Zechariah: Joshua the High Priest An Image of the Church
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The centrality of Christ in the text.
The Lord in the midst
Prophet Priest and King
“overflow with prosperity’
Did happen, is happening, and will happen.
Don’t get your Jesus from TV.
Please Stand if you are able for the reading of the Word of God
1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. 6 And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 10 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”
May God Bless the reading of His Holy, infallible, and Sufficient Word.
Let’s Pray
Transition
Transition
There is some waky, stuff out there
Just this week I conversed with someone that believed the gospel was only for the Jews
That when Peter said in Acts 2:39 to repent and believe that only applies to the Jew because the only sin to be repented for was the killing of Jesus. They were literally saying that gentiles do not need to repent.
I also read several statements by those that had converted to Judaism emphatically stating that Christians do not know the real God and Christianity is just another form of paganism.
Now unfortunately there is a lot of paganism practiced int he name of Christianity today.
There have been faults teachings all along in church history so these ideas are not knew, however, never before in the history of the world did Ideas travel so quickly and so broad.
For example, after this sermon is uploaded this evening within 250 milliseconds, anyone in Australia that wanted to hear it could.
Add to that the ability to manipulate peoples mind with emotional video and music and you now have an environment where this evil ideologies not only exist but they travel around the world in millisecond preying, devouring the weak minded.
It is very important that we don’t get our theology from youtube, or our Jesus from a TV screen. The second commandment has never been more important.
God has communicated to us everything we need to know about Jesus, about righteousness, in His word.
Its more important than ever that we rightly know the word because we ill be assailed by bad theology and faults teaching at every turn at a faster rate and more descriptively than every before in the history of this planet.
So, lets dive into verse 1-5
Body
Body
Clean Robes
Clean Robes
1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
Think about the biblical area we need to understand in order to get into this imagry.
The High Priest
His role
Christ as High Priest
Satan
Accuser
Role in creation
intentions
Nature
The angle of the LORD,
The LORD, what does YHWH mean anyway and how do we apply that.
iniquity, there is another really important word here.
Let’s examine some of the imagery we have here.
We have Joshua the high priest. The name Joshua means to lead, rule, or save.
We have the angel of the Lord this is a title use of Christ.
We have satan, the enemy, the accuser,
We have filthy rags replaces with clean one we have iniquity taken away
Joshua the high priest we will focus more in on Joshua in the next few verses.
Now we need to note where he is and his name and his robes.
He is the high priest, he is the one appointed to represent (represents in this case) the people before God.
And his cloths are fitly.
Satan is there ready to accuse him, (v1) and but Satan does not get the chance. No one can bring a charge against the Lord elect.
Calvin said, (when I sad Calvin I am alway referring to John Calvin) “Now follows another reason for the prophecy,—that God interposes and takes the part of his Church against Satan. Hence he says, Rebuke thee Satan let Jehovah, rebuke thee let Jehovah, who has chosen Jerusalem.” [1]
I believe the right way to understand this is the angle of the LORD in verse 1 is referred to as the LORD in verse 2.
So in this picture, the elect, the church as Calvin called them, are standing before Christ, the judge and the judge the LORD Christ, rebukes satan before he is even able to accuse them.
I like the attention RC Sproul bring to the word standing.
“A courtroom scene similar to that in Job (Job 1:6–12). Satan has come to accuse Joshua of his unworthiness for the priesthood. The Hb. term satan means “adversary” or “accuser” (text note); here it may be descriptive (i.e., not a proper name).standing. Joshua assumes the position of the accused party in the presence of the angel of the Lord, who is serving as the judge. Accusation is a favorite ploy of Satan against believers. It differs from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit convicts of sin in order to move us to repentance and forgiveness. Satan’s goal is condemnation and destruction, not redemption.” [2]
Satan accusation carry no weight against the believer,
As Paul says in Ro 8:33-34 “33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ” (Ro 8:33–34, ESV)
Satan mouth is not shut by Joshua’s righteousness. Starting in verse 3 we see that.
“3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”
The Lord has already rebuked Satan, the enemy, and covenanted to wash his people clean.
Transition
Transition
More then Clean, in verse 6-7 we see a promise of leadership.
The One That Walks Perfectly
The One That Walks Perfectly
6 And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.
If you walk in my ways,
You are already right in Christ
You will have charge.
“The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.” (Re 2:26–28, ESV)
This is a very good reason to interpretively understand that Joshua represents the church.
It take a whole Bible to interpret any one part of the Bible.
The number 1 thing I see when people have bad doctrine is they are interpreting passage in isolation, importing the meaning rather than extracting it.
Remember those faults doc I talked about that are flying around our world, literally from satellite to satellite, your best defence in know the scripture and how to interpret it rightly.
Also another note about how important it is to find biblical elders and obey them at the scriptures commend in Hebrews 13.
“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Re 3:18–21, ESV)
Transition
Transition
Verse 8-10 solidify the christocenteric nature of this vision.
The Stone the the Builders Rejected
The Stone the the Builders Rejected
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 10 In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”
They are a sign.
The text hear tells us clearly that we are to interpret this vision as a sign.
The stone with seven eyes.
The stone.
Peter tell us about this stone,
“6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Pe 2:6–9, ESV)
The seven eyes.
“And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” (Re 5:6, ESV)
I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
It is finished
“every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his”
Christian Community
Conclusion
Conclusion
So when you hear someone say, Christians don't know God, you can feel pity for them, because if you do not know Christ, you do not know God.
When you hear someone say, genitals don’t repent you can remember that God removed your filthy rags and yes you should repent and rejoice.
Benediction
Benediction
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
References
References
[1] John Calvin and John Owen, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, vol. 5 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 83.
[2] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 1632.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Calvin, John, and John Owen. Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.
Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.