Lesson #02

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Haggai

September 21, 2015

Lesson #01

January 9, 2010

RETURN TO SYLLABUS

HAGGAI 2
LESSON #02
THE WAY TO VICTORY

• Memory verses: Rom 12:1-2

• We have discussed Haggai’s first message in chapter one. This chapter contains the last three of Haggai’s messages.

• Read Hag 2:1-9 Haggai’s second message:
• What was the attitude of the people that prompted Haggai’s message from God?

• The temple of Solomon was a very large, glorious building. It contained much gold inside and outside. Some of the people who RETURN ed from the Babylonian captivity, remembered Solomon’s temple.
• What is the theme of Haggai’s message?
• Read Phi 3:13-14
• How does Paul’s counsel relate to Haggai’s message?
• What is God’s promise to the people?

• “…I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land…”

(6)

• This is a prophetic statement that refers to the end times at the second coming of Christ. It is repeated again in verse 21.
• God will judge the nations and bring a great turmoil upon the earth so that people will make a choice for or against God.
• The word, shake, has the idea of sifting or separating the good from the bad.
• Application:
• How does this message relate to the Christian life today?
• Sometimes new Christians look back at their old life and think they had it better before they came to Christ. They forget the bondage, the fear and the lack of joy.
• Paul’s counsel tells us that we must not let anything of our past life hinder us from moving forward with Christ, even if some things from our past life, in themselves, were not necessarily evil or bad.
• Read Hag 2:10-19 Haggai’s third message:
• What practice does this message correct?
• The reason God permitted the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple was idolatry. The Jews had become involved in all forms of idolatry and pagan worship, including the presence of their idols inside Solomon’s temple.
• For the majority of the people, the Babylonian captivity broke the existence of pagan idolatry among the Jews. Idolatry was never again a national problem.
• What is the theme of this message?
• The two questions:
• =1= “If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy?” (12) The priests answered no.
• What is the meaning of this question?
• The principle behind the question:
• An ordinary thing is not made holy by contact with a holy thing. In other words, a good apple placed into a basket of decaying apples does not change those rotting apples into a good apple.
• =2= “If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.” (13)
• What is the meaning of this question?
• The principle behind the question:
• A holy person is polluted by contact with decaying things. In other words, the rotting apple in a basket of good apples will eventually pollute the good apples.
• The results of doing things for God without first being cleansed of your sins: (16-17)
• Everything is done in half measure. In other words, you do not achieve in full measure what God wants to bless you with. The enemy, Satan, will eat away at the results of your labors, because God will not fully bless a deed done with wrong motives, sinful actions, or an impure heart.
• This was the lesson that God wanted to teach the Jews by allowing the Babylonian captivity.
• Application:
• Haggai tells the people to commit their way to God from this day forward, (18) and God will bless the results.
• How does this relate to the Christian life today?
• Read 2Cor 6:16-18
• Every believer in Jesus Christ must continually purify his life.
• Read 1Joh 1:6-9

• Read Hag 2:20-23 Haggai’s fourth message:
• What is the theme of this message?
• Haggai ends his book with a concentration on future prophecy. It refers to the battle of Armageddon and the second coming of Christ that will eventually bring victory to God and God’s people.
• A review and summary of the book of Haggai:
• In the book of Haggai there are 4 messages for the Christian:
• =1= Build your Christian life with proper Christian priorities as though you were building a temple.
• =2= Leave everything from your past life and move forward with Christ so as not to be hindered in the building of your Christian life.
• =3= Remember to take every sin to God for cleansing so that you do not build a faulty Christian life.
• =4= The building practices of your life will pay off in the end for God will give you the victory and a glorious eternity with Him.
• In the book of Haggai, there are promises of God:
• If you build your life correctly, God will be pleased and glorified. (1:8)
• While you build your life, God is with you. (1:13 and 2:4)
• While you build your life, God will remember his covenant promises to you, so you will not have to fear. (2:5)
• The results of building correctly will mean that your life will be better than it was before you came to Christ. (2:9)
• While you build, God will give you peace. (2:9)
• While you build, God will bless you. (2:19)
• If you build correctly God will give you the victory because He has chosen you. (2:22-23)
• Lessons from the Temple: (explanation of the charts “We Are the Temple”
• Based on the book Be Ye Transformed by Chuck and Nancy Missler.
• Using the floorplan of Solomon’s temple, we can gain much insight into the Christian life.
• Top Left Chart

• The Holy Trinity [24] dwells inside the new believer so that we have a new spirit. [1]
• From this spiritual source, we express God’s love [11], God’s thoughts and power [13]. This is the new motivation of the believer’s heart. [2].
• As we give our will over to God’s will power [8], our new willpower [3] gives us direction.
• It is here in the courtyard that we make faith choices [9]. Will we obey God’s will or our own will?
• If we follow God’s will, we are reflecting God’s thought [14] and God’s emotions [12] our soul [4] is expressing a Spirit-filled [17] life.
• The result is that God’s power supports the actions of our body [5] and we are now “Walking after the Spirit” [20]. This means we are single-minded and refecting God, body, soul, and spirit.
• Top Right Chart

• If, in the area of the God’s will power [8], we do not choose God’s will, but make emotional choices [9] and not faith choices, then we quench the Holy Spirit [18]. (In other words, we put out the light).
• Why do we make emotional choices? We make wrong choices [21] based on our own thoughts and emotions [19].
• These kinds of choices mean we are living the self life [10] in the area of the soul [4].
• The result is that the power of sin [23] has predominance in the life of the believer, which means that he is “Walking after the Flesh” [22] in the actions of his body [5].
• Because the believer has the light of God inside but does not let the light out, his soul and his body are operating in darkness. That makes him a double-minded believer.
• Bottom Left Chart

• The double-minded beliver is now under the control of the power of sin [23] and Satan. Satan uses this power to influence our thoughts and our emotions [19].
• This power of sin [23] also stores in our inner being [6] specific kinds of evil.
• Bottom Right Chart

• What specific kinds of evil are stored in our inner being [6]? Guilt, lusts, evil thoughts, pride, and doubts are a few.
• If the believer does not clean out these storerooms [6] on the side of the temple, and bring them to the cross of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, these evils will continue to affect him at the choice point [C] so that he makes decisions based on thoughts and emotions [B].
• The battle for the believer occurs at the choice point [C]. The believer’s choices should be based on faith and not on emotions, or on our physical senses. (2Cor 5:7)