Zechariah

Good afternoon church. Today we're going to be the

scripture reading is going to be from the book of Zechariah be

starting in chapter 1 verses one through 6 in the eighth month in

the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the

prophet Zechariah, the son of Berekaya, son of Edo, saying the

Lord was very angry with your father's.

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 father's 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 your Father's. Where are they?

And the prophets? Do they live forever?

But my words and my statutes which I committed, my servants

and the prophets, did they not overtake your Father's?

So they repented and said, as the Lord of Hosts purpose to

deal with us for our ways and deeds, so He has dealt with us.

In chapter 3. Then he showed me Joshua the

high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan

standing at his right hand to accuse him.

And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the

Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you.

Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?

Now Joshua was standing before the Angel, clothed with filthy

garments. And the Angel said to those who

were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him.

And he said to him, And to him he said, Behold, I have taken

your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure

vestments here now, oh, Joshua the high priest, you and your

friends who sit before you there, for they are men who are

a sign. Behold, I will bring my servant

the branch. For behold, on the stone that I

have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I

will engrave. It's an inscription declares the

Lord of Hosts. And I will remove the iniquity

of this land in a single day. In the Angel who talked with me

came again and woke me like a man who is awakened out of his

sleep. And he said to me, What do you

see? I said, I see.

And behold A lampstand all of gold, with a bow on the top of

it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps

that are on top of it. And there are 2 olive trees by

it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.

And I said to the Angel who talked with me, What are these

my Lord and the Angel? Then the Angel who talked with

me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are?

I said no my Lord. Then he said to me, This is the

word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but

by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts, Where are you, O great

mountain? Before the Zerubbabel?

You shall become a plane, and he shall bring forth the stone amid

the shouts of grace, grace to it.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, The hands of

Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house.

His hands shall also come pleaded.

Then you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to you.

For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice,

and shall see the Plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

Chapter 6, verse 11 Take from them silver and gold, and make

him a, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua the son

of Jehovah. Deck the high priest, and say to

him, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold a man whose name

is the branch. For he I'll sit, for he shall

branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the

Lord. It is he who shall build the

temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit

and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on

his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be with shall be

between them both. In the word of the Lord came to

Zechariah saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, render true

judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another.

Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or

the poor. And let none of you devise evil

against another. And in your heart in Chapter 9,

verse 9, rejoice greatly. O daughter of Zion, shout aloud.

O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your King is coming to you,

righteous in having salvation. Is he humble and mounted on a

donkey on a coat and the foal, The foal of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim.

And what? The warehouse from Jerusalem.

And the battle bat bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak

peace to the nation's. His rule shall be from sea to

sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Chapter 11. Verse 12.

Then I said to them, If it seems good to you, give me my wages,

but if not, keep them. And they weighed out as my wages

30 pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, Throw

it to the Potter, the Lordy price at which I was priced by

them. So I took the 30 pieces of

silver and threw them into the House of the Lord to the Potter.

1210 And I will pour out on those.

And I will pour out on the House of David in the inhabitants of

Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy.

So that when they look on me, on whom they have peers, they shall

mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly

over him as one weeps over a first born.

On that day the morning in Jerusalem will be as great as

the morning for her dad Ramon in the plain of Megiddo. 13 verse

one. On that day there shall be a

fountain open for those open for the House of David in the

inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and

uncleanliness. Awake, O sword, against my

shepherd, against the man who stands next to me, declares the

Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the

sheep will be scattered. I will turn my hand against the

little ones in 14, verse 6. On that day there shall be no

light, cold or frost, and there shall be a unique day which is

known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time

there shall be light. On that day living water shall

flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the Eastern Sea, and

half of them to the Western Sea. It shall continue in summer as

in winter, and the Lord will be king over all the earth on that

day. Lord will be 1 as His name. 1 is

the word of the Lord. All right.

Good afternoon. Poor city, family, friends.

How we doing? Good.

My name is Kevin. I'm one of the pastors here and

it is a joy to be with you. And I'm looking forward to

working through the book of Zechariah with you today.

We've been in a series on the minor prophets and last week

John walked us through the book of Haggai, who is a contemporary

of Zechariah, a book that we'll be looking at today.

Both Haggai and Zechariah spoke to God's people in Jerusalem

after their return from exile, about 500 years before the birth

of Christ. The people have been given a

clear task to rebuild the temple, but that work had

stalled for more than 15 years. They were facing some real

challenges, financial strain, political pressure and social

discouragement. And the ruined temple had become

a visible picture of something deeper, a community that was

struggling, weary, and far from what it once was.

Though many had returned, Jerusalem was still a shadow of

its of its former glory. And that's the setting into

which Zechariah speaks. And it's not that different from

our own. Hardship, disappointment,

frustration are all common to us in a world broken by sin.

Many of you have likely walked in here this afternoon carrying

burdens that had left you feeling worn down, maybe

hopeless. You find yourself asking

questions like, Does God see what's going on in my life?

Does He understand the weight that I'm carrying?

Does he care? Will He act?

How am I supposed to live while I wait on Him?

And what do you do when obedience feels small, slow, and

insignificant? Zechariah's name points us

toward the answer to those questions.

His name means Yahweh has remembered.

God has not forgotten His people, and He had not forgotten

His promises, and He hasn't forgotten you.

He sees you, He knows you, He loves you, and He will

ultimately and eternally come through for those who place

their hope in Him. Through Zechariah, God gives His

people a vision for the future Kingdom to fuel their obedience

in the here and now. The main idea for us today is

this. God calls his weary people to

repent and trust Him by giving them a vision of His coming king

and Kingdom. We can trace the main message of

this book through three movements.

First, the king, the Kingdom, is entered through repentance.

Second, the Kingdom is secured by God's work, not ours.

And thirdly, the Kingdom comes through the branch, our priest

king. So first the Kingdom is entered

through repentance. The book of Zechariah opens with

a call to repentance. Therefore say to them, chapter

one, verse 3. 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 father's, 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.

A few years ago I got my first pair of noise cancelling

headphones, and I was amazed at how completely they could shut

off the outside world with them all.

You can lock in on whatever you want to listen to while

everything else fades away. Even if nothing is playing in

your headphones, that noise around you is almost entirely

gone. There's also a danger with that.

It comes very easy to be unaware of what's actually happening

around you, and you can be so focused on one thing that you

miss something important right in front of you.

And unless someone steps in to get your attention, you just

keep going, completely oblivious.

In a similar way, sin has a way of dulling our awareness.

We can become so tuned into our own desires, priorities, and

distractions that we stop hearing God all together.

And that's exactly what happened to God's people.

For many years, the prophets had been calling them to turn from

their evil ways again and again. They were warned that judgement

was coming if they refused. But they heard only what they

wanted to hear. They became disconnected from

reality, blind to the seriousness of their sin and the

certainty of God's judgement. And judgement did come.

The people of Judah, the very place where Jerusalem stood,

were sent into exile. For 70 years.

The prophets had been like someone tapping them on the

shoulder, trying to wake them up, but they ignored it.

Repentance is that moment when your awareness is finally

restored and you realize you've been out of step with reality

and you turn back to God and what truly matters.

The same root word for repented in verse 6 is used in verse 3

and 4 where it says return. The idea of repentance includes

both turning from sin and turning to God.

Guilt and shame are one of the ways that the Spirit taps us on

the shoulder to make us aware of the reality of our sin and the

coming judgement. But they're not the same thing

as repentance. Apologizing isn't enough either.

Anyone who has ever received an I'm sorry for someone that has

gone on to do the same thing again and again can attest to

that. Repentance involves turning away

from sin and turning to God. Unless the people of Jerusalem

heard and responded to the call of repentance, it wouldn't

matter what Zechariah said in the rest of the book.

That's why he starts with repentance.

Repentance is the prerequisite for any work that God is

intending to do in our lives. But please don't misunderstand

me. Terrible things can happen in

our lives. Maybe they're happening right

now, not for lack of repentance, but because of the present

reality of the broken and fallen world in which we live.

Experience and hardship does not always mean a call to

repentance. God has not changed His mind

about the necessity of repentance.

It's not strictly an Old Testament idea.

When John the Baptist shows up in the Judean countryside, he

comes saying repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.

Shortly afterward, Jesus begins his earthly ministry when he

comes out of the wilderness saying repent for the Kingdom of

heaven is at hand. You might want to pump some

other message through your headphones, but this is the

reality of life and the message that we need to hear.

But repentance is not just a one time thing, it's an ongoing

attitude of the heart. Luther wrote in his the first of

his 95 theses that when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said

repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be 1 of

repentance. We see this call to repentance

not only in the beginning of the book, but all throughout.

We're called to a consistent and ongoing turning away from sin

and turning to God. When we do, we will find God

right there waiting for us. Only those who repent will enter

the Kingdom of God. Before we look into the future

that Zechariah paints for us, we need to look in the mirror.

What areas of our lives do we need to agree with God about our

sin? Turn from it and turn to Him.

And when you do repent, you ought not congratulate yourself

about it. The Bible teaches us that

repentance is both a requirement and a gift, a human

responsibility and a sovereign work of God.

Secondly, the Kingdom is secured by God's work, not ours.

In chapters one through 6, Zechariah details 8 visions he

received in a single night. Now, we're not going to walk

through all the 8 visions in detail.

Instead, it helps to see how they're structured.

They're arranged symmetrically, almost like folding them in

half, so that the corresponding visions reflect similar themes.

Visions 2 and seven address the exile of God's people.

Visions 3 and 6 focus on the restoration of Jerusalem, but at

the center of the visions are visions four and five in

chapters 3 and 4, where the structure clearly highlights

that these are the most important, the most critical

visions that Zechariah is called to proclaim.

These focus on Israel's leaders in the rebuilding effort,

Joshua, who is the high priest, and Zerubbabel who was the

governor, and these emphasize how God will accomplish his

purposes through them. Through these signs, Zechariah

is showing you that you cannot fix yourself.

God must act. We'll see that we need the Lord

to cleanse us, and we need the Lord to empower us.

Cleanse and empower. First, let's turn to the vision

centered on Joshua, beginning in chapter 3.

Here we find Satan standing beside Joshua, who is covered in

filth, in filth. And it's not just dirt, it's

something that's far worse, symbolizing his own sin and the

sin of the people that he represents.

Satan is standing to the right of Joshua, accusing him.

The question is obvious. How can someone so defiled stand

before a holy God? He can't.

Satan knows it, and Joshua knows it.

By all accounts, Joshua should be condemned.

But instead of rebuking Joshua, the Lord rebukes Satan.

Why? Because he's chosen Jerusalem as

his own. Like a brand that is snatched

from a fire, God rescues his people before they're consumed.

Then he does something remarkable.

Look at verse 4 of chapter 3. The Angel said to those who are

standing before him, Remove the filthy garments from him.

And he said, And to him, he said, Behold, I have taken your

iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure

vestments. Joshua's filthy garments are

replaced by a flawless, perfect covering as a visible sign that

his sin has been taken away. God does for Joshua and for the

people that he represents what could never be done for

themselves. Nothing Joshua or the people of

God could do was able to wipe away the stain of their idolatry

and rebellion against the Lord. Any effort on their part to

remove the stain of their sins by doing good works would only

make things worse. It'd be like sending a robotic

vacuum to clean a house after a pet has made a mess on the

carpet. But instead of fixing the

problem, it just spreads it everywhere.

What was once a single blemish is now smeared across the floor.

The very thing meant to cleanse only made it worse.

That's the picture here. Joshua isn't slightly dirty.

He's completely defiled, and anything that he might try to do

to clean himself up would only spread the problem, not solve

it. He doesn't need improvement, he

needs intervention. He doesn't need to try harder,

He needs someone else to make him clean.

So it is with us. Our sin has defiled us before

the Lord, and Satan would be right to accuse us.

And yet, if we belong to him, God.

Cleans us. He clothes us in the

righteousness of Christ so that we can stand before Him.

Some of you might feel the weight of your own sin even now.

You know that you're not clean. You need to hear this.

The Lord makes sinners clean. You can't do it yourself, and if

you try, you'll only make it worse.

Others of you assume that you're fine.

You believe you stand righteous before God on your own merit.

But Scripture is clear. All have sinned and fall short

of the glory of God. And our sin is not small because

of how it compares to others. It is serious because of who it

is against. Every sin is an offense to a

holy God who is infinitely worthy of your worship.

Only the Lord can remove the stain of your sin.

Now let's turn to the vision centered on Zerubbabel,

beginning in chapter 4. Here's Zacharias sees a vision

of a lampstand flanked on either side by two olive trees

representing Joshua and Zerubbabel, the leaders of those

in Jerusalem. These trees supply a continual

flow of oil, keeping the lamps burning without any

intervention. Though the trees symbolize

Jerusalem's Jerusalem's leaders, the point is clear.

The work will not be accomplished by their strength

or ability. Look at verse 6.

Then he said to me, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel,

not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of

hosts, Who are you, O great mountain?

Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plane, and he shall

bring forward the top stone and make shouts of grace, grace to

it. The task before Zerubbabel, the

rebuilding of the temple, will indeed be completed.

But when it's finished, the credit will not go to human

effort. It will be unmistakably clear

that this is the work of God's Spirit from beginning to end.

And when the temple is completed, the people will not

boast in themselves, but cry out grace, grace to it,

acknowledging that it was God's favor, not their strength, that

brought it to pass. And yet not everyone will see it

that same way. There will be shouts of joy, but

there also be tears of sorrow. Those who remember the former

glory of Solomon's temple will see this rebuilt temple as a day

of small things. But this temple points forward

to something greater. 1 is coming a descendant of

Zerubbabel that we find in Matthew chapter one verse 13,

who will not merely rebuild a physical structure, but he

himself will embody the true temple of the Lord, clothed in a

glory that far surpasses Solomon's temple.

By the Spirit of God. He will build His church,

serving as both the cornerstone and the capstone.

It's beginning and it's end, drawing to Himself all who trust

in Him. To be cleansed and made new.

The kind of work that needs to be done in our lives is an

impossible thing for us to do on our own.

Jesus makes that plain in John 15 verse five.

He says apart from me you can do nothing, not some things,

nothing. That's exactly what Zechariah is

showing us. Just as the rubble would rebuild

the temple, not by might or power, but by the Spirit of the

Lord, so the work God does in US cannot be accomplished by human

strength or willpower. What God commands, He Himself

must empower the Word. The work of the work that the

Lord wants to do in and through your life can only be

accomplished by His Spirit. He needs to move in order to

open your eyes to your sin and your need for him.

He must work to bear fruit and keep him with repentance, making

you more like Jesus. And it is only by His Spirit

that you will be empowered to bear a gospel witness to others

where you live, work and play. Are you relying on Him or on

your own strength? This is the message of

Zechariah. The work of God will not be

accompanied accomplished by human strength, but by his, by

the Spirit of the Lord. And when God finishes work,

finishes His work, No one will boast in human effort, only in

His grace. So the Kingdom is entered

through repentance. The Kingdom is secured by God's

work, not ours. And finally the Kingdom comes

through the branch, our priest king.

In the second part of Zechariah 3, we find a reference to the

branch. Verse 8. second-half of verse 8

says, Behold, I will send my servant the branch. second-half

of nine says, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a

single day. He tells us more about the

branch in chapter 6, where he says in verse 12, Behold the man

whose name is the branch, for he shall branch out from this

place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.

It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall

bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne, and

there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace

shall be between them both. The branch is the Messiah, the

priest king, who will make a way and usher the people of God into

the eternal Kingdom, where He will rule forever.

Zechariah is calling us not just to belief in promises, but to

trust in Christ. You need more than an abstract

hope. You need a personal Savior.

In the back half of the book, we get more information about the

One who is to come. When Matthew was writing his

Gospel, he needed an interpretive lens through which

he might be able to better understand the events leading up

to Jesus's death. The Spirit helped him to see

that in Zechariah he had been pointed to the Messiah, Jesus

all along. We see about the Messiah that he

is a humble king coming on a donkey.

We see him as a betrayed shepherd sold at the price of a

slave, and as a pierced son whose blood opened a fountain

for cleansing. Let's look at each of those

three quickly. In Zechariah Chapter 9, verse 9,

Zechariah 9:9

we see the humble king rejoice greatly.

O daughter of Zion, shout aloud. O daughter of Jerusalem, behold,

your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation.

Is he humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a

donkey? Jesus came the first time as a

humble king, gentle and lowly. He rode into into Jerusalem, not

to conquer a Kingdom, but to be slaughtered so that his Kingdom

would come to those who would put their hope in Him.

In Zechariah 11 verses 12 and 13 we see the rejected shepherd.

Zechariah 11:12

Then I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages,

but if not, keep them. And they weighed out as my

wages, 30 pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, Throw

it to the Potter, the lordy price at which I priced I was

prized by them. So I took the 30 pieces of

silver and threw it to the into the House of the Lord, to the

Potter. Matthew, although he attributes

this passage to Jeremiah and not Zachariah because they both are,

what he shares is he draws from both Zechariah and Jeremiah

gives credit to the more major prophet.

He clearly sees this as a reference to the price of

betrayal paid by Judas. According to Exodus 2132, thirty

pieces of silver is the value of a slave.

Jesus was sold that he might be so.

Jesus was sold that He might purchase us by His blood.

Which leads us to Zechariah 12/10, where we see the pierced

son. Verse 10 B says, When they look

on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for

Him, as one mourns for an only child, and we bitterly over him

as one weeps over a first born. And then in chapter 13, verse

one, on that day there shall be a fountain open for the House of

David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from

sin and uncleanness. Because Jesus was pierced, you

and I can be cleansed. The splendid clothes that we are

offered instead of our filthy rags are the righteousness of

Christ. We are cleansed by the fountain

of His blood and clothed by Him. As we consider these things, may

they sustain us and give us the strength we need to repent, to

trust in Christ, and to obey Him in the midst of our everyday

lives by the power of His Spirit.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that you spoke to Zachariah 500 years before

Christ was on the earth. God painting a picture of what

he would look like and what he would do.

God, we thank you as we approach Easter next week for the

sacrifice of Christ and what it accomplishes for those who trust

in him. God, if there are those this

morning who have not yet trusted you, God, may they see you as

you are God. May they see the gospel is true

and beautiful, and may they confess God.

May we confess our sins to you, God.

May we repent and be made new by your Spirit.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen.