We are continuing on in Zechariah today. I’m afraid too often we look at this book as dealing with end times stuff but the truth is the words of Zechariah were spoken to be an encouragement to the body of Christ. They succeeded at the time they were written and I hope that they are succeeding now because we need to be encouraged for times we live in are much like those that these people were going through in their times.
Chapter 4 of Zechariah reads like this: Then the angel who had been talking with me returned and woke me, as though I had been asleep. 2 “What do you see now?” he asked. I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl of oil on top of it. Around the bowl are seven lamps, each having seven spouts with wicks. 3 And I see two olive trees, one on each side of the bowl.” 4 Then I asked the angel, “What are these, my lord? What do they mean?” 5 “Don’t you know?” the angel asked. “No, my lord,” I replied. 6 Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 7 Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will become a level plain before him! And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’” 8 Then another message came to me from the Lord: 9 “Zerubbabel is the one who laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sent me. 10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” (The seven lamps represent the eyes of the Lord that search all around the world.) 11 Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on each side of the lampstand, 12 and what are the two olive branches that pour out golden oil through two gold tubes?” 13 “Don’t you know?” he asked. “No, my lord,” I replied. 14 Then he said to me, “They represent the two heavenly beings who stand in the court of the Lord of all the earth.”
Remember the things written here are given to us as an example and we are specifically told back in Ezra that the words of Zechariah were written to give us encouragement. They were written to get us excited about what God is doing and is going to do in our midst. I want to focus on the passage that starts with verse 6: “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 7 Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will become a level plain before him! And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’” 8 Then another message came to me from the Lord: 9 “Zerubbabel is the one who laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sent me. 10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” (The seven lamps represent the eyes of the Lord that search all around the world.)
I believe that Zerubbabel is another picture of Christ and his work of building the foundation of the church. I say that because the New Testament calls us, the people of God, the New Jerusalem, the city of God. It calls Jesus the foundation and the cornerstone.
On Sunday nights we’ve been studying 1 Corinthians and a few weeks ago we read this from chapter three: 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. 16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18 Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.
It’s easy to forget that we who believe are the temple of God. It’s easy to forget that Jesus is the foundation upon which we are built. There is no other foundation. Hebrews 11:9-10 tells us that Abraham, by faith, lived in the land God promised him,—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
Too often we read these passages and think that Abraham was looking for heaven. But that is not it at all. He was looking and longing for the city of God- the church. Abraham was looking for that temple whose foundation is Jesus Christ.
It breaks my heart that we have been taught for so many years that we are just looking to get out of here and go to heaven. That is not what all of this mess we call life is about. We are called to be the body of Christ, the city of God wherever we are and in whatever condition we are in. We are called to be here now for a purpose. I know some of us have trouble seeing our purpose in this life because we can’t do things like we used to. I want you to understand something: You weren’t created to be a human doing, you were created to be a human being. You being here is valuable to the work of God. Even if all you think that you are doing is suffering the ravages of the fall I want you to hear some passages of scripture: Philippians chapter 3tells us this: 7But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
I want you to hear this: those things you found as gain, those things that you used to be able to do they are nothing but rubbish compared to you knowing or being close and intimate with Christ. I would encourage you to change your glasses so that you can see what is going on in your life with God’s eyes and not yours.
Peter tells us that to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. Just because you are suffering the ravages of the fall more now than when you were younger you must remember that if you are in Christ Jesus old age and the aches and pains and suffering that go with it are a part of the suffering of Christ. They are not a natural part of life. Did you hear that? Suffering in old age is not a natural part of life it is inflicted upon us by God of heaven as a result of our rebellion against him oh so long ago. If you are in Christ Jesus then your sufferings at the hand of the curse become a part of sufferings of Christ whose body you are. Peter again says: God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. 20 Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you.
My point in all of this is that our goal is not getting to heaven, our goal is to build up to the mature man, the mature body of Christ or to go back to the building metaphor to become the completed city of God, the temple of God. Maybe, just maybe, God uses old age and its sufferings to deal with the stuff we wouldn’t let him deal with because we were too busy and we wouldn’t stand still long enough to let him work. When God says he will complete the work that he began he means it. Just because you want to be done with this life doesn’t mean that God is done working on you or through you for that matter. That includes all of us in this room.
God is going to do exactly what it takes to make you into the perfect piece of the body of Christ that you are meant to be and he will not stop working on you until he is finished. More than likely when he’s through working on you, you will find yourself done with the fall, but not a minute before. While you have breath God is working on your life. Just because you may not like it doesn’t mean it isn’t God doing it.
Anyway, I got side tracked. Back to the foundation. Jesus is both the builder of the foundation and the foundation itself. He is the chief cornerstone of the temple of God. I want to go to Matthew 21 in order to tie all of this together. Jesus is the cornerstone and we the church are now the people of God, his temple and city.
In Matthew 21:33-46 we read: A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. 34 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. 35 But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same. 37 “Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’ 38 “But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ 39 So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him. 40 “When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you think he will do to those farmers?” 41 The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.” 42 Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures? ‘The stone that the builders rejectedhas now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.’ 43 I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. 44 Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.” 45 When the leading priests and Pharisees heard this parable, they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, who considered Jesus to be a prophet.
Jesus very clearly tells us here that the Kingdom of God was going to be taken away from the natural born Israelites and given to a new Nation. Peter builds upon this Parable when he writes: You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. 5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” 7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” 8 And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
I want to make sure that you know who you are in Christ Jesus. You are holy and blameless in Christ. You are chosen from the foundation of the world to be God’s most precious possession. You are Royal priests. You are a part of a Holy nation. You are God’s people. You have received the mercy of God. It is my prayer that those things will sink deep into your spirit.
If we put Zechariah’s message in the context of Christ we can begin to see that all he is doing in the church, to redeem a people for himself and to build the body of Christ, his temple is to be done not by force nor by strength, but by the Holy Spirit. We can also see that: Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Jesus’ way in building his body. Anything, any mountain that stands against him will become a level plain before him! And when Jesus sets the final stone of the Temple in place, when the body of Christ is complete then we will all shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’”
It is so important that you understand that heaven is not the goal of what God is doing in the world: YOU ARE. The body of Christ is the goal. The book of Zechariah, the narratives of wall building and temple building in Ezra and Nehemiah are pictures of us. Remember last week’s main point: You are God’s most prized possession? Well, it’s still true this week. The church is God’s purpose in this age that we live in. Out the fall, out of the rebellion of his creation God has planned to raise up a new people, a glorious people without spot or blemish, with no rebellion in them at all that he can spend all eternity pouring his love upon and doing great things with.
This mess that we live in is not natural. It is not the way that things should be. Even with the beauty that still remains we must remember that where we are now is scarred and disfigured compared to what it was, compared to what it will be but every bit of suffering and dysfunction that we struggle against here is meant to reveal the body of Christ. The suffering of the people of God in the midst of the fires of rebellion serve only to consume the dross so that we may shine with the glory of God for all eternity. Now is important. Your suffering is important because that is what God is using to shape you into that precious stone that he will cherish forever.
I am beginning to see that the goal of the fall is to reveal the bride of Christ, not the baby Jesus but the mature man who sits upon the throne ruling and reigning. That’s what Ephesians 4 tells us should be happening right now: When Christ rose from the dead he gave gifts gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers and their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Notice that it says that the goal is to make the whole body fit together perfectly. Back in Zechariah we see that when the last piece is put into place in the body of Christ, the temple of God and it fits together perfectly or maturely there will be great shouting and joy. God has been spending all of the years of your life making sure that you will fit perfectly in the body of Christ. That suffering you are going through right now is just God shaping you so you fit just right.
I wanted to say that you don’t have to like it and I guess you don’t but I am reminded of James chapter 1: Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
I want you to remember that nothing, even the aches and pains of growing old comes into your life for no reason. God has planned every ache and pain you will ever have to make you exactly what you are meant to be. God has not forgotten you. He has not cast you aside. On the contrary, he is pouring out special care in your later days to finish the work he began so many years ago. You are like a master artist’s work that he has been working on for a life time. All that is left is the finishing touches so it may look like the artist isn’t paying much attention to you now but that isn’t true. You are close to being finished. You are closer to live than you ever have been and you get closer with each passing day. You are more valuable now than you ever have been regardless of what you tell yourself.
Maybe you’re mad because you can’t do as much as you used to, perhaps God is saying you wouldn’t rest in me when you were younger so now I’m going to take away your other options. Learn to rest in God. Learn that doing is not as important as being. You are valuable to God the father just like you are. You are valuable to the body of Christ just like you are. Without you the body of Christ will be incomplete. You help build up that which is lacking in the rest of the body.
I pray that you would be encouraged in the Lord and that you would find joy in being in Christ with each and every day.
Let’s pray. Oh father, please keep building up your body. Please grow us up to be mature. Complete the body of Christ dear Lord so that we can be done with death and start to really live. Glorify your name in your bride. In Jesus’ name we ask these things amen.
Here this words oh Bride of Christ from the one who loves you with all his heart:
You are beautiful, my darling, like the lovely city of Tirzah.Yes, as beautiful as Jerusalem, as majestic as an army with billowing banners. 5 Turn your eyes away, for they overpower me. Your hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats winding down the slopes of Gilead. 6 Your teeth are as white as sheep that are freshly washed. Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin. 7 Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates behind your veil. 8 Even among sixty queens and eighty concubines and countless young women, 9 I would still choose my dove, my perfect one— the favorite of her mother, dearly loved by the one who bore her. The young women see her and praise her; even queens and royal concubines sing her praises: 10 “Who is this, arising like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, as majestic as an army with billowing banners?”
It is you oh Bride of Christ – Go in peace.
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