I would like for us to turn again this morning to Revelation 3. This is the letter to the church in Sardis.
As we mentioned last week, when our Lord wrote these seven letters, He was looking for one particular thing: His very life and character reflected in each one of these churches. He was not just looking for this individually, but also corporately. That corporate expression, used throughout the book of Revelation even though it is not used in this particular letter, is called the testimony of Jesus.
The testimony of Jesus is all that speaks of Him. As the Lord writes this letter, He is looking to see Himself reflected in His people individually and together.
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:
He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars, saith these things:
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.
Be thou watchful, and establish the things that remain, which were ready to die:
for I have found no works of thine perfected before My God.
Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent.
Lord, we thank You that, as we continue in Your presence, each one of us has a testimony of lives snatched out of storms. Lord, we thank You that You have not only snatched us once, but You continue to save us from the storms of life.
Lord, we thank You for the provision that we have in You. As we come now, we thank You that You have made every provision for Your Word. Lord, we know that Your Word is living, and the hindrance is in our speaking and our hearing.
We want to present ourselves afresh unto You, that Your Holy Spirit could open all of our hearts and put aside those things that distract and hinder, so that Your very living Word could touch each one of us in this day and hour in which we are living. In Your precious name, amen.
As I shared last week, the burden that the Lord has put upon my heart is this little phrase in the second verse of this letter: “Strengthen the things that remain.”
Strengthen the things that remain. He is calling us to wake up in this hour. My brothers and sisters, what is it that remains? It is the things of Christ—the life of Christ within us. He says it needs to be strengthened. “I have started a work in you, but it is not complete.”
There is also a strengthening needed in our corporate life together. If we desire to stand and be the testimony of Jesus, there are things that are in a weakened condition. He wants to strengthen those very things of His life as we are together—not merely that we would have a good time, but that there would be a greater expression of His life.
It is the testimony of Jesus. It is not our testimony; it is His testimony. He desires that more of His life would be expressed in our times together and in our lives together.
How does He say for us to go about doing this? Does He want us to do a new thing? I thank the Lord that at Calvary He did a new thing. There is a new creation. At the end of Revelation, He says that He is going to do a new thing again: there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
But, brothers and sisters, in the days in which we are living, it is not a new thing that we need. He says, “You have received and heard.” We sang about an old, old story. There is an old story that goes back to Calvary, and He wants that story lived out in our lives.
We are always looking for new things and new ways of doing things. Brothers and sisters, we have a treasure. He says, “Look. Look at what you have heard. Look at what you have received. Reflect upon that. Keep that, press on, and regain what you have lost.”
There was strength, but you have become weakened. You started on the way. You started with a purpose. But He says, “I have not found it complete.” Regain it. Catch your breath again. Return to Me, and allow Me to lead you on into all that I have for you.
One of the things that He is calling us to consider as an assembly is this: Why do we meet together? Are we strong in really knowing that, or has even the reason why we meet together become weakened?
He is calling us and saying, “Look at Me. Consider what I have shared. Consider what I have given you. I have poured My heart out to you, that why you meet would be no question. It would not even have to be asked, but it would be known and seen in your very lives.”
This is what He is calling us to in this hour. I thank the Lord that, as He sees us in our weakened condition, just as He saw these churches, He does not condemn us. He just shows us more of His love.
More of His love is poured out to us. We thank the Lord that, in Israel’s state of weakness, He did not reject them. He kept showing them His love, showing them His love.
Brothers and sisters, I thank the Lord that in our condition He has not rejected us. He did not reject Sardis. He spoke to them and brought them a love letter: “Strengthen the things that remain. Wake up. Remember what I have shared with you.”
Oh, how precious it is as we come to this table to reflect. As we reflect upon this table, it speaks of so great a salvation.
Oftentimes, I know in my life, I have looked upon this table as the testimony only of my forgiveness of sins. In that perspective, I have weakened the testimony of the table.
Yes, the table speaks of our forgiveness of sin, but it speaks of far more than that. It speaks of so great a salvation. If we are only seeing this as our sins forgiven, may the Lord strengthen even our perspective of the table—why we are here to remember Him, and all that this remembrance means.
Last week, we said that, to help us consider this matter of being strengthened and strengthening the things that remain, we wanted to look back at the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
At that time, the people were in a weakened condition. The Lord, in His love and mercy, took a people who were in captivity—a people in ruin—and, out of ruin and captivity, opened a way for them to return, to build the house of God, to return to Jerusalem, and to return to His heart and purpose.
The real burden upon my heart for this time is the latter portions of Ezra and Nehemiah: beautifying, or strengthening, the house; and strengthening the city life, or corporate life together. But in order to get to the second part, we have to look at the first part of these books in order to understand the setting.
Lord willing, we would like to look at the first six chapters of Ezra, to see the call that the Lord had upon the people’s hearts. We know that the people of God were in captivity in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord.
The Lord had taken them into a land flowing with milk and honey and had provided everything for them. But in their unfaithfulness, they turned from the Lord.
Israel reached its zenith under David and Solomon, and then the kingdom was divided. Last week I said that the kingdom was divided because of Solomon’s sons, and that was wrong. The kingdom was divided because of the sins of Solomon.
I am sorry for any confusion. It was in the days of Solomon’s sons that the division occurred, but the Lord, in His mercy, said to Solomon, “I am not going to snatch it out of your hand, but out of your son’s hand it will be divided.” Yet, because of His commitment and love for David, there would still be a testimony to him.
Eventually, because of their unfaithfulness, they all ended up in captivity. The northern kingdom went first to Assyria, and then the southern kingdom was taken away. Through that declension, the people drifted further and further from the Lord.
They continued many outward ceremonies. The temple was there, and they had the ceremonies, but their hearts were worshiping other gods. They were serving idols and doing their own thing. The holiness of God departed from them because they had become a polluted and disobedient people.
As we come to the book of Ezra, I wanted to look at an overview to set the scene for this whole period. There are a few copies of it available afterward for anyone who would like one.
We call this the post-exilic period. Several books in the Bible relate specifically to this point in time. As we study Ezra and Nehemiah, it is helpful to remember that this period also includes the end of Daniel’s life, the ministries of Haggai and Zechariah, the events recorded in Esther, and later the ministry of Malachi.
In the first part of Ezra, there is the first return. The altar is built and the temple is begun, but the work is stopped for about fourteen or fifteen years. Then, through the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, the temple is completed.
Fifty-eight years later, Ezra returns, and we see the beautifying of the temple. Then, after another twelve-year period, Nehemiah returns and the wall is built. In the latter part of Nehemiah, the city life is strengthened.
There are many, many lessons in these books. In one sense, we are taking a bird’s-eye view. Our main burden is beautifying the temple and seeing our corporate life strengthened together, but we have to set the scene first.
Let us look at the first five verses of Ezra. These verses record Cyrus’s proclamation.
This was not simply a happenstance event. In His plan, the Lord prophesied through Isaiah more than two hundred years before this time that Cyrus would be raised up. Jeremiah prophesied that the people would be in captivity for seventy years. Then Daniel, as he was in the Word, entered into prayer for the people of God.
We can connect these dots, brothers and sisters, because our Lord has a plan and a purpose. One reason we are looking at these books is not merely for their historical value, but because the Lord connected all the dots and revealed His plan and purpose then.
In the days in which we are living, He has also revealed to us His plan and purpose. But are we connecting the dots, or do we just see scattered dots everywhere?
He gives us His Word. He has given us a wonderful history and heritage. Do we see only scattered events, or, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, do we see that He has a plan and purpose? He even shows us the end. There is no surprise.
Our God is a full-disclosure God. He tells us everything and lets us enter in. Then He says, step by step, “Do we really know the signs of the times?” He tells us what they are to be. Therefore, we are to keep our ears and hearts attuned to His heart so that we can be a testimony unto Him.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying:
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.
Then rose up the heads of fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all whose spirit God had stirred to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
We see the sovereign way of God. He raised Cyrus up, and Cyrus made this proclamation: whoever had a heart and desired to do so was free to return from Babylon, from captivity, to the place of their roots and origin.
Was it based on anything these people had done? Was it based on their goodness, faithfulness, or works? No, brothers and sisters. We see here a marvelous work of grace—grace upon grace—that opened this door and said, “Whoever wants to return, you are free to go back.”
Cyrus did not even command them. He had the authority and power to do so. They were still subject to his dominion, and he could have said, “All of you move. Get back over there.” But he did not do that.
He said that whoever’s heart was stirred, whoever had a heart to go back to Jerusalem, could return. And there was one purpose in their returning: to build the house of God.
Cyrus said, “You go back to Jerusalem.” Why? To build the house of God. There was one purpose upon their return.
In a similar way, by the grace of God, He has opened the doors for us in this hour. He is calling us to return to Him in the simplicity and purity of the life that is in Him, and in the simplicity and purity of the testimony of Jesus.
Are we returning, or are we still doing our own thing? He is calling us in this hour.
We thank the Lord that, in Ezra 1:5, hearts were stirred. The door was open, and all could go back. Yet, when we read Ezra 2, it is rather shocking. Roughly three million Jews may have been living in Babylon at this time, but fewer than fifty thousand returned.
Why did they not go back? The door was open for the people of God to return to the city of God, where the house of God was. Cyrus himself said, in effect, “He is your God who is in Jerusalem.”
They did not return because they had become comfortable and settled in Babylon. Even though they were slaves, they had many freedoms. They could build homes, operate businesses, and even experience a degree of religious freedom in the synagogue.
Babylon speaks to us of religious confusion. The people had entered into this place of confusion, and, in their weakened state, they became settled there.
In the Old Testament, Egypt pictures the secular world, while Babylon pictures the religious world. The Lord had allowed His people to be in Babylon, and they had been cured of their idolatry. But it was not His heart for them to live there.
He wanted them in Jerusalem. He wanted them out of confusion, out of the religious system, and out of everything that distracted them. He called them to return with one heart and one purpose to where He was, where His house was, and where His testimony was to be.
But some settled in Babylon. Perhaps they thought, “I have a nice home here in Babylon. Jerusalem is in ruins. I cannot take my children into something like that. I have just gotten married. My parents are here. My friends are here. Maybe later, when the children are grown or when my father has passed away, then I can return.”
It reminds us of the Lord’s call to discipleship. Someone said, “Let me first go bury my father.” But the Lord said that whoever loves father or mother, brother or sister, wife or husband more than Him cannot be His disciple.
In New Testament terms, this was a call to discipleship: return to Jerusalem and put His interests first, above personal interests.
One of the greatest contrasts between Babylon and Jerusalem is this: in Babylon there was much self-satisfaction and self-pleasure. They could do their own thing.
They had synagogues. They could read the Word, pray, and hear someone share from the Word. They could engage in many good religious exercises. But it was very self-centered.
If they did not like one synagogue, they could gather a few people and form another one. If one was too far away, they could establish one closer to home. Everything could be focused around personal needs and self-satisfaction rather than God’s interests and what He desired.
They were comfortable and successful in Babylon. A businessman might say, “You go back to Jerusalem, and I will send you a check each month. I will help support you.”
That is the American way, right? Instead of giving ourselves, we send a check. We say, “Let me work five more years. Let me make enough money to retire. Then I will go back.” It is always tomorrow, tomorrow.
But the Lord says, “Today is the day to return. Today is the day I want you to serve Me. Today is the day I want you to be about My business.”
The enemy has two words in his vocabulary: yesterday and tomorrow. He uses yesterday to condemn us: “You are not worthy. Look how bad you are.” If that does not work, he says, “Tomorrow. Do not do it today; do it tomorrow.”
But the Lord says, “No, the door is open. Return today.” We have this call upon our lives to return to the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Him.
What distinguished Jerusalem from Babylon? In Babylon they could pray, offer, read the Word, and hear someone share from the Word. What was different? There was really one thing.
At the end of Ezra 2 and the beginning of Ezra 3, we read that the people gathered together as one man in Jerusalem. Jeshua and Zerubbabel arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon it according to the Law of Moses.
What was different between Jerusalem and Babylon was the altar. The altar could only be in Jerusalem. In colloquial terms, that altar was their link between heaven and earth.
The altar, where the continual burnt offering and all the sacrifices were made, was the connection between heaven and earth for those people. Brothers and sisters, what is our altar today? The altar is the cross. Who is our altar? The altar is Christ.
This altar testifies to us of all that Christ has done and all that He is. It also testifies of our acceptance in Christ. When we behold the cross and see our Lord Jesus, it testifies not only of who He is and His mighty work, but also of how we are accepted in Him.
Ezra 3:3 says that they set up the altar on its foundation because they were terrified because of the peoples of the land. In the midst of their enemies, they set up the altar.
They knew their salvation was at that altar. They had no hope unless the altar was established. In the midst of their enemies, they made a stand. Again, it was not by their strength or might, but by His grace and all that was provided at that altar.
Brothers and sisters, in the midst of the times in which we are living, the Lord has prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies. We can dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives and enter into this life that we have in Him, in the simplicity and purity to which He has called us.
When we look at this table as speaking of the altar, the cross, and Christ, the Lord uses the simple phrase: “Remember Me.”
How those words open volumes to us. As we reflect upon “Remember Me,” we could spend all eternity trying to express what that means. The call to remembrance opens up the height, depth, breadth, and length of the love of Christ.
Have we entered into that? Has it captured our hearts in such a way that it controls us?
What is the starting point of our Christian life individually and of our life together? The starting point is at the foot of the cross.
Too often we try to start from other places. We try to base our beginning on a teaching, a doctrine, or something that we have in common. But, brothers and sisters, if we have the wrong starting point, we have no chance of getting to the end.
Origin determines destiny. As we start at the foot of the cross, and as we allow all that the Lord has done at Calvary to capture our hearts, it draws us back to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.
As the cross works within us, the testimony of Jesus shines brighter and brighter, because we are not seen. It is not I, but Christ who is seen and who comes forth.
How often we say, “I am so thankful for brothers and sisters; they meet my needs.” Do we know one of the greatest blessings we provide to one another? One of the greatest blessings is that we hurt and offend each other.
Through that, the rough edges are rubbed off. If someone is always just blessing us, we may not feel the need to take up the cross. But when we come together and one says this and another says that, we have to lay ourselves down.
As we come together and seek Him, we have to deny ourselves. That is one of the greatest blessings we can provide to one another, because that is how we find the headship of Christ in real and practical ways in our lives together.
It is not our opinions that govern things. What governed these Old Testament saints was the Word of God.
In Ezra 3, it says that they built the altar and offered sacrifices “as it was written.” The Word of God determined what they did. The Word of God was their pattern and their life.
It was not the way they wanted to do it. It was not their opinions or interests. They did not say, “Why do we not do this or that?” No. The Word of God said, “If you have this altar, this is how you do it. This governs your life.”
Brothers and sisters, what governs our life? Is it His life, as we see it in His Word, or is it our own opinions? We have the opportunity to deny ourselves so that we may learn more of Him and see His fullness come forth in such a precious way.
The Lord made peace and established unity at the cross. The Lord maintains peace and maintains unity at the cross.
Do we want to go on together? We need to embrace the cross and allow Him to work within us to maintain the unity that we have.
How do we diligently preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? By allowing the cross to work within us. If we can come together at the foot of the cross, the Lord can come through even if only a few gather there.
Ezra 3:1 says that they gathered as one man. The Lord brought them together because there was a singleness of interest.
As we gather, are we one man? In spiritual reality, we are. But I am afraid that we often have so many different interests. The Lord wants us to have a singleness of heart and a singleness of interest concerning His purpose.
There is another precious matter in these verses: What was the attitude of those who returned toward the people who remained in Babylon?
At the end of Ezra 2:70, it says that the temple servants lived in their cities, “and all Israel in their cities.” But wait a minute—most of Israel was back in Babylon. Yet God says, “All Israel was in the cities.”
Then, in Ezra 3:2, it says that they built “the altar of the God of Israel.” It does not say that they built the altar of the God of the remnant. It was the altar of the God of Israel.
Even though they were a small and weak number, they were occupying the land and standing for all Israel. From God’s heart, that was what He saw.
Brothers and sisters, in the days in which we are living, many are standing and occupying ground in a weakened condition, but they are standing for the oneness of the body of Christ. They desire to be a testimony unto Him.
As people in different places stand in this way, it is a spiritual reality that we need to see. The Lord looked upon those who returned as representing all Israel.
The Lord is looking for those who desire to stand for the testimony of Jesus in this hour. This is what He is calling us to return to. Even though we are in a weakened condition, we can stand for that testimony and desire that it would be strengthened in a fuller and greater way.
They built the altar, and they also began building the house of God. When they laid the foundation, the people had a remarkable reaction.
And they sang one to another in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His lovingkindness endureth forever toward Israel.
And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, the old men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people.
There were two sounds: the shout of joy and the shout of weeping. Some shouted because they saw that the house of God was coming up. Others remembered the former temple, the glory of Solomon’s temple, and they wept.
Which one was right? What should our attitude be? Should we rejoice or should we weep? Brothers and sisters, we need to do both.
We rejoice in the wonderful grace and faithfulness of the Lord. But we also weep because we see the condition of man, how far short we have come, and that His work is not complete.
It is like looking at a glass of water. Some see it as half full and thank the Lord for what is there. Others see it as half empty and recognize that there could be so much more. Both perspectives have value.
We approach Christianity too much with an either-or mentality. It has to be either half full or half empty, either this or that. But that traces back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We rationalize: Is this right or wrong? Is it this way or that way?
But in life, we see that it is both. We need one another. Those who see the glass as half full and those who see it as half empty need to come together through the cross.
For example, we may say, “Praise the Lord, we had forty brothers and sisters at prayer meeting.” And amen, that is wonderful. But we can also weep because there were not forty-five.
We can rejoice over a good number at a Friday-night meeting, and we should. But some may weep for those who are absent. Both rejoicing and weeping can be according to the heart of God.
I am thankful that the Lord was not content with ninety-nine sheep when one was lost. Most of us might be content with ninety-nine percent, but He went after the one. One of us might have been that one.
We can thank the Lord for a half-full glass, but we cannot allow it to lull us into contentment. We can weep because it is half empty, but we must also rejoice that He is going to complete what He has started.
We often hear the phrase, “In this day and time, no church is perfect. No group is perfect.” That is true. Upon this earth there is no perfect gathering and no perfect assembly. But do we use that as a cop-out?
Some say, “Nowhere is perfect, so it does not matter where I meet.” That is wrong. It matters where we meet.
We meet with those who desire to be a testimony to Him. Are they perfect in that? No. But there is a desire to learn of Him, to stand for that testimony, and to allow Him to work His perfection within us.
Others say, “There is none perfect, so we will just coast along.” But no. We are not perfect, yet that does not keep us from pressing on. It did not keep Paul from pressing on, and it cannot keep us from pressing on.
In spiritual reality, we are complete in Him. His church is perfect. But this must be worked out among us, and this is why we need one another.
How do we experience Christ and His wonderful faithfulness? Through the rubbing and knocking together—the building work that is going on. Building work is dirty work, but we often want everything neat and tidy.
We may say, “Do not get too close to me. You have had a bad week. I will sit over here.” But when we see someone who has had a bad week, do we put our arms around them? Do we care about them?
I am not just talking about meetings. We should gather together, but we can overemphasize meetings and use meetings as an excuse. We can think that meetings are our Christian life.
No, brothers and sisters, it is a life lived out together every day—not only in the times when we gather here, but in all the other opportunities that we have.
I am excited that we are going to be fellowshipping about the Bible on Friday nights. I am a Bible-study person, so you have to excuse me as I transition to this fellowship thing.
As we fellowship, we see the Word working in us. The wonderful thing is that we do not have to wait until Friday night to share what the Lord has shown us. If the Lord meets you on Wednesday, get on the phone and say, “Look at what the Lord showed me. Isn’t this wonderful?”
We are not confined to Friday nights to share the riches of Christ that we have. Those times should be an overflow, but we have many other opportunities to communicate with one another—by phone, email, text message, or whatever we use these days.
The meetings are wonderful, but do not let them be confining. We have many other opportunities to share His life together.
As we look in Ezra, they continued building. But soon opposition came, and that is to be expected.
In Ezra 4:4–5, we read:
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
At the end of Ezra 4, the work on the house of God ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius. They had been building for about two years, and then the work stopped for about fourteen years.
Why? There was great opposition. The circumstances became difficult. The people opposed them. Even the government was against them. Their fear of the adversary became greater than their faith in the Lord, and they stopped building.
“It is getting too tough. There are too many pressures. Let us just stop building.” During the time when they stopped building, there is no recorded enemy activity. That speaks a great deal.
At the end of Ezra 4, the work had stopped. But in the very next chapter, Ezra 5:1–2, we read that Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. Then Zerubbabel and Jeshua arose and began to rebuild the house of God, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
They began building again. At the end of chapter 4, they stopped; at the beginning of chapter 5, they started. No outward circumstances had changed. The enemy was still there. The government was still against them. Nothing outward had changed.
But something had changed among the people of God: their hearts had changed. The Lord captured their hearts again, and they had a heart to rise up and rebuild.
Where did that heart come from? It came through the encouragement of Haggai and Zechariah. In His mercy, the Lord raised up these two men to prophesy, encourage, and strengthen the people.
The people had been looking at outward circumstances and difficulties, saying, “This is too hard. The adversaries are too strong.” But once the Lord captured their hearts again, they rose up and built right in the midst of those circumstances.
We do not have time to go through Haggai and Zechariah, but you should read them and consider the message the Lord has for us.
In a broad way, we can say that Haggai dealt with the conscience of the people. Their consciences had grown cold, and the word Haggai gave them was: “Consider your ways.”
Five times in that book, it says, “Consider your ways.” The people had said, “It is not time now to build the house of God, so we will build our own houses.”
They were not simply building homes; they were building paneled homes. They were splurging on themselves while the house of God lay in ruins. They had become occupied with themselves.
What had happened to their hearts? They had fallen out of first love.
There was a first love that drew them back to Jerusalem. It was a first love for the house of God, for the Lord, and for His interests that moved them to begin building. But that first love waned.
In one sense, we are always in first love throughout our whole lives. The question is: What is the object of our first love?
What is it that we desire? What motivates us? What controls us? What fashions our life? Is it first love for the Lord and His house, or is it first love for ourselves?
There is always some first love within us driving us on. We can be driven by first love for Christ and His heart, or we will be driven by first love for our own desires and self-pleasures.
We are compelled and constrained by love. The question is whether Christ is compelling and constraining us, or whether it is ourselves.
These people were building their own homes. First love for self was occupying their desires. They had become satisfied and were living for their own pleasures and interests.
In one sense, as the people of God today fall out of first love, we fall into what I will call Christian social clubs.
We gather together, have our good little times, and gather with people we like—people we enjoy being with—doing what we want to do and following our own little interests.
But the Lord says to Sardis, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” Just because a group of Christians gathers together, or uses the name Christian, does not make everything all right.
It can become like a little token. We have a name, but is it alive?
The Lord says, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” But what is the difference? It is gathering in His name, where He is the Head, where His authority and power lead, guide, and determine direction, and where His heart and purpose are being sought.
Too often we gather for our own little purposes. Is it acceptable in His sight, or merely acceptable in our sight because we are doing what we want to do?
These people came out of Babylon and all its pleasures, but they had not kept Babylon out of their hearts. If we do not guard our hearts, Babylon can creep back in.
Babylon came back in, and they sought their own desires and pleasures under the name that they were the people of God in Jerusalem. May the Lord keep us.
What were they called to do? They were called to build the house of God. What are we called to do? Whose house are we building, brothers and sisters? Whose desire is being satisfied in our times together?
May the Lord speak to our conscience through the words of Haggai: “Consider your ways.” May we say, “Lord, I want to consider my ways. When my ways are not acceptable in Your sight, convict me and draw me back.”
Recently, we were looking at the book of Hebrews with some young people in Toronto. An important word in that book is better.
As believers, we can so easily settle for what is merely good. We can settle even for morality. “This is a good, moral thing.”
But goodness and morality do not equal Christ. If something is of Christ, it will be good and moral. But we cannot reverse the equation. Just because something is good and moral does not mean that it is Christian.
There are religious groups that are very moral, but they lack one thing: Christ. There are people in sects and cults who may be more outwardly moral than I am. Their moral lives may put me to shame, but they do not have a spark of life.
Do we settle for what is merely good and moral when the Lord wants us to press on? Christ is our life.
The Lord says, in effect, “I do not want to see the life of your good flesh. I want to see the life of My Son in you.” This is what He is looking for, brothers and sisters.
As Haggai spoke to the conscience, Zechariah spoke to the heart. He encouraged the people with holy boldness and gave them a view of coming glory.
He reminded them, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” In the end, there would be shouts of grace.
They started in grace, needed to continue in grace, and would end in grace. This is the way we need to continue, brothers and sisters.
We can start in the Spirit and end up in the flesh. May the Holy Spirit be working within us.
Zechariah gives a precious promise: “Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.” The people of God in Ezra saw this lived out. They returned to God, they started building, and God returned and defended them from their enemies.
They took a step of faith. They considered what Haggai and Zechariah had said. They remembered what they had received and heard. They kept it, repented, and started building the house of God again.
No outward circumstances had changed. The enemy was still there. But as they took that step of faith and began to build, it released the power of God.
In Ezra 5:5, we read that the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them. They continued building.
Later, the report was found, and they were given complete provision. They rose up by faith, continued building, and the house was finished.
Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we give the enemy too much credit for hindering the building of the house of God. The greatest hindrance in the days in which we are living—and throughout history—to the house of God being built is ourselves.
We are the hindrance. Until we come back to the foot of the cross and allow the Lord to show us the wickedness not only of our evil self, but also of our good intentions and good works, we will continue to be a hindrance.
May the Lord show us how precious each brother and sister is to Him and to us, and how much we need one another.
May we ask Him, in these days when we are hearing messages on consecration, sanctification, and discipleship, to use these words in our lives. We have received and heard. Let us think about these things and allow the Holy Spirit to use them so that we may rise up and build.
I thank the Lord. Yes, we are in a weakened condition, but I trust that somehow we are headed in the right direction.
As we continue to seek Him and allow His life to live within us, He will strengthen His life. There will be more of Christ.
We will always be in a weakened condition while we are on this earth, because we have these bodies. But there can still be a greater display of His life. That is not a cop-out.
We cannot say, “Because I have this body, I cannot go on.” No. We deny it, enter into the reality of what we have in Christ and who we are in Christ, press on, and allow Him to strengthen us.
Strengthen the things that remain. May we be those who allow Him to strengthen and restore first love for Him within our hearts, where we have fallen into first love with ourselves.
As we remember Him at the table, may it restore first love for Him and His house within our hearts. May we allow Him, as Haggai did, to convict our conscience when we are not about His business.
May we allow Him to draw us back to the simplicity of Christ where we have made things complicated. May we allow Him to strengthen us back to that simplicity.
Finally, may we have that strengthening work of His life and a greater desire to stand for the testimony of Jesus. Where we have allowed the testimony of Jesus to become weakened in our midst, may we desire that it would be strengthened.
He started that foundation at the cross. As we allow the cross, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit to work within our lives, the testimony of Jesus will be strengthened.
We need to wake up. We do not need to be just lollygagging along in a daze. We need to wake up and allow Him to strengthen those things that He desires to do within our lives individually and together.
Lord, when we consider these books and consider Your call in this hour, I am always drawn back to Your love.
You loved Your disciples to the uttermost, and You love us, Lord.
Lord, I think about that night when You washed the disciples’ feet and showed Your love. You washed the feet of one who would betray You. You washed the feet of one who would deny You. You washed the feet of all the others who would abandon You.
But Your love never fails.
We pray that Your love, in a very fresh way, would capture our hearts and draw us back to that place of first love in You.
First love for Your heart. First love for Your testimony. May we be those who are about our Father’s business. In Your precious name, amen.