I want to continue on in Zechariah today. I hope that you have been finding this series encouraging. To day we are going to look at encouraging you from a different perspective. Starting in chapter 5 we read this: I looked up again and saw a scroll flying through the air. 2 “What do you see?” the angel asked. “I see a flying scroll,” I replied. “It appears to be about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.” 3 Then he said to me, “This scroll contains the curse that is going out over the entire land. One side of the scroll says that those who steal will be banished from the land; the other side says that those who swear falsely will be banished from the land. 4 And this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: I am sending this curse into the house of every thief and into the house of everyone who swears falsely using my name. And my curse will remain in that house and completely destroy it—even its timbers and stones.”
How is this supposed to be encouraging? Well, here’s my take on it. This scroll is flying over the nation of Israel. It is flying over the church in our day and age – there is a curse on the church today because the church, as a whole in our culture is full of liars and thieves. The pulpits are full of liars who tell us that everything is ok. God is pleased and wants nothing but the best for us. Some others are saying the word of God doesn’t apply while others are saying God just wants you healthy, wealthy and wise. Some are saying we need to be burning the Koran and hating the unbelievers, some are saying we need more money to get the work of the Lord done. We need to use business practices to grow the church and bring people to the faith through entertainment and impressive buildings. Lies fill the church and the people are quick to believe them.
At the same time the church is filled with thieves. Thieves who steal the glory that is rightfully God’s and take it for themselves. Thieves who take the money that is rightfully God’s and spend it on themselves. There are plenty of people in the church today getting rich off the gospel. It’s one thing to make a living off the gospel. It is another thing altogether to get rich off of it. If you are more concerned about meeting your budget numbers for the church than you are humbling yourself before God and seeking his face then something is wrong. There are also those out there who are stealing sheep, wolves in sheep’s clothing destroying believer’s lives with their false doctrine and unbelief.
The church is full of liars and thieves who say they are doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. Now, while there is nothing very encouraging about that it is encouraging to know that God is not going to let it go on forever. First Peter 4 tells us that: the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?” 19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
The church is going to be judged. His temple is going to be cleansed. God is not mocked, especially by his church; we will reap what we have sown in the church over the last 100 plus years. God is going to begin to purge his church.
I will go so far as to say that God has already started on a small scale – he is purging us. He is beginning to change us and if he is changing us and bringing us to repentance, causing us to get closer to him, opening up the word of God so that we can rightly see how he works in the world and that is a glorious thing. I am learning that God begins the big momentous things that he does with small almost insignificant steps: Line upon line, precept upon precept. Even in our individual lives God doesn’t always take out the big sins first more often than not he deals with all the little things that enable the big stuff to be big. He takes out the foundation of our rebellion one stone at a time and eventually the big stuff has to fall.
I believe with all my heart that he is doing that here, now, in your lives. I hope that there are some of you here today that can witness to that in your own lives. Has God been dealing with you over the last few years? Is your heart softer today than it was a year ago? I would have to say yes. I hope there are others out there that feel the same way. I could just be deluding myself into believing God is doing something but I don’t think so.
I believe that God has placed us here at this point in history for a purpose. I believe that God is going to continue to minister to our hearts, to continue to bring us to repentance and faith so that we can be bright and shining light in our communities. God has begun his judgment and for us that judgment lead to repentance.
This is part of the reason that I pray that God would bring the people that he wants here and get rid of the people that he doesn’t. I want you to understand that numbers are not important in a church. If you are building the foundation for a house you don’t go out and find every bricko block you can find and throw them all in the mix. I’ve got a basement full of old bricko blocks that are unfit to be used in a foundation. You pick and choose the blocks you want in your foundation because if you don’t the house you build won’t stand.
I pray that prayer because to be honest I don’t know what a good bricko block is supposed to look like in the church. I have to rely on God to do the block picking. At some level, I think God is using us as a testing ground for people. I think that’s why we get people that come for a few weeks and then disappear. God is using us to test people’s hearts. They come and they hear the word of God and they make a choice. A lot of people come and say ‘I just love your church’ but what they mean is I love the architecture of your building and maybe they will stay for three months and then they will stop. Because what they loved was the building not the church or the God of the church. This thing we do is not a numbers game. It is not up to us to build the church. Unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain who do so. This is why we are growing slowly. Because God is growing his church not us.
I want you to know that the biggest sign of growth that I see, and there is a part of me that is afraid I am powerful enough to put the jinx on things by saying it, but the biggest sign of growth that I see is the unity that is present. Now what you didn’t hear me say was that we all think and act alike. There are probably as many different ideas about scripture among us as there are people but that doesn’t divide us. We are united by our hearts for God and we are willing to work together even if we don’t always like what we hear from folks. That, my friends, is a rare and glorious thing that is being orchestrated by the living God and I am blessed to be a part of it.
God is moving in our midst in deep ways that we never imagined.
Now I have never done this before in a sermon and I may regret it but would anyone here like to speak about what God is doing in their lives in the last six months? I guess I asking for a witness to verify what I’m saying to be true.
Thank you. (I hope someone speaks here)
The point of all of this so far is that Judgment in our culture is beginning with the church and that judgment may take us to repentance or it may take us to harder and harder hearts; that is up to God. God is going to purge the liars and thieves from his church one way or the other.
But though judgment begins with the house of God it doesn’t end there. Look at verse 5 of Zechariah 5: Then the angel who was talking with me came forward and said, “Look up and see what’s coming.” 6 “What is it?” I asked. He replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain, and it’s filled with the sins of everyone throughout the land.” 7 Then the heavy lead cover was lifted off the basket, and there was a woman sitting inside it. 8 The angel said, “The woman’s name is Wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and closed the heavy lid again. 9 Then I looked up and saw two women flying toward us, gliding on the wind. They had wings like a stork, and they picked up the basket and flew into the sky. 10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel. 11 He replied, “To the land of Babylonia, where they will build a temple for the basket. And when the temple is ready, they will set the basket there on its pedestal.”
What I see from this passage is that in our culture there are two temples being built at the same time: One to house the Spirit of the living God and one to house the Spirit of Rebellion. The New Jerusalem is being built and so is Babylon. Babylon will be filled with the sins of everyone throughout the land. Jerusalem will be filled with the righteous deeds of the saints who are in Christ Jesus.
I am beginning to see that this metaphorical use of Babylon and Jerusalem applies to all cultures throughout all time. To often we have limited it to a couple of periods: the actual time of Babylon, the time of Rome, and then the end times. But what I think scripture is giving us in this picture of two cities is another way of looking at the parable of the wheat and the tares. The people of God and the people of rebellion will always in this age be growing up side by side. Two temples are always being built in a nation. When wickedness prevails the nation can be called Babylon and it will find its end in covenantal judgment. When righteousness prevails the nation can be likened unto Jerusalem and it can expect to find covenant blessing which then becomes a test to see if it will continue to walk in righteousness after it has been blessed.
There will come a time of final judgment when all that are wicked will be judged for the last time and receive their due. At the same time those redeemed by the blood of the lamb will be judge according to their deeds and receive the rewards of their labors and be tested no more.
But until that day the two temples, the wheat and the tares will grow side by side with one or the other dominating the field at various times throughout history according to the hearts of the people and the condition of the church in relation to the covenant of God.
Does that make sense?
I think that this can be illustrated in chapter 6 starting in verse 1: Then I looked up again and saw four chariots coming from between two bronze mountains. 2 The first chariot was pulled by red horses, the second by black horses, 3 the third by white horses, and the fourth by powerful dappled-gray horses. 4 “And what are these, my lord?” I asked the angel who was talking with me. 5 The angel replied, “These are the four spirits of heaven who stand before the Lord of all the earth. They are going out to do his work. 6 The chariot with black horses is going north, the chariot with white horses is going west, and the chariot with dappled-gray horses is going south.” 7 The powerful horses were eager to set out to patrol the earth. And the Lord said, “Go and patrol the earth!” So they left at once on their patrol. 8 Then the Lord summoned me and said, “Look, those who went north have vented the anger of my Spirit there in the land of the north.”
We are not in this battle of life alone. There are Spirits patrolling the earth who vent the anger of God’s Spirit upon different lands at different times. I think we are in a time of venting for God; part of which can be seen in the increase in natural disasters and disease in our midst. Not just in our country but around the world. God is on the move like never before. What it is leading to I cannot say at this point in time but he is definitely beginning to do something. He is venting his wrath and at the same time he is wooing his bride both things are going on simultaneously.
Let’s move on to verse 9: Then I received another message from the Lord: 10 “Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah will bring gifts of silver and gold from the Jews exiled in Babylon. As soon as they arrive, meet them at the home of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11 Accept their gifts, and make a crown from the silver and gold. Then put the crown on the head of Jesus son of Jehozadak, the high priest. 12 Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Here is the man called the Branch. He will branch out from where he is and build the Temple of the Lord. 13 Yes, he will build the Temple of the Lord. Then he will receive royal honor and will rule as king from his throne. He will also serve as priest from his throne, and there will be perfect harmony between his two roles.’ 14 “The crown will be a memorial in the Temple of the Lord to honor those who gave it—Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah son of Zephaniah.” 15 People will come from distant lands to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. And when this happens, you will know that my messages have been from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. All this will happen if you carefully obey what the Lord your God says.
Again this is a prophecy concerning Jesus our High Priest. He is the branch and he is in charge of building the temple of the Lord. When this was written everything was looking forward to these events occurring but now we can look at them in the past and present tense. Jesus the high priest has received royal honor and he rules now from his royal throne at the right hand of God the father. People have come from distant lands to rebuild the Temple of the Lord because God has allowed the gentiles to be a part of the Temple. Now the holy city of God is made up of people from every tongue, tribe and nation and we are all working on the building for our Lord. At the same time we are the building. We are this glorious building that God is building through us. We are the body of Christ and so we are beloved of God if we walk humbly before him. We are the crown and that crown will never be taken away from us once we arrive in glory. We are the jewel that is most valuable to God.
I know I’ve been saying these things a lot lately. Part of the reason is because they have been in the texts we’ve been reading and so they are the truth and you need to hear the truth. Another reason I say these things is that more often than not you don’t believe them about yourself. I can tell you are precious beyond measure to God but you’ll hear it and say ‘oh he’s talking about someone else.’ You let it go in one ear and out the other. I want the truth of gods word to get past your defenses. I don’t want the field of your heart to remain fallow and not receive the word of God. I want you to plant these things in your heart so that it will begin to grow and bare fruit in you life.
I want you to understand that the word of God that says you are God’s most prized possession is just as true as the word of God that tells us Jesus is the Lamb of God. There are no discounted sections of scripture; all of the word of God is equally true, even the parts that speak of God’s love for you. May God give you the grace to both know how much God desires to be with you even in the midst of your struggles with sin. I know I need to hear it. I need to believe it because some days I just really can’t believe that he would love me that much. Why would he call a piece of junk like me his most valuable possession? He must be exaggerating. Or maybe there will be a spot for rejects in heaven and they will keep us in a little section of our own where we won’t get in anybodies way.
No. There are no second class citizens in heaven. There is only the body of Christ and every single part of that body will be loved and cherished because it is equally a part of the temple of God.
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