Time to Build the Temple

Well, today is the start of our Giving Review, where we present our plan for the coming year, and how much money we will need to give to see it happen. And by ‘we’ I mean those of us here who are committed both to Jesus as Lord and to this church as our church. So if that’s not yet you, please treat this as a window onto one part of the Christian life – not as a plea for your money.

Now, because our sinful natures still whisper to us that giving is losing, it’s not easy to do at the best of times. But these are not the best of times, so that even if our personal circumstances haven’t changed, the public mood of uncertainty is also whispering to us to go easy on giving. Now some of us have lost jobs; or have uncertain jobs; or more mouths to feed; or one less income to live on; and so on. So let me say: the Lord knows our individual circumstances – and he’s not expecting you to give as someone else can, or even as you could previously. But let me also say that a good number of us are in the privileged position of being as well off as ever.

But having said all that, what ultimately determines our giving is not the state of our finances, but the state of our hearts. And that’s why the main ingredient of our Giving Review is the Word of God. So would you turn in the Bible to Haggai chapter 1, and let me lead us in prayer:

Father God, We pray that through this part of your Word, you would stir up our hearts to trust and obey you with the resources you have given us. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Haggai 1 teaches four lessons:


Firstly, OUR USE OF MONEY REVEALS OUR HEARTS (vv1-4)

Look at v1:

1In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’” (vv1-2)

Where are we here, in the Bible? We’re 520 years before Jesus. We’re in Jerusalem. And in v2, ‘these people’ are the people of Israel who came back from the exile; and ‘the Lord’s house’ is his temple – which symbolized that he was with them and was the Lord at the centre of their lives. And he’d commanded them to rebuild it; and they were saying, ‘Now is not the time.’

So why were they saying that? Well, they’d come back from exile and started re-building. But then there was local opposition. That opposition then reported them to the Persian overlord, saying that the rebuilding amounted to a coup against him; so he ordered it stopped. Added to which, their personal circumstances felt shaky – they were still rebuilding their own homes and livelihoods. So there were three understandable, external reasons for saying, ‘Now is not the time.’ But the Lord uncovers the internal reason. Look at v3:

3Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house <>[the temple] remains a ruin?” (vv3-4)

So IKEA and Barker & Stonehouse in Jerusalem were doing a roaring trade in home improvements – which shows that, between them, they had the resources to re-build the temple. And they had the Lord’s command to do so. So what they lacked was not in the wallet, but in the heart.

Now how does this apply to us if we’re New Testament (NT) believers? Well this was an earlier chapter of God’s saving plan. So they lived under the command to rebuild their life in the Promised Land, so as to be the ‘cradle’, if you like, into which the Lord Jesus would be born. Whereas we now live in the final chapter of God’s saving plan. The Lord Jesus has come a first time He’s died on the cross to pay for the forgiveness of sins for any and all who will turn back to him. He’s risen again and is back with his Father in heaven. And we now live under the command to build his church – and remember, the Bible uses that word not about Victorian barns like this, but about the people who meet in them. Jesmond Parish Church is all the people here committed to Jesus as Lord; the building isn’t the church; the building is just what keeps the church – that is, us – dry.

So we live under the command to build the Lord’s church. Ie, to spread the gospel, so that more people accept the Lord’s offer of forgiveness back into relationship with him; and to grow in that relationship with him – individually and as a church. And the NT says that if we’re committed to Jesus as Lord, part of our obedience to him is to give money, as we’re able, to support the building of the church – both the local one we belong to and benefit from; and world-wide (see, eg, 1 Corinthians 9.7-14, 1 Timothy 5.17-18 (which quotes Jesus in Luke 10.7)).

And the way we enable that here is through this annual Giving Review. So if you’re committed to Jesus as Lord and to this church as your church, we’re calling on you either to start, or to continue, systematic giving. We ask you to read the giving literature that will either have reached you by post, or that you can get this morning. You’ll find it suggests giving 10% of our income to building the church – 5% to the work here and 5% to world mission. And that’s a baseline – a suggestion of where to start our thinking about what to give – taken from what the Lord called for in the Old Testament. But from that baseline, the NT calls us to give a generous and appropriate percentage of our income. So for some that might be 15% or 20% or 30% – or something more. And then we ask you to return the response card soon, so that we can plan responsibly. And only two people – our Administrator and Giving Scheme Advisor see those – none of the rest of us on the church staff do; it’s as confidential as possible.

So those are the practicalities. And just as the houses in Jerusalem showed that the people then had the resources, between them, to build the temple, so it is today. Our houses and cars and holidays and clothes and food and drink and leisure activities and retirement activities (and so on) show that, between us, we have more than enough money to support the growth of the church here and our world-wide mission partners. The issue is not our wallets, but our hearts. And our use of money reveals our hearts.

The second lesson from Haggai 1 is:

Second, WHAT’S RIGHT BY GOD IS ALSO BEST FOR US (vv5-8)

Our sinful natures constantly whisper to us that we’ll lose out by obeying God – that there’s a conflict between what’s right by him and what’s best for us. And when it comes to giving, they whisper that we’ll be more satisfied if we spend on ourselves. To which these verses say, ‘Not true.’ Look at v5:

5Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (vv5-6)

Now that’s not describing a situation of poverty – remember, IKEA and Barker & Stonehouse Jerusalem are doing a roaring trade. And where v6 says, ‘You eat but never have enough’, it doesn’t mean they’re going hungry or starving. It literally says, ‘You eat, but are never satisfied.’ So this isn’t describing a situation of poverty, but of dissatisfaction with plenty. In fact, it’s describing the materialist nightmare. The materialist dream (on which our culture runs) is that if you have more, have bigger, have better, have new, have what you’ve always wanted and promised yourself, then you’ll be satisfied. The nightmare is: you never are. John Paul Getty II – then the richest man in the world – was once asked how much he’d need to be completely satisfied. To which he replied, ‘Always a little bit more.’

And God’s people back then had fallen for materialism – because with God’s work looking so weak and apparently not worth investing in, it just felt better to invest in themselves. And God says to them and to us, ‘Give careful thought to your ways: for a start, that will never satisfy.’ A Christian friend got married recently and splashed out on the honeymoon – compared to his usual stewardship of frugal holidays in borrowed houses. And when they got back I said, ‘How was it?’ And he said, ‘Good – but spoiled by expectation.’ He said, ‘We paid for something really special, and it was probably better than anything we’ll ever do again. But that meant we were so critical of the smallest fault that we found ourselves dissatisfied.’ And he said, ‘I was reminded – and convicted – that that’s how the unbelieving world lives.’ So even putting aside the major reason – that it’s right by God – giving to his work is best for us. If you’re a believer, nothing will satisfy you more than seeing your money enabling the building of his church. But we give, above all, precisely for that major reason – that it’s right by God. Look at v7:

7This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. (vv7-8)

So, does the Lord’s honour rally matter to us? It’s easy for it just to matter to us that we’ve got a fellowship to belong to, and that we and our children are getting some Christian input. But what should matter most to us is the Lord’s honour – which is bound up with the health and growth of his church; and which is increased as people turn to him for the first time and then grow up into those who stand firmly and publicly for Jesus. And that’s what we’re about, just as our 150th anniversary reminded us that’s what our forefathers were about when they paid £5 million in today’s money to plant this church. When they did that, every one of the twelve Anglican churches in Newcastle city centre was over 1,000 strong – one had a Sunday school of 1,800. We’re now one of only ten Anglican churches in the country of that size. So it’s even more critical that we give for the honour of the Lord – which is right by him and best for us; there is no conflict between those two things.

The third lesson from Haggai 1 is:


Third, INCOME IS FROM GOD AND FOR GOD (vv9-11)

We’ve seen that this wasn’t a situation of poverty – far from it. But the Lord was beginning to cause their incomes to fall, as a judgement on their attitude to wealth. Look at v9:

9“You expected much [ie, from what they planted], but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labour of your hands.” (vv9-11)

So they’re expecting rising income, with the attitude that it’s theirs to spend on themselves. And God rebukes that attitude by causing their economy to fail. Now our economy – like many others – is clearly caught up now in a similar ‘blanket judgement’ – which impinges on you individually even if you’ve been godly and generous.

But turning vv9-11 around, the positive lesson is that income is from God, and therefore for God. So when you sit down to plan your giving from that baseline suggestion of 10% of income, do remember that it’s actually 100% his, not yours. Do remember that if he’s given you more than you need, that’s for you to meet the needs of others – above all by supporting the building of his church. And do remember that the more we misjudge luxuries as needs, the less we will give what we should.


The fourth and final lesson from Haggai 1 is:

Fourth, WE NEED TO LIVE BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT (vv12-15)

Look at v12:

12Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. 13Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD. 14So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God… (vv12-14)

So, what changed them? The answer is: living by faith in the Word of God, rather than by what human sight says is possible or likely right now. So today, like then, sight says, The cultural conditions for growing the church aren’t good; and maybe nor are our personal finances – so maybe now is not the time.’ But faith replies, But the Lord has said in Matthew 16.18, ‘I will build my church,’ and in Colossians 1.6 that, ‘All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing...’ So the question is: are we going to live by faith or by sight? And if sight then says, ‘But how are you going to make it happen? How are you going to see many more people turn to Christ? And how are you going to pay for it?’, the timeless answer is embedded there in v13:

“I am with you,” declares the LORD. (v13, which the risen Lord Jesus repeated after giving the ‘Great Commission’ – see Matthew 28.18-20)

“I am with you,” declares the LORD – which means, ‘I am with you to work in people’s hearts the faith and repentance that you can’t make happen. I am with you to create all the opportunities and circumstances and ‘Godincidences’ to make it happen. And I am with you to supply your financial needs so that, between you, you have what it takes to build my church as I want it built.

So let’s pray that the Lord does for us now what he did for his people then:

Father God, As we search our finances, please would you search our hearts and set them on you, your kingdom and your honour. And please stir up our spirits so that we not only give, but work and witness together in a way that you can use to build your church. In Jesus’ name. Amen.