I did not know when I became a pastor this time around that in the process of ministering to others I would be ministered to so greatly. You kindness to me, your love that I feel from you is more than I know what to do with sometimes. You all are a blessing to me and I thank you for allowing me to be your pastor and your friend.
I want to continue on with the foundation series today by looking at the book of Zechariah. Just like last week to find this one go to Matthew and then go back two books Malachai and then Zechariah.
If you remember last week the words of the Lord from Haggai greatly encouraged the leaders of Judah and they began to work on the temple again –even though they had been told not to.
In Zechariah 1 starting with verse two we read some more of what was said to them to encourage them to press on to task that God had called them to do. “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors. 3 Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.’ 4 Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’ 5 “Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead. 6 But everything I said through my servants the prophets happened to your ancestors, just as I said. As a result, they repented and said, ‘We have received what we deserved from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He has done what he said he would do.’”
I was reminded of that old Seals and Crofts song: Darlin’ if you want me to be closer to you get closer to me. That is exactly what God is saying to us in this passage. God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His standards never change. If you want to get close to Him then he says come get close. I haven’t moved. You want to get closer to God read his word and then do it. Pay attention to what it says. Don’t be like those who have gone before us and only paid attention to part of the word or who have refused to apply the word to everyday life.
If we are in Christ but we do not do what he says he promises covenant curses upon us, covenant discipline upon us. He promises to do whatever it takes to bring us to repentance. Notice what it says there in verse 6: Everything God promised through his prophets happened to those who refuse to listen and the result was that they repented and said we have received what we deserved from the Lord of Heaven’s armies. He has done what he said he would do.
How long until we believe that God is going to do what he promises if we walk in rebellion against him? I want you to be aware; I want you to keep this in the front of your brain: God promises to make his bride holy and without spot or wrinkle and he is going to do whatever it takes to bring her to repentance. He is going to do whatever it takes to bring you to repentance. There are several here among us who know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that whatever it takes and I think that they would all say to us today: if you are willing to repent before God comes after you do so because God doesn’t hold back and he is not afraid of dishing out all the pain necessary to bring you to the place where you are humble before him. It’s kind of like those old cop shows where they say this can go the easy way or it can go the hard way you make the choice. My experience is that more often than not I choose the hard way. I say all this that maybe, just maybe you might be willing to learn from my mistakes and humble yourself before the hard times come in your life.
The point is you have the opportunity to learn from the examples of your brothers and sisters here in this room and from the examples given to us in the Old Testament. God works the same in everybody’s life. Humble yourself while you have the chance.
Sometimes, probably most of the time, given my predisposition to feeling unworthy of love it is easy for me to forget the deep and passionate love that God has for his bride, his people, for us. Zechariah is a book that reminds us of that. In verse 12 of chapter 1 we read: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, for seventy years now you have been angry with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. How long until you again show mercy to them?” 13 And the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. 14 Then the angel said to me, “Shout this message for all to hear: ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: My love for Jerusalem and Mount Zion is passionate and strong. 15 But I am very angry with the other nations that are now enjoying peace and security. I was only a little angry with my people, but I am very angry at the other nations. 16 “‘Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I have returned to show mercy to Jerusalem. My Temple will be rebuilt, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and measurements will be taken for the reconstruction of Jerusalem.’ 17 “Say this also: ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The towns of Israel will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem as his own.’”
Way too often when we read these passages we don’t read them with New Testament eyes; we read them with the wisdom of the world and so we miss the point what is being said. This comforting and kind message is for us; the bride of Christ, the new Jerusalem, the temple of God. This message is for all those who are in Christ Jesus because they are the only ones that God the father claims as his own. There are not two peoples of God. There are not two temples. There are not two bodies. There is only one people of God throughout all the ages. And so these words that we just read apply to us today. Listen to them in that context: My love for the church and for the kingdom of God is passionate and strong. I was only a little angry with my people and so I poured out my discipline on them to bring them to repentance. And so I have returned to show mercy to the church, and my body, my temple will be rebuilt. The church will once again overflow with prosperity, it will once again see new births take place and the Lord will again comfort his people and choose the church and the body of Christ as his own.
Just because the church is sterile now doesn’t mean that it will always be that way. When God gives the word we should expect a reversal of the way things are. We should expect glorious things to happen in the midst of the church. I am beginning to see glorious things happening here. I am seeing God work in people’s lives in a new way, in a deeper way. Those things weren’t happening a couple of years ago. I believe that God has begun to move and I don’t think he is going to stop. If you don’t want God moving in your life now is the time to start running because the move of God here in the people of Immanuel is only just beginning.
In chapter two of Zechariah we read this: 1 When I looked again, I saw a man with a tape measure in his hand. 2 “Where are you going?” I asked. He replied, “I am going to measure Jerusalem, to see how wide and how long it is.” 3 Then the angel who was with me went to meet a second angel who was coming toward him. 4 The other angel said, “Hurry, and say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem will someday be so full of people and livestock that there won’t be room enough for everyone! Many will live outside the city walls. 5 Then I, myself, will be a protective wall of fire around Jerusalem, says the Lord. And I will be the glory inside the city!’”
Once again we are so used to hearing these passages in the context of end times that we often times miss their meaning for us. This young man is measuring the fullness of the church. This passage tells us clearly that the church is going to be huge someday: So full of people and livestock that there won’t be room for everyone. We’re so used limiting the church to Sunday mornings and religious only things that we get uncomfortable with the concept of livestock being in the church but what that means is that the church is going to grow and it is going to be faithful to God in every area of life, even farming and business. The gospel is meant to a vital part of every area of life. Until we get that in our heads and hearts the church will remain impotent. We should be expecting God to grow his church in every area of life.
This passage demands that we put on new glasses and see the world the way God sees the world. When he begins to move on a group of people there is no limit to what he will do, what growth he will bring. It is nothing for God to fill up the cities of Portland and Franklin or for that matter Sumner County, Simpson County, Robertson County with belivers and with righteousness. What kind of a miracle is it going to take for you to get to the place where you can even see the possibility of that? Is changing a city or a county too big for God to do? Is wickedness in government and in business to great for God to handle? Is the drug trade too big for God to overcome? I don’t think so. I think it may be too big for our less than mustard seed faith to handle but it is not too big for God to handle.
You do understand that God laughs at the wicked don’t you? They don’t mean anything to him. In fact, the last verses of the first chapter tell us that when God stirs the hearts of his people to repentance and begins to prosper them he will at the same time turn his eyes toward the wicked and will begin to break them. He says he will send his blacksmiths to terrify and destroy them.
This concept that we have of the wicked being tough guys like the Godfather is so out of touch with reality. God holds the godfather in his hands and he can’t breathe unless the God of all creation gives him permission. He can terrorize only as long as God gives him permission. When God is through using him for his purposes then he will scatter the wicked like dust in the wind.
Of course I have to say that by faith because I have not seen it in the real world. We live in a dark age where the wicked have been given more power than they deserve because the church has refused to walk in the commandments and take the power that is rightfully hers. It is my prayer that in the latter half of my life I will be blessed to see that change.
In chapter 2 of Zechariah we hear the cry to: 6 The Lord says, “Come away! Flee from Babylon in the land of the north, for I have scattered you to the four winds. 7 Come away, people of Zion, you who are exiled in Babylon!” 8 After a period of glory, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me against the nations who plundered you. For he said, “Anyone who harms you harms my most precious possession. 9 I will raise my fist to crush them, and their own slaves will plunder them.” Then you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sent me. 10 The Lord says, “Shout and rejoice, O beautiful Jerusalem, for I am coming to live among you. 11 Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they, too, will be my people. I will live among you, and you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me to you. 12 The land of Judah will be the Lord’s special possession in the holy land, and he will once again choose Jerusalem to be his own city. 13 Be silent before the Lord, all humanity, for he is springing into action from his holy dwelling.”
It is time for us to begin to come out of Babylon. That doesn’t mean we have to move but it means we need to stop living like the wicked. We need to stop thinking like the wicked. We must stop playing the game. We come out of Babylon by learning to think and live christianly in every area of life. We must learn to set ourselves apart to God living according to his standards and seeing the world the way he sees the world. It is not enough that you say you believe in God. It is not enough that Jesus is your friend. I think the Tennessean got it right this week when it ran a story that most young people and most people that go to church are Almost Christians. They believe in God but they don’t want anything to do with the things that the bible says. The story said that instead of learning the Bible, young people are drawn to a cult of niceness. If that’s all you have why waste your time? The gospel doesn’t make you nice it makes you do the right things; it makes your heart right before God. Does niceness flow out of that? It can but being obedient to God is more important than being nice. Daniel wasn’t being nice when he refused to obey the king and prayed to God three times a day. The apostles weren’t being nice when the refused to obey the leaders of the apostate church and preach Jesus when they were told not to. Nice means nothing if it is not rooted and grounded in obedience to God. There will be a lot of nice people in hell.
Babylon is filled with nice people. We have to learn to come out of Babylon and nice disobedience and enter into the Kingdom of God and its obedience regardless of the personal cost.
Yes the wicked are in a period of glory right now. But it will not always be this way. God is going to judge Babylon, he always does. We must not be in her when he does. In other words we must not look and act like Babylon when God comes in judgment on her. We must flee her ways.
Listen to these words of God once again concerning God’s repentant bride: Anyone who harms you harms my most precious possession. Can you hear that? You who are in Christ Jesus are God’s most precious possession. God is not concerned about some unbelievers over in the middle east. Unbelievers ARE NOT God’s possession. That applies in the middle east and it applies in every church in the united states. This is God’s attitude toward every unbeliever that harms the body of Christ: I will raise my fist to crush them, and their own slaves will plunder them.” Then you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sent me.
To those who believe the Lord says, “Shout and rejoice, O beautiful Jerusalem, oh Body of Christ, for I am coming to live among you. 11 Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they, too, will be my people. I will live among you, and you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me to you. 12 The body of Christ will be the Lord’s special possession in the Kingdom of God, and he will once again choose the body of Christ to be his own city. 13 Be silent before the Lord, all humanity, for he is springing into action from his holy dwelling.”
That last line is very important. If God is going to spring into action to do good things on the earth he is going to do so from within the church, his people –we are his holy dwelling, we are his tabernacle, we are his temple, we are the city of God. We need to remember that. We need to let that sink into our hearts. We are God’s most prized possession. The bride of Christ from the Old Testament and the New Testament is God’s most prized possession. Why shouldn’t we be? He shed the blood of Jesus to redeem us to himself.
It is my prayer that God would allow you all to understand just how valuable you are to God. I admit that I have to struggle with that sometimes because I can’t see my value. I can only see my screw ups. But God see’s beyond those, God has paid for everyone of my mess ups and all my rebellion with the blood of Jesus. He loved me so much, you are so valuable to him that he paid to make you his, he bought you out of bondage by the blood of his only son.
If you are in Christ Jesus, and you are the only one in this room who can know for sure about that, if you are in Christ Jesus then God is going to do everything that it takes to make you like Jesus. You are holy and blameless in Christ Jesus and God is going to continue to work on you until your actions reveal what you really are. Right now our actions, more often than not, depict what we used to be. But some day we will do what we are, we will be what we are. We will walk solely on the path of life and never desire to depart from it. What a glorious day that will be.
I want to look at something that is amazing to me in Zechariah chapter 3. This happened over 400 years before Jesus was born. 1 Then the angel showed me Jeshua, Jesus the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jesus. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.” 3 Jesus’ clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jesus said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.” 5 Then I said, “They should also place a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the Lord stood by. 6 Then the angel of the Lord spoke very solemnly to Jesus and said, 7 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: If you follow my ways and carefully serve me, then you will be given authority over my Temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk among these others standing here. 8 “Listen to me, O Jesus the high priest, and all you other priests. You are symbols of things to come. Soon I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 Now look at the jewel I have set before Jesus a single stone with seven facets. I will engrave an inscription on it, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and I will remove the sins of this land in a single day. 10 “And on that day, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, each of you will invite your neighbor to sit with you peacefully under your own grapevine and fig tree.”
In this Narrative of Jesus the High Priest we have a perfect example of what happened to Jesus the Branch, our High Priest. Why were Jesus’ clothes dirty? Because when Jesus hung on the cross he be came your sin. He became my sin. He became the sin of all those who will ever believe. Jesus became a filthy rag to redeem us. Satan could accuse him because he became us and our sin.
But God in his glorious law provided a legal remedy for that sin – the perfect lamb of God without sin shed his blood to pay the price for our sin. By the shedding of his blood he paid for our sin and redeemed us to God.
Satan can accuse all he wants but God will refuse to listen because his redemptive law has been fulfilled. Christ became our sin and then was clothed anew with righteousness this time coupled with all authority in heaven and earth. The promise given to Jeshua the high priest: If you follow my ways and carefully serve me, then you will be given authority over my Temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk among these others standing here, was fulfilled by Jesus the high priest. God has given Jesus all authority in heaven and on earth.
Verse nine tells us that Jesus has also received a valuable Jewel, a single stone with seven facets. God says he will engrave an inscription on it, and He will remove the sins of this land, of this people, in a single day. I want you to understand that you are that valuable Jewel. With his obedience to the point of death Jesus paid for your redemption and you became God’s most valuable possession. You are the pearl of great price. Revelations 3 tells us that Jesus will write on use the name of God, and we will be citizens in the city of God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from God. And He will also write on them his new name.
We have the name of Jesus inscribed upon us. We have been given a new name because the old us has been crucified with Christ. We are new creatures in Christ old things HAVE PASSED AWAY.
I would ask you to beg God to let these things sink into your head and your heart. You need to know who you are in Christ Jesus. You need to understand what it means for Christ to have become your sin so that you could become his righteousness. You need to know how valuable you are to God the father. You are is most precious possession. NOTHING can pluck you out of the hand of the father. Nothing.
May god give you the ears to hear that and to let it grow deep inside you until it comes to full growth and bears the fruit of righteousness in every area of life. Let’s pray.
Oh Father, give us a glimpse of who we are in your eyes. Give us a taste of just how valuable we are to you. Pour out your grace and mercy that we may live accordingly. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Hear the words of the Lord from the Song of Solomon chapter 4:
9 You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace.10 Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine, your perfume more fragrant than spices. 11 Your lips are as sweet as nectar, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue. Your clothes are scented like the cedars of Lebanon.
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