be covering the book of Zachariah, okay? Like I said, this is one of my favorite, or it's the runner-up between Genesis and, but that doesn't mean I know a lot of it. It's because from the times I've studied, I've got so much, but then there's so much more questions I actually want to go through, okay? So Zachariah, today we're going to be looking at authors, Hannah, shh, quiet down, okay? Authorship, purpose, and other aspects of the book, okay? So that we would be familiar with this book, okay? So I wanna go over authorship first, so why is it written by, we're gonna say this is written by Zachariah, and a little bit about Zachariah, okay? There's gonna be three reasons why I think it's written by Zachariah. The first one is because the introduction identifies it as Zachariah, okay? So if you go to Zachariah, which is second to the last, book in the Old Testament, okay? So you go to Matthew, make a left, and then make another left, and you're in the book of what? Zechariah. So Zechariah 1.1. Let's go to Zechariah 1.1. By the way, you guys have your outlines? Later on, I'll also ask people to read the purpose statement, okay? Zechariah 1.1, one of the reasons why I think it is by Zechariah is because who the author is, is identified in the introduction. Zechariah 1.1, if I could have Phil? Are you there in Zechariah 1.1? Or you need some more time? Okay. In the 8th month, is that right? Yeah, that one. Good. In the 2nd year, Darius. Darius, good. Darius, in the world of the word of the Lord came to the prophecy. Is that it? What? Prophecy? Prophet? Okay, yeah. B. Just say B. Yeah, just go on. Just say B and move on. Ido. Same, okay? So notice very clearly the introduction is identified as what? That this is Zechariah. Reason number two why I think it's Zechariah is he's the main prophet that God gave the prophecies and vision to, right? If you look with me in Zechariah 1-7, Zechariah 1-7, Julie, would you be able to read Zechariah 1-7? On the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month of Sabbath, in the second year of Darius, where the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Zedekiah, the son of Eno. Notice again, this is the prophet mentioned. We see the same thing again in chapter 7 verse 1, we don't have to turn there, and chapter 7 verse 8. He's identified as where the Lord came to, or the vision, or the burden the Lord went to him. So that's reason number two. The third reason why I think it is by Zechariah is because this is actually the historical Jewish view. So if you guys have your outlines, I quote here from the Jewish Babylonian Talmud. Say Talmud. Talmud is actually the Jewish writing down of the Jewish oral tradition. Now it was written before Jesus Christ. It was actually 200 years for them to write it. But some of those things go way before it was written. Does that make sense? It's oral tradition that you say, hey, maybe it's time to write it down. So that way we get it official, you know, with that. So this is the quotation. The girmah, by the way, the girmah means it's the old writing. So it's basically a commentary of the tradition, okay? The Mishnah is the commentary of the girmah. The girmah is the old written down to what is the tradition itself. The girmah answered, since this prophecy is written together with those of Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and one of the books of the twelve prophets, and Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, were the last of the prophets, he is counted with them. Okay? How are you doing? I was expecting you. I know! So, Zachariah 1, 1 makes, or here in the Baba Bartha in quoting the Talmud, shows very clearly, by the way, you know, like, you guys know that the Catholics add extra books than the Protestant, like our Christian Bible, you guys realize that? So the question you might ask is, which one is the right one? They add extra books in the Old Testament, but I would say we go by the Jewish, what? Jewish Scripture. Which is, by the way, the Jewish Scripture is quoted by and used by who? Jesus, okay? And here it actually says the last three books are what? Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. So when you go to our Old Testament, which are our last three books? Exactly the same, okay? Exactly the same. So we're going by the Jewish one because that's a book used by Christians. So the Catholics, they add extra books, the 1st and 2nd Maggabees, Tobit, that kind of thing, okay? So here we see very clearly, this is why we believe it's Zachariah, read by Zachariah. But now let's talk a little bit about Zachariah, okay? So if you guys follow your outline, we're going to talk about Zachariah. What does Zachariah's name mean? So this is going to be quiz-able for tonight. When we go tonight to Tom's Family Restaurant, that nice sizzling burger, when I'm chewing into that, that mushroom burger. And if you want that for free, you guys just want to quiz. Question, OK? What is the name Zachariah mean? You guys can look at your outline. God remembers, okay? Zechariah means God remembers, okay? Why is that important? We'll talk about more later on the timing of when it is, okay? The name might be significant because it points to the fact that God remembers His promises, okay? Does God remember His promises? Yeah, okay. He was a prophet after the exile. Remember, Israel history, like our history, most of us guys probably, we think of things usually in, what, 9-11, yes? Post-9-11 world. pre-911 world, right? Don't we do this, right? People ask the question all the time, where were you when 9-11 happened? What grade were you guys in? I was a freshman. You were a freshman? Better know what grade you guys were in. Freshman? Oh, high school. You were in fifth grade? Wow, okay. First day of sophomore year. First day of sophomore year, okay. 2001, yeah. I was only in 6th grade. That's when school used to start in September. I was in 6th grade when that happened. I was in 5th grade. Wow, 5th grade. I was 7th grade. Were you guys in Hong Kong then? You guys were in Hong Kong. Watch it on TV live at 10pm. I remember I was going to school and this classmate of mine just ran up to me, did you see the huge... Oh wow, yeah. We were talking about it the next day. You guys know in England, by the way, I think the world watched it because it was live, right? You guys know in England, you guys know the Buckingham Palace? You know, they're changing the guards, they have that, they always play, you know, God save the Queen. or not God Save the Queen, I forgot which song, but that day they actually did the national anthem, which actually is God Save the Queen. They did it because of September 11th, which they never do, right? It's England is a queen, right? She's splitting the pearl, right? You know, the queen doesn't say she, you guys realize that? She says we. It's like a dramatic plural. Yeah, now there's a new pronoun, right? Now there's like 50, 70 genders. But that's another Bible study another time. Let's go back on. Zechariah came. So for them, the big thing was the exile. Getting kicked out in 586 when the temple got destroyed, okay? So after they were destroyed, they came back. So why did God send his prophets to say, you're going back to Israel, everything doesn't look like the old days of the Promised Land, it's not the good old days, but God will remember His promise, and then it looks way into the future, okay, of God's promise, okay? According to Nehemiah 12.16, Zechariah was a Levite, and thus he was both a priest and a prophet, okay? We can learn a little bit more from the subscript in Zechariah 1.1. He's the son of Edo. Most people believe that his father died and he was taken care of by his grandfather. It was probably written around October and late November 520 BC. So this was more than 500 years before Hu was born. Say this after me, this book is 500 years. before Christ. This is important because why? This book is important because why? This book is going to make the second most prophecy in the whole Bible in terms of book is actually the book of Zechariah. It's Isaiah. Isaiah because Isaiah is bigger. You think of Isaiah 9-6 for Christmas time, Isaiah 7-14 the virgin birth. Zechariah has 14 chapters. Isaiah has 66. Yeah, that'll be the quiz question. So, if tonight you really want to eat that nice mushroom burger for free for the quiz, is it going to be asked how many chapters? Is Daniel vegan? No, not vegan. Is Daniel the chronologically, isn't it the last of the Old Testament chronologically? It depends on how you date it. I actually think it is not the latest. So by the way, the reason why a lot of people date it more later is often times because the prophecy is so exacting, they say, it can't be. It must have been written later. But even the most liberal one is 200 years before Christ. But even still. So it's about 400 years before Daniel, the last book. I actually think the last book is Malachi, chronologically. It's probably over there. So with that, let's go on to the purpose of the book. So if you guys have your outlines, could someone read the first quote? Any motivated, happy volunteer? I'll do it. Thank you so much. Wait, purpose? Yeah, purpose thing. The first one, right? According to Richard Mayhew, Zechariah is about Israel's comfort and glory. OK, good. A preparation for Messiah. Thank you. And the second quote? Julie, you want to read this, or Noel, you want to read the second quote? Okay, good. Yeah, so it's really like both quotes is trying to say this is looking way into the future That God's all those prophecies. We've been watching the Old Testament for a long time now. Yes from Genesis to what? Zachariah tonight. Okay, we're almost done. We're marching towards Jesus Actually, if you were paying attention this whole series every single book I've been pointing towards what? One person is anticipating who is that man? Jesus Christ, okay? Which is pretty amazing. This whole thing, in other words, there's a thin red line through the whole scripture. You know what that thin red line is pointing towards? It's towards Jesus Christ. We've seen all these details and now we're adding to this. And now it's even more explicit. If it wasn't explicit before, He's going to use some of those Old Testament motifs in earlier books and now make it more explicit. This is talking about Christ, okay? So it's pointing towards that, okay? So the purpose of Zechariah is saying God remembers His promises about the coming Messiah. And now He's going to say, There's more details of what the Messiah will be like, okay? In terms of structure, how many chapters is there? So, in our quiz question tonight, if you really, really want to eat that mushroom burger, or whatever you want to have, or breakfast before dinner, you would say, when I ask the question, second question for your quiz, how many chapters, you guys would all say what? Fourteen. Fourteen, okay. So this is how you divide the structure. This is from Richard Mayhew, one of my professors. The Call to Repentance is the first six chapters, or chapter one, first six verses, I'm sorry. Then, in chapter 1, verses 7 to chapter 6, you see there's eight visions, okay? Eight visions. So, it's going to get kind of like Ezekiel. The vision looks very symbolic. You're like, what is this, okay? Then, you know, like four horsemen, all that kind of thing, okay? Then, there's going to be four messages, okay, in chapter 7 and 8. And then, in chapter 9 and 14, you're going to see two burdens. The Hebrew word is masah. It's kind of hard to translate. What is that, the burden? It's usually a prophecy that involves a lot of judgment. It's actually a term that appears, a technical term that appears quite a bit. So that's in chapter 9-14. But really, the part that gets really specific about end times and also about Christ's coming is really in chapter 9-14. If you guys look at the outline, this is pretty cool. 9-11, the way I remember this is 9-11, is the first coming of Christ. And also about His rejection. Chapters what? 9 to 11. Chapter 9, 10, and 11. It's about His first coming. Then in chapter 12 to 14 is Christ's second coming. Now, I actually think this is... If you ever struggle with believing the Bible is true, To me, the book of Zechariah gives me assurance like nothing else does. Because the details of his prediction is so exacting that I just think, man, there is no way it could be exact. In fact, actually, the more I study Zechariah, the more, every time I study it, the more I'm blown away what I found. When I first read the book of Zechariah, I was a teenager, okay? I read it, and it was very confusing, and a lot of times I thought, how do you know that's Jesus Christ? That's because I didn't know about the rest of the Old Testament, where there's already titles for the Messiah in other books I anticipated. So that when I see those words, it should be trigger words, and I just didn't know. I was like, can't it just be anyone? Why does it have to be Messiah? But the more I read this book, the more I feel blown away, like, whoa. Wow, okay. So now let's take a closer look at Zechariah. So I'm going to go through this briefly because I really want to spend more of the time talking about the prophecies, okay? Brief word about the eight visions of Zechariah. This is in chapter 1 verse 7 to chapter 6, okay? In chapter 1 verse 7 to 16, you see there's four riders, okay? There's the four riders. By the way, is there anything like that in the New Testament? Yeah, the four what? Horsemen, right? Anyone here like Johnny Cash? Okay, you do? Does he have any song about? Yeah, the man comes around. Yeah, the man comes around. Have you guys ever listened to that? Right? Man, it sounds like Revelation made it a song. You know, like all these evil, but guess what? The man is coming around. Who's that man? Jesus Christ, okay. Actually, Johnny Cash is like the prophet Daniel, right? In the beginning days, he was good. Then, you know, his drug days. Then he gets really good in the end. And man, towards the end, it's not just only good, but it gets spiritual. Like really, really spiritual, okay? So the man comes around, okay? So, the red rider among the myrtle trees, I think means God's anger against the nations and blessing will compound Israel, okay? Then there's the four horns and the four craftsmen in chapter 1 verse 18 to 21, showing that God will judge the nations, okay? And by the way, each one of these things revealed is going to reveal more details as the book goes on, okay? Go ahead. I think it's a reference to animal horns, because the book of Daniel is on beasts. But the same word horn is also used for blowing, but I think contextually. I mean I think that originally it's because weren't the horns made from the horns of animals? Yeah, also yeah, because it was blown from them. There's other words, there's trumpet and also horns of salvation, like you blow, that kind of thing. There is another word for trumpet that's not that, but you know there's also times where you see blow the horns, that kind of thing, especially in Psalms, okay? So the four, so by the way, actually I think the Bible is continuity. The more you know other parts, it's like a puzzle piece. The more you know other parts, then it helps interpret the other parts, okay? There's the four horns, I think it means four kings, okay? This is picking up more of the book of Daniel, remember? With the different kings. Surveys with a line means God's future blessing in chapter two, okay? There's a cleansing. I really like Zechariah three. I think it actually, you know, You know, part of being a Christian is we believe that someone died substitutionary atonement, right? Like, Christ took our guilt, and He credits us with His righteousness. But there's people out there, I don't know why, they say that, oh, that's not biblical, that's not what the Bible, like, you know, cults, like Catholic, and they say it's invented. But you see in Zechariah 3, if you ever look at Zechariah 3, it's the story of a high priest at that time period, at the time Zechariah was a high priest named Joshua, okay? And he was a high priest, and it says that he was 30. with dirty clothes. What does that symbolize? That he was a sinner. But everyone's a sinner, including the high priest. But now you see someone else substitute, taking that. And in Zechariah 3, Satan is accusing him, saying, hey, how could he be a priest? He can't be a good high priest because he's a sinner. Then God gives him what? righteous robe, a clean robe, and crowns Him, okay? Which is accredited, not that it's what in theology is called foreign accredited righteousness, right? It's not He's naturally, Himself, organically righteous, but it's credited to Him. It's given by God. Does that make sense? Okay? I think that in Testimony of the Gospel, Christ's work is a substitutionary atonement. He gives us His credit of righteousness, and He takes our sin, And He pays the price for that, which involves death on the cross. So then there's a golden lampstand in chapter 4. There's a golden lampstand in chapter 4. And there's the two olive trees, which means that Israel will be a light to the Gentiles. Actually, if you look at Zechariah 4, if you guys could look with me, I think this part is actually really interesting. Let me ask you guys a question. Actually, we'll go on chapter 5. Chapter 5 is a flying scroll. It means there will be divine judgment against Israel. It will be very severe. In chapter 5 also, there's this vision of things. Before I go on further in chapter 5, let me ask you guys a question. Angels, do they have genders? Please don't say we and they. But do they have genders in the Scripture? They always appear as men. Do they always appear as men? Because in the sense of the ones that are named in the Bible aren't all men. What are the ones that are named? Gabriel, Michael, Michael. Michael, good. Angel of the Lord. Yeah, that one I think sometimes is divine, it's Christ. The two that's named, okay? And a lot of times you see they're men, right? You think of Sodom and Gomorrah. The angel of the Lord, the one that's Christ, came with two other ones, right? And then they want to do like certain kind of activity towards them, even though they were men. They're prona. But, there's actually, I think, one exception where you see in Scripture that's actually mentioned of angelic beings or heavenly beings that are feminine. Because cherubims are masculine, seraphims are masculine. Look with me in chapter 5. This is actually kind of cool. So, everywhere I go, whenever I teach theology overseas, or angeology, I always ask the trick question, and say, hey, I believe in female angels. And all of a sudden, the pastors get all worried, like, what are you talking about? Like, are you being biblical here, or are you pulling our legs? No, it is. Look here, do you guys see that? Chapter 5, you see that they put an effa, there's a woman named Wickedness, they put her in a box, right? Chapter 5, verse 8. Then look at, there's two women, verses 9, coming down. And what do they have with them? What do they have? They had wings. You guys see that? Wings of a star. They lift up the box, the ephah, and they threw it down to Babylon in verses 11. You know that because Shinar is a plane. Okay? So that's the first and only reference of any angelic being in heaven, heavenly beings, that is feminine. Okay? So just some interesting thing for you guys to know. Okay? But let's go back on. There's also 4 chariots in chapter 6, which means God's judgment will be upon the Gentiles. Then where it gets really interesting is, remember like I said, onwards. Chapter 9 onwards, you get what? Let's take the time, we won't look at everything. Chapter 9 onwards is going to be Messianic prophecy. Very, very explicit. Very, very explicit. Look with me in Zechariah 3, verses 8-9. We're going to be now looking at how this book points to Christ. Zachariah 3, verses 8-9. And if I could have Ben Wartz read that out loud, verses 8-9. Now listen Joshua, hide your face. You and your friends who are sitting in the front of you, indeed they are men who are a symbol. For behold, I am going to bring my servant, the branch. For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua On one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it, declares the Lord of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day." Remember what Zechariah 3 was about, I mentioned earlier, about Joshua? What was Joshua like? What was he wearing? Joshua the high priest, what was he wearing? We're not talking about Joshua Chen. We're talking about Joshua the High Priest back then. So he was sinful. He fought all of that. And yet he was unrighteous before God. Just like any man would be. But do you notice how his sin was dealt with? Verses 8-9 reveal there's someone that deals with his sin. Question, this person that deals with his sin, what is his title? In verses 8 and 9. What is the title? The Branch. Okay, what else? What's his other title? The Stone. Okay, and the third one. A very obvious one we kind of missed. Isaiah says servant. Do you guys remember Isaiah 53? What is that called? The Suffering Servant. The Suffering Servant. So, is the Messiah called servant? Yeah. And now it's a servant. When you see the word servant, you should be triggered. It should be like, look at me right here, it should be like, triggered. Yeah, the branch of David, right? Branch of David. That's a title that appears again and again. By the way, the Hebrew word for branch is Nazar. Does that sound like any city where the Messiah comes from? Nazar? Yeah. So Nazar means city of the branch? Yeah, that's what I mean. So when he's a Nazarite, he's a little branch. So even the town is already, you can't even say, so you think about Jesus, right? His name means in Hebrew, what does it mean? Yahweh saved the one who's a branch. Yeah, Joshua here. But I think this is literal Joshua, this is not like... But here in verses 9, there's another one we always miss, it's stone. I actually think this is one of the most underrated Messianic prophecies. You probably hear me, if you've been in TSAC long enough, which all you guys have, you probably hear me so many times talking about the Messianic stone. But notice this person. What would he do according to verses 8 and 9? What would he do in one day? Just in one day he'll accomplish this. What is that? Remove the sin from all the land, all in how many days? One day. So this is the beginning of many messianic prophecies in this book. You also see the Messiah mentioned. I gave the verses where the title Branch, Servant, and Stone is clearly messianic in other verses that are established ahead of time. But clearly this shows that the Messiah will remove sin. But I also want to point out the Messiah is pretty Abigail, could you quiet down because we're reading about the Bible. By the way, that's a pretty neat book you're reading, because why? It's Preach the Dirty Clothes, which is based upon what? Zachariah 3, R.C. Sproul wrote his children's book about that. Pretty cool story. But I actually think, the more I find great epic stories, I find they never originate on their own. They're all inspired oftentimes by what? the Bible. Even Terminator, right? That John Connor guy, right? JC, who comes to save the world and everything else, right? And all these guys trying to kill him, robots and stuff like Satan and Harold and everything, right? Epic story, right? You think of what? Aslan. What is that story? Who's that guy? So, even Superman, okay? It was actually the writers were inspired by that, okay? Okay, so let's go back on. So you see the glorious, you see there's many prophecies. Turn with me to Isaiah, oh correction, Zechariah 9.16. Turn with me to Zechariah 9.16. Could I have Julie Reed read Zechariah 9.16? Zechariah 9.16. chapter 9 verse 16 on the day the Lord their God will save them as a flock of his people for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his line isn't this amazing? this is part of a song Also, by the way, it's a Messianic prophecy, right? That the Messiah would be what? Will save His people on that day. Referencing back earlier to that one day. And notice how the Messiah will be like a shepherd, because His people are called what? Flocks. Sheep. And if they're sheep, it's His people, that makes Him, He is a shepherd. Shepherd. So when Jesus Christ comes, later in the New Testament, does He call Himself a shepherd? Yeah. What kind of shepherd is He? The good shepherd, the great shepherd, the chief shepherd. Where do you get this idea from? Did He out of nowhere just call Himself shepherd? No. You might say, well, technically Jesus, You never were a shepherd. You were a carpenter. But He is fulfilling the prophecy of a title of shepherd. Could you also then make another connection to David, because you know how David is often seen as this precursor to Christ. Yeah, because of the genealogy, right? Genealogy boards us, but it doesn't for the Jews, because he needs to come from the root of Jesse, be the branch of David. So we see that he is a shepherd here, okay, in 9-16. But let's go on further. Look with me in Zechariah 13, verse 7. And when we get there, could I have Ben Ward's read, 13-7? Okay, yeah, yeah, we'll stop there, okay? So notice here, I think this is pretty cool, right? Because what is it predicting here? That the shepherd will be what? Struck, right? That people will strike him. And once he's struck, what happened to his sheep? What happened to his followers? They're scattered. Did that happen? Yeah. Okay. To the T, okay? Actually, I think Zechariah 13, if you ever read it, Zechariah 13, there's a lot, especially in the Gospel of Mark. The last three chapters of Mark. before his death, from 1350, there's a lot of explicit references to Zechariah, the prophecy, including the fact that his followers will be scattered. Zechariah 9-9, let's turn to Zechariah 9-9. Zechariah 9-9, let's turn to Zechariah 9-9. Zachariah 9.9. And once we get to Zachariah 9.9, could I have Noelle read Zachariah 9.9? By the way, it's quoted on later on. What is it describing? The Messiah going to... We often call it the Triumphant Entry. I think the better name to call it is actually the Merciful Entry. Because He came first in a donkey, right? By the way, the second time He comes, Jesus' second coming, I like to think of that as the actual Triumphant Entry. Because the second time He comes, will He come in a small donkey, humbly? No, He'll come in a great white, what? Remember that Johnny Cash? The man comes around. When he comes, he's going to be a warrior. If I had a non-literal translation, NLT, you know what it is? Jesus Christ would come back with a tattoo saying, first in the beginning. And he's going to ride on his Harley Davidson. And he's going to come over. And he's going to be totally biker ganged out towards you guys. That's a total non-literal. But let's stay with the BLT, the Biblical Literal Translation. Yeah, I think the horse is too cool for some reason. Say again? The horse is too cool. Okay, yeah, it is, okay. So, notice here, Zechariah 9, 9 predicts even his humble entry, okay? The first time you can, go ahead, question. I'm not going back to, sorry, I thought you were going to do that. What was that, 13, 7? 13, 7, okay, yeah. When, when, when Zechariah wrote, and I was from like Canada, That's a good question. I think I need to study more on that. Would that be okay? By the way, the context of Zechariah 13 is, after Christ comes back, I think there's a clearing up operation. From other books, I think it reveals that, because we always picture He comes back and it's over. I think there's also some remaining false prophet that were Jews, and all that, and then they would be wiping them out with that. And actually, I think the church will be involved to some degree with that. It's not usually what we think about, but it'll be a different dispensation too, different times with things. So, let's go on. We see that he's a shepherd. So we're looking at Zechariah, the many Messianic prophecies that point towards Christ. Let's also look at Zechariah 11, verses 12-13. Zechariah 11, verses 12-13. Caleb, would you be able to read Zechariah 11, verses 12-13? I said to them, if it is good in your sight, give me my wages. But if not, never mind. So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, throw to the potter that magnificent price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. This is a prophecy. By the way, this is from the perspective of whose eyes? Judas. Do you guys see the first person singular? He's saying, hey, I drew this. This is from the perspective of who? of Judas himself, the prophecy here. And notice how many shekels would he betray. So all of this is being fulfilled. By the way, let me ask you guys a question. I think we all remember from all these times, from all these Good Fridays and Resurrection Sundays, the cost is 30 shekels of betrayal. I always thought, what is the significance of that? Until I decided to go on BibleGateway.com and type in 30 shekels. I found out that word phrase, 30 shekels, appears quite a lot in the Old Testament law. And that's actually the cost of what it means if you accidentally injured a servant, a slave. That's how much it is. So even the cost of that shows that he is a servant. Which remember what we said just earlier? That's one of the titles of the Messiah. Remember we saw earlier that my servant, my branch, my stone. who will, what, remove sin in one day. So even, isn't this so amazing, the solemnity of God? Even the enemies of Jesus Christ, I don't think they intend to, but their very actions say, ah, we're going to make him, he's not valuable, we're going to make it with that, and yet, in an extremely ironic sense, God turns this around and says, hey, you're even identifying this is the servant who will take away the sin, who will be betrayed and will die for our sins, okay? I think we could be wrong in many ways, yes? People could wrong us sometimes. People wrong us sometimes accidentally. They didn't mean to be rude, but they're just being obnoxious, right? But I think sometimes the most painful way people wrong us is what? The B word. Betray us, yes? And this is where I think... I think so. I think there's a shifting. There's a shifting, by the way, that's going on. For me, I think, to be safe, I only see it verses 12 to 13. Because verses 10, I think it's not that clear who took this favor and cut into pieces. Is it God? Is it Satan? Yeah, so I think whatever the perspective is, it's clear that it's talking about there is that. By the way, this part is one of the prophecies that I need to study more, if I can be honest. Zechariah is one of those books that every year, every time I read it, I find out more and like, oh, it does really make sense. I just didn't pay attention to detail. Or some other commentators point out things like, oh, wow, okay, that's why it makes sense. But it's one of those things I think it's, if you ever want to read a book that really makes you really know Jesus Christ would have died for your sin, like right away, instantly, you'll always pay great dividends right away, is the book of Zachariah. If you want the best commentary, I think there's a guy named Charles Feinberg. It's a really old book, it's probably really expensive. Do you find it? But if you ever find it in an old used bookstore, you don't even know who it is, just buy it. That's actually John MacArthur's professor, Charles Feinberg. He was training to be a rabbi. By the way, all his sons are really bright, too. All his sons are also world-class scholars, too. The leading Christian ethicist, Christian philosopher in ethics and theology, one of them is John Feinberg, his son. Paul Feinberg is another one that's a philosophical theologian, okay? Feinberg is the only guy that went to Dallas Seminary that they ever said the professor said like, well, we had this guy come in, we felt so intimidated that he knows more Hebrew than all of us, okay? Because he was this rabbi that basically, he was going to be training to be a rabbi in New York. But every time he takes the bus or the subway system, there's this Jamaican mom that was a Christian would always say, hey, could you look up this verse for me and tell me, what do you think? in the Hebrew Bible, and the guy looked at it and came back and said, I think it's this. Oh, could you look at this? And just a simple mom, you know, high school education, and God uses that. So never be intimidated with people's degrees or whatever else. Yeah, just evangelize. And he became a Christian, and his family just owned him and everything, okay? Went to Dallas Seminary and became a professor at Talbot down in Biola, okay? And then one of his famous students is John MacArthur, okay? Really? Well, New York, right? You have Jamaican, you have Puerto Ricans. You have the Jets and you have the what? The Sharks? Okay, yeah. Incidentally, a long time ago, I asked my dad, where have you been? Apparently, we've been to more states than I've ever been to. And he said the most craziest story he ever had was he was in the middle in New York, and there was this Jamaican guy who was trying to connect with us. Oh, you're Chinese? I'm Chinese. And my dad's like, you're Chinese? And the guy started saying, yeah, I'm Chinese. And he said, what kind of Chinese are you? And my dad said, oh, well, you don't know. He's like, Hakka. And that guy started blurting out Hakka Chinese. Apparently, Like, his father came from, worked as a coolie in Jamaica, and then later on married a local, and then had him, and also taught him Hakka. And it was like, my dad was just blown away. Like, this is the most random Jamaican thing, you know, ever, right? Like, you know, yeah. Like, I think of Jaguars and everything. I don't think of... What, in Louisiana? No, in New York. Anyways, go back on. with that. So that's an amazing prophecy, okay? Even more amazing than all that story is what? The prophecies of that, okay? This is the one that ours feel like, man, we've all pun intended. This one I feel nails all arguments shut, that Jesus is the Messiah. Turn with me to Zechariah 12.10. Zechariah 12.10. Jin, would you be able to read Zechariah 12.10? This is probably my favorite of all the prophecies in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah 12.10. Yes. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him who they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for any only child, and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn." Yeah, man, this part always moves me emotionally, right? In the context of Zechariah 12, this is describing that when Eventually, in the end times, everyone will try to fight against Israel. Zechariah 12 described the nations surrounding Israel. In fact, right now, even seeing the news, things are getting worse for Israel, yes? Isis, everyone don't get along, but if there's anyone that always want to fight Israel, it's everyone, okay? Has Isis tried to shell them? Yeah. You know, when they capture a certain part near the border at one point. Did Iranians want to, you know, Iranians fight Isis because they're Sunnis and Shiites? But everybody agrees on one thing. Just, you know, let's kill Israel, right? Or kill Jews, okay? But here in the end times, when the nations surround, they're crying out for help. All the nations' armies surround. I think literally in the end time that will happen. But you know what happened? They're going to look for God, the Savior. They're going to pray, Savior, would you come? And then guess what happens coming from the sky? Will be the Messiah Himself. And if you look at verses 10, the Messiah is speaking in the first person, yes? He says, By the way, this clearly shows that Messiah must be God, because why? Okay, verses 10, he pours out on the inhabitants of Israel. He could control the Holy Spirit. Remember all the part where Jesus says, no one can control the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is like a wind, right? Could you control the direction of the wind? No. But apparently, this person can. He must be God. And yet he's fully man, because what happened to him? They will look upon me whom they have what? Which, with all pun intended, I think this nails it shut that the Messiah is Jesus. Because why? Was He nailed? Yeah. Was He pierced for our sin? Yeah. There are three prophecies in the Scriptures that talk about the Messiah being pierced. Zechariah 12.10, Psalms 22.17, and Isaiah 53.5. that mention about, in Psalm 22 verse 17, they even say they pierced His hands also as well, very clearly. And I love how it is if you see men when they finally saw all along Right because I feel like whenever evangelize the Jews today. Most of them are very hostile They right away. They don't even listen. I feel like could you bring a scripture? They're like, no, you're gonna twist it Yeah, they think they know better that are you I'm Jewish what makes you think you know more and they get super offended Oh, I'm not trying to offend you where you're anything But like could you just bring your scripture and most of the time they what you know, my friends have a night You know who when he evangelized who spit on him the most? The Jews, right? If you ever see Ray Comfort evangelism to Israel, he gets spit upon like no other place, right? You know, it's like right away all the rabbis start spitting, right? It's sad. But notice when they finally will come around one day, they'll mourn as what? Mourn for an only son. By the way, Jesus is the firstborn. The only one of God who has died. Notice the parable. I mean, it is so poetic. It is just so provident. It's just so like epic, right? Of a greatest epic story ever told. that God's only Son would die for us to make us child of God, to adopt us, right? Here we see also as well, not only that, but He'll be coming one day from Mount of Olives, okay? 14 verses 3 to 8. We're not going to look at all that. But I want to say that all of these things show these incredible messianic prophecies, okay? Let's look at one more. I want to see His glorious reign in Zechariah 9, 10. We turn to Zechariah 9, 10. And then when we get there, could I have Ben? warts we've got uh... uh... just first and uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... And from the river to the ends of the earth. So to describe that one day, this is His second coming. By the way, 9-9 earlier is His first coming. I think it kind of telescoped it. It's summarizing, like Wikipedia version, but now you click and expand. Verses 9 is He's coming humbly first out of a donkey. But the second coming, verses 10, He's out here to destroy what? Armies and nations. But look at this, there's still even grace. Look at verses 11. As for you also. Because of my blood, of my covenant with you, I have set you prisoners free from the waterless pit." I think the waterless pit is describing hell. And He's come on earth to die, humbly on a donkey, to die on a cross, to save us from hell itself. I think sometimes as a Christian, two weeks ago I taught A Good Time Learning, and I have all these new kids. This is the first time they've ever heard Jesus Christ die. And they're so moved by that to the point I almost felt kidnaped. I'm so used to preaching Jesus Christ died. It takes teaching little kids. Christ died for me? Whoa, that is so loving. Like this one kid, that is so loving. Like he kept on saying to the point, I almost felt, okay, okay, could you stop saying that? But I didn't want to, you know, I don't want to like burn out his, you know, thing. Because he's just like, whoa, that is so amazing. Huh? The kid was probably six or seven, right? And then when I teach Evangelicube, he keeps on moving to the part of the cross where he died. He died for me? He died for me? And I was like, okay, let's turn now. Let's turn. But I don't want to stump him, right? But sometimes we forget that. And that's where sometimes we are reminded, how I'm reminded so much of the visibleness of Christ's death, is where? With the Scriptures. With the Scriptures, right? The Scriptures makes it very clear, one of the other prophecies in Psalms 22, that you know when He died, what did they cast lots for His? Clothes. Yeah, Psalms 22. They cast lots. Which means what? Very likely when Jesus died on the cross, he had any clothes on. No. Now all the drawings you've ever seen, all the crucifix images you see with the Catholics and everything else, what do they always have? They have, we call it, a linen cloth around that area, right? But the reality, do you think they really give that dignity to Him? No. Remember what the soldiers did before that? They mocked Him. They even clothed Him at one point, with what? Purple robe. But then they remove it later on. Okay, by the way, when they did the clothes, I think it's plural. I don't think, I know it's plural. I think what it is, they're casting everything. Okay? Which in no other part of Scripture, nakedness is shameful, right? Yes? Think about those things we've seen in the Holocaust, yes? Think about all of that. All those things, when people do that, and just the shame. In fact, you guys know Corrie Ten Boom? She was someone that was Christian. Her family helped their Christians escape the Jews, and they went to prison. And she'll say, as a little kid, that it dawned upon her the depths of Christ's love was at that point when they had no clothes, that in the middle of lining up by the German soldiers, she's finally tapped the sister's shoulder and said, He was without clothes and she was like, what are you talking about? The Messiah and all this time never thanked Him for the shame that He bore for our sins. That should move us, okay? That should move us to change. By the way, I think this fights pornography too. People sometimes like pornography because they like people seeing people's shame. But you think about, none of us would want to see the shame of our Messiah, God, on the cross, yes? But you think about everyone that lives is an image of who? Of God. And you think about in that light, the depths of that. This is where the glory of the Gospel in the darkness of humanity comes together. That He bore the shame to redeem us, to remove all the shamefulness of all our sin. And He did this out of love for you and I. Pretty good Savior? Pretty good plan? And I hope you see that this should be a time of worship as our first application. To say, wow God, you are so worthy, so lovely. And I think this helps us. Even when we deal with difficult people, yes? Even the people that betray us. I think the hardest thing to forgive is betrayal. But we have a Messiah, a God who knew what betrayal was like. And betrayal of the worst kind. To say, oh you're just worth 30 shekels, a slave. And yet He died, and died for our sins.