Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090329.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Haggai: Calling God's People To Correct Temporal Values
Part IV: God's Call To Be Confident Of Future Blessings To Influence Each Other Well
(Haggai 2:20-23)
  1. Introduction
    1. In this morning's sermon, we focused on God's future promises of blessing as hope to keep faithful to Him in doing His will in the present trials we face, and the message was particularly applicable to leaders.
    2. The passage in tonight's message, Haggai 2:20-23, adds more encouragement to trust the Lord for future reward so as to influence each other well, so God wants us to influence others to heed Him for blessing!
  2. God's Call To Be Confident Of Future Blessings To Influence Each Other Well, Haggai 2:20-23.
    1. The prophetic message of Haggai 2:20-23 came later on the same day that the Haggai 2:10-19 message we studied last week had been given to the people of Israel as a whole, cf. Haggai 2:20 with 2:10.
    2. However, that later Haggai 2:20-23 message was for the governor, Zerubbabel, who had led the people to return to the work of rebuilding the temple, cf. Haggai 2:21; 1:12:
      1. The completion of rebuilding the temple foundation (Haggai 2:18) on the 24th day of the 9th month (Haggai 2:10) had come about only as Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the high priest, had led the people to heed God's Word to return to rebuild the temple three months before, 1:1-2, 7-8, 12, 14.
      2. The Haggai 1:12 context suggests the one party who instigated this obedience had been Zerubbabel! He had done so in submission to the motivation of the Holy Spirit, cf. Haggai 1:14.
    3. For heeding the Spirit's lead to take the lead in urging God's people back to doing His will, the Lord had a special encouragement for Zerubbabel that went beyond His word to the people, Hag. 2:22-23; 2:10-19:
      1. The blessings promised in Haggai 2:19 on God's restoring agricultural production were to be given to the people in general for their having returned to rebuild the temple, cf. Haggai 1:2.
      2. However, since they had been spurred to obey God by their civil leader, Zerubbabel, who in turn had yielded to the Holy Spirit's motivation to do so, God promised special leadership blessings for Zerubbabel in the Messianic Kingdom, Haggai 2:21-23:
        1. God announced that the day was coming when He would shake the heavens and the earth, a reference to the upheavals in nature to occur in the Great Tribulation, Hag. 2:21; Matt. 24:29-31.
        2. After that Great Tribulation Period, God would overthrow the rule of kingdoms and destroy the strength of the nations that oppressed Israel with the fall of their mighty weapons of war in chariots, riders and horses by means of their own swords against one another, Hag. 2:22; Rev. 19:17-21 et al. [What was stunning about this prophecy was the fact that "[i]n Haggai's time Persia ruled more than 2 million square miles of territory," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV , 1978 ed., ftn. to Haggai 2:21-22!]
        3. However, after the fall of these nations, when Christ establishes His millennial kingdom on earth (Revelation 20:4), God promised He would reward Zerubbabel for his present leadership of faith by making him "My signet ring," Haggai 2:23a NIV. This was a ring with an inscription that was pressed onto a hot wax seal to bear the authority and authenticity of the official who owned it, The New Bible Dictionary, 1973, p. 1153. God thus pledged to make Zerubbabel His representative official in ruling during the messianic kingdom, an enormous honor from the Lord!
        4. The reason behind this great honor was the election God had made of Zerubbabel, Haggai 2:23b. That election was based in turn on Zerubbabel's choice to heed the Holy Spirit's prompting within to obey God's Word spoken by Haggai, and to spur others to get back to rebuilding the temple!
Lesson: Though Zerubbabel's effort to lead God's people to return to rebuilding the temple might have seemed humanly futile at the time, especially in view of the shortages of material blessings they had known, that work was nevertheless SO IMPORTANT in GOD'S PLAN that GOD promised to give him great honor and authority as His special representative in Christ's Messianic Kingdom for YIELDING to the Holy Spirit's prompting to INFLUENCE people to do God's will!

Application: May we be encouraged by God's promised reward to Zerubbabel to use what influence we have from the Holy Spirit's prompting of us to urge others unto love and good works so that we might receive God's rewards, Hebrews 10:24-25!