some months ago, I never imagined it would be so immediately relevant to us at St Peter's. Clearly there was a heart for evangelism amongst many members, so I wanted to encourage them and spur others on to become more courageous in speaking about Jesus, more generous in giving to gospel work, and more prayerful in support of gospel work.
As we started the series, I had a phone call from CrossTeach Trust offering us a share in a Cornhill mission team in Feb 2011. Fantastic! The PCC was enthusiastic, and it will be great to plan for some evangelistic events.

But little did I imagine that, as we heard about the difficulties of building the temple in Jerusalem, so many obstacles and difficulties would appear before us as we try to grow St Peter's and support our mission partners.
First, the hall floor started to break up. Lots of hassle and an estimate of £8k. Distraction number one.
Then we heard that one of our Mission Partner's children had fallen ill during her first term at boarding school. Surely it was traumatic enough for the family to be split up for the first time without this? They wanted to concentrate on building up church leaders in the sensitive region where they work, not have to fly back and forth to the UK and have all the worries of a sick daughter.
Then the main meeting room floor starts to warp. The cause is uncertain - damp of some kind (condensation on the underside of the boards or just high humidity of an old building).
Next, just as the cold weather begins to set in, the boiler decides to do its usual October tricks and not fire up. (Seems to be sorted now, thanks to Richard, Keith & John!).
But we also know that there are cracks in the north porch, rotting timbers on the roof, crumbling stones, ceilings to be replaced, decoration to do, a kitchen to upgrade... the list is endless.

And all of this just as we're hoping to get going on evangelism and home groups - real gospel work. The last thing we need is to be distracted by major building plans and have our giving siphoned off into what is urgent but not important (in the eternal scheme of things).

Perhaps God has let the devil have a longer leash and he's having a go at us.
Perhaps God is testing our resolve, generosity, priorities, patience, prayer and unity.

All in all, I pray that all of the problems will result, somehow (and I don't see how at the moment) in church growth - both depth and numbers.

Haggai 2:1-9

Last week we saw how on 29 August 520BC, the Lord God challenged his people to stop focussing on themselves and get on with rebuilding his house – the temple.

The people were spending all their money down at the DIY superstore, and all their time & energy on refurbishing their homes.

But though they worked long hours, they never seemed to have enough to pay off the credit card.

And then they heard the Lord's rebuke. They responded, and began work on the temple 3 weeks later.

But, of course, there's no stone temple today, and God doesn't call us to build one.

Instead, each Christian believer is now a temple of God – a temple of the HS. And together we form the church which is the temple of the HS.

So we're called to make the building up of Christ's church our first priority because it's in the church that God is glorified and worshipped.

It's through the church that God makes his presence known to a world that is lost forever without him.

But this seems like such a tough ask because it's such a massive task –

• we need courage & wisdom to speak to friends
• we need money to pay for all the support structures of St Peter's – the workers, the building, the admin etc.
• we need money to support our mission partners.
• we need people to give time & energy & skill – you name it, we need.

The list just seems endless. The demands seem endless. The task of building Christ's church seems so enormous – so far beyond us.

Perhaps, after last week, you went away with renewed enthusiasm and determination for the task, but now, after a busy week, you're not so sure – reality has bitten and you really don't think you can contribute much at all.

Perhaps you went away determined to talk about Jesus to a friend or a relative. But when it came to it, your courage failed you; or you just couldn't find the right words.

Perhaps you went away last week determined to give more time to prayer, and to come to a SPA Bible study. But you forgot to pray, and your husband or wife complained about your being out at church again.

Perhaps you decided last week to give regularly, or to increase your giving, but then a bill arrived, or you just forgot.

Perhaps you were at the Church Council meeting on Monday night, and heard that it's going to cost £7k to repair the floor; that we really need to upgrade the boiler and the kitchen, and yet this year we're predicting an £8k shortfall in the current account.

All of this, and we've got envelopes out in the chairs in the hope of giving at least £3k to our mission partners!

And if that wasn't enough, we're now talking about a church mission in February and starting home-groups in the new year.

All-in-all the task of building Christ's church, seems impossibly daunting, with constant obstacles to overcome.

But feeling overwhelmed at the mission God gives us is nothing new - back in Jerusalem, work had been slow.

It was a month since Haggai preached God's word to them, but they'd lost a week's work for the festival of booths – how ironic that just as they were attempting to rebuild the temple, they had to stop to celebrate the consecration of the old temple – that old, magnificent temple.

What's more, having had another poor harvest, they had to celebrate the harvest festival.

It was all so... discouraging!

So, on the 17 October 520BC – exactly one week short of 2530 years ago – God spoke again through Haggai to Governor Zerubbabel; HP Joshua, and all the people.

And he asked them three questions, v3:

Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory?

How does it look to you now?

Does it not seem to you like nothing?

Few of the people could remember the old temple – even a 75 year old would only have a childhood memory – but the readings during the Festivals would have reminded them of the splendour of the old buildings, and, of course, things were better back then...

And now, as they looked at the abandoned building site covered in buddleia and rosebay, it looked like nothing. And would probably never be anything.

Discouragement can set in very quickly.

But God knows how we feel when we're faced with the challenge of building his temple - or his church.

And so, v4, we hear him saying, 'Be strong O Zerubbabel. Be strong O Joshua. Be strong, all you people of the land.'

Be strong and, end of v4, WORK!

Yes God calls us to have faith in him – to be strong in him & trust that he will provide all we need for the task – but genuine faith always results in action – in hard graft – in work.

But this isn't the rallying cry of the half-time team talk - “Come on boys you can do if you try – dig deep, keep going, ignore the pain!”

And it's not like the song, 'Search for the hero inside yourself, seek yourself and you will shine...'

No, it's not a matter of looking within because God gives help from without – v4, '...work, for I am with you. This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.'

The success of the venture doesn't ultimately depend on the people's hard work – no matter how hard they work, they will never restore the temple to its former glory because the glory of the temple comes from God himself. The glory of the temple is God's presence in it.

Same with the church – glory of church is God's presence in us by his HS.

So building the church is a joint project – yes there is inner determination, but that determination springs from, & is energised by, the promise of God, the commission of God and the presence of God.

And as we build Christ's church we hear again the promise of Jesus, 'I am with you always to the very end of the age.'

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.

'I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.'

These are Christ's solemn promises. And we take strength from them and work in the power of the Spirit to build his church.

So far so good – we can understand all this. But then in vv6-9, God says some things which seem very odd indeed. READ vv6-9

What has this got to do with the building project?

Well, in v6, God says that he will 'once more' shake the earth.

A long time before Haggai, God appeared to Moses on Mt Sinai (Ex 19) – Moses went up the mountain, and when God descended on the mountain, it shook violently. This was the sign that a new chapter in God's relationship with his people had begun. It was as a result of this meeting between God and Moses that the first temple – or tabernacle – was built.

So when God promises to shake the earth again, he's promising another new chapter in his relationship with mankind.

So when did, or when will, God shake the earth again? When did, or when will the new chapter start?

Well, if you remember, when Jesus was raised from the dead, Matthew tells us that there was a violent earthquake in Jerusalem.

Not only that, but the temple curtain which kept people out of the most holy part of the temple where God's glory dwelt, was torn in two.

When Jesus died and rose, he fulfilled all the functions of the temple, and began a new chapter in God's relationship with mankind. From then on, everyone who trusted Christ became the temple of God's HS. This was the start of the church – the new temple built of living stones.

And within a matter of weeks, people from other nations were becoming temples of the HS. The church became a temple far more glorious than the old stone building.

And yet even this is not the ultimate fulfilment of Haggai 2.

Our first reading from Hebrews 12 spoke of a future shaking of the earth and the start of another chapter in God's relationship with his people.

This is the final shaking, when the whole earth will be transformed into a temple of God's presence, and the words of Revelation 21 will be fulfilled:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

That's where God is taking his church.

But for now, he says to us as we build his church, 'Be strong and work, for I am with you and my Spirit is in you.'

Too generous?

In my journey through the Bible in a year, I read this today:

[Bezalel and Oholiab] received from Moses all the contributions that the people people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, 'The people bring musch more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.' ... So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more. (See Exodus 36:2-7 ).

 And I was reminded of Paul's thanks to the Philippians (4:18f):

I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. 

And as I read I wondered... what if gospel work was funded to this extent? How much more could be accomplished if churches didn't have to spend so much time discussing money, planning fundraising events (how I hate these!), writing begging letters to congregations, doing finance presentations etc. Wouldn't it be great to say to the congregation, 'Stop giving - we have more than enough!'?

And yet, perhaps if we were fully funded we would start to spend money on trivial things - flashy sound & light systems, idolatrous adornment of buildings, etc. How much would actually find its way to proclaiming the gospel? How much would be used to show love to the poor?

We're only human, and I guess we'd stop relying on God and start to build our own little kingdoms.

Nevertheless...!!!

Can God be God and humans have free will?

If every one of the billions of people on earth are completely free to do whatever they like, how can God ever get anything done? How can his plans ever be fulfilled by people who make their own plans independent of God?
But then, if God has one plan, how can he achieve it without forcing his will on unwilling people? If he does that, do we really have free will?

These are important questions, and a day of lectures on 23 October will explore them (and others e.g. does prayer affect God's will?). The lectures will be given by Mike Ovey, Principal of Oak Hill Theological College, and take place at Tyndale House in Cambridge.

The day is aimed at thinking Christians - it will, no doubt, take a degree of concentration, but is designed for those who haven't done any formal theological training. A few of us from St Peter's hope to go, so why not join us?

More info on the Tyndale House website

Haggai 1

My sermon notes on Haggai 1. When I preached, I didn't stick exactly to my notes, hopefully the actual sermon will appear on the church website www.stpeterstw.com


The whole Bible – OT & NT – tells one story: it's the account of God's past, present and future actions in this world.

And yet, because the OT is largely a book of promises, and the NT largely a book of fulfilments, they do feel very different.

So in the OT, the people of God are led to the Promised Land of Canaan.
In the NT we learn that the true PL is heaven.
In the OT there are priests and animal sacrifices.
In the NT these are fulfilled & replaced by Jesus' sacrifice of himself on the cross.
In the OT God's glory dwells among his people in the temple building.
In the NT, God lives in his people by his Holy Spirit – we are the temple of God.

So when we read the OT, we must always remember to read it with this big picture in mind.
We can never simply read something in the OT and apply it directly to ourselves – we must always work out how it's fulfilled by Jesus in the NT first, and only then apply it to life today.

But now we're going back into those OT days.
Back to 29 August 520BC – because v1 tells us that it was on this day that God spoke through Haggai to Zerubbabel the governor of Judah and to Joshua the HP.
Now at this time, Israel should have been a really positive place. For the last 19 years, they've been rebuilding their homes in their capital city, Jerusalem.
Rebuilding because 66 years previously, Jerusalem had been destroyed and the people deported to Babylon. But then, 19 years ago, Persia defeated Babylon, and allowed the Israelites to return home.
And so as the people are focused on their own houses, God speaks to their political & spiritual leaders. And in v2, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says; 'These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.''

Today, when a new town is planned, it's rare that the planners give any thought at all to including a church building.
But in Jerusalem the Lord's house – the temple – was absolutely central to the very existence of the city.
And yet, 19 years after they'd returned home, the temple was nothing more than an abandoned building site.
Yes, some years ago, they'd made a start rebuilding the temple. But they never got past the foundations – there was some opposition from non-Jews, so they gave up – and ever since then, they've put all their time, money & energy into home improvement & DIY.
Meanwhile, back at the temple site, the only thing that stands above ground is the big old fund-raising thermometer – and through the peeling paint, you can see that the red line never really got going at all.

So, in v4, God speaks to all the people, 'Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house – this house of God, the temple – remains a ruin?'

You see the people are back and forth to B&Q, loading up their trolleys with drills, rawlplugs, screws & cedar panels.
And whenever someone suggests that they start work on the temple, one by one they make their excuses:
'Sorry, I can't get involved now – I've got to finish decorating the lounge – I just don't have time. Once this is done, I should have more time.'
'Sorry. It's impossible now – it's 19 years since we built the house & we really needed a new kitchen & conservatory. I can't give any more money right now. When we've finished things should be better.'

But actually it's worse than that, as God himself tells them from v5: READ vv5-6
Everything the people try to do seems to come to nothing.
So, you might think, it's not surprising that they don't want to start on a massively expensive building project – the time is not right. Things have got to get better before they start giving to the temple building fund.

Yes, they all agree, rebuilding the temple is important. Yes, they all agree, it's their responsibility.
But not me, and not now, they all say.
And the people have a point – it was inconvenient, they were in difficult economic times.

So in vv7-11, God says, 'Give careful thought to your ways' – think very carefully about what's happening to you & what you're doing about it.

The people look at their circumstances and say, 'Look, I've got so much on and times are hard. I can't commit to this temple project right now.'
But God sees things rather differently: vv7-10.

So the people say, 'When my life's sorted out, then I'll commit to the temple project.'
But God says, 'The reason your life's in a mess is because you spend all your energy on yourselves. Commit to the temple project first and then your life will get sorted out.'

You see, the fundamental attitude of the people is upside down – it's self first, God second.
And that's the essence of sin.
As long as they struggle to provide for themselves first and God second, God will frustrate life. Everything will continue to be a struggle. Nothing will satisfy.

Now, let's pause a moment, and think about how this applies to us.
First, what's the NT equivalent of the temple?
In 1 Cor 3 – our first reading – Paul rebukes the self-centred Corinthians, 'Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit lives in you? ...God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.'
So there's no stone temple today.
In the OT, God dwelt among his people in the temple. Today, he dwells in his people by his Holy Spirit.
Each and every person who has put their faith in Jesus has been filled with the Holy Spirit and is therefore the temple of God.
And all of us together are the temple of God – the church is now the temple of God – (not the church building, of course, but the people – you & me).

Second, what's the NT equivalent of God's diagnosis of the problem – that they're building their own houses rather than God's house, and that's why life's so empty?
Well, turn to Matthew 6 verses 24:
Jesus says,

No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Do you see the link?
Both the people God spoke to through Haggai, and the people he spoke to through Jesus were breaking their backs working, working, working to provide for themselves, and hoping that one day, their work would be done so they could have something left over to give to God.
But that day would never come. God himself would make sure of that.
The reason life never satisfied, the reason there was never enough was that God was second. Self was first.

We can't show our devotion to God by building a stone temple. We don't put God first by building cathedrals or church buildings.
But we do need to show that God is our first-love by giving ourselves, our money, our time our energy to building his church – which is his temple today.

And we do this by devoting our whole selves to evangelism and church growth both here and abroad.
Jesus is honoured and glorified when more and more people come to faith in him and are inhabited by the HS.

But just as the OT temple cost money, time & energy to build, so today, church growth is costly in exactly the same way.


When the people heard God's word through Haggai, all the faithful people – the remnant, v12 – obeyed the voice of God because they feared the LORD.
And Haggai gave this message from the LORD to the people, 'I am with you', declares the LORD. And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel & of Joshua. They came & began work on the house of the LORD Almighty.

At the end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus says to the disciples and to us, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'
We have the promise of Jesus that he will be with us as we make evangelism and church growth the great priority in our lives.
Will you join with me in praying that the Spirit will indeed stir us up so that we put the kingdom of God first in our lives?