Sermon: A Cleansing Fountain

Julius: In our midweek services, we've been working through prophecies of Zechariah and our prophecy from Zechariah today, chapter 13, verses 1 through 3, which we'll focus on for the sermon. On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. In that day declares the Lord of armies I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the impure spirit from the land. If anyone still prophesies, his father and his mother who gave birth to him will tell him, you shall not live because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord. Then his father and his mother who gave birth to him will stab him when he prophesies. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I was recently watching a sitcom where the boss was very stressed, so she got this little fountain for her desk that you could plug in. And when she would plug in this fountain, there would come the gentle trickling of the water, and she would feel relaxed. The only problem was she worked in an animal shelter, and every time she plugged in that fountain, all the dogs started barking, which stressed her out. So then she would unplug the fountain and the dogs would stop barking, but then life would stress her out and so she'd plug the fountain back in and that would be nice, but the dogs would start barking so she'd have to unplug the, it was a mess. To plug in the fountain or not? That's kind of what we run across when we talk about the Lord's Supper. We're gonna connect it to the fountain in Zechariah chapter 13 and it is this amazing, soothing, healing fountain. Just plug it in, it's wonderful for your soul. But as you've maybe noticed, whenever you plug in that fountain of the Lord's Supper, the dogs start barking. Or in this case, the false teachers, the false prophets, who say this and that about the Lord's Supper and say that you're wrong. So what do you do? Do you plug it in to get that soothing fountain of the Lord's Supper and deal with all of this on the side, or can you just leave it? Well, thankfully the Lord makes the decision for us today. He plugs in the fountain. He says you need this, you need this cleansing fountain and that's the reason because you need to be cleansed. We read about this fountain in Zechariah chapter 13 verse 1. that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. On that day, on that day. When he says that he's talking about Holy Week, the events we're talking about today and tomorrow and on Sunday. On that day when Jesus accomplishes all these amazing things, He says, a fountain will be opened. A fountain. Think a spring of water. The kind of thing that's advertised on the side of a bottle. We got this water from here. And it is hard for us to imagine how wonderful this sounds because we have water everywhere. We just Go to the sink or we go to the drinking fountain, but imagine in Jesus' day, it wasn't always a given that you'd have enough water for drinking and for washing. You'd have to find a good spring. You'd have to dig a well and dig deep and hope enough water would come. Here the Lord says, I'm going to give you a fountain for the washing and the cleansing that you need. And so it's not a surprise that the Bible often uses a fountain as a picture of salvation. picture of what we need. It's something you really, really need and when you find it, it quenches your thirst and it washes you clean. Psalm 42 says that without God, our souls thirst for Him, our souls thirst for the living God. Isaiah chapter 12 says you will draw water from the well of salvation with joy. And Ezekiel chapter 36 connects this fountain of salvation idea to washing, pointing ahead to baptism. It says I will sprinkle on you pure water and you will be clean from all your uncleanness and I will cleanse you from all your idols." All your uncleanness. In other words, there's a lot. And sometimes we don't notice that. Just the other day, you know this happened while Nicole was gone. because I wasn't smart enough to stop the kids from digging in that particular dirt, in that particular place with all of that sand. And ⁓ my goodness, when we got home, the kids were so dirty. And so straight to the tub we went, and we washed them in the tub and got them out. And then just a couple seconds later, one of the kids said, Papa, we have to clean the tub. And I rushed back into the bathroom and I look and all the water has been drained out, but what's on the bottom of the tub? all of this filth. Wow, they were dirtier than we knew. When the Lord says we need to be washed from all our uncleanness, sometimes we think, well, it can't be that bad, it can't be that much. And sometimes you don't realize how much it is until you see the lengths the Lord has to go. How much of this cleansing fountain we need. Here he says the fountain will be open for the house of David and for Jerusalem. And just there you think, wow, we're gonna need a lot of water. That's gonna leave a lot of dirt in the bottom of the tub. Think of the house of David, a history, hundreds of years of faithlessness and lust and idolatry and greed. Think of the city of Jerusalem, a place filled with selfishness and hate and murder and idolatry. And the Lord says, my fountain is gonna wash all of that away. In our lives, we don't always realize how dirty we are either. And the Bible actually says it's impossible for us to grasp our uncleanness, our sin. We say, Lord, cleanse us from our hidden faults because we can't figure it out. But here, in a sense, we get to see just how much the Lord has to wash away because we need a fountain opened, a fountain of salvation that cleans all the uncleanness away. And that's a fountain the Lord is happy to provide. And we see a fulfillment. of this verse tonight when we think about the Lord's Supper. What is the fountain that can actually scrub us clean? We got it right in that nice hymn we just sang. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. The fountain we need is Jesus's blood that washes it all away and doesn't even leave it in the bottom of the tub. And Jesus says that the way we get this blood is through the Lord's Supper. 1 John 1 7 says, And Jesus says exactly, that's what the Lord's Supper is for. He says, The Lord's Supper is so much more than just a memorial meal, remembering what Jesus has done for us. It is the fountain, opened once again, opened every time. Jesus says, is my blood and it is being poured out for you, present tense, a spring, a fountain that never stops and never runs out. And what is it for? For the forgiveness of sins. And so that's why the Lord says, hey, plug in this fountain. When you guys get together, plug in that fountain because that's what you need to soothe your soul, to cleanse your soul, even though it might make the dogs bark. And that's what we see next in verses two and three. Maybe it felt strange to you just like it did to me earlier in the service to end that verse and say, the word of the Lord, thanks be to God, because it ends very intense. So let's read that again. In that day declares the Lord of armies, will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the impure spirit from the land. If anyone still prophesies, his father and his mother who gave birth to him will tell him, you shall not live because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord. Then his father and his mother who gave birth to him will stab him when he prophesies. Wow. Idols being smashed, prophets being driven out, fathers and mothers stabbing their own children. Maybe we should unplug this fountain. And you notice this still happens when we talk about, specifically about the Lord's Supper. It brings conflict. It brings division. You think about Lutherans, we try to go by what the Bible says and we say, it's Jesus' last will and testament. There's no indication he's using symbolism here. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the Apostle John, none of them offer any other explanation besides, this bread is my body. This cup. is my blood." And so we say, is means is. It is Jesus' body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine. It's really there in a miraculous way we can't understand by the power of God's Word. And whoever eats and drinks gets it, which is why you want to take it properly. Even the unbelieving person or the person taking it improperly receives it to judgment. And the believing person eats and drinks salvation, this is a big deal. But if you bring that up and take your stand on that, it can cause division. Because there's people over here, especially the last 500 years, who say, it's just a symbol. It's not actually Jesus' body and blood, or you only kind of receive it spiritually. So that's the only way you get it. Unbelievers don't get it at all if they take it. And you can agree or disagree, but a lot of people in the middle stand there and say, it doesn't matter if you agree or disagree. Look, this is causing a lot of tension. I mean, we all love Jesus. We got the essentials. Who cares really about the truth of the Lord's Supper? You do you, we'll do us. And then this conflict comes to a head, even in a church service, when we have close communion, which naturally then is going to exclude Some people, because we're saying you need to be united with us at communion, confessing the same truth, this is tension. And sometimes you even feel this in your own family, don't you? Family and friends, where they believe one thing and you believe another thing, and you can't commune together, it's painful. And that's what the Lord's talking about here. So why? Why does God make us go through this painful thing in connection to such a wonderful fountain? Well, we read. said, the Lord says, In other words, God started it. God started this conflict. God started this division. And why? He says, want to cut off the name of idols. don't want them to be remembered. And in the Bible, in the Old Testament, that word remembered doesn't just mean remember in your head. It means to call on, to call on a God for help. And so the Lord is saying, don't want anyone to call on a false God. I don't want anyone to call on any other name but mine and everything I've revealed about myself and that truth. And so I'm going to cut the rest of that off. And that sounds pretty violent. and then the parents get involved. It says, yes, the mother and father, even if they have a son who still keeps prophesying falsely in God's name, they're going to stab that son and say, stop telling lies in God's name. It sounds harsh to us, but remember the order of the commandments. To us, maybe if you had to pick what's the worst commandment to break, you might say, well, fifth commandment, murdering people? that's the worst. And the Lord says, no. There's a reason the second commandment comes before the fifth commandment. What's the second commandment? You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Don't misrepresent God. Don't support lies about him. Don't share lies about him. And why is that more serious? Because if you murder someone, you hurt their body. But if you mislead them about God, you hurt their soul. And so, yeah, the parents get involved here. And parents, you could imagine a similar scenario. If you have children and one of the kids starts telling all the other kids, if you're in an emergency, if you need help, call 119. Call 119. And then the other kid gets in trouble, a car accident or something, and they want to call the police for help, and they dial 119. and it doesn't work and they don't get help. That kid who pulled that prank is going to get in trouble because you need to know if you need help, you have to dial 911. You need to get that right so that you get help. And that's what the Lord wants for everybody in the world. He wants them to have the right number. He wants them to know exactly who to call who will give them help in their time of need. Not 911, but Yahweh, God, the true God and everything he's revealed about himself. It's that important. And we know that because that's the name that saved us. The Lord has led all of us to dial that number, 911, Yahweh God, that God. And when we come to communion, we're dialing that number again. And we're saying, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, the true God, will be saved. No, that doesn't mean we're stabbing people. That was for a time in the Old Testament under Moses where there was capital punishment for blasphemy. That's what they tried to execute Jesus for. And we don't live under that covenant anymore, but we still fight for God's name with the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, sharper than any double-edged sword. We do need to use that to fight for the truth of God's Word. Not because we want to hurt people, not because we want to be divided, but because we want people to be saved and to get the help they need. You see that clearly in the Old Testament story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Remember that? They set up two altars. There's all these people who are going to call on Baal, and there's Elijah who's going to call on the true God. Now remember the context. For three years, the Israelites had had nothing to drink. No water, no rain from Baal, the supposed God of rain, and it caused a famine and trouble and death. And Elijah says, hey, you ever think about calling on the true God? And they said, no. He said, let's set up a competition. So they set up two altars, one over here for the prophets of Baal, one over here for Elijah. And he says, you guys call on your God, and I'll call on my God, and whoever sends down fire and consumes the sacrifice is the real one. And so the prophets of Baal go first. And they call and they dance and they hit themselves and there's no answer from the fake God. One, one, nine, one, one, nine, no help coming. Finally it's Elijah's turn and he dials up Yahweh the true God and fire falls from heaven and burns the sacrifice. And everybody over here runs over here and says, the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. That's the name that saves us. That's the God that saves us. And immediately afterward, God Himself, not the fake God, God Himself sends rain. He sends water. Why did Elijah set up the showdown? Because he wanted people to be saved. He wanted people to stop calling on a name of Baal, a Baal that nobody even remembers, nobody calls on anymore. And that's what we want too. When we plug in that cleansing fountain, first and foremost, it's because we need it. But secondly, it's because we want other people to hear the soothing waters of salvation. We want them to remember the name by which they are saved. We want to share that. Amen.

Zechariah 13 · chapter mention Zechariah 13:1 Isaiah 12 · chapter mention Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention