A picture paints a thousand words

Pictures

 Last week four pictures; this week four pictures.

Each picture last week had a message or prophecy attached.

The four riders were sent out to observe the world to see all was at peace but Jerusalem was a mess. The Good News is that God will restore Zion.

Then there were horns and blacksmiths to tell that the oppressors would be removed.

A man set out to measure up for building the walls but Zechariah was told walls were a waste of time as Zion was to expand beyond boundaries.

Finally the High Priest was given a change of clothes. Sin was removed and a robe of righteousness given to him. 

This week

Horses replaced by chariots

Robes for Joshua followed by a crown for Joshua

 

 Each picture has a similar frame. We start with a good example

READ 4:1-7

 

The angel says “What do you see?”

Zechariah says what he sees.

Then he asked “But, sir, what do these mean?

The angel replies “Don’t you know?”

Zechariah  “No, sir”

Angel then gives the prophecy

 So lets look at the pictures in turn. To understand it you need to know that this is in Jerusalem after the first wave of exiles had returned under Zerubbabel. He was acting governor. Joshua was the High Priest of the day. Zechariah one of the other priests named in Ezra. So Jerusalem is a heap of rubble, a bit like what you see in Mistrata but worse. It had been razed by the Baylonians. So they started by attempting to rebuild the temple. They were not allowed to build walls but God has told them that was not necessary anyway in chapter 2. The walls were not built until Nehemiah arrived.

So face with the task of clearing the rubble and building a temple, what message does God give? Does he show them how to make explosives, or build a bulldozer or a better way of organising the workforce? NO.

 

 ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. The CEV puts it better

I am the Lord All Powerful , so don’t depend on your own power or strength, but on my Spirit.

 

The challenge this morning is in whose power are you serving today? If you are serving the Lord in your own strength, making your own plans, you have missed the point! God is El Shaddai – he is all mighty he is all powerful he is going to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it! Not our strength but his. Go back to the first Easter morning and listen to the ladies making their way to the tomb, “Who will roll the stone away?” Well, who? God Speak up! Who?

 

And that power is at work among us, if only we would allow him to. What does it mean, but by my Spirit? Did they sit around singing psalms for the next three years? NO! But God worked in them and through them and the temple was built. This is not a call to do nothing, it a call to let go and let God! Instead of planning our lives to open our hands and our hearts and our minds to ask “What would you have me do , Lord?” This Church is been sustained for 70 years by the Holy Spirit. It will only be effective when we allow the Holy Spirit to rule our lives and empower our service to him. The Great commission is not get out there and do the business. It is get out there and do the business and I will be with you always.

 

Before we move on, recognise the next verse. Let me read it in the CEV:

 

That mountain in front of you will be levelled to the ground.

 

Were we not talking about moving mountains the other day in Matthew 21:21-22

²¹ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. ²² If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Maybe God is saying something to us. In which case we had better listen.

‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

 

Lets read on!

READ 4:8-10. First a prophecy that the temple will be completed in Zerubbabal’s lifetime. Herod’s temple took 46 years so this means the job will progress well to completion.

BUT it will be a smaller temple than the last. Not the grand place the older people remember fondly. So God tells the people not to despise the day of small things. Inste4ad rejoice to see that the work is under way. This is the day of small things. When I was a child I attended a Sunday School of 120 young people and that was not even connected to a church. Today we are pleased if we have 20,  I remember Haringey,Wembley and Earls Court full for the Billy Graham Crusades, Ealing Town Hall full for an evangelistic rally but today few churches see any significant numbers.  Times have changed and we are into small projects, does that mean that God has downsized? No! he is building his church, even in this spiritual wilderness which we call South Ruislip. So do not despise what we are doing because if we are doing it by his Spirit what we are doing is just what God wants. Not a grand display but an faithful service by his Spirit. Remember this, people come to Christ one by one. But when those ones are put together the add up to millions around the world responding to the love of God in Christ Jesus. Do not despise the day of small things. God is at work.

 Next up is the flying roll. Well when I was a child that is what my Bible said. That’s what the AV says.

 That’s better! A flying scroll.

READ 5:1-4

This scroll is a curse on those who steal and those who lie. What happened to the rest of the 10 commandments! Typically of this prophecy only two are picked out. But don’t they make you feel a bit uncomfortable? Even with only two of the 10 are you without sin?  You see it is not OK to want the Holly Spirit and to not turn from sin. That was the point of chapter1. “Turn from your evil ways”

 Next up is a strange tale.

READ 5:5-11

I am not going to spend too long on this as we would need a lot of time to understand it. Basically you need to read Revelation 17-19 to make sense of it. In essence, Babylon represents the place of oppression and sin. Sin is to be removed and taken to the place of punishment. Babylon has fallen and as we know became uninhabited until Sadam Hussain set about rebuilding it. This is here to tell us sin has to go because sin will be punished and destroyed. Turn from your evil ways and walk by the Spirit of God in holiness.

 We are now at Vision 8, if you have been keeping up!

READ 6:1-8

Chariots speak of war and conquest. Here the north is particularly picked out because that was the direction of Babylon. Time does not allow to explore this in detail but these reflect the for horses in chapter 1, and the eyes in Ezekiel 1 and tell us that God is fully aware of the events all around the world. He knows about Egypt today, Yemen, Pakistan, Japan, USA, everyone of the 200 odd nations on earth. He does not have to read the papers to get his information, he knows because he is watching all the world everywhere. And he not only watches but acts. God is at work and he will rule the world, however much we resist his will for now.

Finally we return to Joshua, who is the High priest

 READ 6:7-15

Now Granville pointed out that the High Priest wore a turban not a crown , crowns were for kings and they were not priests. So this prophecy is speaking of a big change in the way they were to think. However, crown’s not only denote royalty but also honour. When you get to heaven you will be casting your crown before God.

It is quite clear that the prophets of the day saw Zerubbabel as the foreshadowing of the Messiah but not the Messiah himself. They were looking for a future leader who would bring in the age of peace. Some suggest that verse 12-13 is about the Messiah and not Joshua or Zerubbabel who were but an example of what the Messiah would be like. These two were a double act as we saw in Vision 5 in chapter 4 the two olive trees.But unlike the Cameron/Clegg double act, they were to work as one. In verse 14 the crown is to be kept as a memorial to the harmony of priest and king.   The Branch has vitality and like Zerubbabal and Joshua will build a temple. The tree metaphor in vision 5, chapter 4 is repeated here because it represents a life force coming from arid ground.

What does it say to us today?

 

 Jesus was very explicit, in the third temple of Herod which was a re-build of Zerubbabel’s temple, he announced “Destroy this temple and in three days and I will raise it again in three days” … “But the temple he spoke of was his body” The Jews took it as a threat to their precious temple. Jesus had moved on. The temple was no longer the dwelling place of God – his Father’s house -he had come from the Father and so he was the temple, the dwelling place of God. In addition he was not only the heir of David but he proclaimed a new kingdom of God, a kingdom not politically based but based on faith in him. In revelation we read that there is no Temple in heaven because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (Revelation 21:22) Zecharaiah was looking beyond his experience. To him and those around him, God was in Jerusalem, they were rebuilding the temple for him to be worshipped there. But the Spirit of God was taking them beyond their present understanding into the new Covenant in which God came down to be among men as the man Christ Jesus. What matters in not that we build a glorious building for God to live in but we turn from our sin and worship him in holiness gained by believing in him.

We need to get our heads round this. A temple is the dwelling place of God.

 

1Corinthians 3:16:

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

 

 And the visions of Zecharaih tell us that it is not by power or strength but by God’s Spirit;  That the world is judged; That sin will be removed;  that God will be a victorious and that Jesus will be the unique priest-King. Verse 15 tells us that even people from as far away as Britian will come to be part of the new kingdom, building a temple that is not made with hands but by obedient and grateful worship of the one who died and rose again bringing eternal life. He derives all the honour and praise. Amen!