Last Sunday we looked at Zechariah, Zechariah chapter nine and 10. As Zechariah looked to the future, and it was all good news, as you recall. Looking for the time which the Messiah would come, he would save in many different ways. But Zechariah chapter 11 is really all bad news. Because it's gonna talk about God's judgment upon ungodly leaders. And these ungodly leaders emerged to take control of Jerusalem during the time of Zechariah himself. Let me read the verses that are in your bulletin. I encourage you, if you have a Bible, to open it up to Zechariah chapter 11. I'm gonna make reference to the verses that are not being read later on in this study. Listen to these words, Zechariah 11, beginning in verse four. Thus says the Lord my God, become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished. 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, 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 and the other I named Union. I tended the sheep. In one month I destroyed the three shepherds, but I became impatient with them. They also detested me. So I said, I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. Let those who are left devour the flesh of one another. And I took my staff in favor and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I made with the peoples. And it was annulled on that day and the sheep traders who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. And I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them. And they weighed out as my wages, 30 pieces of silver, And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. Then I broke my second staff, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Zachariah brings, as you hear, bad news. Just after two chapters of really, really good news, bad news. But all is not lost because we're gonna see in this passage later on where the good news is embedded. It's really here for the people of God today. First of all, let me observe the bad news for bad shepherds. There is bad news here in this passage, the bad news for bad shepherds. And basically this chapter can be summarized in this one sentence. When God's patience with ungodly leaders reaches a certain point, God must act to remove them from His church. That's what this chapter is about. Let me repeat it. When God's patience with ungodly leaders reaches a certain point, he must act to remove them from his church. When God calls anyone to be a leader in the church, he expects certain moral and spiritual qualifications. These qualifications do not have to do necessarily with skill or with methodology. It has to do with character, spirituality. These qualifications are non-negotiable. Moral qualifications, the ones, for example, listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1, are non-negotiable. They are to be in every elder or ruling elder or teaching elder in the church. It's to be an example for all leaders in the church. 1 Peter 5, the qualifications there are moral spiritual nature they can't be negotiated qualities such as integrity purity serving freely the home life that is well managed not perfect but well managed are among them when these are compromised the results may not be seen immediately may not even be seen for a while but the results eventually will be seen and eventually God his patience with ungodly leaders reaches a point where they refuse to repent. They refuse to bring their own character in submission to God and for God to renew them and eventually they have to be renewed. God must cleanse them. Zachariah here in this passage is a one-man theatrical performance. He's going to engage in three one man acts to talk about this condition in this church. He asks the question, why should godless leaders be removed? And he answers it in Act 1. Notice verse 4. Thus says the Lord my God, become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. So when godless leaders are not removed eventually, The congregation begins to look like its leaders. Here, the flock is actually referred to in this way. They're referred to as the flock doomed to slaughter. The people of God, under the influence of godless leaders, eventually become a flock doomed to slaughter. Remember, this passage really is about bad news. We're gonna get to the good news in a minute, but this, right off the bat, this is very bad news. And why are they doomed? Well, notice verse 5. Here's the reason. Here's how they treat each other. 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. This is really bad news. Nothing short of economic exploitation of the believing poor in this community. The wealthy have an advantage. They have the ability to make friends with the people who are in power, with the judges and the people who are responsible for enforcing righteousness and justice and even city officials. The super rich have the ability to use their deep pockets for their own good and to dodge the responsibility they have to be just and honorable toward people in a lesser station in life. That's what Zechariah is depicting in this act. What happens if godless leaders are allowed to remain? The second question, what happens when godless leaders are allowed to remain indefinitely? That's in the second act, beginning in verse 13. Verse 12 says, then I, now Zechariah is speaking, said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them, then my wages They weighed out my wages as 30 pieces of silver. The Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them. And so I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. This is a strange act here. Zechariah here is acting out, in effect, how these people now value or devalue a legitimate teacher of Israel. Ordinary Jewish citizens are asked here for payment. Zechariah is a prophet. He's entitled to receive payment for his labor, and so he goes to them and says, whatever you think I am worth, pay me my wages, and so they weigh out, they calculate, they go through their pockets, and they begin to jingle out some money, and they begin to collect it, and it totals 30 pieces of silver. 30 pieces of silver. What is 30 pieces of silver in the Old Testament? Well, according to Exodus chapter 21, 30 pieces of silver is the amount of money somebody is paid when his ox gores a slave. It's the price for a crippled or maimed slave. Zechariah calls this, if you notice in your version, depending on the version you're using, the version in the bulletin, Verse 13 refers to it as a lordly price. The NIV refers to it as a handsome price. The New Living Translation refers to it as a magnificent sum. And the Message version says this is a sarcastic amount of money. It's an insultingly low amount of money. 30 pieces of silver is abysmally stingy. 30 pieces of silver is an insult. 30 pieces of silver is a slap in the face. It is a humiliating devaluation. See, this was the effect of godless leaders on the people of God. They didn't value the prophet's ministry, and neither did the people of God. They insulted him by such an amount. This was, of course, was the amount the leaders of Israel gave to Judas. That's all they thought of Jesus. And this was the amount that Judas received. This is all he thought of Jesus. What happens if the removal of godless leaders is not taken care of? Well, then the people of God are corrupted. But the last act, it's in verse 15, answers the question, what happens if the removal of godless leaders takes too long? What happens is the godless leaders eventually begin devouring the people of God. Notice verse 15. Then the Lord said to me, Take once more the equipment of the 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 hooves. This is really, really bad. When godless leaders are allowed to reign and not removed, inevitably, The church suffers, people are exploited, people are injured, and the church begins to spiral downward. You know, as I have reflected on, we've been in the Minor Prophets since over a year ago. We first started with Amos. The sermon introducing the Minor Prophets was in Amos. Our first was Obadiah. Obadiah took place about 850 B.C. And then the last prophet that we looked at before the exile, let's see, who was that? Was it Micah? Might have been Micah. Might have been Habakkuk, I think, before the exile. And then after the exile, of course, was Haggai and Zechariah. We're gonna look at Malachi next. I've never really studied the minor prophets before. But what's interesting to me is the minor prophets is a kind of synopsis of all history of Israel. Roughly takes about 400 plus years. Just like in the book of Judges, the book of Judges depicts a cycle. There is a revival, and then there's a silent period, and then there's a sin period, and then there's a slavery period, and then there's a supplication period where they cry out to God, and then God sends a savior to deliver them, and then there's a silent period, and then this cycle repeats itself in the book of Judges like six times. And I think you can see This also in the minor prophets. You see, I think, on the very low end of the moral spectrum before the exile. Then after the exile, they come back revived. Haggai brings them back. They're enthusiastic. But in 20 years, it calms down. Zechariah preaches to them. They get excited again. And then at the end of Zechariah, it calms down again. And then in Malachi, we're going to observe it again. There is a sense in which we observe, over the history of Israel, a certain lack of consistency, a lack of constancy. And I would suggest to you, if we've done any reading in church history, we've seen that same cycle. We might even see it in our church, might even see it in our own lives. Times in the past where we've been much more hot for God and then it levels off. We plateau, we get into routine, a rut, ordinariness, even boredom, and then maybe something happens. You get fired from your job or some illness afflicts one of the members of your family and it catches you off guard and you begin praying and seeking God's face and you realize, how come I haven't been doing that for a while? And God uses this to reinvigorate you and then that plateaus again. It all boils down to, This passage is saying it all boils down to leadership. It all boils down to leadership. When the leaders of the church, when the leaders of Israel, when the leaders of a local congregation either are corrupt or they plateau or they're weak, that affects the entire congregation. In this case, these people had to be removed. and God used Zachariah to do it. Now that's the bad news now, okay. It's all bad news, this passage really has no good news in it. We have to kind of burrow underneath the surface of it to see where the good news, but having burrowed, let me share it with you now. First of all, number two, the good news from the bad shepherds. And if this bad news section tells us anything, it tells us this. We hear about bad shepherds, it makes our hearts long for good ones. to see these leaders exploiting the weak, to see these leaders influence the God's people to devalue true leaders, to see these leaders who have positions of trust and respect, positions in which they're supposed to use their gifts and position to help others, exploit others, it ought to make you mad. We certainly ought to long for a true biblical and godly leaders. We are to pray that when God gives us those leaders, that those leaders will stay godly and true. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 17, God gives instructions for future kings. Now, I'm not gonna ask you to actually give me your answer, but think about what the duties are for kings. If you think about what the duties would be for kings, from our vantage point looking backwards, what do you think Moses wrote, knowing that we're gonna get a king in the future, here are the duties. What do you think those would be? We would think, okay, kings are supposed to set good and wise policy. Kings are to protect their citizens and their nation's borders. Kings are to tax people, they are supposed to tax people, but sensibly. Kings are to maintain a certain living standard that is sensible, not extravagant. are to engage only in righteous, in just wars. We would think these are the duties of kings. That certainly would be appropriate. But here's what Moses says. When he sits down on the throne of his kingdom, he shall, here are the duties, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law approved by the Levitical priest. It shall be with him. He shall read it all the days of his life. that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers that he may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right or the left so that he may continue long in his kingdom he and his children in Israel very simple there are four of them one he was to make a copy his own copy of the Bible it says approved by the Levitical priest. So apparently there were other copies that may not have been approved. Who knows? I don't know. It says, number two, read it all the days of his life. Third, learn from it to fear the Lord. And fourth, to obey it. Very simple. You get a copy of the Bible, read the Bible, fear the God of the Bible, and obey the Bible. That's it. That's all the king was supposed to do. And if it's true for kings, it's certainly true for all other people in leadership. The main thrust of all leaders in the church and any organization that bears the name of Christ is godliness. To get your copy of the Bible, to read it, to obey it, and to fear the God of the Bible. And that shapes literally everything else. You know, one of the things I observe about our church, and I'm gonna drop my own guard here, is I have been a part of this church for almost 20 years. And I have loved this church, and I have greatly appreciated the ministry of this church to my family. But I know, and I think if you've thought about it for any length of time, you also know that my own maturity as a man, as a Christian, or my lack of it, my own spirituality or lack of it, my own sense of holiness or lack of it shows up in this church, unfortunately. You know, we know it's true. You don't have to look at your own parents or look at a brother. My brother has come and visited a couple times and everyone says, oh, he laughs just like you. Well, apparently my other older brother laughs like me, too. I laugh like him. We all have these same idiosyncratic similarities that just come from being a part of the same family. We know it's true. It's true of churches, too. I had a conversation this past week with a church planter He planted a church in this area, and he told me as we were on the phone, he said to me, he had been at the church, he has been at the church for almost 20 years, and he said, he said, sometimes I look at my church and I say to myself, he says, oh, what have I created that you're just like me? The church takes on the image of its leadership. Our spiritual health affects the congregation or our spiritual unhealth. Our emotional health or unhealth becomes a shaping influence. Our spirituality, our holiness or lack of it, those parts of our personality that are strong or maybe excessively strong or weak or excessively weak begins to take its toll in the congregation. If leaders are weak, sickly, blind, inept, or strong, or partially strong, or partially stunted, or growing into maturity, but at a certain rate, that inevitably shows itself in the congregation. Let me just beg you to pray for us. I know you all are praying for me, but keep this in mind. Pray for our whole health, W-H-O-L-E, the whole thing. that our lives in every dimension, our social lives, our marital lives, our domestic lives, our financial, our spirituality, our how we reckon with all the things that pressure on you, also pressure upon us. As you remember the struggles that you have, we have them too. And we need the help of God's people. You know, this passage here tells us a couple things. One is, Don't be afraid because your leaders are imperfect. Don't be afraid. All organizations, all Christian organizations have imperfect leaders. But don't leave just because of it too. But all the more, commit. Commit to serving, commit to praying, commit to, we talked about this a couple weeks ago, maybe even you might wanna fast for us. Fast for our maturity, fast for our spirituality because that has a trickle-down effect in the health of the congregation. You know, the bad news about bad leaders makes us long for good leaders. But the good news about good leaders is that it makes us long for the truly good leader, the truly good shepherd. This is point three. If this passage says anything about leadership, it says that we don't want any leaders like this. We want good leaders and wise leaders and godly leaders, but even godly leaders need a leader. Even godly shepherds need a shepherd. Even godly shepherds need a savior. So we look at this passage and it prompts us to yearn for more and we look at the more and it prompts us to want even the best. who is the good shepherd himself. You know, this passage begins, I didn't read it, it begins by making reference to three different trees. In chapter 11, verse two, it refers to a cypress tree, a cedar tree, and an oak tree, and these trees represent the leadership of Israel, and they wail, they mourn because they get chopped down. Trees take a long time to grow. I don't know how long these leaders were there, but they were there long enough to corrupt the congregation. In verse eight, and maybe you noticed it when I read it, maybe you thought, what does this mean? In verse eight, it says, Zachariah says, in one month, I destroyed the three shepherds. Now, you have to realize, in commentaries, there's about 40 different interpretations of this verse, 40. It's hard to know exactly what it means, but the oldest interpretation is, that these three shepherds are not three individual people, but three offices. The office of prophet, of priest, and king. The three offices that became corrupted, and Zechariah had to deal with them. Three offices. Now, of course, I know our children, I was told earlier today, are studying the three offices of Christ. Anybody know the catechism question? Why do we need Christ as our prophet? Did you get there yet? Why do we need Christ as our prophet, anyone? Any children know that question? Why do we need Christ as our prophet? Because as a prophet, he delivers the will of God and we are ignorant. Why do we need Christ as our priest? Because we're guilty and we need someone to forgive us and to restore us. Why do we need Christ as our king? Because we are unruly. We need someone to rule over us. That Christ as our prophet means that we're all ignorant Yes, we are. That Christ is our priest means that we're all guilty in some way. Guilty of something, maybe guilty for a long time. That Christ is our king means that we are unruly in some way. And ignorance and guilt and unruliness is the very reason why we need the good shepherd. Because Christ is the one who in his ministry, it says, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, And he calls his sheep by name. You know, one of the main problems that we have is that we forget who we are. Often we call ourselves by what the world says we. So, Rick, what do you do? I'm a pastor. Well, what do you do? I'm an engineer. What do you do? Well, I work in this office. And what do you do? I'm a housewife. You know, well, those are vocations. But the Bible says we are the beloved of God. The Bible says that we are his children. The Bible says that we are the apple of his eye. That is the core of who we are. And one of our main faults is we forget about it. And the prophet Jesus comes to remind us. Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Why does he do that? Because we need a shepherd who will come and discover us and bring us back, cleanse us, purify us, clothe us with his righteousness. We have nothing to commend ourselves to him. The good shepherd takes care of us. The good shepherd, Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd, I know my sheep, my sheep know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this pen, I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Jesus must rule over us, he must gather us. And by definition, to gather us means he moves us from one place to another, and nobody ever likes change when it comes to being moved from one place to another, but he does it anyway. He does it anyway because it is in our best interest to gather as a people. I mean, the church is like that large family Thanksgiving meal in which all the distant relatives come and sit down and eat together, including that Single uncle. When you meet him, you know why he never gets asked to any other family functions. You know why, when he's sitting by himself watching the football game, why no one is sitting with him. And you discover, as you talk to him, why he's still single. And the big talk amongst the cousins is who is gonna be appointed to sit next to him and let him pontificate all his weird stories that keeps him isolated from the rest. You know, the church is like that. The church gathers people from all walks of life into one body and one congregation. The good shepherd has come and loved all of his sheep. He is the one who has loved all of his sheep, the ones who are lovely and the ones who are prickly and hard to be around. That's what the church is. He has loved them all, even the ones that betrayed him. That includes all of us. even the ones that devalued him, and that includes all of us. He has loved all of his sheep, and he became shepherd over the flock doomed to slaughter. Jesus became the good shepherd who became the lamb of slaughter in order to rescue us from slaughter forever. There's good news in this pass, and we look at all the bad news about these bad leaders, these bad as shepherds is because we know our heart longs for good ones and our heart longs for the good, the true good shepherd who is our savior. Today is Palm Sunday, a day of joy and gladness precisely because it eventuated on Good Friday. On Good Friday, when darkness fell, that was our salvation. And on a week from today when we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, Our justification came there. Our righteousness with God came there. Our being united with God in Christ came there. And he gathered us and started the gathering then. We are here resembling that gathering now. You know, my question to you today is do you know the good shepherd? You know, the bad thing about it is that some of us have experienced bad shepherds in the past. Some of us have experienced really bad shepherds. Shepherds that have abused, shepherds that have hurt, that have injured, and I'm sorry that you had to go through that. Not all shepherds are that way, but even good shepherds need shepherds. Even good shepherds need the true shepherd. Even good shepherds need somebody who can come and shepherd them and inform them because they're ignorant, forgive them because they're guilty, manage them because they're unruly, and that's the shepherd that I commend to you today. Have you believed in him? There's only one. There's only one shepherd. He is Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. He is the one and only shepherd that can meet all of your needs and carry you all the way through and ensure that you make it. Have you believed in this one? Are you trusting in this one? I commend him to you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this very, very sad passage And yet, Lord, we are reminded from the bad news that there truly is good news found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, today I do thank you for saving me, calling me into the ministry. Thank you for this congregation that has received the ministry of all of our elders over the years. Lord, we ask for your grace to supply what only you can supply even when we who are your elders here aren't fully able to make it up. Lord, today I pray that your people would be encouraged to know that we have such a good shepherd that has the power and the commitment to shepherd all of us long before the elders of this church have gone and will continue to shepherd all of us and all of our children until you take us home, until Jesus returns. Lord, I pray for us that we would be willing to receive the ministry of good shepherds, shepherds that are breaking open the word of God, that are pointing the people of God to the cross where we can receive forgiveness and solace and comfort and restoration. and to the king who brings, yes, his rod and his staff to bear upon us. How we need that, too. Lord, help us to walk in humility and unity with this shepherd and with your sheep today. And bless us, then, as the people of God become the people of God in the fullest sense of what you intend the people of God to be in Jesus' name.