Exposition by Max A Forsythe
The
Reformer's Fire
Exposition by Max A Forsythe
You may well wonder today, why I have moved forward into the preaching of the second restoration prophet before we have had done with the first? Well, what I am trying to do and to show you the fact that the prophetic ministries of Haggai and Zechariah did indeed overlap. Before the material work and commitment of completing the new Temple was barely started, God called Zechariah to open the hearts of Israel that He might be truly worshipped again on Zion's holy hill.
Joyce Baldwin in his commentary on Zechariah comments on this dual calling of the two prophets. "There is a marked contrast between Haggai and his contemporary Zechariah. If Haggai was the builder, responsible for the solid structure of the new Temple, Zechariah was more like the artist, adding colourful windows with their symbolism, gaiety and light."
And so in the midst of the building project, a revival is held! Now, what church would ever program such a phenomenon? People and leaders could very well argue that common sense would dictate that such a phenomenon would dilute necessary commitments to one or the other ministries! One PCA congregation, in the south, in the midst of beginning a building program suddenly had a nearby congregation close its doors and quite a number of those people transferred in mass over to our denomination. Talk about an overwhelmed pastor! With two hundred plus people to shepherd he is being stressed out! Instead of a ministry of setting spiritual fires he is constantly scurrying about putting out emotional fires!
In my library at home, I have a book entitled The Pastor/Evangelist. Sometime I would like to take the time to read what it says about doing both jobs at once. But, it sits, like so many others waiting to be read! Oh would that we all could devote time enough to every task. But, within the providence of the Lord we may all commit ourselves to accomplishing only what we may.
To often, we think that if there were just more time to write the perfect sermon, to teach the perfect class, to tithe the perfect budget, how much better off our would be our own little corner of the Kingdom. Whenever we think that, then I believe that we need to hear Zechariah's message in our passage today. Whenever we, like Israel are completely focused on our material and spiritual building projects, we may very well be doing the devil's work rather than the Lord's!
Let us carefully consider the spiritual challenge of Zechariah's preaching of the Lord's invitation: "Return to me, and I will return to you." The Reformers considered this little book of prophecy to be vital in their age. Luther wrote two commentaries on this book, one in Latin and the other in German. Calvin considered the themes of Zechariah to be "fitly applied to our age: for we see how Satan raises up great forces, we see how the whole world conspires against the Church, to prevent the increase or the progress of the kingdom of Christ. When we consider how great are the difficulties which meet us, we are ready to faint and to become wholly dejected. Let us then remember that it is no new thing for enemies to surpass great mountains in elevation; but that the Lord can at length reduce them to a plain."
Little do we appreciate the nature of the missionary work done there in Geneva. In addition to preaching, and writing Calvin was busy teaching seventy to eighty men essential theology so that they could secretly cross back over the border into France and minister to the Huguenots. In France, these French Protestants had to meet secretly amidst severe persecution. Armed guards had to be stationed to protect the congregations from raiders.
Men and women, including a young John Knox were sold into slavery for "seditious" activities. Families were torn apart and Reformed children especially were targeted to be taken into more "orthodox" foster homes never to see their parents again. The missionaries trained by Calvin and others in Geneva had all of this and more to contend with and yet they faithfully continued to build up Christ's Church. Finally the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre was executed to save France, from the protestants and twenty-thousand Huguenots were murdered.
In our time as well, the world is warring against Christ's Church. Henry Morris in his book The Long War Against God declares that "there has indeed been an age long war against God. It has been going on from the beginning of time and will increase in intensity in these last days." However, our modern churches may well wish to ignore that fact, just as the world ignored the advice of Richard Nixon in a little book that he wrote some twenty years ago entitled The Real War. There he proposed that the real political and ideological struggles being waged were not anywhere close to military battlefields, but instead in the hearts of free men and women in our own country.
That obvious conclusion may also be applied to the spiritual struggles of our time as well. Some of you may very well wish that I had the time and commitment to be more involved in the political struggle to end abortion. There is that and other struggles which merit the time and energy of God's people. However, several years ago as I considered my calling, I decided that it was more important for me to be building up Christ's Church then, to spend all of my time tearing down worldly humanist structures.
Please do not feel that I would urge you to step aside from your personal calling! There are many battles to be fought. But, there is only one important battle to be won! And that is the spiritual battle being waged for your hearts! If our passages in Zechariah teach us anything at all it is a twofold instruction that would lead us to victory in this matter and prepare the way for a revival victory in our present culture as well!
In the first six verses of chapter one we find the Lord's personal spiritual invitation: "Return to me", declares the Lord Almighty, "and I will return to you". Are you personally in need of this invitation today? I well remember one young man's look of horror when I answered what he thought was a simple question. He had asked me if I could have anything at all, what would be my fondest desire. When I told him that I fervently wished with all my heart that the Lord would return within the hour, he turned white and said not to ask that because he wasn't ready yet, there were some things he wanted to accomplish in life.
I wonder, is that is not the fondest desire of very many of us. Lord, come quickly, but not just yet! That is how we would phrase our invitation isn't it? Well, may I humbly suggest to you all here this morning that this attitude is exactly what holds back the advance of Christ's Kingdom here on earth! Would you wish for an improvement in the present health of Christ's Church, then there has to be a spiritual improvement in the heart's of Christ's people.
"Return to me", declares the Lord Almighty, "and I will return to you".
Like the people of Haggai's time who endeavored to materially build up the visible walls of the temple of their time, we too are called to be building up the temple of our day as well. But, what is that temple today? Is it a material edifice to attract the lonely, the impoverished, and the spiritually deprived? Look at the revelation of Zechariah's chapter two.
There in verses four and five, we see that the New Jerusalem, the New Testament Church will be a city without walls protected by God Himself, who will be the glory within the Holy City. That New Testament Church of which we are a small part is primarily the collection of God's people in each age. If we individually and as a group will honestly return to Him, then He will return to us and thus revival may eventually come and His will be done. May this be His will to be done in our hearts today.
Resources Used:
Baldwin, Joyce G. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
Bentley, Michael. Welwyn Commentaries: Building for God's Glory.
Boice, James M. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary.
Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. Revival.
Morris, Henry M. The Logn War Against God.
Nixon, Richard. The Real War.
Places Preached:
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America)
Box 13926 -- Columbus, OH 43213
Zec01a 27 Septermber 92
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