The book of Zechariah is a beautifully-crafted poem that graphically illustrates the love of God for His people. Zechariah’s name means, “the Lord remembers.” Though the people sinned greatly, God preserved a remnant. The prophet Zechariah prophesies to the beleaguered returnees from Babylon. Zechariah’s message is, “My house shall be built” for the temple that God dwells in is not made with hands. He uses dozens of images that display the beauty of God’s kingdom as reasons for the people to finish rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, which they have neglected for the past sixteen years. The Old Testament does not end in captivity but in the restoration of His people and the providing of a vision for future glory. 

Lord, we thank you for this prophecy of Zechariah. Thank you for giving us such gifts, such language to help to form our souls, to teach us the ways in which we should go to bring us into the beautiful land, the land of milk and honey, the land of your temple, the land of your presence. Lord, I praise you for how Zechariah transports us to these places and more. Amen. So, open to Zechariah.

Zechariah, you're almost at the end of the Old Testament there in Zechariah. Let's talk about the message of Zechariah. My house shall be built. That's sort of the summary of it, but there's so much more that goes into that statement. And you see in this book such a beautiful and compelling testimony of the love of God.

I never tire of reading about the love of God. It was the love of God that moved my heart and saved my soul back when I was in my teens. I was so amazed at the love of God And you know as I was raising my children I always prayed and hoped that they would see the love of God, that they would see the beauty and the greatness of the love of God, that they would be satisfied you know by his love in that way. But Zechariah speaks of it. It's the love of God to restore.

When you read this book, look for the love of God. You'll see it on every page. The Language is astonishing and it's a feast. So just read it slow. You know, I was tempted to just give you my favorite verses, which are everywhere, which would take us nine hours to go through because there are so many beautiful verses.

It's highly figurative language. This is prophetic language and the imagery is astonishing and sometimes it's hard to figure out what it is. But here's what you do know. All of it is about God building His temple, destroying the wicked, and bringing His children into the beautiful land, into the place where He dwells. It's futuristic, it's messianic, and it's a declaration of the love of God.

The temple of God is not made with hands. As it turns out, the imagery that we're given in the Bible about the temple ends up teaching us about ourselves and about even our own hearts and backing up a couple of steps to the Church of Jesus Christ and then backing up a couple of steps to heaven itself. So the temple of God is figurative of all these things and you'll see that in this beautiful testimony, this beautiful prophecy. Here's another thing that you'll see. Angels, angels everywhere and the mightiest of mighty, the angel of the Lord.

The pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ appears in this prophecy over and over again. Look for Christ. You'll see the angel of the Lord here and learn of Christ. Learn what he's like. You'll just see the attractive and beautiful qualities of the Lord Jesus Christ in this prophecy.

Here are a few more things about this prophecy. Zechariah is the longest minor prophet. You know, you have four major prophets and you have twelve minor prophets and Zechariah is the longest of all the minor prophets with 14 chapters. Highly symbolic language, heavily, heavily quoted in the New Testament. There are 71 quotations or allusions from Zechariah in the New Testament and almost half of them, 31, are in Revelation alone.

It is second in influence only to Ezekiel in its use in the book of Revelation. Here's a piece of advice. If you ever study the book of Revelation, you must have Zechariah and Ezekiel in your hand because you will not understand the imagery in Revelation unless you see how these prophets use it. And many of the mistakes that are made in people's views of eschatology stem from this very thing. They read Revelation in isolation and they have no conception about the figurative language and the meaning of these different elements that we find in Ezekiel and in Zechariah.

You know I pray for a day in our church where we go through the book of Revelation. When we do, we'll have Ezekiel and we'll have Zechariah in our left hand with Revelation in the right. He is quoted in Matthew 21-5, John 12-15, John 11, 12 and 13, Matthew 27, 9 and 10, John 19, 37, John 13, 7, Matthew 26, 31, Mark 14, 27. Those are a few places that you can find it. The message of Zechariah hangs together, though, with the other final three minor prophets, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi.

And here's what these prophets say. The Old Testament does not end in captivity. It ends in restoration. It ends in glory. It begins with Sin, degradation, your life all torn up, captivity, bondage, deprivations.

It begins there. It begins with the discipline of the Lord. And it ends with God pulling you out of the mighty waters, pulling you out of the miry clay, out of the filth of this world, and setting your feet upon a rock, and putting a new song in your heart. That's the heart of this book here of Zechariah. So it's a vision of future glory.

Now I want to make a comment that may seem a little bit diversionary here, but this book is about the rebuilding of the temple. It's about the temple of God being restored. All the Old Testament imagery of the temple is cast forth in this vision of a restored temple where the people of God are worshiping in spirit and in truth. Now if you're familiar with modern-day quote-unquote messianic Christians where they want to bring the Old Testament sacrifices back, or even, I would just call it, even more extreme form, they look forward to the day when the old temple is rebuilt and there are sacrifices going on in Jerusalem. Perhaps you've encountered this view of eschatology where one of the most exciting things that people can think about is the rebuilding of the temple and the resuming of the sacrifices.

They're actually excited about the resuming of the Old Testament sacrifices as if they want to see the blood of bulls and goats again on the altar. Let me just tell you, this is perhaps one of the most blasphemous things that comes out of premillennialism. Are we going to go back to the blood of bulls and goats? Did Jesus Christ once for all lay down his life and shed his blood? This whole messianic vision, It really rejects the finished work of Jesus Christ and we should be very careful to find ourselves praising the idea of a rebuilt temple.

Guess what? If it happens it will be the devil's temple. We do not go back to the Old Covenant. God has given us a better covenant with better promises. It's a better temple and it's in your heart and it is in heaven and it is part of the people of God.

That is the meaning of the temple. The whole idea of restoring the killing of bulls and goats again is so contrary to the whole gospel. Read Isaiah 53. You'll have a really good idea of what salvation in Jesus Christ looks like. He is a once-for-all sacrifice for sin and we will never go back to circumcision.

We will never go back to any of the ceremonial laws. They have been abrogated by Jesus Christ. Let them not come back and let not the Church of Jesus Christ be excited about any idea that in Jerusalem somehow they're gonna be sacrifices of bulls and goats again. So this whole vision of Zechariah is about something far better, something more beautiful than you can imagine and he gives you language to help you understand the beauty of it. Let's talk about Zechariah the man, the third element of your outline here.

As we have seen with the prophets, their names are meaningful and Zechariah's name means the Lord remembers and you'll see this you'll see the Lord remembering his people you'll see them in their trouble you'll see them in their depression You'll see them trapped in their sin and God remembers his people. He calls them out. He saves their souls. He lifts them up out of the miry clay and he puts them in his temple and He blesses them. Another thing about Zechariah, which is very consistent with so many of the prophets, he was a young man.

Now we don't know exactly how young he was, but in Zechariah chapter 2 verse 4, the angel says, run to this young man and he's talking about Zachariah he was a young man it always excites me when I read about young men in Scripture and young women because you have this beautiful quality in the kingdom of heaven where the Spirit of God falls upon even the youngest person and can bless their soul, can thrill them, can put words in their mouth. The youngest person can be a blessing. And we've seen, particularly in the Old Testament, revivals break out by the work of young people. And it's such a blessing when young people's hearts turn toward the Lord, their hearts burn for holiness. And it's such a beautiful thing.

Zechariah's father was Barakiah, who was the son of a priest by the name of Ido, and Ido returned to the land with Zerubbabel. So that gives you an idea of the timeframe. But let's get a little bit deeper in the timeframe in your fourth element of the outline. The historical setting is identical to the setting of Haggai. Haggai and Zechariah were prophesying within months of each other and if one reads chapter one and then and then refers to a secular document that was discovered called the Cyrus cylinder they read almost exactly the same.

I believe the Cyrus cylinder is in the British Museum. You have these discoveries that have been made in the ancient Near East that just absolutely confirm the whole geography, the political activity, the wars, the personalities that were in play, the kings, and the Cyrus cylinder does correspond with chapter 1 of Zechariah. So the people have returned to Jerusalem with the money and the favor of Cyrus. They have begun to clear the rubble, however they're discouraged. They quit.

They've quit for 14 years and Zechariah is prophesying at this very same time. And he's challenging them to rebuild the temple and the wall. Just a quick comment about Cyrus. Cyrus was what I'll just call a benevolent despot. Cyrus pretty much liked everybody's gods.

He wanted to be known for being such a magnanimous ruler. That's why I called him a benevolent despot. Really nice guy who wanted to conquer folks but let them go do their own thing. He wanted tribute from them but he allowed their religions to live and he wanted to be known as a magnanimous ruler. And so he was allowing various religions to operate and this is why he was interested in promoting even the religion of Israel, even though he was a pagan and an idolater, he was the perfect syncretist.

He just loved all the gods as long as they would make him happy and perhaps become a source of tribute for his great nation. Now the people were discouraged for a number of reasons. There was pressure upon those who were trying to rebuild the temple. They got discouraged about that. The temple was so small and so underweight compared to the heavy, weighty, beautiful, magnificent temple of Solomon.

Very small temple. And you had a very small number of people, only 50, 000 people were back in Jerusalem as a result of the return from Babylon. Small numbers of people, small things happening, things that just didn't look very successful at all. And so the people needed encouragement. And so Zechariah says something that you should always remember, always for the rest of your life, don't forget these words.

Are you ready? Don't despise the day of small things. Don't despise the day of small things. You know when I was in my teens and in my early 20s I had a pastor and he quoted that over and over and over again. I don't know how many times he said it but every time he said it my heart warmed.

I was so thankful to hear him say that. This is the way that the kingdom of God works. On the outwards appearance things might not look as successful as the great and mighty institutions and companies and forces at work in the world, but the truth is the kingdom of heaven will last and this world will fall on its face. Don't despise the day of small things. Don't misunderstand what's happening in the world.

The temple of the Lord Jesus Christ will be built and it will prevail and the worship of God will rule and reign as the waters cover the sea." So this just helps us understand about this time frame. It was a time of discouragement, and yet the prophets were coming to encourage the people. As you read it, I also want you to recognize the repentance theme in here. And you'll find several calls to repentance, and you'll see examples of what repentance looks like. And there are various elements to repentance.

It isn't so simple as just saying, I'm sorry. You'll find that repentance is something deep. It's something mighty. It's something real and it actually changes things. Now you would think that Zechariah would be patting the returnees on the back.

Thanks for coming back. You know, boy, you left Babylon. You know, life was getting kind of a little bit better in Babylon and there were a lot of resources in Babylon, but what was in Jerusalem? A bunch of rubble and it needed to be cleaned up. And so this is what Zerubbabel was all about.

Zerubbabel to clean up the rubbable of Jerusalem. And it was quite a mess. You know, I don't know if you've seen pictures of cities, you know, particularly third-world cities, destroyed by earthquakes and it's nothing but bricks and junk all over the ground. And they don't have any bulldozers. Imagine that.

Imagine a city like that. It had been absolutely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. And now they've got to come back into a city of rubble. They left beautiful Babylon. You know, one of the seven wonders of the world was there.

And it was a magnificent city with beautiful walls and opulent architecture and gardens and all kinds of, It was just an absolutely astonishing place. And so now you go back to Jerusalem, the city of rubble. You would think that Zechariah would be patting them on the back and saying, good job. Well, that isn't exactly what he does. He calls them to repentance.

And here's what we learn from this. Repentance is not only for the proactively wicked, repentance is also for the faithful few. The Christian never gets beyond repentance and this is seen so clearly in the appeals that you find out of the mouth of Zechariah and the other voices that speak in the book of Zechariah. And notice how Zechariah starts with the fear of God. He's not afraid to use the fear of God as a motivation for the people.

And this is why the writer of Hebrews says that it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The fear of God is a blessing to your soul if it touches your heart and you realize that there is in the fear of God so much blessing when your heart turns as a result of it. You'll see a statement in here in the first section of Zechariah that the Word of God was overtaking the people. It just overruns them. This is one of the most marvelous things that can happen.

And this is really the heart of what we read about in Deuteronomy chapter 28. 28 verse 1, 28 verse 2, verse 15 and 25. This whole matter of fidelity to the Word of God. Before we start walking through the book which I can't wait to do because we're going to stop on so many beautiful phrases that I pray will really be like water to your soul. It'll just transport you into the regions of the love of God and has great mercy.

Let me just say it like this, this book is dripping with the mercy of God and just let it wash over you. It's just so beautiful. Now these visions, there are eight symbolic visions that we find in the first six chapters. Eight visions. We're gonna walk through them in just a moment.

But while you know the prophecy of Isaiah was delivered to him over many decades, the prophecy of Haggai was delivered in four messages in four months. These visions were delivered to Zechariah in one night. They happened in 519 BC in February in one night. So let's look at them. First of all, in the first six verses you'll see the preface to the call to repentance here.

You can see the outline in front of you and there's this introduction to the visions in chapter 1 verses 1 through 6 which really have at their heart a call to repentance. Verse 1, in the eighth month of the second year of Darius the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Barakiah the son of Ido the prophet. Now recognize again these are historical time markers. They are historical geographical time markers that help you know when this happened. This is real history, real people, real kings, real countries, real families.

This is the Bible tells the story about real life. And then there are the particulars to this called repentance. Look at verse 2. The Lord has been very angry with your fathers. So right at the beginning Zechariah is declaring the anger of God toward their fathers.

And then in verse 3 there's a call to repent. Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts." Many things to observe in verse 3. The Lord of hosts. This is the pre-incarnate Son of God. The Lord of Hosts is mentioned twice here when the prophets speak of the Lord of Hosts, they're speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ who's the ruler of the armies of heaven.

You know when the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane made it clear that he could bring down legions of angels if he wanted to. He is the ruler of the armies of heaven. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Well, in a way. In a way.

And then there's this call to to break from the past. Now repentance is evidenced by a breaking from the past. Do not be like your fathers verse 4 to whom the former prophets preached saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds, but they did not hear nor heed, says the Lord. Now these verses contain in a capsulized form the doctrine of repentance. And there are two aspects of repentance and the revival that takes place as a result of that repentance.

And the first is the repudiation of sin. The identification and the repudiation of sin and agreeing with God about your sin rather than denying it and saying it's one thing say what God says it is and this is always the pathway to blessing to begin to confess. Confess means to say the same thing. And this repudiation of sin is the first aspect of repentance and it's the beginning of all revival. And then the second aspect of it is turning to God, To turn away from your sin and turn to God.

And this is very vividly what happened to me when I was first converted. I was very clearly and self-consciously identifying this world and the ways of the world And I was recognizing in my soul that I did not want that anymore. I wanted to turn away from that and I wanted to turn toward God because I believed He was the fountain of blessing and the world was in the process of poisoning everything in my life and I had that conviction. That's repentance. I actually did repent.

Now I have had to continue to repent all my life long. I'm still repenting. I didn't just repent that one time. I'm still seeing sin. Sin is being revealed to me.

And what Christians do is that they continue to repudiate their sin on the one hand, and they turn to God. And they recognize that God is angry with sin, that God has something to say about your life. What Israel had done, what the fathers had done, is that they had rejected the fountain of living waters. And God is calling their offspring back. Now notice He says, your fathers, he speaks of your fathers and I think there's something that we should make note of here regarding our fathers.

In the same way that the fathers of Israel bore particular marks of rebellion and sinfulness, so our own fathers do. And that should not displease us too much. Here's what it should do. When we see the sins of our fathers, we should do two things. We should say, oh Lord, how does this sin exist in me, first of all?

And then, oh Lord, how can I turn from this sin and exceed my father? How can I in the next generation bring greater sweetness as a result of my obedience? You know God does give children parents to help them see what sin looks like. God doesn't give you parents to see what perfection looks like. Now, He does give parents to be an example and a guide and instructors to help you in righteousness and in holiness, to help you to turn away from every sinful thing.

But at the same time, parents are also fallen. And children just need to grow up and recognize that. And understand that their Father's sins should be used as a mirror, first of all, and then as a motivation. As you see yourself in the mirror, the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you're given motivation not to hate your father, but to hate your sin and to exceed your father. To me, one of the saddest things that happens in the church is when the rising generation falls away from the holiness of the first generation.

There's always a danger. God has no grandchildren. The church can be lost in a generation. That's all it takes. You let worldliness run in your heart and then your home and then your church and you will lose.

You will lose the passion and the joy and the healing that's there for the people of God. So there's this call to repentance and then as we look at these visions that are coming, They're eight visions and we're gonna just kind of take them quickly one by one. There are a number of questions you should ask when you read through the visions. Here's one question. What are the consequences of being unified with Jesus Christ?

What happens to you when you're unified with Christ? Here's another question. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Who is He? What is He like?

And then also ask, what does sin do? And further, what does the world look like? How do you identify the works of the devil in the world? And then finally, What's the end of it all? What's the end of the worldly?

What's the end of the person who worships God and his temple? So those are helpful questions, I hope, as you read through this. You're going to encounter so much figurative, prophetic language, your heads are going to spin. But ask those questions, and I think it'll be helpful. Okay, the first vision we're getting ready to click through eight visions and the first vision is the vision of the red horse rider among the myrtle trees.

Again in verse 7, which begins this vision of the rider among the myrtle trees, there's an identification on the very day that this took place. It happened on a real 24-hour day in a month in a certain place. But he says this in verse 8, I saw by night. Now remember he says I saw. I don't think this was a dream.

For some reason God communicated this to him. He saw it and he's writing it down. I saw and behold a man riding on a red horse and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow and behind him were horses red sorrel and white. Now notice there's a man riding on a red horse we learned later on in this that this is absolutely the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord. And secondly, he's riding among the myrtle trees.

Myrtle trees were beautiful trees. They were not huge, but they had lovely flowers on them. Brides would adorn themselves with myrtle flowers and they were fragrant, they were lovely, but here these myrtle trees are in the hollow and the idea here is that They're in this low place. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ exists in its beauty, but it's in a hollow. It's a persecuted church.

It's a pressed down kind of a church. And in verse 10, we read, And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and throw throughout the earth." And in verse 11 it says they're resting quietly. They've been quieted in their soul. They're humbled, they're in a hollow, they're in a very low valley. But they are among the myrtle trees and they recognize the fragrance of the kingdom of heaven.

And they are resting quietly even though they are pressed down and they need comfort we learn that in verse 12 because the angel is speaking in comforting words And then the angel who spoke to me said to me, verse 14, proclaim saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. Here God is comforting His people in the hollow, in the place of their quietness, in the place of their persecution, in their smallness. And in verse 16 He says this, I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it." Those two phrases I think are so important to understand what God is doing in the world. He's coming with mercy and He will build His house.

Those two things. I think that is such a capsule-ization of the heart and the soul of the message of Zechariah for the future. And then in verse 17, the vision concludes, Thus says the Lord of hosts, my cities shall again spread out through prosperity the Lord will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem here is a picture of a people who have been broken and hurt, and he's going to bring them back. And he says he will choose Jerusalem. He will do it.

Well, a hurt and wounded people, a broken people, cannot heal themselves. They can't repair themselves. God can. When he chooses you, he'll repair you. It's such a marvelous thing.

Well, that's the first vision. The second vision spans from chapter 1, verses 18 through 21. And this is the vision of the four horns and the four craftsmen. And so there are these four horns that are scattered and they have been scattering the people of God. So you have four horns and four craftsmen.

The four horns are the national or world powers that have risen up against the Church of Jesus Christ. Horns in scripture indicate authority and power. And the craftsmen are those who are really counteracting them. The carpenters, the craftsmen. I don't know if this is an illusion of the Lord Jesus Christ, the carpenter, the carpenter's son.

But here these carpenters are restorative and what they're doing is that they're counteracting the devastation of these four horns. Perhaps the four horns represent world powers from this time to the time of the second coming or perhaps they are representative of other powers that maybe lead up to the coming of Christ. I'm not sure, but the craftsmen are overturning their work And what this means is that the judgment of God always keeps pace with evil. He follows his enemies, and he doesn't let them get off free. If the enemies of God are at work, God is at work still.

You never have to worry about that. God will come back around and make things right. That's the second vision. The third vision is the vision of the surveyor with the measuring line. This encompasses all of chapter 2.

So you have this man with a measuring line in his hand and then the prophet says, where are you going? And he said to me, to measure Jerusalem to see what is its width and what is its length. So this man is measuring Jerusalem. Now there are a number of places in the Bible where the city of Jerusalem is being measured. You find it in Revelation, you find it in numerous places of the prophets.

God is always measuring Jerusalem. Jerusalem was figured of the church. I believe that this measuring is this kind of a sizing up of the scope and the scale that he is doing an assessment by measuring it in that sense And God is always measuring His temple. He's measuring it against what? His holy word.

Is the worship of God in the temple consistent with the regulation of God? And does it measure according to Scripture or is it some other measure? What we find here is that this angel is speaking to Zechariah and this man is measuring the temple. And verse 4 says, he said, run and speak to this young man saying Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. So here's the message.

While Jerusalem is being measured, this is a vision of the future. It'll be boundless. There won't be any boundaries. It'll be absolutely massive, perhaps even unable to measure it. And verse 5 speaks of how it is that this expansion can take place.

And I believe this is the expansion of the preaching of the gospel, the bringing in of the Gentiles all throughout the earth. How does it happen? Verse 5 is how it happens. And when you read verse 5, think about yourself, think about your church, think about the true church of Jesus Christ in the world. For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst." In other words, God is going to protect His church like a wall of fire and He is going to be their glory.

He will be their glory, not the world will define their glory. They will not be tainted by the glory of the world at all. They'll be purified and beautified and glorified as a result of His glory. And this is a picture of the church. Verse 8, He sent me after glory to the nations which plunder you.

For he who touches you touches the apple of his eye." Yikes! You touch the Church of Jesus Christ, you're touching the apple of his eye. And this of course is why the Apostle Paul said, He who destroys the temple of God, him I will destroy. God will destroy all the works of darkness. It may seem that they're in prosperity, but in truth it's only an illusion because he has proclaimed victory.

He regards his church as very precious. You know this evening a man from Turkey is gonna come to my house, Fikir Bocek. He was a Muslim that became a Christian. In his younger years he was tortured, he was persecuted, he was electrocuted, he was nearly drowned for his faith. But you know what?

When all that was happening, this was the truth. He who touches you touches the apple of his eye. You never need to be afraid. The Church of God serves as a protected body as the apple of his eye. Verse 10, you know there's just so many verses in here I want to read that we just cannot, but we'll read verse 10.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst says the Lord many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and they shall become my people and dwell in your midst verse 13 be silent all flesh before the Lord for he is aroused from his holy habitation. And he has, he's like a fire around his people that are ever expanding and he's protecting them. So this is a picture of Christ measuring Jerusalem in the same way that He'll measure the church to finally determine its final reach and its size. And the Church of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The church is safe.

There's a wall of fire around the church and if you are part of the Church of Jesus Christ if you are the temple of God there's a wall of fire around you do you realize that When you walk about in this earth, there is a wall of fire around you. And God looks at you in the midst of the fire, and you're like the apple of His eye. Do you feel like that when you walk around? You know, it's easy to forget that isn't it to forget who you really are in the world the apple of God's eye Surrounded by a wall of fire. I Can't think of anything that would bring my soul more confidence than to be self-conscious of this reality that God has done all these things.

Well, this is this vision, this third vision. Here's the fourth vision. The vision of the cleansing and the crowning of Joshua. This is in chapter 3. Now remember Joshua and Haggai?

Remember Joshua was a religious leader and Zerubbabel was the civil leader, right? And in Haggai, you know, the prophet was speaking to both the civil realm and the spiritual realm and the remnant. Now here Joshua was the high priest. He was the head of the spiritual realm. We encounter him here.

Remember Haggai, Zechariah, same time, same personalities, same things going on. So we meet Joshua here again. He's the high priest and he's standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan is standing at his right hand to oppose him And I believe that he is opposing both the angel of the Lord and the high priest, Joshua. That's the way I take that because when you read verse 2, the Lord says to Satan, the Lord rebuke you Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you.

Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Here's what was happening. Satan the accuser of the brethren was accusing Joshua of his filthiness and you'll see that here in just a moment and the Lord Jesus Christ the angel of the Lord says rebuke you I have plucked him as a firebrand out of the fire he's mine that's what he's saying the Lord Jesus Christ is expressing his indignation against the devil for accusing his son Joshua the high priest. And in verse 3 you read about Joshua's filthy garments. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel.

And I take this to be that Joshua the priest and also the people had a sense of their filthiness. They had a self-consciousness of their sins. They felt their unworthiness. And when they looked at themselves, they saw their filthy garments. They weren't high-minded at all.

But look at verse 4 and 5. Then he answered and spoke to those who stood before him saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes." The devil is standing right there. He's saying, I will clothe him with clean garments. This is redemption.

This is cleansing. This is being washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll clothe you with rich robes." He takes away your filthy garments, your filthy, worldly garments, and he puts garments of beauty upon you so that your garments now declare the purity and the love of God. Now, he goes further, not just rich robes, and I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him, and the angel of the Lord stood by." What a scene.

The devil is accusing the high priest, and the Lord Jesus Christ is clothing the one accused with beautiful clean garments. This is a picture of Jesus Christ picking up the sinful, unwashed people of the world. Well, verse 8 is a prophecy of Christ in the future. Here, oh Joshua the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign. For behold, I am bringing forth my servant, the branch." There you go.

You can read about the branch in a number of places in the Old Testament and the New Testament. But this picture in verse 8 is so beautiful. Here, O Joshua the high priest, you and your companions. So there, the Lord Jesus is sitting there, standing there. The devil is here next to him, accusing Joshua and his companions.

And the Lord Jesus Christ says, for they are a wondrous sign. They're for signs and wonders. It's the sign and the wonder of the soul washed clean. And then the joy of the people, verse 10, everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree. This is just a picture of the joy of the people of God gathered, the companions, you know, gathered in the church enjoying the bounty of the Lord together, forgiving one another, tender- hearted, loving one another, patient with one another.

It's a picture of the church and There's love. Everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree. In other words, come, let's eat. Let's eat of the abundance. Let's drink of the abundance.

That's the vine and the fig tree. So you can just see how salvation works. It's not dependent upon your own works. You see the mercies of God here? Do you see how Zechariah is such a beautiful proclaimer of the mercy of God?

Zechariah is just such a marvelous prophecy. Then the fifth vision, the vision of the gold lampstand and the two olive trees. Here there are these lampstands, the candlesticks represent the church. I think this is also a similar thought that we read about in Revelation where the Lord Jesus Christ is walking among the churches, the lampstands, and these candlesticks shine as light in the world. And then this phrase that also my pastor would repeat over and over again.

Not only did he say, do not despise the day of small things, he also said this in verse 6. Look at verse 6, one of my favorite verses in the entire prophecy. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts." And then look at verse 9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple, his hands shall also finish it." And in verse 10, for who has despised the day of small things? Who has?

Who does that? Who despises the day of small things? It's a searching question that really identifies some of our own worldliness. Who has despised the day of small things? And then he just continues on with this prophecy.

It's, you know, in verse 12 you have these olive branches that are dripping into receptacles and the gold pipes and the oil flowing. It's just a marvelous picture. They sink into that. What this vision has to do with is God providing his unfailing strength to the soul. He pours out his oil.

He keeps the lamps lit. And we're tempted to judge God's work by outward appearances, but his work is unstoppable. And God supplies his people like an ever-flowing stream of oil and wine and tasty and succulent figs. A full supply. You know there's a song that I love to sing in our church by a Puritan, Ann Steele, and she writes this, Lord we adore thy boundless grace, the heights and depths unknown, of pardon, life, and joy, and peace in thy beloved Son.

And then the chorus goes like this. Come all you pining, hungry, poor, the Savior's bounty taste. Behold a never failing store for every willing guest. Here shall your numerous wants receive, a free and full supply. He has unmeasured bliss to give and joys that never die.

Come all you pining, hungry, poor, the Savior bountiful. Anyway, it's a beautiful song. Let's go to the sixth vision, the vision of the flying scroll. Now I love this one here. This is a vision for those who disregard his law and the whole idea here in this vision is you break God's law you'll be broken it'll cover you up it'll fly over you and it won't turn out all that well now this is a scroll we learn how big it is he says its length is 20 cubits and his width is 10 cubits this is about 30 feet by 15 feet, maybe about the size of this room.

So picture the scroll of the Word of God written on both sides. Some commentators said it's the first table of the law on one side and the second table of law on the back and then he explains what this law of God does in verse 3. This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth. Every thief shall be expelled according to this side of the scroll and every perjurer shall be expelled according to that side of the scroll. And so this is the whole idea that the Word of God convicts, it condemns, and it exposes who you are and if you do not turn to God and repent then you will be expelled.

The liars and the thieves will be expelled. But as we learn in Romans 6 that no thief or liar, homosexual or adulterer or idolater can inherit the kingdom of heaven. But such were some of you. You can turn. You can turn from your lies.

You can turn from your covetousness. You can turn from your homosexuality and God will save you vision seven the vision of the woman in the basket. Here you got this woman in the basket. She's pressed down by this heavy weight and then is banished to Shinar, which is back to Babylon. The land of Shinar is the land of Nebuchadnezzar and she's banished there.

The measure of God's wrath is heavy. It weighs her down in the basket, pushes her down in the basket. And this is what happens to you when you're on your way back to Babylon. You're just getting pressed down by a heavy weight again in the basket. You want to go back to Babylon?

What do you get? You get nothing but a lead weight on your head and it pushes you down into the basket there's no light in there and you're confined. The eighth vision is the vision of the four chariots passing between two mountains and you can you can read all about that And then at the end of chapter 6 there's this prophetic message just like us to make sure we camp on. Chapter 6 verse 12, speak to him saying, thus says the Lord of hosts saying, behold the man whose name is the branch from his place he shall branch out and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Here's a picture of Jesus Christ the branch flowing with life he's building the Temple of the Lord.

And who's the Temple of the Lord? Well, it's you, it's me. The branch is branching out. And this is what he does, he's branching out and continuing to possess more and more of the space, the empty places, the waste places of our souls. Verse 13, yes he shall build the temple of the Lord, he shall bear the glory, he shall be a priest on his throne and the council of peace shall be between them." After finishing these eight symbolic visions, he then speaks of two revelatory oracles.

And again, there are so many places to stop here to see the beauty and the glory of God, the sinfulness of sin, and the reach and the significance of the temple of God as he's building it. You'll encounter people in this section that shrug their shoulders, they stop up their ears, they refuse to heed, and it's a tragedy that they do because they receive the wrath of God. There's this vision of restoration. I really love verse 4 and 5 in chapter 8. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, I can relate to this, old men and old women shall sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand.

Because of great age, the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets." How about that? That's a picture of the rule of God. There's authority and of those saints of old, the men and the women, and they sit in the streets and what's happening? The streets are full of boys and girls playing in the streets. You know, I know many of you have younger siblings and it's such a blessing to Watch little children play when they're playing according to holy things Well, there's just so much here to try to identify.

Verse 13 in chapter 8, So I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, Let your hands be strong. Verse 16. These are the things you shall do. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor.

Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice and peace. Let none of you ever think evil in your heart against your neighbor. It's a picture of love. It's a restored people who are being remade. They are like that ancient temple of old being rebuilt.

The stones are being put back in their places. Order is being restored. Beauty is being developed in the building. This is a picture of your life. This is what Jesus Christ does.

He Puts the stones back in the place. You know, in this life, your stones get kind of jostled out of order and Jesus Christ comes and he puts you back together again. And he puts you together with other living stones, other people in the church. And while you're rubbing up against them in the temple, they also are set aright. There's this sorting out of this symmetry and beautification that takes place in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at chapter 9 verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem behold your King is coming to you he is just and having salvation lowly and riding on a donkey a colt the foal of a donkey you recognize that This is the Lord Jesus Christ coming in to Jerusalem. What he's speaking of here is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. No question about it.

And in verse 10 we read His dominion will be from sea to sea. In verse 11, the prisoners will be set free from the waterless pit. I love that language. Set free from the waterless pit. This is what happens in salvation.

Now by the way, here in this section in chapter nine is a picture of Alexander the Great. Now the geographical elements in chapter nine fit almost exactly with Alexander the Great's conquest in the Middle East. His path of conquering fits these cities, these geographical pinpoints that are in chapter 9. It's really remarkable. And so you'll enjoy reading about the two staffs, the two staffs of the Lord.

One is called beauty and the other is called bonds. Bondage or beauty? Which one would you like? Bondage or beauty? Well those really are the only two choices.

This is the same thing as the sheep and the goats, the light and the darkness. Beauty or bonds? Slavery. You'll find a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ also in chapter 11 verses 12 and 13. The 30 pieces of silver throwing it to the potter, into the house for the potter.

It's Judas and his betrayal throwing the 30 pieces of silver down on the ground and then committing suicide. So there's this great vision of the beauty of the kingdom of heaven and it's such a compelling picture. When you get to chapter 14 You'll see just such marvelous language that explains what it looks like when the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords comes. Look at this, Behold the day of the Lord is coming and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem.

The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, the women ravished, half of the city shall go into captivity." So this is a picture of the great devastation of those who turned away from the Lord. And then verse 4, And in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountains shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south." And this here is just a picture of God's heavenly glory. Verse 20 in chapter 14 says this in that day holiness to the Lord shall be engraved on the bells of the horses the pots and the Lord's house shall be like bowls before the altar yes every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts." This is a picture of God beautifying everything.

You're cooking, you're working, your house, everything. This is what Jesus Christ does. He makes everything you do beautiful. And then, the very last words in chapter 14 read like this, everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them these implements of holiness. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." In other words, God is going to purify His church.

At this point, the church consists of the wheat and the tares and the Lord Jesus Christ told us to let them grow together. But there will be a day when there will no longer be any Canaanites in the house of the Lord. And all will be right, all will be at peace. And the beauty of the Lord will rule and reign everywhere. So there it is, There's Zechariah.

It's a message that God will build his house and he explains it in such beautifully crafted imagery. Enjoy it. Let it soak in. Try to read it slow and pick out your favorite verses. Okay, so there you have it, Zechariah.