Behold Your King

On this, my first Sunday back, after a Sabbatical, can I say how I thank God for all that has been happening here these past months. And can I thank the church wardens, Jonathan Pryke, the staff and so many of you for what you've all been doing. With regard to what I have done and learnt, I hope to be speaking or writing about that on other occasions. But now we must learn from the prophet Zechariah.

If you are new or visiting this morning, let me explain that we are concluding a morning series of sermons on Zechariah. We've now reached chapter 9 vv 9-17.

And my headings are, first, UNDERSTANDING ZECHARIAH; secondly, THE KING'S ENCOURAGEMENT; and, thirdly, THE KING'S CHALLENGE.

First, UNDERSTANDING ZECHARIAH

Five brief things need to be said.

One, is about why the Old Testament (where you find Zechariah) is important. To explain why, think about life's basic questions - such as the meaning of human existence? Today more and more are asking that very question and giving up. It's the subject of a recent book by a Yale University professor and entitled, "Education's End - why colleges and universities have given up on the meaning of life." Well, Jesus sees God's word, the Bible, as having essential answers to such questions. Quoting the Old Testament, he famously said:

Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Mat 4.4).

He is saying, "ignoring God's word you starve - spiritually and intellectually." It was the Old Testament, of course, that was Jesus' Bible. It also was the Bible of the earliest Christians. They had not yet got the full supplement that was the Apostolic New Testament. But, if all the Old Testament is important, Zechariah underlines that importance. For of the 12 Minor Prophets he is the one most frequently quoted (or alluded to) in the New Testament.

Two, Zechariah, however, is not always easy to understand. Jerome, the 4th century Bible scholar, said of some of Zechariah: "[here] we pass from the obscure to the more obscure." But the good news is that the New Testament helps our understanding. For Jesus is the great fulfiller of the Old Testament and of Zechariah's prophecies especially.

Three, the Old Testament is progressive. It is the record of God's love for the world and the start of his plan through Jesus for the salvation of the world. God is in the process of restoring everything to where (and beyond) it was before the mess that was made by the first man and woman and that we, in succeeding generations, have inherited and increased. However, God is taking his time to bring about this plan. God began with Abraham, then Moses and the people of Israel generally, all the while communicating through his prophets. But because of human sin and failure, the plan narrowed down to the man of Nazareth, Jesus – God the Son come in human form. Hebrews 1.1-2 puts it like this:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things.

Hebrews 1 verse 3 goes on:

… After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

So in the Old [and New] Testaments you have a progression. If you like, God's people in Old Testament times were like a caterpillar (or its chrysalis) from which something great and new emerged – the Church of Jesus Christ. Yes, there are differences between God's people seen in the Old and New Testaments. But they are organically linked and with a fundamental identity.

Then, four, distinguish partial from the complete fulfillment of biblical prophecies such as Zechariah gives you. Old Testament prophecies may only be partially fulfilled in Old Testament times. However, with the gift of hindsight, we can now see that they have already had (or will be having) their complete fulfillment in (or at the end of) this new age – the age beginning with Jesus' first coming.

Finally, by way of understanding Zechariah, the Old Testament is not only progressive, it is also cumulative in terms of divine fundamental principles. That is why Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.16 (and mainly referring to the Old Testament), the Bible is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." So beware of ignoring fundamental Old Testament lessons. Yes, the ceremonial law has been transcended by the Cross of Christ, but not the Old Testament's moral law for Godly living. So much for understanding Zechariah.

That brings us to our second heading, THE KING'S ENCOURAGEMENT.

Look at verse 9:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!Behold, your king is coming to you;righteous and having salvation is he,humble and mounted on a donkey,on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

That is one of the clearest of all Old Testament prophecies. We now know that that verse was fulfilled at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry with his last ride into Jerusalem, as we heard in our New Testament reading. Zechariah's listeners, of course, did not know that. However, such a promise would have given great encouragement to these listeners with all the difficulties and disappointments many of them had experienced after their return from exile in Babylon. Let me remind you.

The Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, had sacked Jerusalem in 586BC. As captives, many were taken away to Babylon. Many had now returned. But when you are traumatized, as some of these would have been, how you need encouragement.

Three of us at the church are directly involved with Anglican International Development (AID) and currently with the setting up of an Institute of Health Sciences to train clinical officers in the South Sudan. And JPC has helped to support this Institute. Thank God, although it has not been able to start in Bor, South Sudan, as planned (because of fighting there), the Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, has kindly allowed the Institute to start in part of its own Ugandan facilities. Dr Anil Cherian, the doctor in charge of the Institute was in Newcastle recently. He reported that 50 students were comprising the first year's intake. But many had been so traumatized by the terror and killings in the South Sudan, they were in need of special Christian counselling. That is what it would have been like for a number of the returnees Zechariah was addressing. And it is like that now for hundreds of thousands of IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in Iraq and Syria as well as the South Sudan!

So who this morning has had some dreadful experience or major disappointment? Well, learn from Zechariah! But what does he say? Look at verse 9:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!Behold, your king is coming to you.

James in his Epistle says you are to "count it all joy" when you meet trials of various kinds" (Jas 1.2) rather than "shout aloud". Sometimes you are so weak emotionally, you can't "shout aloud". But James, like Zechariah, is reminding Christian believers of an important principle - namely that the grounds for joy or encouragement at such times are not your feelings but fundamental facts. And the supreme fact for the world, for Zechariah, for James and for you and me now, relates to the coming King, who is Jesus Christ. So what are some facts about Christ's kingship and reign? Here are four.

First, Jesus is unlike any ancient or modern King, President or Prime Minister with their worldly power. Jesus told Pilate just before his crucifixion (John 18.36):

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.

His reign was to be altogether different, hence the symbolism of riding into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey and not a General's war-horse.

Secondly, Zechariah 9 verse 10 says he was not only to be a humble king but also a righteous king and a Saviour. Christ's reign was established not by stopping the worst effects of human sin by force – the necessary method for today's leaders and governments. Rather he came to attack the root problem - that mess caused by human rebellion against God. And that needed the divine remedy of defeating Satan and sin on the Cross where he died in our place for our sins to ensure our forgiveness. The Apostle Paul says:

he humbled himself [God the Son that he was] by being obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2.8)

So the Cross was his great saving victory.

Thirdly, look at verse 10. It says the coming king is a king of peace:

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraimand the war horse from Jerusalem;and the battle bow shall be cut off,and he shall speak peace to the nations;his rule shall be from sea to sea,and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Yes, Christ does bring peace into the world. The former US President, Jimmy Carter, tells how his faith in Christ was a factor in the 1978 peace negotiations he brokered between the Egyptians and Israelis at Camp David. But those 1978 Camp David Peace Accords did not stop this past summer's tragic Palestinian - Israeli conflict or ISIS. Ultimate global peace is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled.

But the great news now for each one of us, whatever situation we are in, is that there can be, through Christ and the Cross, not only peace with God. There can also be "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding" and that can "guard your hearts and minds" (Phil 4.7). That peace affects your emotions (your heart) and your mind. For example, you can discover answers to those fundamental questions about life, as the Holy Spirit leads you from God's word. And Christ's invitation is still as it was in the 1st century:

Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest" (Matt 11.28);

... and he still says (John 16.33):

In me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

Who, this morning, has yet to receive that peace, which comes through repentance and trusting Christ? Why not receive it today?

For, fourthly, Christ's real Resurrection and Ascension mean that he truly is King of kings and with absolute authority over the church, the world and the universe. Ephesians 1.19-20 speaks of

the great might that he [God the Father] worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come and he has put all things under his feet.

Do you really believe that? That is how the early Christians believed and thought about Jesus Christ, as the one who through his Resurrection ...

... has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him" (1 Peter 3.22)

And in heaven Christ prays for you, as Hebrews 7.28 says. That is a wonderful encouragement.

So onto my third heading, THE KING'S CHALLENGE.

Look now at verses 11-13, where God says:

As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;today I declare that I will restore to you double.For I have bent Judah as my bow;I have made Ephraim its arrow.I will stir up your sons, O Zion,against your sons, O Greece,and wield you like a warrior's sword.

And verses 14-17 then explain how God will be fighting for his people at the same time as they are fighting. We haven't time to go over these verses in detail. From the reference to Greece, they may be partially fulfilled in the Maccabean period between the Old and New Testaments. Be that as it may, these verses are talking about warfare and how God's people are promised victory in war.

"But," you say, "how on earth is this compatible with saying Christ is the King of peace? This is just as bad as Islamic jihadists." But, "No", for, first, don't forget that God's working for salvation is progressive. Whatever happened in Old Testament times, Christ's teaching, including his words to Pilate we mentioned earlier, means that the Church is not to grow by warfare but by peaceful means. This is a difference between Christians and extreme Islamists like ISIS, who take the Koran literally and also claim to be the State. They then believe they can kill to promote their faith. But Romans 12 and 13 in the New Testament teach that the sword - ultimate physical force - is only for the State not the Church.

Yes, warfare in Old Testament times was a method God used to teach fundamental lessons about his unique holiness and justice. Even then, however, the Old Testament says that God does not have "pleasure in the death of the wicked". Rather his pleasure is "that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezekiel 18.23).

So, two, now is the day of God's grace and of Christ's great peaceful challenge. For with his first coming the universe changed. So Christ sent out his disciples as witnesses to men and women of this most decisive event of all history and that one day will be consummated at his return. His first command to his disciples was to announce in Palestine, "the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 9.7). And the first Apostles had apostolic signs to prove it.

But Jesus' last command to his disciples was global and based on his now greater authority. So says Jesus (Matthew 28.18-19):

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

That means his good news is for all everywhere – north, south, east and west – including the West-end of Newcastle. So that certainly must be in our hearts and minds as we face a multi-site future here at JPC. Yes, it will be hard in all sorts of ways. For while there is not a physical fight to be fought by the Church, there is a spiritual one. But Jesus' last challenge goes on (Mat 28.19-20):

[Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,] baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

He, by his Holy Spirit, will always be with you as you obey. However, there is an urgency. This day of grace will not last forever.

For, three, the Bible teaches that this age will terminate when Jesus Christ returns and this time for judgment. This will be the winding up of history. The Bible speaks of Christ the King then waging war. He is portrayed as a rider on a white horse who "in righteousness … judges and makes war" (Rev 19.11). And …

from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations … He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev 19.15-16).

Undoubtedly this contains symbolism. But the Bible teaches that hell is a fearful future reality. As has been well put, the Bible "refuses to assume that all evil will either be overcome by good or self-destruct."

And Jesus Christ, the King of kings, will be victorious. It is then that the prophecy of verses 14-17 will finally be fulfilled for God's people in the New Heaven and Earth. So I conclude with the words of verses 16-17:

On that day the LORD their God will save them,as the flock of his people;for like the jewels of a crownthey shall shine on his land.For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty!Grain shall make the young men flourish,and new wine the young women.