Well, if you haven't already, let me encourage you to open your Bibles at the prophecy of Zachariah. We'll be focusing in on the text that Carol just read, but we'll also be skipping ahead into the prophecies contained in the first six chapters. So I have to tell you of a discovery I've made in the wonderful promised land of New Jersey. There are many great discoveries to make there, let me tell you. And amongst those gems, I was recommended a restaurant called The British Chip Shop. And it's really a great place, along with fish and chips. Its menu is comprised of Brit delicacies like pork pies and Cornish pasties. scotch eggs, or Victoria sponge, or deep fried mars bars. And you can wash it all down with a spot of tea or some iron brew. I can tell I've lost most of you at this stage. Basically, this is kind of a veritable cornucopia of culinary delights. And they're all designed to warm your heart with feelings of home, that is, if they don't stop your heart in the process. But really, there's no doubt about it that the taste of home is something we just all enjoy, isn't it? I think there is, in each of us, a deep longing and commitment to home. And I'm not simply talking about which side of the Atlantic or of the Delaware River or of the Mason-Dixon line that you hail from. This longing to return home actually runs much deeper. It's a profound spiritual longing. In fact, it's really the perennial condition of the human race since we were first uprooted and exiled from the Garden of Eden and from the very presence of God after our parents, Adam and Eve, fell. Since then, if you like, we've really been wandering and searching for a home, for a dwelling place, for a place where we could know rest and safety and sustenance. And if we're honest, we've stopped at many sinful rest stops along the way, seeking to gain some sense of belonging from things which really were never made to give that at all, idols which always and inevitably have broken our hearts. However, it seems that even maybe the very good things in life, such as the houses and families that we inhabit, are still only ends along the way. They're not actually home either, are they? In many senses, I think home is something which actually evades us as human beings. There's no escaping the fact that part of the daily reality of life in a fallen world is experiencing this deep pang of longing to return. The Germans actually have a word for this, and I'm not even going to butcher the German language by attempting it. But this phrase basically denotes a profound homesickness with almost transcendent overtones. And C.S. Lewis speaks about it, about this kind of dynamic of spiritual displacement that we all deal with. He says, our lifelong nostalgia Our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off. To be on the inside of some door which we've always seen from the outside. This is no mere neurotic fancy. This is the truest index of our real situation. In other words, this longing to return, this spiritual homesickness, it's not about a location at all. It's about a relationship. Each of us want to get back into Eden. Each of us want to get into relationship with God himself. And our situation is that we've each within us, even if we suppress it or deny it, we have that very real desire. That desire is authentically human, that we would know the very one in whom we live and move and have our being. The Lord of hosts, that's what Zechariah calls him. He is the home to which we belong and to whom we must return. You know, this sense of wandering, of homesickness, had certainly been the experience of the people of God in Zechariah's day. In fact, in the prophet's own lifetime, the people of Israel had known the very same wrath of God against sin that Adam and Eve had known in their exile. God had given them over into the hands of their enemies, the Babylonians, who had taken them into captivity and destroyed their homeland, including the city of Jerusalem and the temple, which was the primary focal point of their worship. And now in this book of Zechariah, they're returning. They're returning to Judah. They're returning under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the high priest. And amongst their number are two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah. And really, it's worth mentioning the relationship between these two prophets, because their contemporaries, they actually deliver their message literally two months apart from each other. And it makes a lot of sense, I think, to almost understand Zachariah as the sequel to his contemporary Haggai. So in summary, what does Haggai say? Well, the major burden of Haggai's prophecy really simply is for the rebuilding of the temple of God. That God, in other words, would make his dwelling amongst his people, that he would make it glorious, that he would come in great blessing once they stopped stalling and building their own nicely paneled houses. In other words, the kind of thrust of Haggai's prophecy is that this returning people, they kind of needed to straighten out their priorities. They needed to make sure that God was central in the new life that they were making for themselves. In a sense, they returned home and yet it wasn't as they remembered. And the reason was really simple, and so Haggai's challenge comes, he says, Go up to the hills, bring wood, and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it, and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. And then Zachariah comes along and he really picks off where Haggai leaves off. Again, like Haggai's prophecy, his message is one of hope and blessing and rebuilding and restoration and great expectancy. But there's kind of this added sense that he seems to have realized that it was very possible for the people of God to be about the work of God. It was possible for them to dwell in the land God had given and to enjoy his blessings. It was even possible for worship to be restored. And yet all the while, the people could remain distant from God in their minds and in their hearts. That was the key concern of Zachariah. And really, it's not too hard to think about the possibility of that scenario, is it? I mean, it's a fact that even we here tonight can be in that situation where we sing all the hymns, we say the right things, we make a prayer or confession, we stand for the assurance of the gospel, and yet it's possible that even tonight we could be in the situation of Israel, that we could remain distant from the Lord, far away from God in our hearts. And you know the Apostle Paul actually speaks of this reality that it's almost part of what it means to live in our times. He says in our time there will be people who are lovers of self, lovers of money, pride, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents. ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. I wonder, is that the reality in your life tonight, that church is really about playing a part? It's about having the appearance of godliness? It's almost this art that you've kind of got down well. You're hiding behind this stained glass kind of masquerade. You say the right things. You look the right way. You greet people. And yet all the while, inside, there's a battle going on. A battle with deep besetting sin. In actual fact, though you appear to be close, you're actually far off. You're distant from God. You know, I think in many ways none of us, if we're honest, are as near to God as we ought to be or as much as deep down we truly long to be. But there's hope. There's hope. And Zachariah, as in all the minor prophets we've studied, he gives the wonderful invitation of the gospel. And it really comes in this imperative that we read aloud in the bold in chapter 1, verse 3. And it's kind of the lens through which we can understand the rest of the book. It says this, return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you. says the Lord of Hosts. This is a personal call to intimate communion with God, not just religious superficiality, not just the appearance of godliness, and in fact it's the major instruction of the book. Don't get me wrong, there are other challenges, other imperatives in this prophecy, and they're normally ones like these. Look, listen, watch, proclaim. But the deal with those imperatives is that their common focus is on who God is and what God is doing and what God is revealing and the role of the people of God in response to him. But the major message, the major imperative that Zachariah wants to lay on the people as God empowers him by the spirit is that their response to God should be marked by repentance. It should be marked with this fundamental returning, this renewal of the covenant, a kind of perpetual returning and residing in the grace of God. That same grace which welcomes back and restores exiles. And if you like, it's out of that starting place of returning that all the other instructions of God flow. And really, it's the same for us as Christians, that Christian life is supposed to be lived in response to who God is, to what God has said, to what God has done and proclaimed in Jesus, the restorer of captives, the welcomer of exiles. And really the fundamental imperative of the gospel is similarly a call to return, to restore and renew covenant. It's an invitation to come home. That's why I think Jesus' prophetic ministry is summed up by Mark in one simple line. The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, return, and believe in the gospel. So if you like, repentance or returning is this overarching backdrop for this whole prophetic book. And it's almost the lens through which we can understand everything else Zachariah says. Zachariah will go on and he'll explain a glorious future, a golden age of messianic hope and restoration and blessing. But what he wants us to understand right at the start here is that that future is only for those who have dealt with the past, for those who have repented of their prodigal wandering and have made their way home. You see, the promise of this book and really the promise of the whole Bible is essentially for those who have returned, for those who have come with a heart of contrition by faith to the Father. And really I would suggest that we can summarize the first six chapters of this prophecy by digging deeper into this singular call to return. First by considering its challenges and then by embracing its promises which back it up and propel us along with the people of Israel to new obedience. So what are the challenges? Well, primarily, the people of Israel needed to return for the same reason that you and I need to return. Because God judges sin. Sin is what separates us from God. And really, sin is what makes us homeless. I've already said that. And so it puts us on this search for home. And really the message of God's judging sin is not something new to us, is it? We've heard it before in these minor prophets. In fact, if we're honest, that kind of gloomy wrath and judgment of these prophecies is often what makes them so difficult to read and digest. It's what's made them somewhat relegated in terms of our study and devotion of this particular area of the Bible. These prophets are prone to hammer home the reality of judgement and sometimes so graphically that it's almost hard to bear. But you know, the reason they're so insistent on this point of God's holiness and God's hatred of sin is because, like Israel, you and I are haughty, stiff-necked, hard-hearted people. We refuse to accept this reality. We refuse to own up to the seriousness of sin, much less practice humility and the repentance that it calls for. Somehow we still think that we can get away with sin, don't we? I mean, that was the myth that the people of Israel so often bought into. They thought that because they were chosen, because they had seen God work on their behalf in the past, that He would simply excuse or pass over the fact that they'd offended His holiness and that they deserved His wrath. And in the opening section of this book, Zachariah calls the people to wake up. Surely the reality of the exile and all its devastation was fresh in their minds. All they had to do was look around and see the city walls and the temple itself lay in ruins. They literally lived in the aftermath of the just reward their sin had brought. All around them, if you like, the debris of living in disregard for the glory of God and the holiness of His name. Zechariah's audience knew exactly what he meant when he said, the Lord was very angry with your fathers. This wasn't just theoretical speak here from the prophet. This was a present lingering reality. They literally lived in the aftermath of God's anger. And they were really in the process of picking up the pieces. And I know for some here tonight, perhaps this is the case for you as well. Perhaps you can see the clear evidence of God's displeasure over sin in your life. Perhaps you're currently living with the reality of poor choices that you've made, decisions that you knew were not the will of God. You know, sin is an inescapable reality, and so is God's judgment of sin. This may sound pessimistic, but really to claim otherwise is to live in a scary make-believe world of denial and delusion, which you can be sure will eventually fall around you in ruins, just like those walls did in Jerusalem. I wonder, what walls do you hide behind? What excuses do you make? What false sense of security are you banking on? Maybe like Israel, it's your religious devotion. We can be sure that God brings down those walls, those excuses, and praise him that he does and that he will, because that's how much he loves us. He loves us enough to rescue us from ourselves. What's more, if the present realities of sin's aftermath wasn't enough to convince Israel to return to God and really to abide in Him, then what about the lessons of history? Surely they would see in the story of their forefathers the proof of their guilt and the sheer futility of running from God. And so Zachariah continues. He says, do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets cried out, thus says the Lord of hosts. Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? The prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, is the Lord of host purpose to deal with us for our ways and deeds? So he has dealt with us. Really what's happening here is that Zachariah is doing a wee bit of historical discovery. He's going over the past to show that they're culpable of sin. And he's not trying to rub salt in their wounds just for the sake of it. You see, he fears that they're going to miss the lesson of the exile that they've just experienced. It's true Israel had not listened to or paid attention to what God was calling them to. And perhaps they doubted the success or authority or weight of God's words. Or perhaps they thought simply they had more time that they could somehow stall in their need to return and repent. After all, God had shown himself to be long-suffering, hadn't he? When it came to their disobedience, he'd issued many warnings through the prophets. So surely they had more time. Well, Zachariah assures them that if history teaches anything, it's that God's word overtook them. That long after they were gone, when it was too late and they'd realized the error of their ways, his word stood firm. His purposes went ahead as planned. His ultimate plan was accomplished. And what's more, his long suffering, his patience should not be misunderstood. Because history teaches clearly that God followed through. Ours is the God of follow through and swift justice and decisive action. God dealt with them just as he promised, just as their sins deserved. And he did so in such a way that he upheld the honor of his word and the holiness of his character. And we would do well to learn the lessons of this history as well. Perhaps you're in that same pattern of disobedience and avoidance that Israel was in. Perhaps you don't take the word of God seriously or the character of God seriously. No doubt if you look back into your own history, even recent history, and do some spiritual excavation, the evidence of your brokenness and disobedience is clear to see. Isn't it true that we all have areas of regret? of things left undone and unspoken, really. We've all spurned the truth of God's word. We've all preferred lies. We've all underestimated the character and integrity and the power of God, because we've sought to make ourselves God. We've all abused his patience and his grace toward us. And really it doesn't take a massive stretch of the imagination to see yet again that Israel's story is our story. And perhaps for some of you tonight Israel's story is your story. If we step back for a moment and if we look honestly enough it's not difficult to understand why God would have such displeasure over our sin and why we're so deserving of the same judgment as Israel. But the question Zacharias' prophecy poses is this, what are you going to do about it? Will you regard the truth of God's word and the holiness of his character? Will you return to him in repentance and faith? Zacharias stands here amidst a people who are physically returning to the land. They're beginning to rebuild their lives. And it's at this critical juncture in their story that he urges them in no uncertain terms with the object lessons of the broken walls around them and of a tragic past behind them, return to God. Zachariah is going one step further than Haggai while his call was prioritizing God and putting Him at the center of life. Zachariah here says that God should be at the center of our hearts, that we should, if you like, return to Him as our spiritual home. That we should forsake the shanty towns and squalors of sin that we set up and make him our resting place. Make him the one in whom we literally abide because he is the true home that we're longing for. Really, Zachariah's call here is a call to gospel humility and faith. And of course this call to return is also backed up with tremendous promise because Zachariah is about to show them that if they return to God, God will indeed return to them. God will return to them in ways that they never could have imagined. Really, this becomes the major focus of the whole book. It's a prophecy of great hope. And this was particularly good news for people in Zachariah's time. You know, life for them was filled with doubt. It was disjointed and uncertain, and especially in their relationship with God. I'm sure there were many avoidance issues playing out. After all, given the severity and the drama of the exile that had just happened as they'd been taken into Babylon, it was yet unclear whether God was really going to give them a second chance. No doubt a major question on their minds at this time was, even if we move toward God, will he reciprocate? Will he move toward us? Well, this question is answered by God in a preceding series of visions, which he gives to Zachariah. And Zachariah lays those visions out in chapters one through six. And it has to be said that these eight visions are extremely complicated, to say the least. And we're near the end part of the sermon rather than the beginning, so fear not. What I want to do is I want to give you a basic summary that shows the major promise held forward in this section. And it's really the promise of God returning to his people. As you scan over these six chapters that are going to unfold, you'll glance and you'll see these subheadings which, if you like, encapsulate the basic concept of each vision. And they're pretty exciting subheadings. There's the vision of the horseman. The vision of four horns and four craftsmen, a man with a measuring line, Joshua the high priest, a golden lampstand, a flying scroll, a woman in a basket, and four chariots. It really sounds like quite a tale, doesn't it? Well, Mark Dever, in his commentary, does a really great job at helping us get the big picture of what's going on here amidst all the details. So I've borrowed a bit of an outline from him. And what Dever does is he explains, first of all, that in Hebrew literature, the climax doesn't always come at the end, as it does in our stories. But often, the climax occurs in the middle. At the top, if you like, a kind of a symmetrical pyramid. And so in the case of Zechariah, at the top of that pyramid are visions four and five of those eight. They carry the major point that God's trying to drive home. And really, those central middle visions, four and five, point to the Messiah. In other words, they're asking, will God return to us? And Zechariah is saying, yes, and this is how he will send the Messiah. So vision four. is the best known of all. And it's the vision of the high priest Joshua, who's symbolically covered with the filth of the people and must be cleansed. And really, in this object lesson that God sets forth his rejective agenda to heal his people, to draw near to them and then to send forth a branch under whose shade the people will find safety and rescue. It's a rich and clearly messianic vision. And this idea of one sent from God who would become our righteousness, In fact, this vision presents for us really, in no uncertain terms, the hope of our justification, doesn't it? A promise which we understand in a much fuller sense when we look at the work of Jesus, our great high priest, the greater Joshua. And I love how the hymn writer puts it, he says, Jesus, your blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress, midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. And so really, at the center of God's plan to return to his people, to dwell with them, is his sending forth a priest. And then what happens is Vision 5 assures us that not only will the Messiah be God sending forth a priest to serve our needs, but a king who will exercise God's rule. This vision represents the rebuilding of the temple, the construction of its foundations, and really the role that Zerubbabel, the governor, played in this process as he represented the renewed line of King David. And then at the end of this fifth vision, an angel speaks of two individuals, two branches who are anointed and instrumental to God, pouring out his blessings on the earth. And these two figures simply are the priest of vision four and the king who accomplishes God's purpose and restores worship. in vision five. And so what God wants Zachariah and us to understand really is that together the priest and the king will come to establish God's presence and peace throughout the earth. This is how God is going to move toward us as we return to him. He's coming. He's coming in priestly sacrifice and kingly power. So once we've kind of got that foundational messianic promise in place as the pinnacle of God's plan, then we can understand the rest. So if we go to the bottom of the pyramid, this is where PowerPoint would help me right now. If we go to the first and the last visions, both speak of four horses. And these four horses, they go throughout the earth, and then they return with reports of peace. In vision one, it's actually not a real type of peace at all. It's kind of a self-assured, but ultimately misplaced confidence. It's the peace that other nations have. They feel perfectly at ease while God is bringing judgment on his people. They think that they're safe, and yet they have no idea about the jealousy of God and the love and eventual restoration that God has in view for his people. In contrast, in Vision 8, it's a true and lasting peace, a peace which the Messiah comes to bring. And in fact, significantly, this peace extends from the North. And that's important because traditionally that's where the enemies of God's people came from. In other words, the Messiah will come to judge God's enemies and to establish God's rule, and it will be a rule of peace. And then we can turn to the rest of the visions. We can take two and three together and six and seven together and treat them almost as pairs with one unifying message. The second and third both show God as victorious over his people's enemies, protecting his people. So God confronts the horns who raised their heads up against Judah by sending forth four craftsmen. And then he shakes his hands against the nations who once plundered Jerusalem and he promises to become this wall of fire that will protect them. And as for the sixth and seventh visions, well, they show God purging the sin of his own people, who are often their own worst enemy. In fact, he sends forth a flying scroll to clean out those who lie in steel, and he puts wickedness in a basket, and he casts her down on her head so that she cannot escape. In other words, collectively these four visions are saying God will deal with our enemies, he will deal with those enemies on the outside, and he will deal with those enemies within. Do you see the passion of God amidst all these details? The passion of God for his people. He's moving toward his people. And essentially Zachariah is shown exactly how God is going to return. The basic point of these visions is this. God will come. He will move toward us as priest and king. He will establish his peace and his presence on the earth. And really what's important for us to see is that these visions are not parables. They're not parables with some kind of moral imperative lying behind each one, such as do this or respond this way or be like this person or not like that person. Rather, what we're shown here in a whole bunch of images is the essential truth of what God is going to do, what God's returning to his people is going to look like functionally. In other words, Zachariah, through these images, like all the other prophets we've looked at, is planting the seed of the gospel. The wonderful truth being proclaimed here is that even when we have no intention of moving toward God, He was already moving toward us in redeeming power. He was moving to cleanse us of our sins, as Savior, giving Himself as a priestly sacrifice, atoning for sin. And he was moving toward us to rule over us as Lord and King, bringing a peace that we could never have established given the entrenched opposition we face in a fallen world and within the depravity of our own hearts. And really this is a wonderful hope, isn't it? This is our only hope. You know, many of us, when it comes to the thought of returning to God, I think we fall into the same pitfall as the prodigal son. Perhaps you recall his situation. We've all been there. Perhaps you're there tonight, still on the run, squandering all you have on things that don't satisfy, opting out of the hope and the inheritance that could be yours, or perhaps you're beginning to make your way back. I don't know where you are in your spiritual journey. But what I do know is this, that either way, all too often, our approach to God plays out something like this. We begin to move toward him. We begin to return to him as Zachariah prompts us. And then we're hit with a deep sense within us, a deep sense that we are unworthy, that we have wandered away from God, that we've wronged him. And so rather than embrace the promise of Zachariah that God is moving toward us, we devise a plan. We devise a plan, don't we, that we are going to earn God's keep, we're going to be God's servant, we'll become as his hired hands, we'll serve him in menial tasks, and we'll earn our way back toward him. His plan, of course, is disastrous, but maybe some of us are doing just that. Let me tell you from first-hand experience that that kind of approach to God brings no assurance or hope. It doesn't bring the cleansing or healing or restoration we need. It simply crushes us under the weight, time and time again, of all the ways that we fall short. It certainly does nothing to help us overcome our enemies without and within. You see, God has a better plan. That better plan is being revealed here in Zechariah and it's ultimately revealed in Jesus, the Messiah at the heart, at the pinnacle of these visions of God's redemptive agenda. Friends, Jesus has come to take us home. He's come to make our return to God possible. And how does he do that? He does that in the same way as the father does for the prodigal son. Jesus does what is absolutely shocking and disgraceful and unbefitting for someone of his status and reputation. Jesus runs to us. He runs into death itself and he embraces the judgment that should have been ours. Jesus throws his cloak upon us. He covers us. In fact, he did this by being stripped naked on a cross, by becoming sin like Joshua, so that we would be clothed in righteousness. And then Jesus celebrates us. He honors us prodigals with blessings we could never have earned and certainly do not deserve. You see, the good news of Jesus is that God was in Christ reconciling us to himself. In other words, he was welcoming us home. I talked about home at the beginning, didn't I? That kind of sense that home is something that eludes us all as human beings. That sense of belonging that we never can fully reconcile, even at our best moments and attempts. And yet the promise of home is the promise of Zachariah. And it's the promise of the gospel because it's the promise of Jesus, our priest and king. I like how Heraclius Boner puts it. He says, the one true resting place where doubt and weariness, the stings of an accusing conscience, and the longings of an unsatisfied soul can be quieted is in Christ himself. Christ, Christ alone is the vexed soul's refuge. It's a rock to build on. It's a home to abide until the great tempter is bound and every conflict ended in victory. God has come toward us in Christ. He's returned to us in Jesus. And what's more, the Bible tells us that he will return again to make his dwelling place with us. It says in Revelation, behold, the dwelling place of God will be with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. And so the great question of Zachariah to us now, as in his own time, is whether amidst all our frantic attempts to rebuild life, to restore ourselves, to make our own excuses, to play at religion, have you actually found your way home yet? Are you still searching? Friends, Jesus, the Messiah, the priest, the king, the promised one that Zachariah only saw in part, he is the way. Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you. Let's pray together. Lord, we do praise you that we can come to you tonight, prodigals, exiles, those captive in sin and in the excuses of our sin. And Lord, we run to you in faith. We run to you in repentance, laying aside the things of the world, laying aside sin that has only spoiled us and left us devastated. And Lord, we praise you that we don't have to work our way back towards you. We praise you that you call us in grace to return. And what's more, that you move toward us before we ever were inclined to move toward you. You move toward us in Jesus. How we praise you for him, that he is the way, that he is our great priest, that he is our king, And Lord, we acknowledge perhaps for the first time tonight, or perhaps as we so often do daily in life, that we need his cleansing. We need his sacrifice. We need his rule. Lord, would you impress upon us this challenge to daily run to you, to put aside sin, to put aside excuses, to run to you and to know that you have returned to us. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.