In A Little While

6 · Tom lays out the historical and theological context of Haggai 2: centuries of exile and judgment due to Israel's sin, the destruction of Solomon's temple, the partial return under Cyrus, two years of temple construction followed by a halt

Well, you see the history for the Hebrews when we get to this context. Maybe you're wondering, well, where are we in Haggai? What's the context? Well, here it is. The century— for centuries, the Hebrews have been languishing, being exiled, kicked out of Jerusalem, kicked out of Israel, and now off into Babylon, cut off from their homeland, dismantling of their culture, All of their traditions just being squashed, and due to their continued sinfulness, the wrath of God abides against them.

God had handed them over to their enemies. They were a conquered nation. And to add to their sorrow, some presently alive, in this context, some presently alive had actually witnessed the centerpiece of their culture and faith, Solomon's Temple, utterly being destroyed. That's this house that's referred to. It's a real place it's talking about.

It's the temple.

Under God's righteous judgment, His just wrath revealed. Then, by only the grace of God, the pagan king Cyrus lets about 50,000 return to Jerusalem for the purpose to rebuild the temple. And so they began to build, and for 2 years they worked on it, and they got most of the foundation completed, and then construction halted again. That's the context. Construction of the temple during this time halted again.

Centuries separated from the Lord in that sense. Centuries No temple, now being sent back, allowed to return and get some of the work done they were giving up. And what's interesting, there's certainly political pressure and religious pressure from the surrounding nations. Samaritans do not like the fact their temple is going up. Samaritans have got their own temple in mind and so on.

But yet the real reason is that they had turned away from God's work. The real reason that they had turned away from God's work to their own was because they had turned to their own things, their own property. And you see that in verses 3 and following in chapter 1. If you just look back just briefly, you'll understand. Oh, then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruin?

7 · Tom warns against reducing Haggai to a fundraising proof-text for building projects—a shallow, guilt-manipulative reading

You know, Haggai has been preached over the years as a great building project kind of text. It's real simple. It talks about buildings. It talks about our own homes. And I think shamefully it's right to say that at times we— we meaning if we've done this— we've used it as a means to lay the shame and the guilt, turn away from building up your own property.

See the kind of cars you're driving? See the kind of houses you're living in? Well, look at this place. This place is a mess. We really need you to give to this building project.

That's scary to me, but it's done regularly. There's something— yes, preach this text for a building project, absolutely, because there's something radically better going on in this text that motivates why we would be interested in the health of the church and the building of the church and so on, but it is gospel-rich. All of this is pointing towards a much greater, motivation behind we would ever give one red penny to a building project. That's not what this text is about first. And so we get to find this out as we go on.

8 · Tom signals the sermon's structure: first, looking back (to former glory) and looking around (at present ruin); second, looking forward (to the promised latter glory in Christ)

Their sins are certainly being revealed and the Lord takes them on a particular direction. And here is the way I want to at least frame this. I'm going to frame this in two points. The first one is looking back and looking around. Looking back and looking around.

That's the first point. I know it sounds like two, but it's together. Looking back and looking around. And the second one is looking forward. So it's like historically looking back and then presently looking around, and the second one, looking forward to our future.

9 · Tom exposits Haggai 2:3—God's question about who remembers the former glory of Solomon's temple

But what's interesting is verse 3. Let's read these words. The Lord's question is, who is left among you who saw this house? So we have this first part of looking back and looking around is looking back to the former glory. You heard those in the words as we read through it, looking back to the former glory.

And our struggle often is looking back to the glory days and we miss them.

But it is here that it's possible that I could have cranked out the wrong message. In fact, my initial thinking is, kind of along this wrong, but maybe a better way to say it is a truncated message, a partial message, which by the way are deadly. Partial messages can be deadly, take us down the wrong path. Here's what we normally do when we're preaching the preaching— I mean, we're approaching the preaching task. So clue, if you're wondering what Ricky and what Vince and what myself and other preachers are doing, those that declare and teach God's Word, is we're wrestling with these these areas that are normally revealed in the text, and we're wrestling for a Christ-centered redemptive way.

And here's the way it normally would go. You would have the sin dilemma that's being met biblically by God with a redemptive, a redemptive moment. That sinful dilemma met with a redemptive moment. And so we're wrestling with that. We're doing that actually in the text today.

There's a sinful dilemma and we're gonna meet it with this redemptive moment. But this is where the, the message could go wrong, it could sound like this. Looking back, the sinful dilemma, looking back on better times with judgment and discouragement, looking around and sinfully comparing our present situation to times when things were great in the past. Hey, remember we could go to Costco, no mask. Silly, but it's always our temptation.

That's our sinful dilemma. So, and then the redemptive moment, looking forward to better things. To come, so let's get out there and get it done.

And there you have a truncated message. There's something that's happening, but there's something much better happening. The amazing thing about our text, and hopefully this will be like maybe the grander surprise this morning— I love the coin, we can talk about that a little bit later— the amazing thing about our text is the Lord is the one who brings up the past. Look again, who's asking the question in verse 3? Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory?

You know, when you and I sinfully or wrongly look back at the past like, wow, things were really great back then, that's one thing. But if the Lord takes us, takes our soul by by the hand and says, "Now I want you to look back." Oh, that's the way to look back, and it's not going to go really well, and it's going to go amazingly great. It's not going to go well, but it's going to go amazingly great, and the Lord does this to us. He's the one saying, "Look back." I believe the text is revealing more than he simply is just exposing our hearts like, Look back. Do you remember the former glory?

Well, you're just blind. He's doing something much grander than that. Moreover, he knows our hearts of discouragement. He knows our hearts of shamefulness, but he does not coddle us. And he says, let's consider the past.

Let's go back and look at this. The first question purposefully draws many in their midst, by the way, who actually recall the former glory. Solomon's temple certainly was glorious, and some alive at this time Actually saw the physical structure. Go back and study the scriptures about the building of Solomon's temple. No greater temple building was ever built than Solomon's.

Even the one that comes later, the one they're working on now, is nothing like Solomon's temple. So of course, former glory was amazing. And the Lord says, well, well, look at that. You see the house in its former glory? And you and I can actually come on the scene of like something that's broken or whatever, and you're like, our memories go back, remember how good that was?

Now look at it. You know, I had this weird moment, I'm just gonna say it. I used to drive by Easton Middle School and panic because I went to Easton Middle School and I hated middle school. You can talk to all my counselors and my pastors or whatever, couldn't stand middle school. Okay, I'm overstating it.

But I remember when they flattened the building, I remember driving by. And so here's the destruction of the building, and privately I'm like, yeah, thank God those memories are gone. I don't know about you, but if you think of junior high and you're just like, oh dear Lord, and you want to go find a hole to crawl in, that's me. Because that's actually the era that the Lord began to reveal my need for him. It was not a good time, but the good thing is he does take me back and show me these things.

And he does reveal my heart. He does reveal my brokenness and my sinfulness. He does do that, but he's doing it in a good, wholesome, a holy way, and a better way than just simply taking us back. The first question purposefully draws many in their midst back to this former glory. But here is— and by the way, the context of this is they're nearing the end of the Feast of Tabernacles.

So not only is he doing this, it's when he's doing this. These folks would have been leaving their existing paneled homes. They'd be outside intentionally camping outside their homes, roughing it, remembering of God's great deeds, but remembering of God's great deeds in the wilderness while the nation was wandering around before they ever got to the Promised Land. And the Lord is taking them back during the Feast of Tabernacles saying, "Do you remember my goodness to you in the wilderness?" And wow, these people in the context, They're still in it. Yeah, some have been sent back.

You can build the temple a little bit, but this is not them coming back in a conquering way, finally getting their nation back, getting their centerpiece of worship back. No, they've been allowed to go back and begin that building, and that's it. Still under the rule of another nation, granted some permission to go back and start the construction. Solomon's great temple had been constructed, by the way, during this same feast. So when the Lord is saying, look back, it just continues to just reveal so much about him and about us.

Ian Dugan, commentator on this, writes this: the present reality seemed all too depressingly mundane, hardly able to match up to the celebrated mighty acts of God in the past. Where was the former glory? The new temple that they were building seemed an empty symbol lacking the splendor of the former days. Now it was simply a small cog in the plans of someone else's empire, apparently irrelevant to the flow of world events, simply just granted permission by this pagan king, Cyrus. Cyrus doesn't live to the end of this. Darius picks it up. They stop building. Darius comes along and he's interested in religion. So yeah, let's build this temple. It's like, whoa, I want to see that.

Let's get that up and running. Be careful when a pagan king says, "Sure, you can worship freely." Watch out. This is what's going on. They are allowed to go back, only partially. But what's interesting is the Lord is saying, looking back, and is encouraging them, looking back and remembering something very devastating.

10 · Tom reveals a stunning exegetical discovery from Ezekiel 10: when God says 'Look back,' he's not just reminding them of Solomon's glorious temple—he's reminding them that some of the elderly present actually witnessed God's Shekinah glory departing from the temple in judgment

And I was actually surprised when I was studying through this. I thought, oh wow. My view of scripture when I'm reading is so limited sometimes, and this one, this one I would have missed without the help, without the help of commentators, without the help of studying this one out a little bit more. Looking back and remembering, remember the former temple? There's another recollection.

There are 70 and 80-year-old men and women that are presently there that knew and believed and saw or witnessed the presence of the Lord was in the Holy of Holies in that temple. And they also witness the departure of God's favor and his presence from the temple.

He intentionally leads us back to this question to expose our hearts and acknowledge things are not the same, and to help us see it's actually worse than that. I left. You. Now look, God's omnipresence remains intact in the story, and we're going to get to read some prophetic language about it, so don't feel like, oh wow, the Lord left. How's that possible?

No, he's still sovereignly present, but his favor and grace on this nation left them in a shocking way. Ezekiel paints this picture as the Lord speaks through the prophet Ezekiel and tells of what happens in prophetic language. Bear with the prophetic language, but hear how horrible this must have been. Verse 15 in Ezekiel chapter 10, and the cherubim mounted up, and there were the living creatures that I saw by the Chebar canal. And when the cherubim went up, the wheels went beside them.

Remember the wheels. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth, the wheels did not turn from side to side, And when they stood still, these stood still. And when they mounted up, these mounted up with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them. Verse 18, then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house. It stood over the cherubim, and the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, and the wheels beside them.

More faithful understanding of the scriptures is all these wheels, as you read in Ezekiel, this chariot is amazing. It's just got an innumerable number of wheels. I know it sounds weird, but the imagery is this chariot can go anywhere, does go anywhere, and is everywhere. It's a description of God's nature, of his omnipresence. He is everywhere present all the time.

And here his omnipresence— well, in his omnipresence, his favor in a blinding, glorious omnipresence of the Lord gathers up in a blinding light over the temple, above the angels, and his gracious presence that dwelled with the nation shoots away into space, away from the temple. The Lord's Spirit left them.

What a nightmare.

11 · Tom draws a parallel to 1 Samuel and King Saul, whose story shows the Spirit of the Lord departing without Saul's awareness—a nightmare scenario

There are other passages in Scripture that has a similar feel to it. The description for the King Saul is the Spirit of the Lord left Saul and he knew it not.

What a nightmare. And I remember being a young man, a new believer, but being grabbed by the truth that could or would the Lord mount up His Spirit and leave me and I not have any clue about it? What a nightmare.

12 · Tom draws the theological implication: when God says 'look back,' he's not coddling nostalgia—he's confronting Israel with the truth that in their experience, his favor is gone and all they have is captivity

And here you have the nation of Israel when the Lord is saying, look back to the former glory. Do you remember that? Has it come to nothing to you? In their experience, God's favor is gone from them, and all they have is captivity.

And this is the Lord's doing. He takes them back and says, remember? Oh, but he's so gracious in doing this for us.

You and I are often looking back, but the Lord in this text also says that we look back, but we also look around. So presently, we look around at the devastation and we see its weakness. We feel the struggle of sin. We see the former glory days seemingly at times comes to nothing.

Consider the devastation and the loss and the suffering that has mounted up until this time as evil of this world has now run rampant since the garden.

13 · Tom exposits Haggai 2:4-5, the pivot in the passage: 'I am with you

But God in his great mercy takes us back and he opens our eyes again to see his grace back then. Do you know what's in the text and can be missed is this statement. If you would look with me at verse near the end of verse 4. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt.

God promised them he would not leave them. So he takes them back and says, remember the former glory. Remember when my favored presence with you departed. I have not departed from you. I've been with you even since then.

Now, look now, I am still with you. What a huge encouragement for you and I that when you and I look back and we look around now, that the Lord now is going to point us forward into this point 2. The Lord's questions to us admits the ruin, and yet is intended to lift our eyes to His great promised salvation that began continues and will forevermore continue. Maybe it's better we could say for the second point, instead of just looking forward, we're looking forward now. So in other words, if the first one is that we're looking back now, we're looking forward now.

We're looking forward now. Let's see now what he has to say, because the very next statement when you get in chapter 6 is, for thus says the Lord of hosts, yet 'Once more,' 'in a little while.' Remember those two phrases as we break them out. 'Yet now, in this very moment of looking back, looking around, in this very moment of remembering the former glory and devastation before, seeing that the present things have come to nothing, I am with you according to the covenant that I made with you.' According to the gospel promise that I made with you, I'm with you.

My Spirit remains in your midst. I love this. I read Spurgeon on this one verse. Spurgeon comments on this one verse, my Spirit remains with you, meaning right now the Lord is with us. Spurgeon writes this, I pray that our text may this morning flame from the Lord's own mouth with all the fire which once blazed about it.

May faint hearts be encouraged and drowsy spirits be aroused as we hear the Lord say, "My Spirit remaineth among you, fear ye not." I have never left you and I will never leave you. My Spirit remains in your midst. I was with you then, I am with you now, and I will be with you forevermore. And so we have the yet now, but also in the little while. So now we see that yet once more, in a little while, after looking back and looking around, the Lord mercifully and graciously calls us to look forward. Let's look forward.

14 · Tom exposits Haggai 2:6-7, the prophetic promise of cosmic shaking: 'Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth

I will create a new heaven and earth. Sound familiar? That's actually not in this text. That's not what we read, but it sounds like that's what we just read. Here's why.

Look with me in verse 6. Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. The temple has been rebuilt. Absolutely. We know that they continued and they finished this temple.

Yet my spirit will return, and my spirit will return behind the veil It's a great promise to this nation during this time. Yes, you are my people, and all the nations will again at some point know it again. But the prophetic language has a greater redemptive and historical— and is historical in its proclamation. It's a— sorry, its greater redemptive history is involved in its proclamation. The eyes of the reader, the hearts of the hearers are now gripped with the grandeur of eschatological voice of the Creator of the universe, eschatological meaning, that great end-time view of the Lord.

I am going to shake the foundations of this planet once again. The heavens are going to shake, the mountains are going to crash, the sea is going to roar again when that voice from heaven that spun it all into space in the first place is going to speak again. This greater redemptive promise that's coming is right on the heels of yet. 'Once more, in a little while.' Let every believer live with the great truth that this is coming, and it's coming soon. Not some weird prophet on TV telling you that.

Haggai in the Old Testament saying, as he speaks in God's stead, 'In a little while.' I'm coming.

The latter glory of this house shall be greater. In a little while, the words have a soon-to-be fulfilled and also coupled with it in this creative language packed with a longer-term greater promise. And so one of the things that's helpful for me is when I was taught in a very brief way But prophecy of the Old Testament often has— if prophecy fires off and there's usually, usually a shorter-term fulfillment, and yet hang with the text, hang with the history, and you're going to see there's a greater fulfillment coming as well. And oh, what a sweet it is for those 70, 80-year-olds saying, oh yes, the former glory, it's going to be returning, and how beautiful that is. But the word for you and I, and the word of the prophet, is no, it's greater than that.

Yes, that, and greater than that.

15 · Tom declares the Christological climax: the 'latter glory' promised in Haggai is Jesus Christ—born in Bethlehem, the light of the world, satisfying God's wrath, crucified, buried, raised, ascended, sending the Spirit

Maybe you wonder why, but this is how these words, having that soon to be fulfilled, being coupled with that following creative language, having that longer-term greater promise, is greater redemption that is to come in swaddling clothes, born in the seemingly nothing little town of Bethlehem. The Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus, the Savior of the world is coming.

That latter glory, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the light, the glory of God has come to us. This beautiful picture of Jesus one day in heaven, and it describes heaven like this: there'll be no need for the sun in heaven because the Lamb is gonna shine its light in heaven. Another beautiful picture of what the Old Testament refers to as that Shekinah glory. Remember all of that light gathering up and out of the temple and disappearing from the people. Jesus, born in a manger, now racks the world in history.

His light has now come to the hearts of men to save. Satisfying the wrath of God. Jesus is killed and buried and raised himself from the grave on the third day, ascending to the right hand of God the Father, sent the Holy Spirit to live. The Apostle Paul will say, "When I was among you, I resolved to know nothing but—" What? The former glory?

Or the glory of heaven to come? That's not what Paul says. Paul says, "When I was with you, I resolved to know nothing." but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is that latter glory now and to come and forevermore. So what is going to secure our future?

So far, ask yourself, what's going to secure your future? Jesus has come and died for us. Jesus remains with us. Jesus will return for us. The greater glory is the cross of Christ.

16 · Tom exposits Mark 13:1-2, where the disciples marvel at the rebuilt temple's stones and buildings, thinking it's the fulfillment of the latter glory

Now you're wondering, well, what about the temple? And how is Jesus this greater glory? Well, let's consider what Jesus says about this. Mark 13, verses 1 through 2. I love the disciples.

These guys are awesome. Shocking that the Lord called them, but it's just like the Lord to call men who cannot do it without him. These guys, and they came out of the temple, verse 1 in Mark 13. One of his disciples said to him, look, teacher, what wonderful stones, what wonderful buildings. Now you and I are like, what, what, what?

He doesn't get it. Well, he doesn't know that yet.

He's with Jesus at the temple and he's saying, "Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings." The temple had been rebuilt. The disciples, they get to see it now, that what they thought was the latter glory greater than the first, they thought that was the temple. Listen to what Jesus says. Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

This is hard saying of Jesus. Sometimes they go after other statements that Jesus says, like, unless you hate your mother and father, you can't be my disciple. That's pretty hard, you know. For them, this is just as hard.

Like, this was it. And Jesus is like, "No, this one's going to be torn down too."

17 · Tom exposits John 2:18-22, where Jesus cleanses the temple and declares, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up

But listen to John chapter 2.

John chapter 2, verse 18. So the Jews said to him— you know, Jesus goes in and he drives out the guys wanting to set up a mall, essentially, in the temple.

Okay, a first-century mall, a little different. And he drives them out. And then the disciples remember, "Zeal for your house will consume me," referring to the pre-incarnate Jesus. So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" In other words, what gives you the authority or whatever to drive out these people from the temple? And Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in 3 days I will raise it up.

The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in 3 days?

You can highlight this in your Bible. You don't like writing in your Bible? I'm begging you, write in your Bible and circle 21. But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

When therefore he was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Oh, there is a latter glory coming, and you and I have the joy of being able to say, "And he came." The word describes Jesus as tabernacling among us, that God came, Emmanuel came in the flesh to tabernacle among us, to temple as a verb. I know, check me on that one. But to temple among us. Jesus is the greater glory come in the flesh to save mankind.

18 · Tom explains why Paul preached 'Christ crucified'—because the temple's entire purpose was blood sacrifice to atone for sin, but animal blood could never take away sin (Hebrews)

Paul says, "I'll preach Christ and Him crucified," because that's what the temple was for. You cannot go into the presence of God. That is veiled from you. If you go in there without doing the right things and you're not the right guy, death is immediate for you. And that was true.

Those inner courts of the temple were full of blood day after day after day after day after day, slaughtering animal after animal after animal after animal after animal after animal. And Jesus, in Hebrews, the word says, and they could never take away the sins of the world, but Jesus one time and for all sheds his blood. And takes away the sins of men and women. The latter glory is Christ who has come to save. Jesus, the temple, is the one that sacrifices himself for us.

The presence and glory of God is gathered up and departed. The presence and the glory of God returns and tabernacles among us. Jesus, the Savior. Comes to us.

19 · Tom reads Revelation 18:21, picturing the final judgment on Babylon—thrown down with violence, never to be found again

Now, when we read in Revelation 18, we read these words, 18:21, then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, so will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will be found no more.

20 · Tom reads Revelation 19:11-16 (note: he misstates it as 18:11-16), the vision of Christ's second coming—Faithful and True, eyes like fire, robe dipped in blood, striking down nations, ruling with a rod of iron, treading the winepress of God's wrath, King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Revelation 18:11-16, then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it called Faithful and True and Righteousness. He judges and makes wars. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, and following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down these nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

21 · Tom reads 1 Corinthians 15:52-58, Paul's declaration that 'in a little while' (echoing Haggai 2:6) we shall be changed—at the last trumpet the dead will be raised imperishable, death swallowed up in victory

1 Corinthians 15, in a little while, In a little while we shall be changed.

Verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. Death, later in verse 54, is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

22 · Tom applies the sermon: the last two years have been enough suffering to reveal our need, and we don't know what tomorrow holds—how many more funerals, how much more hardship

2020 and 2021, they were enough.

What's 2021 and 2022 going to look like?

What does tomorrow hold for you and I? Here, right now, tomorrow? I have no idea. Do you have any idea? I don't know what awaits us.

Around the corner. I don't know how many future funerals we're going to be standing at. I do not know.

But there is one thing that we're certain of: Jesus is with us right now. Jesus is empowering us right now. And Jesus is coming back one day. So we hear it in the text in Haggai. It says work.

Be strong. Don't fear. Work. Work. Gather and work on the church.

Build the church up and strengthen her. Work in the harvest field where this church has been planted. But the joy of what we've learned this morning is we work with one hand, in a sense, to the tool and our hearts gripping the The glorious truths of the gospel, that Christ has come, he remains, and he will return. We never do our work without him. All we end up is in legalism.

All we'll do is end up in effort. But in this case, we have the good news of Christ. And so he says, work, but work with your hand firmly gripping the gospel of Christ. Let your hearts be encouraged. And then that's not all the text leaves us.

23 · Tom reads Haggai 2:9—after all the cosmic shaking and latter glory, God promises 'In this place I will give peace

John, you can— Now come up as we close with this.

Verse 9: The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, will it not?

Says the Lord of hosts.

And in this place I will give peace declares the Lord. Seems like a radical shift in the text. All this grand and glorious creative language talking about the future and the amazing, the amazing coming of the Savior that would come and does come, and it says, I will give you peace.

All you and I know without Christ is unrest and turmoil and future destruction. But with Christ right now, no matter what tomorrow holds, I bring you peace. Jesus, after the resurrection, appears on the other side of a locked door. I guess he gets to do that. His first words to his disciples, I bring my peace.

I give my peace to you. Peace be yours.

24 · Tom prays, marveling that God didn't destroy the world when his presence departed—instead he promised a greater glory in Christ

If you'd stand with me, let's pray.

Lord, we are, we are surprised. We're surprised that when you departed from the temple, that while your presence of favor drew up and away from your people, that you didn't turn from heaven. And destroy this planet and remove it from history and blot us out before your sight for all eternity. We're surprised. We've hated you, we've warred against you, we've blasphemed you, and you came And you said, remember former glory?

Oh, there's a greater glory. There's a latter glory coming, and it's coming in my Son Jesus.

Jesus, you come and you save us.

You surprise us with grace and mercy. You show your goodness and your favor. It's all undeserved. And then you promised to remain with us, and you promised that you will return for us. So let us now look back, and let us look back in a redemptive way.

Let us look back at the fact that you did remain and that your sovereign presence remained with us, that your sovereign grace remained with your people, and you would not depart.

Jesus, thank you for bearing all of our sins on your body on the cross. I pray for every person present this morning that needs to know that this greater and this, uh, latter glory that's coming is truly theirs, no matter no matter how bad things have become, no matter how bad their sin was or is.

Encourage every soul present with hope that's found in your surprised smile.

Let the joy that's fixed on your face for eternity on us, because we're in Christ. Let us get a glimpse of it today. Oh, and the day's going to come we'll see you face to face. What a day.

There are some present that need this hope because of how far and how deep the darkness has overwhelmed them. Rescue them, Lord, out of your mercy. And shine the light of your presence and favor on them. Lord, if suffering has pulled them away, let them see the white-knuckle grip that you have on them in Christ. You will never let them go.

So now we turn, longing longing to be with you, wanting to get in the boat with you, knowing that one thing is certain: in Christ, you will not depart from us. You will always be with us. Amen.