Zechariah - The Prophet Who Saw the Cross | Bible Study

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

All right. So there are some messages and topics of the Bible. We all have our favorites, right? And we have some that we go over because we have to—and they're good lessons, great stories that teach us about good things we need to do when we study them. Noah's Ark, whatever. It's great. Good stories. Then there are some stories that every one of us probably has one or two in the Bible that we get excited about. Like, yeah, let's talk about some Jael and a little steak and a hammer. That's a unique story, and it happens to be my daughter's favorite, and I don't know if I'm proud of that or not, right? But there are certain stories, certain things in the Bible that get us excited. And you, unfortunately, have come today when we get to do one of mine—and that is the prophet Zechariah.

My Favorite Prophet

It's a struggle because it deserves two messages, kind of like Daniel does, but the momentum of the book won't let you separate it without ruining the power of the message. At least that's my excuse if I go over about five or six minutes today. So we've been going through the prophets in our homeward-bound series, as well as surveying how important the exile was in the structure of the Bible. I mean, it was a key event in how the Bible was formed. And hopefully the series has given you more appreciation of the prophets as people, as well as how diverse their messages were and how they came as conduits for those messages.

Last week, Haggai diagnosed why our lives feel like a bag full of holes. And this morning, we're going to meet Haggai's partner, Zechariah. They prophesied at the same time in the same city to this very same small, discouraged Jewish community. But Haggai was the foreman who got the people building—get the hammer, let's get this thing building, let's build the temple. Zechariah is the architect who shows them what they are building toward. This is the vision that we're involved in.

Eight Bizarre Night Visions

And so most people kind of skip Zechariah because, let's be honest, it's 14 chapters. And for a minor prophet, that's a lot, right? Eight bizarre night visions with rainbow-colored horses, flying scrolls, and women being shoved in baskets. These are the visions that Zechariah had. It reads like a cross between Revelation and Daniel.

But there's one thing that you may not know: the New Testament authors quoted or alluded to Zechariah more than almost any other prophetic book when they told the story of Yeshua's final week, the passion. So we have a cool little graphic that we made. Let's see if we can get it to work.

So the king and the donkey prophecy—that's Zechariah, right? The 30 pieces of silver—that's Zechariah. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter—that's Zechariah. Oh, the one that will look upon who's been pierced—that's Zechariah. Oh, the fountain, the living water that gushes out and removes sin—that's Zechariah. Can you see how I get excited about the book of Zechariah? Because it is the screenplay for the passion week.

The Timeline and Context

And so we go back and remember: we're around the year 520 BC. From what we know, Haggai started prophesying around Augustish in 520. Zechariah began around Novemberish—so a couple months later. The temple is completed four years later. So that's the timeline, okay?

Haggai comes in: guys, we need to build this thing up. We need to complete the temple. We've been out of exile. We've returned home from being in Babylon. I know we're poor. We started building the temple. We were excited. Now we've let it sit for 15, 16 years, right? It's finished four years later. Zechariah begins prophesying just two months after Haggai. The returned exiles from Babylon have been back again for about 18 years. They have finally started rebuilding the temple. Haggai shamed them into it, as we saw last week. But they are a tiny, poor, vulnerable community in the midst of this massive Persian empire.

The province of Judah, Yehood, was probably no more than 20 miles across with 15 to 20,000 people. Itty bitty. There's no army here. There's no political leverage. And then all they have is a half-built temple. Just putting it in perspective.

And into that community comes this young prophet, probably in his 20s, who does something extraordinary. He does not just say build the temple. He says, "Let me show you what God is doing behind the curtain of history. All right, Wizard of Oz. Let me show you behind the curtain what's really going on—all of the levers being pulled, everything that's actually happening beyond this reality." It's apocalyptic literature, the revealing.

And then in one single night, he gets eight visions. And these are the night visions when God pulls back the curtain. And so around February of 519 BC, Zechariah receives eight visions in a single night. They come rapid fire. They function in prophecy kind of like windows that are opening. So God opens these windows to show this scared community what is actually happening in the spiritual realm. Right? The world is not a very encouraging place right now for them, and here is God giving them a vision of what his plan actually is.

Are We Ready to Get Nerdy?

All right, yeah, let's just dive into the word. The eight visions are arranged—we're going to start out nerdy—in something called a chiastic structure or a chiasm. It's a fancy way of explaining how the biblical authors love to use a literary technique. So when you have a list of things, you arrange the material so that the outer pieces match each other and form toward a center point.

I didn't explain that at all. Let me get a picture. We'll just do this. Here we go.

Eight visions. Chiasm. So we have eight different visions that Zechariah had. One type of literary device biblical authors used was something called a chiastic structure or a chiasm. That's when they would take the outer contents and connect them, matching them up. So for example, visions 1 and 8 from that night are "God watches over the earth" and "the horsemen and the chariots going out in the earth." Right? So there, these are connected.

And then when you go down again, you have visions two and seven. Vision two, the second vision is about evil being judged and removed. But what's vision seven? What complements it? Horns are scattered and the wickedness is exiled.

And then we go down again. We have visions three and six. We're kind of getting toward the middle, right? Three and six. God protects and purifies. And then there's a wall of fire and the flying scroll. So you see how the visions intentionally complement one another.

At the Center: Visions Four and Five

In the center of these eight visions, we have vision four and five. And the idea is that this is the point. Like all the other visions are great, but their only purpose is really to spotlight and draw toward visions four and five, which are about the anointed of God having his filthy garments removed. And the fifth vision is the declaration that not by might, but by my spirit will I accomplish what I want. Everything orbits those two visions in four and five. I hope I explained the chiasm at least enough so you could understand.

And so we're going to jump in. Which visions? Four and five.

A Heavenly Courtroom Scene

So if you'd like, turn with me to Zechariah chapter 3. I'm hoping that you guys will turn here and mark it. I'm not going to be reading all of the scriptures, but I'll be talking about them.

So Zechariah chapter 3, and we're introduced to Yeshua, the high priest, Joshua, Yahushua. He's the high priest. Zechariah 3 is probably one of the most stunning chapters in the Bible. And when we go through this, I want you to read it like a movie. And when you go home and reread it, read it the same way. Most of these visions work better if you just read them like a movie. Press play.

Zechariah looks up in this vision and sees Joshua, the high priest—the actual high priest serving in Jerusalem at the time—standing before the angel of Yahweh. And this isn't just a metaphor; this is a heavenly throne room courtroom scene. And standing at Joshua's right hand—do you know who's standing there? Satan. You know, because he's just hanging out. I'll make comments like that because I'm in love with the Bible, and the concept of Satan kind of evolved in the New Testament a little bit more than it was in the Old Testament.

So whenever we see Satan in the Old Testament, instead of thinking of him as simply trying to trick you and drag you to hell, I want you to think of a prosecuting lawyer. The word Satan in Hebrew simply means "the accuser."

So in a courtroom setting in the ancient Near East, at the right-hand position, you have the prosecutor—the one who accuses. So this is Satan. This is the guy prosecuting Joshua. The defendant is Joshua, of course. The judge presiding over everything is the angel of Yahweh. And the prosecutor, of course, is Satan, bringing up these charges.

And what are those charges? Looking at verse three, we see the charges that Satan has prepared against Joshua, the high priest.

Filthy Garments

Joshua is clothed in filthy garments. His clothes are dirty — and I mean, that happens, right? You move some wood outside, you get a little dirty. No, no, no. The Hebrew word here is *tsoim*. It's not a little dirty. It's one of the strongest words for defilement in Hebrew. This is excrement-soiled clothes. It's bad. This is how bad it is: the high priest of Israel is covered in clothes jam-packed with soiledness. Sewage-covered rags. And think about what that means. The high priest was the one person in all of Israel who was supposed to be spotlessly clean. That's the guy. His garments were prescribed down to the thread in Exodus 28. Gold, blue, purple, scarlet — not just any linen, fine linen. He wore a gold plate in his turban engraved with the words "Holy to Yahweh." He was the one who entered the holiest of holies on Yom Kippur. If anyone in Israel should have been clean standing before God, it's this guy. But he's standing here in filth.

Why? Because he represents the nation. That's who the high priest is. He represents everybody. He carries Israel's sin. That's the whole Yom Kippur thing. The exile happened because of their unfaithfulness. The temple was destroyed because of their sin. And now, even though they're back, even though they're rebuilding, the stain is still there. It's still there.

And here's the devastating part of the whole thing: Satan's accusation is not false. He's right. You've got a point — look at his clothes. Joshua's guilty. Israel's guilty. The filth is real. We have a case.

A Brand Plucked from the Fire

Before Satan can even finish his accusation, before the case is even fully presented, the angel of Yahweh speaks. Some scholars have argued this figure functions as a type of pre-incarnate appearance of God himself — wink wink, right? We don't know who this character is, but some people think. Here's what it says in verse 2 of chapter 3: "Now Joshua... And the Lord said, 'Rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?'"

A brand plucked from the fire. I want you to picture a fire, and picture a charred, blackened, smoking piece of wood pulled out of the flames at the very last second. It's not pretty. Probably has little singes on it. It's not impressive. The piece of wood smells like smoke and it's covered in soot, but it's not burned up. It's alive. It's alive, right? It's alive because someone reached in and grabbed it before it was consumed. That is what Israel is here. That is what Joshua is here. Barely rescued, singed by exile, but plucked out — back home.

Take Off Your Filthy Clothes

And then in verse 4, the angel gives a command that should get us excited. What's he say? "The angel said to those who were standing before him, 'Take off your filthy clothes.'" Take them off. And then turning towards Joshua, it continues: "See, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you in pure vestments."

I need you to understand what just happened in this courtroom. Joshua did not clean himself. Joshua did not earn his new clothes. Joshua did not go through some probationary period just to make sure — Joshua didn't even speak in the court case. While the accuser was still making his case and accusing him, God interrupts the trial, silences the prosecutor, and dresses up the defendant in new clothes. The filthy garments came off — that's the removal of guilt. The clean garments go on — that's the granting of righteousness.

This is familiar, right? Grace, love, forgiveness — the gospel. That's what this is. This is far beyond forgiveness. This is what we would call imputed righteousness. This is God clothing you with something you did not earn and could have never produced on your own. And does that sound familiar? Yeah, we see it in the New Testament. Paul, in Galatians , says, "For as many of you as were baptized in Messiah have..." done what? Put on the Messiah. Same imagery, same exchange. Filthy garments off, royal garments on — 500 years apart, Paul and Zechariah. And it's the same gospel they're talking about.

Put the Clean Turban On Too

Here's my favorite detail in the whole chapter. Zechariah the prophet, as you can imagine, if you're seeing these visions, you might be overwhelmed. Some of you may just be like, "Hey, this is great, let's just go with it." Some of you may get excited — I don't know, I've never had eight back-to-back night visions in the middle of the night from God. I feel like I may be overwhelmed and get excited. You ever watch a movie sometimes and you get excited, and so you start talking to the people in the movie — "Yeah, look out! Hit them! Yeah, that's right, get to him, yeah"? You know who does that in the middle of the vision? Our boy Zechariah gets so excited he can't help himself — he interrupts it. He shouts, "Yeah, don't forget to put the clean turban on them!"

Here's what it says. Verse 4: "Then he saw Joshua — 'See, I've taken away your sins, and you will put fine garments on you.'" So God's like, "Angels, get the fine garments, put them on him." So they're dressing him up — it's this big thing, you can hear the music, right? And then there's Zechariah. Then I said — "Yeah, put the clean turban on his head too." And they listened. So they put the clean turban on. The word of God is amazing because this is how it speaks to us. The authors were not dumb, the Holy Spirit was not dumb. It is a story to be read and enjoyed. And this is a real prophet who's breaking the fourth wall here. I love how we can connect with this prophet who lived 2,500 years ago on the same level. That's pretty cool, right?

The prophet is watching grace happen in real time, and then he starts cheering. He starts directing the angels — put the turban, yeah, all that stuff. The priesthood is recommissioned. The stain of exile is completely wiped away. Israel can serve God again.

I Will Remove the Sin in a Single Day

But we're not done, because the vision keeps going and it gets bigger in verses 8 and on. Listen, O high priest Joshua — "I'm going to bring my servant, the branch." The one awesome thing about reading the Old Testament as a Christian is it becomes super convenient to totally see Yeshua in everything, because it's right there — the branch. "I'm going to bring you my servant the branch. See the stone I have set in front of Joshua."

Here's the part I want to focus on. "And I will remove the sin of this land in a single day." Not in a thousand years. Not in 3,000 years — I'm going to remove it in a week, it's going to take me a couple months. No — "I will remove the sin of this land in a single day." Boom.

Now, in Hebrew, the branch here is *Tsemach*. This title appears in Jeremiah 23 and Isaiah 4. It's a messianic title for the coming king from David's line. And that promise — "I will remove the sin from this land in a single day" — that's not gradual. It's not through a lifetime of animal sacrifices. It's not through better behavior of all the Judeans. In a single day, one day, everything's going to change because of this branch, and it's going to be the removal of sin.

When was that day? I believe it was the day a young rabbi from Nazareth hung on a Roman cross outside of Jerusalem and said, "It is finished." The sin of the land removed in a single day. Zechariah saw it. And then the vision ends.

Under His Vine and Under His Fig Tree

Do we have verse 10? "In that day, declares Yahweh of hosts, everyone of you will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree." Vine and fig tree — that's biblical shorthand for shalom. That's peace. That's what it looks like when the world is set right. When everyone opens their doors, opens their refrigerators, opens their bank accounts, and says, "Come over here and hang out with me." And everybody's doing that because no one is lacking. The world is set right. There's equity, there's justice, because there's a kingdom that set it up right. This is shalom. Everyone's at peace, everyone at home, everyone with enough. Micah 4:4 uses the same imagery.

Zechariah 3 begins in a courtroom with an accused priest in filthy clothes and Satan at the microphone. And it ends with everyone sitting under their fig tree in perfect peace. This is the gospel. This is the gospel that Yeshua taught. We have done such a disservice to our king by somehow taking this and turning it into: as long as we say the right passcode in Sunday school, the right prayer, then we won't go to hell. But we've got to make sure that God hears it, so there's always a fear — so we've got to go back to Sunday school every week and recommit, because I don't want to go to hell and burn. And that's supposed to be the foundation for my loyalty to God?

This is the foundation of the loyalty: you are clean. There is a kingdom. There is a king. Let's follow him and let's show the world what a kingdom looks like. Let's do the new creation thing now. Now. Yeah, but what about after you die? The Bible really doesn't talk about that a whole lot.

Jesus really doesn't talk about that a whole lot. Where does he talk about a whole lot right now? Right here. What are you doing? Matthew 25 describes what Christians look like. Go and read it and take a serious look at what it looks like to be a follower of Yeshua. It's not what we teach in American Christianity because it requires a cost. It requires sacrifice. It requires vulnerability. It requires trusting in God when you go out into this world and represent him fully, his peace and his love and his commitment to make this world right. And we're a part of that. That's why we're called the soldiers of Christ. So Bucks, this is the gospel of our king. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful.

The Fifth Vision: Not by Might, but by Spirit

Now that was vision four. We still have the fifth one, right? Because allegedly they intertwine with each other and they build off each other. That's the point of the visions. And so vision number five. So he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubabel, not by might nor by spirit, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty."

Zachariah sees a gold manure here with a bowl on top and seven lamps and on the other side there's two olive trees feeding oil directly into the bowl. How efficient, right? He just turned the spot on the olive tree and it pours into the—it's apocalyptic vision. So we have these two olive trees and the trees are alive and the oil flows continuously on tap. The supply never runs out. Why? Because the source is living and connected to everything. And then Zerel asks the angel what it means. And that's what the angel says: "Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty." Kimuki. Yeah, sounds good, right?

Not by ky—it's like military strength, wealth, resources, all of the tools that we use to manipulate our circumstances. Not by that, not by that, not by clock—human power, exertion, effort. No, that's not going to happen either. But by my spirit. Remember who's hearing this? It's Zerubbabel. He's the governor, the man trying to rebuild the temple with no money, no army, no political independence, a tiny community in the shadow again of this massive Persian Empire. Every human metric says this project is a joke. Because it looks like a joke if we're honest—looks a little bit like a joke. Why are we putting energy into this?

We haven't touched it 16 yet. Why? And what resources? And God says, I'm not even working through your metrics, man. Who are you to even think and worry about this? How are we going to do this with the gold and the stone and the work and the labor? And God's sitting here saying, "What? You doing this wrong? You're acting like you haven't met me."

Verse 7: The Mountain Becomes Level Ground

Verse 7: "Where are you, mighty mountain before Zerubbabel? You will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it. God bless it. Grace, grace.'" You're just going to say to that mountain, be removed. Huh? The mountain is whatever stands in your way. And God says that mountain becomes flat ground before my anointed one. And when the capstone goes out on the temple, the final stone, the people will shout—not "we did it. We did it. We built the house. Look what we did." No, they will shout "God bless it" or "grace, grace," because that's why we have this—because of grace. Because it was never about their effort. It was always about God's spirit.

The Two Anointed Ones

And the two olive trees—verse 14 it says the two anointed ones who stand beside the Lord of all the earth. In Hebrew it says the sons of fresh oil. So the two olive trees have this coin name. They're the sons of fresh oil. Most likely it was Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest—the royal line and the priestly line together standing before God. But there's lots of opinions. I side with this. So you have two different offices standing beside each other. Two anointed ones because they're anointed ones. One is a king, if you will, and the other is a priest. These are the two offices—governance and priesthood. So hold on to that because we're going to need it here in a minute.

But then we move on past the visions and we start getting the rest of Zechariah. Anyone need a breather? Are we good? Okay. Should we just stop it now and do the next one next week? All right.

The Crown on the Priest

After eight visions, God does something shocking in Zechariah 6. He tells Zachchariah to make a crown and place it on the head of Joshua. Joshua was the high what? Priest. Do priests wear crowns? No. That seems like some Hasmonian stuff to do. Thank you. Make it for Joshua. Crowns go on kings, not priests. And in all of Israel's history, those offices were kept completely separate. You don't touch them. When King Uzziah tried to burn incense at the altar, it was a priestly function. Zap with leprosy. That's how serious the boundary was. And now God smashes it. He puts a crown on a priest and he declares, "There shall be a priest on his throne and the council of peace shall be between them both. King and priest united in one person." The author of Hebrews runs with this hard. Yeshua a priest forever after the order of Mkazedc. Both offices, one man, right? The king-priest. Yeshua saw this 500 years before Bethlehem.

The Prophet Who Saw the Cross

And now we turn the page. And what comes next is the reason I called this sermon the prophet who saw the cross. The second half of Zechariah, it's chapters 9-14. And it's where the New Testament writers went. I guess you could say this is where they went searching for elements for Passion Week to kind of retell the story. Almost every major detail of Yeshua's final days has a receipt found in Zechariah. The king on the donkey. Oh yeah, the king on the donkey because he's going to ride a donkey around, right? Oh, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. Zechariah 9:9.

So chapter 9 is an oracle of judgment that rolls through all of the surrounding nations of Israel. Okay? So you have judgment coming on Ty, on Sedon, on Philistia. God is clearing a path. And then this: "Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion. Shout, daughter Jerusalem. See, your king comes to you righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the fowl of a donkey."

So if we look at the Hebrew, this king is called Zadik. It's righteous. Okay? He has salvation, nosha, which is unusual—it's an unusual construction because of the passive participle. But what it's saying is that he does not just bring salvation. It says that he has it. He has been saved. He has passed through deliverance. He has come back from the victory. This is the king who knows what it is to suffer and come out the other side. So he's bringing salvation having endured it and brought it himself or been saved himself. And with all that being said, what is he called? Ani—humble, lowly, or afflicted.

The Peace Donkey King

Now, in the ancient world, a king, what would a king ride into battle? If you don't know, look at any movie you've ever seen with a king riding into battle. What's he riding? A horse. A stallion. Someone is about to say elephant. Alexander the... Anyway, you ride a horse, right? It goes fast and it makes all the snorting and you can—it's horse. That's what you do when you go to war. That's what kings ride into battle. That's a war animal—horses. But a king rode a donkey during peacetime when he didn't have anything. There were no threats. We're at peace. A donkey. When you ride a donkey, it says, "I'm not here to conquer. I'm here for peace." This is a peace donkey king that's riding into Jerusalem.

And the next verse confirms it: "I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, the warrior from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations." This king does not conquer through violence. He dismantles the machinery of war. It's like a sapper. He speaks shalom and peace to the nations. This is the anti-empire king. When compared to the kings of this world, he would be labeled an upside-down king. It's inverted. That's not how you be a king.

The Ungovernable

Guys, the donkey king did not come to make Rome Christian. He came to make Christians ungovernable by Rome. He came to show you how to act, what to do, how to respond to empire. He showed us everything—how to respond to persecution, how to respond to threats. What if they come against you with violence? Show them the father. They did awful things. Forgive them. But I have enemies. So did I. See, we love the idea of "I'm a follower of Jesus," which of course comes to the command to pick up the cross and follow him, right? Like, yeah, I'll carry my cross with Jesus. But where was Jesus going with his cross? And we stop short of that. That is the expectation—to walk as boldly as Yeshua did, ready to represent peace and not war and not violence and not the evil of empire.

And when the next war starts, and it will, with "Jesus is king" on the lips of the men who want to launch it, that is the apostasy. That is Baal in a prayer shawl. Remember this verse. He cuts off the chariot. He does not baptize it. Every flag we've ever tried to drape over his cross has rotted away. He's [snorts] still on the donkey. That's who he is in the vision. That's who our king is. He's still on the donkey walking through the wreckage of this world looking for the ones who would not bow. [snorts] And I think he's still defeating empires every single day as well. Every single one.

Matthew 21 tells us that that happened on Palm Sunday. Him walking in with the donkey. Yeshua deliberately arranged to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.

He sent two disciples to go get it. Like he wasn't improvising. He was staging Zechariah 9:9. He was saying to every Jewish person watching, "I am this king, the one that Zechariah promised." And you know what they did? Do you know what the crowd did? They responded by shouting, "Hosanna, save us." the exact cry from the Sukkot liturgy that we spoke about last week in Haggai. They saw it. They recognized the script of Zechariah 9, at least for a moment. Save us, Hosanna.

Chapter 11 is one of the most haunting passages in the prophets. Zechariah is told to play the role of a good shepherd who tends to his flock. But the flock's owners don't value him. So they sell the sheep for slaughter and feel no guilt of it. So God asks or he says to Zechariah, "Ask them what I am worth to them as this sheep." And they weighed out 30 pieces of silver.

Do you know what 30 pieces of silver was in the Torah? 30 pieces of silver comes from Exodus . And it explains it. It is the price paid to an owner of a slave who has been gored to death by an ox. It's not the price of a slave. It's the compensation for a dead slave. And that is what they valued the shepherd at. And Yahweh. Warning. We worship a god that loves sarcasm. It's something to be excited about. Okay, we see it. Listen to the sarcasm dripping from the Hebrew here when it says to Oh, please say I put it in here. Come on. Oh, we got that one. Not quite. Okay. So, God goes continuing along. So, Zechariah and 13. I'd love for you to turn there and mark this. So, I've told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay, but if not, keep it." So, they paid me 30 pieces of silver. And the Lord said, verse 13, "And the Lord said, throw it to the potter, this handsome price at which they valued me." So they took 30 pieces of silver and threw them at the potter in the potter house of the Lord.

Like God called it a miraculous lordly price that they paid. It was like you can laugh. Hey, check this out guys. Look at that. Yeah, The word there can mean glorious. God is mocking their insult. Look at the magnificent price they put on me. The value of a dead slave. That's what I'm worth to my own people. And then God tells Zechariah to throw the silver to the potter in the house of Yahweh.

And now we open up to Matthew 27. You know what story is there? It's Judas betrays Yeshua for 30 pieces of silver. And when he realizes what he's done, he throws the money back into the temple. And the priests pick it up and say, "We cannot put blood money in the treasury." So they go and buy a potter's field. And then Matthew says explicitly, this fulfilled the prophet. 30 silver thrown in the temple, the potter, every detail. Zechariah wrote the receipt five centuries before Judas collected.

Zechariah Wrote the Receipt

You guys still okay? Zechariah 13. [sighs] We'll skip to 12. The pierced one. We know this verse, right? It's a verse that makes scholars argue and theologians cry. It's Zechariah . Then 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 whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for their only child. And weep bitterly over him and as one weeps for their firstborn.

God, read that again. Like God speaking first person and he says, "I will pour out." And then when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced me then him. And I know some translations try not to show the him there. Them, him. As if the pierced one is both God and somehow distinct from God at the same time. I know it's so convenient. Like the Bible's not too hard. People have wrestled with the grammar that Zechariah has here for centuries. Some treat it as textually difficult to try to grapple. Others see it as intentional, a kind of theological stutter where the language cannot quite contain what it's trying to say. I like that. A figure who is somehow divine yet distinct, pierced yet identified with Yahweh himself.

John picks it up in John . What's he say? He's standing at the foot of the cross watching the Roman soldier thrusting the spear through Yeshua's side. And what does John write? He writes, "They will look on me who they have pierced with the spear." And notice what accompanies the piercing in Zechariah. A spirit of grace and pleas for mercy. Weeping, mourning as for an only child. This is not a detached observation. This is the kind of grief that crashes over you when you suddenly realize what you have done. When the veil drops and you see clearly for the first time, oh my God, have mercy on my soul.

Do you see why the New Testament writers kept going back to this book? This is not a minor prophet with minor things to say. He wrote the passion. And then we have Zechariah 14, the final day. Zechariah does not end at the cross. We have chapter 13, a fountain opened for sin, open, flowing, available. Chapter 14 is Yahweh's feet crashing into the Mount of Olives, the living waters flowing from Jerusalem. And then you have verse 9. On that day the Lord will become king over the whole earth. The Lord alone and his name alone. It's the shema fulfilled.

Not just a creed, but it's a shema. It's Yahweh ahad. One lord, one name all over it. The nations come to celebrate Sukkot. The feast of God dwelling with his people. It's the same feast Haggai preached at. It's the same feast that Yeshua claimed. The ending is written. This is it. This is how Zechariah concludes itself in this chapter. This is everything that Zechariah had to say. Here are the visions for you. You went to exile because you've soiled yourself and you came back and you're still soiled and you're still stained. And it's time for that to change.

The Pierced One - God and Distinct

So God makes the decision in one day, I'm going to strip you of your garments that are filth. I'm going to give you new garments. Satan, shush. This is my people. This is my priesthood. This is who I work through. And they look pretty darn clean to me. And he continues talking and referencing about this shadowy messianic king that's coming after the line of David who is interchangeable with Yahweh throughout the verses somehow who will be pierced but who will bring about everybody sitting under their own vine. That's pretty neat.

What does Zechariah mean for us? What do we do with this book with all these neat things in it? Nuggets and such, testimonies of Yeshua. Well, first, we remember the courtroom verdict. If you're a follower of Yeshua, you're Joshua. That's talking about you. You are the one standing before the throne with filthy clothes. The accusations are real. The sin is real. And before the accuser can finish his case, God interrupts and he says, "Take off the filthy clothes. I've removed your iniquity. Here, put these on. You didn't earn the new clothes. You cannot earn the new clothes, but they're yours." Why? Because God clothes the guilty with the righteousness of Messiah. It's how he rolls throughout the scriptures here.

Here's a word for the impossible mission and task that we've been given. The impossible mountains that are in our lives that just don't seem to budge. Maybe you're looking at something in your life that feels like rebuilding the temple with no resources like they had. Maybe you're in a relationship or a marriage that needs repair or a ministry that feels too small. Or maybe a calling that you know you need to step into, but it just seems impossible. That mountain will not move. Zechariah says, "Not by power, not by might, but by my spirit."

Stop measuring your resources and start trusting the source. The oil flows from living trees connected to God himself. The supply does not depend on your strength. Step out into the battlefield with the armor that Paul talks about and with the example that Yeshua gives. I dare you and you'll see that God is with you. Hear the identity of your king in Zechariah in a world obsessed with power and domination and military strength, political leverage. Oh my, our king rides a donkey. Your king speaks peace to the nations. Your king dismantles war machines. And if that is the kind of king that you serve, then that is the kind of kingdom that you're going to build. Not through force, not through coercion, not through humiliation, but through humility and shalom.

Look at the fruit, right? The shepherd was struck in Zechariah. The sheep were scattered, but the shepherd rose and he went ahead of them to Galilee. If you feel scattered right now in your life, if your life has struck you and you've been running, know the risen shepherd is already ahead of you. You're not going to outrun him—he's already ahead of you waiting just like he did for his disciples. The scattering is not the end of the story. It never was.

The Risen Shepherd Goes Before You

And hear the end. What's the end say? Yahweh will be king over all the earth. On that day, one Lord, one name, a fountain for sin, living waters flowing in every direction. The nation streaming to worship. No more war, no more exile, no more filthy garments. Just home for real this time.

Guys, Zechariah is the prophet who saw the cross, the night visions, the cosmic horsemen colors, flying scrolls, crowns on priests, kings on donkeys, struck shepherds, pierced divinity in the fountain that never runs dry. And at the center of it all, again, this is what I want you to take away. The whole kayazm in the center of it all, a young man in filthy clothes who got dressed by God.

That's you. That's you. That's me. That's the gospel. That's it. And so I want to close in prayer, but also this one verse: not by might. You're not going to be able to drive. I hate to do the Jesus take the wheel thing. You're not going to be able to control every part of God's plan in your life. And I say that with grace because honestly, you're not going to be able to control any of it because you're already on a path. And you are where God expects you to be. And that's okay because he's opening up an opportunity for you to keep walking. And he's meeting you there.

Mountains in front of you? Flat. Strongholds? Nope. Chains? Nah, you're free now. You're free. But that also means letting go of what kept you captive. See, God can tell you to take off your clothes and have his angels give you new ones, but not if you're holding them. Lord knows we like to hold our filthy garments, don't we? At least the undershirt, right? We do because we like familiar things sometimes, even if it hurts us. God says, "I'm doing a new thing." And God can do a new thing in you today. Sometimes familiar things need to go away for you to grow.

A New Thing

And I think that's the message that God has for us today in Zechariah. So, please stand as we conclude in worship. And during worship, you can praise, you can sing, you can worship, you can meditate. If you need prayer today, we're going to have a prayer team on either side of the stage, and they will pray for you. Bring them anything that's going on in your life, any prayer needs that you have. These are our prayer warriors. Maybe you have a decision to make today, and you carried something in today that has been familiar for so long and you don't want it to be familiar anymore because you know you can't grow as long as you still have it in your life.

Guys, there's a mock altar here and it's purely for symbolism—for you to walk up here, kneel down, and put whatever you want symbolically on the altar and say, "God, I release this from myself and I give it to you."

Closing Prayer

Alina Moano, our father, our king. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to dive into the prophet that saw the cross, Zechariah. To be reminded of our king, the branch, to be reminded of the one who was pierced. To be reminded of the one whose sheep were scattered, but that he regathered. Father, we thank you for our King Yeshua. And Father, we thank you for the Holy Spirit, your spirit that levels mountains and changes hearts. And father, I ask in the name of Yeshua today that if there's anyone in here today who wants those filthy clothes off—maybe they've been holding on to some of them, maybe they've been holding on to all of them, maybe they thought they don't deserve to get the new clothes—God, I ask that you would speak to them right now and let them know that they have always been worthy and that they have always been beautiful and that they have always been loved.

And that's not going to change. You have a new set of clothes to offer. Father, I ask that you would give that encouragement to them today. Father, we thank you for your spirit of power and authority, your spirit of love, and your spirit of pursuit of peace. In the name of Yeshua, our King, we pray. Amen.

Worship

Found in your name, the power to save with only [singing] a whisper mountain shake. Yeshua—a hope and [singing] strength. You made a way to unlock these chains. [singing] Here in your presence, strongholds break. Freed by the [singing] love you gave. We give you the [singing] highest praise. You deserve it all. You deserve [singing] it all. We give you the highest [singing] praise. You deserve it all. You deserve it all.

There on a tree, merciful king, broken and shamed for all to see. The father laid down his son. From darkness to light, death lost to life. Heaven [singing] and earth will join and sing. Yeshua has overcome. We give you the highest praise. You deserve it all. You deserve it all. We give you the highest—it all. [singing] We give you the highest praise. You deserve [singing] it all. You deserve it all. We give you—you deserve it all.

With every breath, with every breath that's in my [singing] lungs, my heart cries out to you [singing]—belongs the glory. Through every [singing] loss or victory, my soul will rise to only bring you glory. [singing] With every breath that's in my lungs, my heart cries out. [singing] To you belongs the glory, through every loss. [singing] So victory, my soul will rise to only bring you glory.

We give you the highest praise. You deserve it all. You deserve it all. We give you the [singing] praise. You deserve it all. You deserve it [singing] all. With every breath that's in my lungs, [singing] my heart cries out to you —belongs the glory, [singing] all the glory. Through every loss [singing] or victory. My soul will rise [singing] to only bring your glory. Oh your glory. [singing] We pour out our praise. Pour out our praise. Pour out our praise. At the feet of Yeshua, we pour out our praise. Pour out our praise. Pour out our praise. [singing] We pour it out. We pour out our praise. Pour out [singing] our praise.

Pour out our praise. At the feet of Yeshua, we [singing] pour out our praise. Pour out our praise. Pour [singing] out our praise. We pour out our praise. At the feet of Yeshua, we [singing] pour out our praise. Pour out our praise. Pour out our [singing] praise. [singing] it all. Oh, we give praise. You deserve it all. You deserve [singing] it all. We give you the highest —you deserve it all. Oh. Oh, you deserve [singing] it all. We love your [singing] presence. We give you the praise. You deserve it [singing] all.

We give you the highest [singing]—it all. Oh, thank you, Father. You deserve it all. You unlocked our change. You made the way. It is not by might and not by power, but by your spirit, declares the Lord. And we thank you, Father. We thank you, Ruach. We thank you, Yeshua. We bless you. You are worthy of all praise. Thank you, Father.

Closing Benediction

Sing the Shema with me. Israel—[singing]—adom. K [singing] le the [singing] here. O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his shalom in the name of our sar shalom, our prince of peace. Amen and amen. Yeshua Hamashiach. Amen.

Shabbat shalom, family. Shabbat shalom.