23st Sunday after Trinity

SERMON - Jesus Is the Desire of All Nations!

INI

Text: Haggai 2:1-9

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying: ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the LORD; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the LORD, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the LORD of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’ For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

In Christ Jesus, who reveals true glory, instills real strength, and provides genuine peace for all who come to Him, dear fellow redeemed:

It was towards the end of His second year of ministry, as His opponents, chiefly the religious leaders, sought some pretense to kill him (cf. Jn. 5:16), that Jesus challenged those opponents to “search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of the Me” (Jn. 5:39). The Jewish religious leaders took great pride in their knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, but their understanding of those Scriptures was in error. They viewed the law as the way to earn eternal life, rather than the way leading them to see their sin and their need for the Promised Savior, who in turn would give them eternal life. The Word of God directed His opponents to the written revelation from God, so that they might see Him as that promised Savior. In Him they would find everything necessary to live life and to find eternal life!

Last week I stated that the challenges facing twenty-first century Christians are really no different than those faced by first century Christians. This week, as we consider the word of Haggai, we will see that certain spiritual principles hold true for every generation of believers. In Haggai’s day believers faced a spiritual crisis because they lost sight of the promised Savior. As a result their spiritual insight declined. They saw glory only in terms of physical splendor, strength only in terms of outward numbers, and peace only as an illusive goal of man. They became weak and unproductive. Haggai was sent by God with the same solution Jesus offered His opponents five hundred years later. Haggai directed the believers of his day to Jesus, for JESUS, Haggai said, IS THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS! He urged them, as I urge you: Come to Jesus—the LORD of hosts to behold true glory, to obtain real strength, and to receive genuine peace!

I.

Yes, Come to Jesus—the LORD of hosts to behold true glory! The year was 520 B.C. The place was Jerusalem. Eighteen years before, a Jewish remnant returned from the Babylonian Captivity to rebuild Jerusalem. Under the political leadership of Zerubbabel and the spiritual leadership of Joshua, this small group had with joy laid the foundation for a new temple. The non-Jewish people who had inhabited the area during the Jews’ absence, however, objected to the construction of a new temple. They wrote libelous letters to the Persian king and threatened violence against all who dared continue working on the temple. The work ground to a halt. For eighteen years nothing was done. The Jews, intimidated by their enemies, focused their attention instead on the everyday matters of life. They built fine homes for themselves, while the temple lay in ruins. Over time less and less thought was given to spiritual matters in general, or to the rebuilding of the temple in particular. The Lord began withholding His blessing from the people.

God then sent Haggai to deal with this situation. Haggai approached Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the people and told them: “Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.”’” But, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and the temple to lie in ruins? … Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Consider your ways! … You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away!” (1:2-9)

The Spirit moved the people to respond to Haggai’s words. Their hearts were convicted and they immediately began building the temple. However, they soon became dispirited, for it became apparent that the building they were constructing would never be able to rival the glory that had once been Solomon’s temple. Solomon’s temple had been covered in gold and silver. The Jews had spent their resources building their own houses and were reluctant to contribute their remaining gold and silver to construct a building that they knew would lack outward glory. Haggai addressed that issue by pointing out that, while it was true that any building they would construct would appear in their eyes to be next to nothing as compared to the glory of the former temple, true glory is not to be found in externals. The true glory of God is not seen in silver and gold, but rather in His personal presence and blessing. While it was true that the temple they would build would not “wow” the architects of the world, it would actually be greater than Solomon’s temple, for into this temple Jesus, the promised Savior, would come—first as a child, at the time of His presentation and then later when He was twelve, and then, secondly, as a teacher proclaiming God’s truths. The true glory of the temple—of any church, for that matter—is not to be found in mortar and stone, but rather in the presence of the LORD of Hosts Himself and in the true proclamation of His Word. JESUS IS THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS! Come to Jesus—the LORD of hosts to behold true glory!

II.

Come to Him as well to obtain real strength! It is pretty easy to begin to think that strength should always be calculated in terms of outward numbers. The Jews of Haggai’s day were confronted by a large number of foes and, therefore, being few in number they felt themselves to be weak. Haggai approached them with these words: “‘Be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the LORD; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the LORD, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the LORD of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’ For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations.”

Haggai told the believers of his day that there were three reasons why real strength is obtained from God by faith. Those reasons remain the same today for you and for me. First of all, the LORD of hosts Himself—the Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—is with us! This is the same promise that is repeated more than any other in all of Scripture. The people of Haggai’s day did not have to fear their enemies, nor do we, because God is with us. Jesus is our Immanuel!

Haggai could easily point to his people’s history to demonstrate this truth. Think of the story of Gideon, whose army God reduced from 32,000 to 10,000 to 300 for this very reason, that He wanted the people to understand that they had nothing to fear with God at their side. The victory would be theirs! The same could be said of David facing Goliath, or Daniel facing the powerfully ravenous lions.

Secondly, Haggai pointed to the covenant promises made to those believers by the LORD of hosts. He had brought Israel out of Egypt, given them the Promised Land, and promised ultimately to give them a Savior. God keeps His promises. He did send Jesus, who in turn fulfilled God’s plan for our salvation—keeping God’s law perfectly for us, while suffering in our stead upon the cross. He has since promised to return once again at the end of time to redeem our souls and bodies to heaven. We can take strength from those promises and never fear, for our God is a God of truth!

Thirdly, Haggai spoke of the LORD of hosts shaking “heaven and earth, the sea and dry land” so that people from every nation would “come to the Desire of All Nations”—Jesus! God’s gospel message has done just that ever since the Day of Pentecost. His Word shakes things up—exposing the fallacies of human religious thought, condemning sin, and drawing lost but repentant souls into a relationship with the one, true God so that they might know Jesus Christ and have life through His name. The small group of men and women who have formed the Himalayan Church of the Lutheran Confession of Nepal are a fulfillment of this prophecy. The people of the Upper Myanmar Evangelical Lutheran Church are a fulfillment of this prophecy. Throughout the world God is changing hearts, so that people once opposed to the gospel now embrace it.

Do not fear the opponents of the gospel, but rather recognize that JESUS IS THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS! Come to Jesus—the LORD of hosts to obtain real strength based upon the presence, promises, and power of God!

III.

Finally, come to Jesus—the LORD of hosts to receive genuine peace! The Jewish remnant of Haggai’s day sought to maintain peace with their threatening neighbors by delaying the construction of the temple. Taking their eyes off the Promised Savior, they began to think that peace was the work of men and a goal accomplished through compromise with God’s foes. Haggai, having announced the coming of the “Desire of All Nations,” informed the believers of his day that when the Promised Savior came to the temple they were about to build, He would bring them peace—a deep and abiding, an eternal peace.

This peace would not be a peace like the troubled and temporary cease-fires of this world, but a lasting peace based upon the work of reconciliation accomplished by Christ. God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them but laying them on Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 5:18-21). This was the peace of which the angel sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Lk. 2:14). This is the peace Jesus promised His disciples on Maundy Thursday night—a peace unlike that of the world, a peace that settles our hearts and reassures our minds of God’s grace and blessing. This is the peace of which Paul speaks when he urges us to lay out all of our concerns coupled with thanksgiving in prayer, and then assures us that God’s peace will guard our minds and hearts (cf. Phil. 4:6-7).

My dear friends, the world makes many promises, few of which it keeps. Let us not take our eyes off of Jesus. He is the Desire of All Nations! He alone possesses all true glory—a glory which will last and which we will behold throughout all eternity. He alone bestows real strength—the strength necessary for us to fulfill our callings as believers, as husbands and wives, and parents and children, as citizens of our country. He alone bestows upon us a genuine peace, which will last into eternity! Yes, JESUS IS THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS! Come to Jesus—the LORD of hosts! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting
To God alone be the glory!