Synod Sermon by Rev Keith M Watkins
Zechariah 6:12-13. And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord: even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
The days of Zechariah and the words of Zechariah were very different things. His days were dark but his words were very bright. His days were discouraging, but his words were encouraging. His days were full of man’s work – and man was failing in his work. But his words were full of Christ and His success in that work.
The days of Zechariah saw the temple in Jerusalem in a sorry state. Rebuilding had begun, but almost nothing was left of its former glory. The work was going on very slowly. It had been neglected for many years while the people went about their own activities. Those were the days of Zechariah. But his words directed the people of Israel to One who would come and build the temple. “Even He shall build the temple of the Lord”. He was not speaking of a building made of stone and mortar, but of born-again souls – the Church of Christ, a temple for the Lord to dwell in.
The days of Zechariah were days of small things (see 4:10). Everything was small. But his words were full of great and glorious things, to lift up the hearts of God’s people. They were directed to be looking unto Jesus, the Man in our text: “Behold the Man”. Our own days are very similar: dark and discouraging. But the words of Zechariah are still here in our Bibles. The God that gave these words still lives and speaks, to lift up our hearts and thoughts.
Let us look then with the Lord’s help, firstly, at the days of Zechariah, and secondly, at the words of Zechariah.
1. Zechariah’s Small Days. Everywhere you looked, things were small. The numbers were small. For 70 years the Children of Israel had been away in captivity in Babylon. After the proclamation of Cyrus, some had returned to Jerusalem. Their houses were ruined, the city walls were ruined, the temple was in ruins. They people came back to build. But they were not many, in comparison with the past, when the city streets had been thronged. They had filled the houses. They had filled the temple with their sacrifices and praises. But it was not like that in the days of Zechariah. Things had changed. These
1The substance of the sermon preached by the retiring Moderator at the opening of this year’s Synod, in Inverness.
were now days of small numbers. The application to our own day is obvious. We have heard of – some have seen – full churches, people thronging to hear the Word of God preached in truth. But it is not so today. The numbers are small. God’s people are a remnant, a residue – what is left after the majority has been removed. Only a remnant is willing to follow the truth in its fullness, and to stick to the old paths and the good ways that the Lord has put in His Word.
The number of labourers was also small. There was so much work to be done – on their own houses, on the walls of Jerusalem, on the temple. There was work to do to re-establish the worship of God as He had appointed in the feasts and sacrifices. There was so much work to be done, but the labourers were few. In our own day, if we were to lift up our eyes and look around – not spend all our time looking within to our own problems – we would see all around there is a work to be done in a generation that does not know God and does not care for the things of God. We are doing very little to tell them, very little to reach them. That is true at home and abroad – we are in days of small things. The labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will thrust forth labourers into the harvest. Lift up your eyes and look: much work to be done but the labourers are few.
Vital godliness was also small in those days. In chapter 7, the Jews ask about the fasts of the captivity. They had fasted at that time. Should they continue those fasts? Should they go on with them, now that they were back in Jerusalem and the promised land? The Lord then reproves them for their formality: “When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto Me, even to Me?” (v 5). God was asking whether they did it for Him? They went on with the appointed ordinances, which were very appropriate for the seventy years of captivity, but did they ever do it for Him? Did they at all fast unto Him? Was any of it for the Lord? Vital godliness was at a very low ebb. There was outward conformity; they were continuing the ordinances. The inward, heart religion of doing what was done as unto the Lord, and for the Lord, and in fellowship with the Lord – that was so much lacking. We too live in days where the grace of vital godliness is rare. And where there is grace, that grace is often small. Where there is faith, it is often small. These are days of small things in comparison with the past and in comparison with the Word of God.
As a result, the Israelites’ efforts were small in the things of God and in the work that God had given them to do. This is clear in the prophet Haggai, who was prophesying at the same time as Zechariah. The two prophets go together. We must look at those days through the eyes of Haggai as well as of Zechariah. The people were saying: “The time is not come, the time that
the Lord’s house should be built” (Hag 1:2). There was a reluctance to put their hands to the work. Their efforts were small in the building work that needed to be done, especially on the temple. They neglected it; they put it to one side. After they had come back from the captivity they had started with diligence, but they had quickly become discouraged. For a number of years, nothing had been done to carry on the good work that had begun.
Why was so little effort being made to build the house of God? Because they were so busy with their own houses: “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?” (Hag 1:4). The Lord’s house lay waste, but they had been busy with their own houses. They had even put the finishing touches to them. Now they had not just the roof, they also had the ceiling. The Lord complains: “Because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house” (v 9). Small efforts are made in the things of God, when great efforts are made in men’s own things – when they are absorbed with the world and their place in the world and their pleasures in the world and their profits in the world. It was not sinful in and of itself to be building their own houses but, when they were absorbed with that as their main interest, it had become the sin of worldliness. They were seeking first their own things instead of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We live in days when many run to their own interests, and the interests of God come second.
Zechariah’s days were days of small obedience to the commandments of God. “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother: and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor” (7:9,10). These commands told the people the way they should be. “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” (verse 11). They were days of small obedience to the will of God. In our days also, disobedience to the will of God abounds. Where is that tenderness to the will of the Lord, that we read of in our books, that we meet with in Scripture, that we speak about and pray about? Where is it in our hearts? These are days of small obedience, days of little tenderness, where walking carefully with the Lord and abiding closely by His every precept are rare.
There was small unity among the Jews in Jerusalem. One thing that the Lord commanded was: “Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart” (7:10). Let no one be suspicious of his brother with “evil surmisings”. Let no one be starting to cause divisions among the brethren. Be careful to preserve your unity, to be of one mind, one heart. We have one Lord; we have one faith; therefore let us be one in mind, one in heart. Let no dissensions, divisions or separations rise up. If you allow these things, there
will be small unity. But that is what had happened: “They refused to hearken”. They would not listen. They imagined evil against the brethren. Look at the trouble that will cause in any church.
Very solemnly, the Lord says, “I set all men every one against his neighbour” (8:10). The Lord was not the cause of the disunity, because disunity is sin. But in His wise purposes, He had permitted it to take place as a chastisement for other things that were not right. Small grace had issued now in great disunity.
In the midst of small unity, there could only be small blessing. “O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?” (1:12). They had suffered 70 years of the Lord’s displeasure in captivity – removed from the promised land, the temple and the instituted worship. But how long will the wrath of the Lord be seen among them, now that they are in Jerusalem again? For ourselves, where are the mercies and the compassion of the Lord, as we face difficulties and troubles at this juncture in our Church’s history? We see little blessing – little blessing upon the Word preached, upon our testimony, upon our ordinances. Results are small.
The Book of Ezra records that the younger ones were shouting with joy when the foundations of the Lord’s temple were laid again. But not the older ones who had seen the temple of Solomon in all its glory. The noise they made was equal in volume, but they were crying out in anguish and weeping, because they could see that the work of their days was so small compared with former days. The Lord asks: “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now?” (Hag 2:3). Is it not as nothing in comparison? And in our day, even where there are blessings from the Lord, and one is brought to Him in faith and repentance – even where we have encouragements – we live in days of small things in comparison with what our fathers have told us about the great works of the Lord in the past. The Lord has not completely forsaken His people nor has He gone back on His truth. He is still blessing it, His elect are still being gathered in. But without a doubt these are days of small things.
Now it is into those dark days of small things that God sent the prophet Zechariah preaching great things, directing them away from the difficulties and disappointments and discouragements, and setting their minds on the great things of Christ.
2. Zechariah’s Great Words. Our text contains great words. They speak of Christ. “Behold the Man” – words that Pilate used of Christ. “Whose name is The Branch”. Already the Saviour had been prophesied under this name: “For, behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch” (3:8). The words of
Zechariah are full of the great things of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To none other can these words apply. In days of small things, look unto Jesus – that is the message of these words.
Look unto Jesus firstly as the great Builder of the Church. Who will build the temple? “He shall build the temple of the Lord: even He shall build the temple of the Lord.” Whose work is it to build the Church? Whose work is it to take dead stones and turn them into living stones, so that the walls of Zion may be built up? It is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We were told of a godly lady, to whom someone was expressing great concern about the state of the cause of Christ, and how dark and discouraging things were. The wise old lady said, “Do you think you care more about the cause of Christ than He does Himself?” Can our concerns for building the Church be greater than His? This great burden of building the Church does not lie on us alone. We are fellow labourers together with God in Christ, who said, “I will build My Church”.
If it depended upon our building skills and efforts – just as if it had depended on Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the Jews’ leader in those days – all would indeed come to nothing. But thanks be to God, Christ is the Builder. “Even He shall build the temple of the Lord”. He will build it exactly in accordance with the eternal plan. Not a stone will be out of place. He will build it perfectly. None of the opposition or the difficulties or the failures of the workers whom He uses will overcome His powerful and gracious purposes to build His Church.
These are great words for those who are concerned about this day of small things. Let them lay hold on Jesus, the great Builder of the Church. He has not lost His skills: He has not lost His power. He built His Church on the day of Pentecost by adding 3000 through one sermon, and He can do the same again. The building is in safe hands. His people will be born again and be united to Him; they will be raised up a spiritual building, a habitation of God through the Spirit.
Are the labourers few? They are, but the Lord is able to raise up labourers: “And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord” (verse 15). The Lord can bring from nowhere those that will be used by Him in the great building work. He will gather His labour force to do this work as they are needed.
Secondly, we are directed to Jesus as the great Saviour of the Church. “He shall be a priest upon His throne.” The temple in Jerusalem was where the priests worked: bringing the sacrifices, gifts and offerings. So now in the spiritual temple there must be a priest – and it is Christ who is the priest, a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec, a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God. He had gifts and offerings to bring – not the blood of bulls and goats, not the burnt offerings morning and evening – but Himself, saying: “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me”. The Saviour was coming as a priest to offer up His own blood unto God, to satisfy divine justice and reconcile His people to God.
Days of small things like Zechariah’s were days of great sins – little godliness but great wickedness. For the temple to be built, they needed to be right with God. There was no way to be right with God without the sacrificial work of the priest. The animal sacrifices offered by Old Testament priests found their fulfilment in the work of the High Priest from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ and His once-for-all offering at Calvary’s cross. An atonement for sin, to reconcile a holy God and sinful men, was needed to make those that are in the spiritual temple right with God – not by anything they do themselves, but through the work of their High Priest on their behalf. To Christ we must look, to Him who makes peace by the blood of His cross.
“Behold the Man . . . a priest” – who was taken in the garden of Gethsemane, who was whipped, upon whose head was placed a crown of thorns, who was nailed to the cruel, painful, shameful cross, who hung on Calvary’s tree, despised and rejected by men, and from whom heaven turned away, who cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” who went down to the dust of death. He was working as a priest to take away sin, to make every member of His temple right with God, to remove their sin by the blood that He shed, and to bring them into acceptance with God as righteous, through His righteousness imputed to them.
Look to Christ as the priest upon the throne of heaven now, as He keeps all things right between God and the people He died for. Look to Him as He declares His will before His Father that, on the grounds of His finished work at Calvary, all the sin of His people should be covered, that they should all be washed and counted as righteous in His sight.
Thirdly, Zechariah points out Jesus as the great Leader of the Church. There was no king when they came back from captivity. No one was anointed king any more. The days of the kings had passed. But who would lead them now? Who would rule over them? Who would defend them? Who would guide them in all things? Who would be their chief commander now? Who would stir up this people to get on with building the temple? To whom could they look? “Behold the Man” Christ Jesus, who “shall sit and rule upon His throne; and . . . be a priest upon His throne”.
The One who was the priest was nailed to a cross and laid in a grave, but rose again and ascended up on high and sat down at the right hand of God in the heavens. He sat down in His throne. He rules over His people as king,
defends His people as king, guides His people as king, leads His people as king. The Church’s Leader is in heaven, sitting upon the throne. Do not look to men; do not look to Zerubbabel: do not look to Joshua the high priest. But look to Jesus, who is king and priest together. He is the great Leader. All power, all authority in heaven and in earth, is given to Him. To Him we need to look.
The priest Joshua had been crowned as if he were both priest and king. Wonderfully the two offices are put together: “The counsel of peace shall be between them both”. We do not think this refers to two people, but to two offices – the office of Christ as a priest and the office of Christ as a king. To have Jesus as your Saviour is not separate from having Him as your Lord. We live in days of very pernicious doctrines, where people think they can receive Christ as their Saviour, but not as their king. Jesus on a cross they like, but they have no interest in Jesus on a throne. Indeed, they have no true interest in Jesus at all. It must be a whole Jesus or no Jesus.
“A priest upon His throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” There is no contradiction between being a great Saviour to die for people, and a great Leader to rule over them, as every child of God knows. When they are brought to trust in the saving work of Jesus – to trust in the blood of the Lamb – the Spirit works in their hearts to make them love Him. The love of Christ constrains them to want to live for Him. He gave His life for them. They now give their lives to Him and submit to all His ordinances, as He is the Leader of the Church. We can look to Him to guide and direct us.
Fourthly, they were to be looking unto Jesus as the great Life-giver. He is called the Branch. “He shall grow up out of His place.” As a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground, He shall grow up and He shall be the Branch. The fruit grows on the branch, drawing its life from the branch. All its sweetness comes along the branch, all the goodness of the tree is conveyed to the fruit through the branch. The Lord says in Hosea: “From Me is thy fruit found”. For a Church to be fruitful in good works and useful to the Lord, maintaining the sweetness of fellowship with Christ and walking in His paths, it needs to be drawing constantly upon the goodness of the Branch.
“Christ, who is our life.” “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” By His Spirit, Christ conveys spiritual life to His people. In this day of small things, there is a lot of spiritual death, and little spiritual life in the spiritually alive. But there is life to be obtained from Christ. Grace for our souls is available. Christ is the Branch, from which all the sweet fruit of the Holy Spirit will come. We need spiritual life in our souls, our congregations and our ordinances, so that our fruits would
be sweet and God-glorifying. Where will that life come from? From the Life-giver, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Branch.
Fifthly, we are to be looking unto Jesus as the Glory of the Church. “He shall bear the glory.” The glory belongs to Christ. “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The glory belongs to the great Builder, Saviour, Leader and Life-giver of the Church. To Him, and to Him alone, be all the glory.
“When Sion by the mighty Lord built up again shall be, in glory then and majesty to men appear shall He” (Ps 102:16, metrical version). The building up of the Church will not rebound to the glory of preachers or people or denominations, but to the glory of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He will have all the glory, and He will not give it to any other. The Lord’s people love to have it so. Jesus will carry the glory. It will all be placed upon the head of the lovely Jesus, the glorious Jesus, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. All glory then to God through Jesus Christ.
The temple of Zechariah’s days seemed so small that they wept, but the Lord promised that the glory of this latter house would be greater than the former. How could that be? Outwardly, it was so small and it did not have the gold and the silver of Solomon’s temple. However, it would be more glorious because the Saviour would come to it. The Lord visiting His temple – that is the real glory. In our days also, it is when the Saviour comes to the Church that the glory of God is displayed. Emmanuel – God with us – He shall have all the glory in His Church.
Days of small things were Zechariah’s and they are ours, but words of great things were given him to encourage the people. Surely they are given to us also, for our encouragement now. Let us be looking unto Jesus.