Sermon: Sunday, 4th January, 2026
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Haggai 1
If you are between 40 and 74 you are entitled to a free NHS health test every 5 years. I did not know that. The check-up is focused on cardiovascular health and lets you know if you are at high risk for a stroke, diabetes or heart or kidney disease. Let’s imagine you go to be tested and discover you are at high risk. The tests have exposed certain danger signs. The nurse is honest with you and tells you that you need to think much more carefully about how much alcohol you are drinking and how much exercise you are doing. If you do not, it is likely you are going to have serious problems. Let’s fast-forward 2 years. You now exercise more, drink less and eat a more balanced diet. You did think carefully about the direction you were going and managed to change for the better. It wasn’t easy after years of doing your own thing, but you got there.
This is what’s happening spiritually in Haggai chapter 1, God comes to his people through the prophet Haggai and gives them a spiritual health test. There are many spiritual danger signs. But through the working of God’s Word and God’s Spirit, there is a wonderful change in the hearts of the people. There is a spiritual revival. There is a healthy gospel church in Jerusalem once more. This is a fantastic passage outlining positive spiritual change. Spiritual change is the most important kind of change there is and feeds into lasting change in all other areas of our lives – family, work, relationships and health.
We need to understand why God’s people needed to change. Was it so obvious that they were spiritually asleep? Let’s set the scene. In 586 BC, Judah was invaded by the Babylonian army who destroyed the temple and took thousands away to exile in Babylon. However, as the LORD had prophesied, Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered the Babylonians and allowed 50,000 Israelites to return home to Judah to rebuild the temple. They return in 538 BC. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.’ (2 Chronicles 36:22-23)
Two years after their return, in 536 BC, the Israelites begin to rebuild the temple, starting off with the foundations. It was a time of great joy and blessing. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: ‘He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.’ And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. (Ezra 3:11) The rebuilding project was overseen by Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the High Priest. However, after a good start, the work stopped and the people became distracted. It didn’t just stop for a year or two, but for sixteen years. The priorities of the people were now all over the place and God was no longer at the top of the list. So the LORD speaks to the people through his prophet Haggai. This is what the Lord Almighty says: These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’ Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’ (Haggai 1:2-4)
1. Wrong priorities
Year after the year, the people are making lame excuses for neglecting the temple of the LORD. They say, ‘It’s not the right time.’ That might sound reasonable. They were small in number and did face opposition from others living in the land. The economy was not great. But the LORD knows their hearts and sweeps aside their excuses revealing the real reason for their neglect. In verse 3, we see they were focused on building luxury homes for themselves. Of course, they needed to build homes, but the phrase ‘panelled houses’ indicates luxury. Ironically, it was the former temple which had such panelling. They are enriching their own homes and doing nothing to the Lord’s.
Imagine a Jew walking past the temple. He has grown so used to seeing the unfinished area that he no longer feels guilty as he walks past it and enters his own beautifully decorated home. The contrast between the temple and their homes was stark but they no longer cared. When they had first returned from Babylon they began the rebuilding with enthusiasm. Now, however, partly through the hostile surroundings they lived in and the opposition they faced, their priorities are totally focused on themselves. God is not on their horizon at all. It’s tragic how quickly the people have begun to love material things more than they love the LORD. Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.’ (Haggai 1:5-6)
What is the LORD saying here? He wants them to carefully consider their wrong priorities. In effect, God challenges them by asking, you’ve been living selfish lives focused on your own wellbeing and houses and families- how has that been going for you? You have neglected the most important person in the universe, the LORD, and ironically your selfish living has resulted in a lack of blessing from him. You are never satisfied. You eat but never have enough. God is showing them that life without him will never truly satisfy. God is reminding us all this morning on the futility of living for ourselves. Sure, you are free to choose to live life ignoring God, but you are just robbing yourself of a relationship with the LORD and robbing yourself of deeper and more lasting blessings. You are looking to cars and holidays and money and gadgets and hobbies and sport to satisfy you but ignoring God. The truth is being selfish never satisfies as we have been made for relationship with God. God had revealed various covenant blessings and curses to his people. If they ignored him, they would experience poor harvests. That is exactly what is happening to the people.
Let’s get more personal. As we begin the New Year, God is also asking us (verse 5) to consider our ways. We need to give careful thought to our own priorities. Let’s do that now in our own hearts. Are we just focused on our own happiness and wealth and health and truth be told, we are neglecting to serve the LORD wholeheartedly? We might do a little when it is convenient. But our main priority is ourselves and not God. If this is so, we need to give careful thought to our ways today. ‘Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!’ (Lamentations 3:40) Will you do that today? Will you give yourself and spiritual health check?
Please let us consider our priorities for the year ahead. What we do with our time and money is a good way to see what is truly important to us. Is the public praise and worship of God important to us on Sundays and Wednesday evenings? Or would we rather be doing other things? Give careful thought to your ways. Do you care about helping the poor and needy as God does? Give careful thought to your ways. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)
2. A call to action
In verse 7, the LORD speaks to the people once more, again calling them to consider their priorities: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured.’ (Haggai 1:7-8) The LORD does not want them to feel guilty and then slip back into their old rut and routines. True spiritual change comes when we are convicted of neglecting God, but then our hearts are changed resulting in action. Action is really the evidence that we have changed.
‘When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.’ (Psalm 119:59-60) The people must amend their ways by getting on with the work of rebuilding the temple! Repentance is a call to action. ‘Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.’ (Matthew 3:8) Today, God calls us to daily repentance resulting in concrete action.
Yes, God calls his people (and us) to action, but he also gives us a wonderful motivation for change: ‘Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured,’ says the Lord. (Haggai 1:8) Do you realise that when you live more wholeheartedly for the LORD he takes pleasure in what you do for him? Do you realise you honour the LORD by serving him? God delights in you when you live to please him and not yourself. We are not the centre of the universe, God is. When we place ourselves on the throne and usurp God’s place, it displeases him.
Thomas Watson: ‘In prosperity, the heart is apt to be divided; the heart cleaves partly to God and partly to the world. Then, God takes away the world that the heart may cleave to him in sincerity. When God sets our worldly comforts on fire then we run to him and make our peace with him.’
That is what is going on here with the Jews. God disciplines his people by sending poor harvests, but he does it in order to awaken them from spiritual slumber. We read; ‘You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.’ (Haggai 1:9)
Perhaps there are some of us here, and God has been disciplining us by removing our idols of family or money or health. Not always, but sometimes, this can be the LORD speaking to us, calling us back to himself. Sometimes he gets our attention through the troubles of this life. Are we listening to him? ‘Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.’ (Revelation 3:19)
3. Right priorities
‘Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.’ (Haggai 1:12) What a wonderful scene. This is a spiritual revival. After 16 years of living selfish lives and spiritual laziness, God’s people are finally putting him first once again. What is it that makes the difference? ‘So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God.’ (Haggai 1:14) The LORD has made them courageous and bold. Through affliction and through his Word from Haggai, the LORD has stirred them up like someone taking a poker to a fire and the flames are burning brightly once again.
This passage is mainly about what the LORD has done. He has stirred the hearts of his people. ‘I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!’ (Psalm 119 v32: ) Friends, at the start of this New Year, let’s pray that the LORD would stir our hearts here in Kirkcaldy Free Church. May he wake us up. May he divert our focus from self to him.
How did God stir the people up. Yes, through their circumstances. But also, through the power of his Word, delivered through Haggai the prophet. Twice they heard God’s word to ‘Give careful thought to their ways’. That is one reason we come to church – to hear God’s Word preached and to pay attention to what has been said and to repent and change when that is necessary. We are not here for an interesting lecture but to experience the power of God to be transformed by his Spirit. We must fear God, in the sense of giving him and his Word our deepest respect. The Lord knows best.
Let’s begin the New Year together considering our priorities. This will require some effort from you. We must sit down for an hour or so without distractions and consider what place God has in our priorities. It is right for us to focus on family and work, but that is not the place to begin. Begin with the LORD. Perhaps our main prayer can come from verse 14. The Lord stirs up Zerubbabel, Joshua and the people. Will you pray: Lord stir me up and stir us all up? The Jews had been asleep for 16 years doing very little for the LORD. If that is you today, why not pray, ‘LORD forgive me and stir me up’?