Haggai speaks to the community who have returned to
Jerusalem to rebuild the city and they were spectacularly successful in
rebuilding the walls under Nehemiah, accomplishing the task of re-fortifying
the city in less than two months. Now,
they have gone about the business of re-establishing it as a city, beginning
with their businesses and houses and the Lord speaks to them through the
prophet and asks them a simple question, "Why do you focus on yourselves
rather than me and my house?"
Apparently they have an order in mind for how this work should go and it
begins with meeting their own needs and desires. Once that work is complete they can then see
to the house of the Lord, exactly as David had done. He, however, says that they are finding that
they are not prospering in their work but if they will reverse the order,
building His house first and their own later, this will all change, He will
prosper them as they make much of Him.
His encouragement to the work is great and they begin to listen and
obey.
Does Jesus answer the man's question, "Who is my
neighbor?" At the end of the
parable He asks a question of His own, "Which of these three, do you
think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The answer to the man's question is found in
Jesus' question, whoever needs me to be their neighbor is my neighbor. The man wanted to justify himself, feel good
that he had discharged his duty to love his neighbor by limiting the class of
neighbor to either Jews or even a smaller subset of that class, perhaps other
lawyers. In the parable Jesus gives no
clue to the identity of the man who was robbed and beaten, he could be a Jew or
he might not be but either way, a duty was owed by those who saw his
plight. That duty, Jesus said,
superseded even service in the temple.
What would happen if I called this morning and said I wasn't going to be
able to be at church to preach and celebrate communion because I was tending to
the needs of one I met on the way there?
How would you feel about that?
Apparently Apollos was a great speaker but there was
something lacking in his knowledge base, knowledge of the fullness of what
Jesus had done. He was a great logician
and apologist but he knew nothing of the Holy Spirit baptism. Because of that lack, his people were lacking
in their discipleship, they were missing a key ingredient. Leaders can only take the flock as far as
they have gone and so long as we aren't growing neither will the people the Lord
has entrusted to our care. Paul immediately
upon meeting these disciples knew something was missing. Too often in the church we rely on human
cleverness and methodology rather than the Holy Spirit and when we do we lack
the power the church should have. We
become an academic institution and the world isn't searching for an education
they need an encounter with something more, the God of all creation, Lord of
heaven and earth. It is safer to be an
educational institution than the church that God wants.
No comments:
Post a Comment