The sermon 'Do You See What I See?' by Scott Brown centers on the book of Zechariah, particularly chapter 8, and the broader biblical narrative concerning God's eternal plan. It highlights God's zealous commitment to Zion and Jerusalem, promising restoration and prosperity to His people despite their past discouragements and distractions. The sermon reminds listeners that God's work often transcends what is visible, urging them to recognize that life's challenges are merely shadows of God's greater purpose. The historical context of the Israelites' halted temple rebuilding due to opposition and the subsequent prophetic encouragements by Haggai and Zechariah serve as a backdrop to convey the necessity of perseverance and faithfulness in God's promises. The sermon critiques the prosperity gospel's misrepresentation of godliness and emphasizes that true Christian life includes trials and opposition. Through various biblical examples, including messianic prophecies in Zechariah, the sermon illustrates the unfolding of God's plan for His people, urging believers to engage in His work with genuine hearts and to see beyond immediate circumstances to the grand narrative of redemption through Jesus Christ.

Today we're going to read from Zechariah chapter 8 verses 1 through 13. Again the word of the Lord of hosts came saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I am zealous for Zion with great zeal, with great fervor I am zealous for her. Thus says the Lord, I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts, old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand, because of great age.

The streets of this city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts, If It is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days. Will it also be marvelous in my eyes? Says the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the land of the East and from the land of the West, I will bring them back and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

They shall be my people and I will be their God in truth and righteousness. Thus says the Lord of hosts, let your hands be strong, you who have been hearing in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who spoke in the day the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord of hosts, that the temple might be built. For before these days there were no wages for man nor any hire for beasts. There was no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in. For I set all men, everyone, against his neighbor.

But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts. For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their due. I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these, and it shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, let your hands be strong." Father in heaven, thank you for your word and your promises. Father, it is so encouraging to hear these words And I can't imagine what it must have been to hear these words as the people of Israel heard them.

Lord, I ask that you would bless us this morning as the word is preached to us. That you would be with Mr. Brown as he speaks to us, that his words would be his words from you. These things we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

God is always doing something greater than what you see on the surface. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and He's always working in ways that we can't see. Things happen to us in our lives, and we wonder, what's happening to me? Why has this come upon me? And we see what's happening in the world, and we see one president come and another go, and we wonder what is happening to this country?

What is happening to us? But whenever you observe anything that's happening in your life or in the life of any nation of the world. Here's one thing you can absolutely count on, and Zechariah makes this very clear. What's happening on the surface is only a shadow of what God is doing, because God is moving all of history to glorify Himself and to sum up all things in Jesus Christ. And everything that has ever happened in your life or in the life of this nation has been designed for that purpose.

And Zechariah makes this very clear in the text that we're in here today. You know, we tend to interpret everything going on with our lives, with ourselves in the center of the story, but we're really not in the center of the story. Most of our discouragements and difficulties happen because we really think we are the center of the world. But God is doing something greater than our own little center, and He's taking us along with Him. And so what we're dealing with here in Zechariah is really something that we started learning about in Ezra chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 where two prophets come to the children of Israel in Jerusalem and they prophesy to them.

And the first prophet was Haggai and then Zechariah and these prophets were sent by God to reactivate the people to build the kingdom of God to literally rebuild the temple and and so What what we find in Zechariah here before us is what God wants to say to a discouraged people who were opposed and who were distracted by their own pleasures. And God, through this prophet, shows them that He's doing something far, far greater than they can ever even dream about. And he tells them about things that they won't even understand because he's doing something greater than what is just on the surface of their life. And you might just might consider your own life. What's on the surface now?

What's happening? You can absolutely bet everything that what's happening on the surface is just a shadow of what God is doing and it's so important that we understand that as we go through life. So the Lord is speaking to a people who've they fallen into a time of discouragement and lack of energy and disobedience and they're they're now off mission. For 16 years they've stopped building the temple. God gave them all the resources they needed.

50, 000 of them flooded back into the city of Jerusalem. They first built the altar, then they laid the foundation of the temple, and then they started getting some opposition. And they lost sight of the kingdom of God. And they're a very small part of it and they thought, our part is so small it doesn't really matter so we'll just stop. And if you remember how it happened, their trials became so big and their dreams for their own comfort just enveloped them and their zeal for rebuilding the city in the kingdom of God had failed.

And the devil was attacking them and we read about that in Ezra chapter 4 that explained this 117 year time of opposition where the surrounding peoples and even some from within were attacking the work of the rebuilding of the temple. And there are two central words that describe what happened to them, and they're found in Ezra chapter 4. In verse 1, the adversaries of Judah, they were adversaries. Secondly, they brought accusations, And the word that is used here by Ezra is the word for Satan. The accusers of the brother and came in order to distract them from their work.

And they encountered these problems. And as a result of the problems they decided the work wasn't worth it. They didn't want to press on. It was just too hard. There were too many opposed to what they were trying to do that they thought they would just fit in again like they did before back in Babylon.

And you know it really exposes one of the issues that we have in the modern church today and that is because of the prosperity gospel and because so much feel-good kind of preaching that goes on in our context, the modern church has kind of drifted into a kind of thinking that says if you're godly, then all the conflict in your life is going to go away. But the Bible doesn't really give you that picture at all. In fact, the Lord has told us that all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. So there will be opposition to the true church, and there will be troubles in the true church. And often people become Christians, and they think that everything is just going to be peace, love, dove for the rest of their lives but it isn't and it can be kind of a rude awakening but God is kind he tells us so that we're awakened to this reality And the book of Zechariah and the book of Haggai and the book of Ezra make this very, very clear.

And so this opposition came in the form of accusatory letters that we read about in chapter 3 verses 6 and 7, there were letters that were written that were attempting to destroy the work. There were slanderous representations, misrepresentations, if you remember back in chapter 3 verses 8 through 16, there was a letter from Rehum to King Artaxerxes, and he misrepresented them, he slandered them, he told them that they were just so dangerous to the kingdom of God and to the kingdom of man. And they were attempting, Rehun was trying to bring people of influence to believe this lie and that they were, but and and some of the lies were believed. Artaxerxes did poor research, he didn't really check it out, and he himself began to oppose the work. So because of intimidation and discouragement, they stopped the work for 16 years and they started focusing on themselves.

And this is what we find that's happening here. And so God sends two prophets to the people who are in this condition. And the first is Haggai, and the second is Zechariah. Last week we spoke of the first six chapters of Zechariah, and we saw how God comes to a man and he ministers to him in the night, and he gives him eight visions in the night. Not dreams, things that he actually saw.

And there's an angel next to him and Zechariah is saying what does that mean and the angel actually explains it to him and Each each one of the visions explains the reality that's going on underneath the surface Because what's going on in your life is always just a shadow of what's really going on. And the people of God always need to understand that there's always something greater going on than what's going on in the surface of their lives. And so these prophecies are full of encouragement, they're eight-night visions, there's a call to repentance, to return to Him, And the Lord in Zechariah wants to open the eyes first of Zechariah, and then Zechariah would go to the children of Israel and then open their eyes. So that's the purpose of the prophecy God uses this man. Why?

Because they were blind to what was really happening. And it's so often that we need our eyes to be open to what God is doing. We often get so focused on ourselves and our own troubles and our own situations that we can't see the Lord. And this is why God calls us to seek Him, to call on the Lord while He may be found, call Him while He is near. Fill your mind up with the knowledge of His will so that you're informed by him and not your own emotions and not by what you see around you because what you see around you is Only a shadow of what God is actually doing he's doing far more than anything that's happening in your own individual center of the world, which is your life.

And this happens many times in Scripture. You remember that gigantic battle that took place in the days of Elijah. The odds were so stacked against him. You ever felt that the odds were stacked against you? Well, the odds were just irreparably stacked against him.

And they were about to be exterminated, but the Lord opened Elisha's eyes And he saw what no one else could see because there was something going on that he could not see. And what Elisha saw were angels on the mountain. And Elisha's servant was so terrified that he was coming unglued. And in Ezekiel chapter 6 verse 17, that Elisha prayed and he said, He said, Lord, open his eyes so that he may see. Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

And I think what happened with Elisha and his servant is what's happening to us right now as we're in Zechariah. The Lord is wanting to open our eyes wider to see the greater plan that God has in mind in everything that he's doing in the world, including in your life and including in our church and including in our nation. And these are words of comfort for sure. But, you know, my prayer, my prayer today is for myself and it's for all of us who are gathered here. Lord, open our eyes so that we might see.

And is it possible that the Lord would open our eyes wider and that we wouldn't be so fixated on our own little footprint of this great and marvelous plan that God is working. You know, we really are a very, very small part of what God is doing in the world. And he'll use us in different ways in that plan. But we shouldn't exalt ourselves and think that our lives are the most important thing in the world because it's his plan that is. And the more we understand that, the happier we'll ever be.

And the more loving we'll be able to be to one another, and the more useful we will be to the Lord. That, I believe, is the message of Zechariah. So the Lord Jesus Christ said these same things. He said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And that applies to everything that happens in your life.

We have to understand that. And that his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And I pray that somehow, you know, our eyes would be opened through these various visions that God gave Zechariah in the same way that he did to them in their times. And just by way of, you know, summary, there are two primary messages in Zechariah. And the first is search your heart.

Have you turned toward Him? And when you do what you do, are you doing it for him or are you doing it for yourself? That's the first message of Zechariah. And the second is be encouraged. God will build his temple.

God will draw men to himself. God will send the branch. He'll send a king riding in a donkey, he is going to complete his plan. And so there are these two messages, turn to me and then also recognize that I am king and I am going to complete my work. So the Lord wants them to see these things.

Now also in Zechariah you will see so many messianic prophecies and The Lord is bringing these prophecies to the people, but they probably won't understand them at all. Are they going to understand this whole thing of the living cornerstone in chapter 3 verses 8? Will they understand what Peter understood in 1 Peter 2, 4 about the cornerstone? No, I don't think they understood it. They'll see a king riding on a donkey.

What is that supposed to mean? They won't understand it probably. But they'll understand it in time when the Lord Jesus Christ comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. And they probably won't understand the reference to the 30 pieces of silver. What's that all about?

Well, they'll understand it more fully when the Lord Jesus Christ is betrayed for 30 pieces of silver to demonstrate what false shepherds do. They'll do anything for money. And then, and they won't understand the line, they will look on me whom they have pierced, which appears in Zechariah 12.10. But we'll understand it in time, because what's going on on the surface is only a shadow of what's going on in reality. And when you read the words, strike the shepherd in chapter 13 verse 7, we'll understand it more clearly in Matthew chapter 26.31 and Mark 14.27 and in John 10.11.

And when we read about the Pryke the Shepherd in Matthew 26-31, Mark 14-27, and John 10-11. When we read about the living waters in Zechariah 14, verse 8, in time it will be known that Jesus Christ is a fountain of living waters, and whoever drinks from him will never thirst again. So there are all these messianic prophecies in Zechariah as well. These things that are going to happen 400 years later. Now one of the difficulties with Zechariah is that there are various interpretations, particularly chapters 12, 13, and 14, are perhaps some of the most difficult to interpret in all the Bible and prophetic literature.

And I'm not going to get all tangled up in all the various arguments here. I want to try to cut to the heart of the message that's there. And so, so as you have an outline in front of you, you you have this list of eight things that the Lord wants them to see through Zechariah. And I pray that somehow we can see them, that they would filter down into our hearts. Because what do you say to a people who've gotten discouraged by opposition and distracted by their own pleasures because they think they're the center of the universe?

What do you say to people like that? And there are these eight things what the Lord wants them to see. And the first is, He wants them to see the branch, the branching out of that branch and the temple being built. Verse 12 in chapter 6, then speak to Him saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, the man whose name is the branch from his place. He shall branch out, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.

Yes, he shall build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory and shall sit and rule on his throne. So shall he be a priest on his throne. Now through there's all this imagery here that I wish we had time to unpack, but what the Lord wants the people of Judah to understand is that He is going to send a branch, Jesus Christ, it will expand. He is the temple of God. The temple of God will not be defeated.

And so he's telling them, go and build that temple because it is eternal in the heavens, because his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. He will do his work. And you can count on that in your life, no matter what you see going on. You can absolutely count on that the ministry of the branch will continue and it will expand. And, you know, in this imagery, they, you know, they take, they're commanded to take money from the people and make a beautiful crown and then to put it on the priest and then put, leave it in the temple as a memorial.

And why? Verse 15, so that those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord And this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord." So when you think about what's going on in the world, you can count on this. The branch will be ever expanding. Secondly, the second thing that the Lord wants them to see, He wants them to see if they're fasting for me, for me, or for themselves. In chapter 7, we encounter a jump in the chronology.

Chapter 7-1 happens two years later than the first section of Zechariah. So they've begun rebuilding the temple now and two years have passed and Zechariah comes with this message and there are several messages here and and by the way these messages were just were delivered on December 7th 518 BC same day as Pearl Harbor Day But they focus on how God is going to establish His people by His grace. And so he's speaking to them about what is happening right there at that time. And if you go to verse 5, You'll see what I want to bring out in this section. Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during the seventy years, did you really fast for me?

When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words of the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets, when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous and the south of the lowland were inhabited. So he's desiring that the people ask themselves a question about why they do what they're doing. And this is a question that should ring in our ears 24 hours a day. Are you doing what you're doing for me or are you doing it for yourself?

Because Their problem is no different than our problem. We're so self-centered. We want to exalt ourselves. We want to comfort ourselves. And often it can happen that people in the church can fall into doing what they're doing for themselves in order to please men, in order to congratulate themselves and feel good about themselves.

Often people and among the people of God, they fall into doing what they do for themselves because they want the praise of man. They want the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. They want their fellow Christians to think well of them so they do the things that they do because they're doing them for themselves. And Zechariah wants them to understand that they must ask themselves that question. Because the Lord doesn't want them just to rebuild.

He doesn't want them to rebuild, but he doesn't want them just to rebuild. He wants them to rebuild for him. He wants them to rebuild because they love him, because they love his kingdom, and they believe that Jesus Christ is the only true God and the Savior of the world. The Lord wants them to build with a whole heart. And you can ask yourself that question about anything you do in your life.

You know, you're raising children. Why are you raising your children the way you're raising them? Is it for Him? Why did you say that to your son or your daughter? Was it for him?

Even why did you come this morning? Was it for him? If you're an elder, why are you doing such a thing? Is it for him or for yourself or if you're a deacon or if you're serving in the church in any way? If you're reading scripture or you're praying, you know anything and everything can be done for yourself.

And so The prophet wants the people to make sure that they've asked themselves that question with a whole heart. Are you doing it for me? For me. And he repeats it, I'm sure, because of his tender-hearted desire for us to really examine ourselves. Why are we doing what we're doing?

Are we doing it for Him? Because He's so good? Because we believe in Him? Or are we just going through the motions? Because God doesn't want a people who are just building and doing the stuff.

He really desires to have a people with their whole hearts engaged in the work. And so that's a question that the Lord wants them to answer so that they can see. He wants them to see far beyond just the surface. He wanted them to see that the branch was coming. That's not on the surface.

He wanted them to see their own hearts. That wasn't on the surface at all. It's far deeper. The Lord always wants to take his people deeper, and I can't help but think that the Lord has put these words in front of us today so that we would go deeper with him. There are many things that are said in this section, you know, return to me, do not fear, love one another in the midst of all of this.

And then the third thing that he wants them to see is his zealous care and his presence and his order of peace. That's in chapter 8 verses 1 through 17. Now I think that chapter 8, 1-17 really explains the summary of the whole message of Zechariah. There are many things that God will do for his people in his zeal. And I'm just going to go through them very very quickly and I hope they're encouraging because these things are for the Church of Jesus Christ.

And the first thing is God's zealous care. And by the way, all these are prefaced by, again, the word of the Lord of hosts came. The word of the Lord of hosts came. The word of the Lord of hosts came. It's the favorite phrase of Haggai and Zechariah.

The word of the Lord of Hosts came. And this is what he says in verse 2, I am zealous for Zion with great zeal, with great fervor. I am zealous for her. Now What does this mean? It means that at all times in your life there is an unseen person who is working zealously and intentionally.

He is the Lord of hosts and he is working zealously at all times. He's unseen, But he does have a plan for your life, and he absolutely will fulfill it. He will complete the work that he began within you, and he is zealous to complete that work. And he will use so many things, you won't even be able to keep up with it, because he's using everything for his own glory. He's causing all things to work together for good, to the call for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Every turn of the weather, every turn of sickness in your body, every moment of your life, every person that comes into your life, every face you observe, everything that you experience in this life. There is a hidden presence, there is an unseen person who is zealously working in behalf of his church. And you can always have comfort in that, that he is there, that he is risen, and that He will never leave you and He will never forsake you. And then in verse four and five, you see what God will do. The old men and the old women shall sit again in the streets of Jerusalem.

And then there's this picture of children, boys and girls playing in the streets. God is ordering everything for beauty and for glory. And then the fourth thing is that is God's favor in verse 6. He says, Thus says the Lord of hosts if it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of his people in these days will it also be marvelous in my eyes?" In other words, the Lord will look down upon his work in your life and it will be marvelous in his eyes, just as it is for you. When you look at your life and say, look what the Lord has done.

You have God's favor. It is marvelous in His eyes. And then there's God's power to draw them back in verses 7 and 8. Behold, I will save my people from the land of the East and from the land of the West and I will bring them back." And there are ten things here listed that God is going to do in care for his people. In verses 9 through 11, He promises prosperity.

The seventh is in verses 14 and 15. He calls them not to fear. In verses 18 through 23, he gives them a message of rejoicing and he calls them to rejoice. In verse 20, he speaks about this reality that people will come from all over to pray. People will want to pray.

You know, it's such a blessing that we here in our church, we're going into prayer week this week, and we're going to say to one another, come on over, let's pray. That's what we're going to do. We're going to try to do it more this week than we do in all the other weeks of the year. There's so much blessing in that. But what he's communicating in chapter 8 is that God is going to bless his people in many, many ways.

And that's the overwhelming message there in chapter 8. When we turn to chapter 9, we see the fourth thing that he wants his people to see. He wants them to see that kings come and go, but the king of kings will always rule, and that that king, he will protect his jewels. And who are his jewels? His jewels are the members of his church.

So there are various oracles here. Perhaps the most famous is the King coming in on a donkey, where this prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will come in on a donkey. You know, donkeys back in the days of the riding were smaller in Palestine and they were maybe three and a half feet tall. And here the Lord Jesus Christ is going to ride in to announce himself as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords on a donkey, on a little tiny donkey. Isn't that, can you picture that?

And it was the foal of a donkey. And it was a young donkey, frail. And He did not come in with submachine guns. He did not come in in pride. He came in to declare himself as the humble king who comes to save the humble.

And he comes in as if to say, you know, I did not come to slay you, I came to serve you. I'm humble. My power is not of this world. And this anointed king comes in on a donkey. And in this section, in this chapter, the prophet makes it very clear that he is going to neutralize the nations of the earth, but he comes in as a donkey.

He comes in as a gentle shepherd who lead his people out of their bondage. And this chapter mentions Tyre in verse 2 and other places, and I believe that there are many future battles and situations that are spoken of here that other nations will be involved in. And Zechariah is telling them that he is going to conquer the kings of the earth. The king of kings who rides in on a donkey is going to conquer all the other kings of the earth. And you can count on that.

No matter what political system is operating, no matter who's doing what in the world, you can count on that. And then he speaks of this matter of how the Lord will save his people. Verse 16, the Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of his temple, for they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over his land, for how great is its goodness and how great its beauty. So this is a promise of the King of Kings coming in the humility of his power and how he will right every wrong that every nation commits. And you can always count on that.

Whatever wrongs have ever been committed against you, God will make them right. Vengeance is not yours. Vengeance is his, says the Lord of hosts. But you can count on him doing his work. And he'll do it in his own timing, and he'll do it in his own way, and you can trust him.

Because what's happening on the surface of your life is only a shadow of what God is doing in the world, and you can trust him. And then he speaks of this fifth thing that he wants them to see. He wants them to see how the false shepherds will fall. In chapter 11, verses 3 through 17, There's this remarkable language about what God will do to the false shepherds. There is the sound of wailing shepherds, for their glory is in ruins.

There is the sound of roaring lions, for the pride of the Jordan is in ruins. And here there's a picture of how God is going to take care of those who hurt his church. God will take care of them, and in no uncertain terms. And there are those who do not pity the flock, they don't care about the weak of the flock, and they abuse the flock. And here the Lord in this chapter makes it very clear that God is going to take care of all those who abuse his flock.

We saw this very same message in 1 John, where God proclaims that he will protect his people, that he will remove his people from false shepherds. He will do it. And there's often trouble when that happens, but in this section is where that remarkable prophecy of throwing the 30 pieces of silver to the potter In verse 12, So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver and the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter that princely price they set for me. So I look upon the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter." And here it's a picture of the betrayal of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver.

And what this section is saying is that you will see Christ being betrayed, but you have to remember that God will take care of all those who hurt his flock. God will do it. And they had no idea, I'm sure, what these 30 pieces of silver were all about. It must have been very difficult. They probably came up with ten theories about what that meant.

But we know what it means now. Even if you betray the Lord Jesus Christ, He will prevail. And He will cause the betrayers of his kingdom to fall in the field and be killed. And that's the whole message here. And there's actually very brutal language that you'll experience here.

Now when we come to chapters 12 through 14, we come to what I think are the most difficult chapters. What you've seen so far is that Zechariah is prophesying to the people in the moment. You know, they're getting started to rebuild the temple. Two years later, now they're rebuilding the temple and they're moving along. And then there are prophecies of the Messiah later on.

But now when you get to chapters 12 through 14, it gets a little bit more difficult. And there are four basic grids, views, of how to understand these passages. There's the grid of dispensationalism, which say that most of these things happen after the rapture if there is such a thing. And then secondly, they may be fulfilled during the Maccabean revolt in 165 AD. And then The third view is that they happened after the resurrection and up until the second coming of Christ, and that many of them are symbolic.

And then the final is that they occurred during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Now there are also some who say that many of the things that are pictured here actually happened in the book of Esther. And because in the book of Esther you have this attack against the people of God and God turns it all around right there before Mordecai's eyes, and God rescues his people. And you can make a case that he's actually speaking about some of the things that happened right then, But I'm not here to unpack all that this morning. I want us to just see the primary messages that God wants his people to understand.

So the sixth message is in chapter 12 verses 1 through 14, and He wants them to see that the persecutors of the church will be destroyed. They will attack the church and their attack will be a poison to them. And that's why he says, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And he says that he will cut them in pieces. He says he will strike the horses with confusion and madness, and that he will unravel their plans.

They may attack, but they will not prevail. And God will cause them to prevail. And it's in this section where we find that phrase, that prophecy, they will look on him whom they have pierced." And that's in verse 10, where he says, Then they will look on me whom they have pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only Son, and grieve for him as one grieves for his firstborn." And so this is a prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And did they understand it?

I doubt it. I'm confident they came up with lots of theories, like we often do, about things in the future. But he wanted them to see this fact that he would destroy the persecutors of the church. He wanted them to see that in the midst of their moment because no matter what moment you're living in in your life there's far more going on underneath the surface than on top of the surface in your life and all of those things that are happening on the surface are meant to drive you to an understanding of God's greater purpose in your life and really in the whole history of the world. And then the seventh thing that he wants them to see, he wants them to see how the Lord will pour out his Spirit.

In chapter 13 verses 1 through 9, I love verse 1, in that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And here the Lord wants these returnees to understand exactly what God is doing. He's opening up an everlasting fountain and he's using them as part of the story. They've already rebuilt the altar where the sacrifices were being given, the sacrifices for sin, making really the cross of Jesus Christ, the center of their whole existence as the people of God. And then he had them rebuild the temple, which was a symbol of God's presence among the people and how God would actually be present among them, how his Spirit would actually fill them in their times of trouble, that his Spirit would lead them and guide them and comfort them.

This is what the Holy Spirit does. How the Holy Spirit would reveal to them truth that they need for the times that they're living in. He wants them to know that there is a fountain that will be opened in the house of David for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And God will use his Holy Spirit to cleanse them, to cleanse their thinking and their ways. He wants them to understand that what they're doing in building that temple is really, it's something that is on the surface, but there's something far greater that they're doing.

And I'm confident that what we're doing, even here, what we're doing, it's something that it seems so small, it seems so irrelevant, it seems so unearthshaking, but it's not. It's part of something that God is doing in all of history. And so we ought to just give our whole hearts to the work and return to the work in every possible way we can. Because God is doing something far greater and he's actually using us in the day of small things. The people are walking around saying, This is a day of small things.

And the prophet says, no, it's not. Don't you realize? I'm opening a fountain, an everlasting flowing river of grace that people can drink of every moment of their life to sustain them, to help them, to care for them. I spoke with someone yesterday who said they did not believe there was a God. And I thought, what would it be like not to have a fountain of grace?

What would it be like to just be stuck with yourself? What would it be like just to live in the juices of your own emotions and all the things that are happening, and you are just stuck, you're stuck in this world. You have no fountain from heaven to come and cleanse your mind and to help you understand what's happening to you and who you are and where everything is going. You have no equilibrium, you have nothing to feed you. What a tragic thing to say, I don't believe there's anything up there for me.

And I thought of all the comfort and all the help that has come from heaven to me. But he wants them to see that there's an everlasting fountain. And then 8, he wants them to see the return of the king in chapter 14, in the final chapter. Verse 1, chapter 14, 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, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against these nations as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem." You know what's happening on the surface is the cities being attacked, But what God is doing is he is preparing a way for living water. That's what God is doing.

And he does that through every tragedy, every confounding situation that you've ever faced. He is doing something greater. He is always working in a way that you can't see. It's the unseen things that scare us, isn't it? But it shouldn't because the unseen work of God is for your benefit and in your favor.

And you never have to worry about anything in this life because God is working his plan. He is making it all happen. And God will unravel all the works of the devil because he loves his people, because his people are his jewels. Let me give you some applications. This whole section, these two prophets and Ezra and Nehemiah, they really are about one thing.

What does it mean to build, to rebuild the temple of God? And We've talked about that a little bit. What does it mean for new covenant Christians to rebuild the temple of God? We've talked about it. I want to bring up some of the things that we spoke about even just a few weeks ago.

There are so many elements of building the temple of God. Of course, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so it has to do with how we nourish and feed our souls. What are we feeding our souls upon? It has to do with the church and the body of Christ and what we do when we minister to one another. What do we bring to one another when we're here?

And what are you going to bring to one another today? We're going to be done in just a few minutes and we're going to have a wonderful meal. Let's minister to one another. Let's bring the word of the Lord back up to continue to encourage one another in the same way that Zechariah wanted to encourage the people of God. Let's redeem the time while we're together and minister to one another.

And I believe that when the church gathers, it's the most important gathering on the planet and as the church gathers all over the world because it's the place where God meets with his people and it's the place where his people minister to one another and it's the place where they're where they want to be real and they're saying am I doing it for him or am I doing it for me what a wonderful place to be okay these elements of of of the Great Commission and building the temple and getting off mission, there's the spreading of the gospel by evangelizing and baptizing and teaching the people to obey. That's one. Number two, feeding your own soul the temple of the Holy Spirit. Number three, bringing up children in the training and the admonition of the Lord is a way that you build the temple of God. Number four, the preaching in our local church.

It's another way that we rebuild the temple of God. Number five, targeted evangelism. We do different kinds of targeted evangelism in our church, we only wanna do more. Number six, praying for and providing for church planting. Number seven, providing funds for the encouragement and revitalization of other churches.

Number eight, biblical fellowship with God at the center. Number nine, studying the Word of God. Number ten, practicing hospitality. Number eleven, multiplying elders and sending them out. Number twelve, helping members in evangelism.

Number thirteen, growing missionary outreach. Number fourteen, establishing biblical church life. This is the work that we're a part of. And I think the message of Zechariah for us is Let's stay on that work. Let's get back to the work more than ever.

Let's do it more sincerely, more honestly, and more before the Lord than we've ever done it before. And let's recognize what's going on in our lives. Don't let it distract you. Don't let it discourage you. There's a work to be done.

God is building his kingdom, and he wants you to join him in his work. That's the primary message that we have here. And the building of the temple is so much more than just putting one stone on one stone. It's more than just coming together. It's more than just calling your brother to see how they're doing.

It's more than singing songs. It's more than coming and praying. It's far, far more than that. It's a genuine work of the heart earnestly and honestly before the Lord so that we are an honest people together, that we are who we say we are, and we're increasingly becoming more like that. And the Lord has brought these things to us to help us to build better, to build stronger, to be focused.

You know, whatever's happening around us is really only designed to do one thing, to stimulate us to build more. And I pray that that's the effect of Zechariah. You know, the Lord comes to a people who quit building for 16 years and what does he do? He does call them to repentance, to return to him, to get their eyes back on him. And then he calls them to get back to work.

But what does he use to encourage them to do it? Well, he uses many visions of victory and beauty. He shows them how good he is. He shows them how devoted he is to them. He shows them that he is the unseen person that's working behind the scenes in everything they experience and you can count on that today just like the returnees could count on it in the days of Zechariah.

Would you pray with me? Lord You have given us such a work to do We thank you that your your truth is our shield and our buckler that you would call us back to the truth That you would give us such energy to do your work that we wouldn't be Distracted and discouraged and defeated by the difficulties that have come into our lives. But Lord, those things would only give us more a heart of joy in your presence that you have zeal for your people, that you will accomplish your work in our lives, that you do love us, that even though there are trials and temptations and difficulties, oh Lord that you, you're carrying us along and you're carrying your church along to the very end of the final judgment. Oh Lord, help us to work hard, Help us to work honestly and beautifully and authentically during this time. Oh Lord, bind us together to build this temple.

Amen.