Good evening. We begin Zechariah tonight. Lined up a handful of commentaries I told you last week that this book requires some help along the way. At the very least, read this book in the New Living Translation. At the very least, it's a very good translation and it's meant to translate a little bit more than just having the wooden language. Secondly, get a study Bible. A MacArthur study Bible is always going to do you well to help you through the study notes. Because it's apocalyptic literature. It's like reading the book of Revelation. So this thing's in it and you go, what? Huh? Why is that there? It needs an interpretation. Here's a list of books here. My favorite of these is Charles Feinberg. Charles Feinberg is a deceased Jewish Christian, Messianic Jew, actually a rabbi who came to know Christ. He was a teacher at Talbot Theological Seminary. In fact, if you like John MacArthur, John MacArthur's dad sent his son John to Talbot and brought him into Charles Feinberg's office and says, teach my son. And so Charles Feinberg is one of the heavy hitters in all of theology in our generation. And so I would recommend that one, that green one, The Minor Prophets by Charles Feinberg. It's not expensive. It's good for all the minor prophets. Bob Chisholm does a handbook on the prophets. Excellent book. He was a Hebrew professor of mine. My other favorite one, this is a little bit more technical. Technical is by Eugene Merrill. It's Haggai Zechariah Malachi by Eugene Merrill. Another excellent book. But these are good commentaries for your study of Zechariah. Or you can just say, heck with it. I'm just going to listen and see what Lance says. I'll be well studied for you. But if you want to do a little bit more, I think that's very helpful along the way. Book of Zechariah, let's take a look at some preliminary notes on Zechariah. His name means Yahweh remembers, God remembers, the Lord remembers. And that's a good thing because in the context of Zechariah is Israel is wondering does God remember us? Has God forgotten us? And Zechariah's very name means God remembers. God doesn't forget anything. So let's look at a quick history. Let's bring ourselves up to Zechariah because most people don't read Zechariah, don't know where Zechariah is. Maybe you tried to read it and you got tired of it. It's towards the end of the Old Testament. So let's bring ourselves up to speed and where it is in the history of Israel. history of the Bible. I like to do this especially for people who don't know the Bible well and who don't want to ask what they consider to be a dumb question about the Bible. So let's bring ourselves up just a quick history. First of all, we open the book of Genesis on page one and we get the creation. God creates the world. We see the first marriage between Adam and Eve. There's a sin in Genesis 3, the sin, original sin. Death follows just as God said it would. We see the narrative of Noah who stands out as the only righteous man on the earth after a good couple hundred years. There is the worldwide flood as the waters abate. There is the renewal of the earth. The dispersion of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And they begin to spread out. And then there's a group that says, no, let's make a name for ourselves, stay in one place. And they built the Tower of Babel. This takes you through Genesis 11. Then beginning in Genesis 12 you have Abraham who has Isaac who has Jacob who becomes Israel. This nation which is a very fledgling nation at this time finds themselves down in Egypt because they sold their brother down there Joseph who became very powerful and they go down to be with him because there is a great famine in the land of promise. The promised land. There's a famine in that land. So they go down to Egypt where Joseph is the ruler from 2090 BC beginning with Abraham to 1876 BC. This is Genesis chapters 12 through 50 and we leave there with Joseph down in Egypt with his family. In the interim, this family becomes quite large and the Egyptians begin to fear them. And so God sends Moses from the tribe of Levi down to Egypt to bring his people out of captivity of Egyptian slavery. And he does. He brings them out in the year 1446 BC, gives them the law. God gives his people the law. He's going to bring his people, God's going to bring his people through Moses into his land and he's going to govern them by his law. The problem is they weren't real faithful so God waits 40 years for them to roam and wander in the wilderness for that first generation to die off so He can bring the next generation in. Anyone 20 years old and under gets to go into the land. This is the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Brings us through to the end of that time period. And so Israel is now in the land. They go in, there's seven years conquering the land of Canaan under Joshua after Moses dies. Once Joshua dies, the leadership of Israel falls under men that are called Judges. And that brings us in the Bible through Joshua, Judges, and a little addendum to Judges, Ruth. Eli is the final judge of Israel, actually we might say Samuel was. Eli was, we meet Eli with his wicked sons and Samuel a little boy who was raised in a wicked household of Eli but remains a very godly young man. They govern Israel, Samuel does until he is to anoint King Saul because the people demand it. Saul is anointed king by Samuel, who is the priest in Israel, the great priest, the great man of Israel is Samuel, and he anoints king Saul in 1050 B.C. Takes us through to the book of 1 Samuel. After Saul reigns for 40 years, David becomes king over all of Israel. From the year 1010 to 970 B.C., another 40 year reign. From 1 Samuel, we read about David, 1 Samuel through 2 Samuel. By the beginning of 1 Kings, David is dying, and he dies. And he, David passes his kingdom on to Solomon, his son, one of his sons, wasn't his first born son. Solomon reigned himself for 40 years from 970 to 930 BC. And when he finished his reign, the kingdom of Israel split. It was what we would call the United Monarchy under Saul, David, and Solomon. 120 years, all Israel. But the prominent tribe at that time was Judah. And so when the kingdom splits, it splits between north and south. The kingdom of Israel goes north and the kingdom of Judah goes south. The tribe of Benjamin goes with it. The kings in the north and the Israel kingdom were all corrupt. If you read the books of 1st Kings, 2nd Kings, 1st, 2nd Chronicles, you'll see that the more 1st and 2nd Kings, not so much Chronicles. But the northern kings are wicked. Not a single one of them is a follower of Yahweh. And so by 722 B.C. this northern kingdom is exiled by the dominant world power of the day called Assyria. Different than Syria, this is Assyria. You read about this 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st Chronicles. During this time, the prophets Elijah and Elisha, Hosea and Amos rise up to rebuke the northern kingdom, trying to bring them to repentance. In the south, the Davidic kings, Davidic kings because they descend from David, it's one dynasty in the south, several in the north, but they were all from David's line in the south, in Judah. They're mixed, meaning some are good, some are not so good. They were ultimately exiled themselves to Babylon in 586 BC. We read about these kings in 1 and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. These nations or this In fact you see the nation of Israel in the north there were all the tribes we believe made their way down, or I should say portions, people from each of those tribes made their way down to the south so that all 12 tribes began to be represented in the south. But they were some mostly wicked, some not so wicked. They were worn vehemently by prophets Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah. If you remember it was last year at this time when we started Jeremiah. We started our verse by verse exposition through Jeremiah and it became quite redundant with Jeremiah wasn't it? Over and over, Jeremiah, how many times can he say it? Repent, repent, bring yourself back to God. God will come back to you. In the Judean exile to Babylon, when they finally got tired of Jeremiah, after the initial warnings from Isaiah and then Habakkuk, God gave Judah the prophet Jeremiah for over 40 years to preach repentance in light of God's grace. By 586 BC, Judah, the city of Jerusalem, and the temple in Jerusalem were wiped out, and the few who survived were exiled to Babylon, joining those previously taken in the years 605 and 597 respectively. While Jeremiah preached in Judah, trying to bring those final people living in Jerusalem to repentance, Ezekiel and Daniel were in Babylon, having been taken captive there, preaching to the Jews in Babylon and telling them, God hasn't forgotten you. I know that you're not in the land anymore and you're not under your priesthood anymore, but God hasn't forgotten you. We looked at Ezekiel a couple of years ago. We looked at Daniel just this past year. Judah returns from Babylonian exile in 538 B.C. after 70 years. That's if you date it back to the 605 B.C. and it's really not quite 70 years at that point. But God said they would be there for 70 years. They return 538 B.C. under a man named Zerubbabel, himself being an heir to the Davidic throne. And we read about him and Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra, the namesake book, the book in the Bible. He joins the captives or I should say the exiles, the returnees from exile in 458 BC. He is a priest and a teacher. He teaches and he mediates as a priest beginning in 458 BC. Nehemiah who becomes the governor of the land joins Ezra and the rest of the returned exiles in 444 BC and he governs Jerusalem and Judea for about 12 years. But he's also, he himself answers to Artaxerxes in Persia. He rebuilds the city of Jerusalem. He's responsible for rebuilding the walls. Unders are rubbable. When these exiles return, the people begin, the temple begins to be reconstructed, but the surrounding peoples bring it to a stop. And if you remember the story, if you haven't read it, once Zerubbabel came back and he brings back about 50,000, of course, Ezra chapter one says there was right at 50,000 returnees, Zerubbabel brings them in, and you're coming back to a mess. What they left in 586, the temple has been destroyed and you can't be a good Jew without a temple. You can't be a good Jew without a priesthood. And so, Zerubbabel is going to come back and they're going to rebuild that structure. They're going to implement their priesthood. They've kept their genealogies. They know who's in the line of the priest. They know who's from the tribe of Levi. They know who's from the lineage of Aaron. And so they're going to restart it. When they get there, the surrounding peoples don't really want the Jews back. And so they start threatening them and they bring about all kinds of garbage for the Israelites, the Jews to have to deal with and work stops on the project. We read about this in the book of Ezra and in the prophecy of Haggai. Haggai the prophet says this, he comes to the exiles and he says, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways, go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple that I may be pleased with it and be glorified, says the Lord. So Israel stopped building the temple when they got back. How do you stop building the temple? You're not going to be good Jews. You just got back from exile. And now you're going to stop building. Haggai comes in, starts going around the city, looking at everybody's nice, finely wooden homes. Ah, looks like you've all got nice homes. I noticed that the house of God still remains in shambles. And so he puts it to them. Consider your ways, he says. His words. Consider your ways. Think about it. Is it okay for you to be living in a lap of luxury and God's house to be sitting in ruins? People get to work. The unique thing about Haggai the prophet is people said, oh, we better do what he says. And they do. They didn't do that for Jeremiah or any prophet previous to that, but they do for Haggai. And so they began to rebuild. So when we look at why the exile of the Jews to Babylon, why would they have to go? It's very important. During the days of Moses, dating back to 1450 BC, 1450 B.C., during the days of Moses, God told Moses in the Mosaic Law, Deuteronomy 28 and verse 15, it shall come about if you do not obey the Lord your God to observe or do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And then I skip to verse 38, I'm just picking one of the many God spells out. One of them was, the Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation which you nor your fathers have known. And there you will serve other gods, wood, stone, you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among the people where the Lord drives you. So this is just one of the many curses that God told Israel. If you don't obey me, this is what's going to happen to you. Now this still in principle is for the Jews today. Why the Jews might sit back and say, why have these terrible things happened to us? Why, being God's people, have these terrible things happened to us? Every one of them, just say, hey, what do you think about Deuteronomy 28? Deuteronomy 28, verses 1 to 14 is God saying, here's how I'm going to bless you. if you will just obey me. Verses 15 to the end of the chapter, and it's much longer, is how I'm going to curse you. Why? Because you did not obey me. Why have the Jews suffered as they have? Because you were supposed to represent God, and you have done nothing but represent the devil to the world. I'm supposed to be represented, God is saying, and you represent the devil. And so this is why they went to Babylon. God is saying, I'll put you in my land, I'll leave you in my land, and as long as you obey me, I'm going to bless you in the land. And when you don't, I'm going to get rid of you. Does He do it overnight? Hundreds of years later, he allows them to continue in their sin, sends them prophet after prophet saying, please repent, I'll bring you out. Jeremiah, one of the many times he says something along the lines of, I myself, quoting God, will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation. I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They will die of a great pestilence." So that's exactly what happened to Israel. Why were they in Babylonian captivity? Why did God's people, whom He picked up and took out of Egypt under Moses, put them in His promised land and gave them His law, why were they not there? How did they end up in exile? How did the northern kingdom get dispersed by the Assyrians? How did the southern kingdom go to Babylon? They disobeyed God. It's that simple. They refuse to repent. And so when we get to Zechariah, that's where we are. That's the context. Zechariah enters the picture here. He is a young priest, we know he's young because chapter 2 verse 4 says he's young, who returned from Babylonian exile with Zerubbabel. So he was young, he had been in captivity, he had never lived in the land of Israel, but he comes back with this group of people, 50,000 people under Zerubbabel in 538 B.C. He is also, we know that he's a priest, so he's from the lineage, he's from the tribe of Levi, and from the lineage of Aaron. That's the only way you can be a priest. A priest is one who mediates between God and man. That's who He was. But He's also a prophet. He's a contemporary with Haggai. They knew each other. Haggai says, you all start rebuilding. They did. Zechariah comes in and starts telling them, here's how God's going to bless this nation. Here's what He's going to do. Remember, His name means Yahweh remembers. Primarily, Zechariah reveals what God is going to do in the future. And so it is, as I said earlier, apocalyptic when it's unveiling what will happen in the future. Here's what God will do, He's going to judge Israel's enemies. Remember, God has exiled these people out because He said He would, they were disobedient. He's brought them back in, are they good? Did He bring them back in because they were good little boys and girls in exile? They came back and they've already decided to, we're not going to build the temple, let's build our own homes. Their priorities are already out of whack. Some of them have never even lived in the land of Israel. But they're back and God is telling them because of my, by the way why does God do any of this? Because of His covenant. Why wouldn't God just say, I am done with this nation. I'm tired of messing with this nation. Why wouldn't he? One answer. He has a covenant with this nation. He cannot throw them off. Don't ever let anybody tell you God got sick of Israel. So he cut it off with them and he divorced them and he went off to the Gentiles and said, I'll start again. He didn't. He hasn't. He's going to judge Israel's enemies, brought them back. He's going to judge Israel's enemies. He's going to dwell with and protect His people. That's what we learn in Zechariah. He is going to send His Messiah. And certainly we live in a day looking back where the Messiah has already come. But Zechariah is not just about the Messiah coming. Zechariah is talking about what the Messiah will do when He comes again. And He will purge and purify Israel. And that's what you can't bypass. That's why you can't be an amillennialist and study the book of Zechariah. You just can't. It's absolutely impossible to be an amillennialist and study Zechariah. At the end of Zechariah, you're going, wait a minute. God is going to purify and purge this nation in spite of what they've done. Messiah is coming back. Messiah is going to do this. You've got to have a nation to do that. We even know where Jesus returns. Mount of Olives. Why the Mount of Olives? What's so important about the Mount of Olives? Sounds like a nice place where you could have a good pizza, right? But the Mount of Olives, when you stand on the Mount of Olives, you're looking down into the valley. It's the Kidron Valley, it goes right down and it comes right up to the city. When you're standing on the Mount of Olives, you're staring at today, the modern Dome of the Rock. It's not, you don't have to do this, it's right there. It's right down the valley, of course you gotta cross a four lane highway now with lights. And you walk in, right there, what gate is there? The East Gate. The East Gate is when you go straight in and that's exactly, when you walk into the East Gate in Jerusalem, the altar of incense, sacrifice, the temple is right there in the East Gate. So if Jesus is going to land there and he's going to walk into that east gate, where is he going to go? Straight to the temple. This is important. Zechariah chapter 14 says that's where he lands. That's where he comes back. Why is the land of Israel important? I don't know. I'm not about whys. I'm just telling you that it is. God is going to keep his promises. Down at the bottom are the kings the names of the kings of that are important to us the kings of Persia Because now by 539 BC the Babylonians have been dethroned as the world power in 539 BC Babylon falls and the Jews are allowed to return to the land because the Persians say go home You'll be under our tutelage, but you're going home The temple is completed by 516 BC because by 520 BC Haggai said guys get it together by 516 they complete that temple Haggai appears, Zechariah appears right there in the interim. Esther appears around 480 B.C. her story in Persia. In 458 B.C. there is the return under Ezra in the fourth year of Artaxerxes I. In 444 B.C. there is another return as I said earlier under Nehemiah. So here is at a glance and a nice little colorful picture. Here are the kings of Persia. Kings of Persia, if you want to memorize these are great, impress your friends. The first king of Persia, Cyrus I, also called the Great, 559 B.C. to 530 B.C. His son, Cambyses II, 530 to 522 B.C. After him, Darius I, also known as the Great, sometimes called Hastaspes, 522 to 486 B.C. Xerxes, we also know him in the Bible as Ahasuerus, 486 to 465, the days of Esther. And then Artaxerxes I, he will be the king when Nehemiah is his cupbearer. We will look at that one. I know, it's pretty impressive. I know. And do you like the font I chose for the kings of Persia? See, no one would notice that unless I drew attention to it. So unappreciated. I don't know. So we're looking at Darius. Some say Darius. I've said it both ways. I don't think it matters. Here's a little inscription. You see that over on the left side. He is known in history because of this. He's famous for the Behistun inscription which extols his accomplishments. This is in southern Iraq today. So if you ever want what you've done to go forth for generation to generation, go etch it in the side of a mountain. It enabled this, what he put on there, what's said about him is in three or four different languages and it enabled the decipherment of the Akkadian language and the Assyrian and Babylonian languages. It's really, it's in a derivative of these languages. But one of the languages is known and if you know one language that's up there and you know the others are saying the same thing, you just compare with the one you know with the two you don't and so this decipherment help to decipher these, or this language helped to decipher these languages. Here's another picture of it close up. It's the same one as there. It's just close up. You can see the various languages there. So anyway, that's what Darius the Great is known for. I'm not gonna go through all of it, but I thought you might like the picture. It is interesting. So Zechariah, we learn that he is the son of Berechiah in the text. I'm only going through verses 1 to 6 today. And by the way, verses 1 to 6, what I'm doing tonight won't be what I do each week. It's a very preachable text, verses 1 to 6, because it's the intro to the book. And so what I'm doing here, I will cover much more material in the weeks to come. We'll look at those visions, but this is just the introduction to it. We look at who is Zechariah, the son of Berechiah. In 1.1, he's referred to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. But the genealogies in Ezra 5.1 and 6.14 do not mention Berechiah. They just say he's the son of Iddo. Big deal? I mean, you'd read over that and you'd go, I really don't care. That's fine. I'm sure that there's a reason. Well, I'm here to tell you what the reason is. We must note that the Hebrew does not have grandson. There is no term for grandson. David could have a son a thousand years after him and it's going to be called the son of David, for instance. Everyone is just the son of in Hebrew. So it appears that Zechariah's immediate father was Barakiah and perhaps his grandfather was Ido. So since they were priests, their genealogies would have to be well kept, which they were. And that's why we even know who he is, where he came from. In the New Testament when we meet Zechariah Jesus pronounced the judgment of the Pharisees on the Pharisees and he tells them that from the blood of Zechariah the son of Barakai whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. At first he says from the blood of righteous Abel. Now that comes to the first book of the Bible. Remember where Abel died in Genesis chapter 4. So from the blood of Abel, who was unjustly killed, to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Who's Jesus talking about? It looks like He's talking about the guy we're talking about tonight, but there's a problem with that. The problem is traditions state that Zechariah died peacefully, not as a martyr. And so, what's going on? There was a priest named Zechariah in the Old Testament who died as a martyr in 2 Chronicles chapter 24, but he's Zechariah son of Jehoiada, not Berekiah, and that just really bums me out. It would have been so seamless if it would have not been there, because I've had to preach through Matthew and Luke where Jesus says this, and I've had to explain it, and I go away going, everybody just wanted to leave today. But I thought I'd do it again tonight. So is it the same one? Well, did Matthew mean to say Jehoiada? Did he mess up? If he would have said, Jesus saying Jehoiada and Matthew just recorded it wrong, I'd love to say that, but I don't know. I mean, I can't say that. How many other things did Matthew get wrong if he got it wrong? I don't think Matthew got it wrong. Did he mean to say Jehoiada? Was it a corruption later on? There's no evidence for that. But possibly that Jesus is not talking about our Zechariah son of Berekiah. But do note this, the book of Second Chronicles is the last book of the Hebrew Bible. I know it's not in our Bibles, but it is in the Hebrew Bible. Our last book is Malachi, but Malachi is part of the prophets. And in the Hebrew Bible, you've got the Torah, The Torah, which is the law, the prophets, and then the writings, and 2 Chronicles is in the writings, and it's the last book. So since Abel was in the first book, in the first martyr, it could be saying that from the first martyr in the first book of the Bible to the last martyr in the last book of the Bible, that would have been around 800 BC, 2 Chronicles, where that ends. Somewhere around, at least where he is there, in 2 Chronicles 24. So, I mean, are you glad you came tonight now? Anyway, anyway, yeah. Just thought I'd throw that out there for you again. Again, not things you have to know, but we don't know. At the end of the day, who is it? Who's Jesus talking about? Is he talking about the prophet, or is he talking about another Zachariah, which is a very popular name in those days. It isn't another Zachariah. I don't know. At the end of the day, I just want you to know, I don't know if that's who Jesus is talking about. Is that fair enough? No one does, really. So why bring it up? I don't know. I just thought you should know that I don't know. The setting and the occasion, the purpose of this book, the exiles are back and all things are not great. There's high taxes under Darius who is the king of Persia. There's little evidence of a restoration of Jewish sovereignty or of an inner morality of the Jews when they come back. That means you need a kick in the behind from a prophet, from a preacher. Jerusalem was only partially rebuilt and was on the sidelines of world significance. And this is supposed to be a nation that's supposed to shine God's light to the entire world. It's not as it should be. So God sends a prophet to bring it to where it should be. Faithfulness was thought to be useless at this point. It made more sense to pursue the best life possible in spite of present toils. If faithfulness is useless, people are thinking, why be faithful? It's not going to get us anywhere. People think that today even. Why be faithful? God is love. God loves me. Why should I do and be obedient when God already loves me? I can do whatever I want. I can be happy and I'll live happily ever after. That was the attitude of the Jews. But unfortunately, people that live that way are not in Christ at all. Anyone who has such an attitude knows nothing of Christ. Nothing. To go live for oneself, thinking that God loves you already and I'm already good with God. God and I have this deal. That's not Christianity. Not even close. But that's where the Jews were in their own minds. And you think, well, they haven't changed a bit after their exile. In spite of all the problems, God was still watching. He's still watching over them, still watching them. He still has a covenant to fulfill. So when we look at Zechariah 1.1, we see that in the eighth month of the second year of Darius, This is the eighth month of Darius' second year, which was, we know, October-November of 520 B.C. According to Haggai 1-1, Haggai has also begun his prophetic ministry in the second year of Darius, and so Zechariah comes in about two months after Zechariah, after Haggai had begun to preach. in the year 520 B.C. It says, The word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. The word of the Lord came to him. That word for Lord there is in all caps in your Bible, most Bibles, when it's in all caps it means that the Hebrew word behind it is Yahweh, this is how God is named throughout Zechariah. And that's His covenant name. God wants to be known by His covenant name because He has a covenant with the nation. To say Yahweh is to think this God has a covenant with us. Zechariah, which means Yahweh remembers. Berekiah means Yahweh blesses. And Iddo means timely, we think. If you put it together, it means Yahweh remembers His people and He will bless them as He has promised in His time. How about that? You think, wait a minute, where is that? Where is Yahweh remembered? Zechariah here, whenever you come across a word, a name in Hebrew that starts with a J-E or a J-A or a Y-H, or I'm sorry, a Y-A or a Y-E, it's Yah. It's the first word of Yahweh, sometimes rendered J-V. So, Zechariah, that's the last part of Yahweh. Also in Barakaya, Baraka means to bless. You add the little form of God's name at the end and it means God blesses. There's other, in fact you can say that, you want to say the biblical name when someone sneezes, say Baraka. What? It means God bless, Yahweh bless. Yeah, no one's gonna really know. They probably won't hang around you after that, if you do it anyway. There's other great names in the Bible, Nathanael, Nathanael, it comes from a Hebrew word, Nathan, which means to give. Add the little form of Elohim, L at the end, and it is a gift of God. Or Jonathan, Jah will be Yah, short for Yahweh. Yah be Yahweh gives, Yah Nathan. So these names have some significance and we name our kids these things. Daniel, as I said, is Mighty One of God. So anyway, Zechariah, one of those good names, hence it was a very popular name. Zechariah was to both encourage the Jews to rebuild their temple and to exhort by preaching repentance. So here's what you need to do. You need to go out and do what God has called you to do so that you can worship God. Without a temple and a priesthood there's no worship of God. And there can be no fellowship between God and man unless there's shed blood. You've got to shed blood. Can you one day sin and then go to your backyard, pull up a lamb, slay the lamb, pour the blood out on the ground, and then just have lamb that night and say, why are we having meat tonight? Well, I slayed the lamb so that I could have fellowship with God. Can just anyone do that? You can slay the lamb and eat it all you want, but you are not atoning for your sins. That has to be done in Jerusalem by a priest. No one else can do it. You have to come to Jerusalem to do that where the priesthood is. And so without a temple, there can be no priesthood. So rebuild it. And he's exhorting them, don't just do that till you can have a place to go slay animals and think you can go away saved. It's about repenting of your sins. So this is very important. It's part of what it means to, I say it's part, it's everything about what it means to be a believer in God or what we would call a Christian. Let's take for instance, let's just set up a religion whereby we can make God happy. God will be happy if we give enough money. Let's give money, we sin, we give money. Or we come in and we say a few prayers and God is fine. This is what we call a religion. I have offended God, I must go do something to make God happy. I'll give money, I'll go do this, I'll go run around the block because God wants me to do that, whatever it may be. You can do that, is God pleased with that? You see Israel when they did have their temple, and they did have their priesthood prior to this, people were coming all the time. All the time bringing, there was blood pouring everywhere, especially at the three great feasts. The Jews thought that, hey, God loves us. In fact, he says to Amos, he says, I see your feasts, your feasts are large and grand, and I am not happy. He even says, I hate your feasts. His words, not mine. I hate your feasts. Because all they were doing was coming to the feast and jumping through the religious hoops. I did this, I said that, I paid this. If there's no repentance, that stuff doesn't mean anything. In fact, it's more offensive to God than if you hadn't done it. Today, people do that today. That's called the Roman Catholic Church. But let's not get on the Roman Catholic Church too hard. It's also in the Protestant churches, where people think they come in and they do a few good things, or I did some good deeds. I made my way with God. He's good with me. God and I have this deal. No, you don't have a deal with God. No one has a deal with God. He made a deal with us that if you receive his son, he will forgive your sins. That's the end of that story. No other deal, no other caveats, no one gets out of that. And so Zechariah is going to come preach this. Is this an easy message to preach? Religion without repentance is nothing. And so that's what he's preaching. All the prophets before him Most of them got nothing out of it. The office of the prophet was and is a very high calling. As we evidence in Isaiah 6, Jeremiah 1, you know the story in Isaiah 6 where Isaiah sees God, at least in whatever form he was able to see God, in the temple. He couldn't speak. He sees these angels called seraphim, which means burning ones, surrounding the throne. They've got six wings. With two wings, they fly. With two wings, they cover their eyes. And two wings, they cover their feet. And they have this wonderful job. All day, they surround Yahweh, and they say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. They say, love, love, love is God the Almighty. They say, goodness, goodness, goodness. They don't say that, do they? They say, holy, holy, holy, all day, every day. It can never run out. This is the image that Isaiah, and he's called, and then he gets this coal. How many of you, when you make a barbecue pit, you like to reach in, you like to examine those coals? Put them in your mouth. You don't do that. One of the seraphs takes the coal and touches Isaiah's lips, which is indicative of him being cleansed, to go take his filthy mouth to preach what God has told him to preach. Jeremiah, same type thing. Same type calling. The calling was a horrible calling in the sense that it was high, and it wasn't one that paid a lot. It wasn't one that was going to get any success whatsoever. And Zechariah, if he's looking back over the previous prophets, he's going, I'm sorry God, can I decline the offer? Looking at the previous prophets, do I have to do this? It was bad enough I'm born out of the priesthood, but I have to be a prophet as well. Yes. Prophets set people straight with God's Word. The Word of the Lord came to Zechariah. When the Word of the Lord comes, what are the things that today's preachers and prophets preach? I mean, if it's the Word of the Lord we're supposed to preach, Why do people come to this church, having been in other churches previously, I preach the gospel, they come into my office and they say, we've never heard that before. I mean it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that over the course of the 24 plus years I've been here. Had a couple of guys came in and they asked some very wonderful questions. Questions that you would love to be asked at a ballgame. Because someone has never attended church before. These people had been at a local church for over seven years and had never heard the gospel. You say, well, they must have been at the Mormon church. No. It was one of those Baptist churches that takes the word Baptist out. Didn't know the gospel. Why? Because the preacher doesn't preach the gospel. And you're thinking, hey, are we going to make fun of that? Am I supposed to go around and make fun of churches that don't do it? Yeah. Not make fun of, but condemn. How can you not? I mean, people will come up and say to me, am I tall, dark, and handsome other than to my wife? I'm not. I don't have any great gifts. I don't have any good stories. I'm not funny, except by accident from time to time, here and there, now and then. And they will come and they will say, man, that was fantastic. I'll have people come and tell me a great teacher. I'm not. All I'm doing, all I'm doing is reading to you what this says. And in my own passion, telling you what it means and how you do it, that is all we're supposed to do. That's like going to a doctor and saying, man, I've never known a doctor that actually did surgery on me. Most of the doctors I've been to, they just sit there and tell me jokes. A doctor is supposed to fix someone who's sick, aren't they? A preacher, a prophet, same thing. It's the one who's supposed to say, here's what God's word says, here's what it means, because I've studied it, and here's some ideas on perhaps how to apply it. It's very simple. I'm not saying the job itself is simple. The task, however, is extremely simple. This is what they're supposed to do. You're supposed to set people straight with God's word, and this is what Zechariah is there to do. They set people straight. Since Israel had no king, after returning from exile, The date of these events is dated to the Persian King Darius I. These were indeed the times of the Gentiles, the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles began in 586 BC, if not a little bit prior, where the Gentiles rule over the nation of Israel. What was the question of this? The question was being asked from a phone up here. So, Zechariah 1, when in the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, the Lord was very angry with your fathers. Now, who taught this guy to preach? What preacher stands up and the first thing he says, this is the first thing he says, the Lord is very angry with your fathers. Come on. Joel Osteen starts every sermon with something that he thinks is quite funny. I always like to start off with a funny story. Do you? I read the prophets, I read, you ever read the first few verses of Nahum? The Lord is burning in His anger against you. First words. Somebody needs to teach Nahum how to preach. No. Maybe the prophets could just teach us how to preach. Instead of trying to hook your audience with a really funny story. Why not just come out and say, God is very angry with you? It sounds like something Paul Washer would come out and say, right? How many of you know who Paul Washer is? You ever listen to Paul Washer? I was playing golf with a guy with three missionaries last year, and I was just talking about some of the missions we give to. I said, yeah, we give to Paul Washer's heart, cry, ministry, three of them. What, who's that? I'm going, around here, we know who Paul Washer is. Man stands up, points his bony finger at people when they're laughing at his jokes and says, I don't know why you're laughing. talking about you. You're the one that needs to repent. So he starts off by telling about the anger of God. The Lord is very angry with your fathers. Fathers, here's a reference to Judah's obstinate ancestors. This explains their exile, yet their return reveals God's mercy. When Yahweh's very angry or wrathful, this is a difficult message to talk about God's anger. He didn't say, God loves you and has a perfect plan for your life. How many of you ever gone through the old school called the, not school, but the training called Evangelism Explosion? What's the first point to start off with? God loves you and has a perfect plan for your life. You know what, I like any program that tells the gospel. So I'm not jumping all over, but that's not the first thing God or Jesus ever says that any of the prophets ever say. The problem is sin. God's anger. It's a difficult message. You have to bring it up. God's anger stems from His holiness. The essential attribute of His character, holiness is. Not love. Love ascends from His holiness. Every aspect of God, I believe, comes from His holiness. He is holy. The object of God's wrath are always those who oppose Him, those traveling the path of wickedness. And since God is also fully righteous, His anger is always just. So God is angry. God is angry. We might expect them in Zechariah's day for God to say, you know what, you folks have been through a whole horrible time over the last 70 years. Aren't you glad to be home? I'm so glad to have you back in my land. We're gonna do it right this time, aren't we? Nothing like that. God is angry or was angry, very angry with your fathers, with those who preceded you. Verse three, therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, return to me, declares the Lord of hosts, that's Yahweh Sabaoth. Yahweh Sabaoth, not Sabbath, Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of armies. And how is God to be the God of armies? He is the sovereign God over all. When we think of, I think the last five-star general our country had was General MacArthur. General MacArthur was this five-star general. You think of a man's man, you think of a powerful general, you think of General Douglas MacArthur, or maybe Norman Schwarzkopf back in the 90s. You think of powerful men, and you think, you know, those guys with those guys at the helm, we're in good shape. God is the God of all. Yahweh Sabaoth, Yahweh Sabaoth, and that's what he says, tell them, thus says Yahweh Sabaoth, return to me declares Yahweh Sabaoth that I may return to you says Yahweh Sabaoth. Therefore, Yahweh Sabaoth is the Lord of armies, the sovereign God, return is to repent. That's what the word means. What does it mean to repent? It means change your mind. You're going east, go west. You're going north, turn around and go south. Repentance is always the pathway back to God. It's not inviting back to God. You know, that's one of the things I see in our country recently with Donald Trump. I saw something the other day was we need to, we need to invite God back into our schools. Have you seen that? That sounds good, but that is not how it works. What is God going, okay, can I come in now? Aw shucks, I sure have missed you people. How do you invite God back? Repent. Donald Trump, I love what you're doing, I'm with you. But we don't invite God back in. We repent of our sins and hope that he forgives us for our sins. It's not about inviting Him back. God doesn't go anywhere. He's omnipresent. He recognizes that He's not welcome, but God is still there. How do we get Him back? Come on back in, God. We got room for you. No! Repent! Just repent. Lord, we have been the sinners. The people had returned to the land of Judah almost 20 years prior when Zechariah begins to speak. And yet the promises of Jeremiah and Ezekiel regarding Israel's restoration after the Babylonian exile remained unfulfilled. They could have preached everything that Jeremiah and Ezekiel had said. They were still in the same situation. This is bad, bad news. Augustine of Hippo where it says return to me that I may return to you. He says this commenting on verse 3 Augustine wrote one of these clauses that which invites our return to God evidently belongs to our will while the other which promises his return to us belongs to his grace. Return to me our will we will return to you and you by your grace will return to us. Looks like a two-way street there doesn't it? Verse 4, Do not, like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, Thus says Yahweh Sabaoth, return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds. But they did not listen or give heed to me, declares the Lord. I didn't even put my commentary at the bottom of that. Your fathers, he says, where are they? In verse 5, where are they? I think it's almost sarcastic. Your fathers, where are they? In other words, think back, where are they now? All those guys we looked at through Jeremiah that refused to repent. You remember your kings in Jeremiah and Daniel? We went through them. You start off in Jeremiah, there's the great king. In fact, my favorite king other than David and Israel was king Josiah. Close, close. Josiah. Josiah was this great king. He had this, he read the book of the law having never read it because his father and grandfather had been so wicked, like 57 years worth of nothing. He's born into a world with no scripture. They find the book of the law in the temple. It's read to Josiah and he tears his clothes and says, we need to get busy. And so this revival begins under Josiah, but he seems to be the only one that survived. The only reason people were following him is because he's king and he'll kill them if you don't. He leads this revival, he goes out into battle, and the king of Egypt kills him, Veronico. Veronico kills him, puts another one in charge, his name was Jehoiakim. Come on, yeah, you were gonna say that, Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim, his previous name was? I won't even go into it. So Jehoiakim comes into power, Jehoiakim rebels, he is taken away, comes back, and his son, Jehoiachin comes in. Yep, there you go. And then Jehoiachin goes into exile, and then the last king is King... Come on, Mark, you know it. Zedekiah, King Zedekiah and we looked at these kings over and over and the prophets talking to them, the prophets trying to bring the kings, if you can bring the king maybe the people will follow but the kings would not listen. And so you've got here in verse 5 is your fathers where are they? In other words they are all dead, this is where all are going to end up dead, they are dead, rebellious Jews of the past were gone, dead, prophets were God's servants, note that he says, Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But did not my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants, the prophets, overtake?" Don't ever... I like to look at the word servant and bond slave in the New Testament as someone...that's a high calling in God's realm, a servant. These are Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. These are the ones that were preaching during those days. Faithfully serving God. Your fathers are dead, even the prophets are dead. People come and go, but what does he say? Overtake your fathers. Then they repented and said, as the Lord of hosts purposed to do with us according to our ways and our deeds, so he has dealt with us. God's Word remains. People come and go, don't they? You can rail against God all you want. God's Word never goes away, but people do. So really, since you're going to go away, you're going to be wiped out, he's saying, might as well repent. So let's take a look at a few applications. The prophet of God must address obvious problems, not just then, I'm bringing that down to our modern day. Exhort repentance, encourage obedience, and warn of God's wrath. How does that message right there, you street evangelists, teachers in a church, teachers outside the church, my own job, how does that come across to people? Do people love this? Oh yeah, I wanna go to church where they tell me that I'm a sinner and I need to repent. I want to go to a church that tells me I need to obey God's word. I want to go to a church where I'm warned of God's coming wrath. Amen. You're here, right? I can't get rid of any of you. And I keep doing that. And folks, thank you. I love that. I love that. At the very least, it says there are people that are still hungry for God's word. And among the more mature people, loving people, I've never met better. You wanna build a church? You wanna build a big church? I don't know what to tell you. Have a mud pit and do mud wrestling on Sundays. You wanna build a church full of believers? Open the Bible, preach God's word, and watch God weed out the wolves and the goats and watch the sheep come in, dying to be fed. God's wrath is contingent on man's response to him. When we warn of God's wrath, we have to tell people. How you respond to me telling you that you're in error, how you respond will be how God responds. You've heard me say, as far as I know, this is sarcasm, just in case you don't know me, I'm being sarcastic right now. I've entered into sarcasm mode. As far as I know, thou shalt not commit adultery is still a sin. Right? That hasn't been removed. In the Bible, in the Old Testament, you were caught committing adultery. You were killed. It's a capital offense. Shouldn't it be okay for a Christian preacher in the 21st century to preach adultery is still a sin? I can't preach that it's to be punished by death. I can say that it once was. This is what God thinks about it. Do you know that there are people that will never return to this church who call themselves Christians? Because I said, you cannot live together and have sex outside of marriage. You can't do that. If you're doing that, fine, repent of it and get right with God. But you can't keep doing it and call yourself a Christian. You'd think that something so simple would not be controversial. It's controversial even here. I've lost friends over it. Good, I mean it, good friends. Just to say what God said. It's not my opinion. I remember last time we were in Israel, our tour guide, Sharon, she sat down with me and she said, you know, I don't mind the Old Testament, the Hebrew scripture, she said, but I think it's a little much. So what do you mean? She said, I don't think that it should be that bad for people who commit adultery. I don't think that, I certainly don't think they should have suffered the death penalty, and I just don't think it's that big of a deal today. And she looked at me, and we were talking, she was waiting for my response, and I said, yeah, but it is. It is, that's all I can say, but it is. She said, I know, I just don't think that it should be. Okay, fair enough, tell God that, but make sure you don't go make your own rules, and go live by it, because you don't think it's right. Well, I just don't think it is. I just think where it's a modern day, people should be able to live together, commit all the adultery they want, and grow up later, and that should be okay. Well, God doesn't. That's how watered down it's become. But what it is in Israel, it's the same way it is here. You don't have to be Jewish for it to be different. God changes His plan when man changes his. God cannot tolerate sin among His people, and His prophets must always convey this. We know that God changed His plan. God doesn't change, but He says, we looked at this when we were in Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 18, God said, when I decree judgment on a nation, If that nation repents, I will change my plan to judge them. Furthermore, he said, if a nation is obeying and they're good, and I decree blessing to them, if they stop, I will change my mind of the blessing and bring curses on them. Does God's nature change? In fact, God has to change because His nature is that He does not change that way. He has to judge, has to bless. And so when people change their ways, if you're living in adultery right now, and you're calling yourself a Christian. If you are living in a homosexual relationship and you have convinced yourself that God is love and He wants you to be happy because Jesus never denounced it. If you are doing that, let me tell you that you're living in sin. You cannot be a Christian and live in that sin. You can't. I can't be married to my wife in a loving relationship and have a girlfriend on the side. That's absurd, isn't it? It would really be absurd if I'm saying, Cheryl, you know I love you. You know I love you. It's that ridiculous. You cannot live in sin willfully and call yourself a Christian. But once you hear the message that it's wrong, you can repent and change your relationship with God in a split second. And that's what God is calling this nation to do. Historical events, especially in Israel, vindicate every prophet of the Old Testament and justify Jesus as the Messiah. Because the prophets of the Old Testament were telling Israel, here's what's going to happen. You're going to go into exile. God's going to let you out. God's going to bless this nation. Everything the prophets said have come to pass. Except the things that haven't. Like those things that pertain to Jesus in His second coming. Isaiah 55 11 says, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. I love that. I love God's word doesn't go out empty. It may seem empty to you and me. We may preach it and we may think, well, no one's listening, but it's being heard. God is using it. And since God's Word will not return empty, Israel's remnant will indeed repent, ushering in God's favor upon them. We're looking at the remnant in Romans 11 on Sunday mornings. The remnant of Israel, the whole of Israel is the whole of Israel. But there's a remnant in between, in the midst of this entire nation. That remnant chosen by God's grace. They will repent. God will do everything He said for the nation upon that remnant and thus fulfill His promises. Zechariah's first sermon began harshly with a sharp call to repentance along with a threat of God's curse. Unless the people heeded his message, things might not have gone well for Zechariah. I think of him, he's young. When you're young, you come in on the heels of an older prophet like Haggai, and you say the same thing an older prophet said when you're young. I know this firsthand. When I was young, I was 32 years old when we started this church, I thought I was My previous pastor, Tom Nelson, was old and had learned or earned his ability to say what he wanted how he wanted. A 32-year-old can't do that when first starting a church meeting in a school cafeteria. There was no credibility. I made everybody mad, including my wife. So when you come in and do what he did, things don't always go well. It was a big risk for him to come in and talk this way. It's always a risk. Joyce Baldwin, one of the great commentators of the Old Testament, she says, if the hortatory tone, In other words, it seems absurd for him to come in with this message of God's wrath to a people that's already down and out. No, it's not. It's not inappropriate. It may seem inappropriate, but it is meant to encourage repentance. It's meant to bring some fear, a godly fear. If we don't change our ways, God will remain in His wrath toward us. In the book of Zechariah, we see Jesus Christ. He's foretold in Zechariah 9, 9 as coming to town on a donkey. And the Gospels have Jesus as He comes to the Mount of Olives. Peter and James or John, y'all go over to that neighboring town, you'll find a donkey tied, bring it over. If anybody asks, tell them the Lord has need of it. Huh? They do. Someone asks, hey, what are you doing with that donkey? The Lord needs it. Oh, okay. Why didn't Jesus just walk on down the hill? It wasn't a long way. Just hop, skip, and a jump down the Mount of Olives. Why didn't, why did Jesus ride that colt? Because Zechariah said he must. If he had walked into town, he's not the Messiah. He was rejected and betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah prophesied that in 11, 12 to 13. He was crucified for the sins of His people, Zechariah 12, 10 and 13, 7. The people will, what fear, they will look upon Him whom they have pierced. His second coming is prophesied in great glory in chapter 9, verse 10. He will rebuild the Temple in chapter 6 verse 12, gather His people in chapter 10 verses 1 to 12, conquer Israel's enemies in chapter 10 verses 4 to 7. He will cleanse His elect in chapters 12 through 13, 6. He will stand as the victor on the Mount of Olives in chapter 14. He will reign supreme in 14.9 and receive worship from all of earth's inhabitants in 14.16. This is what Zechariah prophesied. It's worth our time. I'm going to go through a verse by verse. We're going to look at it. You may read it and go, I don't know how he's going to bring this to pass, but I'm going to. This is the word of God. It's a beautiful word. It's worth our time and it will complete our study of theology. Quick overview on this map here. Chapters 1-6 we will see eight visions, you can see they are lined up as kind of a chiastic structure, you see four horsemen down there and in 6-1 there are four chariots, there are horns and smiths, a measuring line, flying scroll, a woman in a basket, what? If you try to read this at 1030 at night and expect to go to sleep at 1045 you will be asleep at 1036. What is he saying? It's difficult you've got to look at. There is imagery in it but it tells a picture, it tells a story I should say the picture. In chapter 7 there are two sermons, chapter 7 and 8, a call for true justice, a promise of future restoration in Jerusalem. We believe in that promise of future restoration to Jerusalem, the judgment of the enemies of Israel and the coming of the Lord. And I'll just give you those visions at a glance, those strange visions. Number one, you're going to see four horsemen, it speaks of God's sovereignty in Israel's restoration. God is sovereign, He's going to restore Israel. Number two, you're going to see four horns. Horns in the Bible are indicative of powers. These are the oppressive nations that persecuted and dispersed the Jews. Beginning with Egypt, you can take Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, You've got the surveyor who is preparation for restoration. What do you do before you build something? You get a surveyor. God is surveying the land. Plum line. You see the priest, it's going to be a renewal of the priesthood. The priest has dirty, filthy clothes. God gives him fresh clothes. The lampstand or the menorah, we see Messiah as the priest king. There's a flying scroll. On both sides of the scroll are judgment, passing over the people, judging them. The ephah is a return of evil upon Babylon, who is Israel's oppressor. And the chariots, Yahweh's final and universal dominion, His victory. So together, here's what God is saying. To Israel, I am sovereign and I'm going to restore you. You have been persecuted and dispersed. I am coming back to you and I'm going to survey the land. I'm going to renew your priesthood. Your Messiah, who is a priest king, will rule over you. There will be judgment for all those who disobeyed and I will return all the evil upon the evil nations who destroyed you or attempted to. And I will have universal sovereignty over the world. I will reign forever. That's what those six visions are. when you read them. The chapters are short, that's the good news, but you'll read them and you'll go, what was that? Come back. It's my job to teach you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. Thank you for bringing us together to study your word. I pray that you bless another few weeks, couple of months, perhaps, as we look at the end times as they unfold. Bless the preaching of your word, even the preacher himself. I pray for the material that we read, for the people we meet as we gather together for this study. May it be great fellowship together, hearing your word, and sitting together with your people. We ask you to bless it in spite of ourselves. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You've been listening to a sermon by Dr. Lance Waldie, senior pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Cypress, Texas.