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Pastor Aaron Preaching
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Barber - Beth Divorce
Text – Zechariah 14:16-21
So here we are in the end of Zechariah. We looked at about half of it last week, which was largely the battle for earth, and my major goal today was to look at the result of the battle, but after looking at it some more, I think it will benefit us to go back over some basic things from the battle.
Let's do some context beforehand, when was Zechariah written? 522-518 BC. How much of Zechariah has already taken place? About 12/14ths of it, chapters 1-12 were mostly prophecy for Christ's first coming, which he fulfilled perfectly, give me a few prophecies he fulfilled to the letter from chapters 1-12. Humble and riding on a donkey; priest and king; blood of the covenant poured out; the removal of sin in a single day; good shepherd; sold for 30 pieces of silver; pierced; etc. Chapter 13 we remember is about sanctification, either progressive within the church or perfect in Heaven. And now, how much of Chapter 14 has occurred already? Very little if any. It may be that the regaining of Jerusalem in 1967 was a fulfillment for verse 1, but until the rest of this prophecy happens I don't think we can say for sure, because this is certainly a prophecy bundle and I believe it will happen exceedingly literally, so we don't want to tear little chunks off it, but rather look at it as a whole.
When do you think the end is going to happen? This afternoon? May? 2012? I don't believe this can happen anytime soon, there are several major events that have to happen, world peace under an Antichrist has to happen, a temple has to be built in Jerusalem, and the Antichrist has to declare himself to be God and then betray Israel before the end can come. The earliest this can happen is probably 10 years, or it could be a lot longer. Knowing that the end is near, but not within the next five minutes should cause us to live how? With urgency, but purpose, seeking to bring others into the kingdom and live lives that honor Christ.
I think before we begin, it would behoove us to reread the entire chapter to give ourselves a good context of what is going on.
Zechariah 14:1-21 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 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 waters shall flow out 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 the LORD will be one and his name one. The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security. And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps. Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD." And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.
Just briefly I want to go over the first battle in this passage, where Jerusalem is sacked, all hope is lost, and at the last minute Christ returns, stepping onto the Mount of Olives, splitting it in two, and providing salvation for a whole bunch of Jews who will be converted at that exact moment. Christ goes out to war, and he goes violently, but this is not the battle of Armageddon, the final battle. We know it's not the battle of Armageddon for one very simple purpose, any guesses? Armageddon is the name of a place, and this battle is not fought there, it is fought at Jerusalem.
Christ is going to establish Jerusalem in peace before he will make a complete end of his enemies. At this point he radically changes the landscape of Israel,
vv.8-10 On that day living waters shall flow out 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 the LORD will be one and his name one. The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security.
Jerusalem, which is on a little hill called Zion which is on a mountain range, will suddenly be the tallest thing in Israel, like it is on a pedestal. The measurements here show us that this is not a vision, but a real event with real dimensions and something we should look for a literal fulfillment of.
The water flowing from the temple in Jerusalem is explained much better in Ezekiel 47, though the fact that Zechariah describes it makes us think it will also be literal; though in Ezekiel 47 it certainly has a spiritual factor to it as well.
Ezekiel 47:1-12 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing."
What happens here is set in peace time, probably after the final battle, though we see that the waters start flowing before the end in Zechariah. Ezekiel looks at this new stream that starts right at the door of the temple, which takes several Messianic prophecies and squishes them together, that Christ is the temple, he is the source of Living Water, the fountain opened, and the door. This little stream, which has been seen by more than one theologian to represent salvation, starts as a trickle, but as it flows for miles and time it gets deeper and deeper and deeper, and it ultimately flows to the Dead Sea, overflows it, and then flows into the gulf of Aqaba and then ultimately into the whole world, making it all new.
Do you guys know why the oceans are salty? Over about 4,000 years of rivers flowing into the sea, salt and other minerals have been deposited and have increased the salinity like crazy. This river from Jerusalem, instead of contributing to the salinity, actually reverses the effects and turns the water sweet; it's clearly a miracle, and God restoring the entire world.
Here is a bit of chronological confusion that I've always had which I can't give you an exact answer, but I think I can give you a reasonable answer, and I will guarantee you that there is no error in the Bible, these prophecies will happen exactly the way they are written, I just don't know in what order. The issue is that this earth is set to be destroyed by fire, but clearly before that happens we have this fountain starting which will make everything on earth new... Here is how I think it reconciles, that Jerusalem here is protected from final destruction, the salvation began before the end of the world, we definitely see it spiritually in Christ beginning in AD30 on Calvary's cross, and here near the end from Jerusalem with the river of life. So this River starts before the end of the world, but I also believe it is the means by which the world will be renewed. Ultimately we need to wait to see it happen before we'll understand this end time prophecy perfectly.
So, there is this great battle for Jerusalem, and Christ wins without a doubt. His enemies are so terrified they grab each other by the hands, and at the same time fight among themselves. There is great bloodshed and Zechariah describes it in graphic detail saying that skin, eyes, and tongues will rot out of bodies while they still stand. What was one way this can happen? A nuclear explosion. I won't be the least bit surprised if there is massive nuclear warfare at this time, let's look at two other passages that say as much:
Joel 2:30-32 And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.
More than a few theologians have seen this and said that it definitely could refer to the explosion of a nuclear weapon. As a stand-alone verse we wouldn't say that, but coupled with Zechariah and Ezekiel, I think we can with some confidence say these are pillars of nuclear fallout. Go home and read Isaiah 63 for a good picture of the bloodshed, where blood flows for 200 miles, in some places as deep as a horse's bridle, unfortunately we don't have time to read it now, but the death toll will be amazing, the bodies of the dead will block major travel routes, and not just graves, but valleys, will be dug to bury the dead, and it will take seven months.
Ezekiel 39:11-16 On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord GOD. They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make their search. And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. (Hamonah is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.
Besides the massive scale of the dead, we also see something interesting that your average person isn't capable of burying the bodies, they just mark them and then go on their way. This is definitely partly because touching a dead body can defile a Jew, but they would know they may encounter dead bodies so they would be prepared. The more telling fact, I think, is that it is not safe to touch these bodies, if this indeed points to a nuclear war, is that the bodies would be radioactive and not safe to touch.
Now, we've gotta get moving, we're not even to verse 16 yet. The enemy regroups, masses on the plain at Megiddo, or Armageddon, and prepares to invade Jerusalem again. This is the craziest thing about the battle for me. I don't know if these people have never read a Bible, or what, but it seems like if you've just seen the God of the Universe wipe out a massive army, descending from Heaven, you should surrender. But they come with full force. One of the reasons is because they are deceived by Satan, and definitely at least some of them will be demon possessed. I want to take just a brief tangent to talk about this sort of thing. Part of their blindness is because God has hardened their hearts and darkened their understanding. So does that mean God can make you sin? No, James 1 very clearly says he does not. But what he can do is like if me and you were walking through a really dark cave, and I have the flashlight and you keep insulting me and punching me and making fun of my flashlight, I can turn off the flashlight and leave you on your way to walk into walls, trip over things, and fall into chasms.
But on the other hand, can Satan make you sin? Yes, we see that he is the tempter and the destroyer, he can very easily help you into sin, and people that are demon possessed often sin in the Bible seemingly against their will. Jarod Laughner, the kid that shot all of those people in Arizona, is heavily into the occult, and it seems from all of the accounts that he is demon possessed, based on many of the things he said, like making threats towards people he didn't know, getting angry when people didn't understand his conspiracy theories, and feeling like he had found secrets that others were missing, and especially hurting a lot of people he didn't even know. Not all mental issues are demonic, but I think it's wrong to say that most aren't. I mean if somebody gets a major brain injury that doesn't mean they are demon possessed. I don't think demons can get in by getting bopped on the head. The major ways are through occult practices, massive drug and alcohol use, and through extremely traumatic psychological abuse. Whether or not sins which are orchestrated mostly by demon activity will be held to someone's account is unclear, but they will still have plenty of sins to answer to on their own. I bring this up also partly because of the new movie, The Rite, which is about Roman Catholic superstition, shows religious people getting possessed. If you are genuinely a follower of Christ, then his Spirit dwells in you, and Psalm 5:4 says very clearly that God cannot dwell with evil. The only way to see a demon cast out is to see the Holy Spirit move into a person.
So all of that to say, the nations come against Christ to make war with him, let's let Revelation sum up what happens next, two short verses:
Revelation 20:9-10 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
It's almost anticlimactic if it didn't show the massive power of Christ. Satan has amassed his greatest army ever, I believe he genuinely believes he has a chance to win, this battle, if between men, could literally rage for months; and boom, with a Word, the enemies of Christ are consumed.
The battle is over, Christ has won. That brings us to my favorite verse in all of Zechariah 14.
v.16 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.
All survivors will recognize that God is the King of the earth, and they celebrate a very specific feast, it is called the Feast of Booths, or probably a better title is Feast of Tabernacles. This feast commemorates a time when God lived with the Israelites in the desert when Moses had led them out of captivity from Egypt. This was a very important feast because it reminded the Jews that God was with them and dwelt with them and cared for them and would be their Saviour. Basically what this feast was was the Jews would built little tents in their front yards or on their flat roofs or in the center of town, and live in them for a week, both to remind themselves of God's provisions, and to remember that ultimately they must dwell with him if they would live. So that brings us to the greatest verse in all of scripture, if you only memorize one verse in your entire life, you need to memorize this verse, it is the summation of the whole Old Testament,
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus Christ, God himself, tabernacled among us, he built a tent out of flesh and came and lived in it. So this feast of Tabernacles that we will celebrate for eternity is not us living in tents in our back yards, no, it is so much more grand, it is us recognizing that Jesus Christ is God with us, he is the Word Incarnate, the gracious God, the True God, the full weight of glory of the Father, and that we have put on his righteousness and his Spirit dwells in us and makes us holy. Anyone who rejects this Christ as the true Tabernacle will be rejected,
vv.17-19 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
The language here is very prophetic, it's something the Jews would have understood without knowing exactly how Christ would save them, so it relates it in language they would understand giving allegiance to a sovereign conquering king. What is missing from this passage is any idea that the decision is reversible; if a nation changes its mind there is no chance of blessing after they have rejected the Conquering King.
Look at the language of the curses, there will be no rain, we can very clearly see Hell described in this passage, look at one description of Hell in Luke 16:
Luke 16:24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'
And there is a final nail in the coffin for anyone who thinks they will find blessing somewhere else, like Egypt doesn't really need rain because they have the Nile River, so God adds pain to the lack of moisture. The other curse is a plague for punishment, it doesn't take much to see this described in the endless torment and wailing of Hell. We could say these are the people who say, "I don't need Christ, I'm good enough," or "Mohammed will save me," or "Mary will save me," or, "my suffering in purgatory will save me," or even, "My ceasing to exist will end my torment." No, there is no other Saviour than Christ, and God knows how to keep them in eternal punishment, as it says in 2 Peter 2.
So all who recognize Christ as God in the flesh, and who honor him as such, will be saved and receive blessing after blessing after blessing, but those who will not recognize him will face an endless punishment because their sin against a Sovereign and Infinite King will require an infinite retribution.
vv.20-21 And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD." And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.
These verses describe Heaven, where everything is totally holy. The smallest ornaments will be holy, there will be no need for Priests, which is where, "Holy to the Lord" used to be found, because there will be no need for atonement for sins, both because the atonement has been perfectly completed by Christ, AND because there will be no sin to atone for. Everything down to your coffee cups will be holy, as if they had been cleansed in the temple. And we will forever offer a sacrifice of praise to God for our salvation, partaking in the blessings forever and ever.
And the book of Zechariah concludes with a great little phrase, that there will never again be a sinner in Heaven ever again.
So, questions, comments?
Your application is that God knows the end from the beginning, he has prepared beforehand a path for you to walk in, so walk it with boldness, knowing that if God is for you, no one can stand in the way of his purposes. Preach the word, call people to trust in Christ, the only God who has wounds, the only God who died to save his greatest enemies, and the true and Living King.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
January 23rd - Zechariah's Armageddon
Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Asia Bibi in a new prison in Pakistan
SuperBowl Outreach
Tyler Feeling Better
Hannah Teaching
Hannah's play
Courtney's family in the loss of their grandfather
School performance and evangelism
Unity in the Body
Text – Zechariah 14:1-15
We’re in Zechariah 14, the last chapter of this book. This book is wonderful in how it demonstrates God cleansing his people, defeating sin, showing the hopelessness of works-based-salvation, giving salvation by grace, saving people from all nations, and setting Christ as shepherd as both priest and king. It is prophetically rich, naming Jesus by name, stating that he would ride into Jerusalem humble on a donkey, that he would pour out his blood of the covenant for the salvation of sinners, that in a single day he would deal with sin, that he would be pierced but would be yet alive. Almost all of the prophecy of Zechariah 1-12 has been fulfilled, chapter 13 is being fulfilled in the sanctification of the church, but chapter 14 is yet to come.
I want to take just a moment to talk about something I think we went by too quickly last week in chapter 13. In chapter 13, which talks about our sanctification, and ultimately our perfection in Heaven, what does it imply our attitude to sin will be? Utter hatred. That led us to the question about if we can ever practice what is called “discretion”, or tiny lies to save someone’s feelings.
What are some of the reasons we don’t want to tell small lies? It hurts our trustworthiness, it affirms people in delusion, we don’t know at what point we should stop, people should know we love them because of who they are not how they look, it can cause problems if later someone tells them the truth.
What are some benefits to telling small lies? The person feels better about their condition, there is no argument, you don’t get punched in the nose, it might maintain peace.
Now what if someone does ask a question, say I think I’ve got the next big hair trend, I get a slant-wise Mohawk that goes from my behind my left ear to in front of my right ear, and I dye the front couple inches neon pink. I really like my hair, so don’t you dare hurt my feelings! Do you like my hair? I would say the best way to answer a question like this is as with much gentleness, but you can’t ignore the truth. I would probably say something like, “I really like you, and I want you to do well in life and not get prejudged just for your hair, so I’m not fond of your haircut and I think you should consider something else.”
We talked about the GEICO commercial with Abe Lincoln telling Mary Todd she was fat, that’s probably our most difficult situation, right? I don’t think Abe handled that well. If she asked, “Does this dress make me look fat?” I think a better response would have been, “That dress makes you look beautiful.” If the question persists how are some other ways we can handle the situation with gentleness? “I love you just the way you are.” “Does this suit make me look fat?” “Does this top-hat make me look presidential?” (Ok, that one only really works for Abe Lincoln)
There is a chance that feelings might get hurt in situations like this, no doubt about that; but we need to place the truth at a higher priority and a continued relationship more important than just avoiding one hurt feeling. Now you have the guarantee that if I say, “You look nice today.” Or “Good game.” Or “Great piano/tuba/song performance.” Or “Great sermon.” You know I am telling the truth and not just trying to save your feelings.
These sorts of things can be very complicated, but if we are willing to tell the truth and our hearer knows we are known for telling the truth, it takes a lot of the complication out of it. This is especially helped if there is a history of friendship and sacrificial love between us, because you know your performance is not a precursor to me liking you. Let me give you an example, say one of you is going to teach, and you go to teach and it’s clear that you don’t know the topic and you radically misquote easy names, like you say, “This lesson is about Jo-han the Bapetised,” it you haven’t put any preparation in and it’s a terrible lesson, I’m going to tell you that, but it’s not going to make me hate you forever, and hopefully it will cause you to strive to do better in the future.
And finally, let’s take this to an extreme. If he could tell one single lie and it would result in the entire world being saved, would Jesus do it? No, both because he doesn’t lie, and because it’s impossible for him to lie, and also because what sort of lie could he tell to make the whole world believe which wouldn’t rob his Father of glory?
Questions? Comments? Agreements? Disagreements?
Ok, let’s start Zechariah 14, let’s read it first, we’re only going to do the first 15 verses today, but we’ll read the entire chapter. Verses 1-15 are about the war for earth, 16-21 are the result, we’ll look at them next week and do a complete overview of Zechariah.
Zechariah 14:1-21 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 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 waters shall flow out 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 the LORD will be one and his name one. The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security. And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps. Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD." And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.
Before we begin, we talked a little last week about the end times and how different godly people believe the end will happen in different ways, with the major events of Christ’s return, a rapture, a war with Satan when he is loosed, a perfection of saints, and a judgment of sinners. I believe pretty strongly in the Amillennial View, that Christ is reigning now and Satan is bound, and that at the end of the age he will be set free to war on God and the saints, culminating in a large battle and a complete victory by Christ. This is largely what this chapter is going to talk about.
There is another view though which I did not talk about last week, it is called Preterism, and I hate it. It comes from the Latin word for “Past” and they believe that almost everything has already happened, including Christ’s second return which they weirdly believe happened in AD 70. I will tell you that I HATE Preterism and most, if not all, Preterists I’ve met have no clue what the gospel is and are some sort of weird neognostic who think the important thing about the Bible is accurately figuring out prophecy.
An aside, what is the most important thing in the world for us?
Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Elevating the kingdom of God and declaring his glory, seeing people exchange their sin for his righteousness. Loving the church and Christ and hoping all will be saved.
So we come to Zechariah 14, it destroys Preterism, the belief that everything is in the past; the converse is Futurist, which believes most things happen in the future. The biblical belief is called, “Partial-Preterist” which means, I believe that some things happened in the past and some are going to happen in the future, some things happened both in the past and will happen in the future, a double fulfillment, like a lot of things talked about in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 are going to happen in the end of days.
vv.1-2 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
This is a pretty harsh prophecy, it says a very violent war is coming on Jerusalem. Does anyone know when Jerusalem was returned to Jewish ownership? 1967, before that it had been in mostly Muslim hands since 1187 when Saladin captured it. Prior to that it was in Roman Catholic an hands for about 100 years, and prior to that it was Muslim, and prior to that it was Roman. All of that to say, for almost 2000 years, Jerusalem was not owned by the Jews.
But in the early 1900’s it became popular to think that maybe Israel and Jerusalem would be regained by the Jewish people. This was actually an almost self-fulfilling prophecy, because during World War I Christians in charge of the British forces in the Middle East KNEW they would take Jerusalem because it was prophesied in the Bible, and they did, taking it from the Turks. After World War II, in 1948, the United Nations gave Israel to the Jews who had been decimated by Hitler. After some pretty intense fighting over twenty years, the Jews captured all of Jerusalem in 1967.
Verse 1 talks about them regaining what was taken from them. This is most certainly a prophecy for the regaining of the land of Israel and city of Jerusalem. This was seen by theologians both before and after the 1967 “Six Days War”.
Verse 2 describes the Jews in Jerusalem, in intense danger as the whole world comes against them. This has seemed like it was coming true several times, with many nations coming against Jerusalem, but as of yet it has never been more than a small percentage. But we definitely see that it could happen. The violence and looting will be horrendous on that day, there will be amazing hatred of the Jews, which we see rampant throughout the world.
At the end of verse 2 we see that Jerusalem is set to fall, it is invaded, half of the population flee, they are in dire straits ready to be cut off. Then salvation comes. Some believe, I not necessarily with them, though it is pretty persuasive, that this is the great conversion of Jews on the very last day on the brink of destruction, when they will finally turn and believe Christ is their Messiah. It’s tempting to believe it, I’m not sure, but don’t build a church on it.
Here comes their Messiah:
vv.3-5 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal.
The Mount of Olives is a large hill to the east of Jerusalem, it is where the Garden of Gethsemane is. It is where Christ ascended into Heaven, and it is precisely where he will return to.
Acts 1:9-11 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
The Mount of Olives is a natural defense of Jerusalem against direct attack from the east, and that’s great, but if you’re surrounded on the north, south, and west, it is cutting off your escape route. But look, Christ steps onto the Mount of Olives and his power splits it in two, east to west, creating a great valley in the middle, leading straight out of Jerusalem.
I love it, God here says, you shall flee through the valley of my mountainS, plural, because where there was one mountain God has just miraculously made two, and provided physical salvation for the Jews trapped in Jerusalem, and they will escape. The word Azal is confusing, it means “near”, but it’s not a place. I almost want to say this is prophecy for Christ as well as this real event at the end of times. I believe, not 100%, that it may be that the Jews flee through this valley straight into God's presence in Heaven... It’s very similar to the curtain being torn in the temple to bring us “near” to God.
Hebrews 10:19-20 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.
So this will surely be the salvation for some Jews, but to say this is the only time many Jews will come to Christ, I believe, is an error. I think we’ll see a great return, over many months or even years, of Jews which will be a sign that the end is nearer than ever.
vv.5-7 And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 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.
I love it, they will flee to God just like they were fleeing danger. Because they are! Both are they fleeing from men, but they’re also fleeing from the wrath of God, a much greater danger There is a definite call to tell people to flee from the wrath to come.
Then the day will be strange, something big will obviously be happening. Besides that, the landscape will change, a massive prophecy in Ezekiel, which we'll read next week, will be fulfilled.
vv.8-9 On that day living waters shall flow out 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 the LORD will be one and his name one.
At this point, though our God, one God, existing in Three Persons, Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity, will make it known to all that he is the true and living God, the only God, the only Saviour, the only King. All other false idols will be cut off. We're going to talk about verses 10-11 next week, these verses establish Jerusalem in peace, but for time's sake I really want to get to verse 12-15 since before there can be total peace, God is going to wage war, I think we're ultimately going to need to move most of this to next week, but I really want to get to a major point that some people believe is happening today.
v.12 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
This is the power of God, that he is able to make a complete end to his enemies. In Revelation it says that the world comes to fight him and he defeats them with a Word.
There are two major beliefs how a tongue can rot away while someone still stands, something which usually takes at least a few weeks. The first is a more physical way, which was utterly unknown until the 1940's, which is the nuclear bomb. This weapon disintegrates people as they stand, not only does it have blasting power, but it also melts skin and changes molecular structures of bodies. The softer flesh is consumed before the harder bone, so during an attack like this, it is more than possible to die standing up, your tongue, eyes, and skin gone. After the bombings of the Naval base at Nagasaki and the Army base at Hiroshima, there were shadows of people on the walls where they had literally melted away.
It is such a powerful weapon that when J. Robert Oppenheimer's team invented the first low-powered version, he quoted a Hindu god, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
I'll show you (at least) two other verses next week that corroborate nuclear warfare at Armageddon, and I think it is definitely likely that there will be unbelievable atrocities with manmade weaponry, and some have even speculated a more violent weapon than a nuclear bomb, like laser or shock wave sniper weapons. The second view is that this is the power of Christ's word, consuming people so quickly that they don't even have a chance to fall to the ground.
Personally I think it is a little of both, nuclear first, then a few days/weeks/moths later it will be the power of Christ; this will be my teaser for next week, as we look at the results of this battle more carefully.
Moving on.
vv.13-14 And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.
After this attack, clearly people will be terrified. But rather than surrender, bowing to Christ as king, they once again mount an attack on Jerusalem. Check this out, even Jews will be fighting Jerusalem, and it sounds like a great defeat for all who come against the kingdom, they are utterly consumed, and all of their wealth is taken. Not only will they die, but so will a great deal of livestock.
v.15 And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
Have you heard about the bird and fish deaths recently? The 2012 conspiracy is really trying to make this sound like a doomsday prophecy. And the way they present it, it certainly sounds like it is. But, when we look at the truth, we find out that there is an agency in the United States who tracks things like this, I believe it is the Department of Agriculture, but don't quote me on that, and they keep track of things like this and list a major animal death somewhere in the United States practically every other day, as they have for 30 years. Sometimes these deaths are because of disease, sometimes they are because of poisoning, sometimes a big flock of birds just fails to get out of the way of a train or semi-truck. But the deal is that it happens VERY often. Japan right now is bracing for a major epidemic of H5N1 in their birds, and thousands of birds are going to die, but this is not like this plague here spoken of in Zechariah.
This plague will strike animals world-wide, even the bigger more immune animals will perish.
Now, all of this to say, the end is coming. It could be in less than a decade, it may be so far in the future that we might not see it from earth, but from Heaven as we return with Christ. Our goal is not to figure out exactly when it will happen, our goal is to bring as many souls into the kingdom as we can, preaching the gospel, declaring Christ to be the King of kings and the only true God. We must explain to people that there is a great war coming, both with the earth and with individual souls, that there is great animosity between God and men for sin.
We must explain to them that there is no reconciliation available anywhere else but in Jesus Christ, though we were his enemies he died for us, and defeated death by raising on the third day, reconciling all who believe to himself. He commands all people everywhere to repent, for he has appointed a day in which to judge the world in righteousness. He is not a God who loses wars.
Take heart, that just as the Bible has predicted a Jewish recapturing of Jerusalem and the power of nuclear weapons, it has predicted a complete victory for Christ. We can trust what it has to say about the future because it has been perfectly fulfilled in the past.
So go out this week and warn people to flee from the wrath to come, implore them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be reconciled to God. Take heart in the fact that he has overcome the world and has saved our souls. Let's conclude with a powerful Bible verse,
Matthew 10:26-33 So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Asia Bibi in a new prison in Pakistan
SuperBowl Outreach
Tyler Feeling Better
Hannah Teaching
Hannah's play
Courtney's family in the loss of their grandfather
School performance and evangelism
Unity in the Body
Text – Zechariah 14:1-15
We’re in Zechariah 14, the last chapter of this book. This book is wonderful in how it demonstrates God cleansing his people, defeating sin, showing the hopelessness of works-based-salvation, giving salvation by grace, saving people from all nations, and setting Christ as shepherd as both priest and king. It is prophetically rich, naming Jesus by name, stating that he would ride into Jerusalem humble on a donkey, that he would pour out his blood of the covenant for the salvation of sinners, that in a single day he would deal with sin, that he would be pierced but would be yet alive. Almost all of the prophecy of Zechariah 1-12 has been fulfilled, chapter 13 is being fulfilled in the sanctification of the church, but chapter 14 is yet to come.
I want to take just a moment to talk about something I think we went by too quickly last week in chapter 13. In chapter 13, which talks about our sanctification, and ultimately our perfection in Heaven, what does it imply our attitude to sin will be? Utter hatred. That led us to the question about if we can ever practice what is called “discretion”, or tiny lies to save someone’s feelings.
What are some of the reasons we don’t want to tell small lies? It hurts our trustworthiness, it affirms people in delusion, we don’t know at what point we should stop, people should know we love them because of who they are not how they look, it can cause problems if later someone tells them the truth.
What are some benefits to telling small lies? The person feels better about their condition, there is no argument, you don’t get punched in the nose, it might maintain peace.
Now what if someone does ask a question, say I think I’ve got the next big hair trend, I get a slant-wise Mohawk that goes from my behind my left ear to in front of my right ear, and I dye the front couple inches neon pink. I really like my hair, so don’t you dare hurt my feelings! Do you like my hair? I would say the best way to answer a question like this is as with much gentleness, but you can’t ignore the truth. I would probably say something like, “I really like you, and I want you to do well in life and not get prejudged just for your hair, so I’m not fond of your haircut and I think you should consider something else.”
We talked about the GEICO commercial with Abe Lincoln telling Mary Todd she was fat, that’s probably our most difficult situation, right? I don’t think Abe handled that well. If she asked, “Does this dress make me look fat?” I think a better response would have been, “That dress makes you look beautiful.” If the question persists how are some other ways we can handle the situation with gentleness? “I love you just the way you are.” “Does this suit make me look fat?” “Does this top-hat make me look presidential?” (Ok, that one only really works for Abe Lincoln)
There is a chance that feelings might get hurt in situations like this, no doubt about that; but we need to place the truth at a higher priority and a continued relationship more important than just avoiding one hurt feeling. Now you have the guarantee that if I say, “You look nice today.” Or “Good game.” Or “Great piano/tuba/song performance.” Or “Great sermon.” You know I am telling the truth and not just trying to save your feelings.
These sorts of things can be very complicated, but if we are willing to tell the truth and our hearer knows we are known for telling the truth, it takes a lot of the complication out of it. This is especially helped if there is a history of friendship and sacrificial love between us, because you know your performance is not a precursor to me liking you. Let me give you an example, say one of you is going to teach, and you go to teach and it’s clear that you don’t know the topic and you radically misquote easy names, like you say, “This lesson is about Jo-han the Bapetised,” it you haven’t put any preparation in and it’s a terrible lesson, I’m going to tell you that, but it’s not going to make me hate you forever, and hopefully it will cause you to strive to do better in the future.
And finally, let’s take this to an extreme. If he could tell one single lie and it would result in the entire world being saved, would Jesus do it? No, both because he doesn’t lie, and because it’s impossible for him to lie, and also because what sort of lie could he tell to make the whole world believe which wouldn’t rob his Father of glory?
Questions? Comments? Agreements? Disagreements?
Ok, let’s start Zechariah 14, let’s read it first, we’re only going to do the first 15 verses today, but we’ll read the entire chapter. Verses 1-15 are about the war for earth, 16-21 are the result, we’ll look at them next week and do a complete overview of Zechariah.
Zechariah 14:1-21 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 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 waters shall flow out 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 the LORD will be one and his name one. The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security. And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps. Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD." And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.
Before we begin, we talked a little last week about the end times and how different godly people believe the end will happen in different ways, with the major events of Christ’s return, a rapture, a war with Satan when he is loosed, a perfection of saints, and a judgment of sinners. I believe pretty strongly in the Amillennial View, that Christ is reigning now and Satan is bound, and that at the end of the age he will be set free to war on God and the saints, culminating in a large battle and a complete victory by Christ. This is largely what this chapter is going to talk about.
There is another view though which I did not talk about last week, it is called Preterism, and I hate it. It comes from the Latin word for “Past” and they believe that almost everything has already happened, including Christ’s second return which they weirdly believe happened in AD 70. I will tell you that I HATE Preterism and most, if not all, Preterists I’ve met have no clue what the gospel is and are some sort of weird neognostic who think the important thing about the Bible is accurately figuring out prophecy.
An aside, what is the most important thing in the world for us?
Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Elevating the kingdom of God and declaring his glory, seeing people exchange their sin for his righteousness. Loving the church and Christ and hoping all will be saved.
So we come to Zechariah 14, it destroys Preterism, the belief that everything is in the past; the converse is Futurist, which believes most things happen in the future. The biblical belief is called, “Partial-Preterist” which means, I believe that some things happened in the past and some are going to happen in the future, some things happened both in the past and will happen in the future, a double fulfillment, like a lot of things talked about in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 are going to happen in the end of days.
vv.1-2 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
This is a pretty harsh prophecy, it says a very violent war is coming on Jerusalem. Does anyone know when Jerusalem was returned to Jewish ownership? 1967, before that it had been in mostly Muslim hands since 1187 when Saladin captured it. Prior to that it was in Roman Catholic an hands for about 100 years, and prior to that it was Muslim, and prior to that it was Roman. All of that to say, for almost 2000 years, Jerusalem was not owned by the Jews.
But in the early 1900’s it became popular to think that maybe Israel and Jerusalem would be regained by the Jewish people. This was actually an almost self-fulfilling prophecy, because during World War I Christians in charge of the British forces in the Middle East KNEW they would take Jerusalem because it was prophesied in the Bible, and they did, taking it from the Turks. After World War II, in 1948, the United Nations gave Israel to the Jews who had been decimated by Hitler. After some pretty intense fighting over twenty years, the Jews captured all of Jerusalem in 1967.
Verse 1 talks about them regaining what was taken from them. This is most certainly a prophecy for the regaining of the land of Israel and city of Jerusalem. This was seen by theologians both before and after the 1967 “Six Days War”.
Verse 2 describes the Jews in Jerusalem, in intense danger as the whole world comes against them. This has seemed like it was coming true several times, with many nations coming against Jerusalem, but as of yet it has never been more than a small percentage. But we definitely see that it could happen. The violence and looting will be horrendous on that day, there will be amazing hatred of the Jews, which we see rampant throughout the world.
At the end of verse 2 we see that Jerusalem is set to fall, it is invaded, half of the population flee, they are in dire straits ready to be cut off. Then salvation comes. Some believe, I not necessarily with them, though it is pretty persuasive, that this is the great conversion of Jews on the very last day on the brink of destruction, when they will finally turn and believe Christ is their Messiah. It’s tempting to believe it, I’m not sure, but don’t build a church on it.
Here comes their Messiah:
vv.3-5 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal.
The Mount of Olives is a large hill to the east of Jerusalem, it is where the Garden of Gethsemane is. It is where Christ ascended into Heaven, and it is precisely where he will return to.
Acts 1:9-11 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
The Mount of Olives is a natural defense of Jerusalem against direct attack from the east, and that’s great, but if you’re surrounded on the north, south, and west, it is cutting off your escape route. But look, Christ steps onto the Mount of Olives and his power splits it in two, east to west, creating a great valley in the middle, leading straight out of Jerusalem.
I love it, God here says, you shall flee through the valley of my mountainS, plural, because where there was one mountain God has just miraculously made two, and provided physical salvation for the Jews trapped in Jerusalem, and they will escape. The word Azal is confusing, it means “near”, but it’s not a place. I almost want to say this is prophecy for Christ as well as this real event at the end of times. I believe, not 100%, that it may be that the Jews flee through this valley straight into God's presence in Heaven... It’s very similar to the curtain being torn in the temple to bring us “near” to God.
Hebrews 10:19-20 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.
So this will surely be the salvation for some Jews, but to say this is the only time many Jews will come to Christ, I believe, is an error. I think we’ll see a great return, over many months or even years, of Jews which will be a sign that the end is nearer than ever.
vv.5-7 And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 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.
I love it, they will flee to God just like they were fleeing danger. Because they are! Both are they fleeing from men, but they’re also fleeing from the wrath of God, a much greater danger There is a definite call to tell people to flee from the wrath to come.
Then the day will be strange, something big will obviously be happening. Besides that, the landscape will change, a massive prophecy in Ezekiel, which we'll read next week, will be fulfilled.
vv.8-9 On that day living waters shall flow out 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 the LORD will be one and his name one.
At this point, though our God, one God, existing in Three Persons, Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity, will make it known to all that he is the true and living God, the only God, the only Saviour, the only King. All other false idols will be cut off. We're going to talk about verses 10-11 next week, these verses establish Jerusalem in peace, but for time's sake I really want to get to verse 12-15 since before there can be total peace, God is going to wage war, I think we're ultimately going to need to move most of this to next week, but I really want to get to a major point that some people believe is happening today.
v.12 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
This is the power of God, that he is able to make a complete end to his enemies. In Revelation it says that the world comes to fight him and he defeats them with a Word.
There are two major beliefs how a tongue can rot away while someone still stands, something which usually takes at least a few weeks. The first is a more physical way, which was utterly unknown until the 1940's, which is the nuclear bomb. This weapon disintegrates people as they stand, not only does it have blasting power, but it also melts skin and changes molecular structures of bodies. The softer flesh is consumed before the harder bone, so during an attack like this, it is more than possible to die standing up, your tongue, eyes, and skin gone. After the bombings of the Naval base at Nagasaki and the Army base at Hiroshima, there were shadows of people on the walls where they had literally melted away.
It is such a powerful weapon that when J. Robert Oppenheimer's team invented the first low-powered version, he quoted a Hindu god, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
I'll show you (at least) two other verses next week that corroborate nuclear warfare at Armageddon, and I think it is definitely likely that there will be unbelievable atrocities with manmade weaponry, and some have even speculated a more violent weapon than a nuclear bomb, like laser or shock wave sniper weapons. The second view is that this is the power of Christ's word, consuming people so quickly that they don't even have a chance to fall to the ground.
Personally I think it is a little of both, nuclear first, then a few days/weeks/moths later it will be the power of Christ; this will be my teaser for next week, as we look at the results of this battle more carefully.
Moving on.
vv.13-14 And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.
After this attack, clearly people will be terrified. But rather than surrender, bowing to Christ as king, they once again mount an attack on Jerusalem. Check this out, even Jews will be fighting Jerusalem, and it sounds like a great defeat for all who come against the kingdom, they are utterly consumed, and all of their wealth is taken. Not only will they die, but so will a great deal of livestock.
v.15 And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
Have you heard about the bird and fish deaths recently? The 2012 conspiracy is really trying to make this sound like a doomsday prophecy. And the way they present it, it certainly sounds like it is. But, when we look at the truth, we find out that there is an agency in the United States who tracks things like this, I believe it is the Department of Agriculture, but don't quote me on that, and they keep track of things like this and list a major animal death somewhere in the United States practically every other day, as they have for 30 years. Sometimes these deaths are because of disease, sometimes they are because of poisoning, sometimes a big flock of birds just fails to get out of the way of a train or semi-truck. But the deal is that it happens VERY often. Japan right now is bracing for a major epidemic of H5N1 in their birds, and thousands of birds are going to die, but this is not like this plague here spoken of in Zechariah.
This plague will strike animals world-wide, even the bigger more immune animals will perish.
Now, all of this to say, the end is coming. It could be in less than a decade, it may be so far in the future that we might not see it from earth, but from Heaven as we return with Christ. Our goal is not to figure out exactly when it will happen, our goal is to bring as many souls into the kingdom as we can, preaching the gospel, declaring Christ to be the King of kings and the only true God. We must explain to people that there is a great war coming, both with the earth and with individual souls, that there is great animosity between God and men for sin.
We must explain to them that there is no reconciliation available anywhere else but in Jesus Christ, though we were his enemies he died for us, and defeated death by raising on the third day, reconciling all who believe to himself. He commands all people everywhere to repent, for he has appointed a day in which to judge the world in righteousness. He is not a God who loses wars.
Take heart, that just as the Bible has predicted a Jewish recapturing of Jerusalem and the power of nuclear weapons, it has predicted a complete victory for Christ. We can trust what it has to say about the future because it has been perfectly fulfilled in the past.
So go out this week and warn people to flee from the wrath to come, implore them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be reconciled to God. Take heart in the fact that he has overcome the world and has saved our souls. Let's conclude with a powerful Bible verse,
Matthew 10:26-33 So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
January 16th - Purification by Fire
Prayer Requests
Lee Gambrell Preaching
Asia Bibi and Pakistan
SuperBowl Outreach
Hannah Teaching
Unemployment in the Church
Text – Zechariah 13
Today we’re going to look at one of my favorite passages in scripture. This passage doesn’t have as much prophecy fulfillment as chapters 9,11,12, but it does have some good ones. What I like the most about this passage is that it gives us a nice little glimpse of Heaven where sin is absolutely abhorrent and something that Christ’s saints want nothing to do with.
Before we look at our chapter though, I want to briefly look at what is called the “Millennial Reign”, which is when Christ will reign. Most Christians throughout history have held to the one I believe in, which I’m about 99% is correct, but there have been some great Christians in history that believe in a different one, so this isn’t hugely important, but I want you to know that there are different views and why I hold to the one I do. Ultimately though it’s more important that we have a hope for Christ’s return rather than a perfect understanding of how it will happen. The reason I am teaching this now is because chapter 13 of Zechariah is a little speed-bump in my belief. Pastor Aaron jokes that he’s “Pan-Millenialist”, that however it pans out is fine with him; ultimately I agree completely.
Millennial comes from Millennium, a thousand years, which are named in Revelation 20 as the reign of Christ when Satan is bound, and at the end of those thousand years, Satan is loosed for a little while until he is defeated at Armageddon. All three of these views believe this, they just disagree when this millennium takes place and what brings it about. These thousand years are either literal or mean a very long time.
Our first view is called the “A-Millenial View”, which doesn’t mean there is no millennial reign, but that the millennial reign isn’t something to come in the future, but is right now. This age began with the gift of the Holy Spirit to all believers at Pentecost and it will conclude when Christ returns. Currently Satan is bound and can’t do whatever he wants, though at the end of the age he will be able to do whatever he wants, killing believers and unbelievers and waging war against Christ and his church. The end will come as Christ wages war on Satan and defeats all of his enemies. This will be the major theme of Zechariah 14 next week. I believe that Christ is reigning now and Satan is currently bound, which is one of the reasons I don’t spend a lot of time telling you how to defeat the devil or fight him, because James tells us if we stand against him, he’ll flee from us; we don’t need magical incantations.
1 Corinthians 15:25-26 For he (Christ) must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
The next view is the “Pre-Millennial View”, which is the belief that Christ will return, turning everyone to him, then reign for 1,000 years in perfect peace, until a final battle with Satan and then the judgment.
Revelation 20:7-9 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them…
The third view, which I put very little stock in, is the “Post-Millennial View”, which is the belief that after the gospel conquers the world, Christ will return to a totally conquered world and will then judge the quick and the dead and destroy Satan. I’ll tell you that I really dislike the Post-Millennial View because it puts a lot of power on men and ignores some pretty explicit verses, let’s look at one in Luke,
Luke 18:8 When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
If Christ asks if there will be any faith on the earth, then clearly we can’t expect for the whole world to be full of faith when he returns. None-the-less, our passage today in Zechariah is one that is used for the belief that the faith will increase further and further and sin will decrease and decrease. I could see that in Zechariah 13, but I’ll tell you that my own personal belief is that Zechariah 13 shows us how much we will hate sin in Heaven, that we won’t want to sin, neither will we be able to sin; rather than a literal look at an opportunity to sin.
So all that to say, let’s read it, and I’ll show you the Millennial View in this passage in a moment.
Zechariah 13:1-9 "On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. "And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, 'You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.' And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies." On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.' And if one asks him, 'What are these wounds on your back?' he will say, 'The wounds I received in the house of my friends.' "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 the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"
The crazy part of this passage is that it switches from Christ’s First Coming, to sometime after his Second Coming, to back to his First Coming, to the end of the First Century. There is a lot of time changing going on, I can’t tell you exactly why it does that, except I can tell you that God is outside of time and sees his major goal as being completed in smaller details, instead of worrying about a linear plan. It’s neat that God shows his power in this because it’s so much more complicated than how we would make a plan. We make plans like, for example, a building, 1. Pour a foundation, 2. Put up the walls, 3. Put on a roof, 4. Put in the plumbing and wiring, 5. Finish the house. If we skip one of these, the others will be wrecked, for example if we put the roof on before we put up the walls, our roof would be on the ground. Or if we finish the house before putting in the wires and plumbing nothing will work. But God sees the finished product and knows precisely how it will all come together and he’s so confident it will happen the way he wants that he doesn’t lay out for us a linear plan to accomplish.
v.1 On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
Think about a fountain for a moment, usually we think of a fountain as a big comprehensive structure with a pool and a spout. Really the pool part of the fountain isn’t the fountain; the fountain is the part where the water comes out. Universally this passage is understood to be the piercing of Christ from Zechariah 12, when his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins of many. The amazing thing is that in the Old Testament this fountain is described as both blood and water, which seems a bit impossible.
John 7:37-38 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
That is a quote of several scriptures, Joel 2, Isaiah 44, Ezekiel 47, and alluded to in other passages. So how could blood and water flow forth from the same fountain?
John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
This occurs when the heart muscles rupture, spurting blood, and the pericardium, which surrounds your heart and is filled with a watery substance to protect your heart, bursts. Such was fulfilled in Psalm 22 and 69 that say Christ’s heart melted or broke inside of him.
This event led to the forgiveness of sins, as Christ was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. We were GREAT sinners, but something major has happened in our lives to turn us from sinners to saints, let’s read my favorite verse in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
William Cowper was reading Zechariah 13 once late in his life and had been writing songs and poetry for a while. As he read this passage, he wrote his most famous hymn, which is still sung today, called, “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood”, it reads like this:
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
Now, verse 2-3, we finally jump into the end times, either Heaven as I believe with my amillennialism, or that millennium as either of the other two believe, namely post-millenial.
vv.2-3 And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, 'You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.' And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies. "
Based on the complete ability of Christ’s blood to cut off sin, there will no longer be any sin or idols. There are two types of sin, there is a sin of commission, when you rebel and break the law of God, which would be by being a false prophet. And the other kind is when you ignore someone sinning, like supporting a false prophet. Here we see both cut off, that neither will there be any one who falsely prophesies, nor will anyone, even the most personal of relationships, ignore sin when it is committed. It is beautiful that in Heaven we won’t tolerate sin, nor commit sin.
In this passage I want to show you sin is abhorrent, it is a murderer of souls, it is evil and never good. We can see why murder is evil and abhorrent, but sometimes we miss why the smaller sins are abhorrent. At this point we always get into the point of discretion, what if I lie to someone to spare their feelings? Like the GEICO commercial with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln where she asks if her dress makes her look fat. A lie in this point would be discretionary, saving her feelings, but even a discretionary lie is sin, and in Heaven we won’t tolerate even a single one.
Think about it this way, if I tell a tiny lie, it wrecks my trustworthiness. The Bible tells us both that Christ never lied, and also that it is impossible for him to lie. This is why he is trustworthy. This is why it will be so glorious in Heaven when all sin is impossible and all of us hate sin with a complete hatred. I believe this was one of the reasons that Adam and Eve had such an easy time sinning, because they didn’t have any idea how much damage their sin would cause over the next six-thousand years; us on the other hand know how much suffering and death sin causes and will hate it completely, and won't tolerate it for a moment.
So if I were to ask, does this uniform make me look fat? What is the right answer? No, Canyon, your fat makes you look fat…It’s harsh, but we have to remember that if we can’t be trustworthy in a minor thing, how then can we possibly be trustworthy in major things? I want your honest opinion if I ask for it. Thoughts on this point? I want to make sure we get this, because one of the greatest passages in the whole Bible is in James 5,
James 5:19-20 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
I REALLY want to make sure you get this point, so what is this passage saying? That if we confront someone in their sin, we have the opportunity to lead them to the truth and save their soul from eternal damnation. Check out two of my favorite passages,
Psalm 119:104 Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
If we really love someone, we’re going to seek to turn them from going the wrong way, even if it requires us emotionally hurting them. That leads to an absolutely amazing passage of scripture.
vv.4-6 "On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.' And if one asks him, 'What are these wounds on your back?' he will say, 'The wounds I received in the house of my friends.'
The picture we see here is a man working on a farm, who used to be a false prophet, but not anymore, he’s ashamed of what he used to do. The person speaking to him sees that he’s been whipped, and they ask, “How did this happen?” And he readily affirms that the wounds came from his friends.
Here’s what happened, this false prophet was on a sure road to Hell, the deepest pits of Hell were reserved for him. We really don’t have time to read 2 Peter 2, but it’s so important that we need to read it,
2 Peter 2:17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
This was our false prophet here described, headed for Hell at full sprint. His friends loved him enough to turn him from his destination, they needed to confront them, they needed to wound him with their words and even, when words failed, with physical confrontation. Our false prophet was ashamed and no longer was a false prophet, in his repentance his soul was saved. Charles Spurgeon sums this point up this way,
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
If we don’t care enough to wound them, then the Bible very specifically says we hate them; consider a father who won’t discipline his children and turn them towards the right. Because he lets them continue on a road to destruction, they will perish, and it shows his complete lack of love for them.
Proverbs 13:24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
So beloved, let this be your greatest application today, that there is no greater hatred in this world than to affirm someone in their sin and pretend that there is no need to repent. There is a great wrath from God which rests on unbelievers and on those who presume to speak for God but don’t speak truth, but lies. One of the greatest lies is that there is no animosity between God and men and that people may be forgiven apart from Christ. For if there is forgiveness in any other way, then Christ suffered and died in vain.
Let there be many in Heaven that say, “I was wounded greatly by my friend Matthew, or John, or Shelby, or Grant, and this led to my repentance from my false idols; leading to my faith and salvation in Christ.”
Think about how neat it would be if we ran into Joel Osteen in a few years working in a gas station in Houston, and we asked, “Hey, didn’t you used to be that pastor?” He answers, “I was, but I have repented of my false gospel because David Baalbergen confronted me and showed me the error of my ways, I can no longer in good conscience deceive people though it led to my financial ruin. I have lost all of my material possessions, but my soul is secure in Christ.”
Now then, let’s try to finish Zechariah 13.
v.7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," declares the LORD of hosts.
Here is where our sins go, because justice is due. Because of our great sin, God’s wrath was kindled, but in his great love he provided a substitute, the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his friends. We’ll see in just a moment that this is clearly Christ.
Psalm 7:12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword.
God has sharpened (whetted) his sword in preparation for dealing with sin, and in Christ’s love for us, he stepped away from his throne in Heaven seated next to his Father, and he stood between us and his Father and absorbed the full blow, pierced in his soul by the wrath of God, suffering more on the cross than any sinner ever will in Hell.
Christ’s crucifixion will have massive implications for both his followers and the Nation Israel,
v.7 "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
This is quoted explicitly by Christ in Mark 14,
Mark 14:27 And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'
Christ’s crucifixion was the point when Zechariah 11 began to take place, the rejection of the Nation Israel. Now we jump forward in time a little bit to the siege of Jerusalem in AD70 when over a million Jews lost their lives and the Temple was destroyed.
vv.7-8 I will turn my hand against the little ones, in the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.
This was a massive loss of life, but the guaranteed consequence God had given to Israel over and over again for their unfaithfulness. This includes men, women, and children, and reminds us that God is totally vindicated in punishing sin. His right to punish sin magnifies his grace when he saves some of his enemies, which is verse 9, my favorite in this passage.
v.9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"
This could be said to be the entire millennial reign, as God is taking people who should have perished and is sanctifying them, changing them into images of Christ, causing them to love righteousness and hate wickedness.
What sort of things can be used to sanctify the believer, which is here represented by fire? Trials and tribulations, persecution, loss of health and wealth, anger from friends, rejection by family. Basically what God wants us to be is pure from sin, just like pure gold has no impurities in it because they have been burned off in the fire, so is God desiring us to be pure as Christ is pure. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
The amazing thing is that this is one of the ways that we know Christ loves us,
Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
This all comes together beautifully, doesn’t it? That in the beginning part of this passage we see that true love is confronting sin, turning our friends away from paths to destruction, pointing out their idolatry, desiring their sanctification, and in the latter part of the passage we see that God’s love is expressed beautifully towards his believers in purifying them from sin so that they reject idols and call totally on him.
I hope your application is clear, that you must know what sin is, confront people in it, whether they be strangers, friends, or family, point them towards the truth, and in doing so you may save their soul from death. We can’t stand idly by watching sinners jump headlong into Hell, we must stand in their way, even if it means wounds for ourselves, for Christ stood between us and certain death when he became our substitute. Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends; the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
In all of this, we want our love to be true, so let’s conclude with Romans 12:9,
Romans 12:9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Lee Gambrell Preaching
Asia Bibi and Pakistan
SuperBowl Outreach
Hannah Teaching
Unemployment in the Church
Text – Zechariah 13
Today we’re going to look at one of my favorite passages in scripture. This passage doesn’t have as much prophecy fulfillment as chapters 9,11,12, but it does have some good ones. What I like the most about this passage is that it gives us a nice little glimpse of Heaven where sin is absolutely abhorrent and something that Christ’s saints want nothing to do with.
Before we look at our chapter though, I want to briefly look at what is called the “Millennial Reign”, which is when Christ will reign. Most Christians throughout history have held to the one I believe in, which I’m about 99% is correct, but there have been some great Christians in history that believe in a different one, so this isn’t hugely important, but I want you to know that there are different views and why I hold to the one I do. Ultimately though it’s more important that we have a hope for Christ’s return rather than a perfect understanding of how it will happen. The reason I am teaching this now is because chapter 13 of Zechariah is a little speed-bump in my belief. Pastor Aaron jokes that he’s “Pan-Millenialist”, that however it pans out is fine with him; ultimately I agree completely.
Millennial comes from Millennium, a thousand years, which are named in Revelation 20 as the reign of Christ when Satan is bound, and at the end of those thousand years, Satan is loosed for a little while until he is defeated at Armageddon. All three of these views believe this, they just disagree when this millennium takes place and what brings it about. These thousand years are either literal or mean a very long time.
Our first view is called the “A-Millenial View”, which doesn’t mean there is no millennial reign, but that the millennial reign isn’t something to come in the future, but is right now. This age began with the gift of the Holy Spirit to all believers at Pentecost and it will conclude when Christ returns. Currently Satan is bound and can’t do whatever he wants, though at the end of the age he will be able to do whatever he wants, killing believers and unbelievers and waging war against Christ and his church. The end will come as Christ wages war on Satan and defeats all of his enemies. This will be the major theme of Zechariah 14 next week. I believe that Christ is reigning now and Satan is currently bound, which is one of the reasons I don’t spend a lot of time telling you how to defeat the devil or fight him, because James tells us if we stand against him, he’ll flee from us; we don’t need magical incantations.
1 Corinthians 15:25-26 For he (Christ) must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
The next view is the “Pre-Millennial View”, which is the belief that Christ will return, turning everyone to him, then reign for 1,000 years in perfect peace, until a final battle with Satan and then the judgment.
Revelation 20:7-9 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them…
The third view, which I put very little stock in, is the “Post-Millennial View”, which is the belief that after the gospel conquers the world, Christ will return to a totally conquered world and will then judge the quick and the dead and destroy Satan. I’ll tell you that I really dislike the Post-Millennial View because it puts a lot of power on men and ignores some pretty explicit verses, let’s look at one in Luke,
Luke 18:8 When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
If Christ asks if there will be any faith on the earth, then clearly we can’t expect for the whole world to be full of faith when he returns. None-the-less, our passage today in Zechariah is one that is used for the belief that the faith will increase further and further and sin will decrease and decrease. I could see that in Zechariah 13, but I’ll tell you that my own personal belief is that Zechariah 13 shows us how much we will hate sin in Heaven, that we won’t want to sin, neither will we be able to sin; rather than a literal look at an opportunity to sin.
So all that to say, let’s read it, and I’ll show you the Millennial View in this passage in a moment.
Zechariah 13:1-9 "On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. "And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, 'You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.' And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies." On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.' And if one asks him, 'What are these wounds on your back?' he will say, 'The wounds I received in the house of my friends.' "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 the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"
The crazy part of this passage is that it switches from Christ’s First Coming, to sometime after his Second Coming, to back to his First Coming, to the end of the First Century. There is a lot of time changing going on, I can’t tell you exactly why it does that, except I can tell you that God is outside of time and sees his major goal as being completed in smaller details, instead of worrying about a linear plan. It’s neat that God shows his power in this because it’s so much more complicated than how we would make a plan. We make plans like, for example, a building, 1. Pour a foundation, 2. Put up the walls, 3. Put on a roof, 4. Put in the plumbing and wiring, 5. Finish the house. If we skip one of these, the others will be wrecked, for example if we put the roof on before we put up the walls, our roof would be on the ground. Or if we finish the house before putting in the wires and plumbing nothing will work. But God sees the finished product and knows precisely how it will all come together and he’s so confident it will happen the way he wants that he doesn’t lay out for us a linear plan to accomplish.
v.1 On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
Think about a fountain for a moment, usually we think of a fountain as a big comprehensive structure with a pool and a spout. Really the pool part of the fountain isn’t the fountain; the fountain is the part where the water comes out. Universally this passage is understood to be the piercing of Christ from Zechariah 12, when his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins of many. The amazing thing is that in the Old Testament this fountain is described as both blood and water, which seems a bit impossible.
John 7:37-38 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
That is a quote of several scriptures, Joel 2, Isaiah 44, Ezekiel 47, and alluded to in other passages. So how could blood and water flow forth from the same fountain?
John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
This occurs when the heart muscles rupture, spurting blood, and the pericardium, which surrounds your heart and is filled with a watery substance to protect your heart, bursts. Such was fulfilled in Psalm 22 and 69 that say Christ’s heart melted or broke inside of him.
This event led to the forgiveness of sins, as Christ was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. We were GREAT sinners, but something major has happened in our lives to turn us from sinners to saints, let’s read my favorite verse in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
William Cowper was reading Zechariah 13 once late in his life and had been writing songs and poetry for a while. As he read this passage, he wrote his most famous hymn, which is still sung today, called, “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood”, it reads like this:
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
Now, verse 2-3, we finally jump into the end times, either Heaven as I believe with my amillennialism, or that millennium as either of the other two believe, namely post-millenial.
vv.2-3 And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, 'You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD.' And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies. "
Based on the complete ability of Christ’s blood to cut off sin, there will no longer be any sin or idols. There are two types of sin, there is a sin of commission, when you rebel and break the law of God, which would be by being a false prophet. And the other kind is when you ignore someone sinning, like supporting a false prophet. Here we see both cut off, that neither will there be any one who falsely prophesies, nor will anyone, even the most personal of relationships, ignore sin when it is committed. It is beautiful that in Heaven we won’t tolerate sin, nor commit sin.
In this passage I want to show you sin is abhorrent, it is a murderer of souls, it is evil and never good. We can see why murder is evil and abhorrent, but sometimes we miss why the smaller sins are abhorrent. At this point we always get into the point of discretion, what if I lie to someone to spare their feelings? Like the GEICO commercial with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln where she asks if her dress makes her look fat. A lie in this point would be discretionary, saving her feelings, but even a discretionary lie is sin, and in Heaven we won’t tolerate even a single one.
Think about it this way, if I tell a tiny lie, it wrecks my trustworthiness. The Bible tells us both that Christ never lied, and also that it is impossible for him to lie. This is why he is trustworthy. This is why it will be so glorious in Heaven when all sin is impossible and all of us hate sin with a complete hatred. I believe this was one of the reasons that Adam and Eve had such an easy time sinning, because they didn’t have any idea how much damage their sin would cause over the next six-thousand years; us on the other hand know how much suffering and death sin causes and will hate it completely, and won't tolerate it for a moment.
So if I were to ask, does this uniform make me look fat? What is the right answer? No, Canyon, your fat makes you look fat…It’s harsh, but we have to remember that if we can’t be trustworthy in a minor thing, how then can we possibly be trustworthy in major things? I want your honest opinion if I ask for it. Thoughts on this point? I want to make sure we get this, because one of the greatest passages in the whole Bible is in James 5,
James 5:19-20 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
I REALLY want to make sure you get this point, so what is this passage saying? That if we confront someone in their sin, we have the opportunity to lead them to the truth and save their soul from eternal damnation. Check out two of my favorite passages,
Psalm 119:104 Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
If we really love someone, we’re going to seek to turn them from going the wrong way, even if it requires us emotionally hurting them. That leads to an absolutely amazing passage of scripture.
vv.4-6 "On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.' And if one asks him, 'What are these wounds on your back?' he will say, 'The wounds I received in the house of my friends.'
The picture we see here is a man working on a farm, who used to be a false prophet, but not anymore, he’s ashamed of what he used to do. The person speaking to him sees that he’s been whipped, and they ask, “How did this happen?” And he readily affirms that the wounds came from his friends.
Here’s what happened, this false prophet was on a sure road to Hell, the deepest pits of Hell were reserved for him. We really don’t have time to read 2 Peter 2, but it’s so important that we need to read it,
2 Peter 2:17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
This was our false prophet here described, headed for Hell at full sprint. His friends loved him enough to turn him from his destination, they needed to confront them, they needed to wound him with their words and even, when words failed, with physical confrontation. Our false prophet was ashamed and no longer was a false prophet, in his repentance his soul was saved. Charles Spurgeon sums this point up this way,
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
If we don’t care enough to wound them, then the Bible very specifically says we hate them; consider a father who won’t discipline his children and turn them towards the right. Because he lets them continue on a road to destruction, they will perish, and it shows his complete lack of love for them.
Proverbs 13:24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
So beloved, let this be your greatest application today, that there is no greater hatred in this world than to affirm someone in their sin and pretend that there is no need to repent. There is a great wrath from God which rests on unbelievers and on those who presume to speak for God but don’t speak truth, but lies. One of the greatest lies is that there is no animosity between God and men and that people may be forgiven apart from Christ. For if there is forgiveness in any other way, then Christ suffered and died in vain.
Let there be many in Heaven that say, “I was wounded greatly by my friend Matthew, or John, or Shelby, or Grant, and this led to my repentance from my false idols; leading to my faith and salvation in Christ.”
Think about how neat it would be if we ran into Joel Osteen in a few years working in a gas station in Houston, and we asked, “Hey, didn’t you used to be that pastor?” He answers, “I was, but I have repented of my false gospel because David Baalbergen confronted me and showed me the error of my ways, I can no longer in good conscience deceive people though it led to my financial ruin. I have lost all of my material possessions, but my soul is secure in Christ.”
Now then, let’s try to finish Zechariah 13.
v.7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," declares the LORD of hosts.
Here is where our sins go, because justice is due. Because of our great sin, God’s wrath was kindled, but in his great love he provided a substitute, the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his friends. We’ll see in just a moment that this is clearly Christ.
Psalm 7:12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword.
God has sharpened (whetted) his sword in preparation for dealing with sin, and in Christ’s love for us, he stepped away from his throne in Heaven seated next to his Father, and he stood between us and his Father and absorbed the full blow, pierced in his soul by the wrath of God, suffering more on the cross than any sinner ever will in Hell.
Christ’s crucifixion will have massive implications for both his followers and the Nation Israel,
v.7 "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
This is quoted explicitly by Christ in Mark 14,
Mark 14:27 And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'
Christ’s crucifixion was the point when Zechariah 11 began to take place, the rejection of the Nation Israel. Now we jump forward in time a little bit to the siege of Jerusalem in AD70 when over a million Jews lost their lives and the Temple was destroyed.
vv.7-8 I will turn my hand against the little ones, in the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.
This was a massive loss of life, but the guaranteed consequence God had given to Israel over and over again for their unfaithfulness. This includes men, women, and children, and reminds us that God is totally vindicated in punishing sin. His right to punish sin magnifies his grace when he saves some of his enemies, which is verse 9, my favorite in this passage.
v.9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"
This could be said to be the entire millennial reign, as God is taking people who should have perished and is sanctifying them, changing them into images of Christ, causing them to love righteousness and hate wickedness.
What sort of things can be used to sanctify the believer, which is here represented by fire? Trials and tribulations, persecution, loss of health and wealth, anger from friends, rejection by family. Basically what God wants us to be is pure from sin, just like pure gold has no impurities in it because they have been burned off in the fire, so is God desiring us to be pure as Christ is pure. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
The amazing thing is that this is one of the ways that we know Christ loves us,
Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
This all comes together beautifully, doesn’t it? That in the beginning part of this passage we see that true love is confronting sin, turning our friends away from paths to destruction, pointing out their idolatry, desiring their sanctification, and in the latter part of the passage we see that God’s love is expressed beautifully towards his believers in purifying them from sin so that they reject idols and call totally on him.
I hope your application is clear, that you must know what sin is, confront people in it, whether they be strangers, friends, or family, point them towards the truth, and in doing so you may save their soul from death. We can’t stand idly by watching sinners jump headlong into Hell, we must stand in their way, even if it means wounds for ourselves, for Christ stood between us and certain death when he became our substitute. Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends; the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
In all of this, we want our love to be true, so let’s conclude with Romans 12:9,
Romans 12:9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
January 9th - A Wounded God
Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Asia Bibi and Pakistan
SuperBowl Outreach
Shelby's Basketball Injury
Traveling during the snow storm - esp. Richard
Kari's Nephew on the way
Kari - Taylor's Cancer
Hanson Family in the loss of their father
Awtrey's teacher and missions field
Text – Zechariah 12
Let’s start with some review. Zechariah was written when? 522-518BC. What are some major events that are taking place? Return from the Exile in Babylon, and rebuilding of the Temple.
What are some major prophecies for Christ in this book? Humble and riding on a donkey; priest and king; blood of the covenant poured out; the removal of sin in a single day; good shepherd; sold for 30 pieces of silver.
Zechariah 11 is one of the harshest chapters in the Bible, what is the major theme of Zechariah 11? The rejection of the Nation of Israel as God’s chosen people. Why were they rejected? The people rejected Christ, and heaped to themselves false shepherds who also rejected Christ; they were constantly falling to idolatry and cared more for themselves than for God. Romans 10 tells us they rejected the righteousness of God, which is Christ, and substituted their own. When precisely did this happen? Between AD30-70, starting especially in,
Matthew 21:43 The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
This is harsh, and the New Testament affirms how harsh this is,
1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 The Jews killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!
The wrath of God has come upon them at last! Eep. Is this all of Israel, or none, or some? It’s only a portion, prior to AD70 many Jews were trusting in a Messiah to come and were justified in their faith, but afterwards they are trusting either in their works, or in a messiah to come, and most were lost, and most Jews alive are lost today.
Let me show you the folly of their hope; we’re all in prison, we were told if we went to a certain place we would certainly be taken captive and held for ransom, but we didn’t believe the person that told us that and we willfully disobeyed and went to the place, and sure enough, we were captured and our ransom was set at a ridiculous amount, say $1Billion, and between us we have eight dollars and some pocket lint; we’re stuck. We call the person who we called a liar by not believing and he says because he loves us he will ransom us, that he is sending his son to pay our ransom, and that in order to pay that ransom it has utterly bankrupted him, but such is his unmerited favor and lovingkindness towards us that he will save us anyways.
We sit and sit and wait and wait and finally the son arrives and presents the ransom at great cost to himself. I get up to leave because my ransom is paid, but you all stay sitting, I ask, “What’s going on? Our ransom is paid, we can leave.” You say, “No, we don’t believe this is our redeemer, we expect another, we won’t accept his payment.” The son tries to persuade you that this is the only payment that is coming, that no-one else can afford to ransom you, and no-one else even wants to ransom you. You respond by spitting on him, calling him names, and kicking him in the shin. He leaves you to die in your captivity while all of us who accept his payment and believe he is who he says he is walk free forever indebted to our redeemer.
Israel rejected their Messiah, they crucified him and humiliated him, and now he has rejected them as being a people, he has left them to die, and he has given the kingdom to another people who will bear its fruit. He has promised throughout all ages to have a witness on earth, and so with Israel rejected a new group is grafted into the cut-off promises of Israel. Who are those people? The church.
This was a long way to get to our passage today, but do you understand why Christ has rejected the People Israel and adopted another? Let’s look at some wonderful promises of this church, also called the Israel of God, which though Christ laid siege to Jerusalem in AD70 with the Romans and saw it flattened, no-one will ever conquer the home of God’s elect, which is Heaven, the New Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12:1-14 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.' "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. "And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
This passage almost certainly occurs very near to the end of time. There are several things in this passage that certainly haven’t happened yet, and just reading it is seems like it has to be such a major event that the entire world will know when it happens. However, there are at least two major clues in the New Testament that place this passage right at the end, on the day that Christ returns. Chapter 14 is really going to describe the battle in more detail, but he we’re going to look at the purposes here in chapter 12.
v.1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel:
First of all, this Israel, as I’ve just explained, is almost certainly the church. There is a lot of violence about to happen, which is why it is a burden; when we read things like this, or we that it is precious in the sight of the Lord the death of his saints, or we read that to live is Christ and to die is gain, we always have to remember Romans 8:28.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Remember that not all things are good, but all things, even the most evil of things, are being used for good by God. Our greatest example is the cross of Christ, there was nothing good at all about the evil showed to him by mankind, we cannot say that the death of God is good at all, especially on the torture devise that is the cross, but we also see that what was meant for evil, God used for good so that many are saved.
Three years ago I tore my right bicep, this wasn’t good at all. But when I went to get an MRI, I got to witness to the MRI girl and she was blown away by the gospel. God used my stupidity in hurting myself to further his gospel. Some of my friends just released a 10 disk set of CD’s and found out that every single package out of thousands was missing disk 8; because of this they were able to witness to people at the production company and it sounds like at least one of them got saved.
So we’ve got something majorly bad about to happen, but we’ll also see something great happen through it. First though coming out of chapter 11 some might wonder, what right does God have to take salvation away from Israel and now here to put his people through such events? That’s the next part:
v.1 Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:
God is able to do what he wants because he created the place and gives life; he owes nothing at all to mankind because of our sin, and mercy is his to give.
Romans 9:18-20 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"
We’re going to rush through the next part of this because it is the major point of chapter 14, I think you’ll get the major point without looking at similar passages from Revelation, which we’ll look at in chapter 14.
v.2-3 "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves.”
A cup of staggering means they’ll be incapacitated, like somebody who drinks too much, they’ll be stricken incapable by this war, and they will ultimately fall. There is a siege coming, when an army or armies surround the city in order to wage war on it, which, if you’ve got a big enough army it should be easy to overthrow just one little city. But God says he’ll make Jerusalem harder to overturn than it looks, in fact those who try will hurt themselves. Silly language if we didn’t know that a bit later there is going to be much bloodshed and destruction, though Jerusalem, namely New Jerusalem here, will stand firm and not be overthrown.
v.3-5 And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.'
Here’s one of the reasons we see this as sometime in the future, because ALL nations will gather against Israel. Christ points this at the church in Matthew 24 when he says, “you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.”
This battle sounds utterly chaotic with the enemy totally panicked; we’ll see in a few weeks that the reason for this is because Heaven opens and a massive army of angels led by Christ will wage war on them; Christ destroying with the power of his Word.
The enemies will be confused and with no organization, where-as the church will be amazingly calm and empowered, not of themselves, but through the Lord. I really wish we had time to look at Gideon, but we don’t, so let me just remind you that he conquered an entire army with just 300 men, that that enemy panicked and killed themselves. This battle will be similar.
v.6 "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
The imagery here is a complete destruction of the enemies of God, that a blazing fire will be put in the midst of dry wood and paper. I don’t think we can overemphasize the violence of this final day, and at the conclusion we’ll see Jerusalem intact and inhabited. When we’ll read Revelation in Zechariah 14, we’ll see that this is most likely the New Jerusalem, Heaven on Earth. Zechariah’s major point here is that the enemies will be slain, but the People of God will survive.
For verse 7, Do you remember that I told you from the 30 pieces of silver passage that I couldn’t explain what it meant before we saw it happen? After it happened, we see the prophecy fulfilled perfectly to the letter, but before it was sort of fuzzy. Such is this next verse:
v.7 "And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah.
This sounds like one of the very last things that will happen at the end of time is the conversion of Jews to Jesus Christ. This is described in Romans 11 and Hebrews 8 (be turning to Hebrews 8, I want you to read this with me), and is reminiscent of when Christ told the Jews in Matthew 23 that they wouldn’t see him again until they recognized that he had come in the name of the Lord. So as we listen to people who say, “The end could happen any minute,” we remind them that there are signs that must be fulfilled first, and one of which is the mass conversion of Jews to Christ before hand. This won’t be all Jews, some will follow the Antichrist as we learned last week, but this will certainly be so many Jews that we’ll take notice.
Let me read this for length; this is the mass conversion described:
Hebrews 8:8-12 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
v.8 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David,
Elevated from nobodies to royalty, able to defeat great enemies, totally trusting in God, and with a humble and repentant spirit. It will be a great day; the next verse helps us to date this passage to the end of time:
v.8 and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them.
They’ll be like God, that’s an important phrase, we won’t be God, but like him, sinless, righteous, blameless, with eternal life. This is probably my favorite verse in Zechariah 12 because of how it is quoted in the New Testament describing Christ:
1 John 3:1-2 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
When Christ returns, the major theme of Zechariah 14, we shall be transformed in a moment to be imperishable, to be like Christ. It is a glorious promise, but for those who won’t trust in him, who don’t hope in him, who have rejected him, they have verse 9 as a promise:
v.9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
That’s pretty straightforward. I really wish we had had time to do this justice and read and explain chapters 12-14 and see how they relate, hopefully it will come together in future weeks. But we know from other scriptures that Christ will split the sky open and ride in as a conquering King, that’s what is going to go on in verse 10 as shown to us in the book of Revelation.
v.10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
This again is the salvation of many Jews right at the end. They’ll mourn over Christ for who he is, the only begotten Son of God, weeping in repentance both for their sins and for their rejection of him for so long.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
How was Christ pierced? How many years before he was pierced was Zechariah written? Almost 600 years prior. Let’s look at another prophecy written 1,000 years prior to Christ’s crucifixion:
Psalm 22:16-18 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
These are pointed explicitly at Christ in John’s Gospel.
John 19:31-37 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth— that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken." And again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they have pierced."
I really really really want you to see in Zechariah 12 that it says, “when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced”, we’ve got a great look at Christ’s deity here. When they look on me…who is speaking? God. Prior to us seeing this fulfilled in Christ, rabbis would say that this meant God was pierced by words or actions or sins, surely God can't be literally stabbed, but in Christ we see it fulfilled to the letter, that they literally drove nails through his hands and feet and a spear into his side. An utterly amazing prophecy.
And all this drives to a practically evangelical invitation, that there will be great mourning towards Christ and this will result in the salvation of many (cf. 2 Corinthians 7:10). I can’t prove it, but I almost guarantee you this was the passage Christ had in mind when he said,
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Let’s read it real quick, being totally out of time,
vv.11-14 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
The mourning will be great, the event at Megiddo was the death of one of Israel’s greatest kings, Josiah, and the mourning for Israel’s greatest king, King Jesus crucified and resurrected, will be similar. The beauty of this mourning is that because Christ has defeated death we have the promise that repentance towards Heaven leads to salvation; our sins having been paid for on the cross and our Saviour proved to be mighty to save in his resurrection.
Your repentance must be personal. I cannot repent for you, Summit can’t repent for you, your parents can’t trust in Jesus for you; you must place your full faith in Christ and Christ alone, the God who has wounds, the God who died, the God who lives, the God who is able to save.
Concerning the Jews, this was fulfilled partly in Acts 2, where Peter declares God’s foreknowledge that Christ would be delivered up and crucified, that it would be done by the Jews, and that many who even crucified Christ would be saved. I highly encourage you to read it later. This prophecy will be fulfilled totally on the final day.
But beloved, today your application is that God knows the end from the beginning. He forgave some of the very people that crucified him, and he is mighty to save to the uttermost all who draw near to him. Christ laid down his life for us knowing every sin we would ever or will ever commit, and we have such great promises that if we mourn for our sins, we will be comforted. So declare this message to your friends and strangers, it is the message of salvation, apart from it God will bring the nations to destruction, but if we are in Christ, we called the children of God. Strive for holiness as he is holy.
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Asia Bibi and Pakistan
SuperBowl Outreach
Shelby's Basketball Injury
Traveling during the snow storm - esp. Richard
Kari's Nephew on the way
Kari - Taylor's Cancer
Hanson Family in the loss of their father
Awtrey's teacher and missions field
Text – Zechariah 12
Let’s start with some review. Zechariah was written when? 522-518BC. What are some major events that are taking place? Return from the Exile in Babylon, and rebuilding of the Temple.
What are some major prophecies for Christ in this book? Humble and riding on a donkey; priest and king; blood of the covenant poured out; the removal of sin in a single day; good shepherd; sold for 30 pieces of silver.
Zechariah 11 is one of the harshest chapters in the Bible, what is the major theme of Zechariah 11? The rejection of the Nation of Israel as God’s chosen people. Why were they rejected? The people rejected Christ, and heaped to themselves false shepherds who also rejected Christ; they were constantly falling to idolatry and cared more for themselves than for God. Romans 10 tells us they rejected the righteousness of God, which is Christ, and substituted their own. When precisely did this happen? Between AD30-70, starting especially in,
Matthew 21:43 The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
This is harsh, and the New Testament affirms how harsh this is,
1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 The Jews killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!
The wrath of God has come upon them at last! Eep. Is this all of Israel, or none, or some? It’s only a portion, prior to AD70 many Jews were trusting in a Messiah to come and were justified in their faith, but afterwards they are trusting either in their works, or in a messiah to come, and most were lost, and most Jews alive are lost today.
Let me show you the folly of their hope; we’re all in prison, we were told if we went to a certain place we would certainly be taken captive and held for ransom, but we didn’t believe the person that told us that and we willfully disobeyed and went to the place, and sure enough, we were captured and our ransom was set at a ridiculous amount, say $1Billion, and between us we have eight dollars and some pocket lint; we’re stuck. We call the person who we called a liar by not believing and he says because he loves us he will ransom us, that he is sending his son to pay our ransom, and that in order to pay that ransom it has utterly bankrupted him, but such is his unmerited favor and lovingkindness towards us that he will save us anyways.
We sit and sit and wait and wait and finally the son arrives and presents the ransom at great cost to himself. I get up to leave because my ransom is paid, but you all stay sitting, I ask, “What’s going on? Our ransom is paid, we can leave.” You say, “No, we don’t believe this is our redeemer, we expect another, we won’t accept his payment.” The son tries to persuade you that this is the only payment that is coming, that no-one else can afford to ransom you, and no-one else even wants to ransom you. You respond by spitting on him, calling him names, and kicking him in the shin. He leaves you to die in your captivity while all of us who accept his payment and believe he is who he says he is walk free forever indebted to our redeemer.
Israel rejected their Messiah, they crucified him and humiliated him, and now he has rejected them as being a people, he has left them to die, and he has given the kingdom to another people who will bear its fruit. He has promised throughout all ages to have a witness on earth, and so with Israel rejected a new group is grafted into the cut-off promises of Israel. Who are those people? The church.
This was a long way to get to our passage today, but do you understand why Christ has rejected the People Israel and adopted another? Let’s look at some wonderful promises of this church, also called the Israel of God, which though Christ laid siege to Jerusalem in AD70 with the Romans and saw it flattened, no-one will ever conquer the home of God’s elect, which is Heaven, the New Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12:1-14 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.' "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. "And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
This passage almost certainly occurs very near to the end of time. There are several things in this passage that certainly haven’t happened yet, and just reading it is seems like it has to be such a major event that the entire world will know when it happens. However, there are at least two major clues in the New Testament that place this passage right at the end, on the day that Christ returns. Chapter 14 is really going to describe the battle in more detail, but he we’re going to look at the purposes here in chapter 12.
v.1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel:
First of all, this Israel, as I’ve just explained, is almost certainly the church. There is a lot of violence about to happen, which is why it is a burden; when we read things like this, or we that it is precious in the sight of the Lord the death of his saints, or we read that to live is Christ and to die is gain, we always have to remember Romans 8:28.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Remember that not all things are good, but all things, even the most evil of things, are being used for good by God. Our greatest example is the cross of Christ, there was nothing good at all about the evil showed to him by mankind, we cannot say that the death of God is good at all, especially on the torture devise that is the cross, but we also see that what was meant for evil, God used for good so that many are saved.
Three years ago I tore my right bicep, this wasn’t good at all. But when I went to get an MRI, I got to witness to the MRI girl and she was blown away by the gospel. God used my stupidity in hurting myself to further his gospel. Some of my friends just released a 10 disk set of CD’s and found out that every single package out of thousands was missing disk 8; because of this they were able to witness to people at the production company and it sounds like at least one of them got saved.
So we’ve got something majorly bad about to happen, but we’ll also see something great happen through it. First though coming out of chapter 11 some might wonder, what right does God have to take salvation away from Israel and now here to put his people through such events? That’s the next part:
v.1 Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:
God is able to do what he wants because he created the place and gives life; he owes nothing at all to mankind because of our sin, and mercy is his to give.
Romans 9:18-20 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"
We’re going to rush through the next part of this because it is the major point of chapter 14, I think you’ll get the major point without looking at similar passages from Revelation, which we’ll look at in chapter 14.
v.2-3 "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves.”
A cup of staggering means they’ll be incapacitated, like somebody who drinks too much, they’ll be stricken incapable by this war, and they will ultimately fall. There is a siege coming, when an army or armies surround the city in order to wage war on it, which, if you’ve got a big enough army it should be easy to overthrow just one little city. But God says he’ll make Jerusalem harder to overturn than it looks, in fact those who try will hurt themselves. Silly language if we didn’t know that a bit later there is going to be much bloodshed and destruction, though Jerusalem, namely New Jerusalem here, will stand firm and not be overthrown.
v.3-5 And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.'
Here’s one of the reasons we see this as sometime in the future, because ALL nations will gather against Israel. Christ points this at the church in Matthew 24 when he says, “you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.”
This battle sounds utterly chaotic with the enemy totally panicked; we’ll see in a few weeks that the reason for this is because Heaven opens and a massive army of angels led by Christ will wage war on them; Christ destroying with the power of his Word.
The enemies will be confused and with no organization, where-as the church will be amazingly calm and empowered, not of themselves, but through the Lord. I really wish we had time to look at Gideon, but we don’t, so let me just remind you that he conquered an entire army with just 300 men, that that enemy panicked and killed themselves. This battle will be similar.
v.6 "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
The imagery here is a complete destruction of the enemies of God, that a blazing fire will be put in the midst of dry wood and paper. I don’t think we can overemphasize the violence of this final day, and at the conclusion we’ll see Jerusalem intact and inhabited. When we’ll read Revelation in Zechariah 14, we’ll see that this is most likely the New Jerusalem, Heaven on Earth. Zechariah’s major point here is that the enemies will be slain, but the People of God will survive.
For verse 7, Do you remember that I told you from the 30 pieces of silver passage that I couldn’t explain what it meant before we saw it happen? After it happened, we see the prophecy fulfilled perfectly to the letter, but before it was sort of fuzzy. Such is this next verse:
v.7 "And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah.
This sounds like one of the very last things that will happen at the end of time is the conversion of Jews to Jesus Christ. This is described in Romans 11 and Hebrews 8 (be turning to Hebrews 8, I want you to read this with me), and is reminiscent of when Christ told the Jews in Matthew 23 that they wouldn’t see him again until they recognized that he had come in the name of the Lord. So as we listen to people who say, “The end could happen any minute,” we remind them that there are signs that must be fulfilled first, and one of which is the mass conversion of Jews to Christ before hand. This won’t be all Jews, some will follow the Antichrist as we learned last week, but this will certainly be so many Jews that we’ll take notice.
Let me read this for length; this is the mass conversion described:
Hebrews 8:8-12 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
v.8 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David,
Elevated from nobodies to royalty, able to defeat great enemies, totally trusting in God, and with a humble and repentant spirit. It will be a great day; the next verse helps us to date this passage to the end of time:
v.8 and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them.
They’ll be like God, that’s an important phrase, we won’t be God, but like him, sinless, righteous, blameless, with eternal life. This is probably my favorite verse in Zechariah 12 because of how it is quoted in the New Testament describing Christ:
1 John 3:1-2 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
When Christ returns, the major theme of Zechariah 14, we shall be transformed in a moment to be imperishable, to be like Christ. It is a glorious promise, but for those who won’t trust in him, who don’t hope in him, who have rejected him, they have verse 9 as a promise:
v.9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
That’s pretty straightforward. I really wish we had had time to do this justice and read and explain chapters 12-14 and see how they relate, hopefully it will come together in future weeks. But we know from other scriptures that Christ will split the sky open and ride in as a conquering King, that’s what is going to go on in verse 10 as shown to us in the book of Revelation.
v.10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
This again is the salvation of many Jews right at the end. They’ll mourn over Christ for who he is, the only begotten Son of God, weeping in repentance both for their sins and for their rejection of him for so long.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
How was Christ pierced? How many years before he was pierced was Zechariah written? Almost 600 years prior. Let’s look at another prophecy written 1,000 years prior to Christ’s crucifixion:
Psalm 22:16-18 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
These are pointed explicitly at Christ in John’s Gospel.
John 19:31-37 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth— that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken." And again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they have pierced."
I really really really want you to see in Zechariah 12 that it says, “when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced”, we’ve got a great look at Christ’s deity here. When they look on me…who is speaking? God. Prior to us seeing this fulfilled in Christ, rabbis would say that this meant God was pierced by words or actions or sins, surely God can't be literally stabbed, but in Christ we see it fulfilled to the letter, that they literally drove nails through his hands and feet and a spear into his side. An utterly amazing prophecy.
And all this drives to a practically evangelical invitation, that there will be great mourning towards Christ and this will result in the salvation of many (cf. 2 Corinthians 7:10). I can’t prove it, but I almost guarantee you this was the passage Christ had in mind when he said,
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Let’s read it real quick, being totally out of time,
vv.11-14 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
The mourning will be great, the event at Megiddo was the death of one of Israel’s greatest kings, Josiah, and the mourning for Israel’s greatest king, King Jesus crucified and resurrected, will be similar. The beauty of this mourning is that because Christ has defeated death we have the promise that repentance towards Heaven leads to salvation; our sins having been paid for on the cross and our Saviour proved to be mighty to save in his resurrection.
Your repentance must be personal. I cannot repent for you, Summit can’t repent for you, your parents can’t trust in Jesus for you; you must place your full faith in Christ and Christ alone, the God who has wounds, the God who died, the God who lives, the God who is able to save.
Concerning the Jews, this was fulfilled partly in Acts 2, where Peter declares God’s foreknowledge that Christ would be delivered up and crucified, that it would be done by the Jews, and that many who even crucified Christ would be saved. I highly encourage you to read it later. This prophecy will be fulfilled totally on the final day.
But beloved, today your application is that God knows the end from the beginning. He forgave some of the very people that crucified him, and he is mighty to save to the uttermost all who draw near to him. Christ laid down his life for us knowing every sin we would ever or will ever commit, and we have such great promises that if we mourn for our sins, we will be comforted. So declare this message to your friends and strangers, it is the message of salvation, apart from it God will bring the nations to destruction, but if we are in Christ, we called the children of God. Strive for holiness as he is holy.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
January 2nd - The Flock Sold for Slaughter
Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Henley's Leaving
Tina New Job
New Years Preaching
Eugene in China - Car Accident
JJ Salvation
Grant Teaching
Text – Zechariah 11
Today we're going to look at one of the harsher passages in scripture, where Christ breaks his covenant with the people Israel and destroys them as a nation, since they have rejected him and esteemed him as nothing. This passage is extremely prophecy rich and will be important for us to remember that Zechariah is written over 500 years before Christ walked the earth, and that it perfectly predicted key events in his life.
What are some prophecies from Zechariah that Christ has already fulfilled? Humble and riding on a donkey; priest and king; the removal of sin in a single day; good shepherd.
How is Christ the good shepherd? Because he laid down his life for his sheep. What was his reaction to those who were bad shepherds? Fierce anger. What were those shepherds doing with the sheep? Selling them for profit, treating them like merchandise. Are these literal sheep, or do they represent something else? They represent people, the flock of God, and we know that God cares for his flock. What is the result of those who had rejected God and were putting their whole hope in possessions and things of this world? That is the first three verses of chapter 11, which we looked at last time,
Zechariah 11:1-3 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
Things of this world will completely pass away, they will be burned, felled, ruined, destroyed, and the wail of those who put their trust in material wealth or themselves will show that they have nothing for all of eternity. Today we're going to look at some of those people; people who don't care for the flock at all.
Zechariah 11:4-17 Thus said the LORD my God: "Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,' and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand." So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another." And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD. 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 thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"— the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter. Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Then the LORD said to me, "Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. "Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!"
So if we remember from chapter 10, that God is fiercely angry with the shepherds who don't care for the flock, he is going to replace these with someone else. At this point, from the New Testament, we can see that these false shepherds, while representing many people throughout history, like kings, popes, and false teachers, here are ultimately the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes. We've looked at Matthew 23 a few times in this class, do you remember what happens in that passage? Jesus declares seven "woes" on the Pharisees, calling them blind guides and utterly condemning them, totally angry that they were keeping men out of Heaven. The very last verses in that passage will really come alive after we look at Zechariah. So at this point, God has rejected these shepherds, we might say that this happened explicitly in
Matthew 21:43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
Now the command to Christ,
v.4 Thus said the LORD my God: "Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter."
This is a recurring theme throughout scripture, Psalm 23, John 10, Isaiah 40 (which we'll read at the end), and namely when Christ fed the 5,000 on the shores of Galilee.
Mark 6:34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
These were like sheep without a shepherd, but we see here in Zechariah that they had shepherds, they were just terrible shepherds.
v.5 Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich,' and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
At this point the shepherds, the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes, become not so much shepherds, but sheep-traders, as they'll be called in a moment, and they are over people not in a teaching/leading role, but only for the money, leading them to slaughter apart from God and Christ. They even go so far as to thank God for the money they have received in their evil dealings, treating people as objects and serving greed.
This was done in a variety of ways, one way was by requiring special temple money which had to be purchased, another way was in selling the sacrificial animals at exorbitant prices, and yet another was in taking tithes and offerings while doing nothing for the people. Some of these riches were not monetary, but in pride and selfishness, with the rabbis taking the best seats at parties and way overdressing themselves so people would know they were the super-righteous dudes. At this point we think, "I should feel sorry for these sheep." But we're going to see that their leaders are only half the problem.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
These people under these shepherds weren't complaining for the bad teaching they were receiving, but were glad to be told they could work their way into Heaven. This happens even today, probably moreso today, that people like Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar and Perry Noble and Ed Young Jr. are only in it for the money and prestige, but if no-one was following them, they wouldn't be shepherds. The shepherds are a huge problem, the but biggest problem is the people who follow them.
v.6-7 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the LORD. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand." So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep.
Because of their constant rejection, God is furious, yet here we see that Christ did indeed for a little while take the position of Shepherd of Israel. We see that from the feeding of the 5,000, when he saw them as sheep without a shepherd, he felt compassion on them, he made them sit on the green grass and he fed them, and taught them. These sheep, sold for slaughter, had a very good Shepherd.
Mark 6:39-42 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied.
Yet because they rejected him, in verse six of Zechariah 11 we see that that Christ will no longer have pity on these people, that he has caused a great destruction to come on these people. If they had stayed under his protection, they would have had nothing to fear, but we'll see in a bit that they reject him as their Shepherd. If Christ is our Shepherd and we have not rejected him, then we have great promises in his ability to guide us and bring us home to Heaven:
Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
These two staffs are used to guide the sheep and protect them from enemies, and as long as we're under the care of our Master, his favor and union keep us perfectly safe, and in the context of the passage, we're looking at the flock being the nation of Israel, and later the Holy Nation that is the church. The nation Israel is about to be rejected, where-as from chapter 10 we remember that the church will not lose even a single member.
v.8 In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.
Some believe, and I with them, that this was accomplished in Matthew 22 when they brought arguments to Christ to trip him up in his theology and show that he wasn't God, and he answered perfectly in every situation. I hope you'll take an opportunity sometime this week to read Matthew 22, but today for time's sake, we'll move on in Zechariah.
Matthew 22:46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
We see that they also detested Christ; this is important because the word translated as impatient is considerably stronger than mere disdain, it is probably best translated as loathe, Christ loathed these shepherds for their failures, and they hated him for showing the world that they were terrible rabbis and shepherds. Proverbs 6:16-19, the way this verse is structured, we won't read it again for time's sake, but Proverbs 6:16 and 19 say that God HATES the false witness, and here we see clearly that he is furious with these Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes who neither enter into Heaven, nor allow those who would enter to go in.
A major part of his rejection was that the Jews were always seeking material possessions, ignoring the One who sustained them, we see this expressed exceedingly clearly the day after the feeding of the 5,000,
John 6:25-26 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."
v.9-11 So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another." And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.
Here is where the rejection ultimately begins. The Jews were, and many still are, trusting in an OLD covenant given by God which was conditional and required the people to abstain from idols and love God and their neighbor and offer sacrifices and having utterly failed in this works-covenant, we see here that favor between God and them is broken, annulled, canceled, ceased. They are without favor in the sight of God for their constant rejection of him.
The Sheep-Traders, who are again our Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes, see and know that Christ is speaking for God, but they reject it anyways, their hearts were unbelievably hard and instead of submitting to him as Lord, they sought a way to kill him. As they reject him as Shepherd, he recognizes their desire and he asks for his wages here in Zechariah, here is how it plays out:
v.12-13 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 thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"— the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.
Thirty pieces of silver are roughly the price of a slave. Consider here who this Shepherd is, the King of Glory, and they esteemed him as worth slave-labor. Then this amount was thrown to the potter in the House of the Lord. Does this event sound familiar to anyone?
Matthew 26:14-16 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
The name Judas comes directly from Judah, one of the kingdoms of the nation Israel, and here we can very easily allegorize that Judas was a representative of the whole nation, that he has rejected Christ and is selling him for thirty pieces of silver, roughly $100 in our money. If only Judas and the Pharisees had known this scripture better, they ought to have repented and fallen down and worshipped Christ, but they pushed forward with their plan. Christ, however, did know this prophecy quite well,
John 13:21-27 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table close to Jesus, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas,the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
Now, Judas has sold Christ, he has the silver, but the money has not been thrown to the Potter in the Lord's House, how then is this going to take place?
Matthew 27:3-7 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money." So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers.
v.14 Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
This occurred forty years later when the Romans made an effort to destroy the whole people of Israel, murdering about a million people. During the siege it even came to pass where Zechariah said they would devour themselves; cannibalism took place during this time. And Israel was banished from being a country for almost 2,000 years, and today not only is there no strong bond between Israel and Judah, many Jews don't even know which tribe or kingdom their genealogies come from.
Now, having rejected the true Shepherd, the Jews are still looking for a Messiah, for a shepherd who will bring them back to a world power and save them. None will come, but for their insolence, the wrath of God will come upon them, and this next passage occurs sometime in the future, when a shepherd will arise over Israel, but not at all a good one. Here we get a fuzzy view of Antichrist, a failure as a messiah, a failure as a shepherd, a failure as a false god, and a failure as a savior, but the reward for all who reject the true Christ.
v.15-17 Then the LORD said to me, "Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. "Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!"
This false shepherd will not care for anyone, he will be only concerned with his own gain, with his own wealth and reputation, and care nothing for the flock. Ed Young Jr., a Southern Baptist apostate, recently coerced his whole church into giving more tithes through a mandatory direct deposit system. In his example we can see that there will be one main false shepherd, but that there are no lack of false shepherds, they devour their flock, they drive them so hard that their hooves are torn to tatters which can probably be spiritualized that they preach legalism and never allow their flock to rest in Christ, and ultimately they don't care for their flock. Perry Noble, one of the greatest antichrists operating today, publically told his congregation not to expect him to visit them at home or even in the hospital.
And in all of this, we see that these false shepherds are powerless to see what is right or to do what is right, and that he is ultimately worthless. Because of Israel's rejection of the Messiah and the false teachers who stood between God and Israel, and the false commands they taught, we see what Christ preached at the end of Matthew 23 come true:
Matthew 23:37-38 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate."
So we see in all of this that the Old Covenant has ceased, the New has come. The Old was conditional and required constant upkeep, but Christ in his perfection has offered himself once for all, being a perfect sacrifice, saving to the uttermost those who draw near to him. The Covenant that the Jews hold to today is obsolete, it cannot save, they are rejected as the Nation of God, where-by the church has been adopted into this role.
Hebrews 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
And finally, Christ is our better Shepherd, trust in him, know that you have his favor and union if you hold fast to the confession of faith you have in him, not trusting in yourself or a covenant, but trusting in him who died for your sins and was raised for your justification.
Let's conclude with one of my favorite passages in all of scripture:
Isaiah 40:9-11 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
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