Zechariah: Christ Is Coming Series

A. Have you ever known anyone who told you that something was going to happen, and it did?

1. What if this morning while we were sitting around the table in the fellowship hall drinking coffee and eating donuts, Mark Thomas emphatically told us that the Indianapolis Colts is going to WIN the

Super Bowl this year. What would you think?

COMMENT:

You may first ask if he is on MEDICATION. And then you’d would probably remind him of

last season.

But what if the Colts play really well, and they get in the PLAYOFFS? And then they win the AFC championship? And on February 5, 2017 they face Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in

Super Bowl 51 in Houston, Texas?

What would you think then? You’d probably call up Mark and ask what the SCORE will be.

2. As impressive as that would be for Mark to PICK the WINNER of the SUPER BOWL even before the season began, I’m pretty sure that it has happened before. We call it a “LUCKY GUESS.”

3. But what would you call it if someone was able to predict not 1 or 2 or 3 but 29 different events that came to pass some 500 years in the future? I call that “DIVINE PROPHECY.”

B. That is exactly what the Prophet Zechariah did.

1. Throughout these 14 chapters, Zechariah presents at least 29 Messianic Prophecies that found their

fulfilment in the person of Jesus Christ some 500 years in the future. We will look at several today.

2. Zechariah was written around 520-516 BC.

a. He was a contemporary with the prophet Haggai (that we studied last week).

COMMENT:

Zechariah’s prophecy began just two months after Haggai made his APPEAL to the people to

begin RECONSTRUCTION of the TEMPLE. He was sent by God to help Haggai to SPUR on the

people to ACTION.

b. Zechariah’s approach in presenting God’s message is different from the other prophets before him.

COMMENT:

With striking SYMBOLS and VISIONS, he REVEALS to the people the PRESENCE of God to STRENGTHEN their RESOLVE to stay on TASK in COMPLETING “God’s House.”

3. Zechariah’s name means: “WHOM THE LORD REMEMBERS.”

C. Zechariah is the most difficult to study and understand of all the MINOR PROPHETS.

1. It is heavily lined with APOCALYPTIC LANGUAGE (symbols, visions, revelations).

2. Zechariah paints vivid PICTURES of the coming Messiah (Jesus Christ) and the spiritual kingdom that

He will establish.

COMMENT:

Many believe that Zechariah’s prophecy foretells Christ’s rule of an EARTHLY kingdom that is yet to be ESTABLISHED, and will rule for a THOUSAND years. I believe that Zechariah is referring to Christ’s SPIRITUAL KINGDOM—the CHURCH—in which you and I are PART OF today.

MESSAGE:

I. THE CHOSEN PEOPLE AND THE TEMPLE- chapters 1-8

A. As with all the PROPHETS before Him, God wants Zechariah to remind the people of how He demands

REPENTANCE and OBEDIENCE- 1:1-6.

1. One month had PASSED since the people began RECONSTRUCTION of the TEMPLE.

a. As we noted last week in our study of Haggai, the WORK and ZEAL of the people began to

SLACK OFF.

b. Knowing that God COMMANDED the rebuilding of the TEMPLE, the prophet reminds the people of how “God was angry with their forefathers because they refused to OBEY Him. And He punished them for their DISOBEDIENCE and sent them off into CAPTIVITY”-

Zechariah 1:2-6.

2. What God wanted ACCOMPLISHED through the sending of Babylon to take the people CAPTIVE

was achieved- Zechariah 1:6b (READ)

COMMENT:

Finally, their FOREFATHERS looked deeply into their HEARTS and SOULS and realized how far they had FALLEN, and REPENTED of their WICKEDNESS and IDOLATRY, and even

said, “The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve…”

3. Zechariah is urging the people not to follow the same path their FOREFATHERS did, but to REPENT of their COMPLACENCY and RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE and zealously SERVE the Lord.

B. Exactly five months after the work on the “House of God” had begun and two months after Haggai’s last speech, Zechariah saw eight VISIONS in one night that foretells the RESTORATION of Jerusalem

and the establishment of Christ’s kingdom—the church- 1:7-6:8.

1. “THE FOUR HORSEMEN”- 1:7-17

a. Zechariah saw FOUR HOREMEN riding different colored horses: “red, brown, and white.”

COMMENT:

Some suggest that these signify WAR, FAMINE, and VICTORY, but the Scripture doesn’t say. Nor are they the same FOUR HORSEMEN revealed in Revelation 6. Those horsemen were

sent by Satan, these horsemen report to the Angel of the Lord.

b. The horsemen say to the Angel of the Lord, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace”- v. 11b.

c. This report concerned the Angel of the Lord who speaks on behalf of God’s people when he