God of Second Chances - Zechariah 1:1-6:8 (June 30) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

So good to be with you this morning.

We're in Zechariah.

If you get to the New Testament and flip back two books, you will find yourself in the book of Zechariah.

I don't know about you, but I am incredibly thankful in my life for second chances.

I'm sure that you are too.

I'm thankful for second chances for very personal reasons.

Uh I can look back in my life and see the many, many, many times that I've messed up and done things wrong.

And the very fact that I'm standing here today really is the product of the fact that I have been given many second chances in life.

I look at some of my strongest relationships in life and I recognize that that, isn't it true that the strongest relationships we have, whether they're in family or in friendship or in whatever, are really built on a foundation of many, many, many second chances that are given.

And so as I think about second chances, I'm incredibly interested in them.

Second chances are great.

In fact, as I thought about this this week, my mind went to the fact that many of the stories that you and I love, aren't they really stories that center around this idea of the main character being given a second chance, being given some sort of story of redemption?

Now my kids have a little audiobook player, and they have a few favorite audiobooks that they will just murder every morning, time and time again.

And so over the last year, I've probably listened to Charlotte's Web over 50 times.

I'm getting incredibly sick of Charlotte's Webb, but the story is getting deeply ingrained in my mind.

And this week, as I prepared for this message in the first six chapters of Zechariah, my mind went to Charlotte's Webb every morning for about an hour as my kids waited and ate breakfast and then left with the little audiobook player still playing, and I was the only one in the kitchen listening to Charlotte's Webb and cleaning the dishes.

But if you know the story of Charlotte's Webb, you really know that it's a story of second chances.

Wilbur is a runt of a pig who's born in the spring, and the farmer decides that Wilbur should just be either sold off or killed.

And Wilbur has a series of really Jesus-like figures in The Farmer's Daughter, and especially in Charlotte, the spider, who fight for Wilbur's life.

And it's really this fascinating story because Wilbur's kind of this runt, and his personality is a little runt-like as well.

You know, when you meet Wilbur, he doesn't really know how to do things for himself.

And yet he is led by these friends to be something and someone who is seen as beautiful and the prized pig in all the land.

And it's this beautiful story of this pig that was supposed to be slaughtered that's offered a second chance.

But you you kind of feel like you've been offered a runt life.

You kind of feel like you might be in one specific way, or maybe in one specific situation, or maybe in all of your life, a spiritual sort of runt.

You think about your life, and because of maybe a specific sin or some sort of suffering that you're going through, or whatever it is, you just feel like there's no way that you could ever be acceptable to God.

Maybe alongside that, there's this deep desire, a desire that I believe is within all of us to experience this second chance, a desire that I think is the reason why we're driven to these stories that really are stories of redemption and stories of second chances.

Well, Zechariah has incredibly good news for you and I this morning.

And the good news is this is that no one is more interested in second chances than God.

No one loves a redemption story more than the God of the Bible.

He is deeply invested in giving second chances.

Well, one of the ways that we know that is through the message of Zechariah.

And if you've been with us over these last few weeks, we've been working as a church through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

And when I've told people over these past two weeks that we're going to Haggai and this week going to Zechariah, people have looked at me as though I'm like some sort of liar of a pastor and said, Hey, listen, you said we were in Ezra and Nehemiah, but you'll notice on the on our main graphic that it actually says Ezra to Nehemiah.

So in that little dash, I can just put whatever I want, okay?

That's just kind of how it works.

But the reason why we're in Zechariah is because in Ezra chapter five, you'll remember the story, the the people of Israel are called from Babylon.

They're in captivity there in exile.

And God moves at a national level to change kingdoms from Babylon to Persia, and Cyrus the king makes a declaration that the people of Israel can return to their home in Jerusalem, and there they can rebuild the temple.

God delivers his people to do that work, but but when they get there, though the work starts with a great intense effort and excitement, it quickly comes to a halt when the people of God face the enemies of the land.

We're told in Ezra chapter 4 that the work of the temple had come to a complete stop.

Ezra 4 · chapter mention

And then in Ezra chapter 5, verse 1, we're told that it is the prophets Haggai and Zechariah in one verse we're told this in in Ezra that get the people back to the work of God.

Ezra 5:1

And I don't know about you, but if I read a verse like that where two prophets have a big message to give to these people, and it's a profound message that moves them to repentance and to work back to the, to get back to the work of building the temple, my question is, what did they say?

And so, because of my curiosity, we're marching through the books of Haggai.

We took two weeks to get through Haggai, chapter one and two, and we're gonna take three weeks to absolutely fly through Zechariah.

Zechariah is the second prophet to call the people of God back to the work of God, back to the work of rebuilding the temple.

As the people of Ezra, Israel were in Jerusalem, this really was the failure of failures.

To not work, to have the presence of God at the very center of the city that God was building.

You and I can fail in many ways, but but if we fail to live in a way that invites the presence of God into our lives, then that is the failure of all failures.

This is why Jesus in Matthew 12 says that the unforgivable sin is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is working throughout the world to shine light on Jesus Christ and to bring about conviction so that his presence can enter into your life.

And if you live in a way that you reject what the Holy Spirit says about Jesus Christ, and you push away the presence of God through the Holy Spirit, then that's the one unforgivable sin because what you are asking is to live without God's presence, and God will grant that to those who do not have faith for all of eternity.

Zechariah comes onto the scene of these people who have experienced really this failure of failures with incredibly good news.

And the good news is this is that God is interested in redemption.

God loves a second chance story more than anyone.

So that wherever God's people fail, what we find throughout scripture, and what we find is still true today, is God is right behind them calling them to return.

You'll notice this morning, as we work through Zechariah chapters 1 to 6, that we have an incredibly large chunk of scripture, and some of you are incredibly worried by that this morning.

Zechariah 1 · chapter mention

I was talking to the worship team this morning and they said, What are you preaching on?

I said, Zechariah 1 to 6, and they said, Oh, how long are we gonna be here?

I said, It's a good thing it's a long weekend.

We can just keep going into tomorrow, and that'll be fine.

You don't need to worry though.

Uh, we're gonna kind of fly over these chapters at a sort of a 50,000-foot level, and we're actually gonna spend a considerable amount of our time in the first six verses.

And then what happens in the next six chapters, from chapter one, verse seven to chapter six, verse eight, is Zechariah in the night receives eight visions from the Lord.

In fact, if you're in Zechariah chapter one with me, would would you just turn flip a few pages with me?

Look at your headings.

I have the ESV Bible, and you'll notice there that from chapter one to chapter six, there are headings that sort of, you know, chunk out these visions for us, and the headings tell us exactly what these visions are about.

And if you were to count them from chapter one to chapter six, verse seven, you would count a total of eight visions.

Now, one of the ways that I could preach this is just to begin reading in Zechariah 1, verse 1, and go to verse chapter 6, verse 7, and then say, that's great, our time is up, and I hope you're blessed this morning.

Zechariah 1:1

But instead of that, I'm gonna read for us chapter 1, verse 1 to verse 6, and then we're gonna summarize the material to chapter 6 in the second point.

Let me read this for us, Zechariah 1, verse 1.

Zechariah 1:1

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Barekiah, the son of Edu, saying, The Lord was very angry with your fathers.

Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts, return to me, says the Lord of hosts.

And I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets cried out, Thus says the Lord of hosts, return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.

But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.

And your fathers, where are they?

And the prophets, do they live forever?

But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?

So they repented and said, As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so he has dealt with us.

Let's turn to the Lord in prayer.

Father, we bow before you.

And God, we just sang such wonderful words about how we will spend all of eternity praising you in the glory of heaven.

And Lord, as we sing those words, our hearts are filled with such joy.

But God, we have a question: how are we going to get there?

Lord, it seems like there is such a long road between where we are now and who you are calling us to be in Jesus Christ.

And so, God, we pray this morning that as you show us the way, Lord, as you, through your prophet Zechariah, show us a vision of what you are doing in your kingdom, the peace that you are bringing about through your rule, God, would you fill us with great confidence that despite our weakness, despite our failures, despite our many struggles with sin, Lord, you are for us in this morning, God, you still call us to return.

In whatever area of life you expose our sin, God, you call us to return to you.

So Lord, we pray for the presence and the power of your Holy Spirit to help us respond to your word, a word of repentance, a word of returning again to your mercy and grace and compassion.

God help us.

Lord, we pray this all in the name of your son.

Amen.

Well, God's offering us a second chance in Zechariah.

And the first thing I want you to see is this is that God offers me a second chance through his gracious word, through his gracious word.

Now, at the center of Zechariah's message is really this word, return.

You see it there in verse 3.

Look at verse 3 of chapter 1.

Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts, and three times the Lord will declare his name in this verse so that you know exactly who is talking.

There's no shadow of a doubt.

This is the Lord.

This is what the Lord of hosts declares, return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

God, time and time again, in the message of Zechariah, is pushing to the very front and center of this reality that he wants his people to return.

Now, this really gives us a principle to understand what Zechariah is talking about.

The visions that we read of in Zechariah are incredibly challenging to interpret.

You have probably read them before, maybe in your yearly Bible study, and you sort of finish it and you say, What is going on here?

One of the visions has to do with a woman who's sitting in a basket and is flying around Jerusalem.

And you look at that story and you say, Well, I have no idea what is this.

What is this basket?

Is it some sort of UFO?

Is it some sort of car, some sort of small, like smart car?

Like, what are we looking at here?

What's the basket that this woman is gonna fly around Jerusalem in?

And as we go through these visions, you find that Zechariah had those same questions too.

Zechariah has these visions, and often what he asks is like, Lord, what am I looking at here?

What does this mean?

The more you study them, the more questions you seem to have.

But the the one principle that needs to drive everything we pull out of here is that the primary thing that God is talking about here is his people returning.

So that all the visions have to do with are a call to God's people to return.

And what ends up happening in these eight visions is God shows us how he is going to make that return possible, how he's going to offer us a second chance.

Well, even as we consider this reality, that when God speaks to his people fresh off of failure, you and I need to be incredibly encouraged by this.

We need to be incredibly encouraged because when God's people are at the lowest of lows, they've stopped doing the work of God, they've abandoned the mission of God.

God doesn't come with a heavy hammer of justice, he comes with a compassionate call to repentance.

He says lovingly, return to me.

And maybe you're here this morning and you're here with this sort of like terror because you know how insufficient you are.

You know how weak you are.

You look past this week and you've just been like, God, this is this has not been the week for me.

Like, this is don't don't take this week into consideration as you look at me because this has just not been my week.

I've not been living for you.

And here God is this morning, every time he speaks to us.

It is a word of grace and a word of compassion.

It's so amazing to think about as you consider all that God had done.

God had moved at a national level, he had changed empires so that he could deliver God's people from Babylon to Jerusalem.

And now God's people are in Jerusalem, and there is not a single person at the foundation of the temple.

If we could do a live cam of the temple foundation right now, it would be crickets.

There would be nothing there.

Dust, cobs, or dust webs, whatever you call them, those spider web thing imajigs that are in Charlotte's web.

Cobwebs, dust cobs, you guys know what I'm talking about.

All over the temple foundation.

Not a single person.

How would you respond?

Like, how do you respond when people don't pull their weight?

Someone in your family doesn't think do the things that you expect them to do.

And what our response should be in light of that, whether like you've been a Christian for 50 minutes or for 50 years, our response should be like, uh, our jaw is on the floor.

God, you are so your grace, it always astounds me.

It always goes deeper than my sin could ever go.

As we think about Israel at this point in history, it even like shocks us further.

I mean, Israel's history has been a list of failure after failure.

There isn't a point, like if you had made a list of everything that Israel did wrong, isn't there a point where God would just look at that list and say, hey, I'm kind of fed up, okay?

It's been long enough.

In fact, what I did, you know, as I was meditating on this, I just made a list of all of Israel's failures up until this point.

And in fact, this is not even close to comprehensive because the reality is you could really turn to your Bible and flip to a random page, and the chances are you will find yourself on a page where Israel is messing up.

That is just Israel's history.

A long list of failure after failure, like when Adam and Eve were created in the perfect garden and disobeyed God's word and ate the fruit that God said would kill them.

Or when Cain murdered his brother Abel.

Or by Genesis 6, where the people are so corrupt that God had to send a worldwide flood, or Genesis 11, where the people are so prideful that they build a tower that they think is better than a tower God could build.

They think they could be better than God.

There's hope when Abraham comes, but Abraham, instead of trusting God, goes to Egypt and twice he lies about Sarah being his sister.

Abraham's son, Jacob, deceives his brother and steals Esau's blessing.

Jacob's children sell their own brother to slavery out of jealousy.

After God delivers Israel from Exodus, they they make a golden calf and bow down to worship it.

And all throughout the desert, their time is filled with complaining and groaning and grumbling.

And two of Israel's leaders, Aaron and Miriam, look at Moses and grumble with God.

God, why have you putting this person in place and keeps going?

God sets up the tabernacle, and Nadab and Abihus offer unauthorized fire before it.

In Numbers 20, Moses, who's doing pretty good at this point, strikes the rock instead of speaking to it and can't enter the promised land.

When they get to the promised land, Achan steals the tribute that was given to the Lord for himself.

And then in Judges, there's seven cycles where God delivers a redeemer, and the people of God, instead of turning to God, turn away from him.

And before Saul, the people grumble because God's not good enough of the king.

Then King Saul comes, he tries to kill God's anointed and chosen chosen person, but that chosen person becomes the king who marries Bathsheba and kills her husband.

And that anointed person has a son whose name is Solomon.

And Solomon takes on foreign wives who cause him to worship foreign gods.

And Jeroboam sets up idols for people to worship in the cities.

And Ahab and Jezebel lead people, God's people in the worship of Baal.

And after the exile, these very people God's speaking to start intermarrying with other people.

And I am out of breath, and you get the point.

Failure after failure.

And God looks to these people.

The list it reaches the ground and rolls on of all their failures, and what does he say return?

So let me ask you then this morning: what does your list look like?

What does your list look like?

And the faith-filled confidence I want you to have is that as as much as you could imagine could go on your list, as far away from God as you could possibly get, the worst possible sin that you could commit when you turn to God, you find Him there saying what He said to the people of Israel, return to me, and I will return to you.

A list so filled with failures that it runs deeper than the infinite grace and mercy of God.

And this message that Zechariah has, a message that is filled with grace, filled with love, filled with patience, is a message to return, to return to God.

In what ways then today might God be calling you to return to him?

Maybe it's this sense of shame that you have that you carry in your life that you feel for not having lived up to his requirement, and you need to hear these words from God, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

And the way that you need to return is to believe that God's grace goes deeper than your shame ever could.

Maybe what you need to turn from is a heart of disbelief that says that the sin you struggle with could never be overcome, and you need to believe God's word that if you return to him, he will return to you.

I want you to understand that these words they also come with a great warning.

See, there is a time coming where God will no longer say return, and for those who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ, the opportunity will be lost.

There's great urgency in Zechariah's words here, and this is why he brings up their fathers, because they likewise stood in a similar position.

And what Zechariah says here is your fathers, they heard God's word and they turned in repentance, and so they were given life.

So why don't you do the same?

You see, the fact that you are here is proof that God is calling you to return.

This is the argument that Paul makes in Romans 2.

Look what it says in Romans 2.

This is going to come up on the screen.

Romans 2, verses 3 and 4.

Romans 2:3

It says, Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance?

That means he's not giving pouring out the wrath on us that we deserve right now, and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

You see, the the question is, why hasn't God judged us for our failures yet?

And the answer is, is because he is being kind.

The fact that you are here and breathing air, take a breath of it in, is a reality that God, by his grace, is offering you a chance to repent.

This is why the author of Hebrew says, Today, if you hear his voice, which you are hearing this morning through the speakers, through the very word of God, the author of Hebrew says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in rebellion, because there is a day coming where you will not hear his voice.

So today is the day for salvation.

I want you to see one more thing here, and that is that the function of God's word is to call us to return.

The primary point of this book is to speak to a people who have abandoned God and show them that redemption is possible through Jesus Christ, and through repentance and faith, they can return to God.

This is what Zechariah is saying in verses four and five.

He says, Your prophets, your fathers, where are their words aren't echoing out in the air anymore.

The prophets, where are they?

They're dead.

Their words aren't in the air anymore.

God spoke through your fathers, God spoke through your prophets, but my word and my statutes are right here calling you to return.

What I want you to understand about this book is twofold.

The first thing I want you to understand is that this book, one of the primary purposes is to tell you about the bad news of the situation that you're in.

You see, so often, as you and I read the Bible, we kind of read it with this mentality of like, I just want something encouraging.

You know, something that I can put on my coffee mug in the morning, and as I sip my coffee, I can just be encouraged with these, you know, light, delightful thoughts.

And that's great.

You know, all of these verses are in the Bible for a reason, but but can I ask you this question?

When was the last time that you opened up God's word and it was like a mirror revealing to you yourself so that you could see your sinfulness and your shortcomings?

When was the last time that you were truly convicted about your own sin through your own personal reading of the word?

See, one of the things that we need to do as we open up God's word is we need to say this, God, tell me the bad news about my life.

Because if you don't know the bad news, you will never be driven to the good news.

If you're told good news and you're not convinced of the situation of the bad news, it's just you just do not care about it.

And what God is doing through his word is showing us really how bad the bad news is.

And so when you pick up this book, let me commend to you that you do this.

You ask the Holy Spirit in a moment of prayer, God, expose me in the ways that you want to expose me.

And you know what God does?

He will slowly and gently reveal your sin.

You don't need to be scared about that.

God's not going to show you it all at once because that would be a terrifying sight.

But as a gracious shepherd, he will reveal thing after thing at the perfect moment when you are ready, so that he can purify you by his word and bring you back to heaven.

Second thing I want you to realize about God's word is that when you read God's word, you need to pick it up, trusting that you are gonna hear God speak through this book.

You'll notice here that one of the many ways that God speaks to Zechariah is through these eight visions that he has.

But what I want you to notice is throughout the Old Testament, the regular way that the people of God hear the word of God is through the words that have been written previously.

In fact, Ezra, when when he restores temple worship, part of that restoration will be that he finds the Torah and he establishes the first five books of the Bible, he establishes Torah worship.

In other words, he finds the words that have already been written and he studies them, trusting that that God's word is relevant for his day, and he institutes the things that have been written.

In fact, all throughout scripture, we find that the primary substance of God's people, hearing his word, is through reading and expositing and understanding the words that have gone before them.

Now we live in an age where everything that God needs to say to us, he has said through his word.

This is what Peter says.

He says that the word is sufficient to do what Christ wants to do in your life.

And the author of Hebrews, this again is going to come up on the screen, says this at the beginning of his book.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, which is speaking of today, he has spoken to us by his son.

God speaks to us by his son, and we're told in the Gospel of John that the Son is the Word of God.

God has spoken.

So I say that to say that part of the application of this message is not that if you want to hear God speak, then you got to start asking for visions and for dreams and for these prophecies that you can interpret because what God has told us through his word is that everything we need is right here.

And some of us need to hear that because we we kind of live this life wanting to hear from God, and God has his word, and he's screaming to us, and he's saying, I've spoken to you.

And we're over here and we're praying, God, please speak to me.

God, I want to hear you.

Just tell me what to do.

And God's looking at you with this giant book in his hands, and he said, I've given you so many words, and you've never even read through the whole thing.

And we're saying, God, just show me the way, speak to me.

And God's saying this, I've spoken.

I mean, is your belief in God's word so strong and profound that you believe that for God to read God's word is the very same thing as if God were in the room?

That's what the scriptures say about God's word, that this book is God breathe.

So listen, if if you're reading this book and and God shows up and he speaks to you with an audible voice, which voice is more important?

It's a trick question.

This is the voice of God.

God is speaking to us through his word.

So listen, when you read his word, when you wake up and you get before his word, are you standing before the word of God in the scriptures as though you are standing before God?

You know what happens to me as I as I think about this, I'm filled with this conviction of like so often I just come to the word, like, okay, what's my reading for today?

I'll read it.

Okay, I didn't get anything out of that, I'm out of here.

And here is God, like He's like, you just sat at the table with me, and that was your attitude.

You just showed up to church where the scriptures are being exposited, and and you just sort of slumped there.

You didn't really listen, you didn't you don't really care, you didn't really fight to give your attention.

I am speaking, God says, through my word.

Next thing I want you to see is this God's God's giving us a second chance, and and we first see it through his gracious word.

But the second thing I want you to see is that God calls us to return to himself and gives us a second chance through his sovereign rule.

Now, what we find over the next six chapters is that the the prophet Isaiah is given a series of eight visions in the night.

And as we read through these visions, the sense that we get as we read them is that God is in sovereign control.

He knows everything that's happening on the earth.

And at any given moment, in a number of the visions, uh he sends horses to the ends of the earth so that he knows exactly what's happening, but he also controls everything that's happening.

He judges all the inhabitants of the earth, he runs all the affairs of the earth.

The picture that this these visions primarily present is of a God who is in control.

And I think what Zechariah is being shown through these visions is that just as God was in sovereign control to uh redeem Israel from the Babylonian captivity, he is also in sovereign control as they build the temple to accomplish his mission.

So let's do some flipping with me.

Just turn along in your Bible with me as we do this.

We won't read any specific verse, but I at least want you to see where these verses are.

You can study them yourself this week, or at least the act of flipping will be some cardio for you in this moment.

First, we have a vision of a horseman in chapter 1, verse 7 to 17.

And here the horsemen are patrolling the earth and they come back to God and they report peace.

And it's the symbol of God's awareness that he will be merciful to Jerusalem, and he has promised to restore it.

There's no peace in Jerusalem now.

It's covered with enemies, but as God looks at Jerusalem, he knows his plan and he knows that he will bring about peace.

The next vision we have is in chapter 1 and starts at verse 18.

It's a vision of the horns and craftsmen.

In this vision, there are four horns that are scattered that scattered Israel.

These horns are the enemy nations of God, but they are countered then by four craftsmen who then judge Israel's oppressors and re-establish God's plan to rebuild Jerusalem.

In chapter two, we have the vision of a man with a measuring line.

And this man with a measuring line in Jerusalem signifies it's God's intention to protect the city and to expand the walls of Jerusalem with his presence as a wall of fire around it.

It's an amazing problem.

You know, Israel would be amazed to hear this vision that Jerusalem they're in right now.

It's filled with God's enemies, and the temple is just a foundation, a dusty foundation with what do we call them, spider cobs on them.

And God is going to do such a marvelous work in Jerusalem that there's going to be so many people streaming in that they gotta expand the walls of the temple to fit everybody in.

Well, after that in chapter three, we read of the vision of Joshua the high priest.

And Joshua is cleansed and he's reinstated, and this really symbolizes God's power to purify his people and appoint righteous leaders.

Now, are you with me in Zechariah 3?

No one's fallen asleep.

Nudge your neighbor right now, nudge your neighbor.

Listen, this is deep, I know, but it's good to understand God's word.

And sometimes we need to do a deep sort of flyover like this.

Chapter 4, there's another key figure in this vision, and that's Zerubbabel.

And in this vision, there is a golden lampstand, and there's olive trees there, and it really depicts that God is going to fill the center of the temple with his presence through this man, Zerubbabel.

That is what the olive tree in the temple, or the olive did in the temple.

They they lit the candle of God so that the light was there, and the light symbolized the presence of God in the midst of the temple, and that would be incredibly encouraging to the people to know that the presence of God would be in their midst again.

In chapter five, you'll see there that there's a vision of the flying scroll.

Here, a flying scroll is inscribed with curses, and it represents God's judgment against sin and his commitment to righteousness.

Again, in chapter five, we have another vision, my favorite vision that I've already spoken about, the vision of a woman in the basket.

A woman represents the wickedness and is confined in a basket and transported to Babylon.

And it's sort of the symbol of the fact that God is going to remove sin from the presence of Jerusalem and deliver judgment for sin on the enemies of Jerusalem.

Finally, in chapter six, we have a vision of four chariots, and these four chariots are patrolling the earth, and they symbolize for us God's judgment and control over all nations.

Now, let me say a few things about these visions.

The first is that the more you seek to understand these visions, often the more questions you have.

In fact, I love in Zechariah chapter four, which perhaps is one of the visions that we're more most familiar with.

You'll notice there in verse six a verse that you've likely heard before, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Well, that is given to as an answer to a question that Zechariah never really asked.

You see, Zechariah is shown in this vision two olive trees.

In verse 3, we see one is on the right of the bowl, and one other is on the left.

And it says that he said to the angel who talked with me, What are these, Lord?

And that is a perfect question that as we read through these visions, we we kind of ask, and Zechariah's always asked, like, what are these olive trees doing here?

We have that same question when we we have dreams of our own, don't we?

Well, you'll notice then that the angel who talked with Zechariah said, Do you not know what these are?

And Zechariah is filled with anticipation.

No, no, I mean that's why I asked, angel of the Lord.

That's why I asked, What are they?

But the angel never actually answers him.

Instead, he says, Not by might nor by power, but my my spirit declares the Lord of hosts.

And here, Zechariah is sort of filled with like he does, he never gets an answer, but he is given the content of the message.

And I just say that to say that as you and I read through scripture, it is okay to not understand what some things mean.

You and I will never have a comprehensive understanding of every single line of scripture.

And some of you need to kind of just like be relieved of this burden you have when you read God's word to understand everything that's absolutely being said.

You know what you gotta do?

Probably 99% of the time, if you're gonna be a good student of God's word, 99% of the time when you read something, you gotta say, hmm, that is really interesting.

Well, moving on.

You gotta tackle the the issues that you need to tackle, be very focused in them.

But have sort of this willingness to read scripture and not necessarily understand everything.

Listen, I have my bachelor's of theology, I have my master's of divinity, I've spent all sorts of time hanging around smart people, and I'm not boasting in any way because I just called a spider web a spider cob.

I got nothing to boast of in terms of intellect.

And yet I'm telling you that there is much of scripture I don't understand, and that is okay.

That means one of the things that we need to make sure we don't do as we read these visions is try to understand which each and every item represents.

What Zechariah is doing is telling Israel a story through these visions.

Now, as you and I tell stories, we have a way to do that.

The primary way you and I tell stories is we start at the beginning and then it climaxes, you know, sort of throughout.

Now I need to really teach, you know, the members of my family this because the climax part is really important.

You gotta keep me engaged in the story.

But then there's a climax, and then very quickly the story sort of wraps up.

Is that right?

That's sort of the typical way that you think about a movie.

That's the typical way that the movie goes.

It's grabbing our attention more and more and more, climaxing to this point, and then it very quickly ends.

Everything sort of points to the ending of the movie.

Sometimes even the very last scene, like that is the most important scene.

And the the writers of the ancient Near East, they they love to use that so that many of the stories we read, of the Hebrew stories, work like that.

They have a beginning, they have an end, and they sort of work linear through that story.

But there's another storytelling, sort of literary tool that the ancient Near East would use, and it's called chiasm.

As you think of chiasm, you think of the letter X.

And the letter X, the center of it, as you tell a story with chiasm, is the very most important part.

And you'll what you'll notice as you begin to study these visions is that these eight visions are given to us in a chiasm, so that the first vision and the eighth vision are related to each other.

And then the second and the third, and the seventh and the sixth vision are related to each other.

And all of them point to the very center, the fourth and the fifth vision that Zechariah receives.

Now we're gonna get into this chiasm and understand exactly what Zechariah is saying very briefly.

But what I want you to understand through these visions is that God is giving us a look at how He is going to accomplish, by His sovereign power, giving these people a second chance.

You see, these people are in Jerusalem, their enemies are around them, and this vision is going to end in the final vision where the people of God have peace in Jerusalem and all around the world.

The chariot goes to the very end of the world, and what does he return with?

A message of peace.

That would be incredibly hard to imagine.

It would be incredibly hard to imagine in today's age.

Could you imagine a chariot going around the world and with all the conflict that's in the world right now?

Saying, Yes, there's peace.

And we'd say to the chariot, Well, listen, did you watch the debates last week in the States?

It does not seem like peace is coming to me.

But God is saying that He's gonna act in a way to bring about peace for His people.

He's gonna use His power to give us a second chance in heaven.

Now, isn't that what we want from a leader?

As you and I look for leaders, and it's hard to find this day and age, isn't it?

Don't we look for a leader who will actually put the interests of the people first?

A leader who will bear a great weight of suffering and sacrifice at times so that the people can prosper.

That's what we want.

That's the sort of political leader we're attracted by, that's the sort of business leader we want to work under.

Those are the sort of heroes we read of in stories that we like and aspire to.

We want a leader who will fight for us, and I want you to understand this that there is no leader like Jesus Christ.

All of the attributes of a leader who would do that are found and packaged up in Jesus Christ.

See that through these visions.

Now, notice that the first and the eighth vision, God is using his rule to bring about peace.

We're gonna bring up some little substructure here, hopefully help you to follow along.

He's offering us peace in the first and the eighth vision.

In vision one, we have this peace before judgment, but in vision eight, something has happened so that the four chariots have come from the north, and even there there's no enemies to be found.

Now that is striking because I want your help here.

Can you I just want you to help me preach?

I want you to gasp for me for a moment, okay?

It whenever the Israel Heard of someone coming from the north.

They had this reaction because their enemies always came from the north.

And so if you were Israel and I was telling you something about the north, you would gasp at this moment.

Are you ready?

People are coming from the north.

That's how Israel responded.

Now that's great.

We got more oxygen in our brain.

Let's keep going here.

Now in vision 8, these chariots go to the north, the place where God's enemies always came, and they report peace.

All of the enemies have been vanquished.

This is what we talked about.

You know, when we were singing that last song, my mind was going to hear where like God is going to bring us to a point where we dwell in a land where there is no enemy.

There's no external enemy trying to threaten us, but like our sin is dealt with.

There's nothing tearing us away from the presence of God.

There's just everywhere you look, there's peace.

You know, I was talking to my kids this morning, and we're talking about how the new heavens are gonna meet the earth, and that heaven's really gonna be where we are right now.

Now, listen, some of you are like, what are you talking about?

And it's another sermon series that I'm delivering to my kids right now.

But I was telling them about this, and they looked at the grass and they said, Is this grass gonna be here?

And I looked at the grass, and you know, I'm really trying to get this grass greener and it's filled with crabgrass and dandelions, and I said, No, like this grass is gonna be here, but it's gonna be perfectly green.

Can you imagine that, gardeners?

There's not gonna be a single weed to pick.

Can you imagine that, fishers?

There's not gonna be a single log to catch your hook on.

Everything, every enemy is going to be vanquished.

There will be nothing but peace in heaven.

God is working to restore this peace.

And the question is, how is he gonna do it?

Well, what we see then in visions two and three, and then six and seven, again, this point is gonna come up on the screen, is that God is working for peace through purification.

Through purification.

So you notice that in vision two and three.

In vision two, four horns come to terrify the nations.

In vision three, Jerusalem becomes so strong that the nations feel or flee to it for safety, and its walls need to be expanded.

What's happening in vision two and three is God is establishing peace from Israel's external enemies.

And then as we get to vision six and seven, we find a different enemy is dwelt with.

That's the internal enemies.

The people of God are purified.

You know, it's one thing to get Israel out of Babylon, it's another thing to get Babylon out of Israel.

And God will do both.

He will purify his people from their enemies, both without and within.

God's fighting for peace through purification, but here's the most important thing I want you to notice.

All of this chiasm centers on these two visions right in the middle, the fourth and the fifth vision.

God is fighting for peace through his purification, through his chosen person.

It is so significant then that we're told in vision four, which is chapter three, of a priest who would be pure enough to stand in the very presence of God.

Should be Joshua, the priest, who would be purified of his sin, and he would be a sufficient priest for the people of God.

He would be able to intercede like no other priest was ever able to before.

You know, these priests, their problem was that they had sin of their own.

And God said, I will deliver a priest who will be so pure he will be able to stand in my presence.

Then in vision five, we're told of a king.

We're told of a king who is like Zerubbabel, who will come and finally establish the temple of God.

You know, Solomon was a king who established the first temple, but his temple didn't stand.

And Zerubbabel, we were told last week in Haggai, would become a king, but but we know history says his temple wouldn't stand.

And so what Zechariah envisioned was a king that was coming, whose temple would be established and whose kingdom would not stop.

And it is so significant that what Israel was to do then, if they were to return to God, they were to put their eyes on two people, a priest who would be pure, and a kingdom, a king whose kingdom could not be stopped.

And then 400 years later, a voice cried out in the wilderness.

And what did that voice say?

Repent.

Return, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Is it not so significant that the first message that Jesus preached when he came to earth was a message, return to me, return to me, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus would be the priest who was pure enough to stand in the Holy of Holies, so that on that day that he died, the curtain tore from top to bottom, and the presence of God was available through the priesthood of Jesus Christ to all who would believe in him.

Jesus is the king who would go to the promised land and will deliver us to heaven, so that now Jesus is reigning with his new resurrected body.

He's the firstborn of the resurrection because he has already won for us as our king and our ruler what we are looking forward to in heaven.

How do we return?

The answer is Jesus.

There is only one way.

We turn to Jesus.

How will you be made whole?

How will you be given a second chance?

There is only one way.

It is Jesus.

You get near to him, you spend every day and every minute of the day turning to him.

You give your life to the praise of Jesus Christ because he is doing a work in you.

He is bringing you from the Wilbur-like runt that you are.

Go home and tell everyone.

My pastor called me a pig this morning.

But he is turning you from a runt to something beautiful.

If you will just turn to him, he will return to you.

It's not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

Charlotte was both.

Wilbur was what is known as a spring pig, which means simply that he was born in the springtime.

When he was five weeks old, Mr.

Arable said he was now big enough to sell and would have sold him if Fern had not begged for his life and saved him from an untimely death.

That was a long time ago.

And Wilbur had grown quite a bit.

He was a very mature pig now, and he had not been a runt for a long, long time.

You know, if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you will look back to these days and you will say, I had a friend who fought for my life.

I had a friend who, even though I was a runt, he fought to purify me.

And that was a long, long time ago.

Now I am mature, I am fully grown in heaven to be like Jesus Christ, and it is all because of him.

So for all of eternity, all of us whose faith is in Jesus Christ will say, Praise Jesus Christ for the work he has done and the way that he interceded for my life when I turned back to him.

Could you pray with me?

Father, we thank you.

God, we thank you for Jesus Christ.

That you have called us to return.

But Lord, those words would be so hopeless if we didn't have a way.

And so you sent your own son so that when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, we can be made whole.

God, thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for your grace.

Thank you that you are doing this work right now in our midst.

Through your word, Lord, even as we sing the song of praise, Lord, you are doing this work to purify us and sanctify us and to make us beautiful in your sight, so that when we are presented before you on the day that you return, we will be presented full of splendor.

Even though there are times where we were so stained with sin.

God, you're doing a work.

You're such a wonderful friend.

So we thank you, Lord, for your mercy and your grace.

And we pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.