Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in this series Fan or Follower, and we have been talking about what makes someone a Christ-follower.

Last week, I spoke on John chapter 9.

This week we are in the book of Zechariah.

That might seem odd.

It might seem strange because if we are talking about Christ followers, why we are suddenly jumping to the Old Testament.

That is because a follower of Jesus Christ goes to all of Gods word to learn more about following Jesus.

Even to the Old Testament.

As it says in second Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Today, we, as followers of Jesus Christ will turn to the Old Testament book of Zechariah to see what God's word can teach us- rebuke us- correct us-and train us in righteousness so that we will be thoroughly equipped for the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do.

When Christ followers come to the Old Testament, we have to do a couple of things.

First, we need to understand the passage in its context.

In other words, what does it say, and why.

Next, we take what it teaches us about God, mankind, and sin and see how that applies to us today, and we then allow the passage to show us, or encourage us or rebuke us.

The book of Zechariah is in the back of the Old Testament, in a section called The Minor Prophets, so-called minor not because of their importance, but their length.

At this point in history, God called his people out of slavery in Egypt, and He made them His people.

They were a race, a religion, and a country.

He even gave them a set of laws to govern the country.

The problem is that the people did not obey God's word.

You know it can be a challenge to stay on God’s path when the world around you is not, and this was a problem for the Jewish people.

The did not follow God’s law.They kept straying from God.

They did not treat the lower members of society very well.

They did not care for the poor or the widows.

The justice system was n’t always fair to everyone, and not always truthful.

Throughout this period of history God would try and call them back to following Him.

He did this by sending men we call prophets to call the Jews back to obey God.

Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

But, in spite of hearing God's call to come back to Him, the Jews did not listen.

They continued to do what they wanted.

As a punishment and as a way for God to call them back He sent enemies to attack them.

God's people were invaded, and defeated.

They were taken out of their homeland, and into exile.

They lost their homes, businesses, and land.

The city was in ruins, and the temple was destroyed.

The place where they worshipped was gone.

For 70 years the people lived in exile in Babylon.

Then God, placed a King in power and that King allowed them to go back to re-build.

In 538 BC the exiles returned to Jerusalem.

Two years later they had rebuilt the temple altar and sacrifices began again, Then three years later approximately 535 BC, work on the Temple came to a halt.

Opposition by people to this project and loyalty to old kingdom halted the progress of the temple.

For 15 years, the project sat Idle.

People were discouraged.

God sent the prophet Zechariah to encourage them to continue on.

Unlike so many of the other prophets who had a message of judgment, Zechariah’s message is one of encouragement.

Encouragement that God has not abandoned his people and God will finish what He started.

You may already be able to tell where this headed.

As Christ followers sometimes things seem to stall out.

Our relationship with Jesus that started good, maybe is not going so good anymore.

We lost the fire we once had.

Or perhaps, things outside of ourselves, outside of our control have come against us, and it is taking a toll on us spiritually.

We can look into the Old Testament, and see the Character of God, see how God is toward his people and perhaps find some encouragement for us and our situation.

Let me pray before preachng God's Word.

Pray

Thomas read Zechariah chapter 7, and Zechariah 7 starts out, with some men coming in from the country to ask the priests if they should continue on in a fasting ritual.

These people have been hoping, and praying and fasting for a long time.

They have fasting for God to restore the nation.

They wanted their country back, the temple back they wanted to be jews again in their homeland.

God sent them back and things were looking fairly good, but then things seemed to stall.

According to the date given in Zechariah 7:1, we know that project started back up.

With the re-building once again under way they are wondering is this really it?

Is the Lord restoring Jerusalem?

Can we now stop fasting and mourning.

The fact that are asking, reveals their hearts, and their hearts ain’t right.

I know that’s strange right?

How can a fasting ritual be wrong?

Well, the Lord tells Zechariah.

God knows their hearts.

And God knows that when they were mourning and fasting, it wasn’t because they were mourning their sin, it wasn’t because they missed having the Lord dwell with them, they just wanted out of their predicament.

They were supposed to mourning their sin and the broken relationship with God.

They were supposed to mourn and fast because of their sin of injustice toward the downtrodden and oppressed, and their untruthfulness, and how they treated one another, instead they were mourning their consequences.

Let me give you an example.

Suppose your young daughter punches her brother.

And the parent sends her to her room until she tells her brother she is sorry.

SO with gritted teeth, and no sign of remorse she says to her brother I’m sorry.

And the parent says what? No, say it like you mean it.

SO she puts on best fake smile and says I’m sorry.

But we know in her heart she is still mad at her brother she just wants out of her predicament.

Christ followers sometimes do that exact same thing.

They maybe have been involved in some sin, and life isn’t great right now and they want the external circumstances to change so they run back to God.

Rather than mourning their sin, they are mourning their external circumstance and they hope that they can somehow make God happy and things will go better for them.

That’s actually not a relationship with God, it is superstition.

True repentance is mourning our sin, not the consequences of that sin.

There is a way that whole churches can get caught up in this as well.

Sometimes, people in stuck churches do this.

It is an easy trap to fall into.

We want our church to be the best, and we want to be full of people, and have all the cool programs and stuff that the big churches have.

Sometimes, people in those churches have this idea that it must be that they are not praying or fasting enough.

What can happen is that the church is praying, and fasting and mourning for what they don’t have rather than praying or mourning the lost souls outside the doors who are going to hell, or praying and fasting for not helping those that are in need, the widows and orphans.

God desires a relationship with His people.

But what God wants is a relationship with His people, he wants to dwell among them.

He wants them to be so full of Him that they reflect Him to the rest of the world.

Not so that the churches will be full the programs plentiful and worship loud, but so that His glory may be revealed to poor in spirit, the blind, the brokenhearted, and the lost.

So what God does is that he gives us this picture of what it is like to have him dwell among us.

And that is what we find in the next chapter of Zechariah chapter 8.

God wants this relationship with Israel, He wants to be their God and He wants them to be with Him.

He wants that for us too!

That is why he sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins to bring us into a relationship with the Lord Almighty.

I am very zealous for Zion, I am burning with jealousy for her.

For God so loved the world, he sent His only and son.

He will dwell with them in the Holy City of Jerusalem, it may look like ruins, the building may have stalled, but He will return there.

He wants to dwell with his people.